We had four guards on boat duty at all times, and none of these jumpers were close together.
"Justis," I shouted at him; he was puttering about inside our suite and heard me clearly.
"There are two more jumpers than the guards can handle," I told him.
"Let's go." His wings unfurled with a mighty snap; I was right behind him as he raced toward the edge and leapt off the balcony in a perfect dive.
Take the woman to the east, Justis sent mindspeech as we hurtled toward the water, chill air whistling past us at such great speed. The woman in question, and a man south of her, were struggling to stay afloat in rough, freezing waters.
Four guards were already collecting the others, but there was no time for them to drop off their first rescues and go after the others before they went under.
Make a hook of an elbow, I sent to the struggling woman as I neared the water's surface. It was so choppy, I could be swept into it if I had to dive in to save the woman. Not far away, Justis already had a grip on the man's arm and was pulling him out of the water.
I barely managed to hook my arm into the crook of the woman's elbow as the tips of my wings touched the sea's surface.
Lift, Quin, Justis shouted his mindspeech.
I did, flapping my wings furiously to gain height, pulling the woman from greedy waters sucking her under. Her arm suddenly went limp, forcing me to drop again to grab a hand.
That's when it happened.
My strength improved; with only her fingers clinging to mine, I jerked her from the water and flapped swiftly toward the nearest tourist boat. Releasing the hand I held while hovering over an empty section of the deck, I let her drop. She flopped and rolled ungracefully before coming to a stop against Justis' feet.
Justis held his rescued man in a tight grip; he'd determined exactly what I knew the moment I saw the woman's face; they'd planned this in an attempt to get to us—and Pauley.
In all the rush of tourists to watch the rescues of six who'd leapt overboard, three others had dropped into the water from a smaller, private craft not far away. They were clad in diving suits and carrying portable breathing gear.
They were swimming even now to the crevice at the base of Avii Castle.
"Hmmph," I glared at the woman. "See where this got you?" I turned, and lifting my arms, used newly-acquired power to Pull three men straight from the water and back to the boat.
They were quite surprised—and fearful—when their masks were forcibly removed by the Avii King.
I could see many things in their faces besides fear. I know where Mebbers is, I informed Justis. We have to tell the others.
"Oskar," Justis turned toward the guard who appeared at his elbow. "Take all nine of these into custody, and have them transferred to Queen Lissa's dungeon for questioning."
"It will be done, my King," Oskar dipped his head. The crowd gasped as four winged guards rounded up the jumpers and the swimmers, to take them to Queen Lissa.
Justis drew the medallion that Zaria had given him from beneath his shirt and stared at it before lifting his eyes to mine.
We both wore a medallion given by her.
Zaria had given us gifts beyond price.
Pauley is fine, Teren reported. He's quite taken with the rescues, actually.
Teren, Franc and Pauley all wore a medallion. Teren's had given him mindspeech. I wondered what else he might have.
We'll be right there—we have information for the BlackWing ships, Justis reported. Before he released his wings to fly back, he winked at me.
The oohs and aahs of the tourist crowd came the moment we lifted off the boat to fly back to our terrace.
BlackWing X
Travis
Where is Randl? He's not answering my mindspeech. I was surprised to hear from Quin. I was even more surprised to learn that Randl hadn't replied to her.
He's in his office—or that's where he was, I told her. Wait—I'm folding in there, now.
The moment I materialized inside Randl's office, I knew something was wrong. Not only was he gone, but so was the pile of coins he'd gathered to take coin trips.
"What the bloody fuck?" I said aloud. Quin, he's gone. I don't know where he is, I informed her.
Oh, no. Travis, I know where Mebbers' compound is. We have to find Randl, and get him there as quickly as possible. Somehow, this is really, really important. I can't explain how, I just know that it is.
I'll alert the others and start looking—we have to have him in this fight, I said. I understood her urgency—I was beginning to feel it myself.
Here are the coordinates, Quin said, relaying them to me. Hastily, I jerked my comp-vid from a pocket and tapped the information into it, before sending it to Trent, Jett and Kooper.
Fucking hells, Kooper responded quickly, before landing in Randl's office. "Where is he?" he demanded, after finding Randl's desk chair empty.
"I don't know," I snapped back. "I came in here to see why he didn't answer Quin's mindspeech, and he was gone."
Jett, Vik and Dori arrived together; I assumed Jett had alerted the others already, although I hadn't told him about Randl's disappearance.
That fact was obvious to Dori, the moment she arrived.
"Do you know where he went?" she asked. I could see she was frightened; I would be terrified if anyone I cared deeply about vanished without a word. Nobody, myself included, had been able to reach him in mindspeech.
I was almost as worried about Randl's disappearance as Dori, but when Miz, Zanfield, Perri and Markus arrived, concern tightening their features, my worries ramped up exponentially.
"Where could he have gone?" Vik demanded, before discovering that the pile of coins on Randl's desk was missing. "What the bloody, head-banging hells is going on?" His words were punctuated by a cloud of smoke pouring from his nostrils.
"We know where Mebbers' compound is," Kooper growled, his voice and expression hard as stone. "Set your course accordingly. We'll be underway in five. If Randl isn't back by that time, then we'll do this without him."
Trent arrived with Farzi and Nenzi at that moment, and both reptanoids frowned fiercely at Kooper, as if they were having a heated discussion in mindspeech.
Kooper's skin turned from scales to flesh and back again as they silently argued. I'm sure Farzi and Nenzi were saying exactly what I was thinking—that we needed Randl in this fight, and to go without him was stupidity we could measure on a massive scale.
Mebbers we might be able to handle. An army of the dead and the Prophet at the same time?
Idiocy.
"We're going." Kooper snarled at the reptanoids. "Captains, set your courses now." He gave Dori a hard look. She gave him a harder frown back.
Do it, I sent to her. We need you. If Randl gets back, I hope he can find us. It's not like it's a secret that we're going to A'pelur.
"I'm not doing this for you," Dori hissed at Kooper. "I'm doing it for the people on these ships."
She turned abruptly to walk out of Randl's office. "We'll discuss insubordination after this is over," Kooper growled at her back.
"Take your best shot, Director," she whirled to snap at him, before striding through the door.
Walking to the bridge would give Randl a few more minutes to appear. I considered that Dori had the right idea in this.
"Well?" Kooper turned to me.
"On my way, Director." I folded space to X—and the farthest place inside it from the bridge. Like Dori, I began my trek toward the seat of command, casually inspecting the ship as I went.
I can hold things off for a bit longer, David sent. XIII may be having issues with the solar cell connection to the ship's engines.
Do it, I said. With Dori's permission, of course.
She already said yes. I just wanted to pass it by you to make it official.
Consider it official.
Aye, Cap'n, he sent in his native English.
He sounded like an Earth pirate—even in mindspeech.
Vogeffa
II, Past
Randl
She had no idea who I was.
My mother.
She'd been so deep in labor when I found her struggling to stay in the shadows of Gungl, that she'd accepted the help of a stranger to get back to her small apartment over a crumbling marketplace.
Gungl wasn't a friendly place, and many would have taken advantage of the situation, robbing her of what little she had and leaving her to die in the streets. She wasn't pregnant with me—I'd been born in my father's village, which was more than two day's ride out of Gungl.
"Only a little farther," I coaxed as another contraction hit. She'd declined my offer to carry her—she didn't trust me that much.
She didn't trust anyone.
Except.
She'd met my father. She trusted Brandl Gage more than any other. I'd been connected to Quin's healing power once; I hoped I retained enough of that knowledge to help now.
The outside door, with stairs just beyond, was hanging off its hinges and clinging at a desperate angle as I helped her inside. Before long, someone would steal the door altogether, and there'd be nothing to keep the weather out of the stairwell.
"Step," I said softly as we came to the bottom tread. She groaned and leaned heavier against me.
"Let me carry you," I pleaded again. In her pain, it took a moment to register my words. Eventually, she dipped her head in acceptance. Lifting her easily, I took the steps two at a time, hoping the dilapidated wood could hold our combined weight.
Once inside the tiny apartment, I laid her on the narrow bed inside the small space. Next to the bed was a tiny table, and I saw it, then—the same coin I also carried in my pocket. Somehow, the Prophet had obtained it after this event.
"It's coming," she groaned, diverting my attention to more important things. Arching her back, she half-screamed when another contraction hit. I was forced to act quickly, removing her clothing as carefully as I could so as not to tear anything. She had precious little to replace anything she owned.
"Push," I told her. "And breathe," I added. The grunt she made as she pushed told me how much effort it took. Panting breaths followed, as her body attempted a short recovery.
"Aauuuugh," her groan came again as she arched, writhed and pushed, before collapsing onto the bed and panting again. Putting my hands on her, I attempted to give her strength to get through this.
"I see the head," I told her. "Push again."
The rest of the child came out in a relative rush, along with a gush of blood and fluid from the womb. Rising from the kneeling position I'd taken beside the bed, I made my way to the end, to lift the child and cut the cord.
When I reached out to touch the baby boy, who was now wriggling and making mewling noises, I saw it. Beneath smears of my mother's blood, flesh-colored scales covered his face and body. Gripped by a moment of fear and recognition, I was blown against the wall of my mother's tiny apartment when they appeared.
BlackWing X
Travis
"You've delayed long enough," Kooper thundered. "Get underway or I'll move all these gods-forsaken ships to A'pelur myself."
He'd caught us doing exactly what we were accused of doing—stalling. Even Farzi, Bear Wright and Lynx had added their efforts to the mix. They understood what Kooper didn't—we could be hurtling toward our own death. Suicide by impatience, in my estimation.
I was issuing the command to get underway when Kooper made good on his threat, tossing us so violently toward A'pelur that many of us were thrown off our feet in the abrupt launch, and then again when we abruptly reached his chosen destination, coming to a ship-somersaulting end before settling into orbit.
We had injury reports immediately.
The Director had taken his anger to the extreme and harmed his own people.
Vogeffa II, Past
Randl
When my addled senses returned, I understood who they were.
V'ili, perhaps the vilest Sirenali to ever live, and Liron, a rogue god, had arrived in my mother's room. Neither could see me where I lay, crumpled against the wall where I'd been tossed during the forceful blowback of Liron's arrival.
The other thing I knew?
Liron had taken V'ili's sperm, manipulated it, and then chose my mother as the vessel to bear the child—which bore his and V'ili's DNA. He had no care for my mother, or the fact that she'd initially refused him.
He'd ordered V'ili to lay compulsion to allow his violation, and then added to that terrible act by tossing a gold coin at her afterward. The same gold coin that lay on her bedside table now.
Do not interfere, a voice warned. The warning wasn't needed—I was in shock and felt powerless against what was happening before me.
"Bring the child," Liron snapped a command at V'ili.
"I don't want to touch that," V'ili drew back from the blood-and-fluid covered baby. "It's still attached," he whined back at Liron.
"Hmmph." Liron reached out and pinched the umbilical cord, severing it with a searing noise of fire.
"What about her?" V'ili asked as Liron Pulled a blanket of sorts into his hands and wrapped the child in it.
"She is of no further use to us," Liron snapped. "She'll die and we'll be done with her. The child is my objective."
With that, Liron disappeared.
V'ili hesitated for a moment, before his gaze fell on the coin atop the bedside table. He snatched it up and folded space while I stifled a gasp.
My mother moaned, then, and shifted in pain.
Liron was correct—she was dying.
That couldn't happen. Gathering my strength, I pushed myself to my feet and went to her. Quin, help me now, I begged silently, knowing she'd never hear me when and where I was.
Dredging up what little I'd learned during a brief healing session while Quin and I were connected, I went to help my mother as best I could.
Vogeffa II
Brandl Gage
I hadn't seen Mariana for several months. I'd been to market twice a month and looked for her every time, afraid to ask anyone for fear it would place her in danger. More and more, however, I imagined that the danger had already come to her, else she'd have visited my vegetable stall as she always did.
That's why, as I removed the planks from my now-empty makeshift tables and stowed them on my wagon, I was surprised to see a man approaching, carrying an unconscious woman in his arms.
As he came closer, I knew two things. First, I had no idea who he was; I'd never seen him before. Second, the woman he carried was Mariana.
"What happened?" I rushed toward the two.
"She's been ill," the man explained. "She asked me to bring her to you."
"What can I do?" I held out my arms to take her. Fear gripped my heart; it raced out of control as I searched her wan face for signs of life.
"She needs rest and care," he said, as I turned to carry her to my wagon. At least he'd wrapped her in bedclothes; I had nothing in the wagon to keep her warm against the chill of the trip home.
He helped me get her settled against the front of the wagon bed, directly behind the driver's seat. She'd be safer and warmer there, and I could keep an eye on her.
"She wants you to have this, too," the man drew a worn gold coin from a pocket and handed it to me.
"But," I protested.
"She wants you to have it." He pulled my hand toward him and slapped the coin into my palm.
"All right. Fine. Please say she'll make the trip—it's a long one," I said.
"Plenty of water, rest and food," the man told me.
"That I have," I nodded. Both were beneath the wagon seat and hidden against theft in Gungl.
"Good. Take care of her—and yourself, Master Gage."
"How do you know my name?" I frowned at the man.
"From her," he jerked his head toward the wagon.
"Oh. Of course. What's your name? So I can thank you properly?"
"Randl."
"That's it?"
"Just—Randl."
/> "Sounds like a good name for a son—if I ever have one."
"I'd say that's your choice to make," he lowered his head, but I saw the slightest smile curve his mouth.
"Consider it made, then. Thank you. I was beginning to think she was dead or taken by a sinister force."
"Not dead. The sinister force will be reckoned with. Go, now. Leave Gungl quickly."
"I will."
Leaping onto the wagon seat, I grabbed the reins and slapped them on the horses' backs. "Go, on," I told them, as I usually did. When I turned again to look at the stranger behind us, he was already gone.
Chapter 18
Outside Mebbers' Compound, A'pelur
Travis
Bro, be ready to go to dragon, Trent sent to me. I don't like this, he added.
Kooper had forced us to put boots on the ground outside Mebbers' walls, where there was little to no cover. At our backs, the thick, dark, stone-and-concrete wall loomed above us, while Mebbers' people lined the top, weapons pointed outward.
A warlock's spell, no doubt, had alerted them the moment our feet touched the ground. I figured Zaria's medallion kept us hidden from their sight—for now.
Nearby, Miz, Zanfield, Perri and Markus knelt amid a pile of fallen leaves, Perri ready with a ranos pistol and a spell, the others armed with ranos rifles.
Farther along the line, Dori, Vik, David and the others were scattered, Susan, Jincus and Gerrett included. Kooper had even ordered our cooks to attack, leaving the ships in auto-orbit. Only Harlee, X's engineer, was left behind, because Jett refused to take him. He had absolutely nothing to protect himself; Zaria had never given him a medallion. The rest of us wore one, and that was some sort of defense.
Jett stood on one end of our line, looking formidable, while Nari and Tiri held rifles they'd barely trained to use at his side.
Kooper had the other end, worried, no doubt, that Jett would tell him what kind of fool he was for acting this rashly in a volatile situation. We could find ourselves caught in the middle of a horrific battle, being attacked from both sides. Kooper hadn't included us in his personal plans, and we were afraid to ask.
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