Chapter 1

There were no two sides of a conflict that Roodaka couldn’t play against each other.

It felt like yesterday she was orchestrating a game placing Vakama, Sidorak, and Makuta delicately at odds against each other. The ambitions of Vakama and Sidorak were easy to stoke, and if either accidentally overcame the other, then Roodaka would turn them against Makuta. The game of cross and double-cross was as natural to her as a Protodrake skimming the water’s surface.

Mere days after Makuta had teleported her from certain death in Metru Nui, the Dark Hunters presented themselves as new adversaries to the Brotherhood. Demand opened for new services only she could supply.

When you’re loyal to none but yourself, Roodaka knew, you will always end on top.

—

Roodaka slipped from shadow to shadow, edging around the corner of a fortress as smoothly as silk. Throwing a glance at the Makuta watchtowers above, she slipped over an embankment and scurried down the rocky terrain to the shore.

As she reached the shoreline, she felt a movement in the air nearby. Turning, she saw the Dark Hunter codenamed “Lurker” emerge from the shadows.

“Here it is. A full record of the Brotherhood’s movement in the west,” Roodaka murmured, holding out a stone tablet. “Strike hard and fast on the Tren Krom Peninsula. Detonate the volcanoes there and you’ll incinerate the forces hiding in the magma chambers.”

Lurker’s eyes narrowed at the tablet, scrutinizing its contents. His eyes widened as Roodaka revealed and passed to him a small object wrapped in parchment.

“A secret gift for the Shadowed One,” she whispered, so low only he could hear her. “Warn him to be cautious of a counter-attack.”

“Very good. Report to Odina in a week’s time.” Then giving her a hard look, he slipped into the night.

Roodaka waited until she was certain he was gone. Then she walked back up the shoreline, to the caves where a pair of red eyes watched from the darkness. She raised her fist and an Exo-Toa appeared emblazoned with the crest of the Makuta.

“Move all except a token force from the magma chambers,” she instructed. “Let them have this first victory. Then retaliate for the kill.”

“Report to Destral,” the machine grated, an upgraded, sentient iteration of the Brotherhood’s feared Exo-Toa. “New mission brief ready. Priority: urgent.”

Roodaka smiled. With the Toa no longer a force to reckon with, there remained none who could intefere. Both sides would funnel soldiers into a war machine that she and Xia perpetually stoked. The war between the Dark Hunters and Brotherhood would continue, as it had for a thousand years. It was an all-stakes game, and there would only be one winner.

It was a game only she could win.