Page 80 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

“Uh, no.” Ader cleared his throat. “I really just wanted to get Rinna somewhere safe.

There's nothing you can do, Chief. Rennux is right.

You should stay here. You're not in the service anymore. Rinna and I will go back tomorrow and help Paradefense reclaim the fortress. All we need is a place to stay for tonight.”

“Of course, my friend.” Thax laid his hand on Ader's shoulder. “You're both welcome to stay as long as you—”

“He's taken Lena!” Liria's mother came shrieking out of the house. She ran toward the garden, leaving them gaping after her.

“Mother!” Liria shouted after her.

Just behind Bena Drask came Liria's father. “She saw someone take your sister! They were in the garden.”

“What?” She chased after her parents, following them to the clearing where they'd performed the rite.

“He took her!” her mother screamed. She stopped in the meadow and spun toward the right. “There! He took her this way!” She ran into the orchard.

“Mother!” Liria and her father went after her.

Thax and several others followed. Liria could sense her destru, but she didn't look back. Her chest was full of fear. That feeling. She had known something terrible would happen.

Liria burst out onto the drive just as her mother screamed and lifted her arms to the sky, fingers curled as if she could pull something out of it. Liria looked in that direction and saw another erial. It was flying away from Thennis.

Liria's mother swayed. Her father was there a second later to steady her and then wrap her in his arms. He looked over at Liria with wide eyes.

“I'll find her,” Liria vowed.

“Will someone please tell me what's happening?” Thax asked.

With him were his parents, his friend Larocran, Rinna, Evellor, and several Aethari. All of them stared after the departing erial.

“I honestly don't know.” Liria looked at her father. “Dad? You said she saw someone?”

Pushing out of her husband's arms, Bena Drask squared her shoulders.

“Lena forgot her harp in the field. She went back for it. Then that man came running in talking about the erial. Your father was going to go out to bring Lena back in. We made it to the kitchen. He went out through the kitchen garden. I stayed inside to watch from the window.” She had to pause to sob.

“The meadow was within sight, and I saw her. I saw Lena bend to pick up her harp. But then . . .”

“It's all right, love.” Yaru Drask gripped her upper arms from behind as if holding her up. “I've got you.”

“A Nethren came out of the trees.”

“A Nethren?!” Ader glanced at Rinna. “Were we followed?”

“I don't know,” Rinna whispered, her eyes wide. “But . . . how? No Nethren could fly an erial. They'd crash within seconds. Their tech would kill the convergence.”

“I know what I saw.” Liria's mother lifted her chin.

“He was a man made of flesh and metal. He placed a metal hand over Lena's mouth and bit her throat!

She didn't even have a chance to fight.” Her voice broke on a sob, and she covered her mouth.

“She passed out, and he took her. He put her over his shoulder and took her!”

“How the fuck did a Nethren get here?” Liria screeched.

Thax narrowed his eyes. “Father?”

Liria followed Thax's stare to his father. So did everyone else.

The Speaker looked unsettled.

“Do you know something about that Nethren?” Bena Drask demanded, lurching out of her husband's grip to confront the Speaker of Icara.

“No.” Thax's father held up his hands. “I don't know why a Nethren was here, but I do know that it's possible.”

“What does that mean?” Thax growled.

“The myth about Nethren killing magic and therefore convergence is . . . incorrect.”

“Incorrect?” Thax's expression went furious.

Simultaneously, Liria snapped, “Myth?!”

“It was not my decision.” The Speaker lowered his hands as his wings fell.

“It happened during the negotiations. The Aethari Council needed a way to make Medeans believe that it was best to keep the Nethren below.

They're a threat to us, you see? It's true that their bite can kill us, and it can paralyze Medeans.”

“Could our bite kill them?” Ader asked.

The Speaker shrugged.

“Are you saying that it's all a lie?” Liria demanded. “The Nethren won't kill all magic on the surface if we let them up?”

“Of course, it's a lie. Why would their touch kill magic if ours doesn't kill tech?” The Speaker sighed. “I'm sorry. I've borne this secret for so long that it's painful to speak it.”

“Risanvuren, it's not your fault.” Thax's mother took her husband's hand.

“All this time, you've made us believe that you didn't care about the Nethren when it was the opposite. You cared more than we do.” Liria shook her head. “You were the ones who wanted to seal the tunnels.”

“Yes, Aethari are good at manipulation,” the Speaker admitted. “We wanted the Nethren below and our cities above, and so we found a way to make you believe that the Nethren were a threat to the surface. And then we behaved as if we didn't care.”

“So we had to offer you an incentive.”

“Fuck,” Thaxvarien growled. “It's worse than I thought.”

“That doesn't matter now! A Nethren flew an erial here and stole my daughter. Why?” Yaru Drask snarled as he stepped up beside Liria. “Why would one of them do that? Lena has never even seen a pit. She has absolutely no contact with Nethren.”

“He must have followed us,” Ader said. “I'm so sorry. I didn't even know it was possible.”

“Who gives a fuck how or why?!” Liria's mother screamed. “Somebody go after that monster and bring me back my little girl!” Then she burst into tears.

“Besa, shh. They will.” Liria's father folded her in his arms. And then he looked up at Liria.

“We will,” Liria said as she marched back to the house. “Right the fuck now.”

“Destra!” Thax caught up with her.

“Do not give me that shit about keeping me away from the fortress!”

“That's not what I was going to say.” He glanced over his shoulder to speak to Evellor. “Gather our people.”

“Yes, sir!” Evellor ran off.

Thax looked back at Liria. “We're going to get her back.”

Liria let out a shaky breath and stumbled.

Thax caught her and held her tightly. “I promise you, destra. We will free your sister and bring her home.”

“Her harp.” Liria choked. “Someone needs to bring her harp inside.”

“I'll fetch it, miss.” Aga stepped through the crowd.

“Thank you.”

Aga went to the meadow while everyone else went past them in the other direction, most running. Only Thax's and Liria's parents stopped beside them.

“I will go as well,” the Speaker said.

Thax looked up. “No, Father. You're not a warrior.”

The Speaker lifted his chin. “I was once. And Source is telling me to go. So, I shall go.”

Thax nodded. “Very well.”

“So will I,” Liria's father said.

“No!” Besa Drask clawed at her husband's shirt.

“Darling, our daughter is in danger. I'm going.” He lifted her hands and kissed them. “What kind of man would I be if I didn't?”

Liria's mother sobbed, but nodded.

Seeing that, Liria straightened. “We'll be all right, Mom. By the time we get there, Paradefense will have an army surrounding the fortress. We won't be going in alone.”

Besa Drask nodded, sniffed, and met her daughter's stare. “You get her back, and you kill that blond bastard who took her.”

“Blond?” Liria swayed. “Did you say he was blond?”

“Yes, I saw his hair. It stuck out of his helmet. It was blond.”

An image of the blond Nethren filled her mind. Could it be the same man? The man who had stared through a camera at her. The one who haunted her. Why would he take . . . “Oh, sweet convergence.”

“What is it?” Thax asked.

“I think this is personal. I think that Nethren was after me.”