Page 36

Zyair

Rhodes and I crouched on the rooftop as we watched the flying barge approach.

My brother was in dragon form, and I sat behind his head spikes. I usually preferred to do the flying myself, but we had done this many times to avoid detection. My golden dragon scales glimmered even in the dark, whereas his were ideally suited for stealth flight.

It would have to be enough, because we had no other options. This was the only way to sneak into the shipyard.

The barge slowed, lining up for an open spot along the north fence. As it loomed overhead, the muscles beneath me tightened.

Rhodes waited until the dimly lit bow had gone by and the darker midsection was right over us. He launched, straight up, with a powerful thrust of his wings.

I hung on to the spikes as Rhodes carried us up along the side of the barge, and landed on top.

The transport was designed to carry logs, and as such, the tops only closed once they were loaded. The sides remained in place until the logs were ready for delivery, and then they retracted, spilling their cargo onto the waiting conveyors .

We had planned on sneaking in from the overhead hatch, but to our surprise, the top doors were not fully closed.

This explained why the barge was coming to the shipyard still loaded with logs—there was something wrong with its door mechanisms. It must have also jammed the sides for them to have not unloaded before coming for repairs.

Either way, Fate had certainly smiled on us. I dismounted to one side of the partly open door, and Rhodes writhed his way to his humanoid form. I handed him his boots and cloak. Neither would stand up to close inspection, but we hoped to avoid that.

The footwear was clumsy on my feet as we hopped down onto the massive logs held within the barge. They were loaded to each side with vertical metal columns forming a channel in the middle. We slid down the enormous trunks, clambering our way to the bare stretch of floor.

The barge shuddered while the repulsors lowered it to its parking spot. As we jogged along the channel, the massive engines shut down.

There were lights on each column, but it was hardly well lit. Approaching the door, we heard voices. Rhodes and I slid between the cut ends of the logs and the wall just as the door opened and a group came through.

Three of them. The mechanics were not Nirzks, but the collars they wore marked them as slaves. They discussed something in an unfamiliar language as they wheeled a cartload of tools over to a compartment walled off from the logging bay, and vanished inside.

We slipped out from our hiding spot and left the bay, entering the hall beyond.

“Well, we are in,” Rhodes whispered in Drakonian. “Now we only have to find the engineering bay in an alien logging barge.”

I ignored his disparaging tone—it was Rhodes, after all—and tracked the conduit running along the ceiling. As a bare-bones working vessel, all the wiring and ductwork was exposed. I pointed to the conduit.

“All we have to do,” I said, “is follow that. ”

Rhodes grimaced, but at the intersection he was staring upward as hard as I was.

“That way,” he pointed.

It was far from a perfect system. The small crew had clearly departed, and the hall was empty and silent.

Fortunately, the barge was a simple construct consisting mostly of huge engines that provided lift, a compact bridge in the bow, a galley behind it, a few large storage rooms—mostly filled with spare parts—and the engineering bay.

I had been worried that we would be faced with a locked door, but it slid open at our touch. Not many people stole things from logging barges.

Not much to steal—except the ship’s power core.

I slipped the pack off my shoulder and removed gloves and the spanner that would disconnect the core.

Along with a bag Yani had promised would contain the energy, keeping our cullions safe.

Not that it really mattered, if Princess Jazmin…

Jaz… walked away from us. We would not be fathering children with anyone else.

I ripped my thoughts away from that and prowled the bay, tracking the conduit to a cabinet along the far wall. Opening the door revealed the core, carefully contained within plexsteel.

Our spanners were not a perfect fit but close enough to remove it.

It took time, though, to ensure that the core was not damaged as I did so.

When I finally got it loose and used the gloves to slip it into the bag, my wings and talons were so hot they almost glowed and Rhodes was sending me ‘hurry up’ hand signals from the door.

I dumped the spanners, wrapped the core into the pack and joined him.

It was heavy as I shouldered it. The lights around us dimmed, but with the ship docked, there was enough power stored in its batteries to keep the basics running for a while yet.

Our theft would not be noticed until someone tried to fire up the engines.

Rhodes had just headed out the door when I froze, seized by a sudden sensation of danger.

“What is it?” Rhodes eyed me as he stepped back into the bay .

Locked in a rapport I did not understand, I gave my head a single, emphatic shake. Images flashed through my brain—Senaik, walking down the ramp of the Stardrifter. Danger… The word echoed through my mind.

“Something is wrong,” I whispered.

Rhodes glanced out into the hall. “Seems all quiet.”

“I think Senaik got loose.”

My brother’s brows shot up. “Is this a premonition?”

“More like a warning.”

“From who?”

I grimaced. “Not sure. Xandros? It is not clear.”

“We have never experienced that kind of connection before,” Rhodes pointed out. “Unless…” He frowned.

I did not finish the thought for him, but I was not prepared for the hope that surged through me.

Unless Jaz and Xandros had bonded.

Rhodes had already moved on to the next logical conclusion—that Senaik could not have escaped on his own. “How would he—” Rhodes words cut off on a snarl. “That sycophant, Kurt.”

I struggled to make sense of what I was getting. “Yes, that feels right.” I swallowed and glanced again into the hall. All quiet. But if Senaik had escaped, he would head straight for Dangos. He might already be here…

If he was, the Nirzks would not risk a direct confrontation.

These halls were too confining for us to shift to dragon—but they would also not be able to overwhelm us with numbers, either.

They were powerful fighters and their tails held lethal poison, but in a direct one-on-one, we would destroy them.

If they wanted us, they would be far more likely to set a trap for when we left the ship.

Rhodes spoke through gritted teeth. “Would they have sent the mechanics in, if they knew we were here?”

“Maybe.” The Nirzks valued their slaves, but only to a point. I did not think Brentoq would care who ended up caught in the crossfire. A few slaves were acceptable collateral, even if they were trained mechanics.

“We will go out the way we came in,” I said.

“They might be waiting,” he warned.

“If you have better ideas, speak of them now.”

Instead of answering, he bent over to remove his boots. I did the same, before leading the way down the hall. The ship was eerily silent. I glanced to Rhodes.

He was hugging the shadows, moving with smooth grace like the lethal Drake he could be. He had sprouted talons from his fingertips, a clear sign of his vote on the matter.

He expected trouble. I agreed.

I followed suit as we approached the log bay. I did not need to look into the control room to know that the mechanics were no longer there.

“Maybe they finished the repair,” growled Rhodes.

By the tone of his voice, he did not believe it, and neither did I. I surveyed the width of the channel between the logs. It would be a squeeze, but possible. Especially if what I planned worked…

When I explained it to Rhodes, he was unimpressed by the results of my superior intellect.

“No,” he stated simply.

“If we do not get the core back to the Stardrifter , the Nirzks will find them. Xandros. And Jaz.”

He stiffened.

“It is the only way, Rhodes.”

“I am not doing it.”

I raised my chin and stared him down. “Yes. You are.”

He was so rigid the vein was popping in his temple. He matched my stare for ten full seconds, before he swallowed.

“Maybe they are not out there,” he stated with desperation running through the words.

“I think they are.” I removed the pack from my shoulders and laid it on the ground at his feet .

He looked ready to erupt, but he bent to pick it up. Then, he moved into the control room to examine the levers on the main console. The panel below them was opened, so they had not finished the repairs—but they might have done enough.

I hoped so.

His gaze met mine from the doorway. “If this goes badly, I will come for you.”

“Look after Jaz,” I ordered. “That is your first priority.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. To the average observer, Rhodes considered Jaz as nothing but a problem. But I knew my brother. So I was not surprised when, instead of continuing the argument, his eyes gleamed garnet at me, before he nodded.

I took myself to dragon.

The channel was far too narrow for this endeavor. I had to arch my wings straight up over my back to keep them clear of the logs. The opening in the overhead doors was also too tight for me to fit through—but with any luck, that was about to be resolved.

I focused on the roiling clouds visible through the narrow crack above, while Rhodes cast a critical eye over the controls to the doors. The script above them looked to be written in Nirzkian.

It was to my advantage that Rhodes understood it well. His fingers drifted over the levers, before closing on one.

He pushed it up, and to my immense relief, there was an answering grind from overhead as those doors began to move.

The split second they were wide enough, I launched myself. My wings were useless until they had room to spread, so I hooked my talons into the logs and used them to heave myself upward.

When I was almost at the opening, Rhodes hit the other levers.

The side doors began to retract, but I immediately knew they were not operating properly—there was a horrible metallic squeal as they dropped.

But once started, the process could not be stopped—the massive pile of logs began to shift as the pressure holding them in place released.

The upper logs toppled out, and when the doors jammed, they hit the metal and bent them outward.

More logs rolled free… As I launched myself for the clouds, I heard panicked shouts from within the shipyard.

For a mere instant, as I flapped hard to leave the logging ship behind, I thought, with no small amount of relief, that this had been for nothing, and that Senaik had not reached the Nirzks in time to set a trap for us. But within one wing flap and the next, I was lit by powerful spotlights.

Not from below. They came from a circle of wicked little atmospheric fighters that hovered above the ground, completely surrounding the larger ship.

They were here for me.

My scales reflected brilliant gold in the lights as they eagerly moved in. I was not about to make it easy for them, though. Brentoq wanted me alive, and that put them at a disadvantage.

The lights made it nearly impossible to see.

When I swerved right and dove, I was able to pass out of the direct beam for an instant.

And I glimpsed the chaos created by the massive logs dropping unplanned from the big ship—they lay across the ground in an uncoordinated jumble, crushing smaller vessels to each side.

With a shriek of tortured metal, one of the damaged side doors gave way completely, spilling more logs onto the ground. I saw Nirzk soldiers running for cover.

Then a fighter veered close to my ducking and diving form, and something exploded from its bow—I narrowly dodged the sticky missile as the net unfolded and almost nabbed one wing.

I was hardly an amateur at this—they were going to have to get more creative to capture me.

Whipping around in midair, I sank my talons deep into the metal of a fighter craft’s wing where it joined the fuselage, and, before it could zap me with its electrified skin, tore long rents right through it.

The winged fighters were protected from Drake attack with an electronic charge, but it could not be maintained permanently—and there was a full two-second delay before it engaged. The trick was to do massive damage within that timeframe .

I was good at damage.

The ship fountained vital fluids before the pilot shut them down in that wing, but its flight wobbled as the stressed metal began to warp. I spun, and dove again at it—taking a heavy zap that almost paralyzed me as I tore the rear stabilizer fin clear off to finish it.

Dragon against mechanics. It was a familiar pattern when fighting the Nirzks, and it was a more even match than it might seem—my scales were impervious to their phaser blasts, and unless I was really unintelligent and held onto the fighters, the electric charge only hurt, badly.

Our wings were vulnerable, but we knew how to twist and turn to keep them safe.

The Nirzks would have to use missiles to make a dent in me, and hitting an agile dragon was not an easy feat.

Nothing could fly like a dragon.

As the incapacitated fighter spiraled to the ground, its brethren moved in on me. I turned on a wingtip and ducked between two of them. They buzzed around me like angry insects. There were far too many. I did not stand a chance. But that was not the plan…

I had managed to maneuver them away from the logging vessel, and behind us, I sensed rather than saw a dark form launch for the clouds. There, and gone.

Fly free, my brother…

One fighter veered away to intercept. I executed a near-perfect backflip that brought me straight into its path.

It slammed into me. All my breath left in a rush of expelled air, and I caught a glimpse of the astonished Nirzk pilot before I slammed my dragon fist right through the plexsteel viewport.

He panicked and slewed the ship around, flinging me off. Still struggling to breathe, my wings faltered, and I began to fall from the sky.

I did not get far. A sticky net engulfed me from my right. I roared and yanked, pulling the fighter sideways…

But another net hit me from the left, and one from above—the fighters strung me tight between them. Although I continued to fight, I knew the altercation was over.

Brentoq had captured a dragon.

Then they sent the pulse of pure electricity through the net, and it lit me up worse than any lightning strike. Every cell screamed as I welcomed the blackness that rose to take me.