“They’re firing gauss cannons, brace for impact,” Hon reported, holding onto the edge of his console. After a few seconds, he double-checked his scans. “They missed. I think they are firing blind, sir; they are just peppering the area, hoping for a lucky hit.”
“The yacht is locked onto the hard point, sir,” Connors called out. “Warp coordinates Alpha set.”
“Change to jump point Theta,” Grimms ordered, a bad feeling in his gut.
“Theta set, sir.”
“Warp in three, two, one,” Cora quickly counted down.
The view compressed, and they were away, just as the area they had recently occupied was filled with hundreds of slugs.
Everyone took a breath, letting the nervous energy out in a rush—everyone but Grimms and Mezner, who were looking at each other from across the bridge.
“Mezner? Was there a signal?” Grimms asked again, his brow furrowed with anger.
“Yes, sir. There was an Aetheric burst right after we jumped, then again before the dreadnought began firing on us,” she reported, confirming his worst fears.
“Sir?” Connors asked, not understanding the significance of this.
“The prince’s ship is signaling the Teifen, Ensign,” Cora said, her voice dark.
“It was a trap,” Grimms growled.
Chapter 18
Sara laced up her boot, her face still burning from having Baxter’s eyes on her so intently. Though if his squirming was any indication, he hadn’t enjoyed it much either. We should try that under different circumstances. Stop, Sara. This is ridiculous, and not appropriate.
Alister rubbed his head against her side in solidarity. “Mrow.”
She smiled down at him, “Thanks, man. That means a lot.”
He bunted her side again, and she gave a laugh. She noticed Baxter was smiling at the cat’s antics as well.
It had taken him twenty minutes to feel confident enough to use her as a focus for his Aether, but the entire time, he had kept it professional. There was no leering, no comments, just focused determination. She appreciated his demeanor.
That didn't mean that it wasn’t the most exposed she had ever felt in the presence of another person. But she realized that was the point, in a way. She had revealed her vulnerability to Baxter, linking them for life.
Now she could feel his Aether nestled in her well, its flavor slightly different than her own. She cherished the odd feel and what it meant.
“So, pixies?” Baxter asked, standing with his back to her.
He had turned around once the spell was done to give her some privacy. She said it was stupid, since he had just stared at her naked body for a full twenty minutes, but he insisted. Her heart fluttered a little at the gesture.
“Yes. Pixies,” she said, finished tying her laces and throwing her jacket on.
She stood and put a hand on his back to let him know it was time to go. She felt his muscles tense under her hand, before he turned and gave her a bright smile.
“And Alister is one of them?” he asked, motioning for her to go down the ramp first.
Alister jumped to Sara’s shoulder and gave a “Merp” in answer.
Baxter nodded. “Okay, good to know.”
“So, this is going to be odd for you; I know, because it still is for me. Just try not to stare, okay?” Sara smiled over her shoulder at him.
She felt a small surge of trepidation and determination, and knew it was his. Great. Now I have two people’s emotions in my head, in addition to my own. I suppose it will take the guess work out of our relationship…
They crossed the open, grassy area, headed toward Boon and the forest. Boon was sitting on the ground, cross-legged, with Silva wrapped around her neck like a too short scarf. Nyx was sitting in front of her in a similar position, but she was leaning over Boon’s tablet, which was on the ground between them. The ten guards were still standing in a half circle behind her, but in much more relaxed positions than they’d been in when Sara had led Baxter away.
Sara looked back at Baxter to see how he was taking the sight of his first pixies, but his face was undisturbed, a half-smile etched into his dark features.
When they got closer, Sara could see that Boon and Nyx were playing a game of chess on the tablet. As she watched, the pixie slid three fingers across the screen, dragging a rook across the board. “Checkmate,” Nyx said excitedly.
“Seriously? Again? Are you sure this is your first time?” Boon said skeptically, holding the tablet up to inspect the board.
Nyx held up her hand solemnly. “I swear, it’s beginner’s luck.” She saw Sara and Baxter approaching, and stood to her full height, not even coming to Baxter’s knee.
She held out a hand to shake with him, and he knelt down, taking her hand between his thumb and forefinger and shaking gently.
“Hello, Sergeant Major Baxter. My name is Nyx Morenna, Keeper of the Records. It is a pleasure to meet you. Our friend Boon here told me a lot about you while we played some chess,” she said graciously with a half-bow.
Baxter, for his part, was much more composed than Sara would have been if she had been handed the same circumstances.
“A pleasure, ma’am,” he said with a bow of his head. He noticed the ten guards and, standing, gave them all a salute. “Gentlemen.”
The ten guards surprisingly snapped to attention and returned the salute.
Baxter smiled down at Nyx. “If you are ready, I believe Sara is eager to meet with the Elders.”
Nyx leaned back, looking around Baxter’s leg to give Sara a wink. “Good choice on your guard. He seems like a put-together fellow.”
Sara just nodded, her mouth hanging open at the whole interaction.
“Come. The Elders await,” Nyx said.
Then she turned and headed into the woods.
After a kilometer and a half of pushing their way through dense woods, they stumbled out into a clearing that brought Sara, Boon, and Baxter up short.
In the center of the woods was an open prairie—or at least it had been at one time. Now a city in miniature, roughly a kilometer in diameter, filled the space. It was, in some ways, a modern city: there were the equivalent of high-rise buildings, fifty or sixty meters tall, and intricate parks, with fountains dotted throughout. But the city had cobbled streets, and the buildings were made of stone and adobe as often as wood and plaster.
Around the city was farmland, growing plants Sara had never seen. To her surprise, she saw a pixie on a small tractor in the distance, plowing a field. The design of the tractor was very unusual, and had the same glowing lines of Aether running across its surface that their Aetheric armor did when powered. She stood slack-jawed in wonder, and noticed a few pixies doing the same, as they noticed her and the others.
“Come, we must meet with the Elders in the town center. You will be able to sight-see when we are done,” Nyx promised, beckoning them forward with a wave of her hand, as she and the guards stepped onto a well-maintained cobbled street between fields.
As they approached the city, Sara began to see that it was more modern than she had originally thought. The windows were all glass. The streets had electric lighting. There were tracks down the center of each road, conveying streetcars full of pixies who stared at the giants walking down their streets. They passed an open market full of pixies doing their shopping.
As they went further into the city, a crowd began to gather around and follow them. The pixies cleared a path for the guards and Nyx, but their eyes never left Sara, Boon, and Baxter. Alister and Silva rode on their companions’ shoulders, their heads held high, as if riding parade floats.
Sara could tell they were headed for the center of the city, where the tallest building spiked into the sky. She guessed it was a hundred meters tall, and could see windows in twisting, irregular patterns, as if the floors were at random levels. Looking at the building beside them, which was three meters tall and had three floors, she guessed the central spire must be a hundred or more floors high.
T
hey came to a plaza around the spire, and, to Sara's surprise, there was a fountain with two life-sized human statues standing in regal poses in the middle. Both humans were men; upon closer inspection, Sara could tell they were twins. They wore skin-tight suits, not unlike the battlesuit she would wear under her Aetheric armor.
“Alant and Altis?” Sara asked Nyx as they passed.
“Yes, this memorial was constructed after their deaths. Over the millennia, it has been rebuilt many times, not unlike this city.” She pressed her hands together and bowed to two smaller figures at the base of the fountain.
Sara didn’t see them at first, but she should have known to look for them. There was a fox-like creature, and a cat very similar to Alister, with odd, too large ears. They were statues of Alant and Altis’s familiars; it seemed that the pixies showed them special respect.
“Come, the Elders await us in the meeting place,” Nyx said, continuing on to the central spire.
There was a human-sized set of wooden doors set into the front of the building, and two smaller doors built into them for easy pixie access.
Nyx indicated the larger doors, and said to Baxter, “Would you mind? We can open them, but it takes us a few minutes at the mechanical controls.”
Baxter gave a slight bow. “Not a problem, allow me.”
He pulled on the handle. The door didn't budge. He gave it another pull, and it screeched a little in the frame.
“It seems to be stuck. When was the last time they were opened?” he asked, giving another pull to no avail.
“Um, it’s been a while. We usually open them on festivals, but the last festival was six months ago. Just give it a good yank. It should come loose,” Nyx said, her face red with embarrassment.
Baxter set his feet and yanked hard on the door, rattling the whole frame, but not having any success with the door. He scratched his head and turned to Sara with a smile. “You mind giving me a hand?”
Sara noticed that a rather large crowd had gathered, and felt bad for poor Nyx. “Sure, step back, please.”
She sent what she wanted to Alister, and the spellform appeared instantly in her mind. She poured a trickle of Aether into it, forming a small shield on the inside of the building, against the wooden door. Alister manipulated the shape of the form in her mind, as Sara continued to feed it.
The shield moved with inexorable force, pushing against the stuck door until, in a rush, it burst open, swinging so hard it slammed into the outside wall. The small shield spell continued to move out of the doorway at a steady pace until Sara dismissed it.
The bang of the door had made a large portion of the watching pixies duck or run for cover, and Sara mouthed ‘sorry’ to the crowd. Several of the guards had raised their rifles, but quickly lowered them.
Nyx had a hand over her heart, and was breathing heavy. “Oh, my. We really should have maintained that better. You’ll have to forgive us, it has been nearly thirty thousand years since a human has needed to use these doors.” She motioned for them to follow as she entered the building.
Sara was not surprised to see electric lights illuminating the interior as she stepped through the doorway. The architecture reminded her of somewhere she couldn't place, with stone tile flooring and rich wood accents. The first three floors of the building were centered around a single large room, with an intricate pattern inlaid in the floor’s center. Small staircases wound around the walls, giving the pixies access to the upper levels.
In a semicircle on one half of the room was an ornate wooden structure that provided seating for seven pixies. They all wore robes similar to Nyx’s, but they were much older than the Keeper of Records, some even showing wrinkles along with their white hair. There were four males and three females, seated alternately. Each wore a serious expression, and two smoked long pipes, causing a blue haze to settle over the room.
“War Mage, please, come,” the female in the center said, her voice high and pleasant despite her obvious age.
Sara walked to the center of the room, with the others following close behind, and bowed, as seemed to be the custom among the pixies. “Greetings, I am Sara Sonders, a War Mage. This is Alicia Boon, also a War Mage. And this is Sergeant Major Baxter, my bonded guard. I am glad to be here; there is much to discuss.”
“That there is, like the fact that you broke our door,” the male to Sara's right said in a grumpy, gruff voice. Blue smoke puffed from him as if he were steam-powered.
Sara's eyebrows rose slowly. “Oh. Uh, sorry?”
“Oh, don't mind Trin, he’s always bothered by something,” the woman in the center said, throwing Trin a dirty look. Once Trin huffed and looked away, she turned back, all smiles. “It is a pleasure, my lady. I am Givis Hostern, elected High Elder. Welcome to Alantis, capital city of pixie-kind.”
“Thank you, Givis. I must say, this is all a little unexpected. A hidden city full of pixies? It’s amazing,” Sara said in wonder.
“Oh, if this impresses you, you should visit Serit City in Luxembourg. Now that is a sight to behold,” Givis chuckled.
“There are more cities like this?” Boon asked, gobsmacked.
“Of course there are! You think we could all fit in one city?” Trin gruffed.
Givis flashed him a look that could strip the paint from a barn, then smiled at the humans and said, “There are many cities across the world, though not nearly as many as you have. Most have been updated, but here, tradition keeps us a little behind the times. But I am guessing that your companions have brought you here for something more than chitchat about pixie culture. What can we do for you, my lady?”
Sara gathered her thoughts. This place, and what she’d had to do to bring Baxter to see it, was a little overwhelming. There is an entire race that has been living just out of sight for as long as there have been humans. She found the idea so far from her reality that she was distracted to the point of missing the High Elder’s question.
Boon, seeing her captain freeze up, jumped in to cover for her. “Madam, we are seeking the War Mages Alant and Altis’s dreadnought. There is technology onboard that we must recover to help us in the war with the Teifen.”
“Ah, yes. The Exitium,” Givis said with a grave nod. “It has been preserved for ones such as yourselves. The Lords hid it well, knowing that the seas would rise to bury it, keeping it far from the grasp of mere mortals.”
Sara blinked a few times. “It’s at the bottom of the sea?”
Givis smiled. “Of course. What safer place is there?”
Chapter 19
“Commander, there is a Sir Reitus on the line for you. He says he is the captain of the prince’s guard,” Mezner said from her station, as Grimms studied the holo projection of the surrounding systems.
They had picked a warp point that would take them deeper into Elif territory, but it was a relatively short jump—only an hour, even without Cora pushing the speed past their normal capabilities. The captain wanted to give everyone some time to think out their next move. Ambassador Foss and Dr. Hess had joined the crew on the bridge, and they were debating how to deal with the Empori.
Grimms pushed off from the projector table and crossed his arms. “Put it on the main screen,” he told Mezner.
The image of compressed space was replaced with that of a handsome Elif man, his black hair pulled back in a ponytail. He had sharp features and intense green eyes that did not look happy. “Colonel Grimms, I am Sir Reitus, head of Prince Paelias DeSolin’s head of security. Why has the prince not been allowed to board your ship? The Empori is rather crowded and, with the damage we have received, not suitable for his Highness.”
Grimms recognized the question for what it was. This guard was not asking because he wanted to know, but because his lord had ordered him to. He felt an immediate sympathy for the soldier, but he could not endanger his own ship for the whims of a childish lordling.
“Sir Reitus, I apologize for the delay, but we are working on a problem that will need some care to solve. Would the p
rince not be more comfortable aboard his own ship for now?”
Sir Reitus began to answer, but cut off before the first word escaped his lips, and looked to the side, obviously listening to someone. He gave a nod then turned back to Grimms. “I apologize, but the prince wants you to know that this treatment is far from what he would expect from humanity.”
Ambassador Foss leaned in and spoke privately to Grimms. “Colonel, I suggest that we at least bring his Highness aboard. Our peoples will need to work closely together in the future, and if the reports are true, he will be the emperor.”
Grimms gave a nod. “I understand the politics, but there is a signal originating from that yacht, and we don't know if it is coming from an Aetheric device attached to the ship, or if it’s is being sent by someone onboard.”
In his comm, Cora spoke up. “Tell them we will be in contact in one minute. Say we are making arrangements for the transfer.”
Grimms looked back at the screen. “We are preparing accommodations. Please allow us a few minutes; we will contact you shortly.”
Sir Reitus bowed his head. “I thank you, Colonel. My prince will be relieved.” The communication was ended, and the view returned to normal.
“I assume you have a plan, Captain?” Grimms asked, looking to the ceiling, as he did when talking with Cora.
“We need to determine where the signal is coming from, and use that to our advantage, if we can,” Cora said.
“Yes, but if the signal is coming from a traitor onboard the yacht, then we are just bringing that problem with us,” Grimms retorted.
“There would never be a traitor in the prince’s guard,” Foss scoffed. “Royal guards are the most vetted soldiers in the empire. It is preposterous to think that one could have slipped through the rigorous testing.” Dr. Hess nodded in agreement.
“That may be, but I’m not going to risk my homeworld on the Elif’s reputation. If you remember, that did not work in our favor in the last war,” Grimms said, feeling cornered.
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