by Reese Hogan
The creature in the shrouding realm had saved her life. Almost assuredly for the second time. Because Klara Yana had gotten the gist. The creature had wanted to destroy the arphanium. She’d pointed to both the dead creature and the one who’d shot lightning into the cavern. Norg. Bivorna. Then… then she’d told her to run. She’d wanted her gone – wanted, Klara Yana thought, to protect her.
She couldn’t help wondering how closely that scene had mirrored the one that had happened just outside the Desert Crab.
She touched the Broken Eye beneath her jacket and whispered a small prayer her ama had taught her, one meant only for the Informer. May Vo Hina watch my back this day. May she keep me safe should I lose my way.
Maybe… maybe…
Something flashed just at the edge of her vision, reflecting Shon Aha’s light. Klara Yana turned her head. A submarine was rounding the island from the north. She remained motionless, barely breathing, and watched it for several moments. It looked like the Desert Crab, though she’d only seen it a couple times. She knew it was Belzene, at least; the Dhavnak ones she’d seen in Jasterus were rounder, bulkier, blacker, and of course, had no helio cells on top. Why, then, had Lyanirus mentioned a Dhavnak crew here?
She watched until the submarine was out of sight, heading south – back toward Marldox. She wondered if it carried reinforcements for the battle. Or maybe it had just come back from a shrouding expedition. Strange. She shook it from her head. She’d wanted to come to Kheppra Isle for a reason. And she didn’t know how long Blackwood had.
Her body was too abused to hike over the whole island and track down Blackwood and Andrew. Her right forefinger was barely mobile. Pain arced through the gunshot wound in her side every time she moved. If I can’t walk, she thought, maybe I can shroud. She fixed her eye on a point as far to the north as she could see, then grasped the arphanium pipe. Again, the cold of the shrouding realm hit her. She was in a canyon this time, with a roaring river before her and a sun so high overhead, it was no bigger than a marble, barely visible through a high sheen of smoke. Shivering, she took her hand away for just a second, then gripped the arphanium again, focusing all her thoughts on the place she’d picked out in her mind.
It worked. She recognized the depression in the rocks with a pool from the ocean spray, and the ax-shaped protrusion above. She took only enough steps to pick out another place to hop to. Continue heading north, where the submarine had come from. She figured she’d eventually have to hit a dock or base of some kind… and then she’d find out what she was dealing with.
Four more dips into shrouding – a band of light across the sky, a volcano exploding in the distance, a gawking monster with enough hair, legs, and eyes to haunt her dreams for a lifetime, and a spit of sand overlooking a deep black sea – and she found herself only fifteen or twenty feet above a narrow dock pressed into the cliffside. Black-uniformed Dhavnak soldiers came and went from a vast cave leading back under the island. She sat back against the rocks, thinking.
She could hop down to the dock and head back into the island, see where it took her. But she’d be noticeable. Lyanirus’s shirt might be military-reg, but it was certainly no uniform, and leaving Cu Zanthus’s Belzene officer’s coat on would be no better. Even if she continued using her shrouding as she had been, constant disappearing and reappearing would send the whole place into a swarm trying to catch her. Too brash.
Instead, she waited until a soldier broke off from the others and stepped to the side for a tobie break. Then, holding the arphanium between her thumb and forefinger, she dropped off the ledge and landed on his back. The instant she touched him, she closed the rest of her hand around the pipe.
The soldier yelled, staggering to the side, but he lurched to a halt when he noticed the dirt terrain around him and the distant suns above, not to mention the sweeping band of light. Before he could react, Klara Yana wrapped her right arm around his neck and used her other arm to pull it tight. She yanked back as hard as she could, finally getting her feet on the ground and pulling him off balance. He tugged at her arm, but she scrambled back, keeping him from regaining his control. It didn’t take long for him to lose consciousness. Klara Yana lowered him to the hard ground, struggling to catch her breath. She’d been lucky; he was on the smaller side, barely larger than she was. Combat training or not, she wouldn’t have been able to handle someone stronger, not in her current state.
In the privacy of the alien world, she changed into the knee-length belted jacket, tight trousers, and boots, finding them only a little big. She pulled the folded garrison cap over her short hair and straightened the collar to cover the raw marks on her neck. The only thing missing was a weapon – the soldier had probably set it down somewhere while he’d been loading equipment. Nothing to be done for it. She left the man on the south side of Kheppra Isle in nothing but his underclothes, then shrouded back to the docks.
She saw Blackwood and Andrew immediately. They were sitting on the concrete next to the wide waterway, their wrists bound, surrounded by four armed soldiers. Blackwood stared toward the other tunnel, watching armfuls of arphanium pipe being loaded into a Dhavnak submarine, which had navigated into the passage. Andrew glared at one of the guards, who paid him no attention. Klara Yana strode toward the group, doing her best not to hold her side or move too stiffly. She wished the Dhavnak uniform had gloves, to hide her bandaged hand as well as the dekatite mark; but at the same time, she needed the dekatite mark free to escape. She thought maybe she could just grab both of them and go. But what about their bound hands? Would they slip free of the ropes, or would they be trapped? She was painfully aware there’d only be one chance.
The braided brown cord on her shoulder named her a low corporant, but the guards’ black cords made them even lower ranking primers. The closest one looked up as she approached. He straightened, frowning. His salute came hesitantly, and it took her several moments to realize he was staring in fascination at her face. Her heart seized. Had he noticed she was a woman, that fast, that easily? The other guards had looked over by now and added their own salutes, but she distinctly heard one laugh under his breath and mutter, “Someone stepped out of line.”
Vo Hina’s mercy. The bruises. With everything else, she’d forgotten what her face must look like. She fixed a murderous glare on each of them in turn.
“Hand over the prisoners. Leuftkernel Lyanirus is waiting in a ’rotor up top.”
Blackwood looked up at her voice. Her eyes widened. Klara Yana knew what she was thinking. He speaks Dhavvish? He got his hands on a Dhavvie uniform? He escaped? There would be a lot of explaining to do after this. For now, Klara Yana just hoped Blackwood didn’t inadvertently expose her. Andrew didn’t look surprised to see her, just… wary. The last he’d seen, she’d been captured by her own partner; for all he knew, she was a renegade agent now. If he thought that, he was absolutely right. As the one who’d turned Blackwood in, he could be a lot of trouble. Just go along with it, kid. Please.
“We weren’t notified, sir,” said the same guard who had laughed.
“You’re being notified now. Untie them.”
“Tizantuck. Go clear this with Kommandir Nimoresa,” the soldier ordered. His smile was gone. The man he’d spoken to jogged off, not even checking with Klara Yana first.
“The leuftkernel is waiting this second!” Klara Yana said sharply.
“Your pardon, sir, but I think the leuftkernel himself would tell us to question anyone who gets punished as often as you.”
“So that’s what this is about.”
“With due respect, sir, we’re aware how important these prisoners are. No way am I turning them over without his explicit orders.”
Klara Yana coolly lifted an eyebrow. “Consider your objection noted. We’ll wait on Primer Tizantuck then. Until then, I’ll make sure you haven’t mistreated the prisoners.” She stepped toward Blackwood and Andrew, but the soldier swung his rifle up and trained it on her.
One of the other guards stutt
ered out, “Urmensias!”
“Urmensias,” Klara Yana repeated, her eyes never leaving the uncooperative guard’s. “Good to know.” She stepped past the gun, pushing it out of the way with her hand, and knelt by Blackwood. Instantly, she saw why the chief sea officer was sitting so awkwardly. She’d been shot. Klara Yana gritted her teeth. This just gets better and better.
Blackwood stared at her, not daring to utter a word. Andrew’s eyes darted between her and Blackwood. He was probably dying to ask if Cu Zanthus had sent her, but couldn’t do so in front of his sister without exposing Klara Yana.
She reached into her pocket and wrapped just her thumb and forefinger around the arphanium pipe. She glanced at the siblings, making sure they were close enough for her to grab at the same time. One chance.
“Lyanirus hasn’t contacted us!” a voice hollered across the walkway. Out of the corner of her eye, Klara Yana saw Tizantuck running toward them. “Seize the corporant!”
Klara Yana lunged forward, grabbing Andrew around the waist with her right arm and Blackwood with her left. Andrew screamed as her force pushed them from the ledge. But Klara Yana got her palm around the arphanium… and instead of plunging into water, they slid down the side of a slick hill, headfirst, snow spraying into their faces. Blackwood hissed in pain – definitely her leg – and Klara Yana howled as a rock struck her in the side. Fresh blood gushed beneath the bandage. She finally skidded to a stop, pain pulsing through her as intensely as it had after Lyanirus had finished with her. She lay wheezing, unsure if she’d ever be able to move again.
“By the moons!” Andrew gasped, somewhere to her right. “That ring! We’re back here? What are we doing back here?”
“I’ll get you out again!” Klara Yana croaked. “Just… give me a second.” She felt around in the shallow snow for the piece of arphanium she’d dropped. The sweeping river of stars arced through the haze above her – the ring, Andrew had called it. Was it? She’d taken several trips back as she’d shrouded around the island looking for Blackwood and Andrew, and that strange arc of stars had been in a different place every time.
“How did you do that, Holland?” said Blackwood.
“The mark,” Klara Yana answered, still staring at the sky. “I touch the dekatite to arphanium, and I shroud. From anywhere.”
Blackwood whistled. Andrew scrambled to Klara Yana’s side, feet slipping in the accumulation. He spoke Dhavvish in her ear, hissing out his words in a desperate whisper.
“Did he send you? Why didn’t those soldiers–”
“Yes, he sent me!” Klara Yana said through her teeth. Vo Hina’s mercy, did he want to get her killed? If Blackwood realized that Deckman Holland had helped compromise her parents’ research, she would strike her with that lightning in a second. No explanation on Mirrix would save her.
She spoke her next words louder, but gave them as much implied weight as possible, for Andrew’s sake. “Find the arphanium. We need it. OK?”
He nodded vigorously. “OK. I’m on it.”
Blackwood was breathing very deeply and deliberately somewhere to Klara Yana’s right, obviously trying to get up. Klara Yana put her hand to her wounded side, closing her eyes tight at even the thought of wrenching it again.
“Holland,” Blackwood said. “You speak Dhavvish.”
Klara Yana’s heart jumped before she realized Blackwood was referring to her rescue of them, rather than her short exchange with Andrew. “Yes. Yes, I do, CSO. I taught myself Dhavvish after my home was attacked. Just in case.”
“How did you escape? How did you find us?”
Klara Yana rolled onto her side, gasping at another stab of pain. “I stole the arphanium piece from the officer who captured me and instantly shrouded. But while they had me, I heard them talking. I heard them mention Kheppra Isle.”
“Look at me, deckman.”
Klara Yana looked over her shoulder, bracing herself. The CSO was standing now, her hand gingerly over the bandage on her leg and her long curls blowing free in the cold breeze. Her eyes drilled into Klara Yana’s.
“Were you sent here?” she said, her voice hard. “It all seems very convenient. The escape. The uniform. The Dhavvish.”
“Are you serious, CSO?” Klara Yana choked out. “Do you think I let myself be shot, too? And beaten nearly to death? Maybe you’d like to see my finger? It was almost cut off. I can take off the bandage, if you don’t believe me.”
Blackwood studied her for several moments. Finally, she let out a small sigh. “You really do look like kaullix shit. Was it about your mark?”
“Yes, CSO. And where you had gone. Why I couldn’t do the lightning thing.”
“What did you tell them? Anything?”
“Nothing. I swear, CSO. I stayed quiet, right up until I got the arphanium and escaped.”
“And then you came here?” It was Andrew who spoke this time, looking up from where he crouched in the snow. “To this realm?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see any… any of the beings here?” he asked. There was something almost hungry in his gaze.
Klara Yana looked between him and Blackwood, trying to read their moods. The way Blackwood’s face tightened at Andrew’s question could mean anything.
“Yes,” she answered cautiously, keeping her eyes on Blackwood’s face. “I actually sort of… spoke with one.”
“What?” said Blackwood sharply.
“I mean, kind of. I couldn’t understand it, but–”
“They’ve never done anything but try to kill us before!” Blackwood said.
“No, CSO, that’s not true!” said Klara Yana. “One of them did attack us, yes, but it was a different one that grabbed my hand on the submarine. It was… I think it was the one…” She stopped, forcing herself to take a deep breath. “One of them saved us. Not all of them are bad.”
“You’re saying there were two monsters outside the submarine?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I hadn’t realized that,” Blackwood said after a moment.
“I didn’t figure it out until much later, ma’am. But I’m almost positive it’s true.”
“Is that the one you spoke with?” said Andrew.
Klara Yana dipped her head in a guarded nod. “It was the same hand I felt on the submarine. I’m sure of it.”
“You mean when you were both marked,” he said.
“Yeah.”
Andrew’s gaze slid to Blackwood. Her eyes narrowed. Andrew swallowed and turned back to Klara Yana. “Shon Aha, the Marshal, the god of the Main Sun and lightning. Vo Hina, the Informer and the goddess of the Unseen.” Blackwood started to say something, but Andrew talked over her, his words tumbling faster from his mouth. “If Mila was marked by Shon Aha and can now use lightning, maybe Holland was marked by Vo Hina. What if the legend of her being Unseen was because she could shroud? Like Holland can now?”
“Andrew!” Blackwood said forcefully. “Holland doesn’t want to hear this any more than I do.”
“Why not, Mila?” Andrew said, his tone edging closer to agitation. “Shrouding came from somewhere! Why not Vo Hina?”
“It came from the arphanium that was buried miles belowground and only recently discovered. It’s a new technology–”
“Or an ancient lost technology!” Andrew insisted.
Blackwood sighed through her teeth. “Yeah. Maybe. But so what? What does that have to do with Dhavvie gods coming to life?”
“What does it have to do with it? Vo Hina’s betrayal? The fact that she hoarded souls by preventing the other gods from getting them? If she could shroud – if she could trap them all somewhere and destroy the arphanium so they couldn’t get back–”
“Xeil’s sake, Andrew, are you listening to yourself?” Blackwood burst out.
Klara Yana’s gaze went back and forth between them, her breath coming fast. Destroy the arphanium. That creature with the single eye had told her to run. What if she could trap them so they couldn’t get back…?
/> “But where would she put them?” she found herself saying.
Blackwood’s attention snapped to her. “What was that, Holland?” Klara Yana managed a small laugh, breathy and disbelieving. “Just… Andrew’s theory. Makes no sense. I mean, where would the Dhavvie goddess trap them?”
“Anywhere!” Andrew said. “Anywhere that has dekatite, right? Isn’t that how you said shrouding works?”
“Anywhere?” echoed Klara Yana. “What do you mean, anywhere? Another plane of existence? Another planet? Inside Mirrix?”
Andrew blinked. He mouthed something under his breath as his gaze flicked back to Blackwood.
“Andrew…” Blackwood began.
“Another planet,” he said. “Mila, the notes said… they said there were dekatite veins all over the galaxy. The Shattered Moon. The Shipora Belt. Mittdreck. Neutania.”
Blackwood opened her mouth. She started to shake her head.
“It’s colder,” said Andrew. “The suns are farther. No vegetation. More moons. It has rings. If you can shroud to any dekatite vein on Mirrix, Mila, why not any dekatite vein in the galaxy? In the universe, even? Just admit it. It’s not impossible!”
Blackwood closed her mouth again. Her gaze swept up to that starry band. “It’s not,” she finally said. “It actually… almost makes sense.”
“But why Neutania?” said Klara Yana faintly.