She would take care of this one personally. First they had to get past the guard.
They concocted a simple plan in hushed tones.
Morgan looked up at Quince, who nodded. “Go.”
The boy ran around the corner, shouting “Guards, guards… the prisoners have escaped.” He beckoned the guards to follow him and ran back around the corner toward Quince and Jameson.
One of them did.
Quince tripped him after he rounded the corner, dropping him to the ground. Jameson grabbed him and banged his head hard against the wall, knocking him out cold.
They dropped back into two doorways that flanked the hall, waiting for the other guard to come investigate. Soon enough he popped his head around the corner, and seeing the other man laid out flat on the ground, he ran forward, kneeling to check the man’s pulse. “Daro, you all right?”
Jameson knocked him hard on the head with the handle of his pulse pistol. The man fell to the ground with a sigh.
They dragged the bodies into the shadow of a doorway and relieved them of their weapons. Quince tucked one into her belt. It wouldn’t be long now before the need for caution was over.
Quince strode toward the doorway with a sense of divine purpose, the others close behind. She turned the silver knob and pushed the door open as quietly as possible. It led into the antechamber of the Queen’s suite.
The room was dark, lit only by silver moonlight from the bedroom chamber windows, and it was filled with the shadows of overstuffed furniture. She stood there for a moment, remembering furtive nights spent in this same room with Robyn, having an affair under the nose of the king.
It seemed like so long ago.
Quince took a deep breath and steeled herself. It was time. She pulled out the pulse pistol from her belt.
The sharp peal of a bell rang through the room, clanging urgently. Xander had reached Founder’s Hill.
At least, she hoped it was Xander.
XANDER WORKED his way through the dark city, illuminated only by Bandia’s light. He leapt from aerie to aerie, soaring between them where the distance between them was too far. He tried to stay aloft only as long as necessary, keeping his exposure to a minimum.
On one balcony, he startled a young skythane girl who had likely just gotten her wings, peeking out into the night in violation of curfew. He alighted on the balcony and she looked up at him, startled. She started to scream.
Xander cupped his hand gently over her mouth. “Listen to me,” he said gently. “I won’t hurt you.” He held up his sigil. “I’m Xander, Prince of Gaelan.” Her eyes went wide as she saw the sigil hanging around his neck. It glowed with a faint argent light. “I’ve come back to claim my kingdom. Do you understand?”
She nodded, and he let her go gently. She bowed and whispered, “Your Highness,” shivering.
He gave her a warm smile. “What’s your name?” he asked softly.
“Mylin, Your Highness.” She tried to bow again, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“That’s really not necessary.”
She blushed. “Sorry, m’Lord.”
“Xander will do just fine.” He looked around to make sure no one had seen them on the exposed balcony. Far below, a pair of OberCorp enforcers were passing by on the open road, but they didn’t look up. “Go inside and spread the word that I have returned. I’m going to ring the bell on Founder’s Hill. Tell your parents, your neighbors, anyone you can reach. I’ve brought friends with me. We’re going to take down the invaders. Do you understand?”
She nodded, staring up at him in wonder. Then she reached up and kissed his cheek. “Welcome home, Prince Xander.” Then she turned and dashed back into her room and into the hallway beyond.
Xander watched her go, sure now he’d made the right choice to stand and fight. Then he continued toward the heart of the city, slipping from shadow to shadow.
His new memories continued to pester him. In one place in the middle of Gaelan, he clearly remembered flying through the narrow passage between two stone buildings on his way to meet a lover. In another, a sunny afternoon spent splashing in a cool fountain as his mother looked on, amused.
So many memories, one after the next, the whole thing like a reality overlay on the world around him.
Everywhere he went, he saw Dani’s guards. There must have been at least a couple hundred of them here in Gaelan, while his people huddled behind closed doors in their own city.
At last he reached the heart of Gaelan, landing in the darkness at the foot of Founder’s Hill. He crouched behind a boulder and considered his approach.
The hillside loomed above him, its grassy curve crested by a rocky outcropping and a narrow black tower. There were two people guarding it. He could bypass them, but they would cause trouble when he rang the bell. Best to take them out first, if he could.
He slipped around the back side of the hill, passing from shadow to shadow, looking up to make sure he moved undetected. When he reached its eastern side, where the moon cast a deep shadow, his great wings lifted him up silently to the roof.
Then he dropped onto the two guards, knocking one aside to land hard against the tower, and taking the other one down the hillside with him. They rolled man over woman in a rush to slam against one of the boulders that dotted the hillside.
She kicked him hard and tried to scramble away, reaching for her pulse pistol, but he grabbed her legs and pulled her back. She slammed her fist into his face, knocking him backward, and grabbed again for the pistol.
He got up and hit her back across the face, knocking her out cold.
He grabbed her pulse pistol and spun around, taking down the other guard before he could squeeze off a shot at Xander. The pulse knocked the man back hard, burning his face at such close range. Xander felt badly about that, but it was kill or be killed tonight. He would try to take as few lives as possible, but Gaelan would be freed.
He hoped Jameson was all right—there was no time to check on him, but they had unfinished business between them. If anything happened to him now….
Xander leaped into the air, his wings lifting him up toward the top of the tower. Landing gracefully on the stone parapet, he climbed over it, and took the rope to the big bell and pulled it hard. The heavy metal instrument swung back and forth, setting up a clangor that filled the entire valley.
QUINCE STEPPED into the antechamber. Jameson followed behind her, holding Morgan’s hand.
She suffered an attack of déjà vu at this familiar place that figured in some of her most intimate memories with Robyn.
That Dani had taken it for herself was a sacrilege.
She made her way quietly across the room to the bedroom doors of the Queen’s suite, looking for the lander woman.
In the moonlight, she could see that the covers on the bed had been thrown back. Dani was nowhere to be seen. “Dammit,” she whispered.
Moonrise help her, she remembered that bed too. It was a tall four-poster like the one Xander had been tied to, but grander, its posts filigreed in silver. A great round rug with the sliver of Bandia embroidered on it filled most of the rest of the floor.
Quince stepped into the room.
“You surprise me,” a woman’s voice said from the darkness of one corner of the room. Dani stepped in front of the window, her form silhouetted.
“Dani,” Quince hissed.
Dani stepped forward into the moonlight. “You must be Quince.” She was smiling. “Your old lover, the Queen, mentioned you just before she died. Seems she felt… hurt by your abandonment. Especially toward the end.” She held something in her hands.
Quince growled. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that Dani had a pulse rifle. “Put it down, Dani.” She held her own pistol steady, aimed at Dani’s heart.
Dani lifted the rifle into the air and fired, and a big chunk of the ceiling came down between them. “Don’t tell me what to do. The Queen pushed me when we first arrived to counsel the king. She thought I was some l
ackey she could order around. When the time came, I pushed back.”
I should take the shot. I could end this now. So what if she kills me?
Dani must have read the look in her eyes. She smiled, a cold twisting of her lips. “Maybe you could take me out. But would you be able to do it before I shot your beloved Jameson? Or, should I say, Lyrin?” The muzzle of her rifle shifted slowly toward Jameson. “Try me.”
Quince paled. “No.” It came out as a whisper. Not Lyrin.
She glanced over at him. He was sweating but holding his own, his pulse pistol also trained on the OberCorp enforcer.
Dani laughed. “You won’t do a thing,” she said with a certainty that made Quince hate her even more. “Not with his life in danger. I’m not sure how you managed to get out of those beautiful little birdcages I put you in, but it looks like I’m still in charge here for a little while longer.” She took a step forward. “So this is what we’re going to—”
Her mouth fell open and her eyes went vacant, rolling back up into her head. She collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had just been cut, her rifle clattering away into a corner of the room.
“What the hell?” Jameson cried.
Morgan stood behind her, his hands glowing.
“Morgan! What did you do?” Jameson asked the boy, alarmed.
Quince knelt to check Dani’s pulse. She was still breathing. “She’s alive.”
“I made her sleep.”
Jameson laughed. “So you did.” He turned to Quince, who was still trying to figure out what had just happened. “And you were going to do away with the little imp,” he said, jostling Quince in the ribs.
For her response, she pulled Jameson into her arms and hugged him fiercely.
XANDER STARED out at the city he’d inherited. The moon, the symbol of his people, was before him, edging slowly toward the mountains, casting her silver glow over the city.
The echoes of the bell reverberated across the valley.
Lights were coming on in windows high and low—people looking out from their aeries, up at the dark tower as the bell’s sound died down.
Was he ready for this responsibility? All his life, it had been him against the world. He’d never had to take care of someone else, let alone a whole people.
It was a little late for second thoughts, though, wasn’t it?
He wished Jameson was here by his side.
“People of Gaelan,” he shouted into the silence. “I am Davyn Sléite, Prince of the Gaelani.” He’d decided to use his skythane name, hoping it would be more effective. As he spoke, the sigil on his chest began to glow, illuminating his body so that all could see him. “The time has come to overthrow these lander invaders.” He held up one of the liberated pulse guns. “They have weapons, but we are many and they are few.”
A low murmur filled the city below, but no one dared venture out of their aeries. His speech wasn’t enough. They were too afraid.
Xander tried again. “We must stand up and fight—”
He was cut off as a pulse beam hit the tower next to him, showering him with debris and knocking him back hard against the bell, which rang in protest.
He lay there for a moment, stunned, and then shook his head and climbed to his feet. As the dust cleared, he held up the pistol again, blood streaming down his face, and shouted, “It’s time to fight!”
A roar went up from the city this time.
Xander had them now. Skythane of all sizes began to emerge from their homes. Men, women, even children old enough to fly.
He dove off the platform and flew down toward his attacker.
All around him the air erupted in a flurry of wings.
JAMESON BLUSHED in Quince’s embrace. He wasn’t used to getting physical attention like this. In his own family, there had always been a formal distance between himself and his parents. His adopted parents. That fact still seemed strange to him.
Quince squeezed him one last time before letting him go.
“We should do something about her.” Jameson gestured at the unconscious woman.
Quince retrieved the rifle Dani had dropped when she had fallen. “Robyn was my life, and she took that life away.” She stared down at the woman’s still form and lifted the barrel of the pulse rifle to put it up against Dani’s temple.
“Quince, don’t.” Jameson put a hand on her arm. “You’re not like them.” He willed her to look up at him. “Don’t let her push you into something you’ll regret.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Her voice was pained, sharp, but she looked into his eyes. “She killed Robyn. She could have killed you just as easily. Then what would I have left?”
Morgan stood to one side, watching the two of them, his expression blank.
“I’m. Still. Here. You risked your life to save me, to save Xander and me, even though it meant leaving Robyn behind for all these years. Do you think she would want this?”
Quince snorted. “Robyn’s dead.”
“Dani will pay for that, but not like this.” He held his hand out, imploring her. “Quince, I’m a professional psych. I’ve seen what happens when someone hurts someone else for revenge. It eats at your soul.”
They locked gazes for a moment, their eyes inches apart. Jameson could see the rage and pain etched in her gaze. Her loss was still fresh, like a deep wound, and Dani had just ground salt into it.
Quince’s finger trembled on the trigger. She was balanced on the knife’s edge, and a single breath could tip her either way.
He eased his hand slowly down her arm to the rifle. “Trust me, Quince.” Come on. Xander should be here. She would listen to him.
She closed her eyes.
Her finger relaxed on the trigger, and she pulled the muzzle away from Dani’s temple. She handed the rifle over to Jameson, who set it on a windowsill out of the way.
Then he hugged her back. “You still have me,” he repeated.
They used sheets to tie Dani up, laying her on the bed. They would figure out what to do with her later.
What would happen if they succeeded in their quest? If Oberon and Titania were one world, once again, with the full power of OberCorp suddenly aligned against them?
He shook his head. Time enough to worry about that later too.
Outside, the sound of a pulse rifle rang out. Jameson ran to the balcony just in time to see chaos erupt in the skies of Gaelan.
Xander….
Then the doors to the antechamber burst open and two enforcers entered.
Jameson was too busy for the next few minutes to think about anything but survival.
XANDER ZIGZAGGED his way down to where the shot had come from and took out the OberCorp guard there, twisting in midair to shoot the man in the back. He would show no mercy. They were attacking him and his city. Dani had made it personal.
One of his Gaelani screamed and dropped to the ground nearby with a heavy thud as the pulse weapon fire commenced. First blood had been drawn.
The next hour passed in a blur. Xander soared through the darkness of the city like an avenging angel, seeking out the enemy throughout the valley and engaging them. He gathered other fighters around him, liberating the OberCorp pulse guns and rifles, and they hunted the byways of Gaelan, bringing down enforcers by the dozens.
As they dove after yet another of the invaders, Xander suddenly felt a terrible heat in his left shoulder. He looked down—his leather vest had been completely torn off his left side by a pulse shot, and his shoulder had a nasty burn.
Pain burned through him savagely. He plummeted to the ground below, hitting it hard on his feet and stumbling but managing not to break anything in the process.
He leaned his forehead against a cool stone wall, closing his eyes and clenching his fists against the pain.
By the Split, it hurt.
Then something slowly eclipsed the pain, a cool wave spreading across his shoulder.
There was someone else with him.
Beside him?
“W
ho…? Elyra.” He saw her now, a Valkyrie who wore the same sigil that hung around his neck.
She nodded. “I’m a part of you now, Davyn, a piece of your past. We have to fight on. We’re so close to victory.”
He was seeing things. “You’re not real.”
“No, I’m not.” She laughed. “And yet, you’re still talking to me.”
Xander conceded her point. “How did you make my pain go away?”
“An old skythane trick, lost to your time.”
It’s official, Xander thought, shaking his head. I’m talking to myself.
“Are you all right, sire?” one of his battle companions asked, touching his good arm lightly.
He opened his eyes. Seven men and women surrounded him, all looking at him with concern.
He could read it in their eyes. If he could be defeated by a simple flesh wound….
“I’ll be fine. Come on. Let’s finish this.” He stepped away from the wall and leapt toward the sky, a cheer going up behind him.
A few moments later, they brought down the last of Dani’s enforcers together.
Gaelan was free.
Chapter Twenty-One: Aftermath
QUINCE PULLED her knife out of the chest of the OberCorp enforcer who had attacked her, wiping it clean on the man’s black shirt. A trail of bodies lay behind them along the halls of the House of the Moon.
She regretted the bloodshed. The poor man had only been here following orders. Someone back home would mourn him.
There was only one way for this to end, though, and the man had fired at Jameson first. She’d had no choice.
She looked up and down the hallway—the fighting here in the House of the Moon seemed to be mostly over.
Once again, the great bell started to ring.
“It’s Xander!” Jameson looked anxiously away toward the sound.
“Go on. I’ll follow.”
He smiled at her gratefully and ran down the hallway toward the Queen’s suite and the nearest balcony, where he could fly to Xander’s side.
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