Chapter 21
Levant
Everything happened so fast that we didn’t have time to linger in the afterglow of sex.
I didn’t get to think about what Felicia had said, and how close I’d felt to her in that moment.
It was just a mad scramble to figure out our course of action.
We’d both leaped to the same conclusion right away, and it meant it couldn’t be good.
The Burrower had left, perhaps because it had sensed what we couldn’t yet, and if it reached Felicia’s ship before we could, it might destroy it.
“You can take my flyer,” Kaylass said. He came out from between two tents and looked surprisingly disheveled.
Smelling like Abseal, that made sense, but I’d never heard of Kaylass unwinding for anything.
He was also far more amicable than his reputation and our earlier interactions implied he was capable of.
He clasped my shoulder to halt us and nodded very seriously in the direction of his tent.
“You need to head back to the Pole right away, I assume? My flyer will be faster than a dragon, and its wings won’t ice over. ”
The flyer Kaylass had arrived in when he’d been assigned to Serqethos in my place was hidden in the dunes, in the same spot where I usually kept mine.
Kaylass was not a hoarder like I was, though, and his vessel was small, barely capable of carrying two travelers.
It would be a tight fit, but he was right: it was the fastest way back to my camp and Felicia’s ship.
We had to get there, because so much light in the sky that it appeared to be day couldn’t be good.
“Thank you, yes, we need to get back as soon as possible,” I said.
My head twisted to look around, already running lists of what we’d quickly need for the journey.
A flyer was better than asking Arakash to take us on his dragon, Salais.
That could still take two to three days; the flyer would take us there in a couple of hours, perhaps half a day.
Behind me, Felicia had bent her head closer to the older Shaman to answer his questions about what the light could be, but I was making lists.
It was Zsandex who arrived to help. He must have returned with more dragons and warriors while my mate and I had been occupied.
“What do you need? We’ll bring it,” he said simply.
Since his fall from grace last year, he’d adopted a new attitude and slowly begun working his way back into Alshara’s good graces.
He’d lost the bitter edge, the burning anger that had sustained him through the tough years right after the outcast raid twenty years ago. He was almost pleasant these days.
I rattled off my list as quickly as possible, and he had already sent two runners to fetch the first half before I’d finished talking.
They met us at the edge of camp with the warm clothes needed for the icy temperatures at the pole, a tent, a heater, and rations.
It was going to be the bare minimum we needed to be safe in the extreme conditions there, but I hoped we wouldn’t need to stay long.
Better yet, if my camp was intact, everything we needed and more would be there.
Merish also greeted us, her expression worried and grim, and Auby subdued.
She handed the small Revenant to my mate.
“He was a gem. Best party buddy ever. Good luck, come back in one piece, all of you.” Auby was quiet as he cuddled up with Felicia and we said our goodbyes, neither confirming nor denying what Merish had said.
He still looked ragged and worn, and now I worried that I hadn’t managed to fix him entirely.
Kaylass led us into the desert, the others knowing without being told that this was not a journey they could accompany us on.
I called the Shaman Council as we covered the distance from the Serqethos oasis to the place where the flyer was hidden.
This was also where I normally had my tent set up, so it was a path I was familiar with.
I was struck by a pang of longing to go home, fetch my tent, and set it up here, where it belonged.
The Shaman Council was too far away to experience the light turning the night into day, but they confirmed they saw a glow on the horizon.
“The EM field is in terrible flux, more powerful than I’ve ever seen it,” Chen warned me.
“Fly low, Levant. Very low. I am also getting reports of quakes in the northern hemisphere, dozens of them, along with volcanic activity in the Acheray range.” That was bad, because those volcanoes were supposed to be dormant.
If they erupted, their ash cloud would be devastating as it blanketed the world.
Felicia could only sit in my lap inside Kaylass’s flyer, and he had hauled several satchels and crates from the vehicle to make it lighter.
It was obvious Kaylass had not even bothered to unpack, but he was careless about tossing his belongings into the sand now.
“Go,” he said simply, and he pressed the control to close the transparent canopy over our heads.
I did not wait, but aimed the flyer’s nose for the North Pole, and raised it just enough to skim over the next sanddune.
“This is a Stinger model 735,” Auby said from inside the safety of Felicia’s arms. He lifted his pink nose just enough for me to see it wrinkle in distaste.
“This model is not suited to flying in icy conditions for long, Levant. Are you certain about this? We would be more comfortable in a Stinger model 965.” He uncurled enough to peer at the dashboard of the vehicle and huffed when he discovered the altimeter had a red mark at six hundred feet and a glaring warning label next to it.
“Do you see a 965 here?” I asked. “We have to take what we can get, Auby. This is after the apocalypse, we’re pretty limited in our resources, I’m afraid, and this is an emergency.
” He settled back down, but I could see how his eyes kept darting distrustfully at the various controls and sensors, like he thought we were going to crash at any moment. “Don’t worry. I’m a capable pilot.”
That made Felicia laugh, but she did not tell me otherwise.
My mate was a pilot too, and probably a much better one than I was.
She had not commented about wanting to fly herself, though, but for lack of anything better to do, I began familiarizing her with the controls anyway, explaining each switch and dial, and the meaning of each reading.
That’s how the hours passed, and the world blurred by.
Morning came, though we kept flying toward darkness for a long time.
We’d crossed the desert, then flown over forests and other Clans whose territories I was forced to avoid so they would not see us.
Then came mountains I had to carefully find low passes through so our altitude did not rise too much.
It wasn’t going fast enough, and time sped by all the same.
Felicia seemed lost in thought when I’d run out of things to explain about the flyer.
Her head pressed against my shoulder, her hand petting Auby, and her eyes taking in the rapidly changing terrain.
We saw evidence of the quakes in landslides and toppled trees, then crevices and cracks in the ice when we reached the icecap.
My heart thudded in my chest as my worry increased.
Whatever was happening, we could see the light even in the day, burning like a star ahead of us.
Serant, normally shaded violet by its purple-hued sun, looked wrong because of the bright whiteness coming from ahead of us.
I had to dim the canopy glass to protect our eyes.
That the planet was in turmoil was obvious, and it appeared to be getting worse the farther north we went.
It had to be Felicia’s ship, but what had changed? Why was it doing this?
It was late morning when I brought the flyer in for a rough landing near the site of her ship, by the winch hanging over the hole the Burrower had dug.
I saw no sign of the massive machine, but given that we’d taken several days to reach Serqethos, that made sense.
We had probably passed it, if it was even headed here.
Snow had piled high on the icy plateau, but it was actually calm outside now.
We awkwardly dressed ourselves inside the cramped space of the flyer, my handheld scanner blaring alarms the whole time.
I felt grim, a darkness settling over me like a shroud, as we climbed from the machine and onto the ice.
This was the moment of truth, this was when Felicia was going to have to make the choice to leave or to stay.
My choice was already made; I’d go wherever she went, but I ached thinking about it.
“The ice won’t be safe down there, but we’re going to have to risk it,” my mate said as she peered over the edge of the massive hole.
It had been dark before, but that was not the case now.
We were blinded by the light that emanated from it, but the true source came in a beam straight through the ice a little farther away.
Neither of us had to guess to know that her ship was directly below it.
“Yes,” I agreed grimly. “We’re fairly limited in our options.
Do you think you can shut that down?” I pointed at the light show up ahead, my nictitating membranes protectively drawn over my eyes.
Felicia did not have such a protective feature, and she wisely did not even look at the brightness; she kept her eyes on the toes of her boots.
“We won’t know until I try,” she answered.
We stepped to the winch, which had survived the Burrower crashing by, though it had fallen over and been partially buried by snow.
I set to work getting it operational again with quick fingers, while my mate checked coil after coil of rope for integrity.
There was no sign of the savage Naga from before, and the council had also not informed us of another Shaman already having been sent here.
It was just the three of us, an eerie silence, and a complete lack of icy wind.
“Uh, guys,” Auby suddenly said. His eyes might have flashed blue then, but the bright light beaming from the ship masked it.
“We’re about to have company, and they’re just as unhappy to see us now as they were last time.
” I swore under my breath as I searched the snow for any sign of the lost Naga Clan, my scales fluttering beneath the furs in unease and my tail twitching over the ice.
The surge of aggression that began to boil in my veins briefly alarmed me, but then it swept me away on a tide of fury.
Those savages—if they thought to threaten my mate—I’d teach them a lesson they would never forget.
I’d tear them to shreds with my bare hands, rip out their throats with my fangs, and bathe in their blood.
They came from the snow, as if they’d slumbered there to await our return, or slipped through it somehow, hidden until they could snap their trap closed around us.
I saw white and pale blue scales, shards of ice and hair sheathed in snow.
Their furious grimaces were contorted by the same anger I felt burning in my veins.
I fought for control of that terrible rage that had a hold of me now, vaguely aware it wasn’t natural.
I needed to protect Felicia, not battle against a force with overwhelming numbers.
The winch crunched beneath my claws as I slammed it back into the ice and secured its anchors as quickly as I could.
“I don’t think a knife is going to do much good here,” Felicia agreed, and without being told what to do, she secured the ropes back in place and checked the pulley system, even though I’d already done that.
“Cover your ears, Levant. Auby, do that screech.” I barely had time to obey the order, but it was a good idea.
I clamped my hands over my ears and watched Felicia do the same.
It only muffled some of the terrible sonic assault the little Revenant released, but it was enough to prevent me from getting disoriented like last time.
I felt a surge of guilt that I had protected myself instead of my mate, but she was fine.
Perhaps I did not need to be quite as protective as I’d made myself think I needed to be.
Felicia was a very capable female; she had already secured the winch harness to herself and was turning to do the same to me.
I began to assist, but that’s when chaos erupted.
The fire that burned in my veins couldn’t be controlled when the savage Naga leaped at us, snarling with foam frothing at their mouths.
They weren’t just angry we’d interrupted their ritual; they were like wild beasts, and in answer, a wild beast erupted in me.
A haze descended over my eyes, and all I could see were the faces, the claws, the threat.
Fight. I needed to fight. I needed to protect.