Rules of Redemption (The Firebird Chronicles #1) - T.A. White Page 0,132

left the glass building.

*

Finding the Nexus was easy. Not a single patrol hindered their progress.

The lack of security made her anxious. If she’d been in charge of security, she would have sealed the Nexus—the military command hub of the Citadel—first.

This didn’t make sense, Kira thought as they approached the unguarded door to the Nexus. Its large frame reached for the ceiling high above. There were no signs of the Luathans anywhere.

Roderick might have been lazy and slightly dumb, but even he couldn’t have been this inept. Right?

“What do you want to do?” Jin asked, no happier at the ease of their passage than her.

“I don’t think we have a choice, do you?”

His silence was answer enough.

Kira pushed the heavy door open a crack and peered through. Inside was as deserted as the hallway.

Curiouser and curiouser.

She slipped inside, careful to keep her movements smooth and silent.

The emptiness of the massive room felt oppressive, like even her surroundings waited with bated breath for something horrible.

“I don’t like this,” Jin stage whispered.

Neither did Kira.

“Did you ever find it unattended during your patrols?” Kira asked, taking in their surroundings.

The room, like the rest of the Citadel, was one of incomparable beauty. Cathedral ceilings arched overhead, paintings and carvings drawing the eye up. Elegant columns marched down either side of the massive space and in the middle, two stone steps led to a sunken section of the floor in the shape of an octagon, a pattern etched into it.

The shape of the octagon was mirrored overhead by gold lines that intersected and weaved into a dizzying pattern that looped in on itself like a kaleidoscope if one stared at it too long.

Like much of the Citadel, there was an overwhelming feeling of airy lightness, the stones in the columns and floors white and flawless. An impressive feat given the lack of windows.

At least now she knew if there’d been a battle, the evidence of it would be written all over this room. Blood would have stood out in stark relief against all the white.

Kira took all this in from her place next to the door. She was careful not to intrude deeper into the room until she’d assured herself they were really alone, and no invisible assailants waited behind those columns.

The room felt almost holy, the air still and somber, silent as if unnecessary noise feared intruding. A great well of power crouched beneath the surface, deep and vast and mind-bendingly ancient. Kira could see now why it was called the Nexus. It was the meeting point between the planet’s soul and the surface, reality stretching and bending until it felt like you could reach out and touch the intangible with little effort. She hadn't felt the Mea'Ave so vividly since her first encounter.

It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced, and she got the feeling if she didn’t tread cautiously it would be the last thing she ever did.

"No, never," Jin said, answering her previous question. "There's always at least two guards posted inside the room and two outside."

Which meant someone with the authority would have had to recall the guards from their post. Something Kira found unlikely. The first general order any soldier learned was a variation of "I will guard everything within the limits of my post and only quit my post when properly relieved."

It was part of a set of rules sentries through the ages had abided by—long before humanity had spread through the stars, when it was a collection of countries at war with each other. The basic order’s wisdom had endured for good reason.

Kira couldn't see the Tuann being any different. You didn't abandon the military command center of your base for any reason short of death.

Either the guards on duty were part of the conspiracy or something tragic had happened to them.

Both instances would have resulted in enemy combatants taking control of the Nexus.

Instead, it lay empty. Stranger and stranger.

"Hello, anyone here?" Kira called. "The door was open."

"What are you doing?" Jin hissed.

"They wouldn't have just abandoned this place," Kira said distractedly as she moved further into the room.

"Instead you decide to announce our presence to whoever might be waiting to kill us?"

She shrugged. "No one answered. I think we're safe."

"Unbelievable," Jin muttered. "I'd like to say I'm surprised, but nothing you do surprises me anymore."

Kira ignored his grumbling as she moved deeper into the room, not bothering to step lightly as her footsteps echoed in the large space. There were no soft surfaces to muffle the noise of