A Blue Star Rising

by Cecilia Randell

  “Just don’t go offering anyone in marriage in these negotiations,” he half joked, and Blue choked on the sip of aipin juice she’d taken.

  Felix shifted restlessly. He needed to say something else but didn’t know how to approach it. With a few words, Trevon had just given his loyalty to Blue. And by offering the Faust name as a tool, Blue had accepted. Whether the courting went any further or Blue accepted whatever situation Trevon planned to offer, she was now Family. And by extension, so were all those in her prida.

  Over Blue’s head, Mo’ata’s gaze met Trevon’s, and they nodded. An acceptance, with terms to be worked out later.

  Felix’s chest tightened again, and he pulled in a slow, careful breath. Mo’ata knew what had just happened, which meant Felix didn’t need to explain it. And now he had a decision to make: Could he ally himself with a Martikan Family?

  But he would make that call once they had Forrest and Levi back.

  Trevon stood.

  “Wait.” Mo’ata gestured to his tablet. “Before you go.”

  The clansman brought up the video. There was no need to comb through hours of footage or a multitude of feeds. Mo’ata had known where they were going, had confirmation of when they’d left, and knew when they’d disappeared, thanks to the piquet’s and Blue’s reactions.

  The street was well illuminated. They only had to wait moments before Forrest and Levi came into view. They turned down another avenue, where they paused, just on the edge of the screen. What happened next took moments. Levi was hit first. It was hard to tell what with, but the Prizzoli sank to his knees. A second later Vivi struggled to get to Forrest, who had stepped toward the nearest building. Neither got far before collapsing to the ground alongside Levi. A half-minute later, dark figures appeared, picking up the limp bodies and taking them to a dark alcove on the opposite side of the avenue. Moments later they were gone. Not through a doorway or into a transport. Just gone.

  “They have a portal worker,” he said.

  “That’s good though, right?” Blue said. “They wouldn’t bother transporting dead bodies through portals, right?”

  “I certainly wouldn’t,” Trevon said.

  Felix nearly smiled at that. “You realize that is hardly reassuring.”

  “Actually, it is.” Blue reached out for Felix and gripped his arm. “If anyone knows how a criminal thinks, it’s Trev.”

  Zeynar gave a little bow. “Glad to be of service. Now, I will go harass Eteru, wherever he is. I will send word as soon as I know something.”

  Blue sent him a weak smile. “Don’t get yourself kidnapped.” The smile widened, though it failed to reach her eyes. “At least it wasn’t me this time, right?”

  “And we are all grateful for that,” Mo’ata said, also rising. “I am going to examine the area where they were taken. It is possible there will be traces of whatever was used.”

  Blue jerked. “Surely someone else can do that?”

  “No.” The clansman’s closed expression softened for a brief moment, and Felix saw what the other man was trying to hide. Guilt. Then he understood. Mo’ata needed to be the one to investigate, to find the boy. Because they had been so concentrated on protecting Blue, they had allowed another of theirs, one not fully trained and still vulnerable—and Felix was sure Forrest would protest that word used to describe him—to be taken unawares.

  He doubted having another guard with the three of them would have changed matters, but Felix understood what Mo’ata was feeling in that moment. He also had a feeling that when they were all together again, the two youngest members of this small clan were both going to find themselves with shadows.

  He laid a hand over the one Blue hadn’t removed from his forearm. “Let him, Blue. He needs to do this.”

  The girl—woman—took a breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. “Can he take Duri?”

  Mo’ata searched her face. “The extra set of eyes would be welcome. Zeynar?”

  “As long as neither Felix nor Blue leave this apartment while we are gone and do not open the door to anyone, this is acceptable to me.”

  “Updates every quarter-hour,” Blue insisted.

  “Also agreed,” Trev said, and Mo’ata also nodded.

  “Okay, kiss then go.”

  Felix bit back a grin at the bossy attitude. Oh, yeah, Blue was definitely back from wherever she’d gone earlier.

  BLUE

  It had been two hours since Felix had managed to get her and Garfield out of their panic attack and Mo’ata had left. Her clansman had been great about checking in every quarter hour on the dot. He was on a transport. He was at the site and searching. Duri was still with him. He had found a discharged dart. He had called in a courier to deliver it for analysis. He was on his way back to the apartment. The most recent update had just come in; he was almost to the apartment.

  She sat on the sofa, unsure of what to do. Going through the reports or surveillance footage again seemed pointless. They wouldn’t tell her anything different. They wouldn’t tell her anything new.

  They wouldn’t tell her where Forrest had been taken.

  She was stuck in the horrible anticipation of waiting. This is what hell must be.

  Garfield stirred in the back of her mind, waking from his nap. She braced herself, unsure what the piquet’s emotions and thoughts would do to her. She’d been caught by surprise earlier. Happy, calm, contentment was all she’d been getting from the cub. Then, bam. It had been like a silent, mournful howl and a certainty that something that should be there was not. It was different than something being in a place it didn’t belong, more like something that should have existed and been with you, no longer was. She didn’t know of another way to think of it.

  Dread had filled her, different from the other times she’d been overwhelmed or scared. Different from when Phe had been taken. And different from when they’d been on Padilra, racing to gather Forrest and Jason and still didn’t know if they’d been harmed.

  No, the utter wrongness of the absence of Forrest and Vivi had hit Garfield, and in turn it had hit her. Before she could even try to get a handle on what she was feeling, she’d been like one of those cartoon characters who’d had a piano dropped on them, then an anvil, and then the bomb had gone off. Felix had somehow known exactly what to do to get her and Garfield calmed down.

  She gathered her hard-won—calm wasn’t really the right word—coolness. That was it. She gathered that cool state of mind, wrapped it around herself, and projected it toward Garfield. Finding them. She sent the words, hoping he understood. And she sent the idea that they weren’t gone, they just needed to be found.

  Garfield shot to awareness and latched onto the idea. She heard him tumble from the bed, and then he was in the hall, bounding toward where she sat on the sofa. When he spotted Felix, though, he changed directions, leaping for the mercenary.

  I help.

  Blue held her arms out, and Felix set the cub in them. Oh, baby. We have to find them first. And I am not letting you anywhere near those darts without armor. But she didn’t send that last to the cub. Would it be possible to get cub-shaped armor?

  I help.

  The thought came again.

  “Juice?” Felix asked, shifting his weight. It was the fifth time he’d offered juice.

  “No, thanks. I’m still working on the first glass.” It sat there on the little side table, half gone. In plain sight. Maybe he needed something to do as much as she did?

  I help.

  Blue gripped the cub tighter and dug her fingers into his ruff, just behind the ears. “Come sit, Felix. Talk to me. Rehash details. Something so it doesn’t feel like we’re being useless lumps.”

  Felix joined her, close enough the heat he generated sank into her right side. When had she gotten cold?

  He didn’t speak.

  I help.

  Blue’s eyes slid closed. Garfield was doing something. Her chest expanded. Except it wasn’t her chest, exactly, it was that same feeling of space that s
he’d had out on the overlook, when she and Forrest had returned to Karran. The same feeling that had been there when she’d set off the first accidental portal. It wasn’t the same, though, not quite. The sense of freedom was missing. She was too closed in.

  “Blue?”

  She waved a hand at Felix, but didn’t open her eyes. She was close to something. This was what Elaina had meant when she explained that Blue had to figure out how she would operate the portals.

  Space. It came down to space. But there was no “thin space” here to set off. That had been instinctive and sloppy and pure luck.

  I help. There was a new sensation. Not one of expansion, but one of… movement? Her bones vibrated. But again, it wasn’t actually her bones. It was… She needed to match that feeling, somehow. That was where Vivi was. Garfield could sense the other cub now. His sister, his pack. And she was very, very far away.

  What had she done those two other times? What had she felt? Infinite possibilities. The thought came to her, an echo of her own feelings at the time. That was it. Infinite…

  That was it. And if she could match the vibrations, she would find Vivi.

  She was so caught up in her thoughts, she barely heard Felix. “Blue, what are you doing?” There was something in his voice she hadn’t heard before. Fear?

  But she couldn’t lose her concentration, not now. “Hush, I’ve almost got this.” She didn’t even think about what this could be, too entangled in Garfield’s thoughts and the sensations of a tremble that wasn’t a tremble in the very core of her, an idea of almost infinity.

  That’s what was wrong, the almost. And with that, it clicked. She smiled and her eyes popped open in time to meet Mo’ata’s hazel gaze as the door to the apartment slid open, and then she, Felix, and Garfield were gone.

  Chapter 31

  BLUE

  Thick, moist air flooded her lungs, and she choked.

  Elation filled her.

  She’d done it! She’d taken them— Where the hell had she taken them?

  She sat in the middle of a jungle on a sofa, snuggled against an armor-clad mercenary with a piquet in her lap. The rug from the apartment rippled over uneven ground and vegetation, and Mo’ata’s chair was tipped to its side, half resting against a broad-leafed plant that reminded her of an elephant’s ear.

  “We’re on Falass.” Felix stood, scanning the jungle around them and stepping gingerly onto the carpet.

  I help. An overtone of pride accompanied the thought.

  “You certainly did.” Blue squeezed the piquet as sweat gathered on her brow and ran down her back. It was definitely not winter here. “Can you help us get back to get more people to help?”

  Garfield struggled from her grip, then leapt to the carpet. Follow. To pack. The piquet started off into the shadowed undergrowth.

  “Wait!” Blue jumped up and grabbed for him. “Wait. We need more people.”

  “That is not all we need. I do not know Falass well, but I know we cannot stay on the ground in unmarked areas. Not for long, and certainly not at night.” Felix had gone into cold-mercenary mode. That was just fine with Blue.

  To pack.

  “Can you get us back to Karran?” Felix asked.

  “I can try.”

  “And can you bring us here with more people? This exact location?”

  “Again, I can try.” She wanted to be able to say yes. With all her heart she wanted to cry out yes, but she just didn’t know. She had a better handle now on what to look for to open a portal, but to a specific location? “But it’s possible I’ll dump us on some strange patch of moon somewhere.”

  Garfield stood on the edge of the little clearing they’d made with their arrival. He was looking out into the jungle, poised to move, ears twitching and hind legs trembling. “He was the one who showed me the where,” Blue said.

  Felix, too, looked at the cub.

  “And he doesn’t seem inclined to show me the way back.”

  Garfield let out a squeaking growl. To pack. Now.

  “But I think he can lead us to Vivi and the others.”

  Thoughts chased themselves across Felix’s glistening face. Then he nodded. “Zeynar is getting the location from Eteru. Mo’ata saw us. He will let Zeynar know not to fail in his task. So we will scout the location for in preparation of their arrival. But that is it.”

  “Fine.” It was reasonable. When they reached the guys, if the situation called for a different plan, she’d argue then.

  A line of sweat ran down her back, and she wiped her forehead and upper lip against the sleeve of her sweater. Definitely not dressed for the jungle, if she didn’t get some of these clothes off, she’d be useless pretty soon from overheating.

  Felix beat her to the thought. “What do you have on under that?”

  “A tank top.”

  He frowned. “I don’t like leaving your arms exposed, but the sweater may be worse. Take it off for now, but do not leave it here. Leave your jeans on as well. They will give you some protection.”

  “Giant mosquitos?”

  “I don’t know that word yet.”

  “Bloodsucking insects on Earth. They come out when it’s humid or where there’s water and like the warm climates.”

  “Ah. Yes, there are no doubt insects of various kinds. I was thinking more of venomous reptiles or plants.” He scanned the undergrowth again. “I do not like not knowing this land. It puts us at a disadvantage we cannot afford.”

  Garfield chittered at something, and branches rustled to the left.

  “And we cannot stay here much longer.”

  Blue stripped off the sweater and tied it around her waist, making sure she could still easily reach her blades. Yup, never taking these off again. Just the thought of being stuck here unarmed, as well as lost and unprovisioned, conjured images of immediate death. And those images had her stomach tightening to the point of near pain, so she shoved them aside. It also helped that the cub was no longer panicked himself, but eager. He could feel his sister out there, the other packmates. They were scared, but well.

  A slip of sunlight that had made it through the thick canopy caught on something at the foot of the sofa and reflected back at her. The glass of aipin juice, now spilled. She scooped it up. “For collecting water,” she said, and Felix nodded.

  “Keep a dagger in hand as well. If something comes at us, you will not have time to draw. And if you need to, let the glass go.”

  And draw the other blade. She thought of the day she and Forrest had returned to Karran. They’d been incredibly lucky that Mo’ran found them when he did. She couldn’t count on similar luck here.

  Something whisked past her ear and thudded into the smooth trunk of a tree a few yards away.

  “And keep your eyes up.” Felix pointed above her then crossed to the tree to retrieve his blade.

  Blue jerked away from the bright yellow body of the thing that had descended from the lower branches just behind her. It was a snake, but… not. The slender body matched those of serpents on Earth, but it had multiple sets of legs marching the length of the body, like a centipede. She caught a glimpse of the triangular head where it had landed near the legs of Mo’ata’s chair.

  “That’s a serpsect. My dad told me about them in The Piper Boy and the Deadly Flower.” If what else the tale held was true, they were in trouble. “We’re fucked.”

  “No, we are not. Not if we keep moving and find shelter when needed. And. Keep. Your. Head. Up.”

  She nodded. “Right. Up.” I’m going to have nightmares for years once we get out of here. She jerked her gaze up, scanning for anything else that looked like it was moving or bright or deadly.

  Everything was moving. It was ridiculous. Water dripped and glinted in the occasional ray of light. Branches rustled, vines waved, and leaves swayed.

  “It would be best if we could find a trail instead of going through uncleared land.” Felix directed the words to Garfield, where he’d started to sniff at the dead serpent-insect. Serps
ect. Was that its real name, or something her father had made up?

  The piquet looked up, chirped, and turned back around. There was the faintest of lines between the vegetation, more of a slightly deeper shadow. He started for it.

  “All right, pet. Follow the cub. I doubt he’ll lead us directly into danger, not if he can sense it. I’ll be behind you.” He paused for the barest moment. “Try not to make too much noise.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him. It was the best she could muster against his use of “pet.” Then she followed her baby into a jungle.

  They’d been going for what Blue thought was forever, but was probably only a few hours, when Garfield stopped.

  He’d done that a few other times as well, frozen where he was, then crouched, staying low and… out of sight. Blue had matched him each time, ducking down where she stood, barely daring to breathe. The little rests were anything but and sent her heart pounding. The first time he’d done it, she’d had to concentrate so hard on drawing each thick breath into her lungs, then pushing it out she’d not noticed they were ready to continue until Felix nudged her back.

  And Felix. She’d called him sneaky, but damn. For the first half hour after they’d set out, she’d had to keep looking back to be sure he was there. He always was, but he was even more silent than Mo’ata. It was like there was a sneaky-switch and the mercenary had thrown it.

  The last time she’d looked back, he hadn’t been there. She’d stopped, stomach tight as she scanned the brush and trees overhead. Had something gotten him? Had he fallen and super-sneaky mode had prevented her from hearing somehow?

  She’d been just about to call out when he emerged from between two of the elephant-ear plants, not-there and then there in a fraction of a second. The leaves had barely moved. She’d stopped looking back after that.

  When Garfield stopped this time, it was different. He didn’t crouch, but kept his head high. Then he tilted it and sniffed.