by Blooding, SM
I stopped, my Mark ready to launch.
A cold smile slithered across his lips. “I win this time, Primus.”
I ground my jaw, trying to calculate how fast I could knock the remote from his hand. Not fast enough. “I’m no Primus.” I could only hope that I’d bought enough time to save most everyone.
“Yes.” He raised the remote, his thumb hovering over the end of the device. “You are, more than you know.” His thumb mashed down on the button.
Explosions sounded all around us.
I shook my head, taking two running steps backward as the world tilted and shifted. “Stop searching for me, Varik.”
He watched me retreat. “Never,” he ground out.
Shrapnel flew all around me, my Marks flinging bits of glass and sharpened flax away from me. I was being hit pretty hard.
I flung one last look at Varik, the platform directly overhead threatening to give as one of the supporting trunks squirmed in the air. He was gone, the guards carrying him away, headed toward the docks.
Dirt. I could have killed him. I really could have.
So why hadn’t I?
CHAPTER 32
NICELY PLAYED
With the city cleared, it was at least a little easier to get to the docks, even with the platforms and buildings falling down around me. My experience aboard a fleet of airships proved very handy as I launched myself from one platform to another. The rope bridges were too unstable as the platforms danced and shifted. I tucked, rolled and kept moving to the next, my Marks flicking the debris away from me with almost a mind of their own. I was hit in more places than I cared to admit, but I didn’t have time to think about it.
When I got to the docks, I realized we were still in trouble. There was still a lot of citizens, several being thrown off as the ships released their moorings to rise into the air.
There was a loud commotion at the longer docks. People were pushed into the waters as the guards cleared a path to the airboat hovering at the end of the longest dock. Varik, or at least what was left of him, must have arrived.
The letharan were sinking. I breathed a sigh of relief even as my heart skipped a beat. They were trying to find deeper waters, and a different current. That was a good thing.
That I might be left alone in the middle of a poisoned ocean was another story.
Having made it to the docks and the other people, I pulled my Marks back to my body. No one was paying attention as I pushed myself into the press. I was stuck. People were practically pushing themselves into me, trying to claw around each other, vying for a spot on a boat.
I looked up at the lethara of Egolda City. His tentacles and trunks were writhing, his medusa fluttering as though he were screaming. Watching the city fall tore at me, but watching the lethara blown to pieces and poisoned as he tried to protect his people when there was nothing I could do to help was a whole other matter. I regretted my nonchalant answer to Varik when he said he’d blow up the city.
And then the question became a reality.
Was I being selfish to continue to evade him and Nix?
Egolda’s lethara was doing what he could to protect his people. He was trying to buy them time, but he was losing ground. More bombs sounded and more platforms came raining down on us, his limbs still attached.
My Mark whipped over our heads, protecting us from the larger chunks of shrapnel and debris.
The people around me noticed that, and I suddenly found myself standing alone, with as wide a berth as the docks would allow. Some people even jumped into the ocean to escape me.
Well, at least it made a little space to work.
I searched the docks for my lethara and found him. He was still docked, the town almost fully encapsulated within his medusa, taking as many passengers as he could. If I couldn’t get there soon, he would run out of time and risk being poisoned.
My eyes searched the water for a sign that the poison was visible. It was.
That was when I saw her, Yvette, her black hair shining in the flare of the fires around us as her head rose from the water. “Synn,” she shouted, baring a set of razor sharp teeth. “Get in!”
I nodded and pushed my way to the edge of the dock. People fell out of my way. “Stay out of the red water!”
“Do I look stupid to you? Hurry up!”
I leapt, bringing my Mark in close to my body. It wasn’t needed underwater and I didn’t want to hurt Yvette as she tried to rescue me. The water closed over my head and rushed up my nose. I bobbed back up, taking in one last breath.
“Please, Primus, my baby!”
Chill on top of chill swept over me.
Yvette’s arms grabbed me as she surged through the water.
I pushed back, my hair billowing out as she stopped, turning to me with a confused frown. I surfaced again, waiting for her to follow. “We have to save as many as we can.”
She sent me a disgruntled look, her violet eyes going distant.
And then we were joined by several others of the Leblanc Family.
I turned to the woman with the baby and swam up to her, my hand reaching for the dock even as my Mark lashed out, knocking a piece of burning flax away from her head. “Jump!”
She was terrified as she gripped her screaming child. Searching the area around her, she danced on the edge of the dock.
“Lady!” I grabbed her ankle and tugged. “Jump now!”
Yvette grabbed hold of me, wrapped one arm around my chest and took me back under the water.
The woman and her baby hit the water, her dress billowing around her, bubbles bubbling up around them. One of the Leblancs scooped them both into his arms and disappeared.
I twisted so I could see where we were going, knowing the woman and her child would be safe.
Yvette turned, her long hair a streak of black, and shot me a determined look.
I was starting to run out of oxygen.
She kicked her tail, and we were flying through the water so fast, I had to close my eyes because the water hurt.
Then I was sailing through the air. I curled into a ball as instincts kicked in.
I was safe in the observation deck of our lethara.
I crouched on the blue tile floor, gaining my bearings. The deck was crowded as people gathered, soaking wet, clasping loved ones. Some looked lost as they searched for familiar faces. I stood, searching for someone who worked in our “city.”
The people around me pulled back in surprise. Parents grabbed their children, shielding them…from me.
I sighed and grabbed one of our letharan techs. That was going to get old quick. “Is there room elsewhere?”
He nodded. “There’s still room on some of the upper floors.”
“Great. Get this area cleared. There’s still survivors out there and the Leblancs are bringing them here.”
He nodded and started directing people toward the stairs and elevation platform.
I opted for the stair, running up to the next level. I stuck my neck out. There were people here, but not nearly as many as below. I ran up the remaining two floors and headed toward what we now called our command central. This floor was pressed as close to the lethara as he was willing to allow. He was close enough that we could still see through. Mostly.
The floor was one large room. Joshua had set up his equipment. He was standing at his radar, staring down at the screen. The green light shining back at him made him appear almost alien.
Keeley was beside him, but staring at something else. “His vitals look good. But there’s another patch of the poison there. We need to maneuver away. It’s starting to disperse and enter the waters, leaving the current.”
The letharan technician beside her nodded and did as she instructed. Well, I assume he did. His face went blank and the medusa seemed to shift.
Haji clasped me tightly in a hug, pounding my back. Breaking away, he returned to what he’d been doing before. “Sonar readings say that the submersibles are closing in fast.”
“Look
ing for survivors?” I asked.
“Lookin’ for us, you blundering idiot,” Joshua muttered. “The airboat is gaining altitude. There’s something real Sky-fearin’ big in that sky.”
I looked at the screen, but to be perfectly honest, what I saw didn’t make a lot of sense. They were just green dots with a bunch of numbers that made no sense at all. “How can you tell?”
“The amount of mass,” he muttered, scribbling something on a piece of paper next to him. “Whatever it is, it’s huge.”
“Could it be a queen ship?”
He shook his head. “Not bloody likely. This is bigger than a queen’s ship.”
“Sky City?”
He looked at me, his gaze distant. “Not quite that big, but it leads me to wonder—” he interrupted himself and jotted down a note. “Now’s not the time for that. If we can just dive into the deeper waters, we should be fine. Sky’s clear.”
“The water,” Haji reminded him, “is not. The remaining submersibles are searching for us.”
Joshua grumbled something and went to see what Haji was looking at.
“Well, they’re going to have a hard time doing that.” I went to join them, staring into the blue screen, seeing only more dots, though these were in shapes. I could tell easily which were the submersibles and which were the letharan. “Look at all that debris.” And on the screen, there was a lot of debris. “With the other letharan, they’re going to have a hard time figuring out which one is which.”
“Not really,” Joshua said. “The other letharan are staying in a pack. We’re not.”
Now I had a decision to make as I watched smaller blips moving quickly on the screen from the growing mass of Egolda City to each of the other dozen or so letharan. Should we go ahead and become a target, drawing them away, or should we hide and endanger the others?
I’d just seen one lethara die, and I didn’t care to see it happen again. “Stay on course. We’ll draw them away. Let them know we’re here.”
“How?” Joshua demanded.
“How many boilers did we get?”
He gave me a look that implied I wasn’t using my brain. “How many submersibles do you see?”
Three. Out of nine. I nodded. We had enough. “We dump one of the boilers. That’ll be a sure sign of who we are. There will be no question.”
Haji’s eyes widened in surprise.
Joshua was obviously upset, but he nodded and headed toward the communication console, which was dead silent. It was apparent that the Hands were catching on to the fact that we could hear them. He tapped out a message.
I turned to Keeley. “How are we on supplies?”
She looked up from what she was doing but just barely. “We had enough to keep us going for a few weeks, but with all these people, I doubt we’ll make it for longer than one.”
I snorted. “Well, I guess those ready-made meals will come in handy now, won’t they?”
She sent me a churlish glare.
Ryo came up to me from the stairwell.
Just the person I needed. “Make sure that our provisions are stashed and secure. We’ll be going through the ready-made meals and seeing how long we can make the other stuff last.”
He groaned and grinned. “Finally, we’ll be getting rid of those.” He turned to one of his men and issued an order. The man turned and did as he was bid. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do about all these people.”
I nodded, watching the sonar screen, alert for any sign of an attack. Nothing yet. The Egolda lethara was almost completely submerged. There was a lot less activity at the docks, with only occasional blip as one the of the Leblancs took another survivor to safety. “What do you have in mind?”
Ryo took in a deep breath. “We find an island, give them what provisions we can spare, knives, swords, pistols, and then we leave them.”
It sounded harsh, but it was a good idea. “Got one in mind?”
“Our scientists say there’s a new chain of islands forming by Koko Nadie.”
The submersibles had stopped. The boiler hadn’t dropped yet, the mass still not showing up on our screen. I watched as we inched further away, the other letharan nearly off screen now. “Wouldn’t we want to find a group of islands that are populated?”
“Think about it, Synn,” Ryo said, his fist clenched and blocking out part of the screen. “We don’t know how the Hands are going to react. They nearly had you. They know they’re close, and now that we have people on board our vessel? The Hands are going to be after them, searching for information.”
“Synn,” Joshua called, his tone filled with anxiety. “Just got word from the El’Asim fleet.”
Not now, I groaned.
“They’ve been hit.”
“How bad?” My eyes didn’t leave the sonar screen.
“Three ships fell.” A series of clicking that I could hear came out of his headphones. “But Ino City and a couple of other underwater towns were able to pick up most of the survivors.”
Crap. I nodded and pushed Ryo’s hand out of the way on the screen. “How far away are these islands?”
“They’re a few days out. We could be there by the end of the week.”
The boiler pinged into existence.
“Keep a scan on the Hands’ frequencies. Hopefully, by now, word will have spread that I’m not on the fleet, I’m underwater.” Not great news for the other letharan cities hiding here.
I let out a sigh as the submersibles moved, trailing us. “Well, let’s see if we can make it less than that and…” I stood up, meeting his gaze. “Let’s see if we can’t disable those sky-felled submersibles before they decide to destroy us.”
Ryo grinned. “Didn’t anyone tell you?”
I frowned.
His grin widened. “Those submersibles have no weapons.”
Haji and Joshua looked up, sharing a chuckle.
I looked to Ryo in question.
“We took them all.”
Well, that was one thing in our favor. “Nicely played.” We were going to need all the help we could get.
CHAPTER 33
TRUST
We managed to get to the deeper waters without getting much of the poison on our lethara. What little damage it had taken was easy to work around. As the letharan technicians described it, the damage was like getting your hair singed. There wasn’t much you could do about it, and it didn’t hurt.
That was one bit of good news at least.
Things quieted down a bit as we got everyone settled. Joshua and I strategized about how to deal with the remaining submersibles while Haji and Ryo dealt with our new guests. After the way they’d reacted to me earlier and since I was the reason their city was destroyed in the first place, I didn’t think I’d be the best liaison. Everyone else basically agreed.
Joshua thumped the metallic table beside him as he leaned against it, a stormy expression on his face. “Damn it, Synn, now isn’t the time to be playing around with them. Do you have any idea the amount of intel they could be gettin’ on us?”
I rolled my head and punched the control panel beside me lightly. It didn’t look like it worked yet. “You’re missing the point.”
“No, lad, I think you bloody well are.” He pushed off the table and met me in the middle. “We just narrowly escaped being taken out as they blew apart an entire letharan city.”
“I was kinda there for that, Josh.”
He smacked me on the shoulder.
I winced. I really needed to get a shirt, but I hadn’t taken the time to go to the living quarters yet. I didn’t want to walk through the throng of survivors. Not yet. I would later because I had no choice.
“I don’t know how much more we can take, lad.” He ran his hand through his shaggy red hair and turned away.
I took in a deep breath, hoping this was the last time I was going to have to repeat this. “They’re using a different frequency.”
“We’ve been scanning all the frequencies, and we’ve still found noth
ing.”
I tipped my head. “Are you sure we found nothing?” I folded my arms over my chest and then let them fall again as pain shot through my shoulder. “Or are they just playing mouse?”
“You should really get that looked at.”
“I will.” I brushed him off.
He grimaced but stared at his radio. “So what are you hoping for by playing bait to three submersibles? Why aren’t we doing something to shake them off our tails?”
“I’m hoping that they’ve been playing radio silence, making it harder for us to find their new frequency. I’m hoping that by letting them tail us, we’ll find their slip up.”
He let out a short breath and daggered me with his eyes. “That’s a pretty high hope.”
I shrugged. “Call me an optimist.”
“All right, fine. Then what do we do with them after they’ve given us the information we need?”
I scratched my nose, which was about the only place that didn’t hurt. “Then we disable them the same way you did before and take their boilers for parts.”
“What are we going to do about the El’Asim fleet?” he asked quietly.
I shook my head and let the table beside him prop me up. “They really need better weapons. They’re a target. I hope that when these submersibles do make contact with the other Hands, they make sure to tell everyone I’m not there.”
“Well.” Joshua smashed his lips to his nose in thought. “I want to go to El’Asim, work with them and their Mark.”
I nodded. “I thought you might. So, I guess you should start melting the boilers and making some prototypes that you can modify to their Mark when you get up there.”
He looked at me, his expression blank, but not in the kind of “blank” that made you wonder if there was anything going on in his brain. It was the kind of “blank” that made you wonder what wasn’t going on in his brain. Finally, he nodded and headed toward the stair.
Keeley met him, taking a step back before they plowed into one another. They mumbled something in passing, but I wasn’t paying them any attention. I had more than just a few problems, and for whatever reason, I’d decided to volunteer to lead this campaign. What had I been thinking? Glory? Fame?