by J. J. Green
“I’ve got you,” Carina sobbed, cradling her sister. “I’ve got you.”
She sipped elixir again and quickly Cast Heal.
While she watched fresh skin grow over Parthenia’s wounds, some mercs arrived at her side.
“We’re bringing the rest of your family,” one of them said.
The tension in Parthenia’s body faded, and she sat up. “Thank you.”
“Thank the stars you’re okay,” Carina replied, rubbing the wetness from her eyes with the heel of her hand.
More mercs were running up, followed by Jace, Ferne, and Darius.
“Where are Oriana and Nahla?” asked Carina.
“They’re coming with Bryce,” Jace replied, “but we need to Transport the last of the soldiers up here. They can’t get out by themselves.
Carina shook the canteen. Very little elixir remained, but leaving anyone behind was out of the question. She handed the canteen to Jace, who took it and left.
“Now what?” Ferne asked.
She was distracted from answering his question by the look in Darius’s eyes. The boy’s gaze was tortured and he looked as though he were in pain. Of all the experiences her brother had endured, Carina doubted he would ever recover from this one.
“We could try to steal the Regians’ ship,” Parthenia replied.
“That would be ideal,” said Carina, “if we knew where they kept them.”
“It’s right there.” Parthenia pointed at the hillock.
Carina turned to take in the sight of the massive animal again. “That’s a starship? Are you feeling all right?”
“I heard it land, and I saw the Regians bring two of Mezban’s soldiers out of it.”
Was that why the aliens had put bags over their heads? To prevent the mages from seeing how they traveled between the stars? Their precaution was certainly justified. An organic, living space vessel could have many advantages over the regular kind.
“Then we’ll try,” Carina said.
Jace was returning with the remaining mercs, and in the meantime, Oriana and Nahla had also arrived with Bryce.
She explained as quickly as she could what was proposed, and then set off at a run with Parthenia, who took her to the entrance to the vessel.
A tall facade rose to a narrow overhang above.
“That’s the opening,” said Parthenia, indicating a cleft at the base.
“Gross!” Ferne exclaimed. “It’s like lips.” He prodded the surface. “Feels like skin!”
“Should we Cast Open?” asked Oriana.
But as she spoke the aperture opened.
“Quick, inside,” Carina urged.
A hefty merc held her back, then nodded at a couple of others. The two soldiers ran in, followed by the man who’d made her wait.
He re-emerged. “All clear.”
“Regians!” someone shouted.
The aliens were pouring from a doorway a short distance away.
“Should we Split them?” asked Ferne.
“Not if we can avoid it,” she replied, hoping to conserve the vital elixir.
The mercs were running into the living starship. A couple had picked up Darius and Nahla and were carrying them in. Ferne and Oriana disappeared into the opening.
“C’mon,” said Jace, tugging on her arm.
“Just a minute. I have to…”
“What?”
Carina’s heart was torn. The remaining elixir could make all the difference, and yet she couldn’t leave the Regian planet without doing one last thing.
She swigged elixir.
“What are you doing?!” Jace demanded.
She closed her eyes and Cast.
When she opened them again, the Regians were nearly upon them, and Jace was standing at the entrance to the starship, beckoning her urgently.
She looked toward the holes in the ground that led to the hatching chamber.
Flames were already licking from them.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
As Carina stepped into the Regians’ starship, Oriana took the elixir from her and Cast Lock on the door…and Darius seemed to be in agony.
The little boy was writhing on the floor. “It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!”
Ferne and Jace were kneeling at his side, but they didn’t seem able to help him.
“What’s wrong?” Carina asked, crouching down. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“He doesn’t appear to have any injuries,” said Jace.
“Darius,” said Ferne, placing a hand on his brother’s forehead, “what hurts?”
“Should I Cast Heal on him anyway?” asked Parthenia.
“Maybe, but…” Carina had a feeling there was another explanation for Darius’s state. “Where’s the pain coming from? Is it from somewhere on your body, or…?”
“No, not me,” he gasped. “The animal! The animal hurts bad.”
A merc ran up, emerging from the ship’s interior. “We’re screwed. We can’t find the flight controls.”
Carina cursed. Stealing an alien ship had always been a long shot, now it looked like they were out of chances.
Darius sat up, sweating and gasping, his eyes wide. He clasped Carina’s arm. “You have to help it! You have to help the animal.”
There was only one animal around there she knew about.
“The ship?” she asked. “Is that the animal you mean?”
Her brother dug his fingers into her flesh. “You have to take off the tie. It hurts so much.”
A faint drumming could be heard from outside. The Regians were trying to get in. The Lock Cast would hold for a while but not forever, and she was worried the aliens would spray acid on the starship creature.
“What tie?” she asked. “Do you know where it is?”
It was a long shot, but perhaps fixing the starship’s problem might help them with their plight. It certainly couldn’t do them any harm.
“Uh huh,” Darius nodded, grimacing.
Carina helped him stand, and then supported him as he set off into the opening that yawned beyond the wide entrance.
Her brother walked like he carried the weight of an entire planet on his shoulders, wincing and letting out small groans as he went along. He hobbled down a passage that resembled a throat—slim supporting ribs underlying the translucent, pale green ‘skin’ of the walls and ceiling that curved over them.
A hole in the wall appeared on one side.
“Down there,” said Darius. “It’s down there.”
The tunnel that led from the hole sloped steeply. If they went down it, Carina wasn’t sure how they would get up again. They would have to Transport, and that would take the last of the elixir.
Still, there seemed nothing else she could do, and perhaps the flight controls were down there.
“Okay,” she said. “Come here.”
She sat on the edge of the hole and pulled her brother onto her lap.
She pushed off with one hand, and they slid down the strange facsimile of something from a children’s playground.
The Regians had embedded their phosphorescent plant on the ceiling of the tunnel, unless it grew there naturally, which Carina doubted. The illumination lit their way as they smoothly descended. If Darius hadn’t been in pain and they hadn’t been in dire danger of recapture by the Regians, it might have been fun.
They hit the bottom.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Darius yelled, though it couldn’t have been due to the mild impact.
“Is the tie here?” asked Carina.
They were inside a roughly round room, the skin of its walls stretched over supporting ribs as it had been in the passage and tunnel. Structures protruding from the walls slotted together like pieces of a 3D puzzle.
“Yeah, it’s here! There! There it is!” He ran a few steps to one of the structures and grabbed at something frantically.
“Let me see,” said Carina, joining him.
Darius moved a little to one side, but his small hands didn’t leave the thing he was c
lasping.
It was a binding of a tough, flexible material tied tightly around a piece of the starship’s tissue that bent like an elbow.
Her brother was plucking uselessly at the ligature.
“Darius, you have to move out of the way so I can try to untie it.”
He let go and stepped back, wringing his hands.
Carina squatted down and examined the binding from above and then below. When she looked at the underside it was clear to see how the material had simply been twisted tightly together and knotted. She worked her fingers into the knot and pulled it apart, and then she quickly untwisted the tie. The tie hung loose.
“Uhhh,” said Darius, flopping to the floor. “That’s better.”
“It’s stopped hurting now?”
“Yeah.” He put his head in his hands. “That hurt so much.”
“I thought it was only emotions you felt?” Carina asked.
“I do, but when people are in pain they get upset too.”
The floor suddenly lurched. She gripped one of the structures to keep her balance, but the movement was too great. She landed next to her brother.
“What was that?” asked Darius.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
The starship lurched again, and then came the distinct feeling that they were rising.
“Are we going up?” Darius asked.
“I think so. Are we? How does the starship feel?”
“It’s happy now. Much happier. I think it’s flying!”
The floor lifted and turned, sending them barreling into a corner. Then it turned again, sending them in the opposite direction. Darius squealed and then giggled. “This is fun!”
The sensation of rising continued. There could be no doubt, they were flying. Removing the starship creature’s binding seemed to have released the Regians’ control of it, and now it was escaping, taking its occupants with it.
“Carina!” called a voice from the other end of the tunnel.
“That’s Ferne,” said Darius.
“I know.” She went to the opening. “We’re down here!”
A moment later, Ferne’s voice came echoing down, louder: “There you are. We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Do you know we took off from the planet?”
“Yes, we realized.”
“Oh. Well, we found the rest of Mezban’s soldiers. They were corralled together in a big room.”
“Are Lomang and Mezban with them?”
“Uh huh. And the big guy. But the soldiers are really angry with them. They figured out they could have gotten away from the Regians if Mezban and Lomang hadn’t taken them back to the Bathsheba. And the two that have sworn allegiance to the Black Dogs are talking to them. Things are getting a bit hot in there.”
“Honestly, that sounds like good news to me,” Carina replied, calling up the tunnel. If Mezban’s troops dealt with her, her husband, and her husband’s brother, it meant she wouldn’t have to. She was too tired for revenge.
“How are you two going to get out of there?” Ferne asked.
“Um, I’m not sure.”
“Should I ask Jace to Transport you?”
“No, it’s a waste of elixir. We need to save it for an emergency.”
“Well, I’ll see if I can find a rope or something.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” Ferne paused, then said, “Do you know where the starship’s taking us?”
“Nope. I have no idea.”
“Okay. I just thought I would ask.”
Chapter Forty
They were heading for a moon.
Bryce wrapped his arm around Carina as they sat behind the transparent shield covering one of the starship’s four openings to space. The openings appeared to be part of the creature’s vision organs. Sensitive sprays of tissue stood behind each shield, but there was also a space wide enough for two people, and the creature didn’t seem too bothered by them sitting there.
Carina rested her head on Bryce’s shoulder and looked out at the Regian planet’s three moons, floating serenely in a sea of star-speckled ink. The moons were slowly growing larger, and there was no longer any doubt they were the starship’s destination. The central, largest one seemed the likeliest target.
Bryce gently squeezed her. “How are you feeling?”
She sighed. “I miss Atoi.”
“We all do,” Bryce said softly. “She was tough, but she was well-liked.”
“She was…”
What to say? Atoi had been her bunk mate, her friend, and her savior on more than one occasion when they’d worked together as mercs. Cadwallader’s death had been hard, but Carina hadn’t shared the same instinctive understanding with him as she had with her old friend. The woman would have a place in Carina’s heart forever.
“She was…?” Bryce reminded her.
“I can’t talk about her yet.” She sighed again. “We need to figure out what to do when we reach that moon.”
“Do you think the starship’s going to land and eject us?”
“Who knows? But I don’t think so. I think she carries around other creatures in a kind of symbiotic relationship. She gets some benefit from our presence, though I haven’t figured out what that is, and her passengers get to travel into space. The Regians probably hitched rides on them for millenia until one day they discovered a way to control them and force them to go to destinations of their choosing.”
“She?” Bryce asked.
“All starships are female. You should know that by now.”
“Okay. We need to persuade her to take us to the Bathsheba.”
“Yeah, but how? My fear is that she’s attracted to the light of the moon, and when she gets there, she’ll be attracted to the light of the Regian planet and fly right back.”
“Ugh, I hope not.”
“Me too. But at least we’ll be prepared this time. We might not have any weapons or armor or elixir, but…” Carina’s words petered out. The kids had searched the ship high and low for ingredients to make elixir and a fire, but they’d found nothing.
“You’re not filling me with optimism here,” said Bryce.
She sighed and settled her head a little more.
“Bryce, I want to take back what I said that time in the Bathsheba’s viewing dome.”
“I kinda thought you did.”
“I was cut up about the mess of pain I seem to cause the people I love. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know. I understood where you were coming from, but I knew there wasn’t anything I could say that would change your mind, so I left it. I didn’t sweat it because I knew you would be back one day.”
“What made you think that?”
“I’m just too irresistible.”
Carina snorted and laughed before turning and pushing him away.
Bryce held out his arms, and she settled into them again.
“Cadwallader told me once, I should hold onto what I have,” she said, “and I’m going to do that. Life’s too short.”
Live a good life. A long life, for me, Atoi had said.
If only it were that simple, but she would try, starting with not pushing away the people who meant so much to her.
They had been underway for an hour or longer. Carina was warm and her family was finally safe—for the time being, anyway. Mental and emotional exhaustion began to hit her, and she felt her eyes closing and her mind retreating to the haven of sleep.
Then the starship abruptly veered up and left, accelerating fast.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed, trying to steady herself. “What the hell?”
Shouts and cries of shock and fear echoed through from other regions of the ship.
Bryce got up and leaned out of the small recess, trying to see what was happening. The ship was continuing to pile on speed.
“Maybe the Regians are on our tail,” Carina said. “They probably have more of these space-faring creatures. This one might be trying to get away from them.”
; She listened to the yelling but she couldn’t make out what it was about.
Saying he would go and investigate, Bryce stepped down from the recess and disappeared.
While he was gone, the starship’s flight gradually evened out and the creature slowed down to her previous speed.
Several minutes later, Bryce returned. He leaned in at the opening to the recess, looking pale and shaken. “Lomang and Mezban and some of the soldiers have gone!”
“What?”
“Some of the people on board aren’t here anymore. One minute they were hanging out with their friends, and the next—empty space. It happened a split second before the ship switched course. ”
“Huh?!” Fear clutched Carina’s heart. “What about the kids?”
“They’re okay. They’re all still aboard, and Jace is too. Hsiao took a head count of the mercs. Lomang, Mezban, six of the Black Dogs, and roughly the same number of Mezban’s ex-soldiers have vanished. Pappu’s still here, but he’s in shock.”
He climbed in next to her and sat down.
What was going on?
What if the same thing happened again?
What could they do to stop it?
“Do you think the starship made them disappear?” Bryce asked.
“But how?” asked Carina, then she added, “I guess it’s possible. Lots of things seem to happen around these parts that you don’t see elsewhere.”
Then Carina remembered the weird anomalous readings she’d seen on the Duchess’s scan data while they’d been trying to escape from the Regians the first time. The ship’s computer hadn’t been able to interpret information that the scanners had picked up on an area of space near the Regian planet, which could only mean something about the region didn’t conform with the known laws of physics.
“Oh, wow,” she said, as an idea hit her. The Regians’ odd ability to time-shift, the strange composition of their bodies, the way they disappeared when they died—it all made sense.
“I think the missing people might have moved out of synch with time,” she said, “or they were moved by something. Imagine if you suddenly stopped moving forward in time, or you moved ahead a fraction of a second, while you were aboard a vessel traveling at high speed. As soon as you re-entered normal time, the ship wouldn’t be in the same place anymore.”
