by J. J. Green
The little boy hadn’t moved at all since Sable had shot him. Carina knew she would never forgive herself for allowing him to be hurt, and if he died she wouldn’t want to go on living.
Jace and Calvaley lay on the floor of the hall. Jace remained unconscious and Calvaley seemed coherent, but only barely. Loath though she was to take Calvaley with them Carina’s conscience weighed heavily enough without also leaving an old, starved man to die alone.
“Do you know where Castiel is?” she asked Parthenia.
“No one can find him,” her sister replied. “Someone told me what he did. I can’t believe he still betrayed us after we’d forgiven him for so much. I hate it, but we’ll have to leave him here. Carina. You take Darius to the shuttle. Ferne, Oriana, and I can Transport everyone else, then we’ll come ourselves.”
“I’ll stay with them,” offered Bryce.
Carina was in no state to argue. On top of everything, she was also concerned about Stevenson’s silence. “Okay. I’ll Transport myself and Darius. Send Atoi and as many mercs as you can manage with me.”
The Black Dogs were carrying their own weapons as well as those they’d taken from the dead and wounded Dirksen troops. Carina cradled hers under her right arm as she balanced her brother on her left shoulder. Atoi stood beside her, her grip tight on Sable Dirksen.
Carina Cast.
A moment later, she was standing outside the shuttle. The sun was coming up over the peak of a mountain, and someone was screaming.
Atoi and Sable Dirksen appeared.
“What the hell is that?” Atoi asked.
Six mercs materialized in a group.
Carina recognized the person who was screaming.
Nahla? No!
The shuttle’s ramp was up. Carina ran around the vessel to the pilot’s hatch. Scorch marks ran down from the roof of the pilot’s section. The shuttle had been attacked. The departing Dirksen soldiers in the skimmer must have spotted it and fired.
Nahla’s screaming was an endless horror reverberating around Carina’s head. She had to get into the shuttle but the hatch was closed. Only Stevenson could open it, from the inside.
“The manual’s here,” said a voice. A merc had arrived at Carina’s side. The man felt the under carriage and popped a door. The next second, the hatch opened.
The rising sun’s red beams slanted into cabin from holes burned in its roof.
Stevenson sprawled in his seat, utterly still.
It had been quick, from the look of him.
Nahla was hysterical.
“I’ll get her,” said the merc.
But as he approached her the girl screamed even louder and fought to get away from him. She tore at her harness, trying to unfasten it but not succeeding.
The soldier retreated, shaking his head. “I’ll hold the boy if you want to try.”
Carina passed her brother over to the man and then climbed into the pilot’s cabin.
“Nahla,” she said, her voice thick. “It’s me, Carina. It’s okay. No one’s going to hurt you.”
Nahla’s wildly staring eyes focused on Carina and some semblance of recognition passed over her features. When Carina got nearer to her she stopped struggling. She allowed her big sister to undo her harness and lift her from her seat. Her screams grew quieter. As Carina carried her down they stopped altogether and she began to sob.
“It’s okay,” said Carina, holding Nahla tightly. “It’s going to be okay.” But they were just words. She had no idea how they were going to make it back to the Duchess alive.
More mercs had arrived while she’d been dealing with Nahla. The news that their pilot was dead was spreading, and concern and grief were rising among the soldiers.
“Shit,” said Atoi when she saw Stevenson. “Why’d the bastards have to do that?”
The answer was obvious: the Dirksen skimmer hadn’t possessed the firepower to destroy the shuttle but the troops inside it had hoped that by killing the pilot they would prevent the mercs from leaving Ostillon. But Atoi wasn’t speaking from a place of logic.
Carina could barely think either but she had to get Darius back to the Duchess, whatever it took. “I’ll fly the shuttle.”
“You?” asked Atoi. “Do you know how?”
Parthenia, Bryce, Ferne, and Oriana arrived. Everyone had returned from the ancient mages’ castle.
“Yes,” Carina replied with determination. “I can fly it well enough to get us out of here.”
“But the cabin won’t hold atmosphere.”
“I’ll breathe my suit’s,” said Carina.
Parthenia had walked up. “Nahla, come with me. Carina needs space so she can help us.”
The little girl allowed Parthenia to take her away and Bryce took Darius from the merc’s arms.
“Just…” Carina said to Atoi. She swallowed and her lips trembled. “Just help me get him down.”
Her eyes wet, Atoi nodded. Together, they undid Stevenson’s harness and lifted the man’s body out of his seat.
They laid him down on the mountainside. Carina climbed into the cab again and opened shuttle’s ramp. Pairs of mercs carried Jace and Calvaley inside first, another pair entered with Sable Dirksen, wounded mercs followed, Bryce and the children went in, and then the remaining soldiers.
Her heart breaking, Carina took Stevenson’s shoulders while Atoi took his legs. The two women carried him into the shuttle and placed him in the well between the benches.
Carina had seen dead soldiers lying there before, as the mercs carried them back to the Duchess for a proper commemoration of their lives before they were committed to the void, but she had never once imagined that Stevenson would be one of them.
Chapter Forty-Three
When Carina had confidently asserted she could fly the shuttle she hadn’t known if the Dirksen attack had damaged its controls. She climbed into the pilot’s cabin and Stevenson’s seat, immediately closing her visor against the smell of death. Then she closed the pilot’s hatch.
The sun’s rays shining though the holes in the cabin roof were growing brighter. The thought that Stevenson would never see another sunrise popped into her mind. She choked and forced the thought away.
She had focus on getting Darius and everyone else back to the Duchess.
Carina gave a warning to her passengers over the vessel’s comm and then lifted the ramp and closed the airlock. She ran through the flight checks. Nothing seemed damaged. The thick casing over the control center seemed to have protected it from the skimmer’s fire.
She started the engine. Her chest heaved.
Blinking away tears, Carina flew the shuttle up into the sky, piling on as much speed as she dared to with sick passengers. Then she comm’d the Duchess, briefly informing Cadwallader about the situation, Stevenson’s death, and the three new arrivals. She omitted that one of the Dirksens’ ex-prisoners was a Sherrerr. There would be time to explain later, provided they made it. At the end of the comm, she reiterated the need to have the sick bay ready to treat Darius upon his arrival.
Ostillon’s pale blue sky faded to black, and the forces acting upon Carina’s body eased somewhat. Her HUD signaled the rapid drop in atmospheric gases and temperature. As silence pressed in on her, she felt suddenly, dreadfully, alone.
She comm’d Atoi. “What’s happening back there?”
“Everyone’s fine. Your sibs are doing that thing with your brother and the little girl’s stopped crying, I think. It’s hard to tell, with her face behind her visor, but she’s sitting still now.”
Poor Nahla. Carina didn’t even want to imagine what her sister had been through, trapped next to a dead man. She would need psychological help. Her entire family needed psychological help.
“Any sign of the corvette?” Atoi asked.
“Shit,” said Carina. She’d forgotten about the Dirksen vessel. She brought up the scan data. “I can’t see it. Maybe it’s around the other side of the planet.”
“Funny,” said Atoi. “I would ha
ve thought the troops who got away would have been in contact with it.”
“One would think.” She closed the comm.
Bryce reached out to her.
“Hey, how are you holding up?”
“I’ve had better days,” she replied. “In fact, nearly all of them were better than this one.”
“You’ll get through it. We all will. We only need to get back to the Duchess now.”
“Easier said than done. There’s a Dirksen corvette out here somewhere but the scanners aren’t picking it up.”
“Well, that certainly puts a downer on things.”
“If I can think of anything to cheer you up,” Carina said, “I’ll let you know.”
“Take it easy,” said Bryce.
A pause stretched out between them.
Bryce said softly, “I love you.”
“I love you too.” The words came easily to Carina’s lips, though it was the first time they’d said them to each other.
An alert sounded in Carina’s helmet and a message from the Duchess flashed up on the flight console. She opened it.
“We’re coming out to meet you,” said Cadwallader’s recorded voice. “It’ll bring forward your ETA, and you may need our firepower. The Dirksen corvette is coming toward you with the sun at its back, probably scrambling the data your scanners are picking up.”
Dammit. Carina checked the data again. There was an anomaly in the readings in the direction of Ostillon’s star, but the shuttle’s system hadn’t flagged it as a ship.
She warned the passengers she was going to increase the shuttle’s speed.
Atoi’s plan to use Sable Dirksen as a hostage was sound but they couldn’t tell the Dirksen forces too soon. Until the shuttle came under the protection of the Duchess the enemy would be able to board her and rescue their leader. If Carina could just make it within range of the Duchess’s weapons they would be safe. After its recent refit, she was confident the mercs’ ship outgunned the little corvette.
The additional acceleration forced Carina into her seat. She hated to think what it might be doing to her passengers but if she didn’t get away from the corvette they would all be dead anyway.
A hail arrived. With no other starships in the vicinity, there could be no doubt where it came from.
Carina ignored it, buying time, glad that whoever was in command wanted to speak before firing. Did they suspect Sable might be aboard?
The hail sounded again. Carina coaxed a smidgen more acceleration from the shuttle’s engine.
The scanners finally picked up the corvette and the flight console announced its presence.
“Gee, thanks,” she muttered.
The kilometers between the shuttle and the Duchess melted away.
A third hail sounded.
Carina gritted her teeth.
Patience aboard the corvette would be wearing thin.
Whoever commanded the vessel wouldn’t wait much longer.
Suddenly, a clanging alert rang in her ears. The shuttle was under attack! The corvette had fired. A pulse was streaming across space toward them.
Shit.
This was it. All it would take to finish them was one direct hit.
Carina’s muscles turned rigid…but nothing happened. The shuttle flew on. The corvette’s pulse had missed, but that seemed an unlikely accident.
It had been a warning shot.
Where is the Duchess?
Carina sought out the mercs’ ship on her display. As she saw the vessel it fired, but the distance was too great. The energy would dissipate before it reached the corvette, having little effect.
It was time to go to the next stalling tactic.
She opened the hail from the corvette.
“This is Commander Kee of the Tumult to the starship shuttle departing Ostillon. Reverse thrust immediately and prepare to be boarded.”
Carina responded, “This is the shuttle departing Ostillon. Under whose authority do you command us?”
“Under the authority of the Dirksen clan.”
Carina thought she’d heard the man’s voice before but she couldn’t remember where. She hadn’t met many Dirksens, only Reyes and his awful mother, Langley.
“Really?” she said in a mocking tone. “I have it on good authority we shouldn’t stop.”
“Reverse thrust immediately or we will fire.” The man sounded unusually calm given the circumstances.
Then she placed it. Commander Kee was the dark-eyed, shaven-headed officer who had taken her prisoner when she’d first arrived at Ostillon. He was smart and effective.
She would have to be careful.
The Duchess was nearly within range. Just another few minutes.
“Go ahead,” Carina said. “But you’re gonna get into a hell of a lot of trouble.”
“You’re that Sherrerr girl,” Kee said. “Or, no, not a Sherrerr. You were working for them as a merc. Makes sense. You have ten seconds to slow down or we will fire.”
“So you aren’t too fond of your precious leader?”
A long pause.
Carina counted down from ten. She got to three before Kee answered.
“Is Sable Dirksen aboard your vessel?”
“She is. We’d rather not have her, though.”
“I want proof,” said Kee.
“You mean a finger or something?”
“I want to speak to her.”
Carina checked the time remaining until they reached the Duchess’s protection.
“Atoi,” she said in a private comm. “The commander of the corvette wants to speak to the bitch. I’m going to put us all on a four-way comm. If she refuses to talk, encourage her.”
Once the group comm was initiated, Carina addressed the Dirksen commander.
“Okay, she can hear you.”
“Ma’am,” said Kee. “I need to verify your presence aboard the Sherrerr shuttle.”
“Yes, I’m here,” Sable replied through gritted teeth.
Still clinging on to your life, Carina thought.
She smirked and closed the comm.
“If you fire on us, Kee,” she said, “you’ll be putting her life in danger.”
The commander didn’t respond.
Carina checked the time again. They were nearly safe. It was almost all over.
The Tumult fired.
Carina tensed. Had Kee decided to sacrifice Sable? Did he want a chance to be leader himself?
But, again, the pulse sped by the shuttle. She checked its trajectory. It was heading for the Duchess! Kee’s plan must be to defeat the mercs’ starship and prevent the shuttle from reaching a safe haven.
The two starships were in range of each other’s firepower so Carina altered course. A stray pulse could destroy the shuttle.
The Duchess’s four cannons returned fire.
“What’s happening, Car?” Atoi asked.
“The boys are fighting it out.”
“But our boy is bigger.”
“You betcha.”
The Duchess scored two direct hits on the corvette, but at the edge of its range the effect wasn’t devastating. The Tumult’s pulse had also hit, with similarly minimal effect.
The two ships drew closer.
The Tumult and Duchess fired simultaneously.
Kee’s bravery was mildly impressive. Or was he only foolhardy? The corvette would never defeat the larger ship.
The Duchess’s pulses impacted the nose of the Tumult, sending the ship veering off course. The Duchess also received a hit but sustained no obvious damage.
Surely Kee will give up now?
But the corvette came around as if to continue the battle.
Madness!
Then the ship slowed, continued on its circular path, and flew away from the Duchess. Kee had finally come to his senses.
Carina breathed out heavily, and then guided the shuttle home.
Chapter Forty-Four
As soon as it was safe to leave the shuttle, Carina leapt out of the pilot�
��s hatch and ran to the back of the vessel, where the ramp was still lowering.
Bryce emerged first, carrying Darius in his arms. Carina stopped him, drank a mouthful of elixir, and then Cast the most powerful Heal on the boy she could muster.
Then she grabbed her brother from Bryce’s arms and ran to the sick bay.
The door was open and the medics were waiting.
Carina laid Darius down on the examining table and began to remove his armor.
“Let us do it,” said one of the medics. “Out of the way.”
Carina backed off, her arms wrapped around her chest, every muscle and fiber tense as she watched the woman and man work.
Darius’s eyes were closed and his little chest rose and fell.
Carina told herself that was a good sign, that he would live, but she didn’t dare to really believe it.
Hands touched her shoulders—Bryce’s. Then they rose to the clasps on her helmet. She’d forgotten to take it off.
When he’d removed her helmet and put it down Bryce wrapped his arms around her. “I think he’s going to be okay,” he murmured. “He’s small but he’s strong.”
The door to the sick bay opened and Parthenia, Oriana, and Ferne came in, their faces ghostly white as they took in the sight of the burn to Darius’s chest and stomach.
“Right,” said the female medic. “That’s it! Everyone out. This isn’t a performance.”
Bryce pulled Carina out of the room last. When the sick bay doors closed behind them they stood in the corridor.
“Where’s Nahla?” Carina asked.
“Atoi is bringing her,” Bryce replied. “Her case isn’t so urgent, but I think she’ll take longer to heal.”
“Stars, that poor girl,” Carina whispered. The mission’s events were catching up with her. The starving prisoners, Sable Dirksen shooting Darius, Stevenson’s death.
She began to shake.
Bryce’s arms tightened around her.
“We had a look at the stuff we found at the mage castle,” said Ferne. “It’s cool.”
Parthenia put a hand on Carina’s arm. “We saw a set of coordinates. We think you found the way, Carina. We can go back to Earth.”
