Chapter One

Maxim felt like the breath was caught in his lungs. It was as though he couldn’t bring it all the way in, but he also couldn’t let it all of the way out. It swelled in his chest, amplifying the pounding of his heart until it felt as though each beat was shaking the blood in his veins and reverberating in his ears. Ahead of him he could see his father caught in the clash of the battle. It had been so many years since he had seen Aegeus, but Maxim knew his face and the way that he moved. He had watched him for the first years of his life and could remember every detail of him, from the way that he looked when he went into the kitchen to greet Ellora first thing in the morning, to the stern look on his face and the tightness in his shoulders when he left the house and marched to battle. He remembered him with his mind and carried him in his heart, and he would always have been able to recognize him. Maxim had known who Aegeus was from the moment that he saw him running toward the battle, his sword blazing.

Now Maxim was watching him, his eyes locked on him, but he was unable to get to him. Aegeus was on the other side of the battle, his feet moving rapidly beneath him as his hands cut through the air, swinging his weapon. He fought with an intensity that was breathtaking, showing that nothing that he had been through in the years that he had been away from the Mikana kingdom and from Uoria itself had taken the fire from his soul and the power from his presence. Maxim could see the father that he had adored and admired when he was a child even behind the weathered face and the body that was still large, but seemed somehow diminished. He wondered if that was only his perception because he himself was larger now that he was an adult, or if Aegeus truly was smaller now.

The battle continued to rage around him and Maxim felt pushed back away from his father by the violent clash occurring to either side. No matter how much he struggled to get closer to him, the fighting of the two armies acted as a wall in between them, preventing him from getting any closer to Aegeus. Maxim didn’t even know if his father had seen him. Though he felt as though there had been a fleeting glance when Aegeus had looked at him before the first slash of his sword into the body of one of the hybrids, his father had made no indication that he had seen him, or that if he did, that he knew who Maxim was. It was somewhat sad to think that his father had spent so many years away from him that he wouldn’t know who Maxim was, but it was something that he couldn’t change, that he couldn’t blame his father for. A sobering thought settled into Maxim’s mind and caused him to take a step back, further distancing himself from Aegeus.

Perhaps his father had seen him. Perhaps when he was running toward him across the desert surface of Penthos, his eyes had locked on Maxim the same way that Maxim’s had locked on him, but he didn’t have the same reaction. Instead of being thrilled the way that Maxim was, perhaps Aegeus felt distanced, that he didn’t want to be near his son. Or even worse, perhaps he didn’t feel anything at all.

The sound of a strangled cry behind him broke Maxim free of his thoughts and he turned to see George collapse to the ground. The human man’s hands went to his throat and he clawed at it as if he were trying to pull away something that was threatening to choke him. His feet dug into the sand as he pushed away from the unseen force, struggling against it in an effort to free himself from something that he couldn’t see, but could obviously feel. Maxim looked ahead of the scientist and saw one of the hooded creatures standing in front of him, one gloved hand held out like he was choking George. Maxim realized that the man was controlling George with nothing more than the force of his mind, a terrifying capability that brought a new level of intensity to the fight.

Maxim was starting to take a step toward the hooded creature when he saw Azra step up behind it and plunge his sword into the creature’s back. The pain seemed to break its concentration, enabling George to scramble to his feet. Azra slashed away the creature’s hood, allowing it to fall away and reveal a face that was nothing short of gruesome. Half looked cold and slimy while the other half appeared to be covered in a thick, black shield that stretched across the bottom of its face, concealing its lips so that it looked as though he didn’t have a mouth at all. The creature turned toward Maxim as if feeling his eyes on him and surged toward him, his hand held out toward Maxim’s throat. He felt the first hints of tightening that was starting to stop his breath. Remembering what he had seen George going through, Maxim dropped down to the ground and rolled out of the way so that he was no longer in the line of control of the hooded creature. He immediately felt the tightening diminish and reached forward to slash at the creature’s legs with his blade. The creature tumbled to the ground, his legs no longer able to support his body.

The creature pulled itself up so that it was on its hands and knees, then lifted its head to look at Maxim. He could see the pain and the anger in its eyes, its jaw set fiercely.

“You will not win,” the creature growled at him.

It spoke to him in a voice that seemed to reach down into Maxim and create a dark ember burning in his soul, as if the creature itself hadn’t really spoken to Maxim, but that something harbored within it had spoken to something deep within Maxim. He slid his hand down his sword to shorten the blade, ignoring the pain as the sharp edge cut down into palm and fingers. In one swift motion he brought the blade up so that the pointed tip dug into the soft underside of the hybrid’s chin. For a moment there was no reaction and then the creature looked into his eyes, the gaze burning into his as though he didn’t want Maxim to ever forget what it looked like to have the life slip out of him.

Maxim held his grip, not relenting even as the creature began to gasp and gurgling sounds came from its throat. Finally it slumped, its body falling to the ground, and Maxim pulled his blade away. He was climbing to his feet when he heard a scream ripple through the battlefield toward him. For a moment he thought that someone had seen his actions and was horrified by his brutality, but as he looked up he realized that not only was what he did far from the most brutal action that was occurring on that field, but it was also not the cause for the scream that was now being repeated through the crowd. At the edge of the battlefield he saw a massive animal coming toward them. Its body was larger than anything that he had ever seen and the strength of its muscles was obvious from the way that it moved.

Fear tightened throughout him and Maxim felt the compulsion to join the others who were now starting to run from the animal. The longer that he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. A description of it seemed to formulate in his mind and he realized that this was something that had been described in the papers he found in the compound. A thought rose in the back of his mind, telling him that this was the creature that had attacked Kyven and Emerie when they were in the quarry, leaving his brother with the horrifying injuries that had made it necessary for him to go back to Uoria with the ship.

He scooped up his sword and started toward the animal, determined to avenge the pain and suffering that his brother had suffered at the wrath of the animal. He had been so focused on the animal’s huge head and wide, lumbering stride that he hadn’t paid attention to its back. As he neared it, however, he noticed the dark figure sitting astride its tremendous shoulders. The sight brought him to a stop and he stared up at the figure, narrowing his eyes to try to see who it was. He didn’t recognize it, but could soon tell that it was a woman. She didn’t look like any of the women who he knew from Uoria and he wondered if she might be a member of the hybrid army, though she wasn’t wearing the thick hooded robe that set them apart from those fighting on the other side.

Beside the animal he saw a man walking alongside it, his hand occasionally brushing through the thick fur of its leg. Though the man was wrapped tightly in a bandage, he didn’t appear to be frightened or as though he were being forced to walk along with it. Around him, Maxim could see the hybrids scrambling backwards away from the animal, telling him that they knew what it was. This was the Meldor, the animal that seemed mythical when Maxim read about it but now knew was what attacked Kyven and Emerie. The hybrids knew about it and understood the power that it had, and many were obviously too terrified to even consider staying on the battlefield to face it. This meant that the animal, and therefore the woman on its back and the man walking alongside it, were not members of their forces and instead were there to fight on his side. As he watched, he saw that the hybrids were leaving behind the members of Maxim and Pyra’s army that they had wounded, and that the Denynso warriors were rushing to rescue them.

Maxim returned his weapon to its sheath and rushed toward the nearest wounded man, helping pull him up off of the ground. He heard the woman on the back of the animal call down to Azra, reassuring Maxim that this was a woman he could trust. She instructed the men to put the wounded on the back of the Meldor and Maxim complied, helping to hoist men onto the animal’s back until they couldn’t fit any more. He watched as the animal took off in the direction of the compound and then turned back to those still on the battlefield. The battle had greatly thinned, but those who had not dissipated seemed to be fighting with even greater intensity, as if the presence of the Meldor and the loss of the wounded had somehow reinforced their efforts and forced them into harder service. He scanned the field for his father, but couldn’t see him. Around him some of the rest were started off of the field toward the compound, following the tremendous footsteps of the Meldor, while hybrids rushed away in other directions.

Maxim knew that he could have gone along with them, followed them to the compound and started the process of recovering from the battle and reconnecting with those who had come from Earth. But he knew that the battle wasn’t truly over yet. He couldn’t return to the compound until the conflict was over. No matter what happened, he couldn’t abandon the battle until it was completely at an end. Not even for a moment would he allow the hybrids to think that they had bested him, that he was retreating from them. He would never run. He would never give up. Until the last moment, he would stay and fight.