Xia appeared behind them and weapons were drawn in an instant.
“Stand down,” Zenon said, pushing the nearest gun barrel with his hand. “She’s with us.”
Joan still lay on her stomach, gazing over the edge of the platform, blue wings tucked against her back, unconcerned or uncaring about the conversation going on beside her. Head turning as Xia rushed to her side, her eyes focused on the Fire Witch as she rolled. Was she laying there because she still couldn’t walk?
Face crestfallen, Xia said, “I am sorry, sister witch.”
The Water Witch presented a forgiving, but sad, smile, an edge to it that Alazne couldn’t place. “Now we know water will beat fire.”
“They finally got their demonstration.” Xia barked a derisive laugh.
Zenon growled in disgust, turning to his men. “Arrest whoever is responsible for allowing this operation on my world. Interrogate everyone. And find out what happened to the miners.”
Booted feet clapped against the walkway as more blue uniformed Karrians arrived from the direction of the hanger. They greeted Zenon with bows, extended forearms, and relief he survived their missile barrage.
Zenon’s own feet added to the cacophony as he nodded to the soldiers, approaching the unconscious Mind Witch.
His voice rose above the noise. “Get the wounded to the medical bay.”
Medical bay? As in there were doctors? Alazne blinked, brows drawing downwards.
A brush against her shoulder and he was moving past her, headed towards the hanger at a brisk pace.
“Wait, you knew—” she said, following him.
Zenon was royalty. He had doctors. He ordered the strike. He knew about Keia. Goddess, and he was a wizard!
One thing at a time here, in whatever order she could express it. “You knew Keia was still being controlled, didn’t you? You said all that stuff back on Elder, but you knew.”
“I suspected, yes.” Zenon slowed his pace until she caught up to him, clasping his hands behind his back. “I needed you to believe we were safe so she wouldn’t pick up on your concern and suspect something was up.”
There was a commotion behind them and they moved to the side when a couple of blue uniformed men rushed through with a stretcher, the unconscious Mind Witch upon it.
“When she said they didn’t know what that witch’s powers were.” Zenon pointed as the men with the stretcher ran on. “I got the feeling, that same intuition I had on Quan. I don’t know how to describe it, but something was off.”
Alazne’s eyes tracked after them as they disappeared around a corner. Could the unknown witch read minds as well as control them? “Do you think she was reading Keia’s mind?”
“Mind-controlling tech can read a mind. So, if she can control one,” he paused. “Maybe she can read minds too. I don’t know. I just wasn’t sure if the Hunters had a backup plan in place or not.”
“So, you made your own backup plan. That’s why you didn’t want to use Keia’s comm on her ship,” she said.
Alazne was impressed. So, the idiot wasn’t such an idiot after all. He came up with a plan and called his people from Lern’s World.
But he was a Prince, and that complicated things immensely.
They entered the hanger and she stopped in her tracks, Zenon continuing towards a huge ramp.
She’d never seen a battle cruiser like this. All black, it was round, sleek while most battle cruisers of Adamar were rectangular and clunky. She couldn’t see where the cannons were. Knowing the ship had formidable firepower, the weaponry must have been concealed behind doors until ready for use. The size of it alone was hard to fathom. Stars, this ship could hold hundreds of Hummingbirds.
Pausing on the ramp, Zenon turned. “You coming?”
Snapping out of it, she followed him, trying to match his long strides up the ramp. Once at the top, she blinked at the bright lights, shiny reflective black walls, and sheer busyness.
Numerous crew members rushed about. And she was correct about the Hummingbirds, only there were hundreds of some other ship of that same class.
Zenon kept walking, various crew stopping to bow and greet him, Alazne forcing herself to keep her eyes on his back. The impulse to stop and stare and study every detail of this craft was overwhelming.
A woman hurried up to them, indicating Zenon’s blistered skin on his forearms. “Your Highness, you need to have these burns looked at.”
“Later,” was all he said as he kept moving.
Entering hallways and turning down shiny corridors with zipping maintenance bots, he finally stopped, a doorway whooshing open into a dark room. Following him into the room, automatic lights winked on as their movements were detected.
Consoles along the walls lit up with blinking lights, a large round table in the center of the room drawing her attention. Zenon stood at the table, fingers flying over the surface until a holographic map of what she assumed was a solar system in the Far Expanse leapt to life in the air above the center of the table.
Zenon was all business as he zoomed in on a couple of planets that were somewhat close to each other. “We are here. Karr is here. Is that too far to open a portal?”
He’d correctly assumed that she needed to know where the planets were that she bridged to. “Not too far. I can bridge across the universe without dying, after the infusion the Light Spirits gave. But it’s limited. And I need to know where I’m going.”
“Hold onto that,” he said. “That might be useful later.”
Another map popped up, a grand white palace with blue spires floating over the table. Nestled between snow-capped mountains, traced in violet sky, her mouth dropped open. Beautiful.
The map zoomed in, making her feel as if they were flying to that palace. Then they were inside it, zipping so fast that she couldn’t see any details. The zooming slowed, then stopped at a door lined with gold leaves and patterns.
“This is my mother’s room. Can you bridge us there?” Zenon said.
“Yes,” she said.
Movement in her jacket alerted her that Ariad was waking. But the squirrel didn’t come out. That was strange. Usually the familiar was active and inquisitive. It was a big battle and losing air for a time had to be hard on the little creature.
“Where’s Jessa?” Zenon said. “It’s time to go.”
“When you said ‘medical bay,’ she probably went there to check it out. But she’s been through a lot. It might be too—”
“There is no time.” His voice was clipped as he headed out the door.
Right. Yes, it was time to get to the point. It was just that she hadn’t asked Jessa yet and wasn’t sure how the healer would feel about going to another planet in the Far Expanse to help a complete stranger, especially after what she’d just been through.
When they got to the medical bay, Alazne stopped short. Pure white, it was easy to spot the contrast of exposed skin of the people in the room. There were the witches, Joan’s blue wings starkly vivid against the white wall. Then there were four professionals in long lab coats, tending to the women with scopes and eyepieces.
“You have doctors,” she said. “Why do you need a healer?”
Nodding his head, Zenon said. “We do and our medics are good at what they do, but no one has been able to figure out what’s wrong with my mother. She spoke of the Healers of Adamar, so here we are.”
A melodious voice drew their attention to the back of the room. It was her, the Mind Witch, conscious and talking.
“This is Heather,” Jessa said as they approached, tending to Heather as the other medics were tending to the others. “She was just telling me about a failsafe.”
Jessa tinkered with a controlling device on Heather’s neck, squinting at it when it refused to be pulled free. It looked to be more complex than the one used on Keia.
“A failsafe?” Zenon said.
“Yes, the Hunters use these to control us.” The witch indicated the tech on her neck. “But they are flawed, as you have prove
n.”
The sing-song tone of her voice wasn’t like anything Alazne had ever heard before. Everything about this woman was mesmerizing.
Heather grew quiet as her line of sight drifted to the floor.
“That’s where you come in,” Zenon prompted.
Eyes tracking back up to him, Heather said, “Yes. I can manipulate minds, but it’s hard to concentrate on individual control. So, there is an implant that helps me focus my energies. It’s in the experimental stages.”
Zenon looked as if he wanted to hit something, or someone.
“The implants are in Keia and Xia. Joan was next,” Heather said.
Was that why all that equipment was hooked to Joan and not Jessa?
“Where are they, Heather?” Jessa asked when Heather seemed to be drifting again.
“How do we remove them?” Zenon added.
Heather pointed behind her ear. “Surgery.”
Zenon growled, a frustrated sound. “These so-called ‘Hunters’ have to be stopped.”
Alazne couldn’t agree more. And if the Karrian battle cruiser was anything to go by, Zenon likely had access to an army that could do it. She knew Ariad would agree too, but the familiar remained strangely inactive.
“Your companion is sick,” Heather said, making eye contact with silver eyes.
“My companion?”
“The one in your pocket.” Heather pointed at the place her familiar was resting.
Chills raised the hair on Alazne’s arms, eyes narrowing. “You read my mind?”
“I’m sorry,” Heather said, gaze lowering again. “But sometimes I just get thoughts. I wasn’t trying to on purpose.”
Alazne patted the pocket where Ariad resided, refusal to listen to this witch yet concern setting in all the same. When the little body didn’t move, she opened her jacket and gently lifted the squirrel out. The familiar felt cold, eyes half-lidded, rolling to the side.
“Oh, no, Ariad.” Alarm coursed through her, making her dizzy.
Jessa leaned down, prodding the squirrel with careful fingers. “The toxins of this world are too much for a creature this size.”
“Perhaps the robot needs fuel,” Zenon said. “You got any seeds? Or alcohol?”
Alazne’s mouth fell open. Did he really still think her familiar was a damn robot?
“I believe you need to go to Karr,” Heather said, something knowing behind sad eyes
The mention of Karr flipped a switch in Zenon, who suddenly turned to the healer. “Jessa, I need a healer. My mother is dying. Will you go with us to Karr?”
Jessa’s eyes widened and Alazne held her breath. Jessa was about to refuse, wasn’t she?
“I owe you my life,” Jessa said. “But—”
Here it comes—
“If I can save another’s in return, it’d be my honor.”
Alazne let her breath out. Thank the stars. The long road they’d just taken would have been for nothing if the healer had other ideas.
“Thank you,” Zenon said, his own relief evident in his tone.
Alazne stepped out of the portal into the palace on Karr that Zenon showed her on the map. Light shining through a window beckoned, and she walked to it, eyes blinking through the brightness until they adjusted.
It was so much more beautiful than the holo. Giant, snow-topped, rocky mountains rose above the palace. Thick green forests lined the bottoms, covering almost halfway up before the rock became too steep for vegetation to grow. Sunbeams stretched between them, lighting up the trees. The colors were sharp and vivid—
“Halt!” Someone yelled and Alazne froze.
“She’s with me,” Zenon’s voice rang out and she turned in time to see him come through the portal, Jessa right behind.
“Royal Highness,” the guard dressed in the same dark blue uniform as the soldiers quickly lowered a rifle he had trained on her, falling to one knee, bowing.
Alazne winced at those words. She wasn’t sure if she was going to get used to hearing that.
The guard’s head snapped up, formalities apparently over. “How? What kind of tech is this? It’s like magic.”
The glowing swirls of the portal spiraled in on each other before disappearing completely.
“It is magic,” Zenon said. “It really is!”
The acknowledgement of magic made Alazne light on her feet. Zenon laughed, a deep echoing sound that made her heart soar.
Leaving the man kneeling with his mouth hanging open, Zenon strode across the room to a hallway, a spring in his step she hadn’t seen before.
Ancestral portraits lined the walls, bright faces in bright clothing, keeping in sync with the color blue. Some of the clothing reminded her of the guy at the bar.
What appeared to be the most modern of the paintings held the smiling face of a beautiful woman, features round and inviting, but piercing green eyes sharp as tacks. She held a glowing golden scepter, head adorned with a glittering bejeweled crown. Was this the ruling Queen of Karr?
Landscapes filled in the gaps, tapestries depicting scenes of large-scale hunts and pointy antlered stags. She peered closer.
“Is that how many points they really have on those antlers?” Jessa said in awe.
Alazne leaned ever closer, studying the possibility. “I don’t know.”
“That portal wasn’t exactly where I showed you the doors were.” Zenon’s voice made her jump upright. Turning her gaze on him, he presented a lopsided grin.
“I can’t always be exact,” she countered with a grin of her own, hand on her hip. “It was close.”
“Yes, it was,” he said, stopping at the doors that were on the holo map, golden leaf carvings even more brilliant in person.
Both palms on the doors, Zenon pushed. They swung open with a creak and pop of wood, the sound loud but strangely inviting, comforting.
The largest bed she’d ever seen sat in the middle of the room against a wall, between two tall open windows that stretched from ceiling to floor. She could see the mountains and bright violet sky beyond, the sound of birds filling the air as a soothing breeze flowed in.
White and blue fabric stretched across a canopy swayed over the bed, a form lying upon it.
“Zenon?” a woman’s whispery voice said, the form stirring.
“Yes, mother, I am here.” Kneeling next to the bed, Zenon took the woman’s hands between his. “I brought a healer.”
Jessa walked closer, pausing halfway. Alazne stayed at the door.
“Pfft.” A hand waved in the air, flippant. “It is good you are here. I am happy to see your face.”
Sharp eyes set in an elderly face peered around Zenon, looking directly at Alazne. Green irises seemed to gaze into her very soul—
“More beautiful than I imagined. She’s perfect,” the woman said, voice soft.
Alazne’s brows furrowed. Perfect? Perfect for what?
“Introduce me, son.”
“This is your healer, Jessa,” Zenon gestured for Jessa to approach, which she did. “We shouldn’t waste any more time. She can examine you right away.”
“No, the other one,” the woman said.
Alazne suddenly found a spot on the floor interesting.
“That’s Alazne,” he said. “She helped me find the healer.”
He turned, raising his arm to wave her over, but she found it hard to look up.
“Oh, dear, you are burned!” The woman coughed, fragile body shaking. “Healer Jessa, you must tend to my son’s burns. And, whew Zenon, you are in need of a bath.”
“Mother, the healer is for you, not me,” Zenon said, an admonishing tone that fell flat as Jessa stifled a laugh.
“You will take care of this now. I will still be here tomorrow.” The woman looked at Jessa. “There is a clinic in the west wing. And a bath in the east. Please take him.”
“She’s right,” Jessa said when Zenon didn’t move. “Those burns can get infected. It will not take long to wrap them up. And you do need a bath.” She looked over at Ala
zne. “We all do.”
Zenon rose to his feet, hesitant but complying, briefly making eye contact with her before following Jessa as she exited the room.
Alazne turned to follow, but the woman’s voice called strongly, “You stay.”
Turning back around, she just stood there. What could Zenon’s mother possibly want with her?
“Come closer, I want to see you up close,” the woman said.
Alazne approached, uncertainty slowing her steps. As she got closer, she knew without a doubt that this was the woman in the portrait, the Queen. Even old and sick, she possessed a timeless beauty. Green eyes were sharp as ever. White snowy hair was wrapped in a braid around her head, a blue ribbon woven in.
“No matter what they do,” the Queen said, “I’m dying anyway. I just wanted to meet you.”
Chapter 16
Meet her? How did the Queen of Karr even know she existed? The Queen must have had her mistaken with someone else.
Head bowing, she said, “Majesty—”
“Call me Ariad,” the Queen interrupted.
Alazne’s head snapped up. “Ariad? That’s my familiar’s name.”
Come to think of it, she did remember that Zenon didn’t approve of what she named her familiar, because ‘Ariad’ was his mother’s name. Would his mother also disapprove? But she didn’t give the squirrel that name. The squirrel told her what its name was.
Said creature appeared from her pocket, not completely healthy, but looking better. The squirrel jumped on the Queen’s bed before she could stop it.
“It’s a beautiful creature, isn’t it?” Queen Ariad gingerly stroked the familiar’s head, who leaned into her touch.
Alazne’s brow furrowed. Did the older woman know about the squirrel? And how was the little woodland creature suddenly doing better?
Both the squirrel and the Queen turned their heads to look at her at once. Alazne fought the urge to move backwards.
“You see, I know you, Princess,” the Queen said, sharp eyes boring into her soul. Then, both the squirrel and the Queen said at the exact same time, “I am Ariad.”
Queens of Wings & Storms Page 38