Skythane

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  “Yes. Yes she is!” He’d finally gotten through to Morgan, whatever the boy really was.

  Morgan let go of his hand and stood, padding barefoot across the floor to Quince’s bedside. He pushed Xander aside and leaned over, putting his hands on her stomach and closing his eyes.

  Those hands began to glow, a golden light suffusing them and then sinking into Quince’s body.

  For a minute, nothing happened.

  Then Quince took in a huge gasp of air, her body lifting up off the sheets and her eyes opening.

  Morgan stepped away, and Quince settled back onto the bed.

  Jameson and Xander looked at one another, and then back at Quince.

  She was fast asleep, and breathing normally now.

  “Thank you, Morgan.” Jameson swept the boy up in a hug. He didn’t care what Morgan was, not at the moment. He had just saved Quince.

  “She’s a part of the plan” was all the boy said. When Jameson set him down, he went back to the chair by the window and recommenced watching the stars.

  Xander shrugged. “She seems to be all right now.” He put his hand on her forehead. “The fever is gone, and she’s breathing normally.”

  Jameson nodded. “Thank God.”

  There was a hesitant knock from the doorway.

  “Come in,” Xander called.

  It was Kadin. He held something in his hands. “I’m so sorry to interrupt….” He glanced at Quince. “Is everything all right?”

  “She’s an old friend who was injured in the fighting. It will be now.”

  “She must have been here before my time. I’m glad to hear that, but I’m afraid I have bad news.” He held up two pieces of a broken black sphere. “The treasury was pilfered, probably by Dani and her enforcers. I’m afraid the key is broken.”

  Xander swore.

  Jameson took his hand. “Look, we’re all tired. Why don’t we get what rest we can before morning? Then we can look at this all with fresh eyes.”

  Xander frowned, then nodded. “Kadin, can you find me a place to sleep?”

  The man nodded. “Follow me. There’s an empty room close by. I’ll have to roust up some sheets.”

  Jameson watched him leave, feeling suddenly forgotten.

  At the door, Xander turned.

  “Aren’t you coming? The King doesn’t want to sleep alone.”

  Jameson laughed for the first time in days. “Does the King always get what he wants?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  Jameson let himself be led to the King’s temporary bedroom. They didn’t wait for the sheets before getting reacquainted.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Shift

  QUINCE ARRIVED in the capital, her Royal Letter in hand. She had been invited by the Queen herself to become a part of the royal retinue.

  Why, she had no idea. Destiny, she supposed. Her encounter with the nimfeach had her thinking about fate and destiny, and the arrival of the letter from the Queen, coming so soon afterward, had the feel of fate.

  She stood before the Queen’s quarters while a guard announced her arrival. Her knees shook. She had no idea what the Queen wanted from her. Something about an offer of employment.

  The door swung open. “Come in.”

  Her voice sent a shiver up Quince’s spine. She’d always been attracted to women, but she’d never found anyone in her little village who was attracted back.

  “Hello?”

  “In the bedroom.”

  She crossed through the antechamber and entered the Queen’s sleeping chamber. It was a wide room with a four-poster bed. A cheery fire burned in the fireplace and soft rugs warmed the stone floors.

  The Queen stood by the window, turned away from Quince.

  “Hello?”

  She turned, and Quince stifled a gasp. She was beautiful, her long dark hair cascading over her emerald-green gown.

  Her black wings were tucked behind her.

  She was at least seven months pregnant.

  “You were recommended to me by a… friend. I have need of a nanny to help me with this child. Are you interested?” Her green eyes fixed on Quince’s.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” Quince said, surprising herself.

  The Queen laughed. She put an arm around Quince’s shoulder. “I think you’re going to do all right here.”

  Quince’s eyes flickered open. She felt a moment of pure and utter peace. She lay on a soft surface, more comfortable than anything she had slept on in years. She was surrounded by a warm pink glow.

  Robyn.

  Was this heaven? Or some other version of the afterlife? Was Robyn really waiting for her?

  She remembered dying. Being wounded—a pulse shot to her gut—and lying in the darkened hallway on the hard stone floor as the world dimmed around her.

  Her hand reached reflexively to her side. The skin there was smooth and whole.

  Her eyes adjusted to the light. She was lying on a large bed.

  She sat up and looked around.

  If this was heaven, it was a very particular one.

  She was in a wide stone-paved bedroom chamber. There was a chair by the one window that looked out on a pink sky. Morgan sat in it, staring out the window.

  So, not heaven, then.

  She felt a strange mixture of relief and disappointment. It seemed she wasn’t quite ready to die, but the pain of losing Robyn was still fresh.

  Now they would have to wait a little while longer to see each other again, and she would need to face the possible end of the world, after all.

  She sighed.

  She stood and made her way to an old wooden armoire against one wall. Opening it, she found a selection of fine robes. This had been the room of someone important. The King? She’d never been in his rooms before.

  She chose the smallest one, and though it was still far too long, she supposed it would do for now.

  “Good morning,” she called to Morgan, who ignored her. If she had to bet, she’d guess the little imp was responsible for her miraculous recovery.

  He wasn’t the little boy he seemed to be on the outside, but she’d been wrong about all the rest. If she’d had her way….

  She shuddered. Nothing else would have mattered.

  Nothing to do about it now.

  It’s been a long journey back here, she thought as she stared out the window at a city at once familiar and strange. One that had started twenty-five years before. She closed her eyes, trying to remember every detail of the charge that had been given to her, that day when her life had changed.

  She still didn’t know where the nimfeach had come from, or how it had found her in the woods all those years ago, but it had sent her off to meet the woman she would fall in love with, and one of the children who would redirect the course of her life.

  The sky outside was already getting brighter. She stared across the Orn at the cages where they had been trapped just the night before. She wondered how the battle had gone. Was it truly over?

  A sharp knock brought her back to the present.

  “Quince, are you up?” It was Jameson.

  “Yes. Come on in.”

  Jameson opened the door hesitantly, as if afraid of what he would find. He had something in his arms. When he saw her standing by the window next to Morgan, a big smile spread across his face. “Oh it’s good to see you on your feet.” He hugged her with one arm, his wings fluttering with emotion.

  “I thought we taught you how to control those things,” she said with a sardonic smile.

  “Still learning.” His wings settled down. “Xander sent me to get you if you were awake. You and Morgan.” He frowned at the boy seated silently in the chair. “He was like that last night too.”

  “Did he…?”

  Jameson nodded. “Hands and glow and everything. Glad he’s on our side.”

  Quince had her suspicions about that. Just because their motives seemed to be currently aligned, it didn’t mean the boy was “on our side.” She decided to keep those doubts t
o herself for now. “Are those for me?” she asked, indicating the bundle he held.

  “What? Oh, yes. Here you go. Xander had Kadin—he’s the Chamberlain—roust some clothes up for you.” He handed them over.

  “How soon are we leaving?”

  “You can’t…. It’s not a good idea for you to travel just yet.” He looked nervous.

  “I’m perfectly fine, and I’ll be the one who decides if I am fit enough to travel. Now, a bath?”

  “I’ll ask Kadin to arrange it. Quince… are you sure? Just last night, you were at death’s door.” Poor boy looked white as a sheet. “I was afraid we’d lost you.”

  She heard the ache in his voice. It was hard to remain unmoved by it, and yet they needed her with them. They were like children—useless without her, her dying thoughts to the contrary notwithstanding, and she really did feel fine. “I’ll be all right, but thank you.”

  He started to say something, then stopped, seeing her determined look. “Fine. I’ll come back for you in an hour. Xander is planning the expedition to the Mountain, and he wants your input.” He kissed her, and she blushed, her cheeks flushing hot. She wasn’t used to such solicitousness. “Glad you made it back to us,” he whispered into her ear. “Come on, Morgan. Let’s get something to eat.”

  The boy got up dutifully and took Jameson’s hand, and they left her to get herself together.

  XANDER LOOKED over the map once more. It was a fairly straightforward journey, but he still didn’t know what they were going to do about the shattered key.

  He turned to his Chamberlain. “Jameson and I should leave at first light. Kadin, I’ll need three others to accompany us, as well as supplies for three to four days.” He’d turned the dining hall into his impromptu war room to plan out the expedition, with Quince ensconced in the king’s rooms.

  A steady stream of citizens was coming through the hall. Most of them were there to just lay eyes on the new king, but some had petitions as well.

  “I’ll go,” Kadin said, “and I’ll choose two others who I trust.”

  “Anyone else have anything to add?” Xander looked around the room.

  “You might tell me how you plan to pull this off without the key,” a woman’s voice said from behind him. He spun around to find Quince standing there, dressed in her new clothes and holding the broken pieces of the rocthane.

  “By the Split it’s good to see you.” He swept her up in a hug.

  “Yeah, I got that from Jameson earlier. Put me down already!”

  He set her down and took the broken pieces of the round key from her. “We think Dani ransacked the treasury after the King died, and destroyed whatever she didn’t take.”

  “How did they get such a large force here in the first place?”

  “They had help. Dani Black and her crew apparently knew someone on this side who smuggled them in, a few men at a time. This thing was planned for years.” He turned back to the maps.

  “Dani… Black?”

  He nodded. “We have her locked up, for the moment. I plan to question her before we leave. Why?” He glanced over at her.

  Quince’s face had gone pale.

  “Hey, are you all right? Jameson, grab her a chair!” They helped her sit. “I knew it was too soon to get you out of bed.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s the name. Dani…. Danielle?”

  He nodded.

  “Danielle Black. The man who killed Jameson’s mother, the one who tried to kill me and both of you, was a skythane man named Danner Black—remember?”

  “Barely. That’s… interesting.” It was all starting to make sense. If she was Danner’s daughter…. “Would you like to join me when I question her?”

  “Damned straight.” She stood again, her face locked in a determined scowl. “What’s the plan, then?”

  “There’s not much of one, I’m afraid. We take Morgan and head to the Mountain. I don’t know what he is, but he has a part in this. He’s saved our asses at least three times.” He traced the route on the map. “And I’m not leaving him behind. Poor kid has been through too much.”

  He glanced over at the boy, still sitting quietly by himself. He sighed. “Once we get there, I suppose it’s up to fate. Do you know anything else that might help us?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. All I know is that we need the two of you and the key. Without that… we’ll just have to figure it out when we get there.”

  Xander laughed harshly. “That’s hardly comforting, with the fate of two worlds on our shoulders.”

  “Nevertheless, that’s all I can give you. I have the key Robyn gave us, but it’s only tuned to the gate that links the House of the Sky to the House of the Stars, where we came through.” She seemed shaken by the revelation about Dani and Danner Black.

  Jameson put his arm around her shoulders, and she looked up at him gratefully.

  Xander rested his hands on the table palms down, and looked over the maps once more. “It’ll have to do.”

  KADIN HAD selected the room where Dani was being held. There were no windows, and only one door, which was guarded by two of his men. Both standing up.

  “Is she secure?” he asked one of them.

  “Yes, Your Highness. We just checked on her five minutes ago.”

  Xander wasn’t used to people calling him “Your Highness.” He wasn’t sure he’d ever be. He didn’t feel like a king, just a man who’d been forced by the course of events into a position of responsibility he hadn’t sought or wanted.

  Quince followed him into the room. Dani was on the bed, her hands and legs tied to the posts. She glared up at them as they entered.

  “This looks familiar.” Quince flashed her a wicked grin.

  Xander pulled up a chair and sat on it backward, with his arms crossed on the back. “I’m sorry about having to tie you up,” he said. “I had to be sure you would listen to what I had to say.”

  She sneered at him. “Very funny.” She turned away. “I don’t have anything to say to you. You may as well do whatever it is you’re planning to do to me.”

  Xander could feel Quince behind him. She had tempered her earlier rage, but it still burned like a red-hot coal behind her eyes. He regarded his prisoner. He’d have been lying if he didn’t say he enjoyed having their earlier positions reversed, at least a little. “Dani, where is your father?”

  That got her attention. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her gaze went nervously from one of them to the other. “My father’s dead.”

  Quince sat down on the bed next to Dani and ran a hand along the woman’s exposed thigh. “Danner Black’s dead too? That’s quite a trail of casualties you’ve left behind.”

  From the brief shock in Dani’s eyes, Quince had scored a point, but it was covered up quickly. “My father was Anthony Black, and he died on the Split ten years ago.”

  Xander picked up the narrative from Quince. “I don’t think so. Your father is Danner Black, and he’s been working for a quarter century to undermine the royal families in Gaelan and in Errian too.” Dani looked away, but Xander took her by the chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Quince was there when he killed Jameson’s mother. Did you know that? She saw it all. Your father took a knife like this….” He pulled out his own knife and held it up to her neck. He could feel her shaking. “Then he slashed it across her throat. Like this.” He whipped the blade past her neck, missing the skin by a whisper.

  She shuddered and tried to reach her neck with her hands, but she was tied too securely.

  “I said I hadn’t decided what to do with you yet. You’re unharmed.”

  She spat in his face. “Screw you, Xander. Screw you and that redheaded bastard you’re fucking and calling it love.”

  Quince slapped her. “Enough out of you.” She got up, staring down at her nemesis. “She’s not going to tell us anything.”

  Xander wiped the spittle off his cheek with the back of his hand. “You’re right. We’ll throw
her in one of the cages until we return. Then you can see what else you can get out of her.”

  He stood and returned the chair to its corner.

  “He’s alive, you know,” Dani said as they were leaving the room.

  Xander kept walking.

  “Alix is alive and my father has him. Live with that, you bastard.”

  Quince followed him out the door, and they closed it behind them without another word.

  “She’s lying.” Quince put her hand on his shoulder.

  “Probably.” But he couldn’t put it out of his head.

  “He’s alive, you know.”

  What if she was telling the truth?

  He shivered at the thought. What if Alix had been alive this whole time, maybe suffering at the hands of Danner Black, just waiting for Xander to come find him?

  How would he live with himself if that were true?

  Kadin found them in the hall. “Xander, Quince, you have to see this.” He led them along the hall and then down several long flights of stairs.

  At the end of another hall, two guards were posted. At a wave of the Chamberlain’s hand, they stepped aside. Kadin pushed open the door.

  They were in a small room filled with wooden crates. The top of one of them had been pried off. Inside were hundreds of little glass vials, packed in hay.

  Xander picked one up and stared at the dark liquid inside. “It’s pith,” he said, trading a glance with Quince.

  “They were stockpiling it all along.”

  Kadin nodded. “There are years of production in here. It predates the arrival of the OberCorp enforcers, though they apparently took it over and accelerated the program once they arrived.”

  “They were creating an artificial shortage.” Xander set the vial back down inside the crate.

  Quince nodded. “To prime the pump.” OberCorp had come to Titania to exploit its resources, just as they had on Oberon. And they were starting with pith.

  It all made sense now. Dani and her father had failed to get what they wanted from the skythane, so they’d switched tactics and left the Syndicate to work with OberCorp instead.