She stopped in the middle of the hold. If she could justify checking in on Fehn, then she could definitely do the same for Shy. Her part in the argument had been just as heated, and Tayel still needed to thank her for her part in rescuing Jace.
It was a bittersweet ideation. Tayel had rarely talked to Shy about anything other than the next task. Checking on her felt different than checking on Fehn, somehow. It was some weird combination of exciting and scary she was too afraid to admit she knew how to place.
She tiptoed through the corridor to the front of the ship, turning left until she was in full view of the cockpit. Holograms dimly lit the cabin in orange, their various readings reflecting off the blacked-out front-facing viewports.
Tayel leaned against the entrance arch. “Shy?”
Shy mumbled something — faintly — and Tayel stepped forward, turning sideways to get between the two pilot’s seats.
“I wanted to—” She shut her mouth.
Shy sat curled up in the chair, everything up to her chin covered in a thick blanket. Her closed eyes looked peaceful, her eyebrows relaxed arches over her long lashes. Tayel’s pulse beat in her ears. Shy mumbled again, her lips moving slightly to word something incoherent, and Tayel let herself frown. No one could see her, anyway.
She took a step back and left the cockpit.
Back in the hold, she sat against the wall where she’d patched herself and Jace up only an hour before. She had no one else to check in on, nothing else to keep her company except the sounds of flight and thoughts of Rokkir. She wrapped the blanket around herself, leaned back, and watched the pink and orange lights of slipstream space dance through the viewports.
Chapter 20
Ruxbane wriggled his fingers as feeling returned to his extremities. If it hadn’t been for the dark aether he’d conjured as a shield against the cryonade, numbness would be the least of his worries. Even with the aether, the bitter cold sensation of ice squeezing around him lingered long after he’d been thawed and dragged to the council chambers in Castle Aishan’s highest tower.
“You’re tensing up again,” his healer warned. “Relax.”
Ruxbane blew air out through his nose, willing his muscles to cooperate with the woman’s order. He shifted for comfort as she dipped her hand in a fist-sized jar of medicine.
“Should be less unpleasant this time,” she said, and spread her salve-covered fingers across his bare chest.
He shuddered as warmth spread through him. Goosebumps rose up along his arms, but the pins and needles across his wound didn’t sting as much as the first application. The healer had been right. Her fingers slid off him, and she turned to the prep table to wash her hands.
Sticky, shiny residue remained on his chest, providing a glossy sheen for the black and purple bruise stretching from his collar bone to the bottom of his ribcage. Wisps of dark aether trailed out of the wound like evaporating steam, taking some of the pain with it. Ruxbane grunted as he shifted again. Even through three layers of clothes and a shield of aether, the damn silver sphere had hit like an Aloman croc mule.
Footsteps approached from the left, scraping and shuffling along the cobblestone. Iselglith stopped a few feet away from the tableside, a tablet rattling in his grasp.
“Sir. A-Adonna is on her way up,” he said.
Ruxbane tensed, his fingers digging into the wood beneath him. He ignored the healer’s hiss of disapproval. He hadn’t wanted Adonna to go after the princess and the girl, but he didn’t have much say while frozen solid in the castle kitchen.
“Did she succeed?” he asked.
“She… she comes alone.”
Ruxbane’s fist hit the table before he knew it had formed. Pain stabbed up the side of his hand as its contact echoed through the chamber. The healer and Iselglith stepped back, their eyes wide, their shoulders hunched.
Ruxbane relaxed his fists and took a long breath. His hope for a cure and the raider princess escaped because of his inattentiveness. If he had taken matters into his own hands, he’d have them both. Instead, he’d relied on Iselglith. Ruxbane had made a mistake burdening another Rokkir with his personal problems. He should have done it himself — should have kept it to himself like he always did.
Clacking footsteps sounded from the entrance to the chamber.
“Sir,” Iselglith said.
“I know, Iselglith.” Ruxbane slid his legs over the side of the table and sat up.
Adonna stopped before him, dark wisps of aether clearing scrapes and gashes between her matted, yellow feathers. “They’re gone,” she hissed.
“So I’ve come to understand.”
“I managed to slip out of sight, and attach a tracking device to their ship. It should let us know where they’re going, at least. Not sure why that girl is worth the effort.” She held a device in the air, and Iselglith took it carefully.
Ruxbane held back a scream, a growl — something to stand as a warning toward Iselglith. He’d obviously told Adonna about Tayel before she ran off to apprehend them. Ruxbane didn’t need people like her doubting his decision-making.
“I’m sorry to hear that girl proved too much for you,” he said.
Adonna’s eye twitched. “Me? What about the men who chased after them? Those Igadorian guards were useless.”
“Did any of them see you use dark aether?”
She smiled. “They saw me kill them with it.”
Iselglith let out a half-whimper before clapping a paw down on his snout.
Adonna sneered at him. “What? It was that or out our entire occupation.”
Ruxbane sighed. The other Igadorian guards would want answers for their fellow guardsmen’s deaths.
“Either way, don’t worry about my powers, worry about the human man and his.”
Ruxbane met her gaze. “Excuse me?”
“There was a human male using dark aether,” she clarified. “He used it through a cyonic limb. Sound familiar?”
Ruxbane’s heart sank. How? How could that man escape and get to Elsha? “Our missing test subject…”
“Indeed,” Adonna said.
If the subject was working with the raider princess, then the Rokkir were in grave danger of being discovered on a massive scale. Ruxbane breathed a little faster, pain flaring across his chest.
“You should lie back down,” the healer said behind him. She touched her hands to his shoulders and pulled gently back.
“Yes,” Adonna said. “Lie down and roll over, Ruxbane. You’re clearly exhausted beyond the ability to lead with sense. How did four teenagers get through the fine wire mesh of your master plan?”
Ruxbane rolled his shoulders forward, dislodging the healer’s grip. Heat licked the front of his skull. His breath hitched. Not now. He could not show weakness now. He closed his eyes, breathed deep, and opened them again.
“Attempt to demean my authority again, Adonna, and I will not bother seeking the Exalted’s permission for an execution. With your extensive track record of disobedience, they’d likely commend me for the foresight.”
Adonna’s beak dropped for one second Ruxbane would forever cherish before she snapped it shut again.
“Now,” he continued, “the human male, two girls, and the Argel. Anyone else?”