“The Princess is quite hungry,” Rikar said, and she could hear the humor in his voice.
“Starving. Thank you,” she added before taking another bite.
There was silence for a moment. She knew they were all watching her, but she didn’t care. She could feel herself getting stronger with each bite. After a while, Rikar spoke.
“She wants us to save Earth,” he said.
“What’s going on with Earth?” the Padria asked in its lilting tongue.
“The Sarlene have succeeded in developing the technology to wipe it out,” Aria answered. “It has been Witnessed. My king was preparing to send one of his oldest Witnesses there to record its last moments.”
She took a final bite, and then set her utensils down. “I don’t think we should just sit by and let it happen. It’s wrong. So I ran away to try to find someone to help. My plans definitely did not include being stranded on an asteroid with space pirates.”
Aria watched as the group seemed to exchange looks.
“We knew this day would come,” the Padria said.
“Look, if you won’t help me, and I know you won’t, can you please at least get me somewhere where I can ask for help? I will try to find some way to make the bounty up to you. It will take time, but I’ll figure it out. This is more important than personal riches.”
The Zorlian, who she was supposed to refer to as “five,” studied her closely. “Is anything really more important than that? Or more important than fulfilling one’s duties to her own people?” she asked. The Zorlian language was not all that different from her own, the result of long years of contact between their two planets, Aria guessed.
“Of course,” Aria answered. “I am a disappointment to my people. I have failed as a Witness. But I refuse to just let this go.”
“Why?” the Zorlian asked.
Aria stared at her, dumbfounded and more than a little irritated. “Because those beings matter. They’re beautiful and imperfect and passionate and… the things they’ve created in their short time in existence! They’re phenomenal. Brilliant. They’re so individual, so independent and yet as a whole, they’re so beautiful I can barely stand it. I’ve studied them since I learned to read. Maybe even before that. I love them in a way I can’t begin to explain.”
Rikar and the Zorlian exchanged a long look, and the Zorlian shrugged. “It would not be overly difficult,” she said.
“Everything has a price,” Rikar said to Aria.
“Of course. And I already told you I’d find a way to pay you the money you would have made form the bounty—”
“Not money. Not this time,” Rikar answered.
“What, then?”
“Join us.”
Aria rolled her eyes. “What? Become a pirate?”
“I think you’re beginning to realize that we’re much more than that. Piracy funds us, but it isn’t the ultimate goal. We offer services no one else does,” Rikar said.
“Such as?”
Rikar grinned. “Such as saving planets from annihilation. Thwarting attacks. Providing shelter. That kind of thing.”
“If that is the case, then you would have helped Earth anyway,” Aria pointed out.
He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. We would not have known about the threat in enough time to do anything, unless we’d made contact with a Witness, who knows everything about everything. Would we?”
Aria studied him. Very few understood how the Witnesses worked. Their knowledge was a shared thing. Once something was Witnessed and recorded by one, it was transferred to the knowledge of the others. It happened automatically.
“Is this really what you do? Or are you playing an angle?” she asked Rikar quietly.
“This is what we do. What was the last planet doomed to destruction?” he asked Aria.
“Vashir,” she said automatically. It had been on the brink of annihilation due to its never-ending war against its neighbors, the Urah.
“And what happened?” Rikar pressed.
“The Urah leader disappeared— wait. That was you?”
Rikar nodded. Then he tilted his head toward the two Janu. “They are brilliant at what they do.”
“He’ll never be found,” one of the Janu, the one she was supposed to call “two,” said in a dreamy, airy tone.
“It disrupted things enough to buy Vashir time. And then the next leader of the Urah was convinced, somehow, to make peace with their neighbors,” Rikar said.
“So you’ll help,” Aria asked Rikar.
“There’s a price.”
“What is it?”
“A Witness on our crew. It would make our jobs easier. And it would protect you from any trying to collect your bounty.”
She didn’t know if he realized how little of a price it actually was. Freedom, the ability to travel the galaxies, to see those she studied in real life and to, crazy though it seemed, act to protect them? It was no price at all.
She nodded. “I accept.” As she said the words, she noticed the golden, pulsing glow that signified that a Witness was present. This moment had been deemed important enough for one of her kind to bear Witness to. It was unsettling and more than a little terrifying. But there had been no other choice at all.
The next day, Aria stood aboard Rikar’s ship, dressed in the same dark green clothing the rest of his crew wore. Rikar stood beside her, and they watched the Sarlene attack vessels crash and explode as they hit the invisible force field their Zorlian crew mate had formed around Earth.
“You saved them,” Rikar said. She met his gaze for a moment, then turned back to watch the last moments of the failed Sarlene attack.
“Are you at peace with your choice?” Rikar asked her. Aria smiled as she watched the final Sarlene ship crash and burn.
“How could I not be? Action is beauty,” Aria answered. The final bit of debris bounced off of the Zorlian’s shield, and then it was as if nothing had happened at all. The millions of people below, on the surface, lived and died, loved and created, oblivious to those who watched from beyond.
Aria hoped with all her heart that it would stay that way.
THE END
About the Author
Colleen Vanderlinden is the author of the Hidden and Soulhunter urban fantasy series, as well as the Copper Falls paranormal romance series and the StrikeForce Sci-Fi/Romance series. The third Hidden novel, Home, was a finalist for RT Book Reviews’ Editors Choice Awards for best self-published urban fantasy novel of 2014. Her books have consistently received positive reviews, and RT Book Reviews has called her storytelling “electrifying.” She lives in the Detroit area with her husband, kids, demonic Basset hound, and two lazy cats. You can find out more about Colleen’s books at colleenvanderlinden.com, or follow her on Facebook, or on Twitter, where she’s @C_Vanderlinden.
Books by
Colleen Vanderlinden
The Exile Series
Exile
Riven
The Hidden Series
Book One: Lost Girl
Book Two: Broken
Book Three: Home
Book Four: Strife
Book Five: Nether
Hidden Series Novellas
Forever Night
Earth Bound Demons of Christmas Past
Hidden: Soulhunter Series
Guardian
Betrayer
Zealot
The StrikeForce Series
A New Day
One More Day
Darkest Day
Day’s End
The Copper Falls Series
Shadow Witch Rising
Shadow Sworn
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Riven (Exile Book 2) Page 20
