He wasn’t sure if telling them he was the King of the Gaelani would confirm their suspicions or work in his favor. He decided to fudge the truth for the moment. “Gaelan has a new king. OberCorp occupied the city for much of the last year, but Prince Davyn returned and threw them out.”
The woman wiped her brow with the back of her forearm. “Things have been strange this last week. A few days ago, there was a thundering quake, and then a storm blew in as heavy as any I’ve seen in my lifetime.” She pointed out toward the fields. “The crops flooded, and we were afraid the village would come down in the winds.”
Xander nodded. “The two kings shifted Oberon to save it from a solar flare.”
The woman nodded. “I’d wondered if these were the days foreseen.” She looked at him strangely. “Kings?”
“Yes. Lyrin is the son of Jerroll and Andra. He went on ahead to Errian.”
“So, you’re a friend of the king, eh?” the man asked with a snort.
This had gone on long enough. “Something like that.” He pulled out his sigil, the silver moon that hung on a chain around his neck. “I’m Davyn, King of the Gaelani.”
He waited for them to be impressed.
Instead the woman started to laugh. “He’s got a silver moon around his neck, and thinks that makes him a king.”
Her companion was laughing too. “Look, I’ve got an imprean on my chain. What does that make me? King of the Birds?”
“It’s true. I didn’t even know it myself until—”
“Hush, son,” the woman said. “You seem harmless enough. Even if you’ve got some delusions of grandeur.” She put down her weapon. “Y’all can come out now.”
On that cue, more Erriani skythane appeared as if out of nowhere, from behind trees, inside houses, even from the foliage above.
The woman put out her hand. “I’m Dorthia, and this is my husband Ravier. Ravi for short.”
Xander nodded. Ravi had been his PA’s name. He took her hand and stood, assaying a slight bow. “I’m Xander, and this is Alia, Rix, Harrol, and Zenia.”
Something electric passed between them. Xander had a glimpse of himself and Jameson shifting the world.
Dorthia straightened, her face going white as a sheet. “In the name of the seven suns, it is you!” She fell to the ground, her head down. “Please forgive me, Your Highness. Do I call you that? You’re Gaelani, not Erriani….” She grabbed at his boots.
Somehow he’d passed his memory along to her. He reached down and took her hand, gently pulling her up. “You had every right to question me, protecting your own people here.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” She tried to curtsey, but he stopped her.
“Xander will do.” He turned to the rest of the assembled villagers. “We’re going on to fight the landers in Errian. Any able-bodied skythane willing to join us would be welcomed.”
“Surely you can’t continue on tonight.” Dorthia’s eyes were bright. “Stay here tonight, and we’ll feed you and give you a good place to stay.”
Xander shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to take any of your food. You must already be short after the flooding.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said, recovering her earlier brashness. “We have enough to spare for four more. And if Errian falls, we’ll all soon be under the yoke, won’t we?”
“True enough.” It was getting dark, but one by one, the trees lit up with an amber glow. Xander touched one of the branches that passed closely overhead. It was fuzzy with some kind of moss that gave off the soft light. As his fingers brushed over it, sparks flew into the air, drifting in whorls along the breeze.
A big cast-iron basin was hauled out and a fire started in the middle of the hall.
Alia stared up at the trees in concern.
Ravi smiled. “They won’t burn, if that’s what you’re afraid of. They’re ironwoods, named that because the wood’s basically impervious to flame and strong as iron when it’s cured.” He patted Xander on the back. “Come. You are our guests of honor.”
Xander and his companions allowed themselves to be led to seats near the fire, where they were showered with food—nuts, cheeses, and some kind of purple meat that gave off the most amazing aroma as it cooked over the fire.
One of the handsome young skythane men, with silver wings and long dark hair to his shoulders, brought him a pitcher of ale that was sweet and crisp, like citrone. The man winked at him and turned away.
Xander knew he wouldn’t lack for company tonight, if he wanted it.
He shook his head. He was still in the middle of it with Jameson, and until he figured things out, he didn’t want to muddy the waters. That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the view. The man was shirtless, his silver wings tipped with gold, and he had a near-perfect ass. Yes, Jameson would like this place.
Alia slapped him.
“What?” He rubbed his throbbing cheek.
“You’re taken.”
Xander sighed.
Jameson and pith. The two were inexorably mixed in his head. There had to be some way to split them apart.
JAMESON PERCHED on the volcanic ridge, high above the crater bowl where so many of his people slept. The island towered over the ocean below. His wings extended and contracted unconsciously as he watched the rising moon.
Bandia was truly beautiful, its silver glow lighting up a path across the sea that he wished he could follow off to oblivion.
Life had been so much easier a month before, when he’d had the pillars of his old life to fall back on—work, family, and faith. He realized now that he’d practiced a lazy man’s faith, trusting in others to fill in all the blanks for him. Faith by the numbers.
The real world was a lot messier and more complicated. He had a hard time seeing the hand of God in most of it, until he found quiet moments like this when he could appreciate the majesty of God’s creation. This really was a beautiful world, when it wasn’t busy chasing him down with spindly legs and gnashing teeth.
Jameson laughed. He’d practiced the tenets of his parents’ religion all his life, until he’d left Beta Tau for his psych training on Earth and then his posting on Tander’s World. It had been easy to let it go. Too easy, maybe. There were the demands of his classes. The clean, clear, beautiful logic of science and the mind, and later, the needs of his psych clients.
He wondered how the miners he’d worked with were getting along without him. Had another psych been assigned to the post yet? Did they even care? Most of them made a show of hating him and his work. They were real men. They didn’t need to talk about their feelings with anyone, let alone a shrink.
Some of them, though…. There were hidden depths there, and they’d done some good work.
Still, Jameson didn’t see himself ever going back.
Seeing Jessa in Errian had really thrown him. He’d already lost Xander, the one new thing he’d staked his belief on. Now that he was gone, the old ghosts of Beta Tau were here to haunt him.
What did he believe in now? What would carry him forward?
He stared out at the rising moon morosely.
Without faith and work… without Xander… what am I?
The moon had no answer for him.
ALIX WOKE.
A breeze rustled the branches above, and a single leaf dropped down, lit by the newly risen moon, to settle on the sand next to his face.
He sat up to look around. Hundreds of skythane lay around him on the sand above the lagoon’s water line, doing their best to sleep in the primitive conditions.
Jameson had used the key to open a waygate into one of the granaries outside of Errian, with Vestra’s help. They’d managed to get everyone fed and settled, but the situation couldn’t go on like this for long. They had to find a way to strike against the invaders while everyone still had their strength and their anger.
He stood and stretched his arms. Then he saw the boy—Tevin?—standing in the water, looking out at the lagoon.
He looked around for Jameson, finally finding his wi
nged form far above, on a rocky outcrop looking out toward the sea.
One problem at a time.
He approached the boy and knelt next to him. The warm water was still, save for the touch of the breeze on its surface. “Hey there, little man.” He put a hand on Tevin’s shoulder.
“Hello.”
“Remember me? I’m Alix.”
The boy nodded.
“You should be sleeping. It’s late.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I miss my mam.”
Alix nodded. “Me too.”
“Where is yours?” The boy looked up at him, his brown eyes wide.
He pointed across the Argent, in the direction of the moon. “Across the sea. We haven’t spoken in a long time.”
The boy put a hand on his knee. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.” Alix was moved by the unexpected gesture. “We’ll find your mam, Tevin. But you need your sleep. You need to stay strong for her. You understand?”
“I guess.”
“Come on. I know someone who would be happy to snuggle with you.” He stood and held out his hand.
Tevin took it. “Why don’t you have any wings?”
“Some people were born to fly. Some of us were meant to walk.” He squeezed the boy’s hand and led him up to the tree line. He touched Vestra’s shoulder.
Her eyes opened, and she looked up at him. “Everything okay?”
He nodded. “I have a little boy here who needs someone to cuddle with.”
“Bring him here, then.” She opened her arms, and Tevin settled in against her chest. She covered him with her wings. “It’ll all be okay,” she whispered, and winked at Alix.
“Thank you,” he mouthed, and turned back toward the broken wall that rimmed the crater.
Jameson needed him. He could sense it. The man had been torn out of his old world and thrown into this one, and then had his only certainty pulled out from underneath him. Because of me.
Alix had never expected to be thrust into this role—comforting the lover of his ex. But sometimes you had to choose a side, even if it went against what your heart wanted. He liked to believe he was a good person, that when push came to shove, he would do the right thing. Now was his chance to prove it.
He made his way up out of the crater valley, up to the edge of the rock wall. Jameson had probably flown up there, but there were enough handholds for him to climb. He didn’t feel like going back for his bi-wings.
Even then, in the middle of the night, it was still comfortable out, with a warm, light breeze blowing in off the water. From there, he could see glimpses of the Argent, twin to the Gildensea that bounded Oberon City.
One of these days he was going to have to reckon with Lena. He’d made his first break from her in Gaelan, when he’d refused to help Dani with her plan to use Xander for her own and OberCorp’s ends. Sooner or later, he’d have to confront her.
Somehow, though, his mother always had the last word.
He clambered up the rocks, getting stuck only once when he had to detour around a sheer rock face. At last he pulled himself up to stand next to Jameson. The full view was amazing, with the skirts of the island below and the moon rising over the waters of the Argent.
“Top of the world up here.” Alix put a hand on Jameson’s shoulder.
“What? Oh yeah. Kind of is, isn’t it? Wait, did you climb up here?”
Alix shrugged. “I needed the exercise.”
Jameson’s shoulders were sloped, and he seemed distracted. Alix couldn’t help but notice how beautiful and sad he looked. His bare shoulders glistened in the moonlight, and his slender form made Alix want to grab him up and hug him, protect him from the great big world.
His savior complex at work again. He shoved such thoughts aside. “Mind if I sit with you?”
“Suit yourself. I’m not likely to be very good company.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” He sat on the hard rock, dangling his feet over the waves below. The ocean breeze cooled him off, feeling good on his bare legs. “What’s keeping you up? You should be sleeping, getting ready for tomorrow. We have a lot to figure out.”
Jameson snorted. “Says the man who’s sitting here awake at my side.”
“Touché.” He stared out at the water. Better than staring at Jameson. “You did an amazing thing last night, there in Errian.”
“I was just doing what I had to.”
“But why? You owe nothing to those people. You’re Jameson Havercamp, offworld psych. You’ve never even met any of them before.”
Jameson looked at him. “Are you serious?”
“You have to admit, it’s a fair question. Why do you even care?” Their thighs were almost touching. Alix tried not to notice.
Jameson held his gaze for a moment, then looked away. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
Jameson sighed. “Because I have to believe in something,” he said at last.
“That sounds like a terrible reason.”
“I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”
Alix laughed, releasing some of his tension. “Oh, I understand it completely. I just think it’s a shitcrap reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, I’m the last one to talk to when it comes to faith, to ‘believing in something.’” He stared out at the ever-changing patterns of the waves again, determined to do this right. “I believed in Xander. But beyond that, my whole life has been a search for direction. My mother works for OberCorp. When I grew up, she expected me to be a company man. I tried. I really did. But I hated every moment of it.”
Jameson nodded. “I can’t see you in a suit.”
Alix shuddered. “Neither could I. So eventually I quit. I joined the rangers branch of the enforcers. I thought law and order was something I could believe in.”
“I get that.”
“Yeah, but I found out that OberCorp doesn’t give shit-all about anything besides itself.” He paused. He hadn’t meant to share this much, but Jameson seemed to bring it all out of him. “I was too embarrassed to tell Xander. I was the first stable thing to come into his life after the Syndicate. So I told him I was going away with friends on a camping trip in the Outland. I didn’t know it was going to be a year-long assignment.” He’d been an idiot not to let Xander know where he was going. He should have found a way to let Xander know he was okay. “Now I don’t even believe in my old job. So, I get it.”
“What do you believe in now?”
Alix laughed. “Funny you should ask.” The answer had surprised even him. “You, actually. I don’t buy this bullshit about you needing something to believe in. I think you already found it, the moment you and Xander shifted the world.”
“I don’t know about that….”
“Look at you, Jameson. You’re all in. And it’s killing you, because you don’t know if Xander is too.” He picked up a rock and tossed it toward the sea. It hit the side of the island and skittered down, bouncing three or four times before vanishing into the jungle. “Let me ask you something. If Jessa were standing right here before you, and she begged you to come home with her… would you go?”
“No.” Jameson said it with a vehemence that seemed to surprise even him.
“Why?”
“Because I’m needed here. Because this is where I finally feel like I belong. Because Xander….”
The word hung in the air between them for a long moment.
Jameson looked so lost. So vulnerable.
Alix knew that he could reach out, pull Jameson gently to him, kiss those lips in that beautiful lost face. That Jameson would respond. That his need was great enough to overcome his reluctance.
Sometimes a life balanced upon a single choice made, or not made.
Jameson was beautiful to him in that moment, beautiful beyond measure, his golden wings lined in silver, the wind playing with his hair, his warm brown eyes clear and sad. His naked need. It was
like a drug.
Alix closed his eyes. The moment passed. “He loves you, you know,” he said at last.
“Xander?”
“Yes. He doesn’t know it yet. Or he’s not certain if it’s just the pith. But I watched you two. I know him. We spent nine years together, after all. He’ll come around.” How it cost him to admit that. His heart was as cold as the void.
Until Jameson threw his arms around him. “Thank you. Gods, I needed to hear that.” Jameson laid his warm face against Alix’s chest.
In that moment, Alix knew he had made the right choice. His heart warmed, just a little. “Gods, plural?” he asked with an arched eyebrow as they separated.
Jameson smirked. “When in Rome….”
Chapter Eighteen: New Dawn
JESSA WAITED. Hours went by, and nothing happened. Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
Someone knocked on the door, and when it opened, she was served a tray of some kind of MRE. The taste sucked, but it was hot and had calories.
The enforcer who brought it—a uniformed guy with curly black hair and blue eyes—was handsome. Although her parents frowned on her using her beauty for personal gain—church doctrines and all that—she’d gotten good enough at it during her broadcasting career. She still found it distasteful, but hey, nothing ventured….
So she tried to flirt with him.
He stood there to watch her eat but wouldn’t respond to any of her overtures, subtle or overt. Either he was well trained or he was gay. She knew the effect she had on men.
She had known a few gay men back on Beta Tau. They weren’t persecuted or anything, though everyone whispered about them when their backs were turned. One had been the choir director at church. Jessa hadn’t seen what the fuss was. He was a good man who looked out for everyone else. Why should she care where he put his cock?
But in this situation, it was… inconvenient.
When he left, she used the remaining afternoon light to scout the room.
It was strangely shaped. The walls were curved, more organic than geometric—hard but not brittle. The texture reminded her of the rind of a pomegranate.
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