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

tied around his waist —and Abdu trekked forward. The light dimmed more. Rivkah had no choice but to follow. She held on as tight as she could. Even if she fell, she would never let go. Adbu could drag her ass through the cave. There wasn’t any way she’d get herself captured by Slade again.

Abdu halted in mid-stride. “Dead end,” he said.

“Dammit,” Rivkah cursed. She grabbed her hair and yanked hard; something she used to do when she needed to divert the pain of a beating from her father. Better the pain you inflict on yourself than the pain they inflict on you, right? She would rather have died than be taken. But they weren’t there yet. Certainly not while children were being enslaved. “Now what? We can’t go back. They’d surely find us.”

“I see something,” replied Abdu. “Grab my belt again. In front of us are boulders laying on top of each other. Looks like there was a cave-in. I’m going to climb and pull the rocks out at the weakest point.” He clambered up the rock face. “We start at the top…to prevent an avalanche. An exit is no use to us if we’re buried under rocks.”

Rivkah held off from tapping her foot. Abdu didn’t need to see her frustration. The lion was doing his best.

Voices and clicks echoed through the cave along with the sounds of feet pounding against the ground. Slade and the Kelhoon were well on their way and had for certain found the vein Rivkah and Abdu went down.

“Shit, Abdu, faster. Just get that one big-ass rock moved.”

Abdu shook his head. “No time.” He took a giant step down toward her and placed one foot on the boulder. “Take my hand.”

Rivkah took his hand, hauling herself up the fallen rockface. As soon as they were parallel, she hooked herself onto the chains that crisscrossed his back, as she had done before.

Abdu reached up, grabbing a jagged handhold, and yanked himself up again, carrying Rivkah with him. “You have to go invisible.”

“What?” replied Rivkah.

“Not invisible, per se. What I’ve feared was between you and Slade is active at this very instant. He knows exactly where we are because he is tracking your energy signature. You did it with him, but I didn’t know he had the ability to track your energy ribbon as well.” He grunted, moving up to another boulder. “You must ethereally cloak yourself. This will inhibit Slade’s ability to track you. If you do, we have a chance that he will change directions and lose track of us.” He pushed off the side of a boulder, easily throwing his leg up on the next boulder, and pulled himself up.

Rivkah held on tightly, moving upward along with him. “How?”

“Close your eyes and go deep within. Find your energy thread and imagine it disappearing. Then draw in white light that you see in your mind’s eye literally washing your physical body away. He’ll no longer be able to track you, let alone see your energy cord.”

Abdu pulled himself up to the next boulder. He jiggled the boulder in front of him, picked it up, and placed it on a jutting boulder next to him.

Kelhoon boots vibrated across the walls. They were catching up to Rivkah. “How can I concentrate knowing they’ll be on us any minute now?”

Abdu pulled another boulder. “Almost through, Rivkah. Close your eyes and attempt it. No matter how feeble your attempt is, it may still work.”

Rivkah closed her eyes, seeing Slade’s energy ribbon. He was in the tunnel and close behind her and Abdu. But where was her energy field?

“I don’t see anything, Abdu.”

Abdu pulled out another boulder at the top of the rock pile. “Climb up me and go through the opening I’ve created.”

“I can’t see a damn thing.”

“Just climb and when you get over me, I’ll guide your hand to the opening.”

The footsteps came closer.

She pressed her foot onto his belt and reached up his long torso, grabbing the chain just below one of his shoulders. She pulled herself up and over Abdu, landing her knees on an uneven boulder. She leaned forward, her hand going unhindered through Abdu’s make-shift hole.

She scooted inside, not being able to see much but her shadowed arms and hands. She bumped her head on the cave ceiling and ducked, sliding through the opening. “Abdu, how are you going to get through?”

“I’ll get through, but right now, climb down and concentrate on changing your energy signature.”

She made her way down the rocks. When her feet hit the ground, she stood, not moving more than ten feet before she ran into another rock wall. She held her hands out, touching the walls, moving left and right, searching for another vein to run through. There was none.

They were trapped.

She dropped to the floor, leaning her back up against the boulders. She’d failed again. And all she just wanted to do was save children and couldn’t even do that. “We’re dead, Abdu. No way out of here except toward the Kelhoon and Slade.”

Abdu placed his paw on her back. She stiffened. She hadn’t realized he had already made it on this side of the boulder pile. “One thing at a time,” he said. “Close your eyes and cloak your energy.”

The Kelhoon footsteps echoed louder through the cavern.

“Damn, they’re coming closer,” said Rivkah, under her breath. She sighed. “Here goes.” She closed her eyes, seeing Slade’s energy. He was closer than she expected. In fact, he was crouched at a group of tunnel veins, closing his eyes himself, searching for her energy. He glanced up, pointing at a tunnel. “That way.”

She shifted her mind’s eye and saw herself leaning against the boulders. She floated, like a ghost above her body. Her body glowed with bright whites and yellows that danced around her, blazing outward like sun flares. It was beautiful. She’d never seen herself before. She was beautiful. She glanced at Abdu’s energy. It swirled around him in a rainbow of violets and purples, but just as