“There’s a hole in the roof!” Georgia struggled up and pulled Elise to her feet. “Do something. Blow that nasty ship up!”
Elise stared at the gaping hole in the speeder’s ceiling panel. She could see stars—and a silvery sheen.
Pa. The pa coating the ship had sealed the breach.
How many times could it do that?
I don’t want to find out. Elise threw herself forward, leaned over the com-panel, and hammered the firing button.
Blue sparks shot from the speeder’s wing guns.
In seconds, two flares lit up the skull’s right cheek—then cooled. No apparent damage. “Oh, great.”
The skull’s nostrils flared. An ear-splitting explosion deafened Elise, and this time, she slammed shoulder-first into the starboard wall. Fire spit and fizzled on the floor, and Georgia screamed.
Elise wheeled—and saw Georgia hanging half-in, half-out of a wide open tear in the speeder’s starboard wall. Pa slithered over her cousin, trying to cover the breach, but it wrapped around Georgia instead.
“No!” Elise grabbed Georgia’s arms and pulled her inside. Elise’s hands stung, then burned like crazy as the pa slid over her flesh. Georgia screamed again, this time in agony, and Elise joined her.
Sweet mercy. The pa was burning her up!
And it was burning Georgia, too.
Elise had no idea what to do.
Georgia’s skin went from red to white to red, and her cries matched Elise’s. They struggled to scrape off the pa, but it clung like hot glue.
Bright flashes of silver and black lit up the cabin. The speeder shook and groaned, but Elise could no longer understand what was happening. Her brain blazed with pain as her skin twisted and split.
Ki! Where are you? Help us! Oh, God. Help us!
* * * * *
Ki roared in frustration, terrifying the priests assembled on the Tuscan Platform.
“Shanna!”
“Hold him,” Akad instructed, jerking the chain attached to Ki’s neck collar. His eyes darted to the assembly of witnesses growing in the clearing, and even Ki’s befuddled brain knew that the high priest was weighing the feasibility of letting Ki escape.
Arda had reacted with shock and horror to the announcement that their Sailmaster had been abandoned. And yet, each village had dispatched a witness, as per the Law. All were gathered, save for three, from the farthest regions.
Once the witnesses had all convened, the execution was to proceed—never mind the Fleet and the Home Guard, already engaged in the heavens above.
The battle for Arda had begun.
No one wanted to lose Ki now, and yet, their beliefs, the Law—if they stood firm in custom and tradition, would Arda not be rewarded, as had always been the case?
Ki growled and pulled against his collar. Not in cowardice. Not because he feared to die. Because he could feel his precious Elise, close to him. In distress. He could hear the screams of his unborn daughter.
“She is dying.” He pulled Akad toward him. “Let me go. I must save her. Let me help Elise, and I will come back here and hand you my head!”
The lesser priests murmured. Akad fumbled for the keys to the chains, but the witnesses broke out in angry murmurs.
“I—I cannot release you,” Akad murmured. “Though my heart would have it so.”
A shout rang out. One of the remaining witnesses had arrived.
In frustration, Ki closed his eyes and reached out to Fari’s thoughts.
The Fleet was taking heavy fire, and giving it, too. Plasma blazes lit dark space, outshining stars. OrTan skulls flamed and careened. Galactic gunboats whirled around Fleet frigates. Ki had Fari’s vantage point on the helm of Astoria.
The line was holding. At least for now.
Astoria swept alongside a skull.
Fari bellowed and drew his barbed blade.
Ki’s own diamond blade burned at his side. Would that his hands were free! He would slay his way to Elise, and then to the Fleet. To his brother’s side.
Krysta. Ki turned his attention to his sister. Where are you? Have you found her?
No answer came to Ki. Not even a whisper.
Disturbed, Ki struggled to connect with the pa on Krysta’s borrowed speeder—or on her rightful one, piloted by Elise.
Still, nothing.
What had happened?
They weren’t—they couldn’t be—
“No!” Ki’s cry of anguish filled the Tuscan clearing.
Along with it rose two more shouts. The final witnesses to the execution, arriving at long last.
* * * * *
Elise came to awareness, lying on her back, on the deck of the speeder.
But wait. It wasn’t her speeder. The top of the ship was intact. No pa curtain winked against the stars.
And there were swords and blaster guns scattered all over the silvery metal floor. They clattered as the speeder lurched and shot forward, presumably toward Arda.
Elise checked for her daughter, who felt safe and warm in her belly. All was well, at least in that respect. Then, she sat straight up, squinting in the darkness. “Georgia?”
“She is unconscious, but not injured,” said a cold, hard female voice. “In the back hold. I eased the pain of her burns, as I did for you.”
“Krysta!” Elise got to her feet, but her legs buckled. Every muscle in her body ached, and her cheeks felt like someone had seared them with a brand.
Krysta stood over the companel, keeping her back to Elise. Forcing her throbbing limbs forward, Elise moved toward her, but held back at the same time. Her sister-in-law was angrier than she imagined, and she didn’t know what to say.
“The skull ship—” she began, but Krysta cut her off with a wave. Like Ki might do, if he were that mad.
“Destroyed. I carried two plasma grenades, on the off chance you would make it back. We have no wing guns in exchange, however. If we don’t make it to the Fleet side of the line before we’re detected, Gith’s forces will render us to dust.”
“Why did they attack?” Elise reached Krysta’s side, but Krysta didn’t look at her.
“Over you, of course.” Krysta’s tone sliced into Elise’s heart. “Treachery, bribery—they have the Council behind them. But none of that matters. We have to get to Camford, to the Tuscan clearing, the Platform. There might be time to save Ki.”
Everything around Elise seemed to stop, even though they were moving faster than she could comprehend. “What are you talking about?”
“We have a law on Arda, Elise. The Law of Keeping.” Krysta kept her eyes straight ahead. Her voice remained as icy as a Nashville January. “If the Sailmaster’s woman abandons him before Presentation, he is not fit to rule, and must be put to death to make way for his heir.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Elise’s ears started to buzz. “That can’t—you wouldn’t—Ki’s people wouldn’t—no.”
“They would and they will. They may have already.”
Elise scrubbed her palms against her hot cheeks, her tearing eyes. “Ki never told me that! Any of it. I wouldn’t have left him if I’d known, not for anything.”
“You should not have left him, irrespective.” Krysta pounded a fist against the com-panel. “It was wrong of you, and if he dies, I do not know if I can forgive your cruelty.”
The pain in Elise’s limbs turned to incredible heaviness. Dread. Grief beyond measure. “Go faster,” she whispered. “Fly us to pieces if you have to.”
Krysta hesitated, then punched a few keys. The speeder trembled as it picked up velocity.
Elise gasped as Arda sprang into view.
They dropped like a stone into the atmosphere and shot across the moonlit sea. Over the beach, over thick treetops. Warning bells sounded—and then a horrible crash rocked the entire craft.
Elise cried out as Krysta pitched forward. A yawning hole opened in the speeder’s viewing window, sucking Krysta out, over the com-panel. Elise tried to hold her, but burning metal and dripping pa
hammered her hands. Krysta slipped slowly from her grasp—thigh, to knee, to ankle.
A giant skull shipped loomed out of the darkness, rounding to open fire again.
Just as suddenly, a magnificent silver frigate dropped out of the sky, streaking to intercept.
Screaming like a banshee, Elise rooted for the frigate to blast the skull to bits. She braced her legs against the com-panel base, refusing to surrender her grip on her sister-in-law.
And then the speeder’s engine’s sputtered—and died.
The ship hung for a long second, then plummeted toward the trees.
“Christ!” Elise’s heart thundered in her throat.
Damn the fire. Damn the pa. Damn the OrTans and foul luck and stupid ancient laws. If they crashed and died, they would by God do it together.
Elise rocked back on her heels, pulling at Krysta with all of her remaining strength. “Get…in…this…ship!”
* * * * *
Ki Tul’Mar hadn’t struggled as the Ord’pa forced his neck to the chopping block and chained him to the loop on its surface—but he struggled now to see the fireworks in the Eastern sky.
The battle had come planetside, and this gave even the die-hard law followers pause. Some were thinking to let the Sailmaster live a few moments longer, if only to turn back this threat.
Akad was certainly of this mind. Of course, Akad had been doing everything within his priestly powers to draw out the execution.
Ki was grateful, until the moment he could no longer sense his wife, his child, or his sister. Thinking so many of his heart’s family dead, he wanted to die himself—but then the stars caught fire.
And Ki thought he caught a glimmer of Elise’s life force.
Forcing his way to his feet, pulling at the chopping block’s ring with his bull’s neck, Ki snarled at the red-robed Ord’pa. The poor lesser priest stepped back, even though he was armed with a double-bladed axe and every muscle in Ki’s body wore a chain.
Reaching his thoughts to all available pa, Ki located a crashing speeder. With lives inside. He couldn’t read them well—Elise, but not Elise. Krysta, but not Krysta. And another. Primitive, yet not primitive.
Not bothering to sort it out, Ki flung almost the full force of his psi power into slowing the ship’s descent. He left only enough energy to keep the Fleet sailing. The rest went to his task.
In his mind’s eye, the blazing bubble of pa skimmed treetops, coming closer—and then his actual eyes could see it. A twisted, mangled piece of a speeder.
The crowd gasped and murmured.
Ki guided the flaming bubble to a halt above the Tuscan clearing, and lowered it to the ground beside the Platform.
Immediately, the priests and witnesses set about putting out the flames, using coats and psi power and what water could be had.
Akad leaped off the platform and waded into the ruined ship—but quickly ran back out again, screaming like a hog at slaughter.
This caused the Ord’pa to raise his horrid axe beside Ki.
At that moment, the crowd around the speeder fell away. Many yells and shouts could be heard, and then Ki saw the reason.
A woman came stalking from a rent in the dead ship’s side, wielding a great emerald sword above her head.
But not just any woman.
Ki’s mouth fell open in wonder.
Lorelei. By the Gods. The Lorelei have come!
Her clothes were torn and smoking, leaving her barely clothed. Great tendrils of pa marked her hands, arms, chest and face, ending in stark flame patterns about her smudged, desperate eyes.
And yet, this wild woman looked and felt familiar. The curve of her hips. The grace of her walk. The wild abandon of her moon-kissed blond tresses.
Elise. It had to be Elise.
And yet…not. She was changed. Different.
As she approached, Ki realized that somehow, Elise had merged with pa, like a true Ardani. Raw pa had touched her, and yet instead of burning her or killing her as it would most primitives—or at best touching her and fleeing when put down—the universe’s life force had joined with her flesh and spirit.
How could this be?
More screaming filled the clearing, this more untamed than the bestial noises coming from Elise.
Another naked female left the smoldering wreck. This one was firehaired and pale, but also covered in magnificent pa designs. She held not one sword, but two ruby blades.
A third woman, oddest yet, followed. This one was completely silver, soaked in pa, iridescent in night’s cool light. And she bothered with no simple blade or dagger. No. This one held two blasters, one in either hand.
Krysta?
Ki had no time to ponder the meaning of the strange sights before him, as Elise had reached the Platform.
She climbed the steps slowly, and lesser priests scattered in every direction.
The Ord’pa trembled. His axe rattled in his hand.
Witnesses crowded back, away from the avenging spirit.
Ki stared at his beloved, and tentatively reached for her thoughts.
Shanna?
Elise’s silver-framed eyes blazed as she looked at him. Her mind joined his, and the force of her rage nearly blew Ki off of his feet. Her sword still glinted above her head, and she locked her hands on its hilt.
“You—you bastard!” she roared, and brought the sword down with the force of a thousand warriors. The blade smote the chain binding Ki to the chopping block. Sparks flew, and the chain’s links exploded.
The rest of Ki’s chains fell to molten dust at his feet.
Below the Platform, the firehaired Lorelei let out a whoop and rattled her dual ruby blades. “Y’all want some of this? Come on!” She stamped the ground. “Who’s your mama? Huh? Who’s your mama now?”
Krysta—or the being who was once Krysta—shrieked as she leaped onto the Platform. Her blasters leveled on the Ord’pa.
The red-robed priest threw down his axe, vaulted off the Platform in a billow of cloth, and fled into the trees.
At this, Elise whirled on the crowd, magnificent in her pa-enhanced beauty. Ki felt his mast harden to the point of pain, despite the circumstance.
“I am Elise!” she shouted. The resonance and menace in her voice forced the crowd back another few steps. “Shanna Ki Tul’Mar. Consider me Presented, dammit, or else!”
Chapter 12
Elise soaked in Camford’s deep, fragrant bath. The clean Ardani water soothed her singed skin, and the healing oils Akad had given her faded her bruises, sealed her cuts, and eased the ache in her muscles. Vapors rose around her, filling her nose, lulling her increasingly active baby to sleep in her belly. Her hair stretched beside her like a wet pillow as she drifted, and she studied herself in the tiled ceiling above.
Her body was whole and healthy. Nothing broken or too terribly damaged. And yet she was changed, fully and completely. Silver flames decorated her hips, reaching inward toward the light triangle of curls between her legs. The same pattern outlined her breasts, flicking toward her nipples. It climbed her neck and spread across her cheeks in thin lines, blazing out around her eyes.
Strange. And yet, not ugly. Exotic, in some ways. But different.
She could feel it, the pa mark. It felt warm, exciting, and alive. It stimulated her if she turned her thoughts toward it, even for a moment.
Akad had examined Krysta, Georgia, and Elise after the Presentation ceremony had been officially completed.
Georgia was fine, though marked with pa like Elise, all over her perfect, delectable body. The pattern her silver designs took reminded Elise of honeysuckle or climbing roses, and she loved how it twined around and through Georgia’s full nipples and red hair—above and below. At the moment, Georgia was resting in the infirmary, under Akad’s care, slated to begin lessons in Ardani culture tomorrow morning.
Hope Akad does as well with the…um…sexual freedom issue as he did with me.
Elise took a deep breath and let the water close over her face for a
moment. She liked the silence. The soothing rock of the water as she moved.
It reminded her of a woman’s embrace. Georgia’s, or Kyrsta’s.
God. Maybe one day, both of them at the same time, with Ki watching. I might have to tie his hands.
That thought forced Elise’s hand between her legs. She pressed against her aching mons, and her body convulsed almost immediately.
What a fantasy. Though it might take some time to come true.
Krysta remained under the high priest’s ministrations as well, recovering from overexposure to pa. She had been caught in the speeder’s hull energy as they crashed. Because of Ki’s connection to the pa, it would not let her fall, nor release her once they landed safely, because her wounds were too great to leave unbound. The pa literally held Krysta together and refused to let her die.
The price for such extreme measures was high, and Krysta would need a rest of many stellar days before she felt like herself again. The extra pa would stay a part of her, for at least a time, and maybe always.
When Elise had kissed her sister-in-law before coming to the bath, she had marveled at Krysta’s iridescent skin and hair. It was like looking into a rainbow, deep and beautiful and wonderful. Akad said it might fade, but Elise almost hoped it didn’t. Not if the pa felt as good to Krysta as it did to Elise. Being covered in it like that must feel like being wrapped and soothed by the softest of blankets. Or like living in an OrTan pleasure bed—the one thing those stupid alligators could do right, after all.
Elise smiled a wicked smile as she thought about the OrTans and their arrogance. Fari and the Ardani Fleet had made mincemeat of their finest skulls, and they had limped home with only two functional ships. Lord Gith was still alive in all his mangy glory, but the Galactic Council had reversed its decision to support his claim. Partly because the Galactic Council had three ships left to their name, too. But mostly because new information about Elise and Georgia had come to light.
It seems the reason Elise and Georgia had little family on Earth was because at least one of their parents hadn’t come from Earth. Akad had suspected it when he saw the pa marks—something he assured them simply wasn’t possible for primitive humans. Genetic testing had confirmed his theories, and also demonstrated a splash of Earth DNA in the Tul’Mar bloodline. Apparently, there had been some cultural mingling. Warriors sampling forbidden fruit—or the forbidden fruit wishing on one too many stars.
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