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men around her were not so lucky.
    A Halo-4 swooped in through the hole and the door opened to reveal her loyal major, “Come on, Chief! There’s not much time!”
    The guardsmen were beginning to recover from the blast all the more quickly now that they realized its cause, but she had one more item of business to attend to. Costa lay on the floor in front of her, just out of reach of the ruby cylinder. She bent to pick it up, and when the cool red stone touched her skin she felt a wave of fire spread straight through her…the fire of power; of strength; of invincibility. Ignis , Gladius of Fire. She couldn’t have chosen a better name.
    Liz made to leave, but something grabbed at her. Instinctively, she swung Ignis around and brought the blade to life just in time to slice straight through Magistrate Costa’s wrist. He fell back from her, screaming out in pain and holding his stump. “I did warn you, you know.”
    The guardsmen shrunk from the sight of the Spectral Gladius as she bounded past them and jumped into the Halo. Through Costa’s pained screams she heard him cry out, “Stop them you cowards! Shoot that thing down!”
    Liz barely made it to her seat before the Halo blasted out of the antechamber and ascended rapidly into the sky. Breathless, she turned to the major, “Thank you. And you were right…I should never have gone in there. I just didn’t think…”
    “That the emperor would go that far?” the major asked.
    “No,” she shook her head. “I thought he would be different than Napoleon Alexander. But I was wrong. He put a lock on the door to the Chamber.”
    The major’s eyes narrowed, “So?”
    “He’s already thinking ahead,” she replied. “One day he is going to lock the Citadel in that room, and none of them will get out alive.”
    “Perhaps all those who war against tyrants are doomed to become tyrants themselves.”
    “Not me,” she said. “I am done with this war. How long until the Golden Queen ?”
    The major made to answer, but the pilot interrupted, “Chief! We have company!”
    “Report.”
    “Three Halos coming in fast on our six. They’ve launched missiles! Taking evasive maneuvers!”
    “No!” Liz cried, taking a look at the targeting screen. “We’ve armed all our Halos with the new smart missiles. You’ll never shake them.”
    “Then what can we do?”
    “Take us up into the atmosphere,” she ordered. “Maximum speed.”
    “Chief,” the major said. “Those missiles will lose propulsion in space, but so will we. Not to mention decompression and—”
    “We have no choice, Major. Let’s just hope this bird can outrun them.” She held on tight to the armrest as the Halo ascended rapidly, and wondered if it would all come down to this. All that she had sacrificed to find her family, and she would die here before ever getting close. Better than dying on Sullivan’s leash .
    “It’s no use, Chief,” the pilot said. “We aren’t rising fast enough. Impact in five, four, three…”
    Liz closed her eyes and braced for death.



3
    L IZ WAS AWARE OF the gentle vibrations of a Halo in flight beneath her before she even regained consciousness. Relief washed over her as she struggled to make her way back to the world. We made it. We survived . Her ploy had worked, and now they must be on their way to the Indian Ocean and the Golden Queen . Still, her body felt strange, as though days had passed rather than just minutes or hours. Perhaps that was an effect of oxygen deprivation.
    “General,” a voice called, distorted to her confused senses. “She’s coming to.”
    “Right on time,” came the reply.
    General ? Liz thought with a great degree of concern. There is no general on this Halo .
    With great difficulty she forced her eyes open to a blurred canvas of blues and grays. Her head exploded with pain, eyes strained as though they hadn’t seen light in days, and her breath came in short rasps—almost as though she were coming out of some