Thieves of Light

CHAPTER TWENTY

Bhodi should have been dead, and he knew it.

But even looking down the barrel of Mandarr's high-powered weapon and realizing that in the next second it could release a torrent of energy to steal his life away, Bhodi could not make his finger close on the firing contact of the Allison. There were too many unanswered questions embodied in Kyley's presence and appearance. Bhodi could not strike him down without finding answers. Why Mandarr was hesitating, Bhodi did not know.

With the clarity that came with a cusp moment, Bhodi took in a thousand details in one glance. Kyley-Mandarr seemed to be wired into his accordion-pleated fighting suit. It was festooned with power jumpers, what looked like hydraulic lines, and tiny spiderlike electronic boxes with silver leads. Yet for just a moment, Bhodi could strip all that away and remember facing off with Kyley with infrared pistols for $3.50 a match.

It was Kree-tih and his partner that saved Bhodi, bracketing Mandarr with a crossfire that did no damage but did distract the Arrian for an instant. In that instant Bhodi dove at Mandarr, spearing him in the midsection with the crown of his helmet. As they toppled over together, Bhodi clawed for the jumper that fed Mandarr's weapon from his power belt and tore it loose.

Just as quickly, the advantage swung back the other way. With a swipe of his right arm, Mandarr knocked Bhodi off to one side. The blow would have broken Bhodi's neck had it not been for his helmet, and jarred him badly despite it. Kyley had always been stronger than Christopher Jarvis; the gap between Mandarr and Bhodi Li seemed even wider.

Rolling to hands and knees, Bhodi looked up just in time to throw his left arm in the way of a left-handed punch. At least it seemed like a punch, until Bhodi felt something stab deep into the meat of his forearm and then the sticky warmth of blood flowing inside his fighting suit.

As Mandarr jerked his hand back, Bhodi saw what Mandarr's raw strength had driven through both the armor and the suit. Strapped to the Arrian's wrist was a multi-bladed cutter with razor-sharp edges and toothlike spurs. Mandarr slashed out with it once more, a sweeping roundhouse lunge in the direction of Bhodi's chest. Bhodi leaped back, stumbled, and went to one knee.

Instead of pursuing the advantage, Mandarr took that moment to try to reattach his phaser's power jumper, which had come free at the connector instead of breaking in half. It was an almost contemptuous move on Mandarr's part, as though he was so certain of his superiority that he need not worry about granting Bhodi a short reprieve.

But the throbbing pain in Bhodi's forearm and the blood collecting in his left gauntlet had erased any reservations he had about fighting to win. Whipping his Allison up to eye level, Bhodi blasted Mandarr's faceplate until it charcoaled into permanent opacity.

"What's happening, Evan?" he screamed. "What are you doing here?"

With a sweeping motion of his left hand, Mandarr tore his helmet off and flung it to one side. Bhodi gasped, then gaped. Most of the right side of Kyley's skull had been shaved to make room for the silver wire leads and the tiny computer box above his ear to which they were connected.

"My duty to the Warlord, by eliminating you," Mandarr said, starting once more to reattach the phaser jumper.

Was Kyley so much of a machine now that the human remnant could survive in the thin atmosphere of Ehl? Or so casually contemplate Bhodi's death?

Feeling faint, Bhodi backed away, and almost allowed Mandarr to complete his task. He wondered why the Regulars had stopped firing, and cursed them for not taking the decision from him. There was a roaring in his ears so loud it was almost painful.

Then with sudden fury born of frustration, Bhodi began firing at everything on Mandarr's fighting suit that looked computerized, as though he meant to kill only that part of Mandarr and spare the rest. Snakelike conduits were sliced in half, some hissing invisible gases, others leaking steel-gray fluids. A black box on Mandarr's shoulder exploded in a shower of sparks.

Mandarr seemed almost not to notice. He calmly reconnected the umbilical, pointed his weapon at Bhodi's chest, and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened-except in that moment, the roaring in Bhodi's ears resolved itself into individual voices on the omni circuit.

"Bhodi! Where's the Sarge? We've got two of the crystals back," a jubilant Pike was saying. "Another surprise. They had them cached out here, instead of holding them in the warren-"

"They're coming out!" Kree-tih was bellowing. "Four- six-seven Warri. I need support. Where's the support?"

Mandarr was intently twisting the damaged connector, trying to find a position where it would provide good contact. Bhodi saw a tiny blue light wink on above the pistol grip, blink out, then begin to shine steadily. He could not wait any longer. As Mandarr began to turn his weapon once more toward Bhodi, Bhodi raised the Allison and aimed it at Mandarr's unprotected head.

But even as his finger was curling against the contacts, Bhodi twitched the focus downward to Arrian's chest pod. His aim was true. He hit the pod squarely, and sinuous electric-blue sparks began to race up and down the length of Mandarr's body. There was a sizzling sound, like water on a hot griddle, and then a blinding white explosion that made Bhodi flinch and look away.

When he looked back, his friend and enemy was gone, without so much as a footprint left behind to show he had been there.

A shadow flashed overhead, and Bhodi looked up numbly to see the pod sweep in a tight half-circle and drop onto the crater floor. He took a few hesitant steps in that direction, then stopped to watch as Pike and two of the Regs dragged Li-hon's motionless body aboard. Almost without thinking, Bhodi scooped up the body of B'ere'a and carried it down to the pod.

"I have to go down after the crystal-" he said as a Reg came up to him and relieved him of his burden.

"Forget it," Pike barked from the hatchway, waving Bhodi in. "The clock's run out. Come on. This isn't going to be a very good place to be."

A minute later, the pod was screeching spaceward at maximum lift, while a poisonous black cloud boiled furiously upward and outward from the crater. All through the ascent, Bhodi stared down at the growing blemish on the face of the planet.

"I killed him," he said mournfully.

"No, you didn't," Parcival said, slipping into the seat beside him. "He was recalled to his ship. A hit on the chest pod breaks a trap-loop circuit and throws them back to their ship. For a while we were fighting the nasty myth that the Arrians aren't real-just projections, impossible to kill. Well, it's not impossible. But it's hard-as you saw."

"But that was Evan Kyley-my friend-"

Parcival nodded. "I know."

"You knew?" Bhodi demanded angrily, turning away from the window for the first time.

"The Sixth recruited him a year ago. He was captured in a fight on Deranis, and the Warlord made an experiment of him." Parcival shook his head. "He's not the person you knew. He's controlled completely by his implants."

"Why wasn't I told?"

"I don't know," Parcival said. "I guess you think I should have told you."

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"Sorry, Bhodi. The Sarge gave us very clear orders. He didn't explain them."

"The Sarge," Bhodi echoed, craning his head to look around the cabin. "Where is he?"

"Down below, in an ice tank-"

Bhodi swallowed. "Then he's-"

"Ice as in isolation, not as in 'on ice.' "

A sigh of relief. "How is he?"

"Not good, thanks to Mandarr. Not dead, thanks to you." Parcival glanced forward. "There's Zephyr coming up. Almost home."

"No," Bhodi said, looking back at the shadowed face of the planet. "Nowhere near home."

Li-hon was transferred directly from the pod's ice tank to one in Zephyr's tiny sick bay. He stayed there most of the way back to Intellistar, insensible to the world, healing his wounds with the remarkable regenerative power of the Qeth. The hole in his side closed over; new fingers grew where charred stubs had been; the crust covering the right half of his skull fell away to reveal new skin, pale green and unweathered.

When he opened his eyes at last, what he saw made him smile. Pike was perched on the edge of the adjoining bed, intently practicing card tricks which had economic rather than entertainment value.

"I guess I missed the last hand."

"Kind of," Pike said, looking up with a pleased expression on his face and letting the cards fall easily into one hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Hungry. I've been hurt worse. How did it fall out?"

"A mixed bag. We lost two-B'ere'a and Yiaj-"

"Was it Mandarr?"

"Yes."

"Did we get him?"

"No. Bhodi took him on-"

"Bhodi?"

"He was all right. Wait until you see the battle films from Kree-tih's camera. But the clock ran down before either of them could make a kill."

"Then we lost Ehl, too."

"Yes."

Li-hon frowned and shook his head. "The Arrians have always been tough, real tough. But up till now, they've never been smart fighters," he reflected. "If the other Arrian commanders start following Mandarr's example, we're going to be in for a hell of time."

"Tomorrow's worry," Pike said. Then he added cheerfully, "We got two of the three crystals back."

"Did we! That's something," Li-hon said, settling back in the tank. "That and what I saw happen to Bhodi Li almost add up to a win."

Pike's expression darkened. "I should have said something sooner-"

"What?"

"It looks like Bhodi was a casualty, too. He's been in a shell since we left Cavalon, keeping to himself, not talking to anyone. It's different than the last time, though-not sulky. Something else, I don't know what."

"I think I do," Li-hon said slowly. "Let me sleep for a couple of hours. Then send him to me."

No one Christopher Jarvis had been close to had ever died, so he did not know if what he had been feeling since the fight on Ehl could be called mourning. Part of the problem was that he couldn't decide exactly which loss he was feeling more keenly-or even exactly when it had been lost.

He had lost Evan, that was for certain. There had been several points at which Bhodi had decided to stick it out precisely because he knew that he could have everything back simply by going home. But he no longer had that comfort. Evan was not backpacking across the country, too busy or too lazy to write. He was forever out of reach, fighting for the Warlord of Arr, made a traitor to his home world by a forest of wires buried in his brain.

But Bhodi had lost something else, too. Once and for all, he had learned that it was not a game. It had been a hard lesson, and long in coming. Even the skirmish at Majestic had not made the point-the one dead crew member he'd seen seemed like a prop, and the real violence had taken place off-stage, inside the ship and on top of the cliff. But when B'ere'a had screamed, and Li-hon went down, Bhodi had lost at last the lingering illusion that sometime the lights would come up and the players all go home.

Evan would not be going home. B'ere'a would not be going home. All comforts, all illusions, were gone-and perhaps that was what Bhodi was mourning.

It was on the heels of that insight that Pike came by with the message that Li-hon wanted to see him. Bhodi accepted the news with equanimity. He was not looking forward to hearing Li-hon's critique of his performance on Ehl, but there were things he needed to talk to the sergeant about.

He found Li-hon out of the ice tank and sitting on the edge of the surgical table. He was dressed in station fatigues, but bootless and beltless. Bhodi was amazed at how quickly his wounds had healed.

"Are you the same guy we put in here?" Bhodi asked. "I guess I don't have to ask you if you're going to be all right."

"Good genes," Li-hon said, smiling and tapping his chest. "How do you think I attract so many ladies?"

Bhodi smiled wryly. "You're probably wondering if I'm going to be all right," he said. "I guess Pike told you I've been hiding out."

"He did."

"Well-I had some things to think about." Bhodi paused, his head cocked to one side as he considered his next words.

"Such as-"

"If Mandarr could be captured-could he be helped?"

"It's possible," Li-hon said, not surprised by the question. "It's not likely. We don't have much experience with the kind of tampering he's been subjected to. And capturing him's not something you can take on yourself personally. We're fighting across a thousand-light-year front. The fact is that the Ninth may never come up against Mandarr again."

Bhodi flashed a quick, wistful smile. "I had to ask," he said. "Something else. Parcival said you gave orders for people not to talk to me about Mandarr-"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You had too many selfish reasons for what you were doing. I didn't want to give you another one."

"That's fair," Bhodi said with a nod. "Was he part of the reason you recruited me?"

Li-hon crossed his arms over his chest. "In a coldly strategic sense, yes. I don't like the Warlord to have any asset that we can't balance. But I never planned to send you out to face him one-on-one as you were forced to do on Ehl. We fight as a platoon. There's no room for personal vendettas."

Bhodi seemed satisfied with that answer, too. "About going home-"

"I understand," Li-hon said with a barely audible sigh. "I'll see that your return is arranged, as I promised."

"You don't understand," Bhodi said. "I was wondering whether my training will pick up right away, or whether there'd be a chance to go back and take care of some things first. I'd like to get my family off that phantom timeline. And then I'd like to pick a better time and way to disappear, do a better job of saying goodbye. Because one of these times I might not come back."

"You want to continue?"

"If you'll have me."

"You know that I've always believed your promise was special," Li-hon said. "I saw nothing on Ehl to make me change my mind. The question has always concerned your commitment, not your heart or ability. So please forgive me for asking if you know what your reasons are for continuing your challenge."

"You want to know if this is because of Evan."

"Yes. I do."

"I can give you a quick answer, because I asked myself that question before I came down here," Bhodi said. "It's not about Evan."

"Good-"

"But it is about what the Warlord did to him. That showed me better than anything how little the Arrians care for what we are, and how casually they'd destroy it."

"What you say is true," Li-hon said. "And it's a hard truth for someone your age."

Bhodi shook his head. "I'm older than I look. See, I've spent these last two days putting away my childhood," he said. "Because this war is no place for children-and there's no place for me to be but here."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Li-hon slipped down off the table. "We'll get you some time to go home," he said with a pleased smile. "But your training is over, Bhodi Li. You've learned what you most needed to. The rest you can learn as a Guardian."

A month had passed, most of it spent on Earth, before Li-hon's promise to Bhodi could be fulfilled. Then, in the company of the entire Ninth Platoon, he returned to the Sanctum for the first time since his encounter with the First Guardian following his audition on Rejia.

This time reminded him very much of the other. The stars still blazed through the nine great viewports, and the disk of the planet still appeared overhead in the octagonal skylight. The audience was the same-Parcival, Pike, Lord Baethan, Tivia, and Li-hon. Above the dais floated the image of the wise-faced, maternal First Guardian, garbed and coiffed just as before.

But as he stood in the middle of the circle and looked around him at the expressions on the others' faces, Bhodi realized that there was one immeasurable difference. This time, Bhodi knew he belonged.

"Welcome back, Bhodi Li," the First Guardian said. "Today you become one of the chosen, a Guardian of the Light, a true Photon Warrior. Nar-lex-ko-li-hon, does he wear the ring?"

"He does, First Guardian," Li-hon said.

Bhodi glanced down proudly at the heavy metal jewelry decorating the third finger of his right hand. The ring bore not only the spectral disk of the Alliance, but the emblem of the Ninth Platoon as well.

"Nar-lex-ko-li-hon, as Bhodi Li's teacher and mentor, do you affirm his right and worth to wear the ring of a Guardian?"

"I do, First Guardian," Li-hon said.

"Bhodi Li, you have earned the right to a place among the Guardians of Light," said the First Guardian. "Twice you were asked to give up your challenge, and twice you refused. Now I ask you one final time to claim your place with us, or relinquish it forever. What is your choice?"

"I claim it," Bhodi said with a sideways glance at Li-hon, who was beaming like a proud father.

"Then give now your oath of allegiance-"