Astlin saw flashes of her own shameful past. “I understand,” she said softly.
“We’re right back where we started,” said Gid.
“Not necessarily,” Jaren said. He put his hand on Astlin’s shoulder. “Thera’s in Avalon. Just have her send you a mental picture.”
Astlin smiled. “That should work. Now all I have to do is take the Wheel.”
“I’m still not a hundred percent on this,” said Gid.
“Don’t be stupid,” Jaren said. “You’ve spent how many hours on the Wheel in the past week? You’re asking for ERIS if you don’t take a break. And whether or not Astlin can get us to Avalon, she’s the only one qualified to relieve you.”
Gid leaned against the railing and sighed. Then he stood up, straightened his jacket, and stepped down from the Wheel. The raised disc that had glowed white while he’d stood on it went dark.
“All yours.” Gid motioned from Astlin to the steps leading up to the Wheel.
Astlin looked over the expectant faces of Gid, Jaren, and the bridge crew.
I’m about to take control of a warship and ask a goddess if I can bring it to her mother’s hidden kingdom. Nothing to be afraid of.
Except for the fact that piloting this same ship had gotten Zan possessed by the trapped soul of the former captain—who’d then proceeded to murder her.
But what were the odds of that happening again?
Astlin ascended to the Wheel. Standing atop it made her even more aware that everyone was looking at her. She took her mind off it by running through a quick inspection of the Wheel’s surface and the instruments attached to the railing.
Everything looked fine as far as she could tell. At that point a fully trained steersman would have used the Workings that linked a pilot’s mind and senses to the ship. Astlin had never learned them, relying instead on her father or emergency backup systems to connect with the Wheel.
Xander didn’t know those Workings, either, but he’d been able to fly the Theophilus by willing his consciousness to extend itself over the ship. Astlin concentrated on joining herself to the Serapis, and the Wheel glowed bright white beneath her.
Astlin got the strange yet familiar feeling of having two bodies—her own standing on the Wheel, and the massive hull of the Serapis. The unrepaired damage from recent battles still smarted, but paled next to her sense of the warship’s barely restrained power.
To her relief, there was no evil presence haunting the connection like a spirit in a golden flask.
But the sooner she got this over with, the better.
“Hello, everyone,” Astlin said through the intercom. The ship’s internal vision showed her passengers and crew; even the Nesshin camping out around the observation deck tree, pausing to listen.
“I took the Wheel so Gid can rest,” she continued, “and for another important reason. The Night Gen have conquered Temil, so we can’t stay here.
“But there’s one last place free of Shaiel’s control—Avalon, the home of the Light Gen. It’s protected by Queen Nakvin and her daughter Thera. If you want me to, I can ask them to let us in.”
“A word of advice from one captain to another,” said Gid. “Give them a voting deadline.”
“Since there’s probably not much time until the Night Gen find us,” Astlin sent out to the ship, “please take a vote within three hours and send someone to the backup bridge with the result. Thank you.”
“Not bad,” said Gid. “That should be plenty of time to reach a consensus—provided the Night Gen leave us alone for the next three hours.”
Astlin only half-heard what Gid said, because through the ship’s magnified vision she caught sight of several objects glittering in space around the moon’s curved horizon. She felt as if she were sinking into the Wheel when she realized that the angular, glossy shapes were speeding toward her.
“We don’t have three hours,” Astlin said, trying to keep her voice calm. “Three minutes might be pushing it.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Jaren.
Saba, a Nesshin who’d been trained in ether-running by the late steersman of the Theophilus, reported from a sensor station.
“I’m picking up several small, fast-moving craft in our orbit. Their drives aren’t prana-based—probably nexus-runners. They’ll be on us in thirty seconds.”
Astlin recognized the obsidian spear points as the same kind of nexus-runner she’d flown to Temil. She made telepathic contact a Night Gen pilot.
I’m the steersman of the Serapis, Astlin informed him. We’re not interfering with you. What do you want?”
You already have interfered, the nexus-runner pilot replied. The sole survivor of Temil’s ruling cabal has informed us of your role in murdering his co-conspirators. We claim jurisdiction over perpetrators of the Guild’s Purges. As such, you are guilty of frustrating Gen justice. Surrender your ship. All passengers and crew will be taken into custody.
The Magists wanted to slaughter everyone, Astlin argued. I was defending myself and one of your people.
Tell Admiral Raig at your interrogation, the pilot said.
Gid’s voice called Astlin’s focus back to the bridge. “Can anyone explain why we’re about to be shot down?”
“The Night Gen commander was itching to kill Temil’s leaders, and he’s upset that I beat him to it,” Astlin said. “He wants the Serapis seized and us arrested.”
“He’ll get what he wants if we’re still here in ten seconds,” said Gid. “Democracy is nice, but it’s time to make an executive decision.”
“I second that motion,” Jaren agreed.
Astlin peered into the ether’s farthest heights. A familiar black pyramid basked in the light of the White Well. But she wasn’t interested in Zadok’s Nexus. Two other divine souls—one in the form of a cube; the other a diamond—loomed to the pyramid’s left and right.
The nexuses were as far apart as neighboring star systems, but from Astlin’s perspective they formed a black constellation.
Hello? Greeting the black diamond felt oddly like talking to herself. I’m Astlin. We met once in Kairos.
The answer was startlingly prompt and blunt. I know who you are and who’s aboard your ship, said Thera. What do you want?
The corner of Astlin’s mind tasked with watching the incoming nexus-runners cried out in panic when they swarmed into firing range of the Serapis.
Red lights flashed and alarms blared on the bridge. “Fifty ships off the starboard bow!” Saba yelled. “They’re fanning out to surround us.”
We’re under attack! Astlin told Thera. Let us in to Avalon.
I’ll have to ask permission, Thera said.
Green-white light flashed from the points of a dozen attacking ships, and Astlin felt a dozen wounds burned into her ship’s hull.
Gid ran to a crew station. “Let’s get some weapons online!”
“I’m trying,” Jaren called from another post. “I’ve only got one arm.”
We have to get out of here now! Astlin thought. She couldn’t move the ship to Avalon, but then again she didn’t have to. Picturing Keth’s fiery sphere, she willed herself and the Serapis into orbit above it.
“My screen is clear,” Saba marveled. “The moon’s gone. Where are we?”
“Keth,” said Gid. “He turned and smiled up at Astlin. “If we weren’t sure that our steersman could move the whole ship, we are now.”
“Nakvin is the best pilot I’ve ever known,” Jaren said. “She’d be proud.”
Astlin tried not to grin. “We’re not out of trouble yet. The Night Gen can track us nexically. This just bought us—”
Dark, formless thoughts; sharp impressions of agony, called to Astlin’s soul. For a moment she feared that the presence once trapped in the Serapis had returned. But the incoherent yearnings weren’t coming from the Wheel; not directly.
Through the ship’s magnified sight, Astlin saw a swirling disc of clouds hovering over the burning sphere. Lightning flashed between the spiraling
arms, coloring the storm a faint electric blue.
The lightning and the silent wind spoke to her in voices filled with chaos and pain. The storm screamed in mindless torment, but Astlin understood.
It was calling her closer.
“What is it?” asked Gid.
“Zan,” Astlin thought aloud.
“I’m detecting an ethereal disturbance in high orbit,” Saba said. “It’s the Air Stratum rift the Theophilus went through. We’re turning toward it.”
“The Night Gen probably won’t follow us,” said Jaren, “but trust me, Astlin, you don’t want to go in there.”
Astlin heard what Jaren said, but fascination with the storm held her will captive. Something in the rift was contacting her through her connection to the Wheel, and it knew that connection well enough to turn her bond with the ship into shackles for her mind.
Sorry for making you wait, Thera’s nexus said. There were complications I had to sort out. You can bring the ship through now.
An image of rolling green hills under a clear blue sky drove away the storm that had raged in Astlin’s mind. She grabbed hold of the beautiful scene and willed herself into it.
The emerald hills of Avalon reminded Astlin of her life beyond the Nexus. But the faint memories fled when a rumbling masculine voice came over the Serapis’ sending.
“This is Captain Anris of Her Majesty’s Army. On behalf of Queen Nakvin, I welcome you to Avalon.”
Astlin’s smile colored her voice as cheers went up from the handful of men stationed around her.
“Thanks for the warm welcome, Captain. We have injured in need of medical help and passengers the queen will want to see. Is there anyplace to land this thing?”
Anris gave a deep, rich laugh. “It’s been years since a vessel your size came into port, but we can accommodate you. I’m sending directions now.”
The dock where Astlin landed had been created by removing the southern half of a hilltop. Towers and cranes stood atop the resulting cliff.
Despite what Anris had said, Astlin worried at first that there wouldn’t be enough room for the massive warship. But she soon found that the dock could have held a vessel even bigger than the Serapis.
Astlin felt relieved to get off the Wheel—though probably not as relieved as Gid, who’d flown the Serapis most of the way from Keth. At Saba’s request she went to round up the other Nesshin.
She found all eight of them on the observation deck standing beyond the room’s central tree. Three men, one woman, and four children stared through the broad window at a land that rose and fell like waves of a green sea.
Astlin stood beside the stout, spreading tree. “You had such a long journey,” she said to the Nesshin. “I can’t imagine what this is like for you.”
Some of them turned to face her, their eyes glistening with an emotion that she had no name for. But there were traces of pride and gratitude; sadness and even fear.
“Astlin!” Rosemy ran toward Astlin, who caught the small girl up in her arms and kissed her on the cheek. Her dark hair had been braided, and her joyous warmth spread through Astlin’s chest.
“Is it true?” Rosemy asked. “Did you bring us here?”
“With lots of help from lots of other people,” Astlin said.
Zay, the short-haired boy with a serious look, turned from the window and asked, “Are we really in hell?”
“Mind yourself, boy.” Marse, the only other grown woman present, swatted the back of Zay’s bristly head. “You’re too young to remember Tharis. If this is hell, I’ll take it over that blasted ash heap!”
Astlin set Rosemy down and spoke to the Nesshin as a group. “This is just a dock out in the countryside. A transport is coming to take us to Seele, the city where the queen lives.”
“Can they help Teg there?” asked Marse.
“I hope so,” Astlin said, trying to hide her fear. The ship’s medical staff had done all they could for him, but Teg remained in a coma.
“We’ll pack up our things and get ready to disembark,” said a stocky bald man named Hez.
“Good,” said Astlin, suppressing a painful longing for Xander. “We’ll leave from the hangar in an hour.” She forced herself to give the Nesshin a parting smile. Then she turned and walked briskly from the room.
27
The airdrifter sent from Seele touched down in the hangar with a whisper of engines and a grace that followed its design. The vehicle’s white hull was a series of gentle curves flowing into each other with no hard edges. Though dwarfed by the ether-runner within which it docked, the transport took on everyone from the Serapis.
Astlin stood on the floor that still showed burn marks from her fight with the kost days and decades ago. She watched the Mithgarders and Nesshin board the transport with their few belongings while Light Gen in green, gold, and brown uniforms helped the medical staff load Teg’s hospital bed.
Tharis and Keth are dead, Astlin recalled as a grey cloud darkened her thoughts. The Night Gen took Mithgar, and now—with help from me—Temil.
That wasn’t really fair. She’d been trying to save Xander, and Shaiel had used her—just like he’d used the Night Gen’s thirst for vengeance. She’d gotten revenge too, but Shaiel had taken her husband.
And what Shaiel took, he never gave back.
The approach of an awe-inspiring figure jarred Astlin out of her brooding. His armor of overlapping leather bands covered lavender skin stretched over lean muscles. Short hair as white as summer clouds crowned an almost boyish face and matched the feathered wings folded against his back.
The hangar’s huge size obscured the winged man’s stature at first, but even before he towered over Astlin she realized that he was a giant. The hooked blade at his side could have been a two-handed scythe. His light brown, almost yellow, eyes shone down on her.
“You must be Astlin.” His voice boomed like approaching thunder. “I thought it well to introduce myself in person. Captain Anris, at your service.”
Anris’ hand was slender and nimble, but it still engulfed hers. Astlin found it impossible not to smile.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m honored. And all of us are grateful to your queen for taking us in.”
Anris returned her smile, banishing all but a trace of the shadow on her soul. “She will be glad to hear that.” The giant fell in beside Astlin and placed a guiding hand on her back. “Come! Hearing it from your lips will increase her gladness.”
Astlin joined Anris in the transport’s spacious cockpit, where Jaren and Gid were already seated. She sat down in a plush red chair while Anris, who remained standing, informed the Gen pilot that they were ready for takeoff.
Early into the flight over marching rows of forested ridges, Jaren raised his eyes to Anris. “I don’t think anyone will object to me pointing out you’re not a Gen.”
Jaren’s almost accusing tone struck a sour note with Astlin.
“You could be a little more polite,” she said.
Anris waved her objection away. “Captain Peregrine’s curiosity gives no offense. I am a malakh—one of several peoples that stand between his race and the gods.”
Astlin looked at Anris with newfound wonder. Xander’s friend Nahel had been a malakh, so she’d known that they existed. But Nahel’s death had kept her from getting to know him or his people.
He died trying to rescue Xander, she recalled. From me.
The shadow came rushing back, pressing down on Astlin’s soul as if it had physical weight. She silently pledged to follow Nahel’s example if necessary.
“That’s an interesting accent,” Jaren told Anris. “Are you Thysian?”
Anris drew himself up, and Astlin worried at first that his head would scrape the white carpeted ceiling.
“I served as messenger to the pantheon of Khemet,” he said with pride. “It was once my honor to carry petitions from the commanders of our armies to the gods, and to deliver victory from the gods to our armies.”
The malakh’s br
ight face darkened. “But a day came when there were no answers to deliver; and soon thereafter, no more petitions. For many years I wandered, lost.”
Anris’ expression changed again, this time to the stern look of a penitent.
“I was a shell of myself, little more than a beast, when he found me,” said Anris, his voice rising. “Almeth Elocine. Almeth Blackbow. Favored of Midras. The last god.”
Anris shook his head. “Many a blow we dealt to the Guild when we fought side by side, but defeat had the final word. No matter. I swore to guard his people, and my vow has passed to Queen Nakvin. I shall serve her until the Gen need no longer fear any foe, or until another succeeds her.”
“It says a lot about the Light Gen that they’re ruled by a half-demon and protected by a malakh,” Jaren said.
“Do you take offense at my presence?” Anris asked.
Gid spoke up. “Having captained a crew of weirdos and outcasts, I can say for a fact that you fit right in.”
Silence fell as the airdrifter soared through the open sky. Soon a prominent peak appeared on the horizon, taller than any hill that Astlin had seen in Avalon, but not quite a mountain. Small towns nestled inside clearings on its forested slopes. The very top was crowned with a city built in harmony with the trees growing around and throughout it.
“Seele,” Anris announced, “the royal hill, city, and court of Avalon. The Gen of old paid a terrible price to raise it, and the Light Gen recently paid dearly in blood to free themselves from that tithe. Her Majesty will receive you there.”
The transport descended in a gentle spiral over the city and landed on a lower summit that had been leveled off and paved with white stone. Through the right hand window Astlin saw a retaining wall that sloped away from the landing pad to blend with the green hillside.
The airdrifter landed as softly as a fallen leaf, and Anris motioned to the cockpit door.
“I welcome you as an officer of the court of Seele,” he said. “Go freely under our hospitality and protection.”
The Secret Kings Page 23
