Lander

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  Taylor. One more name for the list of crimes the Slander boss had committed. He sighed heavily. “I’m glad you helped him.” It wasn’t lost on him that Jameson had felt the same impulse for Taylor as Alix had for him, once upon a time.

  He hoped Alix was okay. “Are we ready, then?”

  “Yes, as ready as we’ll ever be. Give me an hour lead time.”

  “I wish I could come with you.” He pulled Jameson close and kissed him. “What if something happens? I just got you back.”

  “They need you here.” He stared into Xander’s eyes. “Besides, you’re better at the big inspiring speeches than I am.”

  For his response, Xander kissed him again. Besides, he was right. Jameson was shit at public speaking.

  The earth shook underfoot.

  “Damn, that was some kiss,” Alia said, arriving at the tower.

  Xander let him go, and Jameson shook his head. “I don’t like it. These quakes can’t be good for the mines where they stashed the Erriani.” He gave Xander one last peck on the cheek. “We’ll see each other soon,” he whispered.

  “Go bring ’em home.”

  Xander watched as Jameson opened a waygate to Errian. He’d gotten really good at it. Xander would have to ask Jameson to show him how it was done, when there was time.

  Shaking his head, he went off to rally the troops.

  QUINCE OPENED her eyes. She had to get up. To do something. There had to be another way out, or something else she could do. It couldn’t end like this.

  She levered herself up. At least the pain in her ankle had lessened.

  “Quince?”

  She spun around to find Jameson standing there, on the other side of the gate, with three other skythane. She squinted—it was Venin, Alia, and another man she didn’t recognize. “You found us!” She put her hands through the bars to touch him, but he pulled away.

  “I’m glad to see that you’re okay. How did you get here?”

  “It’s a long story, and we need to talk about it. Soon. But first we need to get these people out of here.” She rattled the gate. “I can’t get it open.”

  “That’s okay.” He pulled out the key. “I have another way in. Stand back.” He twisted it, and a waygate opened up between them. Two of them, actually, one on either side of the gate. Jameson stepped through, and his companions followed.

  Damn, it worked. “Gods I’m glad to see you.” She hugged him, but he was stiff in her arms.

  “Did you find Morgan?”

  She nodded. “You haven’t seen Robyn, have you?”

  “Sorry, I haven’t.”

  “Okay.” She wondered why he was being so cold to her. Something had happened. They’d have to sort it out later.

  “You know Venin and Alia. This is Tobin.”

  “Where are the guards?” Alia asked, looking around the tunnel. Her wings twitched with nerves or anxiety.

  “There aren’t any.”

  That seemed to send a shiver up Jameson’s spine. “We have to hurry, then. We don’t have much time.”

  “What’s coming?”

  He touched her shoulder, his eyes clouding with compassion, the first real emotion he’d shown. “Ballifor.”

  She remembered. The high-pitched whine, the bomb that had wiped her village off the map. Her whole past had been erased in the time it took to blink.

  She staggered, but Jameson caught and steadied her. “Where are they?”

  “Follow me.” She led him back down the tunnel to the first of the improvised cells. He frowned at the pile of personal belongings. “They banded our wings with nerve cuffs.”

  “Nerve cuffs?”

  “They cut off the connection to the brain—makes them useless.” She shuddered.

  “Gods, that’s horrible.”

  “Can you use that key to get inside the cells?”

  “They’re in cells? No. I have to see the place before I can open a waygate to it.”

  “Well, then, did you bring something that can break locks?”

  “Will this do?” Jameson held up a pulse rifle.

  “Yes. Hope you have more than one.”

  “We do.” Venin and Alia held up theirs.

  She banged on the first door. “We’re here to get you out. Stand back!”

  Jameson aimed the pulse rifle at the lock and squeezed the trigger. The lock shattered.

  He pulled the door open and handed the rifle to Quince. “Take the others and open all the doors. Send them to me and I’ll get them off safely.” He pulled out the key and opened another waygate. He was sweating.

  “It costs you to use that key.”

  He nodded. “A little, each time. I’m rested—I can handle it. Go!”

  She did as she was told, running to the next door.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: War

  ALIX WALKED into the boardroom in a new suit, freshly showered and shaved, his hair neatly trimmed. He’d asked for the meeting at 5:00 p.m., and here it was a quarter after.

  The board members looked up at his entrance…. Everyone was there but his mother.

  He buttoned his jacket, taking his place at the head of the table. He’d been brought up by Lena Preston. He knew how these things were done. “Thank you for meeting with me at such short notice. I’m Alix Preston, Lena Preston’s son. Many of you have met me before.”

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Braid Seneford looked annoyed at being called in for a meeting in the evening hours. The man knew damned well what it meant. Alix had warned him in advance.

  Still, he played the game. “I have a proposal for the board. An offer of an alliance with another entity—”

  The double doors flew open with a crash. “Why is this board meeting being held without the OberCorp CEO?”

  Alix spun around to smile at her. “Welcome, Mother. I was just suggesting that the board reconsider our current… entanglement with the skythane.”

  “That situation is fully under control and should be contained within a couple hours—”

  The whole building shook.

  Alix leapt out of his chair and raced to the window. He looked down in time to see a fireball blossoming from the base of the building. “Under control, huh?”

  She came to stand by his side, her face going pale. “What have you done?”

  He ignored her, turning to the board. “We seem to have company.”

  XANDER STOOD at the top of Torr Talam and looked out over the gathered skythane host. They were now over fifteen hundred strong.

  He looked over at Vestra, to his right.

  She nodded at him. “Go.”

  He raised his arms. “Are you ready?”

  There was a great cheer.

  He raised his fist. “Let’s fly!”

  The first wing took to the air and swung toward Errian.

  They had practiced the methods he’d shown them to bring down the hoversports, taking them from above. Each wing carried two pulse rifles—as many as they’d been able to collect and bring from Gaelan. Which on the whole really wasn’t very many, but they would do what they could with what they had.

  They had planned to stagger the wings to make the attack look bigger than it was, and everyone had been instructed to pull back when Xander sounded a horn given to him by one of the Erriani skythane.

  Maybe Jessa was wrong. Maybe she’d overheard their enemies incorrectly. Yet they had to act as if it were the dead-on truth.

  The second wing took to the air, and Xander joined them. Gaelani fighting alongside Erriani. It had taken an external threat, an existential one, to bring their two peoples back together. Now they were strong, forged like the tip of a spear in the fire.

  As more wings took flight behind them, he led his host of skythane toward Errian.

  QUINCE BLASTED off the lock from the last of the cells, flinging the door open and searching desperately for Robyn inside.

  “Thank the gods,” an elderly woman said, ushering out a little girl. There were ten others in the crowded roo
m, and it smelled of human excrement.

  She’d found Neamiah, Toree, and Jenner in the tenth cell. Neamiah was beautiful, a tweener with golden eyes and hair. They had hugged Quince tightly.

  None of them was Robyn.

  Quince cursed under her breath. She shepherded the group up the tunnel. “You’re going to be safe now.” Up ahead, she could see the waygate. The edges of it flickered. She hoped Jameson could keep it going for another couple minutes.

  She could see a turquoise lagoon sparkling on the other side.

  One by one, the refugees crossed through, and then the last one was gone.

  “We did it.”

  The waygate snapped shut, and Jameson swayed.

  She caught him and steadied him. “We did it. Now get us out of here, and you can rest.”

  He nodded and held up the key.

  The ground shook, harder than before, knocking him off his feet. The key went flying.

  Quince caught it.

  The shaking increased.

  “Jameson, how do you use this thing?”

  There was a crash in the distance. She knelt beside him. He was trying to get up, but the earth was moving under all of them, and he looked so tired. “Picture the place in your head that you want to go. Then twist it and push.”

  Push? Push what? She held up the key.

  “Quince, you have to try!” Alia squeezed her shoulder. “This place isn’t going to hold together much longer.”

  Where to go? She pictured the last place she’d seen before ending up here—the plaza in the middle of Errian. It would be in the middle of enemy forces, but anything was better than being crushed to death here.

  She twisted… but nothing happened.

  “Like this!” Jameson shouted. He put his hands around hers, and all of a sudden she felt it in her head. “Now push!”

  She pictured the plaza again in front of the Castain. She pushed, and the waygate opened. Thank the gods.

  She dragged him through onto the flagstones of the plaza. The others dove after her, and then the waygate snapped closed as a hundred thousand tons of rock collapsed where they had just been standing.

  She looked up to see a Robyn being stuffed into a hoversport.

  “THEY’VE TAKEN over the ground floor.” The enforcer looked nervous, his helmet held in his black-leather-covered arm.

  The Syndicate had never made such a bold move before, and most of the OberCorp forces were currently engaged on the other side of the world.

  Alix smiled.

  Lena Preston shot him a look. “Hold the second floor. Get a hoversport to the roof to evacuate us.”

  “Ma’am, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” The enforcer glanced out the window, gulping. “They’ve got land-to-air pulse weapons. You’re safer here for the moment.”

  “Goddammit.” She took a deep breath. “Go. Keep them out.”

  The whole building shook for a good thirty seconds. Lena dove under the conference table. “What the hell is that?”

  The rumbling subsided.

  “This can all be over,” Alix whispered, kneeling beside the table.

  “It will be, soon enough.” His mother crawled out from under the table and pushed him aside, brushing off her skirt. “Helena, get me Danner Black.”

  “Mother, what the hell are you doing?” He glanced at the board members. They were huddled at the back of the room, as far away from the windows as possible.

  “Danner, are the wing men in position?” Lena cocked her head, listening to the response. She was all business. “Let me know as soon as you’re ready to fire.”

  THE FIRST wing was approaching Errian. Xander had to trust that Jameson had gotten the captives, and himself, safely out.

  The hoversports began to lift off from the ground one by one. There were at least twenty of them, each with superior armament to his own forces.

  “Onward skythane! We fight!” he shouted and blew his horn.

  The skythane host began to dive out of the sky toward the approaching enemy craft.

  DANNER BLACK dragged a skythane woman into one of the hoversports a hundred meters away from where they’d landed. Even at that distance, Quince recognized her mate. “It’s Robyn!”

  The hoversport hatch slammed closed.

  “We have to stop them.”

  “How?” Alia pointed at the teams of enforcers running toward them.

  “They’re not after us. They’re running to the other hoversports!”

  Above, skythane appeared from the south, hundreds and hundreds of them.

  The ground started to shake once again.

  “Come on! Bring Jameson along!” She stood and ran toward the nearest hoversport, overtaking the crew of three that was running for the hatch. She jumped on the first one’s back, bringing him down hard to the pavement.

  He spun and caught her across the chin with his fist, but she grabbed his uniform in her fist and lifted him up, smashing his head down hard against the ground.

  The other two fell, taken in the back by pulse rifle fire.

  “Thanks,” she said to Alia.

  “No problem. Come on.” Alia put her hand out and lifted Quince to her feet.

  Together they ran to the hoversport. Venin and Tobin carried an exhausted Jameson between them.

  “I hope you know how to fly this thing.” Alia strapped Jameson in the back as Quince climbed into the cockpit. It was a tight fit.

  “It’s been a few years, but this is child’s play.” She ran through the system checks as Alia squeezed in beside her.

  “These things weren’t built for skythane, were they?”

  “Not really. Hold on.” Quince powered up the hoversport, and the craft lurched into the air. “You all good back there?”

  Venin flashed her the okay sign.

  “Hold on. Here we go!”

  ROBYN STRUGGLED against her bonds. Her wings were useless, hanging behind her like dead things. Her mouth was gagged, but eyes burned with anger.

  “You comfortable back there?” Danner Black grinned at her. He hadn’t changed all that much over the years, though his hair was a little grayer than she remembered it.

  “Lemf me ouhhhh.”

  “Sorry, can’t do that. You’re my new insurance policy.” He fired up the controls of the hoversport, and the transport hummed to life. “Just in case we run into any trouble.”

  She growled at him.

  “The little bird has claws. And wings. I’d love to hear how you got those back. I might just have to cut them off again when this is all over.” He lifted the hoversport off the ground. “Your son and his army will be here soon. We have a little surprise planned for them.”

  Her mind raced. What was he planning? Draw in the skythane and then…

  The blood drained from her face. Ballifor.

  She pulled again at the bonds that tied her hands and feet, desperate to get free.

  JESSA MANAGED to land without breaking either of her legs. She considered that a personal triumph.

  Xander had loaned her Alix’s bi-wings. She’d never used them before, but they were fairly easy to get the hang of. She knew she’d be no good in the sky, but down here on the ground she could do a little damage for her new winged friends.

  She stripped off the wings, letting them drop to the ground.

  Crews of enforcers were running for their hoversports as fighting exploded in the air.

  She pulled two pulse pistols out from where she’d tucked them into her belt. She might not be able to fight in the air, but she could help keep some of these craft on the ground.

  “That’s for Jamie, you bastards,” she said, taking down two of the enforcers who had just reached the opening hatch of their hoversport in quick succession.

  Who said boys had all the fun?

  “MA’AM, THEY’VE made it up to the seventh floor.” The explosions rocking the building had become constant.

  Lena hesitated.

  Alix seized the moment. “Members of the bo
ard, I move that we adopt the terms of the agreement with the skythane forces, and furthermore that Lena Preston be removed as CEO of OberCorp for leading this company to the verge of destruction.”

  “How will that help?” Sera Thorpe asked.

  “The skythane are working with the Syndicate. If we sign the accord, the fighting will stop.”

  Braid Seneford raised his hand. “I second the motion. Before the Syndicate kills us all.”

  “All in favor?”

  One by one, all the board members gave their assent.

  “I further move that I, Alix Preston, be made the next CEO of OberCorp.”

  “Seconded.”

  “All in favor?”

  The vote was once again unanimous.

  His mother glared at him. “This isn’t over.”

  “Erissa, please isolate Lena Preston from the grid.”

  “What? You can’t do that. I demand a hearing with the board.”

  “Please take Ms. Preston to a conference room for holding,” he told the enforcer.

  The man nodded. “My pleasure, sir.”

  “Erissa, give the order to Mr. Black to stand down. I’ll let the Syndicate know that we’re laying down our arms.”

  “Done, Alix.”

  He took a deep breath. It was over.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Endings

  “ALMOST THERE. Almost there!” Danner Black had a bad habit of speaking to himself.

  Robyn had found a sharp place on the edge of her seat, and was methodically working her way through the rope that bound her hands. If she could just get them free…

  The man had been happy enough to explain his plan to her—draw the skythane into Errian to take back the city and then wipe them all out in a single blow. The hoversport carried a meso bomb big enough to level Errian and a good bit of the surrounding jungle, he’d been happy to tell her.

  Robyn had no idea what a meso bomb was, but she’d been to Ballifor. Or where Ballifor had once stood.

  Quince was down there somewhere. And Xander and Jameson. And most everyone else she knew or cared about.