A ravens plight, p.23
A Raven's Plight, page 23
The doctor shook his head slightly. “I can only speculate until she develops the sickness, but that could be many years yet, as she is only 17. Without the proper care, it will prove very dangerous.”
“Giska has already arranged for your pickup once Aria… Ayla is securely aboard our ship. She wishes to communicate that she holds no ill will upon you, and welcomes your wisdom and vast knowledge.”
The doctor nodded. “She knows of my vows. I will cooperate with her terms, so long as I can protect the heir.”
Ayla’s job at this point was to stay out of the way as the two negotiated, but the longer they took, the more time there was for something else to go wrong. They took him to his room. You won’t ever see him again. Even with her internal reassurance, the doubts bombarded her. What if she broke character or Anash did come barrelling back in? Warily she eyed the door, bouncing from foot to foot. The walls of the ship had never felt so constricting, and she longed for the vast open space. To be able to run without end…
“Anxious, are we?” Damion asked after a time.
She snapped out of her reverie and looked at him. “For three days I’ve been trying to escape Anash, and now that you’re finally here, we’re still not leaving.”
He chuckled and glanced at Eldereth, who sighed and nodded. “Let us be on our way then.” Damion turned, motioning for her to follow. She eyed his broad shoulders and lean back from behind, her eyes falling to a pair of wrist restraints hanging from his belt. Don’t give him reason to doubt you. She hopped to catch up, falling instep beside him.
They walked down the hallway, and instead of turning right toward the elevator, they turned left toward the flight deck. Ayla hadn’t been to this part of the ship yet, though she’d become familiar with it on paper. At the end of the hallway, there were several small rooms with different purposes in regards to maintaining and controlling the deck area ahead. Once the hallway ended, it would open up to an enormous room that extended the entire height of the ship, and they would be up on a balcony at the top of the actual deck. A lift would take them down to the primary floor, where they would board his craft. There was a psarma powered forcefield that allowed them to keep the flight-deck doors open so that ships could come and go, but prevented the vacuum of space from sucking everything out. Ayla had contemplated asking how it worked, but decided she would have plenty of time to delve into the physics of it later.
As it was, they were nearing the edge of the hallway when she felt the hair on the back of her neck rising. A quick glance over her shoulder reassured her that besides their escort, they were alone. “Nervous, little one?” Damion asked, seemingly amused.
“Anash…” she replied softly, his name like a sour taste in her mouth.
“You know, I think we’ll bond well over our mutual hate of that man.” They exited the hall onto the balcony, and were soon descending on the lift. Once they hit the main floor, they started walking past several smaller ships toward a jet-black ship on the far side, some 150 meters away. It wasn’t a particularly large vessel, clearly designed to transport only a few people in comfort, but it looked very fast.
Freedom seemed so close, and Ayla felt her hope rising as her pace quickened, resisting the urge to run. Her instincts must have picked up on the danger, because a moment later double doors to their right suddenly opened, and Anash emerged wielding a psarma ray in each hand. This was her worst nightmare realized. He’d gone completely mad.
“No one will have you!” He shouted, a spray of electric red energy suddenly flying past them.
Eldereth’s voice boomed from behind them. “Run! She cannot survive being struck!”
Ayla didn’t need the doctor’s voice to urge her on, but the psarma whizzing past her rendered the electrodes useless. In an instant, her own body seemed to betray her. She stumbled, the act actually saving her from being hit, before feeling a firm hand wrap around her arm and pull. She willed her legs to move as she was guided forward, the air around them sizzling with red. They were at the ramp of his ship, when Damion jerked her to the left to avoid another burst of energy, which immediately burst into flames when it hit the interior ceiling of the vessel. At the same moment, Damion slammed his head upon the edge of the door frame as he tried to correct his momentum, and toss Ayla inside.
A series of angry curses followed, though Ayla wasn’t sure what the words meant.
“Buckle up,” Damion ordered, the hiss of the door lifting closed behind them. He’d already grabbed some sort of fire extinguisher and was attending the fire.
Ayla fumbled for the buckles, her brain foggy, but recovering as a barrier was put between her and the uncontained psarma. In a moment, she was secured, and looking through the front of the small ship’s window. “The flight deck doors… they’re closing!” Anash had gone completely rogue, and if they didn’t get out before the crew regained control over the enraged captain, everyone was in danger.
“Hold on, princess,” Damion growled as he plopped down in his seat. Though she couldn’t see the left side of his face, Ayla spied blood dripping from his chin. He’d hit his head hard.
Oh no, he’s going to get us crushed trying to escape! She clutched to the armrests of her seat, trying to convince herself that it would be like a hovercycle ride, but her stomach flip flopped as they suddenly lifted, and she was pressed back in her chair, the ship shooting forward and twisting to the side. With her eyes squeezed shut, Ayla didn’t actually see their safe escape, but she gathered as much when she wasn’t dead a few moments later.
She took several deep breaths before opening her eyes, her heart like a hammer as it pounded away at her ribcage. Anash… he tried to kill me. I can’t believe he actually tried to kill me. “That. Bastard,” she deadpanned, so furious, that she struggled with how to convey it.
Damion burst out in laughter from beside her, shaking his head. “You know kid, I like you. You are not what I would have expected for Aria’s daughter. Maybe Giska will take a liking to you too, who knows.”
“Are you going to tell Giska about all this? The crew was okay, and-” As much as she hated Anash, she didn’t want the crew to perish for his stupidity.
“Giska gives traitors their just due in the end. For Anash, he will be living out the rest of his life stranded on a foreign world in the absence of the queen he sought to rescue, kept company only by his failure… Well, and a crew that likely despises him. Umanei live a long time, and Giska thought death would be too merciful a fate. His crew is condemned to the same punishment, although if they’re smart, they’ll kill him before he can drive them all mad.” He adjusted his controls, and pulled a screen forward that had been resting against the dash. A small map showed their ship, along with the one they were leaving behind.
“Are you going to treat that?” Ayla asked, indicating the wound on his head.
“This is nothing,” he replied, using his sleeve to wipe his face.
“Are we being followed?” She asked nervously.
“No, they don’t have the power for that. I assume at this point, Eldereth has had Anash subdued and thrown into a cell, and the ship’s junior captain will take over.”
Zebb… Do all ships have a junior captain? She looked over to Damion, trying to study his profile inconspicuously. If he were a human, she would have guessed him to be a teenager by the look of his face, not quite a fully grown man yet. But why would a queen send a boy to do a man’s job? Was that too complex of a question? Or insulting, for that matter?
“I must say, you’re an unusually thoughtful child,” he observed while pressing in some coordinates on his screen, and returning it back on the dash. “When I was seventeen, I had to be commanded into silence when my curiosity was peaked.”
“Why?” She sputtered.
He smiled. “I hope Giska likes you. I would hate to see you go through what she had planned for Aria.” He leaned forward as if remembering something, and entered a few more commands into his dash, Ayla taking special note, before the small hazy hologram of a woman suddenly formed in the center console between them. Ayla examined the woman, taking in her lean frame, hip-length wavy white hair, caramel colored skin, and icy blue eyes. She was beautiful, and truly did resemble pictures she’d seen of her mother.
“My Queen,” Damion said, nodding toward the hologram. “We’ve begun our return journey, the mission a success, though with unforeseen changes.” He bobbed his head toward Ayla, although Giska lingered a moment on Damion.
“Your face?” She inquired.
“The door frame got me,” he said, clearly working to mask his irritation. He wanted to show off his prize, and motioned once more toward Ayla.
“A child?” Giska said, her voice betraying no emotion. “With green eyes?”
“Aria’s legacy continued,” Damion commented. “Half human, but very compliant. She and Anash didn’t hit it off, it would seem.”
The hologram of Giska remained emotionless as she stared at Ayla, and she got the distinct feeling that the usurper queen was displeased. “Well, what am I to do with you?” She asked after a few moments of uneasy silence.
Ayla took a breath, careful about how to respond. “Honestly, I just want to disappear. I don’t want to be queen, I don’t want responsibilities, I don’t want any extra attention. You can have the power, the title, and all the stuff that goes along with it. If it’s my cooperation you want, all I ask is that you permit me the freedom to remain anonymous. Please don’t try to put me on a pedestal like Anash... ” she shook her head like she was trying to shed the memory.
Giska seemed to consider her words, before a small smile cracked the corner of her lips. “I think I can arrange a life that will agree with you, if those are your terms. I’m pleased to see that you haven’t inherited your mother’s prude sense of justice.”
“Justice?” Ayla felt sick to her stomach, the scent of betrayal almost tangible. “My mother used my birth as an escape from her life… from her problems. If that was her type of justice, then I’d rather not have it.”
Giska threw back her head and laughed, the sound trill and humorless. “Oh, dear, you are my niece, there’s no question about that.” She returned her attention to Damion. “You’ll have to tell me the finer details of your reconnaissance upon your return. Get that wound cleaned up. And good work.” The hologram disappeared, and it was just Ayla and the emissary once more.
“How long until our arrival?” She asked hesitantly.
“Four hours since we’re too close to use light speed.”
Four hours. Four hours to seize control of his ship. Four hours to force him to fly down to SkyCity62. Four hours where everything could go wrong, and she’d wind up a lifelong prisoner of an evil power-hungry queen. When Ayla told Elereth of her plan, she had been so confident it would work, each step seemed entirely tangible. The doctor had discouraged her, reminding her that should she play her part well enough, perhaps Giska would allow her enough freedom to escape in the years to come. Ayla didn’t have that kind of time. Airhee needed her now.
“So we have a little time to get to know one another,” Damion said, swiveling his chair to face her, and resting a foot across his knee. His demeanor seemed forced. Ayla sensed a lessening sharpness to his eyes, and he appeared to have forgotten about his bleeding head wound. “Seventeen years old is very young, and I doubt you’ll have a long story to tell, but I’m sure it will pass a little time.” He smiled, and Ayla felt an odd sense of superiority coming from him. He was probably accustomed to being the one talked down to because of his age, and now it was his turn to pull the strings. Was this sort of degradation normal amongst their kind?
Ayla shrugged, allowing herself to be a little irritated. “Like you said, Seventeen isn’t a very long time. I grew up in Skycity62, lived in the city my whole life, went to school, got in trouble quite a lot, and didn’t really fit in well because…” she motioned towards her face. “There isn’t much more than that.”
“Hold on,” he objected. “First of all, I know for a fact that you were very resourceful in avoiding special agents of your own government when it came to your apprehension, and I find it hard to believe you were rejected from human adolescence because of your appearance. I expect legitimate answers.”
“I told you, I got in trouble a lot. My dad wasn’t home much.” It was sort of true, “and I seem to have a way of finding myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, when you live a life like that, you kind of learn the tricks of how to disappear when the stakes get too high. I didn’t know what the government agents wanted, only that the Monarch isn’t messing around when she sends out her own.
“As for being an outcast, I am different. I don’t think that’s hard to believe. Anash hated me for being different. Hated me for being a half-breed.”
Damion leaned back, folding his hands together while he pressed his index fingers to his chin. “He’s scum. Don’t put any weight into his opinion.”
She raised a brow, curious now. The captain had tried to kill Damion. What kind of history did it take for a ‘captain’ to want to kill a much younger man? “What happened between you and him?”
“He killed my mother,” Damion replied softly, perhaps the first genuine bits of emotion slipping through.. “I was one of many who lived under his roof at the time, and didn’t know of his actions until I was near your age. When I discovered the truth, I fled from his household to the city of Keava. It was there that I struggled to survive, often stooping to a life of crime to eat. Perhaps you don’t know this, but the punishment for stealing on Zvalvadoria is death. I was caught in the act, but when I was taken before the queen, she chose to spare me. Her mercy gave me new life, and I have been her faithful servant ever since. No doubt you’ve been told that Giska is evil by Anash, but she is far more merciful than he ever was. He saw my actions as the ultimate betrayal, but he is the real monster.” He fell silent, staring at his thumbs in contemplation.
Ayla could think of no adequate response to his story. Was it true? Had Giska really rescued him from execution? Why would a harsh and unjust queen do such a thing? Furthermore, why would Anash, supposedly the leader spearheading the righteous rebellion in the name of her mother, have murdered a young boy’s mom? None of it made sense. Unless I’ve been on the wrong side to begin with. She looked at Damion again, something about her perspective shifting, and a wave of compassion rolled over her.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
He looked up, and their eyes met, a shiver running through her body. “You know your home is gone, right?”
In an instant, her compassion evaporated. All her doubts about whose side was the right side vanished, and she thought bitterly, my side is the right side. Had he intentionally told her this story to soften her spirit, only to drive the bitter stake of Giska’s own destruction deeper, or did he think she didn’t care about her own city? Her own family and friends? He’s trying to manipulate me in some way, but why? Either way, Ayla had found renewed resolve to follow through with her plans.
“I might have lived there, but it was never home,” she replied gruffly, turning her face away.
He shifted again, resting his elbows on his knees. “You know, I don’t think you’re as young as you’ve made yourself out to be.”
“You’re right,” she replied quickly. “I’ll be eighteen next month.”
“Uh huh… What did Eldereth tell you?” His right hand hung down by his belt, near where the wrists restraints were. Was he getting suspicious?
The best lies contain a parcel of truth. Sighing, she said, “He wasn’t sure how my heritage would affect my maturity. I really am only seventeen years old, for what it’s worth.”
Damion moved his hand away from his belt, and gave a small nod. “We will have to talk to the doctor when he arrives tomorrow. In the meantime, now that we’ve had a proper introduction, is there anything you need? Food? Drink? The restroom? Like I said, a long journey lies ahead.” Ayla thought about how Damion’s perception of time seemed to differ from Eldereth’s. He was still young enough, it seemed, that he considered a matter of hours to be a long time. Damion yawned, blinking suddenly heavy eyes.
Ayla felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he will fall asleep… He did hit his head quite hard. without looking, she thought of the psarma shield hanging from his neck. He was invulnerable unless she found a way to remove that. As for overpowering him, she would unquestionably need a weapon.
“A bathroom break for sure,” she replied honestly, peering back behind her seat. The cabin space of the small ship might have felt tight to Damion, but to her it seemed generous. With a ceiling designed to accommodate Umanei height, the space was about the size of a medium bedroom. There were various cabinets along the walls, and some built-in seating near the back as well. A short hallway beyond the cabin had a door off to the left and to the right, one of which she assumed was the bathroom, the other likely a small room with a bunk. At the very end of the ship was a door that, when open, was a ramp to the ground.
“Door on the right,” Damion said in reply. Ayla thanked him and undid her seatbelt, taking in as much as she could between her seat and the bathroom. Not a lot was left sitting out in the open, but she did notice what appeared to be a medkit hanging near the back latch.
Once in the bathroom, she closed the door and took a deep breath, turning and facing herself in the small mirror. You got this, you can do this, you have to do this. Nothing within the small room offered her any sort of ideas, so she did her business, and returned to the cabin. As she walked to her seat, she noticed the gleam of a psarma ray tucked into a slot right within the dash. How did I miss that? She averted her eyes, drawn to the image of Airhee suspended off to their left. Jacob was somewhere down there. Belle and Gaige too. There had been so much going on around her, so much time spent planning, that she’d easily held the homesickness at bay. But as she looked down onto the blue and green planet, it felt like she’d been away for years.
