Page 101 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

“Ready?” Kase asked, settling his goggles into his hair. The familiar weight added a sense of normalcy he craved. “If you see anything that strikes you as even a little odd, speak up. We’re looking for anything suspicious and will investigate as needed.”

“What exactly qualifies as suspicious?”

“You’ll know.” He hoped. “Just trust your gut.”

He pressed his fingers to the dash and sent a thought to the hover. Invisible.

The hover beeped in response.

For a moment, Kase’s heart stopped. He’d expected it, and he’d known exactly what he was doing, but combined with the knowledge of his uncle…

Deep breaths.

Trying to quell the shaking in his hands, he gripped the steering control and refused to let his thoughts run wild. But he was beginning to think maybe the sky wouldn’t provide the relief he needed.

“Head and shoulders back against your seat,” Kase instructed. “Tighten your core.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kase smirked a little. He wasn’t a sir for anyone, but he didn’t correct him. “Then let’s fly.”

After pressing a few other buttons and flipping some switches, he raised the craft straight into the air, his stomach dropping with the sudden movement.

He clenched his core and braced himself against the gravitational forces.

He almost wished they didn’t have the windshield.

The cold air would’ve been nice on his skin.

It would’ve distracted him even further from the revelations of the last hour.

But he also would’ve ended up eating at least a dozen insects. He didn’t need a distraction that badly.

He slowed the craft, and the forces pressing against him abated. He clicked a few buttons to stabilize the pressure in the cockpit. Any other maneuvers he did in the air, the craft should combat it, a countermeasure that Jaydian hovers lacked.

This one was a test for the greenie. Kase peeked over at him, hoping he hadn’t passed out.

Instead of finding a slumped form or a green face, he found the boy absolutely beaming.

Kase couldn’t help the smile crossing his own face. He knew that joy.

“Wow,” Hixon gasped as they rose at a more stable rate.

The city shrunk with each yard they climbed until Kase leveled them out at about a mile or so above the capital.

He pushed the craft forward. He’d do loops around the city, fanning outward and then back before doing a few lower-altitude sweeps above the trees and ruined buildings.

The familiar cold swept through his chest. He quickly retrieved the blanket from where he’d stashed it and set it behind his back.

Warmth pulsed from where it touched, and he settled back.

His theory about the blankets containing whatever made the hover run seemed to be mostly correct.

Now that he knew the machine used his own Soul to power itself, so many things made more sense.

The question was, had the Cerls created the blankets because of what happened with his uncle? Or had Ezekiel already known about it?

Anderson still hadn’t awoken even with the blanket’s help.

Clearly having an Essence power and then losing it was too much for even Cerl technology to help.

That made him feel worse, because it’d been one of his ideas for keeping Hallie alive if she went through with her plan.

It’d worked on Niels for now, but his injury hadn’t been because he’d lost some otherworldly power.

A red button flashed at Kase, and he hurriedly directed his thoughts toward his flight. Thinking of the stupid stars-ridiculous mountain man only made Kase jealous, even if he knew Hallie was his. He couldn’t help it.

Kase turned the craft southward, toward Crystalfell.

He pointed to a display on the dash and said, “With the standard hovers, you’ll need to keep your eye on the fuel gauge as they tend to eat it up quickly, which is why a fresh refuel before takeoff is vital.

” He pointed to the specific gauge that would’ve held the electrical input in a standard hover.

This one was as blue as the sky, and now Kase knew why.

He shook off his unease. “The larger, more advanced models rely more on electricity to power them in addition to what’s needed to activate the hover capacities.

Either way, keeping the gauge in the middle of your dash will allow you to maximize your flight and reserve enough fuel and energy in case of a firefight. ”

Hixon just nodded, his eyes still wide. A kernel of warmth—not from the blanket—skittered through his chest. There was just something about the sky that made everything more magical, and watching the greenie experience it for the first time was gratifying.

Kase explained a few more basic principles and tricks he’d learned over the years as they flew. With each passing mile of serene sky and rolling pasture or town cluster below, Hixon’s shoulders relaxed. It reminded Kase of his first time in the sky. The day his world finally made sense.

For a moment, it was nice to pretend that the rest of the world and its problems didn’t exist, and the only things that mattered were the clouds above and the ground below.

“I never dreamed it would be this beautiful,” Hixon said, leaning to the right to inspect the village below.

They’d finished their outer circles and began their return to the city in lazy circuits. The ruined capital was just visible over the horizon. Nothing of note had happened. No Cerl hovers. No dragon. No Skibs.

That was all a relief, for certain, but something in Kase’s gut told him it wasn’t reliable. The hovers could’ve been invisible like his own. There might’ve been something he missed. But he wouldn’t worry about it just yet.

Hixon settled back into his seat, his fingers on the weapons trigger, ready to attack as needed. Kase could see why he’d been chosen to enter the Crews. The lad was intelligent and determined. He just needed to find his wings.

The words his father had slung at him the night of the induction ritual rang in his ears.

They put him with you for a reason, even if you just earned your jacket.

Yet the boy hadn’t been given the chance because of the bike accident…until now. He wouldn’t be able to work the accelerator or the foot controls. Not until he was fully healed, if ever.

Kase adjusted the blanket behind him. Could he do something with this hover? Would the hover allow the greenie to fly it if Kase still powered it with his own soul?

He tapped the side panel with his fingers and thought it to the craft. A trio of soft, happy beeps responded.

They sounded happy to his ear, at least.

Kase should have been more disturbed than he was, but he just smiled. “Hey greenie—want to fly?”

Hixon’s mouth dropped open and he pointed to his legs. “What? I can’t—I only know the basics and what’s in the manual. I’m not—”

Kase let go of his controls. “Good luck, greenie. Better not crash us!”

The color drained out of the boy’s face as the craft dropped a foot and listed to the right. He yanked his controls, and the hover responded with a few flashing lights. “Sir! I cannot do this !”

Kase reached over and grabbed his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Trust me. You steer. I’ll control the speed. Got it?”

“I most definitely do not have it.”

The craft stabilized under Kase’s thought and the greenie’s trembling hands. “You had the highest written examination score in history—even better than me—but the best way to learn is through doing, and you have what it takes. Just breathe and feel .”

“Feel what ?”

“I already told you—follow your instincts. You know what to do.” He pointed to the dash, then to the horizon.

“Don’t worry about the fuel and the cabin pressure gauges.

We’ll add that next time. For today, you just keep us at a steady altitude.

” He tapped the greenie’s steering control.

“Do a few loops around the city…and have fun.”

The boy’s hands strangled the controls. “But what if we crash?”

“We won’t.”

“What if Cerls show up?”

“Then we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

“But—”

Kase patted the greenie’s head. “Let’s fly, Pilot Hixon.”

It was slow going at first, and Kase had to realign them in the sky a few times with the hover’s help. But the closer they got to the capital, the less the greenie’s hand shook. A smile even crept back across his face.

An hour or two later, Kase made him land the hover in a clearing just outside the hangar entrance. “Told you it’s the best.”

Hixon’s face shone with sweat in the sunset light, but he grinned and looked over at Kase. “I never realized…” He took a few steadying breaths. “I never realized just how exhilarating that would be.”

Still a lot of words, but fewer than before. Kase would take his wins where he could. “Welcome to the club.”

They took off once more, and Kase guided the hover back into the hangar. After fumbling a little bit getting the greenie down from the cockpit, Kase finished off the post-flight checks with Hixon in tow, talking his ear off.

He didn’t stop all the way to the rations station.

Oddly, Kase found he didn’t mind. And when he returned to his tent that night, he found a small, wrapped package lay on his cot.

Inside was a Zuprium dagger tucked inside an ornate red leather sheath embroidered with a sword mounted inside a stone, Arthurian-style.

Under the dagger lay a small strip of parchment.

I never got to thank you for saving my life that night. Please accept this gift as my thanks. I’ve heard you are an avid reader, and I thought this would fit. Thank you.

Trainee Pilot Laurence Andrew Hixon

Kase could help the burning in his eyes, and despite the tempest of emotions and revelations of the day, he went to sleep feeling a little lighter.