by S A Shaffer
“You struck him because you were angry.” She said as she took his shoulders in her hands. “You struck him because you lost your temper.”
“But he was lying about father!” David said, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I had to hit him.”
“Does that make it right?” Mother asked. “Is it ever right to lose your temper?”
David looked away. He wanted to say yes, but he knew it was the wrong answer.
“David,” Mother said, taking his chin and forcing him to look at her again. “You can’t decide when you can and cannot obey Jeshua’s commandments. Jeshua commands us not to lose our tempers, and then he gives us self-control for the times when we are tempted. You have a duty to do what’s right.”
“I know that’s what He commands, but… I just…” David trailed off as he drew in a breath.
“You can’t just know about Him, David.” Mother said. “You have to know Him, know Him like you know father and me.” Mother’s eyes filled with her own tears. “He commands you to do justice, love kindness, and seek the humble path, but it’s more than that. Do you know Him? Do you? Do you really know Him…”
◆◆◆
David shook himself awake with the memory. Sunshine warmed his face, and a kink bent his neck. A few tears rolled down his cheeks left over from his dreams. His mother’s voice still echoed in his ears as though it had really been there, but he hadn’t heard that voice in cycles, and he might never again. However, not hearing her in the present didn’t keep the echoes of her voice from filling his memory. Her question had remained in his thoughts for more than a decade. Did he really know Jeshua, or did he just know about him? Then again, over the cycles, David had changed the question. Did he want to know Him?
Something warm and fuzzy along his side brought his mind back to the present. He looked around and realized where he was: still locked on Bethany’s balcony. Havoc lay beside him, purring on his back in absolute contentment.
“Don’t get used to this,” David said as he scratched the animal’s belly. “I’ll be locking my door from now on, and you will sleep outside alone.”
Havoc yawned and rolled onto his paws. David stood and rubbed his eyes. He looked off the balcony at the amazing view and noticed whole fleets of gunships patrolling through the air around the resort and across the entire forest. Evidently, he and Francisco’s little stunt had shaken things up. He turned and rapped on the balcony door at a polite volume. Then he stood back and waited. Five minutes later he knocked again with a little more firmness. The same result. Havoc rubbed against his knee, and David could feel the deep rumble of his purring.
“Well at least somebody wants me.” David said as he banged on the door with his metal fist, all pleasantries forgotten. It didn’t help.
45 minutes later, he still stood on the balcony, leaning against the door and making a continuous thud with the back of his head. All at once, the door opened, and he fell on his back inside the room.”
“Good morning!” Bethany said. “How did you sleep?”
David rubbed the back of his head. “You’re fired.” He said and climbed to his feet with a groan. But Bethany didn’t seem to hear him.
“Ah! And who do we have here?” Bethany said as she picked up Havoc and nuzzled his head. The feline filled her arms and then some. Its long tail hung down her robe and trailed along the floor. “If I’d known such a gorgeous creature slept on my porch, I’d have let it in.”
“He sort'a came with the room.” David said.
He looked away with a snort as Bethany scratched Havoc under his neck. But then, the door rooms main door rattled and pushed up against the chair Bethany had placed there the previous night.
“One time!” She said as she stamped her foot and dropped Havoc to the floor, who ran out to the balcony with a fright. “I get seen with a man in my bed one time and now everybody’s banging down my door!” She removed the chair from the door and swung it open.
Francisco stood on the other side, and he stepped in and shut the door behind him, as best as it could be shut.
“I trust last night went well.” He said after he’d secured the door.
Bethany forced a smile and a shrug. “You’re so amusing, Francisco. Well, here’s your man back safe and sound and well rested.”
“She locked you on the porch, didn’t she?” Francisco asked.
David nodded and the man laughed.
“Now you are acquainted with the real Bethany.” Francisco said. “Loud, sharp tongued, and salty as ever.”
She curtsied, and then held up a rude finger.
“So you, Bethany, and Mercy were all working together?” David asked. “Was anyone in the office not a spy?”
“Surprisingly enough, Samille wasn’t, just a little too ambitious.” Francisco said, wincing at the last part. “I regret framing her now, especially after what Blythe did to her.”
His words put a chill in the room.
“Well,” Bethany said. “I’m going sunbathing and none of you are invited.”
It was then that David realized why the girl wore a robe and her blond hair hung in a ponytail.
“Just a minute Bethany,” Francisco said. “We need to discuss what happened last night.”
“I locked him on the porch!” Bethany said, legitimately offended this time.
“Not that,” Francisco said. “What David and I overheard on our mission. I need you to play back the recordings we took so we can try and figure out the identity of the stranger in the meeting.”
“Oh.” Bethany said, relaxing some.
“But I think we should do it in David’s room, as his door isn’t broken. We’ll order breakfast.”
Upon reaching David’s room and ordering breakfast, the most obnoxious keening sounded from the balcony.
David groaned and walked to the balcony with the last of the room’s snacks.
“Of all the rooms, how did I get stuck in the one with a pet?” David said as he opened the door and Havoc came bounding in. David dropped some nuts and dried fruit on the floor in front of him. Havoc sniffed the snack and then looked up at David.
“What!” David said. “You already ate everything else!”
Francisco took one look at the animal and then back at David with a pinched brow. “Is that the same feline that startled you last night on the roof?”
“Unfortunately. The blasted thing won’t leave me alone.”
“Do you have any idea what it is?” Francisco asked.
“I know it won’t leave?” David said.
Francisco started laughing, and he kept on laughing until David grew frustrated. Bethany looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Well? Do you know how to make it go away?” David asked while Francisco took a breath between chuckles.
“That’s a Glide Panther.” Francisco said with an obvious look. “They’re very rare.”
“Yes, I gathered the glide part when it flew onto my balcony.” David said. “Why won’t it leave, and why is it following me all over the resort?”
“You’re feeding it?” Francisco said.
“Maybe. But what’s that got to do with it?”
“Glide Panthers are bonders.” At David’s blank look Francisco continued. “They bond for life with other creatures, usually other Glide Panthers.”
Someone knocked at the door, and Bethany went to see who it was.
“Well,” David said, “I don’t exactly see any other Glide Panthers in here, so why does it persist in staying.”
“It bonds as a cub when someone else feeds it. In the wild, they are very community-oriented animals, but they are rare in these parts. This cub may not have been bonded till you fed it.” He chuckled. “Just wait till it gets bigger, much bigger.”
David opened his mouth to comment when the meaning of Francisco’s words finally clicked.
“It bonded to me?”
“Seems like it.”
“When I fed it?”
Francisco nodded.
“How do I un-bond it?”
“You can’t.”
“Why not? I’ll just leave it out on the balcony until I leave.”
“It’s a Glide Panther.” Francisco Repeated. “If it did bond to you, it will track you for grandfathoms if it has to. And if you sail away in an airship, it will wonder until it starves.”
“But… But I don’t want a Glide Panther!”
Bethany giggled at David when she returned with a large tray filled with sausage, bacon, eggs, toast and an assortment of fruit.
“You shouldn’t have ignored the signs.” Francisco said.
“You mean the sign that says don’t feed the animals?” David said in frustration as the three of them sat down for breakfast. “That’s the kind of sign you find next to duck ponds where they simultaneously sell duck feed. Maybe they should hang a sign that says, If you feed the animals, you are accepting a responsibility for life.”
“Bethany, you feed him.” David said. “You like him, don’t you? Maybe he’ll bond to you.”
“No, thank you.” Bethany said. She smiled and sat primly on her chair.
“I miss the old Bethany.” David said. Stupid and docile, though he didn’t say that part out loud.
He filled his plate with some of the steaming food, and the smell made his stomach growl, as well as Havoc’s. David looked over and saw the glide panther sitting on its haunches and staring up at him with its luminescent eyes.
“You are a pathetic moocher.” David said as he dropped a sausage link and Havoc snatched it from the air. “I’m only feeding you, so you’ll get big enough to make a coat.”
Bethany set up a phonograph and played back the recording David and Francisco had gathered the previous night. They listened several times to what the mysterious man said while they finished their breakfast. Bethany, as it turned out, served as a technician for Mit and the underground, something that completely baffled David, coming from a girl who couldn’t even turn on the tea machine without assistance.
When they’d all finished eating and were no closer to discovering the strange foreigner’s identity, David sighed and asked, “Would anyone like any tea?”
He looked at Francisco and then Bethany. She held up her knife and wrinkled her brow.
“Do not ask me to make tea or I will stab you with this knife.” She said and poked him several times with the point to emphasize her words.
David held up his hands. “I was going to make it.”
“Oh. Okay then. I’d love a cup.” She said, redirecting the knife and spearing a piece of dragon fruit.
David yawned, walked over to the refresher station and started heating the water, but when he opened the tin of Jorgan leaves, he frowned. Then his eyes widened.
“We have Senchá Tea!” he said.
“Ew. That brew is awful” Bethany said, and she wrinkled her nose. “Jorgan, please.”
“No, I mean, that’s what he said on the recording, the foreigner.” David said with barely contained excitement. “Don’t you see? Alönians hate Senchá as do the Bergish. The only people in the Fertile Plains who like it are the—”
“Viörn!” Francisco said, finishing his thought.
David started pacing around the table as Bethany and Francisco considered what he said.
“Of course, it could just be someone with terrible taste in tea.” He mused aloud.
Then Bethany’s eyes brightened, and she shook her hands in the air. “The… the tapestry. His analogy about the image being fixed once the tapestry is sewn. Don’t women in Viörn sew tapestries?”
“Their marriage tapestry.” Francisco said, nodding along with Bethany.
“I didn’t think of that.” David said. “At a Viörn engagement, girls begin a tapestry of themselves and their husband to be. Once the tapestry is finished, the marriage commences. The tea, the tapestry, that precise way of speaking… He could be Viörn.”
“Possibly.” Francisco said. He leaned back in his chair and rested his chin in his hand.
“Why would Blythe be talking to a Viörn?” Bethany asked.
“...about the deconstruction of our warships.” Francisco added with a shake of his head.
“Those are important questions,” David said, “but I think the most important of all is why He was scared of him. You could even hear it in the recording. It was tenfold in person. Why would Blythe, the speaker of Alönia, be terrified of a little Viörn?”
“Bloody Nora!” Francisco said, causing David and Bethany to look at him as the man was obviously on to something. “You’re right. A few cycles back we had an intelligence report from Armstad on Viörn. It described the Emperor as weak in his rule and his only daughter as a simpleton. The report went on to introduce a new political figure, one on whom there was very little information. They knew him to be an admiral of small stature, and that he was the true power in Viörn. Since then, there hasn’t been a single report out of Viörn as all our spies in the country have been reported missing or dead.”
“Isn’t that treason?” Bethany asked? “Talking with the enemy?”
“Technically the speaker can talk with any head of state, but striking deals with a declared enemy must be approved by a majority of the assembly.”
“So… yes, then?” Bethany said as she rolled her eyes. “It is treason?”
David nodded, but his thoughts were far off. Then he smiled. “All we have to do is record a complete conversation and photograph the Viörn. The assembly will have no choice but to remove Blythe as speaker.” David looked at Francisco with a wide-eyed smile.
“It could work.” Francisco said, nodding back at David.
“We got him.” David said, his tone growing excited. “We’ve got him! They’re bound to have another meeting soon. We only have to record it.”
“Perhaps, if you refrain from breaking any more skylights...” Francisco said.
“That wouldn’t have happened if Havoc hadn’t pounced on me.” David said as he pointed at the Panther sprawled out on his bed and purring contentedly. But his heart wasn’t in the accusation. As the implications of their discovery flooded his mind. They now knew exactly how to snare the slippery speaker, and they were all perfectly positioned to catch him in the act of treason. They had but to wait.
Francisco laughed, stood, and went over to the refresher station presumably to finish the tea David had begun making. But as he neared the wall, he slowed and looked at random points along its surface. Then he ran to a couch and slid it across the floor, wedging it between the suite door and the wall.
“What is it?” David asked.
But Francisco didn’t answer. He sprinted to the bed, flipped the mattress, and snatched a repeater from a hidden pouch. Havoc rolled onto the floor and crawled under David’s chair.
“Have I been sleeping on top of that this whole time?” David said as he got to his feet and pointed at the repeater.
But then the room echoed as something slammed into the other side of the suite door. It might have collapsed inward, but for the couch Francisco had braced against it only seconds before. The assassin lifted the repeater and fired a single shot. Somebody yelped from the other side of the wall, and then several counter shots penetrated the door, leaving holes in it and the wall opposite. David threw Bethany to the floor and crouched down beside Francisco. Francisco pointed his repeater along the wall and fired a single shot at several points. David heard yelps after every shot and wondered how the man could be so accurate with blind shots. Then he remembered Francisco’s bionic eye.
“Do you have another gun?” David asked over the racket.
“I can handle this.” Francisco said as he reloaded. “Find us a way out of here. The hallway is not an option.”
David looked around the room, but there were really only two ways in or out: the main door and the balcony. He ran to the balcony and saw the same gunships he’d seen that morning banking toward his room. That removed climbing as an option. They didn’t have any gear, and
even if they could manage it, the gunships would spot them. He stepped back into the room, conscious of their limited time, but unable to come up with a viable escape.
“David?” Francisco said. “They’re bringing out their big guns. Any time now.”
David looked around the room and saw a box in the corner, the same box Francisco had filched from the balloon jump excursion the day before. He ran over and tore it open. They’d already used most of the safety balloons, save two.
David adjusted the buoyancy on each, and without hesitation, he stooped and grabbed Bethany where she lay on the floor with her ears plugged. He fastened the restraints around her torso.
“Do you know how to work one of these?” He asked as Francisco let out a long burst of rounds.
She nodded. So he picked her up and tossed her petite frame off the balcony. It wasn’t entirely necessary, but if he were going to die today, he’d have some comfort in the fact that he’d gotten even with her for locking him on her balcony all night. The sour look she gave him as she fell certainly warmed his heart.
David ripped down the roped that drew the curtains and tied it under his arms. He tied the other end to one of the restraints on the only remaining safety balloon. Then he slid a knife from the breakfast table into his sleeve.
“Francisco, I’m ready when you are.”
By this time, so many holes riddled the wall that David could see figures moving along the outside hall. Francisco fired a few more shots, and then he turned and ran to him. But he came up short when he saw what David had planned.
“Oh, bloody hell!” He said. “I’d rather die from a gunshot then smash into the forest floor.”
“It will work.” David lied. “I promise.”
In truth, if the balloon could not support their combined weight even on the maximum buoyancy setting, as he expected it could not, he planned on cutting himself free with the knife in his sleeve. All too well he remembered the last time he’d shared a life balloon. That time he’d lost his arm, and his mother lost her mobility. He and Francisco weighed considerably more than they had.