“That is one possibility, Lirifal. We cannot allow ourselves to live in fear of a solitary outcome, when there are so many other branches her path may take. Her actions could lead to dire consequences, but they will not.” Orfaio gestured toward Nova. “They will not because the presence of this miraculous individual shall counteract all misdeeds.”
Lirifal fell silent, giving me a moment to scramble to my feet.
“The risk is too great!” the blue Stargazer roared, as they lunged for me. Blinding light and hands as cold as ice gripped my arms, throwing me back down to the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs. My head hit the coarse ground. Lirifal’s starry black eyes turned demonic as they leered down upon me, a freezing sensation immobilizing me, pushing ice through my veins.
Orfaio jumped to action, tearing Lirifal away from me, and the two ethereal beings collapsed in a brawl of flashing lights and whipping limbs. Their ghostly skeletons pulsed beneath their translucent flesh as Lirifal struggled to grasp me again. I could see in the darkness of that Stargazer’s eyes that they wanted me dead. Lirifal wanted me out of the way and would do anything to see it happen.
“Go!” Orfaio bellowed.
Navan darted past the fighting Stargazers, reaching down to help me back to my feet. Retreating a few steps, I stared down at the bizarre brawl going on ahead of us, the two of them getting farther away from the gangway of the Fed ship. Evidently, this was Orfaio’s plan—to get Lirifal as far from the Fed vessel as possible, to give us the chance to escape. The others looked just as confused, none of us sure whether to intervene or not… or even how to intervene between two celestial bodies. If we touched them, would we dissolve into stardust? If that icy feeling pressed farther into us, would it kill us? It was impossible to know the dangers involved in intervening.
“I said go!” Orfaio roared, wrestling Lirifal into a headlock. Vivid bursts of white light erupted from beneath the skin of both Stargazers, the pair of them equally matched. If we lingered too long, the window of escape would close forever.
“What about you?” Navan shouted back.
The Stargazer turned their starry eyes toward Stone, who’d whipped a knife out of his belt and seemed to be about to lunge into the fray. “Stone, utilize the mind map—get the ship as far from here as you can. Once you are beyond the reach of Aeon, Lirifal cannot harm you!”
“I can help ye fight!”
“No, your survival is essential! You must leave, now!”
“Right y’are.” Stone leapt toward the gangway, ushering everyone else up the ramp and into the belly of the vessel. None of us argued as he shoved us into the ship and closed the hatch, bringing the gangway in while the Stargazers continued to brawl. Sprinting into the cockpit, the rest of us hurrying after him, he tore off his bandana and opened his third eye.
“You know what you’re doing?” Bashrik asked nervously.
Stone flashed a cheeky smile at Lauren. “Aye, but I might need me a bit more o’ that power-up juice, if ye catch me drift? Ren, might ye oblige a fella in need? Might be the very thing what keeps us alive and kickin’.”
She blushed furiously, stepping up to him and looping her arms around his neck. Xiphio turned away as Stone slid his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. I supposed, with so much at stake and danger all around us, Stone had given up on propriety. Instead, he seemed to be seizing life by the balls, wasting no opportunity.
“One kiss,” she murmured, their lips meeting.
Instantly, his third eye began to swirl with the colors and stars of some untold galaxy. The engines fired into life, and the ship started rising from the ground. A blinding flash of white light enveloped us, my chest clenching as the air left the room and everything vanished in the blink of an eye.
Chapter Eighteen
The world rushed back to greet us, the Fed ship drifting beyond the glowing planetary nebula surrounding the dying star. Stone blinked his third eye rapidly, and the galactic swirl disappeared, as Lauren kept tight hold of him. Meanwhile, Bashrik and Ronad rushed toward the console, punching the engines to get us as far from the star’s gravitational pull as possible.
Once we were a safe distance away, the star no more than a shimmering glow on the horizon, an unexpected air of calm settled across the group. We’d escaped Aeon, and now that we were back on this plane of existence, there was nothing Lirifal could do to get in our way. Even so, I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of alarm, after what the blue Stargazer had said. True, there were many possible outcomes for the future, but the mere knowledge that I could cause some sort of catastrophe was overwhelming. I didn’t want to be responsible for something like that, but how could I stop it? How could I know which actions might lead to those consequences, and which might not? Only time would tell, I supposed.
“So… back to the homeland, eh?” Ronad said, breaking the silence.
“Yep, another glorious return to Vysanthe for Ronad and the Idrax boys,” Bashrik murmured, sitting back in the pilot’s seat.
Ronad chuckled. “Man, I really hoped we’d never have to go back there.”
“What do we do first?” I wondered, knowing nobody could give anything away. How were we supposed to come to a decision without knowing everyone else’s plans? It was going to be a logistical nightmare.
“I say our first order of business should be springing Jareth from the sky prison,” Navan replied blankly.
“Yes!” Angie yelped, fidgeting. “I mean… yeah, cool… or not, whatever. I’m easy. I’ll go with the flow, no problems, no worries. Hakuna matata.”
I flashed her a curious glance, eager to know how her mission and Navan’s mission tied together, converging at Jareth’s freedom. Maybe they weren’t tied together. Maybe the location was just incidental. It was infuriating, trying to guess what everyone was thinking and what Orfaio had told each of us. To be honest, it seemed as though each member of the group was holding a different piece to a broader puzzle, which would only become clear once the first pieces had been slotted together. Until then, we’d have to keep on guessing, all of us completely in the dark.
“The South works for me, too,” I said quietly, not knowing how much I could say. “I need to find Kaido, if that’s okay? If other people need to go elsewhere, then that’s fine, but I need to go after him.”
“Great, a family reunion.” Bashrik sighed.
“Hey, you secretly like Kaido, so stop pretending you don’t,” Ronad chided. “Of all you Idrax boys, he’s had it the hardest. How about you cut him some slack?”
Bashrik offered an apologetic smile. “You’ve changed your tune. It wasn’t too long ago you were the one hating his guts.”
“What can I say, I’m seeing things a little differently these days. Anyway, I don’t think I really understood what he’d been through until I had it pointed out to me.” Ronad looked to me. “But yeah, I’m happy to go wherever the rest of you need to go. My part in all of this can wait a while. Plus, it might be nice to see old Kaido again.”
“Yeah, I’m good with that location too,” Bashrik admitted. “To be frank, I have no idea what I’m doing… which may or may not be the point.”
“I thought you looked more confused than normal,” Angie teased, crossing the cockpit toward him. She tilted his head back and kissed him gently.
He grinned. “Tell me about it. I’m baffled.”
I looked at Stone, Lauren, and Xiphio, wondering what they might have to say on the subject. Their silence spoke volumes, their awkward glances saying even more. So, that had to mean that Angie and Navan held the corner pieces of the puzzle—the bits that made everything else a smidgen clearer. If nobody else had a pressing need to do anything in Vysanthe, then their events had to be the first. Then again, there was no way of really knowing.
The plan of action took up most of our time as we moved through the universe, heading for Vysanthe. Bashrik had charted a course for the coldblood planet, with the boys taking turns flying the vessel. Lauren and Angie were compiling a
list of what we were going to do when we reached Vysanthe, and what we had on board that we could use to infiltrate the planet. Our arsenal was limited, but at least we had one.
It reminded me a little bit of our journey to Zai, where Pandora had kept us constantly busy with cleaning and fixing and taking inventory, only this time we were doing it of our own accord. The thought of the Draconian planet reminded me of the opaleine in my pocket, the gift from Cambien, side by side with the gift from Orfaio. What was it about alien races that made them want to give me something, attaching a vague message to the offering? I was hugely grateful, but it was exasperating not to know how these gifts might help.
Before long, I settled into a routine of wandering through the ship while Nova was sleeping, taking one of the vessel’s tool bags and fixing anything broken that I found on my walk. I spent a lot of time in the engine room. It was the only place on the ship where nobody wanted to talk about the future, and how our missions might converge. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk about it; it was just messing with my head to dwell on it all too deeply. Lirifal’s comments had shaken me.
“Hey, stranger, where’ve you been?” Navan asked as I emerged from the engine room on the second day of our journey. “I went to check on Nova in the cockpit, but the boys said you’d wandered off after putting her down for her nap. They’re worried about you. I’m worried about you.”
I smiled. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve just got a lot on my mind. As it happens, I was heading back to Nova, if you want to come with me.”
He leaned down and kissed me passionately. “I’ve got a few things to sort out in the weapons room, but I’ll be as quick as I can. I’ve missed you today.”
“I miss you every day.”
“I’m right here, my love… I’ll always be right here.”
I sank into his arms, wishing we could stay like that a while longer. “I’m just worried about Nova,” I admitted. “Really worried about her, in fact. She’s all I can think about… that, and that I might be responsible for something catastrophic.”
“Orfaio said that was one possibility—a possibility counteracted by Nova. You should take comfort in that.”
I shook my head. “I can’t figure out how the two might be connected. What if it signals something bad for Nova? Orfaio didn’t say that something good would counteract the ‘dire consequences.’ They just said it would counteract it.” I sighed heavily. “My head is scrambled. I’m sure everyone’s is. That’s why I’ve been keeping to myself a bit.”
“Hey, nothing bad is going to happen to our baby girl, okay?” he assured me. “Now, come on, let me walk you to the cockpit before I head to the weapons room. I can take a little detour.”
He put his arm around me and ushered me up the hallway toward the cockpit, dropping me off at the threshold with a warm hug and a lingering kiss, his hands slipping around my waist as he held me tight. It was enough to strengthen my resolve, giving me a sliver of comfort that would last until bedtime. Shaking off my all-consuming fears, I opened the hatch and stepped inside, moving over to the hovering crib where I’d left Nova sleeping. Angie and Bashrik were the only ones inside, their expressions sympathetic as I entered.
“Hey, you,” Angie said nervously. “How’re things?”
“Good. Just keeping busy to keep my mind off things, you know?”
She nodded. “I’m trying to get Bashrik to teach me how to fly this thing, but he thinks I’m a hopeless case. I might be the only person in history to stall a spaceship.”
I laughed, feeling instantly lighter in her company. “Nobody else around?”
“No, they’ve all abandoned us. I think our kissing was making them sick.”
“I, for one, don’t mind it,” Bashrik purred, waggling his eyebrows.
I noticed the stack of papers sitting on the dashboard. “What’s all this?”
Angie rolled her eyes. “Endless ideas.”
“For infiltrating the united queendom?”
“Bingo! From the sublime to the ridiculous,” she replied. “We’ve got ninja suits, a stealth landing on the palace, old reliable—dressing up as enemy soldiers and pretending we’re part of their army—and just charging in all guns blazing. Then we’ve got landing close to Regium and sneaking in under cover of darkness, which I happen to like the most. Bashrik says it’s boring, but I think it has the least chance of certain death.”
I crumpled, slumping down on a chair beside Nova’s crib.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Angie’s eyes went wide in alarm.
“How can I take Nova into a warzone? How can I put a baby in harm’s way like that?” I said bitterly, hating Ezra, Aurelius, and their bastard rebels for putting me in this position. “Am I supposed to leave her in this ship and hope for the best, leave it circling the planet or something? Am I supposed to take her with me and just pray nothing bad happens to her? It’s not as if I can sit this whole thing out.”
Angie walked over to where I sat and wrapped her arms around me, giving me a tight squeeze. “We’ll figure something out for her, Riley. Don’t you worry about that. You’ve got enough on your plate.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Honestly, she’ll be okay, one way or another.”
I clung to my friend. “Do you mean it?”
“I have a good feeling about it.”
I could only assume that meant Orfaio had given her a solution to Nova’s safety, she just couldn’t tell me what it was. In all honesty, if it kept Nova out of harm then I didn’t want to know. If my actions could change that, by knowing, then I would stick my fingers in my ears and sing at the top of my lungs to stop myself from hearing a thing. The assurance that she’d be okay was enough.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
“For what?”
“For being you.” It was true—without her relentless positivity, we’d all have lost hope a long time ago.
“Ah, save your mushiness, my beautiful amigo, and put your energies to better use than flattering little old me,” she said, grinning. “For a start, someone is getting pretty stinky, and I am hoping that stench isn’t coming from your ass. If it is, I’m going to have to recommend you see a doctor.”
“See, you know just what to say to cheer a girl up,” I commended her, releasing her so I could deal with my daughter’s stinky diaper.
“Yeah, I’m going to sit over here for this one. She might be cute, but dear Lord does she stink.”
“We’re going to get you all nice and clean, aren’t we?” I cooed. “We’re not going to pay any attention to Auntie Angie, are we? No, we’re not. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. You aren’t stinky at all. You’re the most fragrant creature I’ve ever smelled, aren’t you?”
Nova giggled delightedly, thrashing her tiny limbs in happiness.
I set to work changing Nova’s diaper as Angie scurried off to the opposite side of the cockpit, retreating behind Bashrik, who seemed oblivious to the foul aroma filling the air. My beautiful little girl grinned up at me as I wiped her clean and folded up the used diaper, replacing it with a nice, clean one.
“Stink!” Nova yelped suddenly.
My jaw fell open. “What did you say? Did you just speak?”
“Stink!”
“Did you hear that?” I looked up at Bashrik and Angie, in a state of total shock.
“Stink!”
Angie gasped. “Did she just talk?”
“I think… I think she did!” I stood sharply, still holding the dirty diaper in my hand. “Watch her for me. I need to find Navan!” Without waiting for a reply, I took off out of the cockpit and sprinted through the hallways, skidding to a halt outside the weapons room. Navan was kneeling on the ground, going over some of the guns, but he turned in fright as I appeared in the doorway behind him.
“What’s wrong, Riley? Is everything okay? Has something happened?” He eyed the folded diaper in my hand and pointed down the corridor. “And why do you have that with you? The laundry room is
that way.”
“It’s Nova!” I gasped, catching my breath.
“What is it? What’s happened to her?”
“She… She spoke to me,” I explained, in a state of flustered panic. “She spoke to me. The growth serum must have messed with her, making her develop faster than she’s supposed to. What if this means she’ll be, like, fifty by the time she’s two or something? What if it causes some damage to her?”
Navan burst out laughing. “Sweetheart, there’s nothing unusual about that, so stop worrying. Coldbloods learn to talk much earlier than the babies of other species—it’s just my side of her genetics showing through.” A guilty expression flickered in his eyes. “In fact, I’ve been trying to teach her some words, though I haven’t succeeded yet. I was trying to get her to say ‘nebula,’ because I thought it’d be cool, but she keeps looking at me like I’m an idiot whenever I repeat it.”
“So, she’s totally fine?”
He pulled me to him, rubbing my back. “Totally fine.”
I heaved a sigh of relief.
“What was her first word, then? Don’t keep me in suspense.” He pulled away slightly, grinning at me like an eager child.
“I’m not sure I even want to tell you.”
“Come on, tell me!” he pleaded, smothering my face in kisses.
“She said… stink.”
Both of us collapsed in a fit of giggles. “Stink?”
“Yeah… she’s already quite the poet!”
“Oh man, I’m not sure what that says about her future.”
I frowned, still chuckling. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s Vysanthean tradition that a child’s first word dictates what they might become later in life. For example, if she’d said ‘dada’ she might follow in my footsteps, or if she’d said ‘hammer’ she might be a mechanic or a builder.” He paused, arching an eyebrow. “I don’t even want to think about what ‘stink’ means for Nova.”
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