She pushed down on the sharp place harder, sawing her arms back and forth. Just a little bit more….
QUINCE FLEW after the lone hoversport, keeping her distance. It passed out over the Argent Sea, the midday sun glinting off its metallic shell. When it slowed and turned back toward Errian, she watched it for a couple moments to see what it would do.
Below it hung a shiny black disc, unlike any armament she’d ever seen on one of those craft. She had an idea what it was, or at least what it could do.
Ballifor was never far from her mind.
At last she opened a communications channel to the other craft. “Danner Black, we have our weapons trained on your hoversport. Please bring it back down to the ground.”
“Sorry, can’t do that.” It was his voice. Danner Black. That voice was burned into her memory. She closed her eyes and saw Queen Andra’s face as he slashed her throat. “I have someone close to you here, Quince. Wouldn’t want to take a chance at hurting her, now would you?”
“I can’t let you destroy Errian.” She closed in on the other craft, so they were facing each other with just fifty meters between them.
“Quince, he’s going to do it. It’s just a matter of time.” Robyn’s voice.
Something about the way she said time…. Quince muted the com. “She needs time.”
“Clear out of the way, Quince. I have a city to destroy.”
“I was there.”
There was silence on the line.
“When you killed Andra. When you sliced the throat of the Queen of Errian.” Keep him talking.
“You weren’t….”
“I saw you. I saw it all.”
THE BATTLE raged over Errian.
Skythane were taking the lessons Xander had taught them, teaming up to land one of their own on top of the nimble craft to deliver a death blow.
Xander crashed onto one of the craft, pointing his pulse pistol down and firing. It swerved, throwing him off, but it was too late. The hoversport was wreathed in blue lightning, and it exploded just before it crashed into the crater wall.
It was a rough fight.
Six hoversports were down, but so were close to fifty of his own men and women.
He spun around to find his next target, and to his surprise, the remaining hoversports began to disengage, turning back toward the Argent Sea.
One by one they fled, and the skythane cheered.
What was going on? His heart raced. This is it. They needed to get out of here. Xander sounded the horn. “Retreat!”
The word was passed along quickly, and like a flock of birds, the skythane fled the city, wheeling away in a sudden exodus.
THE HOVERSPORT floated in midair.
Quince was talking to someone. Danner Black?
Jameson was fuzzy on the details. He was still wiped out from the effort he’d expended holding the waygate open in the mines. The longer he held it, the more it seemed to drain him.
Something buzzed in his pocket.
“Rest,” Venin whispered. “You’ve worn yourself out.”
Jameson shook his head. “It’s Alix.” He managed to pull the two communicators out, activating the one that was buzzing. “Alix.”
“It’s over. I’ve taken control of OberCorp.” Alix’s voice floated out of the little speaker. “Call off the dogs.”
He came through. “Okay… give me a sec.”
“You sound exhausted.”
“You have no idea.” He switched communicators. “Rogan, can you hear me?”
There was a pause. “This is Dawson.”
Dawson. Jameson remembered the little prick, the man who had threatened them after their first encounter with Rogan. “Tell Rogan to stand down.”
“No one tells Rogan anything.” He could hear the smug satisfaction in the man’s voice.
“Then tell him if he doesn’t, I’m tossing all those cases of pith into the Orn.” Jameson cut the connection. “Alix?”
“I heard it. Way to stand up to a Slander boss.”
“Thanks.” Jameson closed his eyes.
“He’s wiped out,” he heard Venin say before he slipped back to rest.
“I KNEW you were there. I should have….” That was the last thing Danner Black said to Quince over the com.
She tried to reengage him, to keep him talking, to stop him from releasing that deadly weapon on Errian. He didn’t respond.
She shared a worried glance with Alia.
Danner Black ignored her.
“Quince, look!” Alia pointed at the other craft.
Black’s hoversport started to lurch back and forth in the air, like a drunken enforcer.
ROBYN FELT the last strands of the rope part, freeing her hands.
“Commander Black, you are instructed to stand down.”
“Who is that?”
“This is Erissa, representing the new acting CEO of OberCorp, Alix Preston. You are instructed to stand down.”
“Fuck that. We’re going to finish this, now.” He reached for the red button to shoot the meso bomb off toward its destination.
It’s now or never. Robyn lurched forward and knocked him off course. Her feet were still tied, but she managed to slam him into the console.
The hoversport lurched wildly to the right and then the left.
She saw a flash of light below. Black had a knife strapped to his boot.
Robyn pulled it out as he struggled to sit up. She grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. “This is for Ballifor.” She sliced the knife across his throat and he screamed wordlessly, the sound coming out in guttural gushes as he grabbed his throat.
Blood burst from the wound, and the craft began to spin wildly.
She had to get out.
The hoversport was off balance now and careening toward the waters of the Argent Sea below.
Robyn scrambled toward the back, fighting the g-force, and ripped at the red emergency handle with her hands. She missed it.
She tried again, and this time she grasped it and pulled, sending the hatch flying out into the sky.
She hesitated. Her wings were clipped. She couldn’t fly.
Still, it was better than going down with the ship.
She leapt.
ROBYN’S FORM appeared at the hoversport’s hatch. Her wings were bound.
“Holy Split….” Quince turned to Alia. “Keep the ship here. I have to get her.”
“What? I don’t know how to fly this damn thing either.”
“It’s easy. Just hold this here.” She put Alia’s hand on the hover control. She climbed to the back of the hoversport. “I’m executing a manual override of the hatch control,” she told the others.
Jameson nodded. His skin was gray, but his eyes were wide-open. “Go get her, Quince.”
She popped the hatch and leapt out into the open air, seeing Robyn do the same. The other hoversport was lurching toward the sea below. Quince dove after her.
She was right behind her. Moonrise help me, it’s going to be close.
She tucked her wings in and dove.
Robyn wasn’t flailing. She fell, peaceful as a babe, her eyes closed.
The wind whistled in Quince’s ears as she arrowed toward the water.
At last Quince was below Robyn’s falling form. She spread her wings and came up to catch her, just twenty meters above the water. “Need a lift?”
“Holy Split, you cut that close. I thought I was going to die.”
“Is Black…?”
“He’s gone. Just like Andra Madainn.”
The hoversport hit the water as Quince gained altitude. It plunged in, swallowed whole in a second.
Ten seconds later, the sea began to boil below them, and a huge column of water burst from the surface, showering them both. Dead fish floated to the surface, and the water turned red.
Gods, that was close. Quince shook off her wings and lifted them up to their waiting transport.
The war was over.
XANDER WAS frantic.
<
br /> The fighting had ended. He still didn’t understand entirely why. There had been a big explosion out at sea. He’d seen the spume of water from there.
The skythane, who had fled at his call, were now landing all around the plaza, but one of them was missing.
“Have you seen Jameson?” he asked everyone he passed.
No one had.
The entrance to the caverns where the captive skythane had been kept was collapsed. What if Jameson was still trapped inside? Gods, I wasted so much time.
The whine of a hoversport snapped his attention up into the air. A single craft was coming in from the east. Another attack?
It came in slowly, settling down to the ground, a little wobbly.
“Everyone stay back,” Xander called.
The hatch opened, and out stepped Venin, supporting an exhausted-looking Jameson. “Thank the gods.” Xander ran forward to embrace him. “You’re alive! I was afraid—”
“Thank my pilot, Quince. She’s the one who got us out of the mines and confronted Danner Black.”
Xander turned to see Quince and his mother coming out of the hoversport.
Robyn had wings. He let go of Jameson and embraced Robyn, then held her out in front of him to look at her beautiful black wings. “How is this possible?”
“Your little friend, Morgan.”
“He’s alive?”
Quince nodded. “We found him, at the north pole. Where Robyn got her wings back.”
Xander had been furious with Quince for what she had done to him. To Jameson too. But now…. He hugged her too. They could talk about it later. “I’m so glad to have you back.”
She searched his eyes and nodded. “You know, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll need to work things out between us, but right now… is there somewhere we can go to talk, just the four of us?”
“About?” He was ready to celebrate their victory, saving Errian even at such a high cost.
“About what’s coming next.”
He frowned. “Isn’t it over?”
“This is.” She looked around at the damaged city and its inhabitants, and at all the Gaelani who had come to its defense. “This could have been a tragedy. But… something worse is coming.”
“What is?”
“The Ithani.”
Xander had no idea what the Ithani were. “Is it urgent?”
“Yes.” She looked flushed.
“I want Alix, Vestra, and Mylin in on this too, and a couple others. Shall we say, three hours?”
“That will give us time to get some refreshment and get the cleanup started here.” Jameson looked at his city. “Quince is right. It could have been worse. But it’s still going to take some time to rebuild.”
“Can you manage a waygate for us? I’d like to have this meeting somewhere away from prying eyes and ears.”
Jameson nodded. “Get something in me, and I can probably do it.”
“Look at you, thinking about sex at a time like this.” Xander kissed Jameson to silence his protests. “Yes, we’ll get you fed.” To Quince, he said, “Back here in three hours?”
“Perfect. We’ll see you then.”
JAMESON LET himself be led away from the hoversport. He was dead tired, but it seemed more would be required of him before all this was through. At least he’d managed to rest, just a little, during the hoversport flight.
Had he dreamed that conversation with Alix?
Xander led him over to the little park in the middle of the square, under the shade of the trees. Venin came with them. Xander eased him down against the trunk of a black-barked tree, topped with round purple leaves the size of his hand. They fluttered in the wind.
Venin laughed. “You know what this is?”
“What?” Jameson looked around at the tree.
“It’s a púca tree. They don’t usually grow at this low of an elevation. Someone must have planted this here on purpose.”
“Púca tree?”
“It’s where pith comes from.”
Jameson touched the bark. It was black as pitch and smooth to his touch.
“I’ll get you two some water and something to eat.” Venin bowed and turned away, leaving Xander and Jameson alone.
“No rest for the weary.” Xander looked as tired as Jameson felt.
“Or the wicked.” He slipped his hand under Xander’s vest, eliciting a yelp as he tweaked Xander’s nipple.
Xander pulled Jameson in for a kiss. “I was so scared I’d lost you for good.”
“I know.” Jameson felt safe. Home. “Don’t ever leave me again.”
Xander laughed. “That might be difficult to promise.”
“You know what I mean.” He took Xander’s hand and looked him in the eye. “This—what we have—it’s real. I don’t care how it came about.”
“Me neither. Now finish your meal. You need to get some rest before we’re called back into action.”
Jameson did as he was told and lay back in Xander’s lap. He closed his eyes. No matter what else was yet to come, he was with Xander.
There was nothing that the world could throw at the two of them that they couldn’t handle.
Epilogue
DANI BLACK listened to the radio transmission, uncomprehending. The OberCorp people were telling her father to stand down.
Errian was supposed to have been destroyed by now, and yet, there it was, on the horizon, still standing.
Danner had sent her off to witness the destruction from a distance. Overprotective as always. Didn’t he know she’d already been through one war?
Then his hoversport began to toss and turn in the air. Something was very wrong.
She zoomed in, getting a better picture on her screen. There were two hoversports there, facing off, but her father’s craft was spinning out of control.
She watched as someone flew out of the first one and someone from the second one intercepted it.
Quince and Robyn. She was sure of it.
Then the sea exploded.
Her father was dead.
“Gods damn them!” She pounded her fist on the console. She should have killed Quince when she had the chance. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“Zim, run a manual override of that hoversport’s com systems.” She had blackware of her own. She needed more information, and this was the best way to get it.
“Ready.”
She listened in as the other hoversport landed in Errian, and her enemies were reunited.
She listened until Quince and her friends moved out of range.
The north pole. Interesting. If one skythane could get her wings back there, why not another?
“What are you thinking in that dark little mind of yours?” Kadin looked worried.
“How do you feel about taking a trip with me?” She kissed his cheek. She knew the effect she had on him. He liked a woman in uniform.
“Sure. It will be good to put this all behind us.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that kind of trip. We still have work to do.”
Kadin frowned. “What kind of work? The war is over. We lost.”
She kissed him again. “It’s never over until the enemy is dead.”
Glossary
Alia: Guard in Gaelan
Alix Preston: Xander’s ex, a lander man missing for a year
Alvyn: Young Erriani man who “rescues” Jessa
Amalite: Raw ore found only on Oberon that serves as Common Worlds power source
AmSplor: Exploration division of the Northern American Union
Andra Madainn: Queen of the House of the Sun, Jameson’s mother
Anellia: Pop singer capable of singing in triple harmony
Angela Havercamp: Jameson’s adopted mother
Angie/Angela: Jameson’s PA
Annama: Soul mate
Arcatus: Interstellar ship Jameson came in on from Tander’s World
Arco: Vast buildings where most of Oberon City’s citi
zens are housed
Argent Sea: Titania’s sea
Ari: Quince’s PA
Arracha Grain: Native grain grown as a staple on Oberon
Auxen: Forest herbivores in the Riamhwood
Aux: Larger cousins of the auxen, they live on the northern plains
Ballifor: Small Titanian village where Quince is from
Bandia: Titania’s golden moon
Banga Tree: Low, wide Titania jungle trees that resemble barrels
Beta Tau: Jameson’s homeworld
Bi-Wings: Artificial wings used by the enforcers on Titania
Blackware: Illegal apps/software/code
Blade File: Electronic file format
Blueoak: Native Oberon tree
Bolcà Island: Island in the Argent Sea
Boxcorn: Genetically modified square corn ears used as base for foods/fuels on Oberon
Braid Seneford: One of the OberCorp board members
Cafflite: Oberon equivalent of coffee
Camspecs: eyeglasses with a built-in tri-dee camera
Castain, the: The “castle” in Errian, also called the House of the Sun
Cattorah, the: A ritual removal of a skythane’s wings, usually as punishment for a severe crime
Chit: Portable cash chip
Christianist: Throwback religious sect that hearkens back to conservative “Christian” values
Cirq: Bio-interface in the temple that allows users to access the grid
Citrone: Native yellow fruit that grows on vines on Oberon
Colifir Tree: Red native tree that grows by rivers
Common Worlds: Loose-knit government of human worlds
Conjunction: Alignment of one of the moons of Oberon with the planet and sun
Corrinder: The plants used as building stock in Errian
Creach: Scavenger birds on Titania
Creeper Vines: Native silver ground vegetation on Oberon
Crits: Credit/money
Croyol: Fungus that burns without smoke
Daedus Madainn: Prior King of the House of the Sun
Damella Sléite: Prior Queen of the House of the Moon
Lander Page 29