MindSighted: BlackWing Pirates, Book 1

by Connie Suttle

  "I'm afraid to say it," I confessed.

  "Say it anyway. It can't be any worse than the nightmares I've had after watching horror vids when I was young."

  "They're just tales," I said.

  "Then put it out there and we'll poke holes in the theory."

  "Necromancy—by a sorcerer," I winced as I said the last word. As I'd said, both those things were myths and open to ridicule.

  "Well, that's different," Travis sighed. "I was worried you were going to say zombies for real—you know the brain-eating, virus-toting kind."

  "You've already seen a stasis spell placed on your food tonight," I sighed. "What if the one who pulled them from their graves has employed something similar, to keep them whole and functioning?"

  "That makes terrifying sense," Travis admitted. "Anything else?"

  "If he can hide from us while doing this—and while invading Sabrina's lab, he—or she—could have been under our noses on Pyrik and we'd never know."

  "You had to make it worse, didn't you? I need to get with Kooper. Go to bed, you look worn out. No early call tomorrow—sleep as long as you can while we get the wheels turning on this."

  Both of us turned our heads as Susan the hen wandered past, singing a hen's song as she stepped daintily along. My smile was a tired one, but it came anyway.

  Travis

  That's what he said—that the one behind this could have been under our noses on Pyrik, and we wouldn't have guessed, I sent to Kooper.

  He really said necromancy and sorcery?

  He did. He wasn't comfortable doing it, but I doubt he'd have said either of those things if he didn't have strong suspicions.

  Then let's hope there's a more mundane explanation. A rogue wizard or warlock would be bad enough. Bringing something out of the realm of myth to trouble us—we may not have an answer for this, because we've never dealt with it before.

  Ry says that no wizard or warlock has been able to reanimate the dead like that—they might manipulate a body, but it would take careful concentration to do just one. This was done on a large scale.

  What the hell do you suppose anybody would want with reanimated bodies, anyway?

  No idea. I doubt it was done for fun, though.

  All right—I'll tighten security on Pyrik. Let me know if you find anything in the equipment from Sabrina's lab, Kooper said.

  Will do. I'm letting the troops sleep in—we've had a rough day.

  Good. Have a report to me by tomorrow afternoon, at the latest.

  Yes, Director.

  Sabrina

  If I'd still been my own boss, I'd have called in sick. I doubted anyone in our party felt like rolling out of bed at ten bells the following morning. Nevertheless, we shuffled into the courtyard, where breakfast was being served.

  David looked as if he were asleep sitting up, and had barely touched his food. Susan was nearly the same at a table farther down.

  The difference was this; David had nobody to prop him up. Susan was being propped up by Uncle Flyer, who wore a grin as she slept on his shoulder.

  David has a wife, but she's an owl, too, so the best they could do is lean into one another, Randl informed me while shoving a mug of tea in my direction. I frowned at him, hoping he'd tell me the story of how Susan and Flyer had come to be together.

  Mutual attraction, he informed me without hesitation.

  I wanted mindspeech. How did one go about getting it? Was it even possible? If it were, everybody would have it, I told myself sternly.

  "Kooper wants a report on the lab equipment by this afternoon," Travis announced at the head of the table. "Eat and be ready in an hour."

  I slurped tea, hoping it would wake me enough to do a proper inventory later. If I were to fabricate ranos pistols for the ship's crew, I needed everything there and in working order to accomplish that. I'd have to unpack and set it up, too. I hoped I'd have help for that part.

  Randl

  Uniforms weren't advised for this or any mission on Jaledis, so we dressed casually. We'd be unpacking and examining lab equipment, which would require comfort and ease of movement. Sabrina was in charge of inventory; I was in charge of reporting any abnormalities about it.

  "Ready?" Trent asked as I joined him and Travis in the courtyard.

  "Yes."

  "I'm here," Sabrina walked up while pulling her hair into the usual ponytail she preferred when she worked or exercised.

  "Good. I'm taking you two in first, to check things over," Travis said. "Trent will bring the others when we know it's safe."

  I nodded my agreement—that was safest, in my opinion. No need to expose the others if danger waited.

  Without a word, Travis folded space with Sabrina and me, landing us in a cavernous warehouse, where Sabrina's equipment was dwarfed by the empty space around it.

  High, overhead lamps brightly illuminated the space, as if it had been used before to closely examine evidence and other confiscated items. The lamps hung from the ceiling on extended rods, which were roughly the height of a tall man. Still, they were elevated far above anything placed on the floor, so even a tall vehicle could be set there and not disturb them.

  "This much space makes it look pitiful," Sabrina sighed as she studied the boxes and crates at the center of the concrete floor.

  "Will you do your thing, Randl?" Travis asked.

  "Yes." I walked toward the boxes and crates, reaching the first one. I felt nothing from it, even when I placed a hand on the outside.

  "Nothing," I turned toward Travis.

  "That looks like my parts printer," Sabrina said and walked forward to lift the lid.

  At that moment, a metallic ping brought our heads up—as if something had bounced off one of the metal lampshades hanging over our heads.

  The mental buzz filled my head the moment something dropped near Sabrina's feet. "No," I shouted as she bent to pick it up.

  Her scream was cut off as she disappeared, but the ringing of the object she'd lifted as it hit the floor a second time will haunt my dreams forever.

  Mer'bali, Pyrik

  Kooper Griff

  "What is this?" I fingered the coin after we'd determined it was no longer dangerous—to us, anyway.

  Randl and Travis sat in my makeshift office at the hotel. Travis' gaze was on me; Randl's head was bowed and he looked ready to crumble.

  Travis wasn't happy—I could see that. He and Trent apparently had a m'fiyah with Sabrina, and Lissa had muted it until Sabrina's three years were done with the ASD.

  As for Randl and his feelings for her, I had no idea whether there was any affection for him from Sabrina.

  It made the circumstances that much worse.

  "It's a coin. An old one, from long before the fall of Vogeffa II," Randl whispered. My fingers stilled on the coin in question.

  Why had they chosen what was surely a valuable object? It was gold; I knew that much, and the design was still visible—it hadn't worn away from age, as many coins did. It didn't escape me that Randl was born on Vogeffa II, just as his parents were. At least his father was, I amended my assumption. Few knew anything of his mother, but she was long dead.

  "What does this mean?" I asked. Did the enemy know we had a clairvoyant working for us, from Vogeffa II? Was this their way of taunting us? Of showing us that they could take what they wanted with impunity?

  They'd certainly taken Sabrina, and nobody could get a hint of her location, not even Randl and Quin.

  I worried that she'd been killed outright, but she was valuable as a brilliant scientist, and I hoped that would keep her alive long enough for us to find her.

  That was before I considered that they'd wanted her to die along with Fergue. I wasn't about to say that to the two men who sat before me. Sabrina's death could destroy both of them.

  "Randl, do you have any idea of a connection?" I asked the obvious question.

  "I don't know," he half-sobbed. "I can't see it, if there is."

  "Travis, bring your ship here. We
have to start somewhere, and this is as good a place as any."

  "Right away," Travis stood and nodded to me. Randl was slower to rise. "Come on, bro," Travis draped an arm over Randl's shoulders. "We'll figure this out."

  Sabrina

  I landed hard, wherever I was, and it took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dim light.

  A stone wall was behind me, a cold, stone floor beneath my body. Close, stone walls lay to the left and right of me, but bars lined the space in front of me.

  Bars and a man outside them, I realized. I scrabbled backward and pushed myself against the wall as hard as I could, once he became visible to me.

  "It won't do any good to attempt an escape." His voice was rough, as if he weren't used to speaking. "You belong to us, now, and you'll do whatever we want."

  "Fuck you," I hissed, desperately attempting to get my feet under me so I could stand and defend myself if necessary.

  "Oh, we'll get to that," he laughed.

  Queen's Palace, Le-Ath Veronis

  Lissa

  "Now what?"

  Karzac and I had stood outside the glass-walled, sealed room and watched the reanimated bodies of Akrinn and Lorvis stumble about the enclosure for several minutes before I could bring myself to form a sentence.

  "Do you suppose the spell will wear out eventually?" Karzac's train of thought was certainly different from mine.

  "Why would you want to know that?"

  "There has to be a purpose behind the reanimation—otherwise, why expend the effort?" Karzac's mouth was set in a grim line after he spoke, and his brows were knit in concentration.

  "True," I acknowledged.

  "If these wear down, it will give us an idea of the timeframe for their use or purpose, wouldn't you say?"

  "Yes, unless the one responsible keeps topping off the spell," I replied.

  "Also a concern. Still, I wish to know the extent of the spell and how long it lasts. That will give us some information. After all, it isn't as if they can speak—and won't require feeding. We merely have to keep an eye on them."

  "Also true. I'd like Quin and Randl to take a look, though," I said.

  "Then arrange to bring them here," Karzac nodded.

  "Lissa?" Drake and Drew appeared at my side; they'd folded in from somewhere. Drake was the one to speak, though, and I knew immediately that something was wrong.

  "What is it?" I turned to my Falchani mates.

  "The enemy has taken Sabrina," Drew said. "Our boys are devastated, even with the mute in place."

  "Holy, fucking, butt-busting hell," I snapped. "Come on, let's get started on finding her. Karzac, will you ask Kooper to bring Randl and Quin? If there are any answers in those two," I jerked my head toward Lorvis and Akrinn, "Then we need to know what they are."

  BlackWing X, Orbiting Pyrik

  Randl

  Travis and Trent had employed power to move the ship into an orbit around Pyrik. Kooper didn't want us to dock—the twins could take us to the surface if it were necessary.

  Kooper appeared after our midday meal, saying that Queen Lissa wanted Quin and me to examine the reanimated bodies of Lorvis and Akrinn, to see if we could tell her anything regarding Sabrina's whereabouts.

  I was ready to go in an instant. I had no other options at the moment; Sabrina's kidnapping and my imagination had begun to play tricks on me. Truthfully, I was very close to black depression, as she was all I could think about.

  "Take them to Mom," Travis told Trent, meaning Quin and me. "See if there's any information they can get from those two traitors."

  "I'm ready now," Trent said, lifting a jacket from his chair in the lounge. "What about Quin?" he asked Kooper.

  "I'll bring her. Go ahead and take Randl now."

  With a nod to Kooper, Trent folded space with me, and we landed in his mother's private study, where she waited for us.

  Queen's Palace, Le-Ath Veronis

  Lissa

  Trent arrived with Randl first. I went to my son and pulled him into a hug. I'm sorry, honey, I sent to him.

  We have to find her, her replied before pulling away.

  That's when I really noticed Randl. Pale and drawn, his face was like a mask. He, like my twins, was terrified for Sabrina.

  Kooper arrived at that moment with Quin and Justis. Both looked as if they'd dressed hurriedly. "Bel and a few others are on their way," Kooper informed me.

  "Good. I know it's late, Pyrik time. If anybody wants a bed for the night, I'll arrange it."

  Healing sleep? Trent asked. For Randl and me?

  I'll see to it, I replied.

  Randl

  "We can see in, they can't see out—just in case," Queen Lissa said as Lorvis and Akrinn shuffled about inside their cage.

  "This is frightening," Quin whispered. King Justis, who stood behind her, gripped her shoulders as red wings tightened against her back. His red wings rustled, indicating his displeasure at what we were seeing.

  At least Sabrina hadn't seen this, which brought me back to the reason I was here. "I get nothing about Sabrina from these." I shivered, which embarrassed me. "I think they were used and then discarded. Whether their knowledge of Sabrina was utilized in her capture, I have no idea. I can't see through them to the one who did this."

  "What about the coin?" Bel Erland asked.

  "Ilya believes it to be a focused spell, meant for Sabrina only," Kooper replied. "Geared to her fingerprints or DNA or whatever. It didn't escape any of us that it fell near her, either."

  "My warning came too late—she'd already touched it." I admitted my guilt in the matter. "The fact that it's an ancient coin from Vogeffa II hasn't escaped me, either."

  "You think they're taunting you personally, or sending a challenge?" Lissa asked.

  "No idea. It could just be coincidence."

  "What does your gut say?" she asked.

  "My gut says Vogeffa II is involved somehow."

  "We know that V'ili and Cayetes were taking locals from Gungl, and planned to take those from outlying villages to supply Cayetes' need for bodies," Kooper said. "That's why Randl and his people were moved to Harifa Edus. How difficult would it be for V'ili to place obsessions on some of the population there?"

  "Easy enough," Lissa snorted softly. "I have to say, though, that this," she pointed at the bodies inside their glass cage, "is a new twist, don't you think? If V'ili could place an obsession on somebody able to do this, then we could be in bigger trouble than we think."

  "There were plenty of mutants living on Vogeffa II," Trent said, dropping a hand on my shoulder. "No offense, bro," he added.

  "None taken," I replied. I knew as well as anyone that those from Gungl were exceedingly strange at times. Had that world spawned a sorcerer? Was that why he'd used an old coin from Vogeffa II's past?

  "I'd like to talk to Pap," I said.

  "He's on the light half of the planet—I can bring him in the morning for breakfast," Lissa offered.

  "That would be fine," I sighed. Pap had plenty of experience with those from Gungl—he'd bartered with many of them, trading meat and vegetables from our village in exchange for other goods and coins from the capital city. Maybe he'd heard rumors of a power wielder among them.

  In my mind, I'd skirted the issue of my mother coming from there—she'd died shortly after I was born, and Pap was reluctant to talk about her. I saw very little of her in him, too, and that left a blank spot in the record of my existence.

  I knew she hadn't been the power wielder, though, because others in my old village never said anything, other than she was kind and a welcome member of the community. If she'd had power, she wouldn't be dead. Instead, someone else with power was alive and causing trouble.

  I wanted Sabrina back. Therefore, I'd be forced to hunt him or her—more diligently than I already was.

  How to do that plagued my mind. I'd already exhausted all my resources, and nothing had come. Perhaps my mind was frozen because Sabrina had been taken. No new ideas on how
to find and rescue her would come from a frozen mind—of that I was sure.

  "Young one?" Karzac the physician stood before me. I blinked, bringing myself away from my thoughts to focus on him.

  "Sir?" I croaked as green-gold eyes gazed into mine. I blinked again while he studied me curiously, like a bird who'd found an unlikely creature in its nest. Then, he tapped a finger to my forehead and that's the last I recalled until the following morning.

  Trent

  Rigo carried Randl to bed; Mom called him to the dungeon just before Karzac placed the healing sleep. It wasn't difficult to see the toll this had taken on Randl, and, according to Karzac, his mind was in turmoil over it.

  "That will affect the body, too," Karzac said, his voice gruff as we left the dungeon behind by folding space.

  He'd said that to me once I was in bed. I felt like a child again, as Karzac placed a finger against my forehead so I could sleep.

  Morning had arrived, and although the fear and worry came rushing back, at least my body was rested enough to deal with another onslaught.

  I wanted to see Randl's father, too. If he had information regarding the coin or anything else, I wished to hear it myself. Therefore, when Mom's mindspeech woke me for breakfast, I was out of bed, showered and dressed in no time.

  "Pap, this is Captain Trent," Randl introduced us as I sat down at the table placed in the arboretum. Only a few would come to this private meeting, after all. Kooper had also come; he was just as curious as I was regarding Vogeffa II's involvement.

  "Captain Trent," Brandl Gage held out a hand and we shook.

  "He knows you're my son," Mom said, causing me to release a pent-up sigh. Brandl was her employee, now, so I wasn't surprised that she'd confided in him.

  "What can you tell us about this coin?" Kooper leaned in and set the old coin from Vogeffa II in front of Brandl while Randl watched.

  "I have one like it, but it's not nearly as well-preserved," Brandl stood to reach in his pocket. "My late wife gave it to me, and as you will see—it's had a much harder life than the one you have."

  He drew a gold coin from his trousers and set it beside the other. He was correct—his showed signs of much use combined with age. "You have to understand, however, that these coins floated about Gungl regularly. We were seldom paid with them, because they were more valuable than most of our vegetables and meats. They weren't common, but not too uncommon, either."