Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

to her hips. She watched the cloud along with Jaxx. “Those Kelhoons…they did something to a girl. I can’t get it out of my mind, Jaxx.” She glanced at her feet, pounding her boot heel into the earth. “We have to stop them. I don’t care how we do it, but we have to stop the coming slaughter.” She shook her head, squinting at the explosion in the distance.

Jaxx stared at the iron clad men and women behind Rivkah. They held spears with barrel tips, most likely used to shoot energy charges of some sort, rather than to poke.

Rivkah sat next to him, butting him over. “Scoot your fat ass over, gimpy.”

“I’m going to help them fight, but where is everyone?”

“Kaden Jaxx,” said a man, pointing at a temple at the top of the farthest and tallest hill that almost touching the glass dome. He dipped his head in respect. “I am Grenik Star. My people are underground, practicing and equipping. We have many warriors, but not enough I’m afraid.”

“They have technology that tops our own,” said Rivkah. “High-mechanized tanks, five-story tall mechs, advanced starfighters, you name it. They just don’t have the man power. These Atlanteans are masters in the air. I’ve seen it. They could give you a run for your money, but that’s not how you win a war. You win on the ground.” She shook her head, her eyes soft. Again, something Jaxx wasn’t used to. “I can’t tell you what I saw in East Rise, the city to the east, but it’s terrible. The Kelhoons are savage dogs and I can’t wait to whip them to put them in their place.”

“You’re thinking of joining this fight?”

“I’m not thinking. I’m doing.” She shrugged. “What else am I going to do? I either run, fail, or fight. That’s all I know.” She glanced at the book on the table. “Apparently, this is for you.” She stood. “I guess you, me, and blondie...uh…Katherine Bogle...are part of some master plan.” She gestured to the book. “Liberty told me it’s all in there.”

Jaxx looked at the book. There was no doubt that he would help with whatever these people needed. He just had to know more, to learn as much as he could about them, about any hieroglyph he could get his hands on, just in case it might tell him something worthwhile, something important like the vortex and the pyramid power. “What can you do with the pyramids, Grenik Star? Can you use them in a battle?”

Grenik folded his hands in front of him. “It’s not what we can do with it. It’s a matter of your willingness to do something with it.”

Jaxx tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

Grenik scratched his chin, looking uncomfortable, then gestured to the book. “It’s all there.”

Jaxx faced Rivkah. “Your chest.” At the top of her sternum was a blue, glowing crystal embedded in her skin.

Rivkah put her hand on Jaxx’s chest and a warmth enveloped him, soothed him. “You have one too. It’s a way of communication between us and them.” Her lips parted. She moved back and shifted her eyes and turned on her heels.

Did she feel it too? The attraction that was more like a magnet that went deeper than looks, appearances?

“Where are you going?” asked Jaxx, touching her shoulder.

She eyed his hand. “To the temple. We’ve got to get prepared. We’re commencing a ground assault tonight, hoping to get as many survivors over here as possible.”

“What’s happening out there?” asked Jaxx.

“There’s several cities on Atlantis Alto. Or, as you know it, Callisto. And, with many cities there’s many deaths, my friend,” responded Grenik. “We only know what we’ve seen in East Rise. The other cities aren’t responsive. Anyone we’ve sent through the pyramid coffers haven’t returned with reports.”

“Pyramid coffers?” questioned Jaxx.

“It’s a teleport system,” replied Rivkah.

“A teleport—”

“No more questions, my friend. We must leave.” Grenik bowed. “It’s your choice to join our fight, but we’ll not hold it against you if you don’t.”

He turned with his compatriots and walked down the rock slated path, except Rivkah.

“Please help us, Jaxx. I don’t know what it is, but you, Blondie, and I are important. I can feel it. We can help these people.”

“Why do you care? Why would you stay? These aren’t your people.”

Rivkah shook her head and gazed toward East Rise. “The girl. That was me growing up. She doesn’t have a chance.”

Another pull, from his heart to hers, grabbed him. “Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

He touched his heart. “Look, I don’t know why, but I’ve—”

Rivkah put her hand up, palm out. “Look, I know you’ve had some type of attraction for me for some time. I haven’t a clue why, since I’ve attempted to make it clear as day that you’re more a rat in my eyes than anything else.”

“You feel it.”

“I don’t.”

Her pupils dilated. She lied. “You do. But why do we have this attraction. I can’t stop thinking about you. All I want is you to be—”

“Stop.” She twisted around and walked after Grenik and his troops. “Please join us. This is more important than me and you.”

He watched her disappear down the descending path and into the woods. Sighing, Jaxx opened the heavy book. The words, no, the glyphs, were printed in Atlantean.

Each page had a year, starting back to the days of Atlantis. He perused page after page, reading nation-state treaties and Atlantis’s history. He went to the back of the book, seeing that the date was this day of all days—if counted correctly.

He slid his finger down the parchment, finding his name, and then Rivkah’s, Fox’s, and Bogle’s. The symbols on the page spoke of the three, and one overseer, then the one within the three.

What the hell does that mean?

He continued on, moving his finger down the page, sucking up each symbol like a sponge. “I’m the main key?” He put his hands up, still wondering what that meant.

He paused with a gasp. “I’m the sacrifice?” He slammed the book closed. “No, there