Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2)

by Michelle Diener

  Time to do that had been in short supply since she'd discovered her calling.

  “I killed him?” She wanted to make absolutely sure she understood him correctly.

  He nodded. Sighed. “I'm thrilled about it. Proud of you, even. But I know you're going to see it differently, so I'm sorry for that. They would have killed Garek, is my guess. Taken you.” He tugged her sleeve, forcing her to look back down at him. “You did the only thing you could have done.”

  She felt as if she'd been shoved under water; her sense of the world around her receding a little, as if she was immersed in something thick and deep.

  She saw Garek looming over Vent, in half-buttoned trousers and nothing else, asking him something with a snarl on his face, and she forced herself back into the present, to participate fully.

  “What was the message he gave you?” Garek had lifted the guard master a little way off the floor, not with his hands but by calling his Change, and from the look on Vent's face, Taya guessed he was finally finding out first hand how strong Garek was.

  “Nothing to do with this.” Vent finally worked out the train of Garek's thoughts and he was shaking his head vehemently. “He told me a ransom note has been received for Aidan. It looks like it's from the Iron Guard.”

  Garek dropped him back down to the ground. “The Iron Guard took the princeling?” He was silent, thinking through the ramifications.

  “And what about this lot?” Kas was another Pan Nukker who sounded like he'd had enough, and his sweeping gesture around the courtyard transmitted pure contempt.

  “Ewen is the liege's bodyguard. The others are in his team.” Vent stared at them with weariness. “I've thought for a while they were up to no good. I've caught them out of the palace when they should have been guarding the liege, but they don't report to me, they report to him, so I didn't have cause to make a fuss about it. Dartan told me they were following orders and the liege was happy, but now . . .” He looked at them one by one. “What happened tonight isn't the liege's order, and even if it was, they would know it wasn't legal.”

  “So whose order was it?” Eli glared at Lena and Fen, but Lena raised her hands in a gesture that communicated both disbelief and innocence, and he must have believed her, because he turned instead to Timu and nudged him with his foot. “Whose order was it?”

  “I can do what I did to you in the bedroom all night,” Garek's voice was pleasant as he looked down at Ewen, so pleasant his words sounded like a lover's promise, rather than a threat, but the effect on Ewen was immediate.

  “Dartan.”

  “Just to be clear, Dartan ordered you to . . .?”

  “To take the girl, take you.” Ewen shifted on the cold hard floor and looked down at his feet. “If you were too difficult to control, I had permission to kill you.”

  “But not Taya?” Kas's voice was not steady.

  “She's too valuable to someone. Dartan was getting a lot to hand her over.”

  “You know who that someone is?” Taya asked, unable to stand being spoken about as if she wasn't present.

  Ewen looked over at her, face blank.

  “The sky raiders. Dartan was going to hand me over to the sky raiders.”

  The look on his face told her he didn't believe her.

  “It's true.” Vent slumped against the wall. “I don't want it to be, but it's true.”

  “They want you,” Quardi said, his voice slow. “They want you to find shadow ore for them. And now they know you exist, they're not going to stop until they get you.”

  Garek leaned against the wall and crossed arms thick with muscle over his chest. “That's why we're going to get them first.”

  FORTY

  “I want to go find the Iron Guard.”

  Garek looked over at Taya, lying beside him in the meadow above the village, and forced himself to focus on her words rather than the gentle touch of the Star's light on his skin, and the feeling of contentment that had settled over him.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want them to teach me how to control my Change.”

  This was about the dead guard.

  He reached out a hand and traced a fingertip down her arm. “That makes sense, but they don't seem to be the most sympathetic of groups.”

  She was silent for so long, he thought she'd drifted off to sleep. “When you took Vent back to Juli with Ewen and his team, he told you he was going to arrest Dartan, but that means there's no one in charge of Juli. Not really. So who's going to negotiate with the Iron Guard for Aidan's release?”

  That had worried him, too. He shook his head. “Vent, I suppose.”

  “Let's offer to go instead. If they're hostile, I'll have to make another plan, but if they aren't, if there's something else going on with them, something we don't understand yet, then it's possible they could help me control the shadow ore. Teach me things it might take me years to learn on my own.”

  He had wanted to go looking for Aidan. Was going to suggest it to Taya in the next few days. “You'll need to bring some of your shadow ore weapons with you.”

  “Your father is almost finished the new armor he's made me with the ore we brought back. And he's made some arrowheads out of it for me, too. So I don't have to worry about throwing so much as directing.”

  “He showed me.” That Taya had to have weapons made for her, that she had to become a warrior when she was so clearly not one by inclination, made him angry every time he thought of it.

  He could be her shield, though. Her buffer in the new reality they found themselves in. That would be the best use of his skill he could think of.

  She reached out to him. “If I have more control, I'll be safer, and I can protect everyone better.”

  He nodded. Rose up on an elbow. “Then let's wait for my father to finish making what you need and we'll go look for Aidan.”

  And if the Iron Guard weren't amenable, he would help them change their mind.

  OTHER SCIENCE FICTION BY MICHELLE DIENER

  Sky Raiders Series:

  Book 1: Sky Raiders

  When the people of Barit first saw the silver glint of sky craft, they felt awe. Then awe turned to fear. And they found a name for the mysterious newcomers. Sky raiders.

  Garek's one year of duty as a guard walking the walls of Garamundo was extended to two when the sky raiders appeared. Two long years away from home and his lover, Taya. When he finally returns, the town is empty. While Garek was protecting Garamundo, the sky raiders were taking their victims from his hometown.

  Taya can't bear looking into the night sky. All she can see is Barit, her home planet. Impossibly, the sky raiders have brought her and their other victims to Shadow, the planet that shadows her own, and looking up makes her aware of everything she's lost. Garek is out there somewhere. She knows he'll look, but he'll never find her.

  She and the other captives have to find a way to escape. Without the food and clothes the sky raiders bring them from their raids on Barit, they'll starve on the almost barren wastes of Shadow. And when they've given the sky raiders enough of what they want, that's exactly what the sky raiders will leave them to do.

  What Taya doesn't realize is she'll have some help with her plan. Because Garek isn't giving up on finding her. And he's even more resourceful than she could ever have imagined.

  Nothing is going to keep him from Taya. Not even space itself.

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  The Class 5 Series:

  Dark Horse: Class 5 #1

  Some secrets carry the weight of the world.

  Rose McKenzie may be far from Earth with no way back, but she's made a powerful ally--a fellow prisoner with whom she's formed a strong bond. Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.

  Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is,
all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.

  She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.

  In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.

  Dark Horse is the winner of a Galaxy Award and the Prism Award for Best Futuristic 2016.

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  Dark Deeds: Class 5 #2

  Rescue might just be the death of her.

  Far from home . . .

  Fiona Russell has been snatched from Earth, imprisoned and used as slave labor, but nothing about her abduction makes sense. When she's rescued by the Grih, she realizes there's a much bigger game in play than she could ever have imagined, and she's right in the middle of it.

  Far from safe . . .

  Battleship captain Hal Vakeri is chasing down pirates when he stumbles across a woman abducted from Earth. She's the second one the Grih have found in two months, and her presence is potentially explosive in the Grih's ongoing negotiations with their enemies, the Tecran. The Tecran and the Grih are on the cusp of war, and Fiona might just tip the balance.

  Far from done . . .

  Fiona has had to bide her time while she's been a prisoner, pretending to be less than she is, but when the chance comes for her to forge her own destiny in the new world she's found herself in, she grabs it with both hands. After all, actions speak louder than words.

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  Dark Minds: Class 5 #3

  The mind is the most powerful weapon of all . . .

  Imogen Peters knows she's a pawn. She's been abducted from Earth, held prisoner, and abducted again. So when she gets a chance at freedom, she takes it with both hands, not realizing that doing so will turn her from pawn to kingmaker.

  Captain Camlar Kalor expected to meet an Earth woman on his current mission, he just thought he'd be meeting her on Larga Ways, under the protection of his Battle Center colleague. Instead, he and Imogen are thrown together as prisoners in the hold of a Class 5 battleship. When he works out she's not the woman who sparked his mission, but another abductee, Cam realizes his investigation just got a lot more complicated, and the nations of the United Council just took a step closer to war.

  Imogen's out of her depth in this crazy mind game playing out all around her, and she begins to understand her actions will have a massive impact on all the players. But she's good at mind games. She's been playing them since she was abducted. Guess they should have left her minding her own business back on Earth…

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  The Verdant String Series:

  Book 1: Interference (novella)

  Interference can go either way . . .

  The tiny moon of Cepi is on a countdown to destruction, and while Nyha Bartali has been persuaded to take her four wards for a final look at the archaeological wonder, now she's eager to leave. The only problem is, someone has other plans--plans to exploit Nyha and her girls' status as the betrayed orphans of the Verdant String in order to give them time to steal Cepi's secrets.

  Nyha and her wards' value as survivors of the destruction of Halatia is that it would be political suicide for any leader of the Verdant String to endanger them again--something the hostage-takers know very well. What the hostage-takers don't know is that Nyha and her girls have more help than they realize.

  Mak Carep knows his team's presence on Cepi is the last flex of Arkhor's muscle before the moon is blown to bits. Arkhor has interfered on Cepi since it discovered the ruins four hundred years ago, but sometimes, interference can have unexpected consequences. When Nyha and her girls are taken hostage, Mak and the rest of his special forces team are the only ones who have any hope of rescuing them, and they're ready and willing to do what Arkhor does best . . . Interfere.

  Interference will be available exclusively as part of the space opera anthology Orphans in the Black until the end of 2017.

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  EXCERPT OF DARK HORSE

  ONE

  Rose slipped her ticket out of hell over her head and tucked it beneath her shirt, where it lay against her skin, throbbing like a heartbeat.

  The sensation was so unnerving, she curled her fingers around it and lifted it back out, eyeing the clear crystal oblong uncertainly.

  “Iʼll try to keep all the passageways clear for you and Iʼve disabled the lenses, but just in case someone disobeys orders, it would be better if they didnʼt see me.” Sazo spoke too loudly through the tiny earpiece she wore, and she winced.

  She reluctantly tucked the crystal, that was somehow also Sazo, back under her shirt, tugging the cord it hung from so it was below her neckline. After three months of being the only thing sheʼd had to wear, washed over and over again, the shirt was threadbare, and barely concealed Sazo anyway, but it was better than nothing.

  She took the two steps to the door of the tiny control room tucked away to one side on the Tecran ship and it slid silently open. Sheʼd only been inside for ten minutes at most to steal Sazo, or break him out, depending on your view of things, and the corridor was as empty now as it had been when Sazo led her here.

  She looked back, but the door had closed, completely concealing the control room, so it looked like an uninterrupted passageway again.

  “Youʼre still in control, even though Iʼve unplugged you?” She spoke very quietly, because even though Sazo had opened doors, and diverted traffic all the way from her prison cell to this room earlier, there was no point taking foolish chances like talking too loudly when it was unnecessary.

  “I would not have initiated this plan if I wasnʼt absolutely certain that it would work.” Sazo sounded a little . . . stressed.

  “You okay?”

  “There has been a delay loading the animals at the launch bay and the Grih have come through their light jump three minutes sooner than I calculated.” He went quiet for a moment. “Iʼm sorry, Rose.”

  “What? What is it?” Freezing hands of panic gripped her heart and she stumbled to a halt. If he was going to tell her they had to abort, that she had to go back to the cell . . .

  “The lion has been killed.”

  She leant against the wall, her legs weak. “That is not good.” She rubbed her face. “Why?”

  “Iʼll tell you as you walk. We canʼt delay, with the Grih already here. They might fire on this ship at any time when they realize itʼs disabled.”

  She started walking again, and just like earlier, the passages Sazo sent her down were eerily empty. “I thought the Grih were peaceful.”

  “They donʼt take force as a first option, but my changing this shipʼs trajectory in the last light jump and setting us in the middle of Grih territory was effectively a declaration of war. They might initially hesitate to fire, given the power of this ship compared to theirs, but when they realize every single system except for lights, air, and the launch bay mechanisms have been disabled, they may strike.”

  “And the lion?” There was something bothering her about the way heʼd apologized.

  “It was delaying the loading——frightening the loading crew. Theyʼre already frightened because I diverted the ship to this location and they donʼt know whatʼs going on. I only agreed to let the animals come with us because you insisted. Animals are unpredictable. Itʼs hard to get the timing precise.”

  “You instructed one of the loaders to kill the lion.” She didnʼt ask, it was a statement of fact. She knew there had been something way off with that apology. She knew, deep down, there was something way off about Sazo, but he was literally her only escape route, and of all the beings she had encountered since her abduction, the only one who had worked to free her.

  “There is a c
hance the wildlife on the moon weʼre going to, Harmon, would not have been suitable to sustain him. He would eventually have died of starvation.”

  She didnʼt respond. She was too angry.

  What he said may be true, and if so, he could have told her that sooner, but it wouldnʼt have stopped her asking for all the animals to go with them on a second shuttle. They had had as miserable a time as she in this hellhole.

  And Sazo thought the Grih would come to pick her up on the moon they were escaping to. They would see the shuttles Sazo had arranged for them leaving the launch bay for Harmon, and after they had dealt with the crippled Tecran ship, they would surely be interested in who had escaped. And, she was sure, be interested in a lion.

  They could have made a plan for him.

  A door slid open and she walked into the launch bay. Ahead of her, two of the loading staff walked out the far door without turning around, one nursing a jagged wound on his arm.

  She pressed against the wall and made no move until the doors closed behind them and she was alone in the massive hangar. Beside her, she heard the hum and double beep of the locks engaging. Sazo had sealed the doors. No one on the ship could stop her getting on the shuttle now.

  The lion lay, dead and crumpled, in the massive cage that had housed him since he was taken. It stood next to one of the two explorer shuttles she and Sazo were stealing and she walked up to it and grasped hold of the bars. Hot tears welled in her eyes as she looked down on him. He was a golden, vibrant anachronism in this cold, metallic place.

  A wild thing, broken.

  That could have been her. Nearly had been, more than once.