by J. J. Green
“We won’t be as defenseless as you suppose,” he replied. “We will have a support team. Let’s go.”
They went up the ramp and into the cabin. Stefan had brought the elixir along, only this time it was in a canister rather than a jug to prevent it from spilling during what promised to be a rocky flight. The shuttle’s cabin windows were wide, providing an unusually good view. As well, a holo feed from the surface had been set up. She had all she needed to wreak death and destruction on the Dirksen troops with her powers.
Carina said, “What if I can’t do this? I’ve never tried this before. This isn’t how mages use their abilities.”
“If you can’t sway the course of the battle with your efforts,” Stefan replied, “you’d better do a damned good job of convincing me you tried.” He directed his son to a seat. “Fasten your safety belt, Darius.”
The little boy did as he was told, giving Carina a look filled with fear. He hadn’t spoken a word since his fit of crying. Her heart ached at the harsh introduction he was experiencing to his father’s truly evil nature.
The pilot boarded, and the shuttle took off. “Which battle site do you wish to go to?” Stefan asked after an hour or so. “We’re approaching the planet.” He wore a headset that enabled him to comm the pilot.
Carina still had no idea. She’d only decided she had to try to do something to sway the fight. Now that they were on their way down, her mind remained a blank. Oceanside, a plain encircled by volcanoes, a sea bed, or the subzero, icy environment of a polar cap? The Dirksens had chosen the locations of their military installations well. All presented challenges to the attackers that their own troops would be trained to turn to their advantage. She was wracking her brains for a Cast that would dispose of Dirksen troops. She had to think of something.
“Which is it to be Carina?” Stefan asked again, a hard edge to his tone.
She had to pick. Which one? “The sea bed.”
Stefan relayed her choice to the pilot.
“No, wait,” Carina said. “The one by the ocean. Or...”
“Which one? Make a decision,” Stefan snapped. “You’re wasting time.”
“The ocean, I guess. Yes, the ocean.” She had the germ of an idea.
“Where are we going?” Darius finally piped up.
“Never mind,” Stefan replied. “Be quiet.”
“We’re going to a place where soldiers are fighting,” Carina answered.
Stefan frowned but said nothing. He gazed out of the shuttle window as if he had a lot on his mind. They were entering the upper atmosphere of the planet. A large, copper-yellow landmass spread out beneath them, stretching to the curved horizon, surrounded by blue ocean. They were sunside, and the border of the atmosphere was clear to see, shimmering as it faded into the blackness of space.
“Why are the soldiers fighting?” Darius asked.
Carina wished she could have gotten to know her little brother in better circumstances. “It’s hard to explain. But, Darius, can you do something for me?”
“Yes, of course, Carina. What do you want me to do?”
“Soldiers fighting is a horrible thing to see. You’re too young to be watching something like that. Can you promise me that when we arrive there, you’ll close your eyes and keep them closed the whole time until I tell you it’s okay to open them?”
Stefan rolled his eyes but again he chose not to interfere. Carina imagined he thought his son’s welfare wasn’t worth bothering about.
The landmass was drawing closer. The pilot was flying them to an area of coastline. As they got nearer, Carina could see the battle was well underway. Specks that were fighter pinnaces were circling the site, jinking as they went to avoid missiles. Puffs of smoke and fire from bombs and other air strikes rose from the military complex they were rapidly approaching. Carina doubted that the Sherrerrs were doing much real damage. The structure she’d seen close-up before in the flagship had been wide but only one story high. Most of the installation had to be underground.
Three fighter planes were zooming up toward them.
“We’re being attacked,” Carina said.
“No,” replied Stefan. “They’re Sherrerr planes. They’re for our protection.”
“What’s the state of the battle?” Carina asked. “Is there a chance this place will be nuked from above?”
“Didn’t you listen to anything at all at the planning meeting? We want to use the planet, not destroy it. There’s not much point in having control of an uninhabitable disaster zone, is there? We just need to gain control of their military sites and put down their defenses. So you need to help us overthrow this site. I have given my assurance you can do it, so my reputation in my family is riding on your success. You’d better deliver, or you, your mother, and all your new brothers and sisters will regret it.”
No pressure then.
“You can do it, Carina,” Darius said. “I know you can.”
“Darius, this isn’t what mages are supposed to do,” Carina said. “We aren’t about hurting people. I want you to understand that.”
“Shut up and concentrate on your task,” Stefan spat.
The military installation was clear to see now. It reached for two or three kilometers along the coast. The Sherrerrs certainly had their work cut out for them. The Dirksens’ guns were firing back at their ground and air attackers, and though the Sherrerr rockets and missiles were hitting their targets, the damage seemed minimal. It was a battle that would take days and massive amounts of firepower to win, if it were winnable at all.
She needed a way to destroy the installation without also causing thousands of Sherrerr casualties. Carina’s germ of an idea had grown as they were flying down. It could work. It really could.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Tell the pilot to fly up and down the coastline,” Carina told Stefan. She didn’t really need to survey the area. She’d made her request just to buy some time as she marshaled her thoughts and feelings. What she was planning wouldn’t hinge on the lie of the land, but on whether she could actually manage it. She rarely had occasion to Cast Rise, and she’d never done it on such a large scale before.
A Cast on such a scale would require very deep concentration. If she allowed the things most prominent in her mind at that moment—concern for Darius, fears for her mother and the rest of her new family, worries about what Stefan would want her to do next—to dominate her thoughts, she would never succeed.
And she had to succeed. She simply had to. Stefan had been correct when he’d said that all her brave words had flown out the window the minute he threatened to harm her little brother. Darius had already been through so much when he was kidnapped. He’d had his tracker chip cut out of him by the Dirksens and they’d tortured him to try to discover if he had mage powers. He also had a monster for a father. She couldn’t bear to see the little boy hurt again, even if it meant taking part in a war that was none of her business.
One day, hopefully soon, she would help Darius, her mother, and her other sisters and brothers escape from Stefan’s clutches. Until that moment she had to do as Stefan asked. Carina’s heart sank as she realized that her mother must have told herself exactly the same thing many years ago. She wondered when her mother had finally given up hope.
She would never give up hope. She would find a way out.
They were flying at an incredible speed and jerking erratically as the pilot fought to avoid the fire targeted at them. A brilliant flash of light shone through the windows, an ear-splitting boom rent the air, and the shuttle rocked and spun upside down. They’d been hit!
Then the pilot righted the vessel.
“Lost one of our fighters,” Stefan remarked, almost casually. “You must begin soon. Are you ready?”
Their remaining two guard pinnaces were shooting down the missiles, but they were in great danger of being hit at any moment.
“You’ll have to tell the Sherrerr troops to evacuate. Now.”
“What? I have no aut
hority to do that.”
“If you don’t want them to be destroyed, you have to make them stop attacking and withdraw. It’s the only way.”
“I’m telling you—”
“Then take us back to the ship. I’m a mage, Stefan, not a miracle worker. I can’t wave my hands and make the installation disappear or kill all the Dirksens with a nod of my head. You should know this. You’ve lived with mages for fifteen years and seen what they can and can’t do. We aren’t murderers. I hardly ever Cast when I was a merc. This isn’t easy for me. So do as I ask or forget it, because no matter what you threaten, I can’t help you.” Despite what it might mean, Carina had to try to save some troops from what she was about to do. Bryce and Mandeville could be down there. Also, she knew how much this meant to Stefan. She wanted to exploit what leverage she had.
Stefan’s brow furrowed in anger. He seemed about to give a retort, but thought better of it. He asked the pilot to patch him through to the Sherrerr command. A moment later he stated Carina’s request. He was speaking with Calvaley. After some back and forth, he received the man’s agreement.
The shuttle retreated to the upper atmosphere while the Sherrerr troops withdrew from the shoreline. Carina hoped they were moving sufficiently far away to be out of the danger zone.
As the shuttle hung in the upper atmosphere, Carina saw the fight for control of the planetary system space. Though the starships themselves were too far away to see, flashes and shooting stars signaled the space battle. Carina hoped that Nightfall and her family would remain safe.
After a while, Stefan said, “The troops have retreated. Are you ready?”
No. She would never be ready.
Carina nodded. Stefan told the pilot to return to the oceanside military base. He reached across the aisle and gave her the bottle of elixir. When they were in sight of the shoreline, she took a large gulp, swallowed the disgusting mixture, then took another gulp. She drank the whole bottle. Would it be enough? She had no idea.
Closing her eyes, she took mental steps down into her mind, disappearing into herself. She shut out the outside noise entering through her ears, the feel of the shuttle seat beneath her, and, with the greatest difficulty, her fear about what she was about to do. She both did and didn’t want the Cast to work. Her pulse and breathing slowed. She was alone in the darkness.
In slow strokes, she wrote the character. Each stroke perfect, each in the correct order. Rise. When the character was complete, she sent it out. Now she could harness the power of her emotions. She let out her rage at her mother’s long captivity and rape, her father’s murder, her brothers’ and sisters’ confinement and abuse, and her own capture and exploitation. She gathered the raw feelings and flung them along the path of the character, speeding in its wake, propelling it to its destination.
Everything was gone. Her mind was blank. Her feelings spent. A terrible weakness overwhelmed her. She could barely open her eyes.
When she did and the shuttle interior swam into view, the first thing she saw was Stefan peering closely out the window. Darius was at his side, also looking downward with great curiosity.
“Darius,” Carina said weakly, “get back in your seat. I don’t want you to see this.”
The little boy did as he was told. “Are you okay?” he asked as he fastened his safety belt.
She was not okay. She was definitely not okay. “I’m fine.”
Carina didn’t want to look out the window, but if the Cast had worked, she could guess what was happening. The ocean would be retreating. The waves that had lashed the rocks and concrete buffers of the Dirksens’ installation would be gone, and the ocean bed would be laid bare for a kilometer or more from the shore.
If the Dirksens understood what was happening, and if they were quick, they could save a lot of their troops, but the installation would be ruined by what was about to happen.
Carina hoped the Dirksens were quick.
Stefan was nodding. “I see. Very impressive.” His back straightened. “Here it comes,” he exclaimed.
Once, when she was a little girl, before Nai Nai had died and she’d become a street brat, Carina had seen a vid at her friend’s house of a natural disaster. Though humans had the technology to avoid many forms of death, they hadn’t found a way to prevent eruptions, landslides, earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis.
Carina had watched her friend’s vid in horrified fascination as the water at a beach had disappeared then returned with terrible force, inundating everything in its path. She had watched the terrible weight of water destroying whatever it touched, swamping, crushing, drowning. As a little girl, she’d never imagined she could ever or would ever want to use the power of a tsunami herself.
The weight of what she’d done settled over her like a suffocating gauntlet. She’d become a weapon of mass destruction.
She closed her eyes.
“Very good, Carina,” Stefan said. “Well done.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
When Carina and Darius returned after the battle, the atmosphere in the family living quarters was subdued. Carina’s mother greeted her sadly and the children looked up from their occupations momentarily, one or two of them murmuring greetings.
“Carina defeated the Dirksens,” Darius said as he went into the living area. “She made a huge wave...” He mimed it with his arms. “And then she sent it crashing down on the Dirksen building. It was amazing.” He threw his arms down. He hadn’t seen the tsunami but Stefan, in a jubilant mood, had told his son what had happened.
“Shut up you little creep,” Castiel said. “Carina only did what Father told her to do. It was Father’s victory.”
“No...” Darius said, confused. “It was Carina who did it.”
Castiel got up from the sofa where he’d been lounging and stalked across to his young brother. “Who brought us here?”
“Father.”
“Who took you out in the shuttle?”
“Father.”
“Who told Carina to Cast to defeat the Dirksens?”
“Father did, but—”
“Then it was Father’s victory. Carina was just Father’s weapon.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” Castiel shouted, and he pushed Darius to the floor.
“Castiel,” Carina’s mother admonished. “Don’t do that. Apologize to your brother and help him up.”
Castiel snorted derisively and went back to the sofa. He threw himself onto it and lay down, his hands behind his head.
Ferne had run over to his brother and was helping him to his feet.
“You’re a very bad boy,” Darius shouted at Castiel, who only smirked and made a rude gesture.
“Stop it, please,” Carina’s mother said.
She looked worse than ever, Carina thought. She was pale and skeletal, as if something was eating her from the inside out.
“Well done, Carina,” Parthenia said.
“Thanks,” Carina replied bitterly. “Like Castiel said, it wasn’t my idea.” She went to her room, closed the door, and sat down on her bed. She couldn’t bear the terrible tension that existed constantly between the family members. In her years of solitude after Nai Nai died, when in her darkest moments Carina had wished with all her heart that she had her parents and a family, she’d never imagined it would be anything like this. Stefan’s abuse had worn down her mother so much she looked like she was at death’s door and the children were split into deeply divided factions.
On one side were the non-mages Castiel and Nahla. The girl wasn’t unfriendly while she was away from her brother, but in his company she mimicked his bitter, scornful attitude toward the others. In the other camp were Oriana, Ferne, and little Darius. They played together in quiet games where they pretended to Cast. Carina could remember playing such games herself when she was younger.
Parthenia kept herself apart from the two groups and was quite solitary. In some ways, she reminded Carina of herself, minus the growing-up-on-the street influences on
her character. In other ways, Carina found her difficult to read. She’d noticed her looking at their mother with great sadness, yet at the same time she seemed to love Stefan very much and want his attention. Carina hadn’t figured out Parthenia yet.
A knock sounded at her door. Carina’s mother came in and sat down next to her. She took Carina’s hand.
“It’s hard when he forces you to Cast, isn’t it?” she asked. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m okay,” Carina replied, a catch in her voice. “It isn’t like I’ve never killed before.” Her words were little more than lies intended to protect her mother from guilt and anguish. Nothing Carina said could have been further from the truth. She was constantly fighting to ignore mental images of thousands or even tens of thousands of Dirksen soldiers drowning in their underground bunkers.
She also wanted to spare her mother the details of how Stefan had threatened to hurt Darius. The woman could probably guess well enough, though, and didn’t need her husband’s methods spelled out to her.
Carina looked into her mother’s sad, thin face. She sat up. “Ma, is there something wrong with you? Are you sick?”
The woman took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
Her mother’s face was filled with such despair, Carina saw her question had struck a nerve. She grabbed her hands. “You are sick! What’s wrong with you?”
Her mother swallowed before replying, “I guess I should tell you. I have Ithiyan Plague. I stopped taking the preventative some time ago.”
“What? Why did you do that? Have you been to see a doctor?”
“No. I haven’t told anyone. I wanted to become so sick that Stefan would have to take me to the capital, to a medical specialist. He would have brought the children with us. I was hoping that once we were outside the estate, I would have a better chance of escaping him.” She smiled wryly. “Things didn’t quite work out as I planned.”