Shadow Warrior (Sky Raiders Book 3)

by Michelle Diener

  He had to slow down to allow the other sky craft to keep pace, and then, when they were low enough, he took the lead, heading toward the camp, then over the hills to the mine.

  He slowed down as they approached the hill with the tower he and Aidan had destroyed.

  “See the hill with the cliff face on one side?” Taya gripped his shoulder a little harder. “That's where it is.”

  He maneuvered the ship in front of the hill and slowly lowered it down, but the warning bell suddenly sounded, just as he was about to set down at the foot of the cliff, and he swore and moved the sky craft back until it stopped.

  “Well, that explains why they need you. Unless you know where it is and you're right on top of it, their way of finding it doesn't work on Shadow.” Aidan ran a shaking hand through his hair.

  “They must have a new, more accurate way to pick it up. They saw my knife from quite high up, but I think the problem for them on Shadow is that most of the ore is near or submerged in a protective layer.” She mouthed the word 'water'. “My guess is they were able to pick up the seam in the mine, but it was too deep to get to easily, which is why they needed us. The easy-to-get stuff was invisible to them.”

  “And the ore on Barit is mostly like what's in the Dartalian Range. Tiny flecks spread over a huge area.” Garek wanted to laugh at how the planet seemed to have protected itself from the sky raiders. Barit would not give them what they wanted.

  He lowered the ramp, and they walked out of the back. Garek picked up a box in each arm, and Aidan did the same.

  It would be at least a ten minute walk to the cliff face.

  While they'd been talking, the larger ship had landed beside them, but no one emerged.

  Afraid, he guessed. And why not?

  They might not have a way to detect shadow ore, if it was truly unknown to them, but they had picked up enough information to know they were at risk if they got near it.

  When it was clear the sky raiders weren't going to step out of their ship, they started toward the cave.

  Everyone came along except Dalanial Varn. He looked at the rock-strewn way and chose instead to sit on the ramp and take in the wonder of being on Shadow.

  “That was quite a story you told back there,” Aidan said to Taya when they were far enough away from the two ships.

  “You made sure they realize there is an ongoing danger to them if they decide to stay and take up where their friends leave off.” Susa's tone was approving.

  Taya nodded. “It can't hurt. I also had an idea that if we can convince the other lot we have lots of people like me, they're more likely to take what shadow ore they have and make a run for their home.”

  “How would we convince them of that?” Dix spoke for the first time since they'd entered the mothership.

  “Get Garek's father to your camp in the Corridor, smelt some shadow ore, and dip the tip of every Iron Guard's arrow in it.”

  There was silence.

  “How would that help?” Susa asked. “They will surely just think we've done exactly what you've just described. Dipped weapons in ore. A flying arrow of shadow ore would be dangerous to them, but not as deadly as Zek tells me your manipulation of the ore is.”

  Taya glanced over at Aidan, and he stared back. Then he looked at Garek, as if for advice.

  Garek nodded. If they had allies, they had to trust them. Besides, if Hanson got her way, and she would, then the secret would no doubt slowly leak out.

  “Taya wasn't stretching the truth that far. The Iron Guard is like her. Only they call iron, not shadow ore.”

  Dix, unlike her liege, did not look shocked. “I have long wondered.”

  There was the satisfaction of having a suspicion confirmed in her voice.

  Susa had stopped dead. “I've heard of that, too. Heard it whispered about the Nordren. Never West Lathor.”

  “Except my mother was Nordren,” Aidan reminded her.

  “Yes.” Susa said the word slowly. “And thinking back, the Iron Guard was hers, wasn't it?”

  “My mother started the Guard,” Aidan admitted. “But there will be changes in how it's run from now on.”

  “It is no longer being kept a secret?” Dix asked.

  Aidan hesitated. Shook his head. “I would very much appreciate it if you would keep the secret. And I will offer the opportunity of any of your own Changed who call iron to be trained by General Hanson, if you wish.”

  It was an incredibly generous offer. And a clever one. Dartalia would not share a secret they had a stake in keeping.

  “We don't have any iron called.” Susa frowned.

  “That you or even they, know of.” Aidan waved at Taya. “Taya only discovered her calling because she was forced down a shadow ore mine. She's right in that there are probably more of her. And certainly enough iron called to create an entire battalion in West Lathor, and who knows how many in Nordra?”

  Dix looked thoughtful. “Perhaps you will allow me to spend some time with General Hanson, and we can see how to find these iron called.”

  Aidan inclined his head, and Garek felt the mood as they reached the foot of the cliff was very congenial.

  Taya went straight to a narrow crack in the wall of the cliff, and slipped through it.

  He heard the rattle of falling stones, and set the boxes down to peer in. It was only just wide enough for him to fit through sideways.

  The inside glowed.

  He crouched down so he wasn't completely blocking the light behind him, and saw the phosphorous glow of what looked like moss gently illuminating the vast space.

  “Move away from the crack and I'll send shadow ore out,” Taya called from below him.

  She had obviously had contact with moss in her scramble down to the lake's shore, and her arms and hands were glowing, too.

  She looked like some magical creature, almost alien, until she grinned at him and blew him a kiss.

  He stepped back, and large fist-sized rocks floated out and then were dropped. Most of them were gray stone thickly veined with ore, but some were almost entirely ore, as if they had fallen from a rich seam.

  He and Dix began throwing them into the boxes, leaving a third of the space for the water that would need to be added.

  When all four boxes were packed, he called to her to stop, and then squeezed through the opening and slid down the slope of pebbles to the gently lit rocks of the shore.

  The smell was of damp and stone, and a green fecundity from the moss.

  “The motherlode,” he murmured, looking at the visible seam of shadow ore along the far wall of the cave.

  Taya carefully traversed the rocks to stand beside him. “The motherlode,” she agreed.

  He pulled her close and kissed her, pulling her flush against him. His hands gripped the back of her jacket, and he had to hold himself in check, keeping it as light as he could.

  “I know,” she murmured to him, pulling back a little to nip along his jawline. “I know.”

  There was enough pent-up feeling in her words to make him chuckle, and she joined in.

  “What's so funny?” Aidan slid down in a clatter of stones, and Garek shook his head and let his arms drop.

  “Can you get the water out of this lake and into the boxes?” Taya asked Aidan.

  The princeling looked from the lake to the thin sliver of light that was the entrance. “If the boxes are right outside.”

  “I can stand at the top,” Susa called down, “and direct it as it comes out.”

  Garek lifted his gaze. So Susa had a water calling.

  “Let's try it.” Aidan sent a stream of water up from the lake and shot it through the crack.

  “Wait,” Dix called down after a minute.

  They heard her grunt as she moved what must be an incredibly heavy box. “All right. Again.”

  Aidan followed the instructions from above until all four boxes were filled, and then Dix appeared in the crack and slid down, then waited for Susa to come, her arms out to catch her liege in c
ase she fell.

  They picked their way across the stones to join them at the water's edge.

  “Amazing.” Susa looked around. “How did you know this was here, Taya?”

  Taya pointed to a low, gushing waterfall that seemed to be the source of the lake. “A friend and I were forced into the cave system by a Kardanx with a grudge against us, and we got swept away by the river and ended up in here.”

  “And the sky raiders never knew you'd been here?” Dix looked at her with surprise.

  “We got out through the opening and walked for a whole day to get back to the mine. They didn't even bother to ask us where we'd come out.”

  Dix shook her head, trying to work out why the sky raiders wouldn't follow up on something like that.

  “They think of us as dumb beasts of burden,” Garek said. “At least, they did.”

  “Well, that's what we're about to be.” Aidan started back up the steep incline. “We're going to have to think of how to carry those boxes back.”

  “Easy.” Taya followed him. “Between you, Susa and myself, and maybe with some of Garek's help, we'll call our Change.”

  Aidan turned to look at her. “You lift the shadow ore, Susa and I lift the water?”

  “And I help with a little air.” Garek grinned. While the sky raiders hadn't come out of their ship, they would be watching. And they were about to see the reason why it was a mistake to underestimate the people of Barit.

  Chapter 25

  Their trip back to the ship must have made for an interesting sight.

  With the lids securely clamped down, they had lifted the boxes between them, with only Dix, who called the earth Change and couldn't help, not participating.

  It took a while to get used to cooperating with more than just one calling, but there was something satisfying in it, too.

  The shared load made for easy work, although the distance from the cliff to the ship was far enough for them all to be feeling it by the time they set the boxes down.

  Taya lifted one by herself, and set it on the ramp of their sky craft, beside Dalanial Varn.

  Garek glanced at her, eyes amused.

  “It's probably our last trip here,” she murmured. “If I'm going to lose some ore on arrows for the Guard, I'll need to replace it.”

  Varn tapped the top of the box with a fist and took up position in front of it.

  Taya gave him a smile of thanks for his guard services, and then joined the others beside the much bigger ship, waiting for either a ramp to come down or someone to make an appearance.

  After a few minutes, a door opened, and a ramp extended to the ground in segmented pieces that seemed to grow out of each other and then clamp in place. These sky raiders had more sophisticated equipment than the other group, that was clear.

  Two sky raiders in blue suits and helmets came down, and pointed little handheld machines at the three boxes.

  “Our sensors pick up nothing,” one of them said, and Taya recognized the voice of the sky raider who had been so interested in what she had to say on the mothership.

  “The water masks it and protects your systems from it.”

  “How can we know this? Can you prove it?” She bent closer with her device.

  Taya nodded. “Do you have a machine you don't mind being destroyed?”

  The sky raider looked up in surprise.

  “Yes.” The silence that followed was strange, because Taya could see the sky raider talking to someone in her helmet.

  Another suited sky raider emerged, carrying a small box, and ran down the ramp.

  “Where should he put it?”

  Taya waved the sky raider back a fair way before she was sure it was safe.

  He set it down, and jogged back.

  “And now?” The sky raider seemed very interested in what she would do next.

  Taya opened the lid of one of the boxes.

  “Aidan, when I lift out a rock, can you coat it in water?” They were both tired, she could feel just the edges of a headache looming, but the princeling nodded, and she lifted a small rock the size of her fist out. It was far easier thanI she thought it would be. After lifting the ore in the boxes, this was like picking up a feather.

  Aidan covered it with water about two fingers deep all around as she hovered it over the box.

  There was a shocked gasp from the sky raider.

  She sent the rock about halfway between the ships and the box and then nodded to Aidan, and he called the water back.

  It lifted off the rock and seemed to leap from it all the way back into the box, like a live creature.

  Taya slowly moved the rock toward the machine, using a smooth, steady pace.

  When it was about five meters away, the machine began to make a warning sound, and when the rock finally touched it, acrid smoke drifted toward them on the cool breeze, and what lights had been on the machine went off.

  She brought the rock back halfway, waited for Aidan's water to coat it again, and then together they returned the rock and water to its box.

  “Was that enough for you?” Taya had been concentrating on the rock, but she saw the sky raider had darkened the glass of her helmet, and she could no longer see her expression.

  “What allows you to manipulate the water and the rock in that way?” There was a little too much avid interest in the voice.

  “That information is not part of this arrangement. What do you wish to know about the ore?”

  She could see the sky raider stiffen at her rebuff, but eventually her shoulders relaxed again, although Taya still couldn't see her face.

  “How did you learn that water shields the ore?”

  “I ran experiments.” She remembered the fear of walking past the sky raider screens at the mine, holding a tiny piece of shadow ore wrapped in various things; wood, cloth, iron.

  “And the sevn don't know about the water?”

  “No, I don't think so.”

  The sky raider gave a nod, then looked at the box Taya had taken for herself. “That is ours, too.”

  “No.” Taya shook her head. “It's mine. I've given you plenty. Although I will warn you that the other group has a lot more. They took everything that we brought up from the mine, although that ore wasn't as rich as in the rock I've given you.”

  The sky raider hunched, as if she wanted to argue, but she had just seen what Taya could do, and they must have been excited enough by what they had been given not to push it.

  “So, what are your plans now?” Garek had moved so quietly, Taya hadn't realized he was right beside her.

  “We'll be able to make projectiles of water and ore, and shoot them at the mothership,” the sky raider conceded. “And then, when that is done, we will hunt down the smaller craft.”

  “And then you'll go.” Susa's voice was cold.

  “And then, we'll go. This is not a hospitable place for us.” The sky raider inclined her head and turned, walking up the ramp and leaving the two sky raiders who stepped out with her to gingerly lift a box between them.

  The weight of it was clearly a surprise, because they dropped it and leapt away in fear as it tipped over.

  Fortunately for them, the lid held.

  And it wouldn't do any harm for the sky raiders to understand that they had floated boxes through the air that two sky raiders could barely pick up.

  Taya walked up the ramp, lifting the box of ore by calling her Change and setting it down at the back. She knew the sky raiders eyes were on her as she did it, and it was therefore worth the full bloom of the headache that had been skulking around the edges of her mind up until now.

  “Even if they do everything they say, we might still have to deal with the smaller craft--at least for a while.” Aidan watched the sky raiders struggle with a box as the ramp lifted.

  “Then that's what we'll do,” Garek said.

  Dix glanced at him, and Taya saw the same promise in her eyes she saw in Garek's. They wanted to end the sky raiders with their bare hands.

 
Chapter 26

  Pan Nuk lay, sleepy and golden, in the early morning Star's light.

  It was a beautiful sight, but Garek could feel the tug of exhaustion on his eyelids as he turned the sky craft to land facing down the length of the village street.

  He would have to catch at least an hour or two of sleep before he could fly again. The last time he'd lain his head down was for four or five hours in Valian before he'd flown everyone to Shadow. And he had called a lot of his Change in between.

  He lowered the ramp and didn't know how long he sat, half-slumped in his chair, before Taya came to find him.

  She put out a hand and he automatically took it, stumbling to his feet as she pulled him up, and took him a few short steps to the mattress he'd put in the pilot's chamber for her when she’d burnt out.

  As he lay down, she pulled off his boots.

  He wanted to say thank you, but he simply didn't have the energy.

  When he woke, it was to the feel of a cool breeze coming into the sky craft from the still open ramp, and to the sound of conversation.

  It looked like it was midday, or perhaps just before, which meant he'd slept at least five hours.

  He felt a lot better for it.

  He heard a shout of laughter, shook his head as he identified it as his father's.

  Quardi lived his life loud.

  The sound of footsteps on the ramp finally gave him the energy to pull himself up to sitting, and he wasn't surprised to see Kas was the first person to step into the pilot's chamber.

  “I was coming to wake you.” Kas crouched down, at eye level. “Taya says there are other sky raiders. That you went to bargain with them.”

  He nodded.

  “Do you trust them?”

  Garek shook his head. “I don't think they have any love for us, and I don't know if they have honor or believe in keeping their word, but they'll do what we want them to because their objective aligns with ours. If it didn't, they would have ignored us.”

  Kas blew out a breath. “That makes me feel better, actually. I trust self-serving motives far more than altruistic ones.”

  Garek agreed. “I heard my father. Has he agreed to come?”