The sound of people moving behind them made Taya glance over her shoulder.
Guards slid out from behind trees surrounding the camp, cutting off their escape through the forest.
“You can all come to my camp, and see Aidan for yourselves.”
“Is he unharmed?” Savo asked, and the look she shot him was almost hurt.
“Of course.”
Savo looked over at Garek, gave a nod.
“We won't all be coming to your camp; Savo and most of his team will be returning to Juli.”
The Juli guards began packing up their sleeping mats as Garek spoke.
“Is that so?” Hanson looked over at her guards, who surrounded them completely, and then back at Garek.
“It is.” Garek sent her an exasperated look. “Are you planning to kill Aidan or keep him forever?”
Hanson's lips tightened into a thin line, but she eventually shook her head.
“Then Savo can stop Vent sending more people out to look for him, and Vent can honestly tell the people they'll be getting their liege back.”
Hanson looked unhappy, but she gave a nod to Savo, then looked over at the line of guards who blocked the path to Juli, and they stepped aside.
Savo stopped in front of Taya and Garek and gave a formal bow. “Look after my people.” He jogged away, with Yanni, Fran and Elani in single file behind him.
Rig and Ness settled into place in line with her and Garek.
Hanson watched Savo go, looked over at Rig and Ness, but didn't say anything until they disappeared among the trees.
“So, can I assume you'll come without a fight?”
“It suits us to see Aidan again.” Garek walked forward to the fire, picked up Taya's knife box, and she reluctantly dropped the knives into the water.
It felt wrong to be unarmed, surrounded by the Iron Guard, but she couldn't get into the sky craft any other way.
Hanson watched what they did with focused interest.
“Will someone be joining us, to show us the way?” she asked Hanson politely.
Hanson seemed to belatedly work out they were planning to travel in the sky craft. She stared at it. “I will.”
There was a murmur of protest from the deputy to her right.
“You can come too, Kima, if you like.”
Taya climbed the ladder, waited at the top to take her knives from Garek as he climbed up behind her.
He must have spoken with Rigg and Ness, because when she'd stored the box away and came back into the pilot's chamber, he was alone in the pilot's chair, starting the engines.
“They're keeping Hanson and her deputy waiting at the bottom until I'm ready.” The grin he sent her said he was enjoying making Hanson cool her heels. Then he got serious. “You haven't asked her for help.”
Taya lifted her shoulders. “I know. There is something going on with her. Her reaction to me is so strange, I didn't want to say anything until I understand more.”
He nodded, the man who always had her back, and then walked to the door and leaned out, signaled to Rig and Ness below.
The Juli guards came up first, and then Kima, Hanson's deputy, and finally Hanson herself.
She guessed both Hanson and Kima had been ready to complain about being kept on the ground, but when they stepped into the cabin they said nothing, looking around in quiet shock.
“Which way?” Garek asked.
“How did you get this?” Hanson turned from the massive, rectangular window that dominated the front of the craft. “I didn't need Savo to tell me it was a feat, but now I'm inside . . . How?”
“He took it from the sky raiders while he was rescuing me.” Taya spoke when Garek said nothing.
“You were a prisoner of the sky raiders?” Kima sounded disbelieving. “I haven't heard of anyone being rescued from them.”
Hanson put out a hand as if to quieten her, and Ness shook her head.
“As Savo said, you've been under a rock then, because Garek didn't just rescue Taya, he rescued everyone they'd taken. It's the talk of the whole of Illy.”
“Where did they keep you?” Hanson asked.
Taya pointed out the window, to where Shadow lay low on the horizon.
“Shadow?” Hanson's voice was quietly shocked.
Taya nodded.
“Who are you?” Hanson faced Garek, eyes intense.
“Just a guard from Pan Nuk,” Garek answered.
“And you're from Pan Nuk, too?” Hanson glanced at Taya, and she nodded. “I'd like to know what's in the water there.”
Chapter 6
The Iron Guard camp was deep in the forest, but Hanson had found a clearing that must have been hit by fire a year or so before, and was far more open than the area around it.
As Garek scoped the area for a good place to land, he could see the fire had come up against a deep, wide stream and had burnt out, unable to cross, because the forest was almost choked it was so thick on the other side.
The camp was established enough that there were wooden huts instead of tents, and they had set up open-sided pavilions over all their fire pits, to make the smoke more difficult to spot for anyone searching for them, and to shield their fires in the event of rain.
He set the sky craft down beside the stream, but his gaze was on the waterfall that fell from a steep hill beside the camp. There was no space to hide the sky craft behind it, but the rocks at its foot seemed level enough and he thought he might be able to maneuver the craft close enough to the cliff wall for the waterfall to land on the ship's roof.
It would make the sky craft invisible to the sky raiders.
When he thought of how exposed they'd been yesterday while he'd been burnt out, he felt a deep, ugly fear.
They would have taken Taya, and he'd have slept through it.
“I'll go out first.” Hanson was looking out the window, and Garek saw the few guards she had left behind in camp had surrounded them. They seemed hostile and armed. He stood from the pilot's chair, moving closer to the window to see better, and caught sight of Aidan, leaning against the wall of a hut, arms crossed, with an expression on his face that was a mix between hope and fear.
“Oh, yes, princeling, it's us.” Taya's quiet comment forced a laugh out of Garek, because he'd been thinking exactly the same, and she turned to him with a wide smile.
He leaned down and brushed a kiss on her lips.
When he raised his head, he found Hanson watching them, and he couldn't read what she was thinking at all.
He sat back down in the pilot's chair and opened the door. “Go calm your troops.”
Hanson poked her head out, calling an order to stand down, and Garek saw Aidan's face break into a smile.
He started moving toward the sky craft.
Hanson swung down the ladder, her deputy right behind her, and for a moment, the four of them were alone.
“What's the plan?” Ness asked.
“Don't trust anyone. If there is a decent chance we can all make it to the sky craft with Aidan and leave, we take it, but don't antagonize. And finally, Vent wants Hanson back, badly. The Iron Guard's reputation kept a lot of nasty people at bay, and those people are all too eager to attack now they think the Iron Guard is gone. Vent wants them for what their name stands for as much as anything. If we can bring them all back to Juli, so much the better.” As Rig and Ness nodded, Garek leaned in a little closer. “And keep your ear to the ground. Be unobtrusive and listen. Let them forget you're there and find out what the hell Hanson is even doing out here.”
“Garek?” Aidan's call silenced him. There was something almost panicked in it.
Garek powered down the craft and then joined Taya, Rig and Ness at the door.
Aidan stood, held back by two guards, while Hanson stood beside him, face dark with anger.
Garek didn't like the mood he sensed below. And then he caught sight of the archer who'd shot at him the day before.
He jumped out of the door, ignoring the ladder, and calling his Change
a little to boost him, so he landed right in front of Aidan.
He ignored Hanson, ignored the weapons that were raised at him because of his unexpected move.
“Aidan.” He extended his hand and gripped Aidan's forearm in the traditional guard's handshake.
Aidan's own hand curled around his arm, and then he pulled Garek in close and thumped his back with his free hand. “It's very good to see you, my friend.”
“Likewise.” Garek moved back, looked the princeling over. He seemed unharmed, but he was flippant when under strain usually, and Garek had never seen him visibly stressed before.
Whatever had been done to him here was not good.
“You tread a dangerous path,” he said to Hanson, turning his head to stare at her.
She tried for a moment to pretend she didn't understand what he meant, but then gave a nod in agreement. “If he didn't keep trying to get away, but . . .” She sighed. “Why wouldn't he? We've abducted him. Any one of us would do the same.”
Her admission sent a ripple of shock through the guards around her.
“The princeling is free to do as he wishes,” she said.
“Even to walk off?” Aidan asked her, and his tone held a bitter edge.
“Even to walk off. Although I hope you stay, and we can deal on better terms than we have up 'til now.” Hanson looked behind her, and Garek saw her focus was on Taya again, as she walked toward them, with Rig and Ness on either side of her.
“You brought Taya here?” Aidan seemed so horrified, Garek's gaze flew to his.
“As you can see.”
Aidan shook his head.
“What do you think we'll do to her?” Hanson asked, and again, as he’d heard in her voice when she spoke with Savo, Garek thought he detected hurt.
“Well, let me think . . .” Aidan shot her a filthy look, but before he could continue, Taya had reached them, and she stepped forward and gave the princeling a hug.
She was wearing her knives, so Garek guessed the delay in her joining them was because she'd carried out the box and armed herself.
“You shouldn't have come,” Aidan murmured into her ear.
Rig and Ness gave a formal bow, hands clasped in front of them, and around them, Garek heard the start of murmurs. But it was nothing to Aidan's reaction.
That bow was given only to one person in a sovereign state of Illy, and that was to the state's liege.
“Is Valtor dead, then?” Hanson asked.
Aidan's face was pale, and he said nothing, waiting for Hanson's question to be answered.
“Your father is gravely ill, and no longer capable of rule,” Taya said, ignoring Hanson and speaking directly to Aidan. “Vent has declared you liege.”
“Is it up to Vent to do such a thing?” Aidan asked, his voice thick with emotion.
“Dartan is under arrest, so yes.” Garek heard the faint roar of engines in the sky, and looked up, heart suddenly beating faster.
“I need to move the sky craft. Aidan, now.” He barked the order at the princeling, and then ran toward the ship. Aidan reached the ladder moments after he did, although his breathing was labored.
The moment he got inside, Garek started the engines and left the door open as he lifted the sky craft and skimmed it low over the stream, hovering it close to the ground under the fall of water, and then slowly lowering it down bit by bit.
It managed to sit surprisingly level once he'd fully set down.
He switched the engine off, and moved to the window, looked out to see Taya standing on the shore. Her head was tipped back, watching the sky, and eventually she turned to him and nodded.
The sky raiders were gone.
“Is it true?” Aidan asked, leaning beside him against the window and looking out over the camp. “Is my father sick, and Vent in charge?” He sounded tired and dispirited.
Garek nodded. “We think Dartan poisoned your father. We think he somehow did a deal with the sky raiders, the same way Harven's leige, Habred, did.”
“What?” Aidan leaned back against the window as if he couldn't support his own weight. “Could he have been doing it all along? All those times my father seemed so off . . .”
Garek shook his head. “Maybe. Or maybe he saw your father's decline as an opportunity to advance himself.”
Aidan sucked in a breath. “Whatever the reason, I need to get back.”
“Agreed. That's something we have to work on from now onwards. But tell me what they've done to you. Vent wants Hanson and her guards back, wants them propping up the military strength of West Lathor again. But I am guessing if you won't work with them, that's not realistic.”
“They haven't tied me up, or locked me away, but I've had two guards on me every minute since I've been here. And that's worn on me. Not a single private moment. When I saw that it was you--” He rubbed at his face. “I went a little crazy. Tried to run to the ship. I suppose I thought if I was fast enough, we could just fly away.” He gave a short laugh. “Being stopped just flattened me, even though logically, there was no hope of my making it.”
Garek reached out and gripped his shoulder. “Sometimes, the logic of a thing doesn't matter. And sometimes even illogical ideas work.” He looked around the pilot's cabin.
Aidan looked around with him, and when he laughed again, he'd lost the bitter edge. “That's true enough, you crazy bastard. That's true enough.”
Chapter 7
Taya could see Hanson getting more and more agitated, the longer Garek and Aidan remained in the sky craft.
It looked so strange, sitting with its back under the waterfall, the water foaming and tumbling over it.
“What's taking so long?” Hanson took a step closer to the water.
Rig and Ness shifted nervously beside Taya, as if unsure what to do, but she gave them a tiny shake of her head.
“He'll join us when he's ready.”
“Your loyalty is to him.” It wasn't a question, Hanson's eyes bored into hers.
“It is best you never forget that,” Taya agreed.
“And I noticed--I'm sure everyone noticed--that new liege or not, your friend has no compunction ordering Aidan around.”
Taya smiled. “There are things that Aidan is prepared to put up with to keep hold of the sky craft and the only person on Barit who can fly it. When Garek says to do something to keep the sky craft out of sky raider hands, his word is law.”
Rig signaled to her, a guard signal that she didn't understand. She'd have to get Garek to teach them to her, but the feeling of eyes on her gave her a clue. She turned and came face to face with the guard who'd thrown the discs at her the day before.
“I'm afraid your discs are damaged,” she said.
His eyes widened with panic at her words.
“What's this?” Hanson asked, Garek and the sky craft forgotten for the moment as she rounded on him.
“She threatened me.” The words were stuttered out.
“You threatened me, too,” Taya told him, voice cool. “But it's the way your friend shot at Garek, completely unprovoked, that made me angry.”
“How many discs, Linus?”
“Two.”
Hanson sucked in a breath. “How many arrows did Valn shoot?”
Linus shook his head.
“Two,” Taya told her.
“Where is Valn?” Hanson's words were a whip crack.
“He went with you this morning. So he's still on his way back . . .” He trailed off as Garek jumped down from the sky craft, and then Aidan jumped down after him.
Both of them were soaked through by the waterfall, and they climbed down the rocks and waded through the small, hip-deep pool below the falls.
Taya enjoyed watching Garek as he made his way to her.
He was magnificent.
His gaze caught hers, and he must have seen a little of what she was thinking, because he sent her a slow smile as he pulled himself up beside her.
“So, what now?” Aidan rubbed at his hair, longer now than Taya
had ever seen it. “I can leave, just like that?”
“I'd like us all to have a little talk before that happens,” Garek said. “If you can stand to?” He glanced over at Aidan, and the new liege pursed his lips and then gave a nod.
Garek slid a hand along her shoulder, gave her a gentle squeeze. She knew what he was asking. Did she want to ask Hanson for help in controlling her calling?
She did. But there were undercurrents here. So far, everyone had been strangely focused on her, and it worried her.
But the better she could control her calling, the better chance she'd have at helping defeat the sky raiders.
Everyone had suffered since the sky raiders came. Not just the villagers and traders, but the guards, too. Garek had lost two years of his life to it.
If there was a chance she could destroy them, she had to try.
“I have a request, as well,” she forced herself to say.
“Then let's sit down and talk.” Hanson swept her arm to a large wooden structure that Taya assumed was a meeting room.
For better or worse, it was time for everyone to lay their cards on the table.
“I knew it!” Hanson slapped a hand on the rough wooden table after Garek had told her they suspected Dartan was a traitor.
Kima, the deputy who'd accompanied the general in the sky craft gave a nod. “You were right.”
Rig and Ness said nothing, but this was the first time they had heard the story, and Taya could see they were deeply shocked.
“You suspected Dartan was conspiring against my father and you said nothing?” Aidan stood and braced his hands on the table.
Rig and Ness stirred, and Taya tensed in her own seat, ready for trouble. It seemed as if Aidan wanted to launch himself at the general.
“I knew he was up to no good.” Hanson shrugged, her eyes cool. “I knew he undermined me to the liege, and I knew from the intelligence I was getting from other parts of Illy that the sky raider attacks on Juli were strangely off, far less than elsewhere, but it never occurred to me that he could be in league with them. How is that even possible?”
“They found a way to get to Habred. They used a trader to make the initial contact. How they spoke to either man after that, we don't know.” Taya remembered the agony on the face of Gern Danaldi, the jail master in Luf, the capital city of Harven, when he told her what he'd discovered his liege had been up to.
Shadow Warrior (Sky Raiders Book 3) Page 4