Three Suns

by S King

  I opened the second can of the health drink, hanging up on him as I came into his office and stared at him.

  Orrie looked up at me and frowned, “you look like shit.”

  “Thanks,” I fell into the chair across from his desk and sat my case of health dink on the hard wood, “so, you’re telling me that Fauve wants all hands-on deck for Theodora's situation?”

  “In short,” he shrugged, “he said that you can hold off on the submission of reports and requests until all of this is said and done. So, it would seem that the suns have turned in your favor.”

  “More or less,” I grumbled, tilting the can of pink frothiness up and downing the thing. “What’s the worse news then?”

  “None of the aircrafts are even close for test flights, let alone a round trip to Parlan and back.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, hating the fact that I had taken the ceremonial Citlail out to find Eikko. Had I been smart, I’d have held off on taking the thing out just so I would have a way to get to the blue sun now.

  I turned my head to watch the layout of the battlefield and the red sun society; as I watched the drones fly over the battlefield, changing views from aerial to ground level a dangerous and, frankly, a lunatic idea came to my mind.

  Narrowing my eyes, I sat up in the seat and focused on one of the views that zoomed in on the Eynos airbase.

  “Orrie,” I kept my eyes trained on the aircrafts that had been the culprit to Padrieg’s own aircraft problems.

  “Yes Major?” He didn’t bother looking up from his holographic map of locating warriors that had failed to report for duty.

  “How soon can you be ready for a field trip?”

  At my question he looked up from his report and gave a screwed look, “what’re you talking about, Major?”

  A slow, evil smile crossed my lips as I stood from the chair with my health drink case in my hands, “how soon can you be ready for a field trip?” I asked again, still staring at the drones view of the enemy’s airbase.

  “Um…” he looked from his holographic map to his report before finally zoning in on what I was looking at. “Major, I don’t think—”

  “Either you’re coming with me or you’re staying behind. Pick your poison and do it quick.”

  He tossed his pen on his report and rubbed his hands over his face, “I’ve never been on the battlefield, Major. How am I supposed to make sure that we come back in one piece?”

  I raised a brow at him, “coming or not?”

  Staring at the drone view, he chewed on his lip and considered what I was asking of him. Finally, after several minuta he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair.

  “Give me enough time to get the report done and I’ll meet you at the debriefing base.”

  I winked at him, raising a new can of my health drink to him in salute before I turned on my heel and headed back to my domicile as I pressed my communicator and waited for Emric to answer.

  “Yeah?” He answered quickly as he grunted against something.

  “Busy?” I tossed the empty case of the health drink into the recycling compartment as the holographic Parlan woman welcomed me home and cracked the lid to the last can open.

  “Somewhat, not really,” the familiar beep of the ATP being paused floated into my ear, “what’s going on? Is Eikko ok?”

  I raised my brows as I sat down at my kitchen table and started unwrapping my meal, “he’s…ok?”

  “Just checking,” he caught the hint of my suspicion and cleared his throat, “anyway, what do you need?”

  “Want to go on a field trip with me and Orrie?”

  “Let me shower and I’ll meet you two at the debriefing base.” We disconnected the communication, leaving me to quickly finish my meal and change into one of the outfits that Eikko had made Somsang deliver to me.

  One way or another I was going to see that my sister was safe and if that meant that I had to break all of the rules and safety measures that the purple sun had put into place then I was going to do that. Because my sister was worth it and getting Somsang back to be executed had become my only priority in the last eighty-seven sati.

  I tossed back the rest of my health drink and got up from the table with a final hoorah and a prayer for anyone wanting to go against me.

  Chapter 18 I Against Me

  “I would rather die.” Emric crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I'm going to have to agree with him, Major.” Orrie shoved his hands in his pockets as he nervously looked between me and the open exit.

  I strapped the last of my wind slicing blades to my thigh and checked my vest for extra bullets to go with the gun that I had found in Eikko's room.

  “Well you two may just get your wishes. Either way, both of you,” I shot them a pointed look, “agreed to help me.”

  Emric's sandstone eyes went wide, “I did not agree to helping you cross a territory line into the red sun! Let alone, steal one of those things aircrafts!”

  “Sorry, Major, but neither did I.”

  “Both of you,” I stabbed my fingers into their faces, “agreed to go on a field trip with me. Neither of you asked for the details, which is not my fault.”

  “Well, I personally didn’t think that this field trip was going to involve the infiltration of Pya and the hijacking of an aircraft only to fly into the blue sun!”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and raised a brow at Emric, “are you done throwing a tantrum?”

  “Is Eikko really worth this?” He made a face at me, “I mean, come on Ostana. Even this is a ludicrous idea for you.”

  “This isn't about Eikko.” I snapped.

  “Isn't it though?”

  “No, it's about getting Theo back to safety and I can't do that if I'm sitting here arguing with you. So, are you coming or not?”

  He scoffed and puffed out his chest, “no.”

  “Pussies,” I spun on my heel counting down from five.

  “What!” Both men barked.

  I waved my hand in the air, “you heard me.” Before my second count down could even reach one, Emric fell in step with me to my right and Orrie on my left.

  Internally, I smiled. I knew that wounding both men's pride would get me what I wanted. Besides, both of them had wind abilities coursing through their veins and should we run into a gang of Eynos then they would have the seven eyed bastards turned to shriveled carcasses while I got the aircraft. They got to blow off steam and I got us a fully functional aircraft that would make the journey worth it. Win-win.

  The battlefield was eerily silent as we stepped over the dead bodies of Eynos and around forgotten explosives that didn't go off when they were supposed to. The smell of doused flames, rotted flesh, blood and arson powder fermented the air like a bad perfume; I swallowed down the gag that the stench caused and started thinking of the stars that I had watched with Eikko when we sat on a cliff, drinking snake venom and telling each other our truths. How I wished I could go back to that time.

  “Major?” Orrie’s voice pulled me away from my memories.

  “What?”

  “I asked you, what are you wearing?” Emric surveyed me from head to toe before looking in my eyes again.

  “Clothes?” I made a face at both of them.

  Orrie cleared his throat and motioned to my outfit, “those aren't your usual clothes.”

  It was true. I had traded in my combat attire for a loose t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Instead of my combat boots and jacket I had decided on a pair of sneakers and a tan leather jacket. I didn't know what the official names of the articles meant but by the stiffness of the leather I knew that the quality was top of the line.

  “What's wrong with my clothes?”

  Both men looked at me with raised brows. It was Emric to open his mouth first, “are you trying out the clothes that people in Parlan wear because after this is all said and done, you're going to follow the Parlan Playboy back to the blue sun?”

  I opened my mouth to tell him that he'd
lost his mind when the airstrike fifty feet away from us went off.

  Diving out of the way, I tucked my body in on itself and protected my head as another bomb went off further away. Ok, this was not what I was planning, but we needed an aircraft and damn it, I was going to make sure that we didn't leave the red sun without it. When some of the smoke died down, I peeked my head out from behind the rock that was protecting me and looked around.

  Instantly, I regretted not bringing along a squadron to help with this suicide mission.

  “I did not agree to this!” Emric hissed and tossed his body against his own rock as an Eyno came flying through the break between in the rocks.

  “How hard could it be?” I shrugged, loading the gun as the Eyno started getting up.

  Emric and Orrie stared at each other worriedly before Orrie shook his head, “Major, what is that thing?”

  I twisted my mouth to the side, looking between the gun and the Eyno staggering to its feet, “let’s find out.” I pointed the thing at the Eyno and pulled the trigger.

  A reverberating pop went off, causing a stinging pain to erupt in my ears as the ringing intensified. The Eyno staggered at the impact, looking down at the hole in its chest and if I could read its face, or better yet, if the thing had a face, I’d imagine that the seven eyed parasite would be confused.

  “Major,” Orrie whispered from my left, keeping his eyes on the Eyno.

  “I know,” I mumbled, throwing a fire angel at the thing, and covering my face with my arm as the Eyno was turned to ash in a matter of sekundi.

  “Did you have this in mind?” Emric challenged after looking out from behind his rock and nailed me with an accusatory glare.

  “Not entirely,” getting up from my hiding spot, I narrowed my eyes on the airbase and spotted the aircraft that I found on Orrie’s holographic map, thanks to the drone.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do,” I chewed my lip and looked at the wandering Eynos that had come out of the airbase and looking for their fallen comrade.

  “This should be good,” Emric mumbled, getting out his arson gun and loading the thing up.

  “Shut up,” I snapped, letting the flames lick up my arms and begin to consume the lower part of my body. “Orrie, take the side entrance, Emric, take out the patrol and I’ll…” I twisted my mouth to the side and tilted my head, “I’ll take the entrance. When you guys hear the startup, don’t hesitate. Just run to the aircraft, got it?”

  A natural wind blew my hair back from my face and caused several of the oncoming Eynos to fall to the ground. Emric shrugged after another round of Eynos fell to the ground thanks to his wind suffocating force knocking them over.

  “I’ve never used my ability,” Orrie admitted as Emric and I started toward the airbase.

  Emric glanced over his shoulder at him, “not once?”

  “Never.”

  I grabbed his hand and pointed to Emric, “just make sure that none of them get too close to the aircraft.”

  The wind picked up, whipping my hair around my head as Emric looked at the Eynos emerging from the barracks and airbase.

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” he took off at full speed with the wind coursing through his veins pushing outward toward the charging Eynos.

  “Major—” Orrie started before I yanked him out of the way of a flying blade hissing of poison.

  I allowed my flames to consume me long enough to incinerate several of the seven eyed jackasses that came at us. When the ashes fell back to the ground, I snatched Orrie’s wrist again and ran into the airbase; pushing my friend to one side of the aircraft as I body slammed an Eyno to the ground with fire angels attacking the rotted flesh barely hanging onto the smaller body beneath me.

  “Ostana, you want to speed this up!” I heard Emric’s voice echo through the airbase before feeling the wind pick up.

  I had to squint against the dust and the particles flying around the metal room, as I ripped open the aircraft pilot door and climbed in with the help of Orrie.

  “Do you know how to fly one of these things?” He jumped at the sound of the impact of three Eynos on the windshield and cringed at the bone crunching echo that filled the aircraft speakers.

  I glanced at the control panel, “not really.” I sent a final hoorah to the purple sun and pressed what I thought was the start button. A loud grumbling filled the cabin of the cockpit as I started flipping switches left and right.

  “Should I start regretting this decision?” Orrie punched an Eyno trying to climb through the window and looked down at the falling body.

  “Probably,” I jerked the lever and whistled through my teeth at Emric to come on. With the aircraft lifting off the ground we didn’t have time for him to continue to fight the Eynos. “Let’s go, Emric!”

  No sooner did I get the aircraft at a close enough distance to the exit base did Emric throw himself into the cargo bay and groan at the impact of hitting the metal backing to the aircraft.

  “Are you ok?”

  “Remind me to tell you how much I don’t like Theodora for this,” he grunted as he motioned for Orrie to trade spots with him.

  I smirked, clearing the red sun territory line into the blue sun, “I’ll remember. But seriously,” I looked into the reflector at Orrie, “thank you. Both of you.”

  Emric snorted, adjust his side of the control panel but didn’t say anything.

  “Do you think she’ll remember me?”

  As the bright blue sky of Parlan came through the window, I raised a brow at him, “someone has a crush.”

  “It's not that…it’s just,” he trailed off turning away so I couldn’t see the deep blush creeping up his face.

  Emric turned around and looked at him, “how can you have a crush on a twin?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Bullshit, why would you ask Ostana if she thinks her sister would remember you if you don’t have a crush on her? Doesn’t she look exactly like Ostana?”

  “Hey!” I snapped, glaring at my friend.

  “I don’t mean it as an insult, I’m just saying.”

  Orrie sighed, “that’s not the point.”

  “It is the point,” Emric mumbled turning back to his controls.

  I rolled my eyes answering the communication that was coming through, “yes sir?”

  General Fauve rarely contacted me through my communicator and when he did it was never good.

  “Major Shaye, where are you right now?” I glanced at the holographic layout of the blue sun society and contemplated whether I should tell him the truth or not.

  “Getting ready to land.”

  “Get back to Padrieg now,” he ordered sounding more pissed off than when he had dismissed Kendrick.

  I clenched my teeth, preparing the aircraft for its descent, “I can’t do that sir.”

  Defying orders from a five-star general in the military was unheard of and detrimental to one’s health depending on their station within the society. But I had to stick to my guns and find Theodora.

  “Why the hell not?” He barked.

  I flinched at his hard tone as I let the aircraft descend in the same spot that I had the last time that Orrie and I were in Parlan.

  “Because I have an obligation to my family, sir.” Nothing better than the truth, I thought to myself as I glanced at Orrie and Emric staying put. If they weren’t going to move because they were afraid of the backlash that I was getting from our superior officer, then so be it.

  “Ostana Shaye, I am ordering you to come back, right now! If you don’t then you leave me no choice but to demote you. Do you really want to lose your station?”

  I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the pilot's seat, “sir, you do what you need to do, and I'll do what I need to.”

  I disconnected the communication and chewed on my lip as the weight of my actions came crashing down on me. In short, I had just told my superior officer to fuck off and do what he needed to. I was as good as dead when I went back to Padr
ieg, but as long as my sister and, as strange as it was to say, Eikko was ok then I could face the gallows with a smile on my face.

  I took a deep breath and sat up, unfastening my safety belting, and reaching for the door.

  “How bad is Fauve pissed off?” Emric’s question stopped me from opening the door and made me think of what I had just heard from the five-star general.

  “You two are fine,” was all I said before getting out of the Eyno aircraft and breathing in the Parlan air. I didn’t have time to worry about what was going on in Padrieg, I needed to find out what happened to Theodora.