Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2)

by Michelle Diener

  “Well, this obviously can't come with us.” Falk stared at the knife, then touched the tip and jerked his blood-smeared finger back.

  “I'm not leaving it. I'll walk back to the road and get the water pouch from my pack. It should fit in there.”

  Falk looked up at her and waved the knife in her direction. “Are you crazy? This brought down a sky craft. We can't risk it.”

  “We risked taking it, and a whole lot more, from Shadow.” She turned to go, and Garek offered a hand to her, pulling her up and boosting her out of the door.

  He wanted every excuse he could find to touch her. And she was letting him, no matter that she didn't need his help.

  When they both stood side by side on the top of the sky craft, she turned back. “I'll take my knife back now,” she called down to Falk, and he heard the scientist yelp.

  The knife flew up out of the door and hovered in front of her before she slid it back into her boot. Then she took Garek's hand and they both jumped to the ground together.

  TWENTY-NINE

  Garek shadowed her.

  He went with her to fetch her pack, and then back down to the stream to fill her empty leather water pouch with water.

  Taya felt the tightly-wound spring inside her slowly loosen.

  She'd made peace earlier today with the possibility that she might die or fail. That she could be taken back to Shadow, or that the crash she hoped she could engineer might kill her.

  But instead, she'd won.

  And now she had Garek back. She smiled at him for what was surely the hundredth time, and he reached out to touch her again in response.

  Falk watched them from the bank of the stream, still scowling.

  When the pouch was full, she let Garek help her up the bank and then pulled out her knife to make sure it would fit inside.

  It did.

  She grinned. “All set.”

  “No.” Falk shook his head. “It's just a knife. Bury it somewhere and come back for it.”

  Garek turned to him. “Luf's not that far of a walk,” he said. “You could be there by tomorrow if you start now. Deva will put you up.”

  He turned back and held out his hand, and Taya took it, let him pull her up the slope until they were level with the scientist.

  Falk's mouth hung open. “You're taking her side? It's just a knife.”

  Garek laughed. “I will always take her side. What about the last few days made you think otherwise?”

  Falk pointed at the pouch. “It's dangerous.”

  “It's safe in the water pouch,” Garek told him. “Choose. But choose quickly. We've been here too long already.”

  “Because we were wasting time fetching a pouch and filling it with water!”

  “To me, this isn't a waste of time. I only have a few things made of shadow ore. I can't afford to lose any of them.” Taya started walking, and Garek kept pace at her side, still holding her hand.

  Behind her, she heard Falk kick something.

  “He's been a real help these last few days, flying the sky craft so I could sleep. Watching it while I looked for you in Luf.” Garek shrugged apologetically. “I didn't realize he'd be so difficult.”

  Taya looked over her shoulder. Falk was glaring at her.

  “To be fair, I did a lot of damage to that sky craft.” She turned back. “Maybe we can take off and land again. That'll convince--”

  She jerked her head up, eyes narrowed, and saw Garek had done the same.

  The scream of a sky craft coming toward them was unmistakeable.

  She opened the pouch and pulled out the knife.

  The craft came over the forest, one of the smaller, fighting craft, not a larger one like Garek's or the one she'd just brought down. It shot out from behind the wall of green and then halted in place.

  She wondered whether it was shock that made them do that.

  The bodies of their fellow raiders lay on the field, their craft destroyed.

  The sky raiders weren't used to being the ones mourning the dead and losing property.

  Taya stepped away from Garek and drew back her arm.

  “No!” Falk had somehow gotten level with her, and he ran in front of them both. “Don't destroy this one, too. I need--”

  The white lightning flashed out. She braced herself, but suddenly she was in the air, held tight in Garek's arms, above where the white lightning danced over Falk.

  “Now,” he said softly as they reached the top of their trajectory and started to fall again, and she threw the knife as hard as she could, sensed the moment when Garek's own Change caught it, sped it up, so even as they fell back to the ground, it hit the window of the sky craft like a stone from a catapult--burying itself to the hilt with a satisfying crack.

  They landed and Garek set her down, and she pulled, trying to get the knife back.

  It wouldn't come.

  She braced her legs, concentrated. She was panting with exertion by the time it flew back to her.

  “Again,” she said to Garek, and flung it back at a sky craft that was no longer steady but dipping from side to side under the onslaught of Garek's air attack.

  This time it hit harder, slamming in up to the hilt again, and she realized Garek had stopped buffeting the craft and had used all his power on it.

  She flicked a quick glance at Falk, but he was down, and she forced her gaze back to the window of the sky craft. Nothing she could do to help him now.

  Or even later.

  You either got over being hit by white lightning or you didn't.

  The knife was easier to get out this time. It had created a crack in the screen, and she made a sound of satisfaction when it landed back in her hand.

  There would be outside air leaking into the craft now. The sky raiders would need to get their helmets on.

  She threw the knife again, and Garek must have really pushed, because the screen shattered as it stuck, and then the glass blew inward.

  Garek had done that. He'd forced the air inside the craft, making it impossible for the sky raiders to breathe.

  She let the knife follow the shards of glass in.

  She couldn't see the pilot's chair, so she let the knife drop to the floor of the craft, and then pulled it from left to right, felt it slam against objects.

  The craft dropped to the ground.

  A sky raider tried to climb out the smashed front screen, no helmet on.

  He collapsed over the jagged edges, and after a moment was still.

  They waited, but no one else came out.

  “There are sometimes only one of them in the smaller ones,” Garek said after a long beat.

  They moved closer.

  He was right. There was no one else inside.

  “Time to go,” he said, looking up at the sky.

  She nodded, calling back her knife. When she had it back in her hand, she looked for her water pouch, which she'd dropped on the ground. “I'll need to refill my pouch.”

  “I'll get Falk in the sky craft.”

  She glanced at him, and then they both stepped closer, looping their arms around each other.

  He looked like he was going to speak, but in the end, neither of them said a word. He bent and kissed her, then let her go, looking upward again, alert and calm.

  She jogged back to the stream, the weariness and fear she'd felt ever since she'd heard Xinta coming up behind her gone, replaced by determination and elation. She wasn't alone anymore--Garek had never stopped looking, had never let her down. And his presence was the sweetest comfort of all.

  THIRTY

  Taya paced the pilot's cabin.

  Garek watched her walk out her agitation.

  “What if Luci doesn't see the letter?” she asked suddenly, turning back to face him.

  “She may not even reach the road before we can go back for her,” Garek reminded her.

  She nodded, leaned against the wall as if all the energy that kept her moving, kept her going, had drained away.

  “At least Falk
had pen and paper in his pack,” she conceded. “And she should see the letter nailed to the tree when she gets to the end of the path.” She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, he patted his lap in invitation.

  She smiled, a quick gleam lighting her eyes. “Don't you need to concentrate?”

  “I can hold you and fly.”

  Her grin widened, and she walked over and slid across his thighs, curled in close. “Have you spoken to Kas?” she asked, and he felt her whole body tense again at the thought of her brother, and how he would be worrying.

  “Yes.” He ran a hand down her back. “He came with me to Garamundo. I dropped him back in Pan Nuk when I flew to Luf, though. He wanted to come with, but they needed him at home.”

  “He's tired,” she said. “He'd been holding everything together for everyone for too long. I saw true despair in his eyes when Gaffri took me. I've worried about him ever since.”

  He rubbed a thumb gently back and forth across the back of her hand. Trust Taya to be worried about how her brother was coping with her abduction while she was being abducted.

  A low moan from the corner broke the moment, and she lifted her head and then hopped off his lap.

  Falk was on the pallet Deva had given them to take turns to sleep on while they flew.

  Taya crouched beside him, and he opened his eyes. Closed them again. “Hurts.”

  “All I can tell you is that it will take time, but you'll feel better and better from now on. In a couple of hours, you'll be okay.” Taya dipped into the pack beside him and took out a water pouch, lifted it to his lips.

  He drank greedily, and then looked at the pouch in horror. “Not the one with the knife--?”

  She chuckled. “No. That one is stored in the back, as far away from the console as possible.”

  “Did you destroy that sky craft?” he asked.

  She nodded. “It would have taken us, otherwise.”

  He nodded morosely. “Just such a waste.” He struggled up on his elbows. “Where are we?”

  “Ten minutes outside Garamundo,” Garek told him, and Falk flopped back down with a groan.

  Garek felt like doing the same.

  He was tired.

  The adrenalin that had kept him going, kept him pushing until he found Taya, had at last subsided, and there would be no rest when they reached Gara.

  They had a lot of information for Aidan and Vent.

  He and Falk had spent the days since they'd left Luf flying the borders of Harven, Kadmine and Fabre, and it was clear the three states were cooperating with each other.

  They'd spotted two newly established camps on their borders with all three guard uniforms present.

  The numbers in the camps weren't that big--yet--but there was no good reason for the camps at all, unless the three states were planning a military action.

  And now it seemed certain they were doing exactly that.

  Garamundo came into sight in the distance, and Garek took an oblique angle as he approached the city walls, banking the sky craft as he circled around.

  Taya rose up from beside Falk and leaned against the window, looking out.

  “One of the buildings seems to have burned,” she said, and Garek tipped the sky craft a little more so he could see.

  “The guard barracks,” he said, suddenly feeling the full weight of long nights and bone-chilling fear. This could not be good.

  He headed to the Four Towers and landed in front of it, but this time he kept the engines on and waited to be approached.

  Eventually, Vent appeared, a small cohort of guards with him, all of them with packs slung over their shoulders, and Garek opened up the back for them.

  It seemed like Vent wanted a lift.

  He didn't take off immediately, though. He waited for Vent to come through from the back.

  The big barrel-chested guard master looked around the pilot's cabin, taking in Taya, Falk lying on the floor, and Garek at the controls, and gave a grunt of satisfaction. “Looks like you tracked your girl down.”

  Garek flicked a quick glance at Taya, and saw she had decided to be amused by the comment, rather than insulted.

  “I need you to take us to Juli.” Vent unhooked his pack. “Aidan already left a few days ago but if we go now, we probably won't be far behind him.”

  “There was trouble here?” Garek tipped his head in the direction of the guard barracks.

  “A couple of idiots who were loyal to Utrel and the town master. They attacked the guard barracks, screaming about being promised trade favors, and unfortunately no one took them seriously until they set the place alight.”

  “Is it safe for you to leave with so much unrest?”

  Vent sent him a hot look for questioning his decisions, and then shrugged. “Aidan made Nostra the new guard master of Gara. She'll keep things calm.”

  Taya turned away from them and looked back out the window.

  She hadn't asked Garek, but he knew she would be desperate to get to Pan Nuk. To let her brother know she was safe.

  So they would drop Vent off, and then go on to Pan Nuk. Maybe he could dust out his small room at the back of his father's forge and spend some time with Taya, just the two of them.

  He realized he was pushing the craft faster than usual, and didn't let up.

  The faster they reached Juli, the faster they could leave.

  VENT HAD GOTTEN QUIETER, and more serious, as Garek and then Falk, had told him what they'd seen, and the information both Gern and Mu had given them, as well as Taya's own experience with Xinta and the sky raiders.

  Taya watched him absorb the information, but she couldn't tell what he felt about it.

  “What do you think Habred is getting out of the deal with the sky raiders?” he asked when Garek was done.

  “Protection, Gern said.” Falk spoke from his pallet. “Less attacks and fewer losses.”

  “Hmm.” Vent nodded. “How do they communicate? If there were regular sightings of sky craft over Luf, I'd know about it.”

  Taya shifted against the window. “I know it started with a merchant who discovered a downed sky craft. I saw the wreck myself and it could be as much as a year old, maybe a little less than that. Maybe the merchant was drawn to it because he saw it fall, so he was on the scene when it came down. It's possible he came into contact with the sky raiders then, and they gave him something to communicate with.”

  Vent stared, his dark brown gaze boring into her. “This is just guesswork?”

  She shrugged. “A good guess, though.”

  He shook his head, whether to clear it, or to reject her opinion, she didn't know.

  “Maybe we can go back to those two craft you brought down, Taya, and pull them apart. See if there's a communication device to be found.” Falk's voice lifted in enthusiastic excitement.

  “You brought down two sky craft?” Vent was standing on the other side of the window to her, and he rounded on her, face hard.

  His change of tack took her by surprise and she frowned at him. “Why the hostile tone?”

  “You expect me to believe you brought down two sky craft?” Vent was incredulous.

  “I don't expect you to believe anything, and I don't answer to you. Right now, Garek and I are doing you a favor.”

  “A favor?” He looked over at Garek. “This isn't your sky craft.”

  Garek flicked the guard master a glance. “Yes, Vent. It is.”

  Vent narrowed his eyes. “Falk, could you fly it?”

  Falk laughed. “Right now? No. Not even if I hadn't been hit by white lightning, unless it was in the air, going forward. Garek's shown me how to keep it steady, and turn, and go up and down. In a few months, when I've had the chance to work out everything it does? Maybe I could take off and land. Maybe. But I'll never be better than Garek. Because half the time, he's calling his Change while he's flying it. I bet he ends up getting it to do things even the sky raiders don't know it can do.”

  Vent's face told Taya that wasn't the answer h
e'd been hoping for. He took a breath. “All right, then. Please could you tell me how you brought down two sky craft?” His smile was forced, his teeth showing, and his words were only just over the line into polite.

  She sighed. “I couldn't have brought down the second one without Garek. I was inside the first one, so it was easier.”

  “Easier how?”

  “I had a shadow ore knife on me, and shadow ore disrupts their systems.”

  He blinked. “Shadow ore?”

  “The mineral they had us mining up on Shadow. We called it shadow ore.” It was a shock that he didn't know about shadow ore. She thought Aidan would have told him, but perhaps he hadn't had time.

  “Why would they want something that disrupts their systems?” Vent asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe they're fighting each other, back on their home planet. As I've shown, it makes a good weapon.”

  He digested that in silence for a while. “How did you use the shadow ore to bring them down?”

  “Ran the blade along the console.”

  He mulled that. “So anyone with a shadow ore knife could have done it?”

  She nodded.

  Garek was looking at her, head cocked to the side, as if he was surprised she wasn't mentioning her Change. She met his gaze and his lips twitched.

  “And Garek helped with the second one?” The way Vent asked, she could tell by 'help' he assumed Garek had mostly done it himself. She looked over at Garek again and saw the amusement in his eyes.

  He'd heard the innuendo, too.

  “Yes.”

  “And was it absolutely necessary to destroy both of them? We could have had another sky craft.” Now he spoke directly to Garek.

  “It was necessary, unless we wanted to be dragged back to Shadow.” Garek didn't even look his way, his gaze focused on flying.

  “I wanted to save one of them,” Falk said. “Which is how I came to be shot. If Taya and Garek hadn't been there, I'd have been on my way to Shadow right now.”