MindSighted: BlackWing Pirates, Book 1

by Connie Suttle

  "Yeah."

  Neither of us pointed out that Lorvis was beyond knowing anything, any longer. Her contacts wouldn't have any knowledge of Sabrina's whereabouts, at least. Lorvis' comp-vid, which hadn't been with Lorvis' body, was no longer of any use to them.

  "We're putting a new logo on the ship—we're now officially Gloria I," Trent grinned. "Just in case anybody asks."

  Sabrina

  "How many disguises does the ship have?" I asked at dinner. Jayna, Randl and Travis sat at the table with me while we discussed the new ranos designs, among other things.

  "We have six disguises, all with proper identification, issued by both Alliances," Travis said. "Jayna told you about BlackWing X, that's our seventh identity. There's one more thing, too," he added.

  "What's that?"

  "It'll be a full moon when we land in Jaledis," Travis said.

  "So?" I had no idea where he was going with this.

  "That means David and Susan will change. Bekzi could change too, but he doesn't have to."

  "Change clothes?" I still didn't get it.

  "No, they're shapeshifters. David is an owl; Susan is a hen. Bekzi—you don't want to know."

  "You're joking? A hen? I've never heard of anyone becoming a hen. Predatory animals, yes, but a hen?"

  "I'm a Buff Orpington," Susan walked up to our table wearing a deep frown.

  "I'm sorry. A what?"

  "Buff Orpington. They're not native to either Alliance."

  I'd offended her, clearly. "My apologies," I stood and dipped my head to her. "I'm just—uneducated, it appears."

  By that time the heat in my face had become furnace-worthy and I almost tripped over my own feet stepping away. "I'm going to—ah—bed," I turned and walked quickly out of the galley before I made things worse.

  Trent

  "Susan thinks she upset Sabrina." David set a comp-vid in front of me, with the latest hyperdrive specs. So far, the systems were functioning normally.

  "About what?" I looked up from David's report.

  "Travis told her that Susan and I would be changing when we reached Jaledis, because of the full moon. Sabrina's never heard of a shapeshifting hen. To be fair, Sabrina sort of started it, but Susan couldn't help but pretend to be offended that she'd never heard of a Buff Orpington, before."

  "Can you take the bridge while I go talk to her?"

  "Sure. All I have to do is steer, right?"

  "Don't touch the steering wheel," I teased.

  "I would if it had one," David called after me as I walked away.

  Sabrina

  I considered ignoring the knock on my cabin door, but thought better of it. Crawling off my bunk, I walked the few steps to answer it.

  Travis and Trent stood outside.

  "We thought a short debriefing on the crew might be in order," Trent cleared his throat.

  "We'll leave the door open," Travis shouldered his way into my narrow room. Both leaned against the opposite wall while I sat on my bunk, waiting to be enlightened.

  "Everybody aboard ship—except you—has mindspeech," Travis began. "As you've already been told, David, Bekzi and Susan are shapeshifters. Terrett is Sirenali. We'll discuss his special talents later."

  "Everybody has mindspeech? Including the chicken?" I squeaked. I wanted mindspeech. I wanted to fold space, too.

  "Can Susan fold space?" I demanded.

  "No, but Terrett can," Trent answered.

  "Of course he can," I tossed up a hand in resignation. "Does the hen lay eggs, too?"

  "Never," Trent shook his head in an exaggerated manner.

  "Almost never," Travis shook his head.

  They were teasing me. I bit back a laugh.

  "Susan isn't just a cook," Travis became serious. "She fought in the battle for Kifirin a decade ago. When you can say something similar, then you can make fun of the chicken."

  "I didn't mean to. It's—I feel so left out," I mumbled, dropping my eyes.

  "We know. But don't let your feelings of inadequacy harm another," Trent said. "Susan would die to protect your life—that's how brave and committed she is. She also likes to cook, so she serves double duty aboard ship, as does Bekzi."

  "Sorry. I should have realized that an ASD ship would have a fully-trained crew aboard."

  "Look, we know you've been through a lot, lately, so we can excuse some of your behavior. Just don't let it happen again," Travis said, pulling away from the wall.

  "Yeah. I'm sorry. Tell Susan I didn't mean to upset her."

  "She knows."

  My face burned as the brothers walked out of my cabin and shut the door behind them. It was their job to maintain order on the ship. I had a lot to learn and a long, long way to go.

  Even Randl wasn't speaking to me when we disembarked from the ship early that morning. If I'd had mindspeech, I'd apologize to him, too. After lying awake most of the night, I realized that I'd treated Susan's shapeshifting ability as a disability, and her job on the ship as a reason to think less of her.

  Randl could easily take my words to heart, too, because his eyes didn't work.

  He saw with his mental vision, which was his way of compensating for his blindness. I felt like the worst asshole in both Alliances after coming to that conclusion.

  As we'd already gone through our exercises and had a rather subdued breakfast aboard ship, my lab was our first destination after landing on Jaledis.

  I'd led the way toward the door to my lab, ready to submit to hand and eye scans when Randl shouted mentally for me to back away.

  We're being watched, he informed us. Like someone was watching the building in Mer'bali.

  "Well, I think we ought to go visit the uncles," Trent declared, and just like that, we all turned away from my lab door and walked out of the facility.

  Randl

  Ilya Ironsmith arrived shortly after we'd settled in at Turtle and Flyer's compound. "You're sure it feels the same?" Ilya asked. "Since I wasn't the one to check the other building, I really need as much information as you can give me."

  "It feels exactly the same," I said. "I could feel the prickle of unseen eyes all over me."

  "This puts a crimp in our plans to make additional weapons," Travis pointed out. "We need Sabrina's design and her machinery to do that."

  Ilya looked thoughtful for a moment. "How difficult would it be to confiscate the contents of her lab—by the local ASD office? Say it's evidence in an industrial espionage case—because it is."

  "Randl?" Trent looked in my direction. "Do you think it's only the lab, or the space it occupies that we need to worry about?"

  "I think it may be just the space, but if everything inside it is crated up and hauled away to a secure location, I can get a feel for the crates and let you know if anything from the lab is affected."

  "That sounds like an excellent idea," Travis said. "And, if I put in a request now, I can have a High Demon crew come in to pack everything up. If a spell is responsible for this, they'll nullify it."

  "High Demons nullify spells?" Sabrina whispered.

  "When they're within a certain range," Trent explained, "and it's usually temporary. When they leave, the spell is the same as before, unless the one placing it removes it, as they did in Mer'bali."

  "Do you think they didn't want a closer examination of the spell used?" Terrett asked. He didn't speak often, but when he did, everyone listened.

  "That's what Wellend said," Travis agreed. "The type of spell could leave a signature of some sort, leading them to the spell caster. When Wellend showed up, the spell disappeared."

  "You don't think the caster will know the High Demons are nullifying it?" Susan asked.

  "I doubt it—usually they only notice if the wizard or warlock can't fold space or make an adverse spell work in the presence of a High Demon," Ilya replied. "I've seen it happen," he added.

  "How many do you think it will take to crate everything and move it?" Travis asked Sabrina.

  "Half a dozen or more," she s
ighed. "Please tell them to be careful."

  "I'll make sure of it," Travis nodded. "Ilya, would you like to travel with me to Kifirin?"

  "I'll drive," he laughed and both disappeared.

  Veshtul, Kifirin

  Travis

  "Kory, we need at least six High Demons to pack up lab equipment on Jaledis," I told Kordevik Weth, Crown Prince of Kifirin.

  "That tells me there's a spell involved somewhere," Kory grinned at me. "Lexsi and Reah got in last night, and they say there's something other than waste dumps involved in all this."

  "There is," Ilya said. "We need the equipment away from the building, so I can check the type of spell laid."

  "You got it. I've got a few who are careful enough, I think, to pack up sensitive equipment. How soon?"

  "Now," I shrugged. "If they're available."

  "Have lunch with me, and they'll be ready to go back with you," Kory said.

  Sabrina

  "I'm sorry, Randl," I said, touching his arm lightly. "I just wasn't thinking."

  "You'd be surprised how often that happens," he said, although he refused to turn and look at me.

  "That people inadvertently mistreat others?"

  "I was talking about people not thinking, but the other is true, too. I know you've had trauma in your life, and that you saved lives with your abilities in the past. Yet you look down on the woman who feeds you aboard ship, as if she's somehow not as important."

  "I wish I had some of your talent for seeing things about people," I sighed, dropping my face in my hands. "I'm confined within my own brain matter, though. I hope you can look past that, sometime soon. I miss having a friend and ally."

  "I can understand that. You've recently experienced loss and betrayal. Try not to pass that along, all right?"

  "Yeah." I dropped my hands and stared at his ear, because he still had his face turned away. "Will you look at me, at least?"

  "I can't," he admitted.

  I gasped at his bluntness.

  "Not for the reasons you might think," he held up a hand. "It's just difficult for me to see you in so much pain."

  I sobbed before I could stop myself.

  Chapter 11

  Turbak, Jaledis

  Trent

  "Everything is out of Sabrina's lab and on its way to a local ASD warehouse," Travis dropped onto the floor cushions next to mine. "The High Demons are already back on Kifirin."

  "Are we saving the trek to the warehouse until after dinner?"

  "Yes. No sense in trailing the hover-vans now—they'll have to unload everything first, before we can have Randl take a look. Besides, if anything is affected, it will have to be separated from the rest and locked away. Ilya will visit the lab in the morning, to see if the spell is still in place."

  "You think it will be?"

  "No idea. In Mer'bali, it's as if the spell could sense another spell caster and expired immediately."

  "Is that common?" I asked. I wasn't an expert on anything to do with a wizard's or warlock's spells. Our older brother, on the other hand, was an expert, as was our older sister.

  "You think Ry and Nissa would have dinner with us?" I sat up straighter and turned toward Travis.

  "Maybe," Travis shrugged. "I'll send mindspeech and find out."

  Sabrina

  "We're going to Karathia for dinner," Travis announced after I answered his knock on the door. "Wear something suitable for dinner with the King."

  "You know the King of Karathia?" I asked.

  Travis grinned. "Ry's my older brother."

  "Are there any other important family members you haven't mentioned?" I asked.

  "Sure. Be ready in an hour."

  I watched him saunter away, wondering why he hadn't informed me in mindspeech that we were going to dinner.

  Randl's words came back to me then; they're interested, he'd said. I sighed and closed my cabin door.

  Randl

  Morrett was more than happy to see me when we landed in King Rylend's palace vestibule. He was happy to see his brother Terrett, too. Another guest arrived that I knew; Master Morwin had come with Chloe, his wife.

  I understood then that Morwin was related to David by marriage.

  "Young one," Morwin came to shake my hand. "How are you getting along?"

  "You were taught by Morwin?" Travis and Trent now flanked me.

  "Yes."

  "You must be special," Trent slapped my back. "Morwin taught us and our brothers and sister, plus he's teaching Quin's daughter now."

  "I owed a debt," Morwin's lengthy, red eyebrows wiggled as he drew himself up and glared sternly at the twins. "The payment was teaching this one, which turned into a decided pleasure."

  "You owed somebody?" Travis teased. "I've never heard of such."

  "I owed Zaria. I still do."

  Zaria. My hand immediately went to my chest, where the medallion she'd given me lay beneath my shirt. Travis and Trent had gone silent while watching my swift reaction to Zaria's name.

  "What did you owe Zaria for?" Travis turned back to Morwin.

  "I will not say; it is a private matter." Morwin's tone informed all of us that this path of conversation was now closed.

  "It's good to see you," I said. "And your wife, too." I'd only seen Chloe a time or two, but Morwin clearly loved her more than anything.

  "Please, come in." King Rylend himself had come to welcome us. Beckoning with a hand, he invited us inside his palace.

  Queen Lissa arrived at that moment.

  "Ry, we have a problem," she announced. I drew in a breath at the worried look on her face. Something terrible had just happened, and it worried me more than it did her.

  Travis

  Only a few Alliance worlds still buried their dead. Most opted for cremation or another, more practical form of disposing of remains. Growing a tree from them, or creating jewelry from their carbon was popular in some places.

  Not all the graves had been opened in this cemetery on Cle-Morness. At this location, it was very early in the morning and the sun was barely above the horizon. Fingers of light filtered past high gravestones, revealing many empty graves.

  Shadows created by the gravestones lent a terror-inducing pall to what should have been a peaceful graveyard. Piles of freshly-turned earth littered the ground around each opened grave. I glanced in Ry's direction as he frowned in concentration.

  Mom, Bel Erland and Ilya had come, too, to survey the damage, if you could call it that. Randl, too, had been brought, to employ his particular talents.

  "The stink of power is all over this, but it's not a wizard or warlock's power." Ry lifted his head and grimaced. "Look here—you can see the footprints walking away from the graves. All the burial boxes are opened, too, and they're usually so tightly sealed it would take a grenade to open them."

  "Are you saying we have zombies to worry about, now?" Mom asked. Her hands were on her hips, too, and that was never a good sign.

  "I don't know. No wizard or warlock has this kind of power."

  "I can confirm that," Ilya spoke for the first time. "This puzzles me greatly."

  I stood close to one of the emptied graves; it was neatly excavated, as if it had been done by a hover-digger. There were no vehicle tracks in the freshly-dumped dirt, however, so a machine of any kind wasn't involved.

  It had been done with power.

  "How many?" Dad's arm dropped over my shoulder as he appeared. Uncle Drew did the same for Trent, who stood across the cemetery, examining another empty grave.

  "Twenty-seven," Mom replied. "The most recent burials. I sent mindspeech to Kooper—he's putting all the worlds on alert that still bury their dead."

  "What about the non-Alliance worlds that do it?" Randl spoke for the first time.

  "We don't have many ways to police those," Dad said, turning his gaze on Mom.

  "This feels familiar," Randl said. "The power that lingers—it feels similar to what I felt when the three walked past me at the restaurant in Mer'bali,
although that was much, much weaker than this. This," he swept out a hand, "is terrifying in its strength."

  "That could mean the spell placed on those three was only a tracking spell of some sort," Ry suggested. "You say they disappeared off the street after a while?" I nodded at his question. "That makes sense for it to be only a tracking spell," he said.

  "You mean to tell me that those fuckers disappeared off the Strafer after leaving the two from Jaledis dead behind them, and then, to cap things off, came to a cemetery and raised the dead?"

  "Queen Lissa?" Randl's voice had gone quiet.

  "What is it, Randl?"

  "Has Karzac examined the bodies of Lorvis and Akrinn, yet?"

  "Not yet; he's still studying ways to proceed, to keep any implanted devices intact," Mom said.

  "You may want to make sure they can't get out of wherever they are."

  "Holy, fucking hell," Mom snapped and disappeared.

  Randl

  I was grateful that stasis spells could be placed on food; we didn't eat until long past midnight, Jaledis time.

  By that late hour, at least six graveyards had been visited, and more than two hundred bodies removed—all of them dead within the past three years.

  So many possibilities revolved in my brain, and none were pleasant to dwell upon. Whatever—or whomever—was responsible held a power I'd never experienced, and was able to hide behind it in ways I'd never encountered.

  Morrett and his brothers had a way of concealing themselves, and this, I felt could be similar, but different at the same time.

  How could that be?

  Two words kept repeating in all my wild theories, however, and I wondered if anyone else had turned in that direction.

  They were supposed to be myths, after all.

  "Bro, you need to tell us what's going on in that head of yours," Travis sat down next to me.

  I'd chosen a bench in his uncles' courtyard to think before going to bed.

  Somewhere within the compound, David and Susan, owl and hen, had turned and then flew or wandered within the safe enclosure.