Rooks pressed her lips together as she avoided a smile.
The Volanter opened their same old wormhole, which the Iruedian mages and her navigators could now detect as a semi-permanent structure. It seemed the more times the Volanter used the same wormhole, the stronger and more predictable it got.
Rooks found the notion disturbing but convenient – at least for the moment. She liked to know their vector of attack, and despite the new wormhole’s stabilization, it still differed from the natural wormhole. That was tethered by more than magic.
The Volanter started to stream through their wormhole. Sparks and pops of light hid the incoming ships. The light show flickered on, and some Volanter ships started to come through, looking like cheese popped through with holes.
Surprised and appreciative sounds came from below, where her crew worked. Rooks smiled. The show was everything they could have hoped for.
The Volanter ships began their invasion damaged, and if they stuck around, they would discover that their ships were not only shot through with holes, they were also slowly decaying. The effect would widen the holes, even if it didn’t creep over the whole ship. Some of the delayed spell effects would even call other spells to the Volanter ships, making them behave like giant magnets.
“I don’t think they’ll stay,” said Ivo, Alban’s favorite Scaldin leader.
“That’s fine by us. Maybe, this trap system can effectively deter them,” another voice said, over the com.
“No,” Alban called. “They’ll just open new wormholes one by one till Iruedim is confined to its planet, and we have to waste resources to reset thousands of traps every day.”
“That’s the worst that could happen,” Rooks agreed.
She didn’t think the Volanter had that many ships. After all, the Volanter complained of slow reproduction. It was one of the reasons they involved the Iruedians and Scaldin in their research, as well as other children of the Volanter, which unfortunately included Rooks to some degree.
Rooks believed that at some point the Volanter would run out of people. They would go into hiding to rebuild their numbers. That was when the Iruedians and Scaldin would win and would get on with their lives.
The Volanter ships eased back through the traps. Some took additional hits from traps that had not been sprung, and more flashes of light lit the view.
“They’re leaving,” Rooks said. “I almost don’t believe it. Maybe, setting traps at their entry will be a viable strategy after all. They seem to like that spot for their wormhole.”
Tentative sounds of celebration and happy voices drifted up from down below. Those voices stopped abruptly when the sensors beeped.
“Another wormhole is opening. This one is on the other side of our would-be system.” A gasp followed. “Near the natural wormhole.”
“Damn. How stable is it?” Rooks asked.
“Fluctuating, but they’re sneaking ships through.”
“Let’s split our ships. Vanguard, let’s go to their aid. The ten remaining ships stay here.”
Poor Alban and his Ischyros, not to mention the little treasure of arcanes they ferried. The four larger ships with the Ischyros were not going to be able to defend the wormhole on their own.
Pan sailed on her familiar’s back. She smoothed the dark fur and pet her dragon. She felt like it was not the time for a fight, and she swore her dragon flew slower. They seemed to drift lazily in the direction of Rooks’ main fleet and the wormhole that the Volanter slowly etched into existence.
Is that how they made the natural one in the first place?
It was a paranoid thought, worthy of a top-notch conspiracy theorist, but when it came to the Volanter and their engineering, Pan would discount nothing, until an authority did.
Firelight burst across the Volanter wormhole. The Iruedian traps set off. Blast after blast made colors of white, yellow, orange, red, and some blue. It was a beautiful display, more so because the Volanter were inside.
“Pan,” Sotir called. “Turn around, right now.”
Pan twisted her head, trying to look back at the Ischyros. She could see nothing but space and distant galaxies, until her dragon turned. It streamed, working its way over Iruedim and back towards the five peaceful Scaldin vessels that hovered before the wormhole, including her home ship – the Ischyros.
“Why am I coming back?” Pan asked.
“They won’t use that wormhole. They’ll retreat. They’re opening another one, and unfortunately, they chose the option near us. Hurry.”
Pan’s dragon tucked its wings, and they sped like an arrow, straight and fast, faster than her dragon had ever gone.
To her right and ahead, Pan saw another wormhole open. “Oh no.”
The wormhole fluttered and jittered, but a few ships popped through. They continued to chance the travel, and Pan thought her conspiracy theory regarding the Volanter and the natural wormhole might be true. Iruedim’s wormhole might be a side effect of magic; a circle so great, it had become woven into the universe.
Pan looked to the Volanter ships and saw other familiar riders. They and their beasts flew a path to the wormhole and the Ischyros, trailing faint magical sparks. The Ischyros and its allies opened fire on those riders but left Pan a nice window to sneak through, sans fire. Her dragon twirled into it, keeping a fast pace.
The Volanter riders swerved and ducked and soon fell behind. Among them, trotted Gladiolus’ wide-eyed beast.
“It’s such a stupid looking thing. Is that what Gladiolus is like on the inside?” Pan spoke into the small echoey space, created by her dragon’s scales. “Imagine having to ride it. Imagine taking pride in it.” She shook her head.
The dragon snorted, and though Pan didn’t hear it. She felt it.
“He’s a Volanter to be pitied.” Or, envied.
Pan’s dragon flapped its wings once, spread them, and landed on the hull of the Ischyros.
“I’ve made it back to you,” Pan called. “You better have closed the shades.”
Her dragon puffed up the scale space and allowed her to sit tall, astride its back.
Pan surveyed the battle space. The Ischyros hid behind all the other ships, with its rear directly against the wormhole.
Pan glanced at the wormhole. “Are you going to flee?”
“Not yet,” Alban answered. “We can’t just have them follow us, and Rooks’ ships will soon put pressure on them. How about you help?”
Pan knew just the thing. She conjured seven portals. She would have liked to make more, but three of her original castings winked out, countered. She nudged the portals, focusing on the rings and keeping them steady. The portals caught every one of the riders. It spit some into friendly fire; it spit others into not so friendly fire. A few got lucky and merely lost ground.
Pan eyed the Volanter ships. They sailed toward Iruedim and towards the isolated defenders at the wormhole.
Still a ways off, Rooks’ fleet, padded out by the Scaldin, rushed to meet the intruders.
One Volanter vessel advanced, looming larger and more aggressive than the others. Pan flashed her telekinetic circle and pulled the nose, giving it a twist and spin. The circle faded quick, hiding from potential counters by simply not existing anymore. Pan’s circle was gone, but she’d put the aggressive Volanter ship in motion. The nose careened forward and turned as it struggled to stop. The whole ship pulled lengthwise into the fray. Scaldin fire raked its flank, and several Volanter ships had to stop shooting.
A Volanter arcane somewhere tried to do the same to one of Pan’s little flock. She saw the circle flicker around the lead Scaldin’s nose. Pan countered it.
If she had her way, the Volanter would give up the single rings that they once deemed not good enough. They’d leave them all for her, and she thought she just might convince them, as she thwarted all their efforts with the deceptively simple spells.
The aggressive Volanter ship fired its thrusters and started to ease back into line. Pan cast another quick telekinetic circle on a smaller Volanter ship. This one met a counter, but Pan had another such circle waiting in the back of her mind, and she cast it on yet a third ship. No counter spoiled her plans. The third ship careened into the smaller ship that had saved itself.
Small lights scattered across the hulls, but the damage seemed minimal as the ships maneuvered back into line.
“I like having you close by,” a Scaldin commander said. “We shouldn’t send her deep into the formation. This is fun to watch.”
Pan scowled. She didn’t know the man.
Alban answered, “I like it better when she thins out the ranks, and we get a nice surprise finish. But, this way’s good too. Pan, do you think you might destroy one or two of these ships?”
Pan studied the battlefield, feeling like most things were a bit out of reach. “I’m not too sure…” Pan saw Gladiolus feet away from the nose of the foremost Scaldin ship. “Oh no you don’t.”
Pan stuck a portal circle ahead of him. He countered it, but he didn’t counter the telekinetic circle she placed around her own ship. The Scaldin vessel shot forward, and Gladiolus got side swiped. The collision sent his furry beast spinning. Its eyes grew wide, and it brayed silently into space.
Beneath her legs, Pan felt her dragon heave with laughter. She laughed too.
“It’s so stupid,” she said.
“What are you doing?” Alban called.
“Have to deal with Gladiolus,” Pan answered.
She startled as little spots of movement popped over the Ischyros’ hull. Hatches swung open on sturdy hinges. Young men and women, even more middle-aged men and women, climbed out. They wore space suits and got ready to meet boarders. Pan checked the surfaces of other Scaldin ships and saw the same.
She let her gaze roam over the battlefield.
To the side, Pan saw Rooks’ vessels coming into reach. Some Volanter vessels turned to greet them. Pan could just stretch that far. She cast a large but weak telekinetic circle. She gave it a quick spin and let it loose. So far afield, no one thought to look for or counter it. The four ships caught in its large, but weak, sway spun. Some got under control sooner than others, causing small collisions, and of course, Rooks’ ships took advantage of the confusion, not just with ship fire but also magic circles.
A magic firefight broke out, with magical summons wandering the space between the lights and rings. The forms of space faring dragons, birds, and feline beasts charged, looking slow from so far.
Pan brought her gaze back from afar. She spotted her closer opponents, the riders, and noted that they began spells of their own. She countered three single-ringed spells, knocking out the whole ring. She stopped the flow of one rotating circle by killing the runes that hovered to the side. Still, the result of magic was incoming.
Pan cast her shield as a dish and set it ahead of the wormhole guard, to protect the five Scaldin ships. She slid it across the battlefield to catch the magical effects in a slow sweep. Some magic fizzled through and impacted the Scaldin hulls. One blew a hole inside a vessel, and Pan saw an ice shaper plug the hole with whatever moisture he or she had on hand.
One of the familiar riders got through, and Pan’s heart seemed to stop. She watched the rider land on a nearby Scaldin vessel and face off against telekinetic, fire starter, and ice shaper. Pan cast a quick portal in front of the Volanter rider and sent the combatant into a blaze of fire.
She tore her attention away from that fight. She could meddle in other arcane’s affairs and affect the battle on a small scale, or she could shorten the bigger battle.
“I’m going to get off the Ischyros and go out there,” Pan called to Alban and Sotir. “Is that alright.”
“Stay close-ish,” Sotir said.
“Alright.” Pan laid on her familiar.
The dragon compressed its scale cage and streamlined its back, though it shouldn’t matter in space. The dragon pushed off the Ischyros and sailed Pan towards the foremost Volanter vessels.
Gladiolus’ beast galloped up, back into the battle, and Pan’s dragon side-swiped him again. Pan could almost believe it was an accident. She laughed.
“Aria, now is a good time for this. We need to do more than defend ourselves.” Sotir gestured to the com device that they’d borrowed from Rooks.
Aria frowned at it. It held the auras of the Iruedian mages who fiddled with its magic, in shades of deep blue, gleeful red, and a confusing yellow-orange. The magic ring, with glowing white runes, was the only thing she saw with any clarity, and it showed damage. Aria deduced that the screen had to be inside the circle the runes created. She saw nothing but aural color on it. She saw the same where the console must be.
Aria shook her head. “I can’t read the words. I can’t even tell where to put my hand.”
Sotir tried to grab her hand and guide it to the right place.
Aria pulled her hand away. “Why don’t you do it?”
Sotir’s aura showed a hint of orange and red, but the colors died. “Volanter healers are usually women. Look, Aria. It won’t be hard. All you have to do is think of Carex. I know for a fact he has access to one of these and stays near it during the battle. You call him and ask for help. You don’t need to read the words. You should hear them in your head.”
Aria met Sotir’s eyes. She could just see them through the blur. He stared, with expectation. His aura reached for hers, but she wasn’t sure she had much of an aura for him to touch.
“Alright. What are the exact instructions?” Aria lowered her gaze and waited.
Sotir tapped her arm. He gestured at the view, though he should have known she couldn’t see it. “Carex’s ship is one of the big ones, in the front. He’s not with the Bacchan because he’s not truly one of them. Keep that in mind – if it should come up. Now, we want his ship to break away and reveal the smaller vessels behind. You are going to say that you’re a healer. You have infiltrators on your ship. They’ve taken over the bridge and will pretend to remain on the Volanter’s side, until the right moment. Claim to be in the flagship - Chida, in the vanguard. Carex will order his ship to fire on the center vessel, or he will try to put himself between the big ship and the rest of the fleet.” Sotir paused, and his aura tickled where Aria’s colors should be. “Does that make sense?”
Aria nodded. “Yes. I’ve got it. Put my hand on the pad.”
Sotir obliged, and Aria felt slick material beneath her fingers.
Carex?
A moment passed.
Who is this?
Healer…from flagship – Chida. There are Iruedians aboard. They’ve taken the bridge and pretend to be on our side, but only for now. Aria felt sick as she delivered the message, sick and like she might get caught at any moment.
What? Carex’s voice rang in Aria’s head. Get away from the com console and keep your head down. We’ll take care of it.
Please hurry, Aria added.
She pulled her hand from the com console and shook her head. “I don’t think he bought it.”
“No, he did,” Sotir said. “You hear his voice – his tone. In that, you can hear his intentions, correct?”
Aria nodded.
“Well, he hears the same from you, and we both know you hit the mark.”
Aria thought she should be offended. Sotir might have some idea of why she fled Scaldigir, but it didn’t matter.
A firm hand clapped Aria on the shoulder. She startled. Alban’s aura of blue and red fogged at her side. His red was one of bright joy, a strange development for him.
“They’re turning. Looks like they’re going to put themselves between the flagship and the rest of their fleet. Good job,” Alban said.
Sotir’s aura glowed its congratulations.
Aria just nodded.
“By the way…” Sotir said to Alban. “You might want to call Rooks and let her know that they have enough ships to begin a secondary attack through their original wormhole. They may try to switch back soon.”
Aria thought it was a very useful thing to say.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“We’ve got to defend our damn wormhole,” Meladee complained. She helped to fly Benham’s Mountaineer, easing into the battle, dark and slow.
Benham worked his side of the controls. “Alright, let me take over completely. You get ready to drop your Ul’thetos under one of these guys.”
“If only we could close the wormhole. Look at how many of them are coming through that.” Meladee pointed to the fluttering wormhole.
Volanter ships still managed to pop through, taking advantage of the moments the wormhole stabilized.
“I wonder if they’re losing any.”
“I don’t know,” Benham said.
Meladee felt as if an idea bulb floated above her head. She felt her eyes go wide. “I’ve got a good target. Let’s drop my Ul’thetos right ahead of their new wormhole.”
Benham nodded slow. “Yeah. I like that. I hope they don’t counter it, or notice us.”
“Well, I don’t have Pan’s range, so you’ll have to get a lot closer.” Meladee waved him forward. “Scoot scoot.”
“I can’t go too fast, or they’ll see us.”
Mountaineer seemed to drift as if ready to park, but it was far from where it should park. The seconds ticked by, and Meladee saw the circle in her mind over and over. She practiced it, without letting it be free in the real world.
“Dammit,” Benham said. “Why is that Volanter ship turning? It can’t have seen us, right?”
“I hope not. Look, just go quick. We’ll get it over with. Then, we’ll run away and hide.”
Benham eased the Mountaineer through space and skirted behind the Ischyros. Alban didn’t call them, but his ship did inch forward.
Meladee smirked. She could just see the flickering wormhole, the one that belonged to the Volanter. It popped in and out a few lightyears askance from Iruedim’s beloved wormhole. Volanter ships continued to slide out, making it hard for the Mountaineer to get any closer. She figured she had it as good as Benham could get.
Meladee pictured the circle, small and just ahead of the Volanter’s wormhole.
It lit up, and Meladee tried to keep the cast fast. She was not as fast as one of the Scaldin bound or even Pan, who had spent significant time bound. Binding seemed to have its advantages, though it limited one’s repertoire for quite some time.
Meladee would rather be free if a bit slower.
She finished the spell and watched as her Ul’thetos streamed out of the tiny circle. The Ul’thetos spread over the wormhole, like a net. It stretched tentacles and just barely touched all sides. Volanter ships blundered in and tried to power through the tentacles. Three twisted in Ul’thetos’ limbs. A fourth lay under the mouth of Ul’thetos, unable to advance. That vessel sat half in the wormhole. It tried to push its way out. Then, it began to back up. The wormhole winked out, and in a flash of light, the trapped ships exploded.
Meladee jumped. “So, that’s what happens if you’re half in when it shifts. Damn. No wonder Eva was so worried about it.”
“This is a little different. Their wormhole didn’t shift. It just ceased to exist.” Benham worked the controls, and the Mountaineer retreated.
Their ship hid between the Ischyros’ rear and Iruedim’s wormhole.
Meladee asked. “So, where to next?”
“We could go back to the Fauchard and talk about our next target from there. Or, we can stay here and hide with the Ischyros. Got the wormhole right there.” Benham gestured to the port side of their ship. “I know how you like to flee.”
Meladee bopped his arm. He dodged and smiled.
Their com fizzled, and Rooks’ voice came over. “Meladee. Great work. I’ve got another job for you. Set a trap spell on their old wormhole. I don’t want them to come through there and catch Iruedim with a ten-ship guard.”
“Acknowledged,” Benham called back. “Guess we’ve got our next target.”
“They gave up on that old one.” Meladee shrugged. “But, we’ll trap it.”
They backed up more, and then, Benham turned the Mountaineer and zipped for the other wormhole.
“I am a warrior!” Wheelian shouted into the cockpit.
Eva let him say whatever he wanted. She would have preferred to leave Wheelian and Spring Peeper home, but when she brought Tiny Tin and Ferrou along, she knew she would have to bring the toys.
Eva and Sten had commandeered a Lurrien ship under repairs. The final repairs were cosmetic, and the ship could fly. The crew needed sleep, however, so Sten and Eva thought they’d take it out.
Sten worked the flight controls. Tiny Tin and Ferrou worked Engineering, and Eva worked the weapons. Spring Peeper and Wheelian played.
“This is a good shape, highly maneuverable. The pencil ship is probably one we should mark as a model for new ship design,” Sten said.
“They all have their advantages.” Eva watched her targeting computer and fired on enemy riders.
She watched as two riders converged on an injured one. Eva had the impression that their fleet did not kill a whole lot of Volanter. The Volanter tended to grab even their wounded ships and tow them away. They recovered their wounded riders as well, leaving as little for the Iruedians to scavenge as possible.
She couldn’t believe that she ever considered a truly intact computer a possibility.
Eva shot the rescuers as they converged on their wounded. She watched them disappear from her screen, now too small for her ship’s sensors to recognize. That was three Volanter that wouldn’t make it home.
“I’m going to skim the surface of a Volanter vessel. Wheelian, Spring Peeper, get to your posts,” Sten said.
Spring Peeper hopped next to a trigger button. He began to hop up and down, feeling his rhythm. He hopped beside that trigger button and focused his eyes upon it, ready to jump on the button itself as soon as Sten gave the order.
Wheelian pulled himself into a seat from the floor below. He grasped the trigger and aiming stick in his faux-gloved hands. All his eight fingers held tight, and his long, wiggly arms held a stiff pose.
“Here we go. Ready. Fire.” Sten brought the ship into a dive and pulled up quickly, skating across the top of the Volanter ship as promised.
Eva hit the trigger over and over. She twisted her stick and strafed her fire, moving from enemy canon to canon. She hit other suspicious outcroppings and even blew a hatch wide.
Beside her, Wheelian worked his trigger as well, and behind, Eva heard the squeak of Spring Peeper as he jumped up and down on the simple trigger button, releasing missile after missile.
“Enough little Peeper. Let’s save some of our missiles for the next ship,” Sten said.
Eva and Wheelian continued, until Sten pulled the ship away from the surface of the Volanter vessel.
Sten flew up, leveled off, and zipped above their victim. “Very nice. Shall we go again?”
“No,” Eva said. “Let’s harass another. Rooks can clean up this one.”
Or, it would get away, like so many other injured Volanter.
As Sten left the ship behind, Eva’s optimistic prediction came true. The Ranseur hovered over the injured Volanter and began to take it to pieces.
Rooks gripped the rail. “That’s a big invitation. Nice job, Sotir.”
The ship that supposedly belonged to Carex tried to protect the rest of the fleet from the flagship. Rooks thought the whole formation looked confused, especially the steadfast flagship that did not, in fact, have an intruder.
“Attack the smaller ships. Let’s take advantage,” Rooks ordered. “How long before they figure it out?”
Sotir’s voice came over the com. “A little bit of time. All they have to do is talk to each other. They should be able to feel the impression of each other’s minds and recognize one other.”
Rooks bit her lower lip. “Well, alright. Then, let’s take out the flank. Give Carex something to beat himself up about.”
Rooks tightened her grip and felt blood drain from her fingers. The Lurriens rushed into that exposed flank and hammered the ships, with firelight and spells. The Ranseur continued a foray along the edge, and its mages worked their magic.
“Inez…can you put something behind Carex’s ship?” Rooks glanced over to find Inez finishing a spell.
Inez blinked fast. “Sure. What do you have in mind?”
Rooks gestured aimlessly. “Maybe a small anomaly. I want him to have no chance to get back into position.”
Inez nodded. “Like a tiny wormhole. You’ve got it. Though, I can’t just slap that anywhere. All of space isn’t the perfect candidate.”
“Do what you can.”
Inez’s eyes glazed over as she focused on that point in space.
Rooks watched too, and it occurred to her that all of space was not welcoming to a wormhole. It would be to their advantage if even less of their space fit the profile. Rooks drummed her fingers on the rail and thought.
“Pan, we need you back here. Trouble’s coming.” Sotir’s voice spoke low in her ear.
“I’m coming back.” Pan didn’t need to tell her dragon to turn.
The familiar already turned, leaving a Volanter ship without power to move. Pan had destroyed the thrusters one by one. She’d crippled two ships just like it before.
Now, she laid low atop her dragon and stared at the Ischyros. The braying, four-legged beast of Galdiolus rose into view ahead.
“I see the trouble. It’s our good friend Gladiolus.”
“Yes…Gladiolus,” Sotir agreed.
“He’s a Volanter. Decided to tell me his name. He’s probably coming to capture arcanes. Speaking of which, have we lost any?”
“Dead – yes. Captured – no.”
The words brought back images of her old hospice ship, where the maladies took no prisoners. She wanted to ask how many they’d lost and if she knew any of them. Pan didn’t bother.
She thought she might kill Gladiolus and make some Volanter sad. There hadn’t been enough killing of Volanter for her tastes.
Gladiolus landed on the back of the Ischyros. His Eidos trotted and pulled back into a standstill. Then, it raised its scaled cage, and Gladiolus sat tall astride his beast. A telekinetic and runner faced off against him. The runner headed Gladiolus’ way and dodged spells. Gladiolus’ circle rotated, and duplicates of one rune hovered on the edges. He swapped that same rune in, over and over. He was casting the numbness spell. The final move hit the runner and stopped her in her tracks. She started to float off the ship, but the telekinetic pulled her back.
They were totally outmatched.
Pan’s dragon landed hard on the hull, and the vibrations startled Gladiolus’ beast. It whipped its head, with those wide comical eyes. Gladiolus looked Pan’s way too.
“It’s a piece of prey,” Pan said. “Feel free to have some lunch.”
Pan’s dragon charged. It ran in a wave motion and dodged the first three of Gladiolus’ circles. Pan didn’t see what they were. It didn’t matter if they never hit their mark.
She thought she might try some choreography of her own. She imagined her shield circle and set it spinning. It was a dizzying feeling, trying to keep the spell coherent while it was in motion. The shield led their charge, and the spinning circle caught two more of Gladiolus’ spells. They splashed off the shield, and Gladiolus stared.
“Huh.” Pan watched the man’s face as she drew closer. “I think he wants a trick.”
She conjured the runes needed for a change and swapped them out quick. Her shield changed to a portal and swallowed Gladiolus.
She hadn’t had time to send him far. He’d gone a few meters at most. It was her first rotating circle after all.
Gladiolus’ beast kicked through the air, almost into the wormhole that would send the pair to Scaldigir.
Pan raised herself on her elbows and watched. Relief flooded her body as Gladiolus decided not to enter the wormhole. Instead, his Eidos trotted through space, back to her. The look on Gladiolus’ face was one she’d seen on Sotir’s. It was pride; perhaps, hunger.
“Hmmm,” Pan said.
The dragon slunk behind a firing canon and watched Gladiolus too.
Gladiolus landed on the hull of the Ischyros again. His Eidos clipped over to the canon, staying at its back. The canon fired in the wrong direction, and Gladiolus made himself comfortable. His beast gave him room to sit tall, and he spread his torso to its full height.
“Have you been practicing?” he asked.
Pan’s dragon gave her a little room to sit higher. She stretched her arms and locked her elbows, propping herself up. She remained hunched, as her dragon kept the ceiling low. “No, that was my first. I can’t really claim to know what I’m doing.”
“It has impressed me.”
The praise flowed through Pan like a tonic, and a small instinct urged her to please him again.
She scowled. “I’m good at picking up new skills.” And, it was true. It was what a reaper did best.
“I think when I capture you, I will request you for myself.”
Pan’s desire to please him evaporated, and she felt red, certainly not gold.
“I am spoken for,” Pan called back. She cast a telekinetic circle.
It caught Gladiolus and threw him aside, out to space. Pan cast a portal circle, ready to catch Gladiolus again. His shield popped up fast. It was a dish in his path, and his beast rebounded off it, to land back on the hull. Gladiolus launched into a choreographed round.
Pan countered one rune and knocked out the spell.
“Show me this man, and I will make him relinquish you.”
Part of Pan wanted to show off Sotir, thinking that Sotir could certainly keep her. She viewed Sotir as a powerful being. His manipulative streak and his ability to mold Pan’s plans shaped that view. She considered her lover manly enough to take on Gladiolus, though no one on Scaldigir agreed.
The wise part of Pan knew that Sotir could not face Gladiolus in a fight. Sotir would lose.
“Where is he? In this ship?” Gladiolus pointed, with long fingers, to the hull below. “You always return here.”
Pan could not leave Gladiolus to frolic atop the Ischyros. He would try to kill her Sotir and maybe grant Aria’s wish for death in the process. Or, maybe he would save Aria for one of his buddies. Of Aria and Pan, Aria always had the more striking features.
Pan conjured a shield beneath Gladiolus. He stared at it a moment. It remained flat and shimmered. Then, a second before she released it into space, Gladiolus’ eyes went wide. Pan’s shield popped up, creating a bubble. Gladiolus and his beast popped up too and shot upwards into space.
Pan’s dragon pushed off the hull and soared to meet them. It shrank its enclosure, and Pan laid flat, griping her familiar’s fur.
Gladiolus began his choreography. He limited himself to the spells that would capture her. He wanted her alive, but nothing would stop him from cracking the Ischyros wide-open.
“My friend is in there,” Pan called. “Another woman. One I can’t live without.”
Gladiolus’ circle flashed, a haze sprinkled over his body, and a new rune entered his circle, keeping it spinning. Gladiolus zipped fast towards Pan.
Her dragon scrambled, reaching for purchase it could not find in space. It just dodged Gladiolus’ beast.
“A friend? I see,” Gladiolus called, as he blew past.
His second spell set off below and popped a bubble around Pan’s dragon.
She gasped. “A trap.”
Her dragon scraped at the bubble’s surface, with all four claws. It roared, audible in the small space. The squeaks from the claws made Pan grimace. She conjured a portal and pulled it up. They fell free some distance above the Ischyros.
Pan searched for Gladiolus and saw the fire starter and telekinetic headed his way, after having dealt with some other Volanter intruder.
Pan waved a hand and shook her head with vigor. The other arcanes paused.
Gladiolus got off his third spell. It flashed, and Pan could not tell its purpose. He zipped past her, and his Eidos grabbed her dragon’s tail. Pan’s dragon tried to fly away, but she and the dragon got dragged backwards. Pan realized what had happened as soon as her dragon didn’t struggle free. Numbness had them. At least, the numbness spell touched her dragon.
She cast three healing circles, one after the other. One pushed motion back into her dragon’s limbs. The dragon strained against their captors, pulling on and snapping its tail free. Pan’s dragon whirled to face them, claws leading.
“Just stay off that ship,” Pan shouted.
“For your friend’s sake or your man’s?”
Pan’s dragon struggled to grip Gladiolus’ beast. Its weak claws barely seemed to puncture the Eidos’ thick fur. Pan conjured a portal above them. She pulled it over their heads and took she, her dragon, the Eidos, and Gladiolus away from the Ischyros and her most beloved Scaldin.
They emerged far from the ship she loved.
The Eidos brayed in silence, and Pan’s dragon pushed it away, into some waiting ship fire. Gladiolus and Pan broke apart in the center of the battle, with friendly fire from one side and enemy fire from the other. Which side was friendly depended on the point of view. Pan’s point of view marked those on the left as friendly.
Her dragon swerved and avoided the shots. Strength returned to its weakened limbs. Gladiolus’ beast dodged, fat and furry and scrambling. But, it accomplished each move.
“Come and get me,” Pan called to him.
Gladiolus turned her way. He’d heard. He wore a smile on his thin Volanter mouth.
Pan looked up, and she knew her dragon looked there too. The dragon stretched into a long thing line, and Pan got low on its back. They sped straight for a hole in the underside of a Volanter vessel.
The dragon tucked its wings and they shot through. The hole extended through several decks, and Pan watched those floors race by. She plopped the shatter circle on a deck she passed. The circle ringed the hole they moved through and, an instant later, flashed. The deck broke into shards, and Gladiolus’ beast passed through them with wide panicked eyes.
That thing… Pan shook her head. She wondered what kind of animal Sotir would conjure for a familiar. Probably something just as cute.
Pan’s dragon popped out into a hall and started down it. Ahead, Pan saw the doors to Engineering.
Her eyes grew wide, and she smiled.
Her dragon crashed against the door and stuck its clawed fingers into the crease. Slowly, it pried the doors apart.
The vacuum from the hall pulled on the air inside. The dragon pushed the doors to Engineering open wide enough that Volanter could fit through, and fit through they did. One Volanter engineer rushed past, taken by the vacuum. Pan’s dragon lifted its tail to let the poor Volanter meet their fate.
But, the man didn’t. Gladiolus, who followed behind, rescued the man.
Another engineer blew close and grabbed the door with all his tentacles. Pan let him be. Gladiolus could save that man too, if he wanted.
Pan’s familiar flapped its strong wings and streamed between Engineering’s heavy doors.
Pan got a good look at Engineering and thought about how all the Volanter Engineering decks looked the same. The spiraling engine waited at the center, with colorful gas in the coiled tube. Consoles ringed the engine, and a handful of outcroppings offered perches up high. She almost felt she’d seen them all.
Pan’s dragon ripped the Engineering column lose and threw it on a Volanter mid-cast.
“Let’s do that again,” Pan said.
She conjured a portal. The runes glowed and fizzled weakly. On the other side, Pan could just see another Engineering deck. She didn’t think they should go through, given the weak imagery. Her familiar thought otherwise. It charged into the hole, and Pan glimpsed Gladiolus, just as she disappeared through the portal.
She had no idea what ship they were on. Her familiar couldn’t have known. She cared enough to find out, but the dragon gave her no time to determine their whereabouts. It just ripped the Engineering column lose again.
But, the new ship had a better crop of mages, and Pan watched as they tried to knit the column back into place. Another mage threw a flame of fire her way. Her dragon dodged it, and Pan caught it in a portal. She sent it on to the mage fixing the column. Then, she drew a portal to a new Engineering deck.
Again, her dragon slipped through. The view on the other side was hazy as a dream, but Pan was right – they all looked the same. And, that was why the Scaldin made no two ships the same.
The dragon plastered its claws to the Engineering column and started to tug. The column was bigger than those in the other ships, and the dragon could not get it lose.
“Dodge!” Pan called.
The dragon leapt free and a spell narrowly missed the column. The spell was caught and dispelled by another Volanter. These mages were careful not to damage their own ship. Pan caught the next spell on a shield of hers. It bounced off and again got dispelled.
Light polluted the soft glow of the Volanter ship, throwing rays and starbursts into a room that needed calm.
Pan conjured her telekinetic ring, hiding some of its runes over uneven surfaces - consoles and floor. She could just visualize the symbols and knew if she hardly knew what she was doing; the Volanter couldn’t. The ring set off its telekinetic influence. Pan shifted the Volanter engineers, spinning them in a circle. Their tentacles snaked and drifted and gripped nothing but air. Still, the Volanter rode the wave, and when they landed, just switched the consoles they worked at.
Pan’s dragon dodged the next set of spells, and she caught one in a portal. All were dispelled before they hit the walls or the column.
Pan growled. “Just get out.”
The dragon rushed for the wall, climbed to the ceiling, and ripped open a vent. They slipped inside, and Pan found it a tight squeeze as her dragon compressed its back scales low enough to hold her head down.
“What are you doing?”
The dragon snaked down the vents, and soon, Pan knew where they were.
Colored gas swirled outside her little space, and she started to breath hard.
The engine column was big enough to inhabit, but Pan wanted out. She could just see the glass on the other side of the dragon’s protective scales. She conjured a telekinetic ring and pushed. The glass gave and shot away, along with some of the gas. But, her dragon didn’t take the exit.
Pan made another hole and then another. She counted her fifth. It spurted a geyser of colored gas, taking some of the color from her view. Her dragon gripped the edge of the hole and pulled. They burst free and flew over Engineering. The dragon aimed for the vents and left the ruined column at its rear.
Pan’s heart beat fast. She was glad to be out of the engine. As she and her dragon flew above, she looked below. Volanter lay unconscious on the deck. Shards of glass peppered the floor and consoles. Colored gas plumed, thinning as it grew farther from the source – the broken engine.
Her view of the shattered room disappeared, and the dragon once again entered the vent. This time, it headed out.
Pan and the dragon burst out the side of the vessel and flew clear.
Pan could see the row of ships she’d destroyed. They were a cloud of color, smoke, and shrapnel.
Her dragon gave her a little more room to breathe, and she put a hand to her forehead. She had taken out one of the largest Volanter vessels, as well as two that were large enough. The ruined ships blocked the attacks of their comrades, and the Scaldin vessels, along with the Iruedians surged into that place.
A fair distance away, Pan saw the Ischyros unharmed. One of the Scaldin vessels beside it spewed smoke. It looked lost, but the other three showed only pockmarks and other spots of damage. Though, pockmarks at Pan’s distance were probably quite a bit larger.
Pan didn’t know where Gladiolus was. She’d left him behind when she chose to move between Engineering decks. She headed back to the Ischyros just in case he moved there. Pan glanced back at the three Volanter ships she’d destroyed.
Wonder if he still likes me.
Rooks counted thirty-five invaders. Others had tried to come through, but they’d been caught in Meladee’s Ul’thetos trap – technically traps. The first Ul’thetos blocked the new wormhole. Then, when that Ul’thetos inevitably died, Meladee conjured a new one over the Volanter’s old wormhole. That put a stop to the second front.
Summons were not a Volanter invention. That much seemed clear because they seemed baffled with what to do about the animals that cluttered their fighting space and kept them from entering the battle at all.
Rooks began to count the Volanter casualties. At least seven ships perished under Ul’thetos’ tentacles. Another three just exploded mysteriously, though Alban reported the work as Pan’s. Rooks’ side of the battle wore away at and destroyed another nine vessels, and Alban’s side killed three in addition to those destroyed by Pan.
Twenty-three.
Those ships could not be salvaged. Those ships would never fly again.
It made Rooks’ heart sing. She never expected the Volanter to lose the flagship too. When the flagship’s rear went up in color, sparks, and flame, Rook’s heart beat a little harder. She stood straight and wondered who was responsible.
Iruedim didn’t have any medals to hand out – at least none that Rooks knew of. She thought it was time she learned, or made up a few medals of her own.
Twelve Volanter ships remained, all damaged. They would be repaired, but they had lost almost twice as many as fled.
Rooks counted her casualties. They’d lost two Scaldin vessels. She still had all her main ships, but she lost fifteen of the small Lurrien vessels. She’d lost a piece of history as Camellia would say, but Rooks preferred to preserve the future over the past.
All of Rooks vessels had been damaged. All of the Scaldin vessels took damage, and they would repair slower than the Volanter.
Still, Rooks counted it a victory. The Volanter had to open a new wormhole to escape, with the dead shape of Ul’thetos blocking both their prior exits, disintegrating slowly. The Volanter had lost ships, far more than the defending Iruedians and Scaldin. Now, Rooks even knew their third choice for a wormhole location.
Rooks tapped her fingers on the rail and studied the debris patterns outside. They left us enough slag to make an artificial asteroid belt…and we might add some of our own ‘slag’ so to speak.
Inez said it was definitely possible to change some elements of the space around Iruedim and break the potential for new wormholes.