Sky Raiders

by Michelle Diener

  Garek's smile broadened. “It wasn't quite a pillow and a blanket, but I did carry you into the transporter and pillow your coat under your head.”

  “Like I said to your father, I have no idea what you're talking about.” She pressed her lips to the side of his neck, then at the sound of Kas clearing his throat behind her, stood up and went into her brother's arms.

  When he'd squeezed her hard and let her go, she went to the window to look out. “The Dartalian Range?”

  She had never seen mountains from above, and pressed her face against the window to drink it in.

  “That's The Finger,” Zek said, pointing out the peak.

  “Oh. I've heard of it, but I never thought I'd see it. It does look like a finger.”

  She caught a glimpse of silver out of the corner of her eye, felt the prickle of fear run down her arms as she turned, and then blew out a breath when she saw it was Dom's transporter, once again a little behind and to the right.

  “Dom all right?” she asked, looking back at Garek.

  “He's tense, but yes, he'll last until we get to Harven's capital.” Garek looked less strained than he had before they landed on the Endless Escarpment, even though he hadn't slept for nearly a day, and had called the Change at least three times.

  “What?” He frowned, catching her staring at him, and she shook her head, blew him a kiss.

  “How long until we're there?”

  “Luf is a week on foot from where we are now,” Zek said. “I have no experience on how long it will take to fly. But it took me two months to reach the Endless Escarpment, and we've done it in a few hours, so soon, I expect. Very soon.” He looked around the transporter with a gaze that said he was thinking just how much money and time he would save if only he had one of his own.

  She could see the last row of mountains, like sentinels standing watch over Harven, slightly lower than those deeper in the range, but sheer, the gray, jagged cliffs an almost impenetrable wall.

  “Cassinya is just down there.” Luci came in, looking a little pale, but otherwise recovered. She stood beside Taya and pointed down. “There on the foothills. The gateway to Harven from Dartalia.”

  “You have children?” Taya asked, thinking of Luca, of her and Kas's relief when Garek had confirmed he was all right.

  “Two, but my parents were also left behind. I know they'll have taken care of them.”

  She nodded, and stood quietly as Luci took over the directions from Zek, exclaiming with interest at the landmarks she'd only ever seen from the ground, as well as ones she'd missed before.

  “I didn't know that old fort was there,” she said, and Taya saw the one she meant, a ruin that looked as if it had been gnawed down by time, standing at the end of an overgrown track that was hidden from the main road by a thick wood. “I've passed that way many times, and had no idea.”

  “Look, it's a short cut to Luf, if you can navigate the track,” Zek murmured. He pointed to where the track bypassed the fort and continued on, meeting the road at a point Taya guessed was closer to the capital city.

  “You're right. But it looks impassable.” Luci tapped the window thoughtfully.

  Zek gave a reluctant nod, but Taya guessed he would at least try to use it, the next time he made his way from Cassinya to Luf.

  “And there we are,” Luci said, her voice soft in the cabin. “Luf is ahead.”

  Taya raised her gaze, from where she'd been staring at the ground below, and saw in the distance a walled city, like Juli and Gara, crenellations clear in the afternoon light. It sat on top of a low hill, the walls sitting like a crown on a head.

  There were flags flying and she caught the glint of armor on the walls.

  Even though she wasn't home yet, it felt good, this first step in bringing the Illy home.

  She glanced sideways at Aidan, standing with his feet apart, hands clasped behind his back, gaze fixed on the city before them.

  He was most likely thinking how best he could use this situation to West Lathor's advantage, and she couldn't fault him for it.

  It would be good to have a strong leader again. Someone who put West Lathor first.

  And if she guessed right, this would be the first step he took on the road to becoming her liege.

  Chapter 44

  “Where is a good place to land in the city?” Garek asked, looking across at Luci. “It'll need to be big enough for both transporters.”

  Luci glanced over her shoulder from her position at the window. “I've been thinking about it and the park in front of the palace makes the most sense. It's a public venue on holidays, otherwise entrance is limited to those with permission from the liege. There won't be a crowd we could hurt by mistake, and there is plenty of space.”

  “It's at the center of the city?” Garek asked.

  Luci nodded, and he banked left rather than going straight over the front gates. He kept the transporter tilted to one side, following the city walls until he'd done a full circuit.

  He wanted everyone to see them. As many witnesses as possible.

  Luci frowned, turning to him as if to question it, but then held her silence as he banked again and descended in a tight spiral to the park that sat atop the hill, nestled in front of a palace that was a massive rectangle with arched windows and doors.

  The park was full of trees but there was an open area where people could congregate, and he landed as close to the edge of the woods as he could, giving a less steady Dom more room.

  “You going to power down?” Aidan asked him.

  He shook his head. “Not yet. This is your show now.”

  Aidan hesitated, then inclined his head. “If we need to leave quickly, it's best you're at the controls.”

  “You think they'll attack us?” Zek asked.

  “We're the enemy, as far as they know,” Kas said, and Zek gave a reluctant nod.

  “Guards are running toward us, but they're being cautious.” Aidan stood at the door, looking out.

  “Are you going to open up?” Luci asked him, and Garek shook his head.

  “We'll wait until someone senior arrives. My guess is the young hotheads will have gotten here first.”

  Luci gave a snort of laughter at that. “So says someone who was once a young hothead.”

  He was still young by most measures, but she was right. His days of stupidity had ended a long time ago.

  He saw Kas grin at Luci's words, and heard Taya laugh softly.

  She stood with her brother and Zek, out of the way, keeping watch out the window.

  “There's the liege's general. Carey Faloni.” Luci was leaning against the window.

  “The look on his face is priceless.”

  “Don't laugh at him.” Luci was dead serious now. “He's a pompous ass and he has no sense of humor, let alone the ability to laugh at himself.”

  “I think we can risk opening the door,” Aidan said. “As soon as they see Luci, they'll be at least interested in hearing from her before they start shooting their arrows.”

  Garek pressed the button, and the door slid back on itself.

  “General Faloni.” Luci leaned out of the door, her hands cupped on either side of her mouth so her voice carried. “Can you call the liege, please?”

  Even over the roar of both his and Dom's engines, Garek could hear the shouts as the Luf residents caught sight of her.

  “I'm no sky raider,” Luci called in response to something someone must have called to her. “But I'll explain when the liege gets here.” She angled her body, facing inward for a moment. “I'd tell that fool Faloni to get his guards to lower their weapons, but that'll have the opposite effect.”

  Garek nodded. They could withstand any number of arrows. He knew that from his time fighting the sky raiders on the walls of Gara.

  Luci stood silently, waiting, even though Garek guessed questions were being called to her. He knew when the liege arrived, because both she and Aidan straightened.

  “My liege,” Luci called. “I am Town
Master Luci of Cassinya. About two months ago now, most of the adults in my town were taken by the sky raiders. We were taken to Shadow, and forced to work there.”

  She stopped, swallowing, and Garek realized she was overcome. Now that she was free, she was able to release the tight grip she'd had on her fear and rage.

  “Who is that beside you?” The call must have been extremely loud for Garek to hear it over the engines, and he guessed they were using a speaking horn.

  “This is the liege of West Lathor's son. He and one of his guards from West Lathor found a way to rescue us, and agreed to bring us home.” Again, her voice broke.

  “West Lathor?” The question sound like it had been wrenched from the liege's lips.

  “The sky raiders took people from the Illy and Kardai. Half of the Illy are West Lathorians. Their liege sent his son to bring his people back.”

  Garek's gaze jerked to Luci's back at that. She couldn't have said it better from Aidan's point of view. Did she understand what Aidan was trying to do? The game he was playing?

  Aidan looked over at him, eyebrows raised, so Garek knew he was as surprised. Perhaps the Kardanx weren't the only ones to feel the sting of being forgotten and left to rot.

  There was silence, as if Luci's words were being absorbed by the crowds.

  “We wish to leave the transporter, to set foot on our home soil.” Luci opened her arms. “Please ask the guards to lower their weapons.”

  Someone called something sharply, and Luci's shoulders relaxed a fraction.

  “I would speak with Valtor's son, too.” The words were measured.

  “I will gladly speak with you,” Aidan called back, bowing his head briefly.

  “And the guard that came with you.”

  Aidan hesitated, turned back into the cabin. “What do you think?”

  “Habred, my liege, won't like being denied.” Luci's voice was soft, and unspoken in what she said was that she might be blamed in some way for their lack of cooperation.

  Garek nodded. “I'll power down. Kas and Eli can stand guard.” He rose from his seat, picked up the bag he'd set at his feet and made his way to Kas and Taya, making sure his back was to Aidan, Luci and Zek.

  Never show all your cards. That had been a lesson he'd learned from Kas when he'd trained under him.

  But he didn't think that applied to family.

  He dipped into the bag and took out two of the four slim, palm-sized black boxes he'd found on the sky raiders at the camp, holding them close to his body. He handed them both to Kas. “One for you, one for Eli. I think you press the button and it shoots white lightning.” He kept his voice so low, only Kas and Taya could hear him. “Keep what it can do a secret between you and Eli.”

  Kas took them with a nod and they disappeared from sight.

  “I can stand guard outside too,” Taya said. “They might not see me as much of a threat.”

  Garek hesitated. That was true, but he didn't want Taya anywhere near guards with bows who might just let their fingers slip.

  “I'll be careful.” She looked sidelong at Kas. “Kas won't let me be anything else, anyway.”

  “It'll help that we won't look like we have any weapons.” Kas said.

  “I can take the shadow ore shards out. They won't understand what those are, either.”

  “I'd rather you don't give up your secrets too easily,” Garek told her.

  “Is my Change a secret?” She frowned.

  He and Kas exchanged a look.

  “The Iron Guard has kept the same secret for a long time. There has to be a reason for that.” Garek couldn't say why he felt the flames of fear licking at him at the thought of Taya's Change being widely known, only that his instincts had never steered him wrong.

  She studied his face for a beat, then gave a nod. “Aidan and Luci are waiting. You better go.”

  She went up on her toes, kissed him goodbye, and he let the gesture steady him.

  She was here and she was relatively safe.

  “We go out the back?” he asked Luci, and she nodded.

  He closed the pilot door.

  Kas moved out of the pilot's chamber, to the back. Garek watched him put a friendly arm around Eli, and then waited for them to reach the door before he pressed the button and lowered it to form a ramp.

  Light flooded in as it came down in a smooth, silent motion.

  “Wait.” Luci's voice cut through the murmurs of excitement. “Let Aidan and me step out first, then the Cassinyans, you can step out, too, but don't go far from the transporter. I need to negotiate where we'll stay with the liege.”

  “And if he can't take us?” someone called.

  “Then we'll take you home.” Garek didn't think the liege would deny them, though.

  There was silence, and then nods of agreement.

  The ramp hit the ground, and Aidan walked down it, waited for Luci at the bottom.

  Garek came up behind them, eyes taking in the way the guards had surrounded them, the crowds of people just beyond. The sheer number of townspeople would make the situation almost impossible for the Guard to control.

  The people would soon start working their way through the guard ranks, he guessed. He wondered how the guards would respond, but hoped with their own people milling about, they'd be very careful.

  He looked back at the transporter, saw Eli and Kas were standing at the bottom of the ramp.

  There was no sign of Taya, and satisfied, he turned to face the delegation before them.

  Chapter 45

  Taya stood at the pilot's door and from its window watched Luci and Aidan bow to the liege of Harven, noticed Garek did not.

  He was behind them, so it was possible to excuse the lapse, although she was sure there was no lapse at all. He simply refused to lower his guard. His gaze would be taking in everything.

  She'd seen him look back, seen him relax, and knew she'd been right to stay back, although she wanted to be standing between Eli and Kas, looking at the palace gardens of Luf, and seeing what threat there was to Garek.

  He could concentrate on his own safety, and that of Luci and Aidan, because she was safe.

  They couldn't live their lives with her always keeping back, but she was willing to give him this for now, when he'd just found her, while everything was still raw and new.

  The guards parted, and Garek disappeared from sight as they moved forward, and the guards reformed their line.

  She walked into the back area, saw Quardi, Pilar, Noor and Min were sitting together, looking out into the gardens at the crowd of onlookers and guards.

  Those from Cassinya were all standing near the top of the ramp, craning their necks, their gaze fixed on the crowds.

  “Will Dom know what we're doing here?” She hadn't given much thought to the Kardanx, but the sound of their transporter's engines was hard to miss.

  “Garek and Dom discussed it before we left the Endless Escarpment,” Min told her. “He knows we're here to drop off the Cassinya, that his people have to wait inside the transporter.”

  “The Harven Guard might get a little twitchy at the sight of eighty Kardanx tumbling out in front of their liege's palace,” Quardi confirmed with a laugh.

  “They're twitchy enough as it is,” Taya agreed. It felt as if things were getting more tense, not less; the guards looking behind them now and again as the crowds pushed closer.

  “Stay back!” The words boomed out through a speaking horn, and everyone froze. After a moment, the crowds did seem to ease back a little, but one little boy, precocious, daring, darted past the line and ran for the ramp.

  A woman screamed from behind the guards. The little boy stumbled at the sound, fell flat on his face, and started to cry.

  “Someone needs to go out there and pick him up,” Kas said. “They need to see we're safe.”

  One of the Cassinyan women, Gera, who was waiting in the group near the top of the ramp, walked down, arms loose at her sides. She was someone Taya knew and liked, a day shifter wh
o was as strong and brave as anyone.

  “I never once thought we'd be treated like we were dangerous,” one of the Cassinya villagers said.

  Gera crouched beside the boy and murmured to him, and it felt as if the crowd held its breath.

  “All I could think of was that we'd be home. That everyone we'd left behind would be happy to see us. It never crossed my mind we'd be facing armed guards.”

  The boy had stopped crying and Gera extended a hand, helped him up, and then waved her hand toward the crowd.

  The boy looked longly back at the transporter, but Taya agreed with Gera's handling of it. It would only induce panic if she allowed the boy inside to look.

  The crowd seemed to breathe out in relief, and slowly, more and more Cassinya villagers walked down the ramp to join Gera where she stood in the sunshine.

  Some of them simply stood, heads back, drinking in the Star's light. Others looked over the crowd, as if to find a familiar face.

  More than one did.

  There were shouts of greeting, calls of support.

  Eventually, someone called for their story.

  “We were taken to Shadow,” Zek answered. He was one of those who'd seen a familiar face, and Taya guessed he would be known to many traders in the city. “We were taken to work in a mine, because the sky raiders can't breathe our air, and they needed us to do the work for them.”

  There were comments and opinions voiced around them, but mostly, Taya could see, the crowds were insatiable for more.

  “We lived in a camp, made up of tents and wooden shacks, whatever the sky raiders brought us from their raids on Barit.”

  Again, the exclamations, as they finally began to make sense of what the sky raiders had been doing.

  “So how did you get free?”

  Zek pointed the way Aidan and Garek had gone. “There is a guard from West Lathor. He is very strong. The people of his village were stolen, just like we were. And he had managed to bring down one of the sky raiders' sky crafts. He and the liege of West Lathor's son made a plan to take the craft, follow the sky raiders back to their base, and rescue us.”