by Charley Case
Mila dried the last spoon and put it in the drawer. “As well as could be expected, when it comes to losing the only interstellar spaceship on the planet. The knight guy was a real asshole about the whole thing, so that was fun. How about you? I see you got a run in.”
Danica took a paper towel and wiped the sweat from her face and arms. “Yeah. After you guys left, I tried to sit around and not worry, but that didn’t go well, so I decided to go for a run. Then I stopped back here, and you weren’t home, so I went back out for another one. Pretty sure I hit thirty miles today.”
“You ran a marathon and some because you were worried?” Mila asked, her eyes going wide. “Damn, girl. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
She shrugged and opened the fridge, then took out the pasta and read the note on top. “Aw, thanks, guys. This looks delish.” She opened the microwave and put the container in for a minute to take the chill off. “Thirty miles isn’t all that far for a wood elf. I could probably do a hundred without much trouble.”
“Wait, I thought you were a high elf?” Finn cut in, handing her a fork.
“Thanks. No, I’m a wood elf. I dye my hair.” She smiled and took a bite. “Oh, man, this is really good. Where’s it from?”
“The cupboard.” Mila laughed. “Finn made it.”
Danica looked at him, her eyes nearly tearing up. “Please stay with us forever. You can have my room. I’ll sleep on the floor, as long as you make food like this every day.”
Finn smiled and was about to answer when a breeze blew the balcony door open. They all turned and saw a bubble about a foot across come floating in and cross the room toward them. When it reached the halfway point, it burst and a note fell out.
“Wow, Hermin and Garret work fast.” Finn walked over and picked up the folded piece of paper and gave it a read. “Looks like they found the Anthem and are willing to transport us there if we want. Hermin is waiting at the entrance to the market.”
“Oh, shit. I didn’t think this was going down tonight.” Mila pushed off the counter and headed for her room.
“Where are you going?” Finn asked, watching her go.
She plucked at the gray t-shirt she had been wearing all day. “To change. If we’re going to be sneaking around, I should probably not wear a short-sleeved V-neck shirt. Don’t you have combat pants or something?”
Finn smiled. “Yeah. I do. They’re whatever I happen to be wearing when combat starts.”
Mila rolled her eyes but laughed. “Well, I’m going to prepare. Give me a minute.”
Finn decided she might have a point and went to the leather bag he had brought his and Penny’s things in. He rummaged until he found the black cargo pants he had stuffed into the bottom, and undid his belt buckle. He was down to his tight black boxer briefs when he heard Danica’s fork scrape her bowl. Turning, he saw her leaning on the counter, watching him change.
She waved the fork at him. “Don’t stop on my account. I’m just enjoying dinner and a show over here.”
Finn chuckled and changed, keeping the black t-shirt and harness on and pulling on his black leather jacket once the cargo pants were secured with his belt. Mila came out of her room dressed similarly, except she wore black tights and combat boots that made her feet look about two sizes too big. She finished the look with a form-fitting hoodie and a black turtleneck underneath.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding about wanting to sneak around. You look like a goth chick with a YouTube channel,” Danica joked.
“Har har.” Mila put her hands on her hips, taking the jab with ease. “Actually, these boots were from my high school days. I was all edgy and stuff, or at least, my mom thought I was.”
“Unlike undergrad, when you got that tramp stamp?” Danica’s eyes nearly glowed with mirth.
“Hey!” Mila pointed a finger at her roommate’s face. “We don’t talk about the tramp stamp.”
“What’s a tramp—”
Finn was cut off by Mila’s other hand pointing at him.
“I said we don’t talk about it! Now let’s go. I want to get there before Jeff is taken to some other location.”
That sobered Finn right up. He was so used to adventure that he often forgot there were real consequences for some people involved.
“Right. Let’s go. Danica, hold down the fort. We’ll be back before you know it.” He shot her a smile as he passed and opened the door for Mila.
“Sure thing, guys.” Danica waved in an overly stiff manner. “Have fun storming the castle.”
“We’re not storming a castle.” He gave her a confused look.
She sighed. “It’s from a movie. Never mind.”
Mila shook her head as she passed. “How have you never seen The Princess Bride?”
“I’m from another planet. By the way, what’s a goth?” he asked as he closed the door.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Finn and Mila walked down the alley leading to the market. Night had fallen, and the sounds of the city were muffled between the brick buildings. Despite the relative quiet of the alley, Hermin was showing no sign that he had heard them approach as he stared down the opposite way. Finn cleared his throat when they were a few paces away, making the short gnome nearly jump out of his skin.
Hermin pressed a hand to his chest and gasped for breath. “Oh, my heart. Dear gods, why did you sneak up on me like that? I thought you were the Dark Star’s people.”
“Sorry, Hermin,” Finn said gently. “We didn’t mean to scare you. To be honest, though, we weren’t being particularly quiet. Why would you think the Dark Star’s people would know you were here?”
Hermin got himself under control, but he continued to look down the alley to be sure they were alone. “It turns out a lot of people know who this Dark Star is and are secretly rooting for her. There seems to be a large portion of the magical community that doesn’t want to spend the rest of their years in hiding because the Peabrains are having memory problems. Garret and I might have been a little sloppy in our search at first and alerted some people that we were looking for her.”
Now Finn was on edge. He hadn’t realized just how deep the Dark Star had her talons.
“Right. Well, then we should get out of here and let you get back to…wherever you live. How far is the Anthem?” he asked.
Hermin grunted. “Just about as far as you can get. It took quite a few scrying spells to find, and we had friends double-check our work just to be sure. The whole Huldu community came together on this one, and now they’re keeping a close eye on what happens. The Dark Star transported the ship to an ice cave in Antarctica. I would have said it was impossible for one person to do that, but there it is.”
“Antarctica?” Mila exclaimed. “You have got to be kidding me. I’m not dressed for that.”
“Don’t worry,” Hermin reassured her, pulling two vials from his overalls and handing one to each of them. “I figured you might need assistance with that. Here are some potions for cold resistance. They will give you a good eight hours before you need to find shelter. Sorry, I couldn’t find anyone who knew the proper recipe for dragons.”
“Chi, chi.” Penny waved him off, assuring him that she would be fine. She sucked in a breath and puffed out her cheeks as if she were blowing fire with her mouth closed.
Finn felt the waves of heat start to radiate off of her and gave her a pat. “She’ll be fine,” he confirmed. He opened the vial and downed the light blue liquid. Then he looked at Mila, who was hesitating. “Bottoms up. Don’t worry, it tastes like cinnamon.”
She smiled and unstopped hers before taking a swig.
Finn quickly reached over and tilted it up so she had to drink the whole thing. “You need to take it all at once or it won’t work. Sorry, should have warned you.”
She gulped it down, then smacked her lips. “That’s actually pretty good. Whoa, I can feel it warming my belly. Holy shit, that’s amazing. It’s like drinking a bottle of whiskey without getting drunk.”
“Yo
u two ready?” Hermin asked, glancing over his shoulder. “I’m going to put you as far from the ship as I can while still keeping you in the cave.”
“Shirit, shee. Churist,” Penny protested, making Hermin’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.
“She’s right.” Finn translated, “Put us as close to the ship as you can. That way, if there are guards, there will be less chance of them seeing us, since we’ll be behind them. Plus, I can get us in through any of the Anthem’s access hatches, so we won’t be out in the open for long.”
Hermin nodded. “Good thinking. Okay, ready?”
Finn and Mila held hands and nodded.
“Here we go.”
Hermin began to blow a bubble from his mouth that grew until it was seven or eight feet tall and just touched the ground. There was a rainbow sheen to its surface, and the alley was filled with the smell of fresh-cut cucumber as Hermin’s magic flowed from him.
He sucked in a breath and motioned for them to step inside. “Quickly, now.”
Finn stepped forward, thinking he would have to pull Mila into the strange magical structure, but he was surprised to see that she was one step ahead of him and pulling him forward. He passed through the bubble’s surface and the alley winked out of existence, to be replaced by the rough surface of the Anthem.
Finn immediately dropped into a crouch and spun to get a quick look at their surroundings. Mila followed suit, surprisingly graceful in her movements, considering she had never infiltrated enemy territory before.
The cave was huge and obviously not natural. It looked like someone had melted out a thousand feet of ice with a mini sun. The walls were smooth and featureless, reflecting the lights set up around the ship. The ice here was so old it was more green than blue or white. Finn’s dwarven senses told him the ceiling of the cave was only a few yards thick—strong enough to hold its own weight, but thin enough that the Anthem would have no problems breaking through.
He didn’t see any guards, but they could only see half the cave, being so close to the ship.
“Hear anything?” he whispered.
“No, just dripping water,” Mila confirmed.
“Penny, go up and take a look, then meet us at access hatch four.”
Penny nodded and flapped her wings silently, shooting up and over the huge asteroid.
“Come on.” Finn motioned for Mila to follow.
They moved in a crouched run around the base of the ship until they came to landing strut that had been deployed to keep the round rock stable while on the ground. Finn moved around it and admired that Mila did the same in a smooth motion. She was good at this.
They continued quickly until Finn put up a hand and squatted again, stopping their progress.
Mila leaned in and whispered, tickling his ear, “Did you hear something?”
A shiver ran down his spine but he resisted the urge to scratch his earlobe. “No, we’re waiting for Penny.” He touched the rocky surface. “The hatch is right here.”
She stared at the Anthem for a few seconds before whispering, “How can you tell?”
Finn looked at her like she was crazy, then looked at the ship, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know, I just can. It looks like a door to me.”
A bubble appeared right between them, making Mila suck in a breath and put her hands up to guard her face. The small bubble popped, and a note drifted to the ground between them. Finn picked it up with his left hand, having grabbed Fragar out of reflex with his right, and unfolded the note.
“It’s from Hermin. He says the Huldu have decided that if the Anthem takes off, they will have to destroy her. He says the Peabrains will almost certainly see it, and they can’t risk it.”
“What if we’re on the ship?” Mila asked, leaning in so she could read the note as well.
“I guess that didn’t factor into their decision. I would say let’s not be on it if it’s going to take off.”
“So, how do we stop it?” She wrapped her hand around his arm to keep steady in their crouched position, and Finn didn’t mind at all.
“I say we go for the engines. The Anthem has been on her last legs for…well, a long time. It shouldn’t be too hard to break a few things in the engine room to get her to give up the ghost.”
Penny swooped around the ship, tooting a flame to signal the all-clear, then landed on his shoulder.
“Nice.” He bumped fists with her as she settled on his shoulder.
Mila reached up and mimicked Finn, receiving a fist bump of her own that made Finn smile.
“Okay, let’s do this,” he said. “You have your armor on and Gram at the ready?”
Mila pulled her turtleneck down until the chainmail showed, then reached in her hoodie’s pocket and pulled out the gold hilt of Gram. “Ready.”
Finn pressed a hand to the stone and a panel lit up. Recognizing him, the ship opened the air-tight seal of access door four with a hiss, then swung inward. The opening was small, but Finn could make it if he turned his shoulders sideways and pushed hard with his feet. He wiggled until his right arm was inside the ship, then he pulled himself the rest of the way in.
He fell to the grated floor of an access walkway between the main cargo hold and water storage. He nearly cursed when he saw Mila’s small frame step through the door without having to do much in the way of squeezing.
Instead, he smiled at her. “That’s got to be nice.”
“What does?” Mila asked, brushing frost off her pants.
“Fitting through spaces.” He chuckled. “I’ve been over six feet tall since I was ten. Not a lot of time to enjoy being small.” He stood up and had to duck so he didn’t hit his head on a pipe from the water tank.
“Being small has its advantages, but so does being big,” she argued. “Like the fact that you can kick ten sorts of ass without worrying too much about it. That must be nice.”
“My father once told me that the difference between a peaceful man and a helpless man was that a peaceful man could kill but didn’t, and a helpless man couldn’t kill in the first place.”
Mila cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brow. “That seems a little all-or-nothing.”
“Yeah, my dad is a bit of an asshole,” he agreed, leading the way down the access tunnel. “But it was a good reminder that most people will put you in a category right off the bat. I’ve seen a lot of guys get their asses kicked by smaller foes because they forgot the simple fact that being badass has nothing to do with size or, to some degree, skill. It has to do with wanting to win and knowing how far you’re willing to go to get that victory.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean I can kick the same amount of ass as you can,” she reasoned.
Finn slowed down as they came to a T intersection. “Which way is the engine room?”
Penny pointed to the left and rolled her eyes. “Squee shir?”
“Yes, this is my ship,” Finn said with a huff. “You know I don’t spend much time down here in the access tunnels. And don’t even say that it shows; you're not funny. It’s just mean at some point.”
Penny chuckled and patted him on the head as he turned left and continued.
“Back to the topic at hand. You may not be able to kick the quantity of ass I can, but you sure kick quality ass. No one will see you coming. Guys underestimate smaller foes.”
He led them up a series of ladders and more walkways while Mila considered his words. Eventually, he stopped at a hatch in the floor of the tunnel.
“Here we are. The heart of the ship. I say we slip in, pull a few fuses, break a couple of valves, and then we can take our time to find that one-eyed bastard and set him straight.”
Penny nodded along with Mila, who pulled Gram out but didn’t activate it.
Finn carefully pulled the hatch in the walkway open, careful not to make any noise.
He needn’t have bothered. The room a dozen feet below was full of Kashgar, but each was working on a system and chatting excitedly with one another.
&nbs
p; “I can’t believe we’re going to finally see our homeworld.”
“Won’t the Dark Star be pissed we’re taking the ship?”
“Who cares? We’ll be so far away, she won’t be able to do anything.”
“I hope she doesn’t find out.”
“Lithor really stuck his neck out for us. I can’t believe he’s going against…”
Finn slowly closed the hatch and frowned at Mila. “Well, that was unexpected.”
“The fact that Lithor is stealing the ship from his boss?”
“No.” Finn swallowed. “The fact that the engines have never looked so clean and been in such good working order.”
“Okay, but how does that change the plan?” Mila asked, her grip on Gram making her knuckles white.
Finn sighed. “Well, first off, those are basically civilians who are just trying to get to a home that they’ve never seen. I don’t like the idea of slaughtering mechanics. But more importantly, they actually fixed so much stuff that the backups are working. I don’t think we can do enough damage before they overwhelm us.”
“Shir chi shee,” Penny suggested.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to take care of this from the bridge. I’m betting that’s where Lithor is anyway.” Finn chewed the inside of his cheek while he thought. “Problem with that is I can’t fit through the vent shafts to get there unnoticed. I’m going to have to fight my way through.” He paused for a second, then looked at Mila. “You, on the other hand, can fit just fine.” He flashed her a smile. “See? Being small pays off.”
She huffed a laugh. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“Come on. We need to find the access shaft to the bridge and do a little more scouting.” He grabbed the next ladder and began to climb, Mila right behind him.
Five minutes later, they were crouching over the closest access panel to the bridge that Finn could get to. A little farther down, the tunnel narrowed enough that he simply couldn’t fit.
“You need to go that way until you come to a vent like this one. That will look down onto the bridge,” Finn whispered.
They needed to be quiet because just below them were a dozen guards filling the hallway to the bridge. Most of them were sitting on crates and chatting, but each of them had a weapon close at hand and obviously knew how to use it.