They actually came. He called them, and they showed up. Half-standing, half-leaning at one end of the tunnel, Sam tried to catch his breath and get on top of the deep ache in all of his muscles.
But it was distracting because he could feel them.
The other Reishosan in the tunnel alongside him. He could sense them somehow. It wasn’t smell or sight or touch or any of the normal five senses he knew how to use. This was deeper—something that went beyond the physical.
And that made precious little sense.
Stan shined. The boy just—sparkled. There was no other way to describe it. His presence in the tunnel and in Sam’s mind was like a cheerful sparkler on a moonless night.
Karl felt—big. Like he was everywhere. And in most circumstances, that would make Sam feel worse, but having Karl in the tunnel with him at that moment felt good. Felt right. Like a missing piece of Sam’s perception had been returned to him.
Ronnie felt like a calming breeze, tranquil and peaceful. That was odd. Ronnie was always a ball of nerves, especially since he stopped smoking. But his presence in the chaos was like an anchor, unmoving and unflappable.
And Ryan? Ryan was fire. A radiant wall of it that burst into the room with the force of a storm front.
How had he never noticed it? How had he never felt this? Was this what they each felt all the time?
He’d missed so much.
Stan and Karl laid into Jinsoku like a pack of lions on a zebra. They wouldn’t be able to keep Jinsoku busy for long, but they were the best ones to keep him occupied for the moment.
Ronnie was already at the computer at the center of the room. And Ryan—was looking at him.
Yeah. Gideon was gone.
So that meant Ryan was his only choice to save Gideon, because as injured as he was, Sam couldn’t do it alone.
Oh well. Sam gathered his sword again and ran for the end of the tunnel where Mia had pointed.
Ryan raced after him and caught up quickly. “Anything broken?”
“I think everything is broken.” Sam wrinkled his nose and winced at the pain.
Ryan chuckled under his breath. “Well, at least you’re not.”
As they ran side by side, Sam glanced at him. “It’ll take more than this to break me, Lewis.”
Ryan grinned. “Never doubted it a minute, Sam.” He nodded at the sword in Sam’s hand. “That’s a nice upgrade.”
“It’ll be nicer once I figure out how to swing it without falling over.”
Ryan gawked at him.
Sam blinked for a moment before he realized what he’d said out loud. Ryan had never heard him second-guess himself. It had been one of Sam’s bedrock ground rules since childhood; second-guessing your own abilities only gave others permission to take advantage of you.
I must be concussed. He recoiled to speak again.
But Ryan beat him to it. “If anybody can figure it out, Sam, it’s you.” Ryan grinned and nodded toward the tunnel in front of them. “Come on. I hear soldiers.”
He ran ahead.
For a moment, Sam stared at his back.
Ryan Lewis was an idiot. He’d always been an idiot, from the day Sam met him ten years earlier. An academic failure. An ineffective leader. And he had every right to hate Sam.
He did.
Sam had done nothing but antagonize him for ten years, and Ryan never pushed back. Sure, they’d had some arguments, but Ryan never started them. And he never even ended them. Mia always did that.
Ryan Lewis was an idiot, and he was a good man.
Not that he’d ever tell him.
Ryan didn’t need that much of an ego boost.
Wincing, Sam caught up with him, and they slid into the debris strewn around the tracks together. Ryan’s katana glimmered with reddish light in the shadows. Sam held up his sword and frowned at it. Was it glowing?
There were so many things he didn’t understand. He had so many questions.
Gideon shouted up ahead, and Sam clenched his jaw. They’d sort the armor situation out later. Gideon needed him now.
Ryan set his hand on Sam’s shoulder and held up a finger to his nose. Sam scowled at him but watched as Ryan lowered Kazan’s face shield with a mental command, red visor covering his eyes.
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“I was having trouble seeing,” Ryan mumbled. “Asked for night vision.”
“It’s that easy?”
“Guess so.” Ryan shrugged. “I see seven figures up ahead. Two humans. Five soldiers.”
“Two humans?” Sam craned his neck over a particularly large segment of wall. “Who’s the other one?”
“No idea.” Ryan moved to stand beside him. “You ready?”
“I’m waiting on you.”
Ryan charged forward, a red streak in the dark. Sam was on his heels. They raced toward the seven figures in the darkness.
They hit the soldiers at the back of the group first at the same time. Sam ran the soldier through with his sword and swung upward. The soldier wheezed and gurgled and fell apart in a shower of ash and smoke.
“Sam! That you, boy?”
“Hang tight, Gideon!” Sam charged at the next soldier and took its head off.
Fighting in the dark wasn’t easy. But it was too late to ask for Hinode to help now.
Sam spun to take out the fifth soldier and froze. The soldier had Gideon, sword against his neck. The old man gasped for breath.
Hadn’t they been here before?
Behind him, Ryan took down the last soldier and skidded to a halt beside Sam.
Strange. Ryan wasn’t breathing hard at all. Sam hadn’t ever really noticed that the other four didn’t seem to struggle when they were wearing their armors. There was so much he needed to know, and he as going to have to ask them for advice, wasn’t he?
What a pain.
Sam lifted his sword. “All right, Gideon, you just hold still.”
“Ain’t going far, boy.”
“How you want to play this?” Ryan murmured, shifting to the side. “Hang on.”
“Hang on, what?”
“Is that—the human?” Ryan pointed with his sword.
Sam followed it to where a human figure melted out of the shadows next to the soldier that held Gideon. He wore hakama and kosode, but his features were Caucasian, his eyes gray as ice.
Sam clutched his sword.
What now?
“Kazan. Hinode.” The newcomer bowed to each of them. “I hope you know it is an honor to meet you.” He bowed again.
“Who are you?” Sam growled. “You’re not a warlord.”
“I am not.”
This guy sounds British. Does Thallia have British people working for him?
“Are you with Thallia?”
“He is my employer, yes.” The man bowed again. “I spent a good deal of time explaining all of this to Miss Davalos. She is a wonderful conversationalist.”
Sam startled at the surge of heat beside him, as though the temperature in the tunnel suddenly spiked. Was that Ryan?
Ryan lifted his sword. “You’re going to release that man.”
The human smiled. “And if I refuse?”
“You don’t have a sword, or armor,” Sam said. “So there’s a good chance we can grind your face into the dirt.”
“Oh, that’s a high likelihood, Hinode.” The man smiled. “No, I have no interest in fighting either of you. However, Lord Jinsoku will be most distressed if Mr. Montgomery were to leave his possession.”
“Possession?” Gideon yelped. “Don’t you be talking about me like I’m a lawn tractor, boy.”
Ryan stepped into an offensive stance. Sam did the same, feeling Hinode embrace him again, warm and comforting, for a moment almost washing away the throbbing agony of his wounds.
“So I guess we get to fight, huh?” Ryan smirked.
“I’ll go high. You go low?” Sam threw a sideways glance at him.
“Well, not like the opposite is a good idea.”
Sam fought the urge to laugh.
What was wrong with him? Was he seriously joking with Ryan Lewis? Ryan Lewis was an idiot.
Sam smiled to himself.
Yeah. Ryan is an idiot. Maybe I’m more okay with idiots than I thought.
“Gentlemen, please.” The gray-eyed man stepped forward with his hands held up. “Let us be reasonable.”
“I’ve been plenty reasonable all day.” Sam stood up and lifted his sword at a different angle. “And all I’ve gotten for it is a broken nose and at least a dozen stab wounds. So I think it’s time that someone else is reasonable.”
The man offered a faint smile.
“Yes,” he said. “A reasonable request indeed.”
The man shifted his weight and then darted behind the soldier.
“Ryan.” Sam started to lunge.
But he stopped. The soldier crumpled, falling apart and crashing to the ground. Gideon stumbled forward, flailing. Sam reached out to him and held him up.
“Gid, Gid, it’s me.”
“Sam. Sammy.” Gideon relaxed against him. “Hey, boy.”
“Hey.”
Gideon embraced him, and Sam leaned into it. The old man was a wreck, but he was alive.
“Why did you do that?” Ryan appeared at Sam’s elbow, sword outstretched and pointed at the human who worked for Thallia.
Sam, holding Gideon up, narrowed his eyes at the stranger.
The man brushed his hand down the tunnel wall. “There is much heartache to come.” He offered a sad smile. “The five of you have no idea what is upon you. You have no context for the scope of the war in which you have involved yourselves. You cannot win.”
“Says you.” Ryan tilted his head.
“It is factual information.” The man bowed again.
“You didn’t answer the question,” Sam snarled.
The stranger smiled again, stronger this time. “Lord Jinsoku knows now that you cannot be turned. He threatened you with the two people who mattered most to you, Hinode, and you refused.”
Sam ignored the burn of Ryan’s gaze.
“So what?” he snapped.
“I do not want this man’s death on my conscience.” The stranger gestured to Gideon. “He is old. He will not live much longer anyway. He should enjoy what is left of his life, at least until Thallia’s armies arrive.”
A beeping sound drew the man’s attention to a device hidden in one of his sleeves. “Ah. It seems Sora has found his way into my systems. I suspected he would try.”
“Then you’ve lost.” Ryan lowered his sword. “Both you and Jinsoku are done.”
The man’s expression fell in the shadows, his gray eyes full of anguish. “No, Kazan. How I wish that were true, but it is not. There is more to come. Much more. And by the end, all of you will wish that you had surrendered when you had the chance. For now Thallia will punish your entire world.”
The man’s face looked ghostly.
“Thallia does not take kindly to rebellion.”
Ryan took another step forward. “Who are you? Really?”
“Ask Miss Davalos. She will tell you what I cannot.” He bowed again and reached into the pouch at his belt, removing a hand-sized device which he centered in his palm. “Forgive me for this abrupt departure, but you have a battle to return to. I have returned the decrepit human.”
“Decrepit!” Gideon huffed.
“And now I must return to my duties, which have undoubtedly quadrupled since Sora is in process of decommissioning the army we had prepared here.”
He lifted the device in his hand, and it burst into sparkling light that surrounded him in a flurry of blinding brilliance.
“Farewell, Kazan. Farewell, Hinode. We shall meet again. And for that I am sorry.”
He vanished in a swirl of light and a breath of wind that sent pebbles skittering down the tunnel.
“Well, that was dramatic,” Ryan grumbled.
Sam turned to set Gideon on a ledge. “You hurt, Gid?”
“Not even a little.” Gideon snorted. “I’ll show that scrawny little nerd decrepit.”
The ground shook further down the tunnel, and a loud cry of pain resonated through the air. Sam scowled. It wasn’t a female sound, so that was something. But it could have been Karl. It could have been Ronnie. It could have been Jinsoku.
“Was that Stan?” Ryan turned back to the way they’d come.
“It didn’t sound girly enough.”
Ryan glared at him, but he was still smiling. “Here.” He took Gideon’s other side. “Let’s head back. We can get the civilians out, and then we can finish with Jinsoku.”
The tunnel rumbled again.
“I hope we can finish with him,” Sam said. “Sounds like this whole place might be coming down.”
They got a few steps forward.
“Who do you think that guy was?” Ryan asked.
“No idea.” Sam shook his head. “Gideon, do you know?”
“No clue. Friendly fellow though.” Gideon scoffed. “Insulting but friendly.”
Sam snickered. “Give the guy a break, Gid. You look kind of decrepit.”
“I’m walking, ain’t I?” Gideon tried to stand up straight, balancing on both Ryan and Sam.
“About as well as I am,” Sam smiled. “But I’ll take it.”
“What do you suppose that scrawny fellow meant?” Gideon asked after a moment. “About all that talk of invasions and suffering. That Jinsoku fellow was talking about it too.”
“They like to talk about invading,” Ryan said quietly.
“Are they going to?” Gideon turned his sightless eyes toward Sam. “Is that gonna happen, Sammy?”
Sam clenched his hand in Gideon’s torn, bloody shirt. “Not if we have anything to say about it, Gid.”
Sam felt the burn of Ryan’s gaze again, but this time he didn’t ignore and didn’t look away. Ryan was smiling at him, deep blue eyes shining in the darkness.
“It’ll be quite a fight, Sam,” Ryan said with a smile.
Sam smiled back. “Well then, it’s a good thing there are five of us.”
Ryan nodded, his smile growing broader. And Gideon’s hand rested on the back of Sam’s helmet, patting gently.
They still had Jinsoku to defeat, but they’d beaten him before. The five of them together could do impossible things. That’s what a team was for. That’s what a family did.
And that’s what they were. A team. A family. Sam hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it, not even to himself. He’d been pretending it wasn’t true for as long as he’d known about the armors. But where had that gotten him?
Nowhere.
So it was time to change things up. And if this was the only way to do it, so be it.
“We’ll get you to Mia, sir,” Ryan was saying. “She can help you get to the surface.”
“That little lady is one feisty girl,” Gideon said.
“You have no idea.” Ryan smiled. “Once we get back to the main chamber, it’s going to be crazy, Sam. You good to go?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, Lewis.” Sam glared at him but flashed a smile at the same time.
Ryan smiled back.
“You know.” Sam kept glaring. “This doesn’t mean that I like you.”
Ryan’s smile grew into a grin. “Never doubted it, Sam.”
The walls trembled ahead of them.
“Come on.” Ryan gathered Gideon tighter to his side. “We’re going to run.”
“I’m right behind you, Ryan.” Sam said, clutching Gideon in one hand and his shimmering sword full of light in the other.