Melashan and Asa fired grappling lines, wrapping them around thesachem’s appendages.
He thrashed, tearing one line free, but the other held firm.
Kaal activated a hovering barrier, which enveloped thesachemmid-flight and trapped him in a shimmering jade sphere.
The creature howled, slamming against the barrier with his claws, but the buckler survived the frantic onslaught.
Mak prowled forward, his weapon trained on the writhing figure. ‘You’re going to talk. Who gave the word to attack the Sauvage clan? Who’s behind thefokkin’ orders?’
The entity snarled, his distorted face twisting into a grotesque leer. ‘You think this ends here? Do you think you can stop us? You have no idea what’s coming.’
Kaal leaned closer, his voice ice-cold. ‘Then enlighten me.’
Silence hung in the air, broken only by the whir of a force field.
With a snarl, thesachemwhispered: ‘We are the Codex of Nightshade. We will prevail!’
Thesachem’sgrin widened as a glow began emanating from its thorax, growing brighter with each passing second.
‘Get back!’ Mak shouted, throwing up his shield.
The creature let out a final, chilling laugh before his body imploded in a violent burst of energy, the internal device within him obliterating his form.
The shockwave shook the room, taking out the shackled sachem with it. They too exploded as the Sauvage crew ducked, their armored suits and shields absorbing the brunt of the blast.
When the dust settled, all that remained of the beasts were charred marks on the floor.
Kaal and Mak exchanged grim looks.
‘Miral, you got all that he spewed about Codex and Nightshade?’ Mak grated.
‘Naam,’ she intoned. ‘Already on it. I’ll see what I can find.’
‘I sense a reckoning and not just from the catacombs of hell itself. Hunt down what you can, and do it fast,’ Mak snarled.
‘Consider it done.’
Chapter 11
SABA
Saba knelt on a mat on the terrace bySombra’slake, her bare back exposed to the sun’s warmth.
Behind her crouched asanii, an Akkadian inker, cradling a shallow bowl of sacred paint made from rare earth minerals and crushed diamonds.
The slight woman, with glyphs and ornate tattoos covering her entire frame, dipped a sharpened bone needle into the vessel.
As the spike pricked Saba’s flesh, she gave a brief wince, but did not flinch as thesaniitattooed a pigment-laden enchantment over her bare body.
Saba rolled a pair of meditation stones in her hands to endure the pain of scarification.
The intricate patterns being etched into her skin hurt, yet they were a necessary bridge between who she was and who she was becoming, signaling her new life and status as a married woman.
The Akkadian families of the flotilla were partial to this tradition.
The order’s faith resurfaced in the city of Melilla after the Great Apocalypse, when descendants of the old Akkadian gene pool came together in search of enlightenment.
They found strength in their ancient ways, and Saba’s grandparents’ generation revived the old conventions to help them navigate an uncertain future.
