Dominion by John Connolly Page B

the hot, iron aroma of spilled blood called to them, and they paused and lapped at it, and became distracted by feasts of fresh flesh, eating their fill until they too succumbed to the threat from the red sky.
    Some of the remaining Military craft that tried to leave were swamped by panicked crowds, while others were shot down on the instructions of the Corps. Order collapsed in those cities that had been spared the immediate arrival of the transporters as news reached them of what was happening elsewhere, and the realization grew that they would be next. There were street battles, and looting. Chaos spread.
    And in Edinburgh, as in other major cities, the last Illyri craft departed from their pads and bays, heading through the heavy clouds and into space, making for the larger carriers that would begin transporting them to the wormhole, and out of Earth’s solar system. The citizens looked up, and they raged as their oppressors abandoned them.
    Only the small carrier in the courtyard of Edinburgh Castle did not leave, but by midafternoon the crowd outside the castle gates had swelled to such proportions that there was no hope of Fian or Althea making it through. The carrier was packed with anxious Illyri, whatever valuables they could carry crushed into lockers, or held between their feet. There were children and adolescents among them, all frightened, all looking to Governor Danis for guidance, for hope.
    â€œCowards!” the people outside screamed, and they were joined by furious Galateans, the two races briefly allied in abandonment and rage.
    â€œCowards!” the people cried again. Aided by the might of the Galateans, they tried to storm the gates, but the bullets of the remaining guards mowed the first waves down. The mob faltered, and regrouped.
    Danis heard the shooting, and watched the throng from a screen in the carrier’s cockpit. Time was running out.
    â€œMinimal force,” he said to Balen, who sat beside him, a sheaf of papers on his lap. “Please—they must use absolute minimal force.”
    Helpless to act for his master, Balen simply fiddled with the paper clip holding his documents together, and they slid to the floor. He let them go.
    â€œWe must leave soon,” said Peris. “We have a narrow window of departure.”
    Danis stared at him. “We can’t. What about Fian? And Althea?”
    â€œCan’t we locate them with their trackers?” said Peris, but Danis just shook his head.
    â€œGone. They removed them.” He stared vacantly through the glass of the cockpit window, his thoughts far from the castle. “Did you know that Althea has a boyfriend, a human?”
    Peris didn’t but, having seen her last night, he wasn’t surprised. She was an altered creature.
    â€œA member of the Resistance,” Danis continued. “Someone quite high up in the chain of command, or so I’m told.”
    â€œI guess that’s why she had her tracker removed, then.”
    â€œ Had it removed?” Danis laughed bitterly. “She removed it herself, Peris—dug it out with a blade long ago. Fian followed her example, although a little more recently. You know, things weren’t good between us, Peris, between me and Fian, after Ani left. Sometimes I wondered if my wife had somebody else too; a human, perhaps, just like Althea. She denied it, of course. Said she just wanted to be free of Illyri surveillance, and free of me too, I suppose.”
    Peris was at a loss for words. “I’m sorry, Danis,” he said uselessly.
    There was quiet in the cockpit for a few moments, until fresh volleys of gunfire sounded from the gates, followed by a series of blasts. A guard’s voice sounded over the internal speakers.
    â€œThey’ve broken through the first perimeter!”
    â€œDanis!” said Peris. “We must leave. Give the order!”
    More blasts, more shooting. Through the glass of the cockpit window, they watched