by Natalie Grey
“You’ll see when we get there.” Barnabas settled back in his chair. “Now for the important question. A game of chess while we make our way there?”
“It depends. Did you clean the blood off the chessboard?”
Among the horde of fleeing Yennai ships now being picked off by the Jotun fleet, the Julentai dove around the edge of the planet and accelerated away into the black.
“D’you think the Shinigami noticed us?” Chofal asked nervously.
“Of course not,” Zinqued declared. They’d gotten away with their lives, and he was absurdly grateful.
Still, he was a bit glum as well. Now they had to come up with a whole new plan to catch the Shinigami.
He’d think of something, he decided. He always did.
It wouldn’t be long before that ship was theirs.
28
The sounds of steel drums carried along the sea breeze. Nearby, in a vat of sea water, Jotuns bobbed and darted around one another. Gar thought they were dancing. Shinigami was sure it was a Jotun fight club.
Tafa was painting it.
Barnabas, meanwhile, tried to teach a very unwilling patient how to walk.
“Come on.” He held out his hands. “Just one step. You’re doing really well.”
“You keep it up with that encouraging crap,” Shinigami said testily, “and I’ll rip your eyes out. I can do it now, too. I have fingers.” She took a step, moved the wrong leg the next time, and toppled into the sand.
“Somehow, I’m not too worried about your vengeance.” Barnabas grinned down at her. “Do you want me to help you up?”
“I’ll crush your throat.”
“Uh-huh.” He surveyed the ocean as she levered herself up.
She’d been ecstatic when she saw her mechanical body. Barnabas, having conversed with Bethany Anne about TOM’s progress, had commissioned an avatar in the image Shinigami most often used—a cross between Tabitha and Bethany Anne.
Tabitha had proceeded to announce that she needed to make sure the ass was up to her standards before she could let Shinigami be installed in the body. Apparently, it had passed muster.
None of them had anticipated how difficult it would be to move in it, however.
“You’d think there would be subroutines for this sort of thing,” Barnabas mused.
“There are.” Shinigami looked annoyed. “I’m not using them. I should be able to walk on my own, shouldn’t I?”
“It takes humans what, a year? More? And even then they aren’t good at it for—”
“I’m not a baby!”
“Uh-huh.” Barnabas was still looking away. Shinigami was very prickly about having anyone help her with this. She’d wanted to have a sparring match with Barnabas as soon as she woke up.
Then she had pushed herself sideways off the bed and shattered a chair by landing on it—not to mention Gar’s leg, since he’d been sitting in the chair in question. He was still quite wary around her, which didn’t help her mood.
“All right, I’m trying again.” Shinigami brushed her dark hair behind her ear—a process that involved hitting herself in the face twice and nearly tangling her fingers in her hair—and took a few shaky steps. “It’s easier when I don’t think about it too hard for some reason.”
“A lot of things are like that.”
“Yes, but do you know how hard it is for an AI not to give something their whole focus?”
“Do you remember when you first made an avatar?” Barnabas asked her. He strolled along at her side, his hands behind his back. “You sat perfectly still and never blinked. Now you laugh, you make the eyes look at things you’re focusing on, you fidget—all of it. You’ll get the hang of this too.”
“I suppose so.”
“You suppose so? Let’s have some verve.”
“Fine. I will get the hang of this. I will crush my enemies and see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women. Happy now, Mr. Show Some Verve?”
“Not quite.” Barnabas pulled off his shoes, tossed them into the shade of the trees at the edge of the sand, and waded into the water. He smiled. “Now I’m happy.”
“You can’t be serious. Why are you wading into the water?”
“It’s warm. It feels nice. You have nerve endings, yes?”
“Yes, but I hate them.” She shuddered. “Constant biofeedback. Take a step, feel some pain. Adjust your posture, feel some pain. How do humans deal with it without going mad? Actually…” She frowned. “That explains a lot. You’re all mad.”
“As hatters,” Barnabas agreed. “I don’t think that’s why, but I could be wrong. You’re walking very well right now, by the way.”
“Am I? I wonder how I’m doing that. I… Oh, sonofa—” She tumbled into the sand. “You say not to think about it, and then you draw my attention to it?”
“Yeah, that one was on me. I’m sorry.”
She stuck out an arm and tripped him, sending him sprawling into the waves. “There. Now we’re even.”
“I liked this coat!”
“I’m sure the saltwater will wash out. Don’t be such a baby.” She wiggled her toes in the sand. “This feels peculiar.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Barnabas sat up but didn’t bother to get out of the water. He stretched out his legs and leaned back on his hands, looking at the sky. “You know, aside from the sky being too purple, this is a nice place. I bet we could start a proper resort for humans here.”
“You want to run a hotel?”
“No, that sounds terrible. Just a large building for people to visit when they wanted to. I think Tabitha would like it.”
“Probably.” Shinigami made a few attempts to pull her hair into a ponytail and gave up. “Jeltor’s coming.”
“How can you tell that’s Jeltor?”
“I put a little sticker on his suit when he wasn’t paying attention.”
Barnabas snorted and bit his lip. “Hello, Jeltor,” he said as the Jotuns approached.
“You’re getting better at recognizing us!” Jeltor sounded pleased.
“I… Er, yes.”
Liar.
I can’t admit to him that they all look like blobs of grape jelly to me. He’ll be crushed.
Shinigami scowled at him. You shouldn’t lie, she said primly.
Where is this sudden streak of morality coming from?
She snickered and looked at Jeltor. “So, how is the party going?”
“Very well.” Jeltor smiled as fireworks exploded above. “It’s not every day you avoid getting crushed to death by a dreadnought, after all.
“And we are drinking in memory of those we lost in the battle.”
Shinigami studied her hands. When she had been an avatar, she could just disappear rather than decipher what to do with her expression. She bit her lip.
“Plus,” Jeltor continued, determinedly cheerful, “now we have to go back and get hauled up on treason charges by the Senate while we try to haul them up on treason charges, so we might as well have a good party before we go. We won’t be getting any for a while, I think.”
“Would you like us to testify?” Barnabas asked him.
“I’d like you to get Gar before he’s sick in the pool.”
“Dear Lord.” Barnabas stood and hauled Shinigami to her feet. “I forgot that we didn’t give him the upgrades to make him impervious to alcohol.”
“He said he didn’t want them. I think Luvendan was a bit on the boring side and he’s been wanting to cut loose. You know, get drunk, get in bar fights—that sort of thing.”
“I’m going to regret bringing him aboard, aren’t I?” They headed off through the trees. “Next time, we go somewhere with no bars.”
“If you go somewhere with no bars, how are you going to find trouble to fix?” Shinigami frowned at him.
“There was that distress signal we picked up earlier today—the one from that farming planet. We could start there and see what we find. And you’ve clearly never lived in a monastery. Th
ere’s always trouble, regardless of whether there’s a dive bar for it to happen in.” Barnabas looked at the sky with a grin. “There’s always trouble,” he repeated. “So let’s get Gar, feed him some coffee, and go find it.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Natalie Grey
Written July 20, 2018
Thank you for reading Paladin! As always, diving into the Kurtherian universe has been amazingly fun, and I can only hope you’ve had as much fun as I have when writing. With Tafa’s recovery, Gar growing into his abilities, and Barnabas and Shinigami forging a true friendship, there’s a lot to root for, and that’s the type of series you really hope to get to write.
The publishing team has, as always, been amazing. Jeff with his amazing covers, Lynne and her team on editing, Steve helping all of us stay on task, Michael bouncing plot ideas around with me, and the beta readers helping me keep everything tight! I’m lucky to work with this team and in this world.
There’s a lot coming up this year: more Dragon Corps, more Barnabas, and (as we go into next year) some more of Nicky’s story, as well as a two-book series of steampunky, dragony adventures! I can’t wait to share it all with you, so definitely sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/w0k9j4
Happy reading,
Nat
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
July 24, 2018
First, THANK YOU for reading through both this story to the end and my Author Notes.
Just the other day, Natalie reached out through our Slack channel and asked for story ideas for our pals Barnabas and Shinigami, and how we might want to tell them.
I suggested that we go ‘on the road.’ Of course, it’s obvious you can’t quite go on the road in space, but the idea is there in principle. So, my version was to go to different areas (maybe space stations?) and track down those messing with people and adjudicating a little Barnabas Justice along the way.
He might swing through and say hi to the peeps from time to time, but this would be the road show for the two of them (and the rest of the team).
BUT, as I considered what to write in these Author Notes, I wondered what YOU would tell Natalie if she had asked? If you have ideas, why not send them to her? You can find her at her Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/nataliegreyauthor/ .
GO ahead…reach out!
Personally, I hope about thirty (30) of you do this, and pummel her (in a good way) with all sorts of directions you hope to see Barnabas and Shinigami head in!
For those interested, Bethany Anne will be making a return August 10, 2018 (about two and a half weeks from when I’m writing this) and this time, Michael is responsible for a little baby-sitting.
However, there is a reason he was able to last over a thousand years on Earth and it had a lot to do with his ability to see into the future and figure out what he needed to keep his sanity.
(It’s a pretty cool solution, and I want one or three myself.)
However, it has a drawback, and John Grimes might find out first-hand the challenges of Michael’s…toy.
Finally, it’s time they get serious about building a barbeque pit, but the Queen has put her size seven-and-a-half shoes firmly down on where she doesn’t want it, on pain of pain if they fail to listen to her.
Will Michael do that? Or, is he truly that stubborn?
Check out the pre-order (sometime soon) to make sure you have it when Amazon drops it at midnight Aug 10th.
I hope your summer is FANTASTIC. We will be publishing another twenty books to keep you up all night and sleeping all day before summer ends!
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael
Books by Natalie Grey
Shadows of Magic
Bound Sorcery
Blood Sorcery
Bright Sorcery
Set in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe
Bellatrix
Challenges
Risk Be Damned
Damned to Hell
Vigilante
Sentinel
Warden
Paladin
Writing as Moira Katson
Shadowborn
Shadowforged
Shadow’s End
Daughter of Ashes
Mahalia
Books by Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/
All LMBPN Audiobooks are Available at Audible.com and iTunes. For a complete list of audiobooks visit:
www.lmbpn.com/audible
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