The Princess Rebellion (The Kyroibi Trilogy Book 2)

by Christina McMullen

  Julian understood. Perhaps all too well. That he couldn’t be with Ellie was infuriating and if anything were to happen to her, he would never forgive himself.

  “I’m sure no one would blame you for going to be with your wife,” he said, giving Vitokk’s arm a squeeze. “Rest now. We won’t know anything more until morning.”

  The night was quiet. No messages came in, either from Fhasmyr or the Alliance leadership. Though no news in this instance was good news, the hours dragged by, leaving Julian far too much time to dwell on all that had been eating him. Morning brought little relief as everyone awoke and breakfasted in silence, awaiting the news from Fhasmyr. When they finally received instructions to get into position, he was grateful at last to have something tangible to occupy his mind.

  Julian sat on the launch platform. Relay from Vesparall had been more than an hour prior. He did not know how far Ellie was from the city, or how long it would take her to take down communications, but the longer he waited, the more worried he became. Though he could still sense her through their bond, her emotional state wasn’t strong enough to tell him anything.

  But then suddenly, she was gone.

  Julian had just brought his ship into formation when the connection to his master disappeared, leaving an indefinable emptiness. His hand was already on the emergency communications button when just as suddenly, she was back, with no change to her mental state to reflect that anything had happened at all. Julian placed a call, hoping that Ellie could tell him what happened, but before it connected, she disappeared again, only to return seconds later, still calm.

  After the fourth or fifth time it happened, his worry turned to curiosity. He closed communications and focused on their bond. It was then that he noticed she wasn’t gone, exactly, but transformed. His mind went immediately to all he knew of theoretical pulse, but felt almost foolish for doing so. Phase pulse was the form of travel used by deities in myth. Certainly there was a rational explanation for Ellie’s transformations that likely had more to do with Fhasmyr’s planetary anomalies than long forgotten stories.

  Still, Julian would not relax until her presence was once again solidly in their world, which hopefully meant she was within the city walls and on target.

  Seconds seemed to tick by in slow motion as he waited for some sign that her mission had been a success. After a few minutes of tense waiting, he tried to communicate, but she wasn’t answering. Rationally, he realized this was likely because she’d not yet taken down the barrier, which also served to keep communications from within the prison city. He decided to give her just five more minutes before taking action.

  Not even a full minute later, the pressure inside the cockpit dropped alarmingly. Julian’s hands flew automatically to the console to run a diagnostic, but despite the physical change, none of the readouts showed anything wrong with the ship. Just then, the air shimmered and something soft and furry brushed his hand. He stared, fully in shock at the luk who sat on his console, insistently nudging his hand. For a moment, he worried his perception had been altered. Pulsing from the surface of a planet into space was impossible. Pulsing into a vessel equipped with an active displacement core, even more so.

  Yet here he was, the same luk that was to escort Ellie to the citadel. If Pouns could indeed phase pulse, it would explain how he’d gotten to the ship. That is, if it were physically possible for him to do so. Even with the proof sitting on his console and insistently head-butting into him, Julian had a hard time accepting that which he knew defied rational explanation. He wasn’t even sure an inanimate object had the ability to survive having the bulk of its atoms displaced, let alone a living creature.

  “Well? What is it then? What are you trying to tell me?” he asked, feeling only somewhat foolish for speaking to an animal. From what he understood, luks were relatively intuitive when it came to understanding human communication and it was clear this one did not end up in his craft accidentally. Absently, Julian cupped his hand, allowing the luk to butt up against his palm, reminding him of a domestic cat looking for affection. Immediately, his mood shifted. Danger flashed in his mind and he looked at the luk in curiosity.

  “Telepathy?”

  He placed his hand more solidly against the soft fur and held back a curse as he saw more clearly the message the luk was trying to convey. Ellie was in the city, but not the citadel. She needed help and he understood why Pouns came to him. He was the only one who might also survive getting to her.

  He put in a call to Vonsse and Vitokk.

  “I’m breaking formation and heading to Fhasmyr,” he said as both answered. “I don’t have a whole lot to go on other than this.” He widened the optical, allowing them a full view of the luk, who now curled up and napped as if nothing had happened.

  “Is that Pouns?” Vonsse asked, clearly confused.

  “It would seem so. I have nothing more to go on, but stay on alert.”

  “You as well,” Vonsse replied.

  “You’ll be the first to know if I hear anything,” Vitokk assured.

  With that Julian closed the link and engaged the displacement core, keeping an eye on the slumbering beast as he set a course for the remote edge of the SiFa microsystem.

  Chapter 27

  Darkness still shrouded most of the island as Ellie awoke and checked her supplies. She had little time before she and Pouns were to begin their perilous journey through thick rainforest and across the widest expanse of sea. She cast about, looking for her majestic steed and stifled a laugh when she found him curled up in a corner, serving as a pillow for the snoring Mikk. She gave them a few more minutes and went to check on the others.

  Gil was awake, as were most of the other Merata women. Ellie watched, amazed by the technology they’d employed to create a perimeter the wildlife could not penetrate. Sleek ships stood in neat rows, a brilliant contrast to the dull red dust below them.

  Off to the side, Gevandar sat under the wing of his own vessel, supp packet in hand and an unpleasant scowl on his face as Bethany stood nearby, using a hefty piece of downed tree limb as a makeshift barbell. She looked up and caught Ellie’s eye with a smirk and a slight nod. Ellie returned the greeting absently, but kept her eyes locked on the prince, determined to be absolutely sure she wasn’t making a mistake by trusting him.

  “Having second thoughts?”

  Ellie smiled a greeting at Mikk, who seemed a little too awake for the early hour. She held out a sprig from a nearby bush with a strong, minty aroma.

  “Second, third, fourth,” Ellie said with a sarcastic smirk, taking the sprig and inhaling deeply, surprised when she felt instantly more alert. “But the Kyroibi’s gone mute. I don’t know if I trust him, Mikk, but he’s not going to start a war.”

  “He better not or I’ll kill what remains after Bethany’s through with him,” added Gil as she joined them. “You’re not planning to fly that thing into battle, are you?” She gave the ship, which was still in the shape of a conical tent from the night before, a condescending once over.

  “I most certainly am,” Mikk replied, drawing herself up to her full height.

  “But this is an exploratory class vessel,” Gil argued.

  “Yes, but it’s the latest Eidyssic exploratory class vessel. It’s made for stealth, speed, and survival. And, need I remind you, this is how we got here, so it’s already passed by the Huptsovian goons once.”

  Ellie left the two women to argue about whose ship was better and sent a message to Vesparall, who would then send the relay to the team on Cald. She knew they were likely still hours away from full engagement, but she felt better knowing Julian would soon be in close orbit.

  When at last she was assured that everyone was ready to carry out their plans on her signal, Ellie shouldered her own pack and nodded to Pouns, who knelt to allow her to climb aboard his back. With one last look at the camp, she braced for departure, but Pouns seemed to have other plans. Instead of taking off, he reared his head back and made a whiney braying sound.


  “What is it?” Ellie asked, putting both hands onto Pouns’ head. An image appeared in her mind, fuzzy, but she understood. “Good thinking,” she said with a smile, ruffling the luk’s fur before squeezing the pulse dampener ring Julian had given her. What they were attempting was crazy enough without the added danger of leaving a pulse trail. She gave Pouns a pat on his side and held on, bracing for what promised to be a difficult, if not completely terrifying ride.

  With a great leap, Pouns took off. At first, it wasn’t so bad. Sitting astride the beast in his largest form was somewhat awkward, but after a moment, Ellie realized she could draw up her legs and use the improvised harness to create stirrups for her feet. They moved slowly, cautiously, taking only brief trips to begin. The usual feeling of pressure dropping was augmented by an additional feeling of weightlessness at times that came as a shock. Even worse was the too noticeable return of gravity, which threatened to crush all of the air out of her lungs as she flattened onto the back of Pouns, who either didn’t notice the shift or was strong enough not to feel its effects.

  But most peculiar of all was the feeling of insubstantiality that would hit her from time to time. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, at least it wasn’t any less comfortable than usual, but it was decidedly odd. Mostly though it was her own mind, and the worry that they would eventually run into something unpleasant, that kept Ellie on edge for the entire journey.

  Abruptly, the shifting weightlessness came to an end and gravity slammed Ellie back into her body. Pounds had come to a stop, but why was unknown. Worse, a new sensation of discomfort washed over them, causing Ellie to collapse from the luk’s back as he shrank down to kitten size and began whining.

  “What’s going on, boy? What just happened?” Ellie asked as she scooped the cowering beast into her hands. The communication was disjointed, but clear. They were blocked. Something had kept them from making their final jump. She stood, carefully on shaking legs to get her bearings and came face to face with a towering wall that blocked their path.

  “Oh no,” she groaned, realizing that the frequency emitted by the city walls was what caused them both such discomfort. “You can’t get through the wall, can you?”

  Pouns whimpered, but the impression he sent was negative. They had made it inside the city, but just barely. They could go no further.

  “Pulse dampener.”

  Ellie cursed her own stupidity. Of course there would be a pulse dampener over the prison city. Even though pulsing out into the wilds of Fhasmyr was dangerous, the Empire recognized that there would be those who would take the risk. She could have kicked herself for not figuring that out on her own.

  And now they had another problem. She’d been right in that the ill feeling was coming from the wall that loomed overhead. If she wanted to get her bearings and devise an alternative plan for getting inside the citadel, they had to move further into the city. The trouble was, a deep ravine with sheer walls sat between them and the city proper.

  Ellie first assumed this was an extra measure by which the Empire kept the inhabitants in, but a closer inspection showed spikes and other traps, which were clearly made for animals who might have found a way inside the city walls. In any event, it didn’t much help their predicament.

  “You rest, I’ll walk,” Ellie said, slipping the curled up luk into the provision sack. “There’s got to be a way out of here.”

  “A’course there is.”

  Ellie jumped at the out loud reply and for a moment, wondered if Pouns had spoken, before sheepishly realizing she wasn’t alone. A young girl, at least, a girl whose appearance mimicked that of a ten year old Earthling, stood a few feet away, a tall walking staff in one hand and a rifle in the other.

  “Thought I knew all the peoples of the sky,” she said, squinting critically as she got a good look at Ellie. “You from a dif’ernt place, isn’t you?”

  “Different?” Ellie parroted, caught off guard not just by the sudden appearance of the girl, but her strange manner of speaking as well. The general sound of her voice was similar to Mikk’s, letting Ellie know they spoke the same language, but the tone and inflection were something else altogether. It was like hearing the difference between English being spoken in different regions of the world.

  “Ghowrn isn’t your star.”

  “Yes and no,” Ellie said, understanding at last what the girl was asking. “I am Korghetian and Eidyn, but I grew up on another planet, not in the Ghowrn system.”

  The girl squinted again, leaning in close and taking Ellie’s hand. She turned it over, palm up, and placed a finger against each of the diodes in turn.

  “You got their light,” she said with a deep frown furrowing her golden brow. “Why here then?”

  “I’m here to free Fhasmyr.”

  “How so?”

  “The citadel,” Ellie replied, trying and failing to keep the exasperation from her voice. Of all her luck, she happened to have been caught by a child going through the question everything phase of life. “I need to get to the citadel and away from this wall. Can you help me with that?”

  The girl looked as if she was about to respond when another voice called out.

  “Crijasha! Crijasha!”

  “Here, Mamma!” the girl yelled back, turning away from Ellie just as a taller woman who bore a striking resemblance to the girl emerged from the brush near the wall.

  “Who are you? What do you want with my child?” Before she knew what was happening, Ellie found a rifle pointed at her face as the woman dragged her daughter behind her back.

  “I mean you no harm,” she said, holding her own hands up to show she was not armed. “My name is Ellie and I’m with the Alliance.”

  “And what does the Alliance want with my child?”

  “What?” Ellie looked at the woman in confusion. That they were still too near the wall was not helping. “Nothing. I’m here to free the city from the Empire’s hold. I just need to get to the citadel.”

  “You’d best get yourself back to wherever it is you came from and forget any plans of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  Ellie was taken aback by the threat. Mikk had warned that her people had always stayed somewhat separate from the Federation, but this woman’s attitude was something completely different.

  “You misunderstand me,” she said, hoping to diffuse the situation, but rather than listen to any explanation, the woman took a step closer, putting the nose of the rifle between Ellie’s eyes. Despite knowing she had armor that would more than stop the rudimentary bullet, fear still gripped her.

  A growl issued from the pack at Ellie’s waist.

  “Pouns, no!” she warned, but the luk, sensing danger, leapt forward, situating himself between Ellie and the woman, and grew to his full size, letting loose with a roar that prominently displayed his two inch fangs.

  “He won’t hurt you,” Ellie said in a rush as she stepped protectively in front of the luk, keeping her hands up.

  “Guess not,” the woman said with a startled expression just as the pressure dropped and the ferocious beast shimmered out of existence. Ellie grimaced. Likely, Pouns pulsed away to tell the others she’d run into trouble, but to what end? None of the others could survive the pulsing technique and they were halfway around the world, awaiting instructions to take on the imperial guard.

  “Look, please, can we just talk about this for a moment?”

  “About what?”

  “Well to start, let’s talk about why you’d rather be under the control of the Empire instead of free to leave the city. Or the planet for that matter.”

  At that, the woman made a rude snort. “Empire or royal, don’t matter. The only way I’m leaving this city is like a thief in the night. You talk of freedom, but you don’t know the oppression you’d be reinstating if you let the corrupt leaders back into power.”

  “And the Huptsovians aren’t corrupt?” Ellie asked.

  “That’s the curiosity,” the woman said, raising her
eyebrows. “For all the talk of tyranny, I’ve seen none. They leave us be for the most part. They patrol, for sure. And royals occasionally go missing, but they don’t meddle in our day to day affairs. You haven’t a clue what it’s like. What it has always been like for us.”

  “Actually, I do,” Ellie said with a grimace. “I wasn’t born here in the Ghowrn system. The planet I’m from has a wide variety of government systems and yes, some of them have yet to offer the most basic civil rights to some or all of their peoples. But that is neither here nor there. We aren’t here to uphold the previous system. We’re here to end tyranny.”

  “You’ll just replace one form of oppression with another,” the woman spat.

  Ellie bit her tongue and tried to not think about her own issues with the current structure of the Alliance government.

  “Listen, miss…”

  “Barisha.”

  “Barisha, it isn’t just your royals who go missing,” Ellie explained. “The Empire has routinely rounded up your sick and elderly, along with those who have long tried to oppose their control, and sent them off under the guise of attack ships. They sent them to die at the hands of their allies. Do you not see now why I want to end this?”

  Ellie watched as a war of emotions played out on the woman’s face. She held her breath, hoping against hope that in the end, Barisha would see reason.

  “This wall here,” she said at last, gesturing to the towering barrier that still emitted the painful frequency. “You see this as oppression, and for most of us, that may be so. But for me it is the one bastion of hope.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Barisha turned her tear filled eyes to her daughter. “This wall keeps in as many monsters as it keeps out. It is what preserves my faith that Crijasha here has a chance at a normal life.”

  At the sound of her name, the girl swelled with pride.

  “Isn’t buzzing in my head, it’s not.”

  “You’re the lucky one,” Ellie said with a smirk as the pain in her own head intensified.