He missed her laughter. He wanted Nare to be right. More than anything, he wished the rebels found Raea and helped her.
__________
Second Chance
Valdas grimaced at the scarred face in the mirror she held. Those damn rebels had cost her more than a few hours in the infirmary. While they used only neutralizers—probably to spare the Crystal Keeper—they also used knives.
The dark-winged one in particular. He attacked like a trained soldier. Swift with a knife and deadly, he'd taken out Tourval while his associates distracted the rest of her team. But the strong man took the Crystal Keeper. When she went after him, he attacked her, nearly hacking off her jaw before she backed away.
A couple minutes later, their backup had arrived in time to escort them to the infirmary, too late to catch the rebels. Led by the man who flew with the Crystal Keeper, the rebels disappeared beneath the city. Smart man. The materials housing the gravity-repulse generators blocked all scans.
But it also blocked all communications signals. She doubted they used a panel, which could be easily traced. They wouldn't be contacting anyone until they emerged from the bowels of Naviketan.
Then she would have them.
Valdas traced the line from the corner of her mouth to the hinge of her jaw. She'd come close to needing a complicated reconstruction of her face. Her beautiful auburn hair had been shaved a couple inches along the hairline above her ear, but she could hide that. And the Crystal Keeper was gone. Damn them all!
Seething to plunge her knife into the heart of the man who did this, Valdas threw the mirror across the tiny room. It shattered against the tan wall.
The door to her room hissed open.
General Maenast Nadori stepped through. Tall and imposing and her black wings speckled with gray, she wore the crimson sash of her rank around the black frock coat and jumpsuit of the Shirukan, defining her slender waist.
What was she doing here?
Under the general's scrutiny, Valdas straightened and pulled her wings close to her loose blue top and pants, feeling awkward out of uniform. The door hissed shut.
["You did well capturing the Crystal Keeper."]
She did? Of course, she did. The operation on Earth was a complete success.
["Unfortunate that the rebels were ready."]
Valdas clenched her teeth. Indeed. That's where she had failed.
["Lieutenant Sandral failed. You said they would distract the rebels. You said they were capable. You also said Montran was capable."] Accusation bit out the words.
Yes, she, Alshouan Valdas had failed, because her operatives, the men and women who served beneath her, had failed. Failure of this magnitude was unacceptable. Valdas steeled herself for the blow she expected, and deserved.
["One more chance."]
What? Had she heard right?
["Fail again, and you'll face Marin's judgment."]
Marin's judgment, reserved for ranking members of her elite forces. Valdas shivered. The empress only passed on one judgment—death. ["Thank you, sir."]
General Maenast marched from the room.
Valdas wouldn't fail again. In fact, with her face healed and two pints of new blood running through her veins, she was ready to leave. A few hours was all she needed for those minor wounds.
Unlike Commander Montran Pallin.
Sandral was another matter. The lieutenant had infiltrated one band of rebels, but reports claimed several bands were scattered throughout the city. Those who took the Crystal Keeper may have been the wrong group.
No. It was the right group. She was sure Sandral had sent her a coded message seconds before the attack. Someone had tried to warn her on their private tri-comm frequency.
Hopefully Sandral left a message about their location.
Valdas dressed quickly into her black flightsuit, jacket, and gloves. While she secured the thigh-length jacket, a medic stepped into the room in a red uniform.
["I need your hand."]
Valdas pulled off one glove and set her hand to the plate the medic held up. After a touch of warmth, she pulled away and replaced her glove.
["Thank you. Be careful."]
Valdas flashed a quick grin, impatient to finish her mission. The tralik spawn who caused this trouble would find out what the Shirukan were capable of.
Determination burned fiercely in her chest as she exited the infirmary room. Her fingers tightened in the gloves along her march through the black corridors of Heffin's Gate. The rebels couldn't stay in their hiding forever. They would have to surface if they hoped to help the Crystal Keeper escape, and most likely they would. They knew she was in danger there and a threat to them. The radiation signature of the Starfire could easily be tracked by internal sensors beyond the lower chambers of the city, where the power generators scrambled all signals.
Then they would be trapped. The girl wouldn't escape.
Valdas entered a code on her tri-comm and pressed it to her face. In seconds a woman in Shirukan uniform stood before her in the halls.
The woman clapped her heels together and gave a slight bow.
Valdas focused on the semi-transparent image. ["Commander. The rebels have our Crystal Keeper. They're hiding in the generator and recyc areas. We can't track them. I want you to send several teams to find them, but I want them alive—neutralizers only."] She'd show the man who scarred her what it meant to cross the Shirukan. They'd been allowed too much leniency while General Maenast focused their efforts on securing the Starfire instead of dealing with the rebels. No more. The rebels had gone too far this time.
["Drive them to the central waste processing and water purification chamber. I'll meet your there."]
["Yes, sir."]
["Prime Commander Alshouan out."] She tapped off the connection and hurried to the nearest transport tube.
Soon the Crystal Keeper would be back in her hands, and one group of rebels would be erased.
__________
Revealed by Starfire
At the head of the group of rebels, Leksel stopped before a cavern of enormous pipes big enough to fly through. The din of machinery and slosh of water echoed from the chamber.
["Where are we?"] Raea stared at a towering cylinder that could have fit her aunt's and uncle's house within it. The hum of moving parts emanated from it and thick pipes connected in three places, one going out and up, one across the top and another along the bottom. Men and women in blue jumpsuits attended to terminals about the chamber, a trio of them clustered at the far end beneath a walkway.
["Water recyc station,"] Corsa said.
That explained the sloshing she heard from the pipes.
Leksel wore a grave face. When those hard eyes passed over her, Raea shuddered and pressed back against the wall. A pat on her shoulder drew her eyes to a smile on Cris's face.
["Don't let him bother you. He's like that with everyone. If anyone can get you out of the city, it's Leks."]
For someone who disagreed with Leksel a lot, Cris sure trusted him. That explained why Cris stuck with him, but that didn't explain why Leksel tolerated Cris.
["Once we reach the other side, we'll find a terminal to contact Starfire Tower."] Leksel's voice came to her from the tri-comm she wore on her cheek, which linked directly to her optical and auditory nerves. They'd turned the visual off, though, to spare her the confusion of seeing everyone on the link they shared.
They'd been traveling for a couple hours. Raea could use a rest.
["Time to move,"] Corsa said.
So much for rest. Raea followed her, ducking like the others as they passed a set of cylinders near the doorway. They paused again before an open area.
At a motion from Leksel, they raced across the noisy chamber, their steps muffled by the machinery. The few technicians didn't seem to notice them.
They didn't hear anything either over the echoing din. Not until sparks flew from a pipe did she notice the line of gray and black men and women along the catwalk at the far end.
Leksel was already across the chamber. How'd he get there so fast?
Raea peaked out from behind containers, her wings tucked tight to her back. They were trapped. The gray and black uniformed soldiers surrounded them—a few around the enormous vertical cylinder to their left and the others on the catwalk to their right, above the level of a domed cylinder.
The space was enormous with room to fly up but to fly to escape over the melee meant certain death. Leksel must have known it. He motioned to them to stay down.
The soldiers' weapons made no dents in the machinery. In fact it had no effect at all. They couldn't be deadly if they didn't do any damage. Could they? Were they neutralizers? Not those things again. Once was enough for her, thank you very much.
Raea couldn't sit and wait to be taken again. Elis had taught her to use the Starfire energy within her. She could defend herself, which was probably why Leksel hadn't given her a weapon.
She missed Elis so much. The small feather she'd tucked into the wire holding the crystal shard kept him close to her heart now. If she could be Dorothy and click her heels together, repeating the phrase, "There's no place like home", she'd do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, her life wasn't a fantasy. The wings were real. Inar'Ahben was real. The soldiers and their weapons were real. She wouldn't see home unless she could get out of there.
Leksel had promised to contact Saffir, who knew how to open a portal back to Earth. Raea swore that if she ever returned home, she would work harder than ever to learn to open a portal herself. No more of this. She wanted to go home.
She missed Elis's calm strength. And his smell—that musky outdoorsy scent soothed her, assuring her he was near. She might have a perfect memory, but it wasn't the same as the real experience. She wished he was there.
Cris slipped in beside her and tapped the tri-comm on his cheek, slanted on a line from his mouth to his ear like the one she wore. Hers didn't work either, or the signal was blocked. Either way she heard nothing but the machines. Could the Shirukan be jamming them?
It didn't matter. One way or another she had to escape. The resonance was easy to find. The marks on her hands glowed and the warmth flooded through her.
Cris's smile confirmed her idea was right. He pointed behind them at the catwalk at the far end. The question on his face asked if she could do it. A dozen soldiers hunched down and fired on them.
Raea shrugged. Maybe. Maybe not. It wouldn't hurt her to try. Hell, if she didn't do something she'd probably be captured. Heffin's Gate could wait for her, like, forever.
She didn't know if she'd come close at that distance. Their attackers were supposed to be soldiers and their shots didn't come close at that range, or at least couldn't hit her and the small group when they hunched beneath the canisters and massive cylinders and pipes.
Enough. Her doubts held her back. Time to act.
Raea slouched beneath the canisters. The warmth of the resonance passed through her to brighten the marks on her hands. Aiming was another matter. She barely controlled the power, but something was better than nothing.
She lifted her arms out, careful not to lift her head too far above the level of the barriers. The spray of power flared in the chamber. She shivered from the cold left of the instant release of the heat.
A few seconds later, the soldiers on the catwalk lay quiet. Yes! But exhaustion overcame her in releasing that much power.
Cris patted her shoulder near her neck, shocking her with a moment of warmth and a pressure in her head as if thousands of voices chattered at once in discord. It faded a second after he removed his hand.
Her insides turned to ice with the cold realization. She'd experienced a similar alert from the Starfire once before—when Pallin touched her.
Meistal! Cris. Salera had learned the same way about Vodin. The Starfire entities detected others with it in their genes and warned their Keepers. The entities had detected it in Elis, but then they had shown her pleasant memories from her mother's life. They knew who she could trust, and she trusted the entities. They had trusted Elis, guided her to him, and she had almost forgotten.
If she had trusted them, Pallin would never have hurt her.
Now she had other matters to worry about.
Cris was meistal, if not also Shirukan. Did the others know?
He smiled and slid away, barely avoiding a shot that flashed overhead. How could she trust him?
Corsa motioned her to join them near the door. She'd get no refusal from Raea, who stayed close and wished that she was wrong about Cris. They made their way to an exit, or at least Raea hoped it was.
Ahead of them, Leksel followed behind two others to a door. There, soldiers firing from behind cylinders across the room pinned the trio behind a control panel.
The soldiers closed in on his position, covering each other as they alternated movements. A flash of light to Leksel's right halted him.
The blast came from the catwalk again. But she had disabled them. Didn't she?
Raea looked closer and her heart sank at the sight of the all-black uniforms.
Shirukan! They stepped over the gray and black figures prostrated on the walk.
This was so not going well. Raea might as well march out and give herself up.
No way. Try again. It couldn't end like this.
WE ARE HERE. The intentions of the Starfire came through as clear as words.
In a wave of dizziness from her exhaustion, Raea blinked and lost her balance, falling onto her hands and knees.
FIGHT. The single thought came from within. It could only be the Starfire entities. Her hands and the crystal shard glowed through no effort of hers. But as easily as the resonance came, she had only to think of it to find that perfect pitch to access the power.
As with facing Pallin in that moment of life and death, the entities sought to take control. She refused. Not this time. No more death.
FIGHT!
No.
YES. YOU PROTECT US.
No. She couldn't kill anyone again. Never again. She hadn't even killed the soldiers on the catwalk, but stunned them. Pallin had disappeared when she fired on him with the Starfire so close to the portal.
CONTROL OUR POWER. USE IT YOUR WAY. WE TRUST YOU.
They understood her hesitations?
Raea looked up to a concerned frown from Leksel a moment before he returned a barrage of fire. She had to do it. The Shirukan filled the catwalk now, and she would bet there were hundreds, if not thousands, more on their way.
The power flared into a fire within her. Elis had warned her in the beginning that too much could kill her, but if the Starfire really wanted to be protected from the Shirukan, killing her wouldn't help. They wouldn't let her die. Or at least she hoped not.
They were surrounded.
Cris gave her a pleading look.
She didn't want to kill, but she had to do something. She was their best chance of escaping.
Raea lifted her hands and focused on holding and releasing the power, one hand at the catwalk and the other opposite. The power burned through her in a stream instead of one burst.
But the firing stopped.
The world spun around her. Raea fell to her hands and knees and dropped her head. Nausea swept over her with the cold left from releasing the energy. She was going to be sick. Her body trembled with weakness and spots filled her vision. Oh, God, she was going to pass out.
Arms wrapped around her from both sides. Corsa and Cris. They each took an arm and lifted her to her feet.
The security of the two helped her keep her feet beneath her without worrying about falling. They carried her from the large chamber through more corridors of pipes.
A couple corners and lengths of corridors from the chamber, the noise died and Leksel returned to
her. ["Are you all right?"]
She shook her head. Whoa. Someone needed to stop the room from spinning. Last time she released that much energy, she had almost passed out, but Elis caught her mid-flight. She had kept the power going longer this time, though.
Next time she'd remember this. Third time was a charm. Right?
Was that a smile cracking the hard lines of Leksel's face, or was she seeing things besides the spots in her vision?
["You did good back there. Thanks."]
"No prob," she wanted to say. Instead, she lifted her hand from Corsa's shoulder. Her mouth didn't want to work, except to let lose whatever her stomach decided it didn't want. She had no intention of risking it there.
["Can you go on?"]
"Mmm…Yeah."
He frowned.
["Yes."]
His eyes darted to Cris and Corsa. ["Let's go."]
They hurried through a few more corridors, with several of their team members rushing ahead at each bend, their weapons ready. After a few darker, dirtier corridors, they came to a door. One of the others popped the panel and played with some squishy cables. The door hissed open and Leksel hurried them through. The man at the panel came through last and the door hissed and clicked behind him. ["They won't know we're here."]
Leksel gave a nod and urged them onward. The rest floated through Raea's mind like a dream.
She didn't remember anything more until the hard floor greeted her. That lasted a few seconds, long enough for her to mutter a simple thanks and fall into blackness.
* * *
Raea woke up to the smell of something sweet. She sniffed. Not just sweet, but also dank.
["Morning!"]
She recognized the voice and opened her eyes. Cris sat nearby, his back to the wall. ["How long was I out this time?"]
["Just a couple hours."] He tossed something up and caught it. ["Hungry?"]
Her insides rumbled their answer. ["Starving."]
["Here. Corsa had to run an errand, so you're stuck with me."] He grinned, his wings lifting slightly.
Broken Wings Page 9
