I didn’t even attempt a play for the pilot’s seat; I parked myself in the co-pilot’s chair and strapped myself in with a sense of relief that I didn’t have to go at this alone, even if Kiasis and I weren’t exactly the best of friends. “Your ship can take theirs, can’t it?” I asked, excitement finally starting to outweigh my fear, if only by a slim margin. “I mean, it did before.”
She didn’t reply. Even if she had intended to, she would have been interrupted by the sudden, furious banging on the ship’s hull that made me jump.
“Open the door.” I thought I detected a note of resignation in her voice, although I couldn’t be sure.
“About time!” Tallana all but shoved me out of her way as she barged onto the ship without so much as a greeting. “I thought for a moment you were just going to take off with me still hanging from the door handle!” She sat right down in the co-pilot’s seat—my seat—as if she owned it.
“Hey!” I protested. “I was sitting there!”
“I’m sorry, my dear, but it makes more sense for me to sit here.”
“What? How do you figure that? I was there first!”
“But I know how to operate a ship’s weapons control systems.”
“Yeah….well….I’ve done it plenty of times on simulations!” Okay, that argument sounded lame even as it left my lips. And it was a gross exaggeration, besides; my main interest in simulation games was being the pilot, not the gunner.
Tallana snorted. “Sims! I suppose you think that’s no different than real life, then. Kiasis, would you please tell the young lady to sit her royal behind down somewhere so we can take off…?”
“No.”
Tallana’s head whipped around at the calm reply, totally unruffled by our bickering. I struggled not to look smug. “You’re kidding me, of course. What is she, thirteen? Surely you don’t mean to—“
“Hey! I’m six—“
“There’s no need. They’ve already arrived.”
As I looked out the front of the ship, I could tell as I hadn’t been able before that Tengu’s ship was a good deal bigger than ours. I wasn’t sure if I was more relieved or disappointed that our confrontation would happen on the ground rather than in space this time; after all, we’d already escaped them successfully once in space.
Then again, confrontation and self defense were two different things.
Unlike Tallana and myself, Kiasis wasn’t held back by petty things like hesitation or fear. She rose from her seat and stepped out of the sip, heading straight for enemy territory. Without her robes, the black flightsuit she wore made it painfully obvious that she wasn’t carrying any kind of weapons.
“Is she out of her mind?”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Tallana sighed. “Come on, we can’t just leave her to get killed all by herself.” Sliding from her own seat, she stepped out of the craft and left me with two choices: hide in the ship like a coward, or follow them and do what I’d come to do.
Even as I climbed out of the ship, hiding was sounding better and better.
I was half expecting to be attacked as we approached, but all seemed quiet. That in itself made me uneasy; after all, why land your ship if you weren’t going to get out of it? Then the distinctive clicking of a door lock brought us all up short. Tallana let out a little “oof” as I ran into her from behind.
“Ouch! Bony thing, aren’t you? Doesn’t Puck feed you?”
“Sorry!”
“Quiet!” We both fell silent at Kiasis’ hissed command, but we needn’t have bothered. Nobody on that ship was paying us any attention; they seemed too wrapped up in their own problems.
The first to show himself was the young pilot, hands bound behind his back as he half stumbled down the ship’s ramp. He turned as he landed on solid ground to shoot a murderous glare at the elf who followed behind him.
“So…what now?” He demanded, his voice thick and shaking with emotion. “Did you bring me all the way out here to kill me? Don’t wanna leave a mess all over your nice pretty fucking ship?”
“What happened to your sister was regrettable.” It took a minute to identify the speaker as Karu. His voice was smoother than his brother’s, his stance more relaxed and laid back as he smoothed imaginary wrinkles from one sleeve. “But, sadly, she brought it on herself. Her attack on my brother was foolish; she could just as easily have been standing here with you, right now.”
My heart sank. So we were too late, then, for the poor girl whose face I’d never even seen.
“Lying bastard!” The boy screamed hoarsely, launching himself at his captor. Karu sidestepped the clumsy advance easily, and the youth went sprawling onto the ground face first.
“Coward!” He spat as Karu hauled him back to his feet. “Untie me so I can wring your neck, you frilly fucking pussy! I’ll break you in half!”
“If I were to untie you and leave you free to attack me at will,” Karu said with perfect calm, “it would be your death warrant I signed, I assure you.”
“Then perhaps you prefer an opponent whose skill is a little more evenly matched.”
My head whipped around at the voice. Somehow, as Tallana and I had watched the grim tableau that played out in front of us, Kiasis had managed to step out into the open, not ten feet from Karu and his captive. I’d taken two steps to follow her without even realizing it before Tallana’
Karu watched her in silence briefly, eyebrows arching in surprise…then his lips twitched wryly. “I’m not entirely sure the word ‘prefer’ is accurate,” He turned to face Kiasis, and by default us, in our hiding place in the shadows. There was no more fear or hesitation in his voice than there had been in Kiasis’. “But I certainly won’t turn it down.”
My breath caught in my chest as I realized he was moving his arm to draw the thin saber belted at his waist.
