“I remember someone left the tent, and then those two guards went in. I watched for a bit, and when no one else went in and no one came out, I thought I could peek in — just a little — to see what was going on.”
“Oh, Jace.”
“When I looked, there was only one guard and this black, floating cloud. It transformed into a person. Not the missing guard, but someone else entirely. Before I could do anything, they grabbed me and dragged me inside. They… they hit me. They started asking me questions and… and that’s when you showed up. The next thing I remember is waking up in a cell.”
Tayel shook her head. “You were brave, but you should have said something. You should have told me. Going alone was…” She shook her head again.
“I didn’t want you knowing what I’d planned to do. I never wanted you to know I intended to turn you in. For all my squawking, I know…” He turned away. “I know you were doing what you thought was right. You always do.”
She wrapped her arm around his shoulders.
“And you were right,” he said. “The Rokkir are real, and they need to be stopped. What they did to those people…”
“It’s awful,” Tayel said.
He tapped his talons together. “Are — are you mad at me? For what I did?”
“Jace.” She squeezed him a bit, ignoring the resulting throbbing in her arm. “No, I’m not mad at you. I was, but… you had every right to be upset, and we were technically breaking laws. And if it weren’t for you… well it’s possible we wouldn’t have been able to confirm the Rokkir were real at all. You were braver than any of us. You didn’t do what was easy, and you did it all on your own. After everything that’s happened, I’m just happy you’re safe, and that you’re right here.”
He buried his head in her side. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.”
She stayed still, and for a few minutes according to Jace’s wristband, just enjoyed the silence. She reveled in doing nothing. No running. No screaming. No expedited pulse or adrenaline surges. Nothing at all except listening to the thrum of the ship’s engines. Even with the steel floors and walls, it would be easy to fall asleep. But she and Jace weren’t the only ones who needed patching up. She forced her eyes open.
Fehn still stood motionless across the hold. Rivulets of blood had dried on the wall, now rust-like stains against the steel. She frowned. He had a hole in his shoulder. He should’ve been bleeding a lot more, and she aimed to say so, but Shy appeared and leaned against the archway between the hold and cockpit corridor.
She looked the best of all of them, even with a scrape running almost the full length of her arm. Her braided hair frizzed out of its ties like a halo around her head, and her clothes, while scuffed and torn in a number of places, didn’t seem to sag from her frame like Tayel’s clothes had started to. Tayel followed the intricate pattern of decorative stitches up the tunic until she met Shy’s eyes.
How long had she been staring?
“How’s the arm?” Shy asked, and Tayel could swear she saw the quirk of a smile, hear the lilt of amusement in the princess’ voice.
Tayel swallowed. “Um, it’s okay. What about you? Are you hurt? Badly, I mean?”
“I’m fine.” Shy moved her gaze to Fehn. “Hey.”
No response.
“Fehn,” she tried again.
Jace stirred awake in Tayel’s arms. Fehn lazily rolled his head along his shoulder to glare at Shy.
“What’s with the dark aether?” she asked.
“Not now,” he said.
She scoffed. “We were just chased through Castle Aishan by bastards wielding that stuff — Rokkir bastards. Seeing as how they’re the only people I’ve seen use it, I’d like to know why you can, too.”
“I’m not a Rokkir.” He turned from the door. A coal-like scab covered the hole in his shoulder where he’d torn the arrow out.
Tayel leaned forward. “How did—? How are you not still bleeding? You tore an arrow out of your shoulder!”
“Right,” Shy said. “And I don’t see a med kit or a cauterizer at your feet so—”
Fehn stepped off the wall. Shy drew an aether-tech magnum from the back of her belt and aimed it at his head.
He froze.
Jace squawked.
“Shy!” Tayel shouted.
Shy clicked off the safety, and a pattern of orange lines illuminated the dark alloy of the barrel. “I will shoot you if you do not give me answers.”
Fehn drew a staggered breath. Tayel flicked her gaze to where her mag baton sat a few feet away.
“You’d probably know more about this than me,” Fehn muttered.
“Explain,” Shy said.
“The Sinosian raiders did this to me, princess. Your father turned me into a…”
“A what?”
Tayel’s heart raced. The hold seemed smaller than before, and with every second the walls felt like they were closing in around her.
“A what?” Shy demanded.
“I guess some kind of test subject,” Fehn said.
“You guess?”
“I was taken to Sinos. I met with the raider king—”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“Fehn, I swear to—”
“It has nothing to do with this! I didn’t make it out of the throne room, okay? One moment I was talking with your father and the next, I was unconscious. When I woke up, I was in a dark lab, and I was in pain. The worst pain I’ve ever…” His chest expanded and collapsed. “I don’t know how long they held me captive. Each time I woke up it was worse. They stuck thousands of needles in me. They wove tubes through my skin.”
Tayel chewed her lip, the images unpleasant.
“The last time I came to, it was with this.” He lifted his cyonic arm. “And guess what? Your brother set me free.”
Shy’s eyes narrowed. “Locke?”
“Yeah, said he was the king’s son and wouldn’t let whatever happened go unpunished. Gave me a contact on Sinos before he ran off.”
“What was the contact’s name?”
“Why the hell would I remember that now?”
“Because it will save a bullet from exploding your thick skull.”
“You wouldn’t.”
She gripped the weapon with her second hand to hold it steady. Tayel’s gut did a flip.
Fehn growled. “Ritah? Rickta? Ricker?”
“Last name,” Shy said.
“Fragging hell. Orta? Ortigo? Something like that. Get that gun out of my face.”
Shy lowered the weapon.
Tayel breathed out.
“Rikter Ortega,” Shy said. “One of Locke’s fieldsmen. He was right; Rikter could have smuggled you off base and off planet with far few errors than you made getting out.”
“Good for him. And nice to know how you treat the people who save your ass. And you.” He glared into Tayel’s eyes. “Thanks for your help.”
Tayel frowned. “I—”
“Hey! You would do the exact same thing in our position,” Shy spat. “After seeing what we did in that castle you’re lucky we don’t kill you just in case.”
He crossed his arms.
“And you could have told us about this a long time ago,” she added. “Could have saved you the trouble.”
“Like you told us about being raider royalty?” he countered.
Tayel had seen enough arguments to know this wasn’t going anywhere.
“Fight’s over guys,” she said. “If Fehn was a Rokkir or working with the Rokkir, he would have done us in a long time ago. Just drop it. He saved my life — all of our lives.”
For a beat, no one moved, and Tayel suspected she’d have to pick up the mag baton before anyone took her seriously. But then Shy mag-clipped the magnum back to her belt, and Fehn leaned against the door. Without the whirring aether-tech gun, they were left with just the sound of the engine again, thrumming on like it had never been interrupted.