Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare Read Free Page A

much as a ripple, a bump, or a crack in the uniform surface.
    “Put your chest against the rock,” Dora instructed, “and let the heat from your suit through.”
    “Huh?”
    “A variety of factors indicate either body heat or psi function will open the portal.”
    Zical leaned against the portal, and using his psi, he opened a channel in his suit to allow his body heat to warm the field. Immediately, his core temperature lowered a degree and he shivered. Unable to recall the last time he’d been cold, at first, he actually enjoyed the unusual sensation. After a few minutes of losing body heat, his fingertips began to go numb, his shivers turned to wracking shudders, and he wondered at the extremes he was willing to go to—all in the name of exploration.
    “It’s n-not w-working.”
    “I’m monitoring your core temperature. Hypothermia will set in within another minute.” Dora didn’t sound the least bit concerned for his welfare, reassuring him that although he might feel as though he were freezing to death, he wasn’t yet in danger.
    “How much l-longer?”
    “My best estimate is that you have to be willing to risk death.”
    “Death?”
    “Luckily for you, I’ll stop the process before the point of no return.”
    “Y-you could have t-told m-me.”
    “I just did.”
    Zical tried to think beyond the numbness in his frozen fingers and toes. He trusted Dora implicitly to monitor his medical condition. If she said he had to go to the brink of death, he trusted her to pull him back before he died. But what was so important that the builders required a man to risk death to enter?
    Damn it, he wanted to see what was inside.
    The tiny part of his brain that still thought in higher functions didn’t want to back down in front of Dora. Rystani warriors were always courageous—even in the face of the unknown. Even when they shivered like a newborn baby. Even when their arms turned blue.
    “Five more seconds.”
    “Four.”
    “Three.”
    “Two.”
    “One.”
    The rock behind the force field dematerialized. Zical didn’t so much step forward as he staggered into a hallway of streaming multicolored lights so laser bright that he winced against the glare until his psi adjusted and turned up the heat in his suit. He took small steps for several minutes, recognizing the need to let his body’s core temperature rise. The corridor widened into an enormous cavern. Mount Shachauri had been hollowed out to house massive equipment—equipment whose most fundamental purpose he couldn’t begin to guess.
    Meticulously crafted diaphanous crystals floated in a swirling array of bewitching patterns, their auras reflecting off machines larger than the skyscrapers on Zenon. A series of golden globes hung from the cavern’s peak. A map? Directions? Or decorations? Zical had no clue. The room could be some weird form of alien art. Or an armory for a weapon. A rocket launcher. Or a shrine to pay homage to ancient gods.
    “Dora?”
    “I’m here.” A tinny voice echoed from the computer speaker on his wrist.
    “You sound strange.”
    “We’re cut off from Mystique. Satellite communication is no longer viable. I can no longer contact my mainframe—”
    “We’re on our own?”
    “We should leave immediately.”
    Zical turned around, half expecting the portal behind him to have rematerialized and trapped them. But Mystique’s azure sky shined brightly through the opening and they had a clear escape route.
    “Come on, Dora. I want to look around.”
    “I don’t.”
    “Where’s your sense of adventure?” He’d put off a decision on his career for this long, a few more hours wouldn’t make any difference.
    “Where’s your sense of self-preservation?” she countered. “If you get into trouble, I can’t even call for help.”
    “Relax.” Zical stepped forward. The multicolored lights blinked and beckoned him forward to a walkway that curved into the mountain where thousands of dark screens along one wall eyed