Rooks had to be on Fauchard instead of keeping Alban company. She’d brought all her fleet into the battle, including a few of the Lurrien ships. The bridge of Fauchard was her post, and the countdown till the last of the Volanter attacks had two meager minutes left.
Rooks put her hands behind her back. She grabbed one wrist and tried to keep still.
According to Sotir, the battle had only two outcomes. The Volanter might slaughter and capture them, or they could slaughter the Volanter.
And, with that thought, the Volanter appeared. Sotir was right. Rooks counted forty ships in the vanguard, stacked in columns of three. Behind that group was a pod of about twenty ships. Some looked ready to fight. Some hung back, and one great ship glittered with the clouds that once surrounded their time bubble. Behind that strange ship were fifteen more vessels ready to guard the rear from the handful of Scaldin ships that still guarded the wormhole.
“This is everyone?” a bridge officer asked.
“This is everyone,” Rooks agreed. “Hard to believe, but it’s everyone. They did say that their galaxy was old. Now, I guess is the perfect time to take one of ours. Inez.”
The com chirped, and Inez, in her Lurrien vessel, acknowledged. “Yes?”
“I need you to destroy their entry point. Do your wormhole destabilization spell. We don’t want them to leave the minute they see what we have planned.”
“I’m on it.”
It was too good a chance to pass up. They couldn’t let anyone escape, though Rooks recognized that innocent, cloud-covered ship might pay a big price.
“We have the center,” Rooks called. “Concentrate all spells and gunfire there.”
“Release fighter mage pairs?”
Rooks nodded. Though, with any luck, they wouldn’t be out long. “Release the fighter mage pairs. Have them patrol the area in front of our line. They should stay close.”
“Yes, Curator.”
Meladee let Benham steer. She got ready to cast.
“I’m not going to call in to Rooks,” Benham said. “I think we’ll just join that stream of fighters.” He glanced Meladee’s way.
“Sounds good. Guess I’ll think up some new summons.” Meladee began a summoning spell.
Benham grabbed her arm. “No, Meladee, try to get your old summons.”
Meladee shook her head. “They won’t come.”
“Just try.”
Meladee sighed. She thought the dragon might come. She’d thrown it against Ul’thetos, and it never complained. Being torn to shreds by magic resistant brutes, probably wouldn’t offend the dragon enough to end their teamwork.
She imagined the dragon’s circle and placed it far ahead of their ship. It hovered in space, and Benham kept the ship steady. He gave her a smooth ride to watch her magic.
The circle flared and disappeared. In its place, the dragon stretched. Its now dark blue scales were shot through with speckled stars.
With renewed confidence, Meladee launched into her summons for the basan. She didn’t think it would come. Her hurry to summon it was from a need to get the pain over with.
The basan was a peaceful creature; one that hid from the sight of people. It was bad enough what she asked it to do most of the time, and the basan had threatened not to answer her call many times in their early relationship. She thought she’d found the last it would do.
The circle finished, and the basan came into being, with red, green, and even some blue in its feathers. The same speckling of white sprinkled to represent stars.
“What?” she muttered.
“I told you. They won’t just disappear because you sent them against the worst thing you can imagine.” Benham steered around the basan but not for long.
The basan outpaced the ship and ran through space. Starlight glittered in its feathers.
Meladee tried for the pizza warrior, and he came. She gave him a new coat of stars as well. It sparkled among his cheese.
“They look good.” Benham turned the ship and gave Meladee a view of the Volanter.
At that moment, Mountaineer fell into line with the Lurriens and Rooks’ fighters. A wall of space faring beasts led their charge. Meladee's dragon caught a small Volanter vessel. Her basan pecked at a familiar rider.
Meladee conjured her next beast: the bunny. She gave it a fur pattern covered with distant galaxies.
Pan stared out the windshield and stroked her dragon’s neck. It sat hunched and very bored on the edge of the bridge. With narrowed eyes, it too watched out the windshield. The tracking collar and com affixed to the familiar’s neck didn’t help things. Naked was how this particular familiar liked to be.
Pan’s fingers moved through its fur. “You know. I was thinking there might not be much of a place for you, after all of this.”
The dragon stiffened.
“You don’t cooperate. You hold me back. You make me remember why all those people hate reapers.” Pan caressed the dragon’s face. “And yet, I’ll miss you.”
The dragon tilted its head. Its red eyes looked more relaxed than they ever had.
“You’re the bad part of me, and I should want to erase you. There’s a spell for everything.” Pan watched the dragon.
It was calm.
“Pan!” Alban called. “If you would stop cooing in your beast’s ear, we could get you ready.” He held up the suppressant and strode to the edge of the walkway.
She and the dragon waited by the window.
Alban stopped a few steps shy of Pan. “Here.”
Pan wrapped her hand around the rather large, needleless syringe. “I believe that it could have been smaller.”
Alban shrugged. “We manufactured so much of the stuff. I think that they want to put a whole tank into the center of that circle.”
She didn’t answer him, so he walked away.
Pan held the suppressant out to the dragon. The dragon raised a reluctant claw.
“This might be the worst thing we ever do.”
The dragon took the syringe, and black claws met glass, with a tink. The dragon brought the syringe to its chest.
“They’ll pick to die. I just know it.”
The dragon started to hand the syringe back, but Pan pushed it to its chest.
“You might as well have fun because I don’t know what role there’ll be for you in peace time.”
“Alright.” Alban’s voice came from the dais. “You can send it out. Just know that we’ve got some minutes before we can arrange everything just right. Inez is saying the spell doesn’t have enough range to reach all the Volanter in their current formation.”
Sotir, who stood on the far side of the windshield walk, turned glazed eyes to Alban. “She’s right. We’ll need to get them in a sphere, tight as we can. Pen Pal came from a different time, when their numbers weren’t so large.”
Alban exhaled audibly. “Let’s strive for our best version of events, and if we don’t get it, then I want a redo.” Alban aimed that order at Pan.
She nodded once and faced her dragon. “Like I said, have some fun. All things must come to an end. When the peace comes, we’ll see how we change.”
The dragon bowed its head and held the syringe gently. Pan drew a portal to a point nearby the Ischyros’ space. The dragon might as well fly in.
The familiar jumped through the portal, clasping the all-important syringe in both front claws. All things did indeed come to an end.
It was a comfort for Pan to know that no matter how rich or poor, how successful a person was, they would die. They might leave behind children and inventions or discoveries beloved by others. But, eventually, those children strayed far from their origins, and those inventions got supplanted or twisted into something the creator would have had no part in.
And, it comforted Pan to know that whether she reached pure gold or not, she could decide to settle at good enough. She might not have a place for the darker part of her. Then again, that darker part of her might change – and the dragon with it.
Pan headed back, along the walk, for Alban’s chair. Alban and Sotir chattered about the formation, and Pan plopped into the seat, without a word. She closed her eyes, and in a moment, she was with her familiar.
She held the syringe tight and set her eyes on the battle ahead. She had a ways to go, but so did their goal to group the Volanter in a tight formation.
Pan focused on the bursts of magic and the chaotic line of beasts and riders, mixed with small ships and fighters. It looked like a carnival at night. Lights, stars, and runes.
The only thing missing was a Dipinta tree to hug when you got too giddy, or drunk. Every Scaldin knew the feeling of hugging a tree. The last time Pan did it, she was home on Scaldigir, at the seaside cottage, free of the worst nausea. Thank the Mother Tree, of course.
Pan sailed past the Scaldin’s rear guard, and suddenly, she was not alone.
Era flew in the space beside her, wearing a helmet. Era smiled a genuine smile, but Pan could not return it, with such jagged jaws.
They skimmed beneath a great Scaldin vessel, and Pan held tighter to the syringe.
Bursts of magic came into full view, and Pan saw the details of a rotating circle. The first Volanter ships loomed.
Pan dodged down, but Era shot up. Illusion engulfed the line where the two halves of the battle met. A forest sprouted there, full of Dipinta trees.
Pan squinted against a flurry of spellfire. Then, the combatants broke apart. The Iruedians and Scaldin fled in one direction, and the Volanter retreated in the other.
Pan skirted the roots of the illusion and entered the enemy side. The Volanter spread too far. Their flat formation put several ships out of the danger zone, and that would never do.
Weapons fire and spellfire resumed. The Volanter hurled from their side of the trees, and the Scaldin and Iruedians sent flaming magic and beasts from their end of the battle.
Pan flower below it all. She kept moving forward to the line of Volanter ships.
“Three of those riders are coming our way. They know we’re headed for the center, but probably, not why,” Era spoke, thanks to the com collar that trailed a line to Pan’s ear.
Pan turned her head, feeling the discomfort of the com. She frowned. The com might have been annoying, but the spells were the greater concern.
The first circle rotated. Pan narrowed her eyes against the view but snatched the circle and sent it against the bottom of the lowest row of Volanter ships. The circle’s mage tried to snatch it back, but Pan held on. Only the first effect set off. The circle dissipated after that.
The other two circles, Pan could not catch. Era caught them, or rather, she caught their effects. She telekinetically lobbed a great flaming ball back into the Volanter, and pushed a crackling pile after.
Another circle, a great rayed beast, set off fast. Pan caught it on her wing and dodged through. She felt the brief heat. The next circle spewed yet more fire. It was hot and annoying.
Pan curled her body into a ring. She put her tail to her mouth and became a portal. The fire poured into her center, and the portal released it against the glass of a Volanter bridge.
“Nasty of you,” Era said. “But, I always liked that quality of yours. They’re still coming, fortunately.”
Pan uncurled. She glanced back and snatched away two of the circles. Both dissipated before she could put them to use.
Era dodged a third and sent a sheet of ice over the caster. It bloomed with ease and caught the Volanter arcane in a frozen slab, shot through with little holes.
The Volanter woman tried to melt herself free, with a red dual-ringed circle. Era helped the process along and started a fire in all the spaces between the ice. The rider and familiar thrashed in the magical heat.
Pan didn’t see them die. She set her eyes on a rotating beauty. She reaped it and threw it into the middle of their pursuers. Two Volanter took it straight in the familiar, and then in the face. The last one dodged, coming away without a hoof.
As the hoofed familiar stared down at its missing appendage, it drifted away from its dead companions. Pan dropped a portal in its path. The rider noticed it first, from her place under the space faring shell. The familiar worked to stop its momentum.
Pan pulled the portal around them. They arrived into the last of Era’s fire.
With their pursuit dead, Pan checked the battle line. The tree illusion dissipated, and the Iruedians and Scaldin advanced, but only a short distance. They had to push the Volanter back and get them ready for the ultimate chain spell. Her friendly fleet seemed eager to do it, but strong overlayed rings fell against their shields.
Volanter riders and mages, tucked away in ships, worked the slow, powerful, overlapped circles. The Iruedian mages had been lazy and let slip too many of the spells.
Pan watched.
The line of Iruedian and Scaldin shields strengthened, glowing in rainbow shimmers. They looked like bubbles. One Iruedian shield, of epic ability, blocked an overlayed circle and reflected back some of the effect on the Volanter riders.
Satisfied at the defense, Pan did a flip and traced a path through space. She headed to the array of Volanter ships. It wasn’t as neat as she remembered.
The Volanter vanguard moved forward and spread a net above and below the ships that housed the weaker combatants. The cloud covered ship of families took the center position.
Pan sailed under the formation and watched as it sped overhead or seemed to. The whole Volanter fleet advanced. It forced the Iruedian and Scaldin ships back.
Pan looked beyond the whole fight. On the other side, Scaldin ships guarded the wormhole, still a distance away. They threw spells and drifted forward. But, as the Volanter formation widened, the wormhole guard did not follow.
Pan slowed and shot up. She aimed for the enemy’s underside.
From the bottommost ships, a flurry of riders swarmed out.
Pan stopped. Dragon tail and core bunched. Pan’s back end struggled to match the front end’s abrupt halt.
“Fly down. I’ll take care of them,” Era offered.
Pan agreed. She flew down and into a portal of her own making. It couldn’t take her through the net of warriors and up into the sweet, sweet center of the Volanter formation, but it got her to safety.
“They’ve expanded their footprint quite a bit,” Rooks spoke into the com.
Below, her officers stole glances her way, awaiting orders.
Rooks had the center, and she felt ready to move forward. The Scaldin vessels on either side were not. They took heavy damage.
Rooks called to her mages. “We need strong shields on the whole line, or we’re not going anywhere.”
The portside Scaldin flank inched up.
“Fighters go to the starboard flank and get it moving,” Ivo said over com.
Rooks watched fighters zip just below her windshield.
“It won’t matter how much we move forward,” someone over the com complained. “We need to send someone into the center beyond the battle line. With such inferior numbers, it’s the only way we can make the Volanter contract. Call Pan, Inez, or Era. One of them has to do it.”
Rooks didn’t bother to call Inez. Inez needed to be ready to cast those two chain spells. She’d set up a nice trap behind the Volanter that would kill their six primary routes of escape. Till the time came to do the special spells, Rooks wanted Inez and her team of mages to hide.
The com chatter died down. A moment later, it fizzled, with an incoming message from Alban.
“I told Pan. She and Era might be able to get into the center. They'll need time.”
Rooks stared at the view outside; then, looked down to her screens. “In the meantime, don’t fall further back. We need to prop up the center, so the Scaldin will be able to hold the line.”
Rooks stared at that advancing disc of Volanter. It could be worse. If they hadn’t brought that cloud-covered ship along, they could spread themselves out even more, making them harder to hit and rendering Pen Pal’s plan…Not harmless. But, it wouldn’t be effective.
Rooks tapped her com. “How many would be affected in the current disc?”
The com crackled. Alban answered, “Sotir estimates just about one third of the warships.”
“Any word from Pan yet?” Rooks asked.
“Not yet.”
Pan hovered far from the battle. Thanks to the familiar’s inky color, she camouflaged against the backdrop of space and watched Era.
Era worked her distraction. Pan could see it in bright flames and glittering ice. It all flickered at the bottom of the Volanter formation. But, Era failed to punch into the center. She did force the Volanter to scrunch up a touch.
Pan sighed, and her chest heaved.
“They don’t want me in here,” Era complained. “Gonna need you.”
Pan drew a portal and popped out on the edge of the disc, right at its widest, central point.
Two riders noticed her immediately. They began circles.
Pan conjured her own circle, a simple portal. She plopped it in the middle of the Volanter’s creation. She didn’t know if it would do anything, but the rider stopped his magic.
Era flew to Pan’s aide and caught the other circle’s effect on a plane of ice. The ice shattered and blew apart.
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Pan wriggled though and surged forward. She squinted her eyes, but could not find a good opening to the center of the ships. She veered right and dodged a circle.
A Volanter popped out of a portal nearby, and Pan rolled back the way she’d come.
Era’s sigh came over the com. She started a fiery, chaotic mess, on par with any Volanter creation. It met a shield that rotated into a counterattack.
Era broke contact and flew to Pan’s side. Pan growled. Close by, Era could feel the vibrations.
“I know. They frustrate me more than you did, and they’re not even hiding.”
Well, if Pan and Era couldn’t get in via a direct route, Pan would just take a shortcut. She ducked around the ship and landed on its hull. She hid in a crevice.
To her complete and utter disdain, a thread led to her. Pan growled again. Era landed at her side and buried fingers into Pan’s fur, as she squeezed close.
Pan conjured a portal. The inside showed a hazy room with a Mother Tree. Pan streamed inside, and Era followed.
Pan expected to find the room empty. She perched, like a bird, on one of the Mother Tree’s great branches. Era crouched on another.
Screams filled the space.
Pan looked down. Children and their mothers stared up at her. How could she portal her way into the center ship? It was a mistake. If Era and she hid on the very ship that needed protection, what would entice the Volanter into a tighter ball?
“This is kind of a bad idea,” Era said.
Pan huffed. She clutched the syringe.
“Let’s just get out and see if we can destroy anything in the immediate area.”
Pan nodded. She flapped her wings and leapt off the branch. No one dared move a circle against her. They cowered, and Pan found it hard to believe that none of their number had ever been a great mage. Someone’s mom had to have a spell left in her.
Era pulled a vent free and fled inside. Pan followed, finding it tight. She pulled her wings in close and with her three free claws, ran through the small space.
“I’m far enough to use my tracking. I’ll get us to the edge. Then, we can wreak some havoc.” Era’s rubber band like tracking probably felt tight so far from the edge of the Volanter formation.
Pan would follow her.
Meladee and Benham retreated. Her summons followed after. They’d encountered a spell stealer. The Volanter didn’t really practice summoning themselves, but they could enchant an animal to work for them.
Meladee hated the concept.
“We got too deep. We’re on the wrong side of the line.” Benham swerved Mountaineer back towards that wrong side, failing to cross. “Now, I don’t know if we can get back.”
“I’m getting tired but aim me at that nearby ship. The big one that’s getting a bit too far from the rest.” Meladee pointed, but she thought Benham caught her meaning.
She dispelled her dragon and basan. They puffed away in a wisp, and the Volanter rider in the business of animal theft let her be. He hurried off to steal someone else’s creations, and Meladee glimpsed a bit of his success.
Better he take someone’s phoenix than her Ul’thetos.
Meladee summoned the great monster onto the nose of her chosen ship. Ul’thetos burst out of the tiny circle.
“Like pus from a ripe zit.” Meladee leaned on the board.
“Do you have to describe it like that?”
“It’s too accurate.”
Benham watched the view as he tried to pilot home. “She won’t crush them.”
“No, but she can still do something.”
The Volanter ship jerked back and almost managed to shake Ul’thetos off. But, Ul’thetos had been one clingy beast, and her likeness worked the same. Loose tentacles waved back and plastered themselves over the ship’s hull.
The Volanter jerked back once more. She held fast and blocked the enemy’s view.
Benham turned the ship again, but Meladee glimpsed a second Ul’thetos conjure and then a third.
“You inspired someone,” Benham said.
“Yeah.” Meladee sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Just get us back. I’m too tired for more.”
Pan and Era flew free to find the Volanter formation in contraction.
“Think we can take credit for that?”
Pan shook her head. They’d take credit for what they were about to do instead. Pan conjured a portal and motioned for Era to go through. This time, she’d found an Engineering deck, and she felt certain she picked a better target.
Era popped through.
A moment later, she popped out and gave Pan a thumbs up.
Pan opened another portal. Era slipped in. Pan stayed out, and with her portal in tow, she roved the battle. She wanted to remain in secrecy while Era destroyed a column or two. She just had to keep the portal open and give Era easy access to the outside, though her magic’s light might give her away.
Pan’s portal winked out. That was fast. She stopped and searched the dark.
The feline rider, the man whose spells she reaped with such success over Iruedim, rode tall before her. His scale cage gave him the space to spread his broad form. A shield glowed golden around him and his familiar. The familiar also struck a pose of majesty. It held its head high and pointed its rounded feline ears to the stars above.
“I am Lamic. You know me as a victim of your spell stealing, but you should also know me as the uncle of Gladiolus.”
Pan’s mouth dropped open and showed jagged teeth. You don’t say?
“I know you have taken him prisoner, and I will not stand for it. I see you watch through your familiar’s eyes. That’s a shame because I would have you for my prisoner. Instead, I will settle for the permanent death of your familiar. It is through your familiar that you have reeked such havoc on our people. The beast is of the kind that can’t be allowed. The other Volanter will understand.” Lamic bent low to his cat. The scale cage contracted around him. “I should let you know that the death of your familiar will be quite a loss to yourself. But so be it. Mother Tree, forgive me.”
The cat charged, and just ahead of Lamic’s golden shield, a ring spun.
Pan, stuck on the idea of her familiar’s permanent death, dodged into a portal. She didn’t go far. She couldn’t leave the battle. Pan held the syringe close to her body and wondered if Lamic had noticed her three-legged movements and the syringe.
Lamic’s spell fired rainbowed balls that arced through space and headed for Pan, despite her dodge.
Pan felt her eyes widen. As the balls tracked her, she waved a clawed hand over her portal and set it to a different part of space. She floated before the portal and waited. The balls got closer, and she performed a flip, slithering from in front of her portal to a point behind. She also changed the portal’s exit. The balls sailed in and lobbed into a nearby Volanter vessel.
The impact point imploded.
“You snake!” Lamic cried.
Pan couldn’t help it. She laughed.
“The things that you do against other Volanter. They’re heinous.”
A new spell formed ahead of Lamic, three rings strong. It rotated, and rainbow colors shimmered over the runes.
Pan watched.
The first effect shot free. It was a shimmering net, and again, it tracked Pan. She swerved, and the net sailed past. She didn’t stay to watch. She knew it turned and came back around. Pan flew straight and fast and continued to lead the net. She glanced back and saw that it gained centimeter by centimeter. It moved through space just a little faster than she did.
While she fled, she thought through her available spells. A shield would keep her safe from the net, but the net would just capture her, shield and all. As soon as the shield winked out, Pan would struggle in the glittering net, and Lamic would kill the familiar.
Time message might serve, but things weren’t quite so bad yet. Flames wouldn’t deter a spell designed to take her familiar from her, nor would telekinesis. Come to think of it, why was there a spell to remove someone’s familiar? Pan thought back to the first Volanter she met – the one that called her aberrant. It seemed there were others like her: reapers, spell stealers, mages out of line. She wasn’t aberrant; she was natural.
Now, that didn’t give her a pass to murder and reap as she pleased. But, on the other hand, she needn’t expunge everything that made her Pan.
So deep in her thoughts, Pan almost forgot the net. She glanced back. It sailed so close.
What could she do but shatter it against something that wasn’t her?
Pan had her portals and not much else. She looked ahead and startled to see another three of the rainbow balls.
She had seconds before she found herself caught in both directions.
Pan curled into a ring and, again, became a portal. The net scraped her fur as it sailed inside. The balls popped in and didn’t touch any part of Pan.
An explosion followed. Its echo uncurled Pan, and she tumbled end over end. Above, the true explosion rocked a Volanter vessel. Pan shook her muzzle and wriggled, till she found her up and down.
Another set of the rainbow balls, ready to blow her familiar somewhere to the great beyond, headed her way.
Pan growled. She checked the formation above. Her friendly fleet pushed the Volanter tighter, but they still weren’t tight enough. She had some time to kill, and during that time, she would do anything but let Lamic kill her.
Pan flew up. Again, riders streamed from the bottom of the ships. The rainbow balls followed still some distance from Pan.
“Watch out!” Lamic called.
Pan headed straight for a rider. His familiar aimed a glowing spear her way. She extended her unoccupied claw and pretended she would grab it.
At the moment spear and claw should meet, she swerved. The spear scraped her flank, but Pan got clear. A flash of light chased Pan, signifying a collision. Space dimmed, and she looked down. She still had two balls on her tail. The third was gone. Below, a Volanter man suffocated in a puff of glittering flakes.
Pan couldn’t help him. Lamic should stop and think about the heinous acts he did against other Volanter.
Pan streamed up and dodged the other riders. She yanked a spell from one and sent it into the other, leaving the target numb.
With her way clear enough, Pan tucked her wings tight, held the syringe close, and aimed for the center ship. She had a good idea to make her way through the Volanter defenses. It was bold, but her situation called for bold, like never before.
Pan saw a crack in the Volanter formation’s lower shields. Just behind that crack, she conjured a portal on the hull. The portal didn’t lead anywhere in particular. It just provided a vague destination, known as in. Essentially, it was a portal to nowhere; its only purpose to negate the matter between her and her goal.
Unfortunately, hulls were thick, and Pan’s portal couldn’t find her a way to the living space inside. Pan pushed the portal ahead, and it moved through the hull. Still, Pan didn’t see her path. Instead, she saw the interior workings of the hull, and she could never fit among those things.
Make it stronger. Make it bigger.
She widened the portal, and it grew large enough to let a river of fighters through. But, it just had to admit Pan. She put more power into it, and the portal deepened. Finally, light streamed out. It showed her a way.
Pan shot up and into the ship. She saw the thick hull that she flew through, all crisscrossed with pipes, wires, and supports.
Pan popped into a hall and dropped the portal. She did a quick turn and flew horizontal. A Volanter woman dodged out of Pan’s path and took one of the rainbow balls to the chest.
Apparently, Lamic’s spell had been fast enough to keep up. At least, one of the balls kept pace.
In the tight hall, Pan couldn’t glance back but a reflection in shining metal showed her the woman on her knees. It also showed Pan Lamic in pursuit, as well as the third ball.
Pan conjured a portal above and slipped into it. The floors were thinner than the hull, and her portal showed an easy passage. But, that also meant she had little time to conjure the next portal.
Pan popped up to the next floor. She didn’t veer horizontal. She just aimed for the ceiling, conjured another portal to nowhere, and slipped inside. She did that through all the floors. The living deck cruised by, in whip fast views. Pan kept those portals coming, until dirt fell through the next. Pan closed her eyes against it and exploded into the garden room.
Pan shook soil from her face and aimed for the Mother Tree. The rainbow ball threatened to take her tail, but she snaked out of its grasp and shot into the branches. The ball couldn’t push leaves and limbs aside and collided with the Mother Tree.
As Pan popped out the canopy, the ball burst below and made some light that could penetrate the Mother Tree’s thick leaves.
Pan conjured a new portal and set it on the ceiling. She headed up again, and the floors moved by quick. She’d lost the last of her pursuit, but Lamic could just make more, assuming he kept up.
A moment later, Pan flew free of the ship. She snaked to the next. She still had two more vessels to go, till she reached the clouded civilians.
She aimed for the bottom of the next ship. No crack in the defenses gave her an opening, so she pushed her portal through the shield. The shield sparked. Explosions erupted at the portal’s edge, until a hole opened in the shield’s magic. Finally, the portal met hull.
A handful of Volanter fell through and died. It might have been more than a handful. Pan sailed by them and didn’t study even one enemy in detail. Her immediate success meant she had to hold the deep portal open longer. She felt the strain, and she struggled to do it. The claw that held the syringe shook, and she tightened her weakened grip.
Pan flew into the portal, not knowing if it would hold. At least, she had plenty of time to set the next portal, and she did. She popped it on the ceiling above, and nearly let go of the whole arrangement. The syringe shook, and she held it in both claws. Her portal began to shrink, but Pan made it through.
She let the old portal die and slipped into the new. Decks whizzed by, and the placement of each portal felt effortless. Relief flooded her limbs, but a smidgen of weakness still tempered her double grip on the syringe.
Floor to ceiling, over and over, the pattern repeated. Pan shot through her portals and drew them again and again.
This time she didn’t pause at the Mother Tree. She shook the dirt from her face and fur and headed up, unaware of whether Lamic set a new set of familiar killers against her.
The final portal appeared, and Pan saw space. Again, she broke into the open and flew for the next ship. It would be the last before the civilians, but Pan worried she couldn’t do the maneuver again. The wide deep portals sapped her energy. Pan stared ahead. She saw a weakness in the shield; it shimmered and fluttered. She would try one more time.
“Where have you been?” Era flew at Pan’s side.
Pan glanced askance.
“Are you coming through the ships?” In Pan’s peripheral view, Era smiled. “Wow. Let’s do another. Take me with you.” Era set a hand against Pan’s furred back and gripped.
New energy seemed to flow into Pan. She was going to show off and for Era.
Pan waited, till they got close. Then, she conjured the large portal. She slapped it through the shield and met little resistance.
No Volanter fell through the hole, possibly evacuated from the lower deck. It sent a flood of relief through Pan.
“I will see the end of you, stealer of spells!” A burst of light overtook them. Then, it receded. Some spell of Lamic’s had missed.
Pan didn’t look down. She had a series of portals to conjure.
However, Era checked on the action below. “Something’s chasing us! Three balls of…weirdly colored light.”
Pan slipped into her large portal. A cross-section of pipes and wires surrounded her. She conjured the next portal on the edge of the first. She flew at a slant to reach it, prolonging her time in the hull. She knew it gave the balls some ground and used her strength, but she had a new plan.
Pan’s claws began to shake again, but she made it through. The floors whizzed by. Era cheered, and Pan set each new portal slightly askance. She wasn’t going through the center of the ship. She wanted to pass through the bridge.
Pan’s com fizzed. She heard an officer’s voice. “We’ve lost three from starboard flank and two from portside. I don’t see how we can press them into a tight ball. We just don’t have the numbers.”
“We’re losing.” Era still clung to Pan’s back. “And, those balls are gaining. What are you doing? We’ve got to get out there and destroy more ships, or the Volanter won’t contract.”
Pan ignored Era. She was about to destroy some ships. Better yet, she was about to destroy the people who manned the ships. She conjured the last portal and saw the soft light of the bridge. They flew into it and around in a tight circle. Era held fast but squealed as she almost lost her grip. One of the rainbow balls burst in the space. It collided with the Captain and a handful of crew.
Pan portaled out the windshield’s top. She smiled. In her sights, she had the civilian ship.
Era hugged Pan’s back with both arms. “Only one ball left. What do they do? Those Volanter weren’t hurt at all.”
Pan begged to differ. She thought those Volanter might have a distinct lack of drive and determination.
Pan didn’t plan to portal through the civilian ship. She couldn’t. Her claws no longer shook, but her grip on the syringe required two hands to remain steady.
She reached the clouded ship and skated its underside. Vapors slid through her fur and felt cool on her face. The final ball copied her motion, too far behind to be caught in a crash against the hull. It had plenty of time to twist and track. Good. That wasn’t where Pan wanted it.
She rounded the edge of the ship and skated over the top hull. She aimed for the only window that didn’t show paint. The ball aimed for Pan and gained as it shimmered on her trail.
Era curled her legs around Pan’s back. “It’s going to catch us.” She bunched into a tight ball, just behind Pan’s head.
Pan conjured a portal, dived into the bridge, and flew a circuit. The final rainbow ball collided with every member of the small, close-fit crew. Pan dodged out the portal and left them all shells of who they used to be.
It wasn’t a gold thing to do, but it wasn’t red either. It just was.
Rooks leaned over her console and watched the screen. Green dots showed her fleet; red represented the enemy. In nice neat terms, she examined the battle.
Her central zone did well. Her people held back the Volanter. That line of the enemy vanguard didn’t move. Unfortunately, neither could Rooks’ central line. Otherwise, she would pull ahead of the fleet and end up surrounded by the enemy. She had to wait for the Scaldin flanks to get their attack together.
The shields on both flanks grew stronger, and they held their line. But, they couldn’t yet advance.
Green dots set against red; all trapped in a gridlock.
Rooks glanced up from her screen. She walked to the rail and viewed the mess outside. Spellfire, small ships, and clouds of destroyed familiars littered the space. Half those things didn’t register to Rooks’ computer.
Along the Volanter’s forward defense, vessels exploded, but every time a Volanter died, another slipped in to fill the vanguard.
Rooks squeezed the rail.
This time, the Scaldin sustained losses too. Five fairly large ships had gone, and Ivo was injured, which certainly hindered their efforts.
“Put me through to everyone under our command.” Rooks waited for the officer to comply. Then, she spun away from the rail and returned to her console. “Large vessels fall back. Match our flanks. Smaller vessels - We’re going to use an old spell. One we learned from the Volanter, in fact. Shatter. Piggyback it on an Ul’thetos and see if you can slip it behind the lines.” Rooks spotted a crack in the Volanter’s shields. She tapped out the coordinates. “Here. First mage to accomplish it, gets a medal.”
“You hear that?” Meladee asked.
“Yeah. So, we’re not going to try to sneak home?” Benham turned to face Meladee.
Meladee gestured all around. “We can’t. The Volanter are everywhere. How do you propose to get away?”
“I don’t.”
“Well, my Ul’thetos isn’t in play anymore. Let’s stick it in the crack.”
Benham turned Mountaineer. The coordinates blinked on screen, and Meladee saw that they matched with a hole in the Volanter shields.
Other ships streamed for the hole, and Meladee worried that the Volanter would see the onslaught and close the gap.
Mountaineer came out ahead. Meladee concentrated on that hole. She had Ul’thetos in mind.
Volanter riders tried to deter them, but other fighters took care of the riders. Benham kept them on track. Just before they ran into the Volanter shield, he turned Mountaineer’s nose up and passed by the slowly closing shield gap. Meladee lobbed her Ul’thetos inside. As Ul’thetos squeezed into the space, releasing from the tight circle, Meladee set the shatter spell on Ul’thetos back. It exploded. The Volanter ships took the damage, though not as much as before. Ul’thetos popped into bits and made a nice block against eyes and sensors.
Mountaineer turned, and Meladee got a final look at the gap. She watched as other mages lobbed their Ul’thetos into the hole. Pops and shocks rocked the Volanter fleet. One ship fell down, pushed into a dive beneath the battle. It was gone. The hole widened.
The rest of the Volanter ships contracted and filled the gap.
“Medal to Meladee,” Rooks said to herself. “Maybe, I should give a medal to all of them.” Rooks counted twelve Ul’thetos that slipped into the crack.
A bloated mess of flesh and bloody particulates clouded the Volanter’s center view. Rooks’ ships fired on the center of the vanguard. To Rooks’ surprise, a Volanter ship fell below the battle. It shattered. Then, her people broke through the Volanter’s forward shield. Another ship exploded and followed its comrade down.
Nothing waited behind the ships, except more broken vessels.
“Someone’s been busy,” Ivo called. He sounded a bit subdued, but he was back in command. Hopefully, not at the expense of his health or life.
A few more shots and spells showed Rooks a path to the Volanter’s center. She felt her eyes widen. Her crew cheered, and those cheers were echoed on other ships. They came over the com, however, briefly.
Orders soon overpowered the joy.
The Volanter began to contract, and things were finally looking like they should.
“You are a monster,” Lamic said.
Era still clung to Pan’s neck. Pan and Era exchanged a glance.
“Is he talking to you or me?” Era asked.
Pan took one clawed hand from the syringe and touched her chest.
Ships burst, and Pan’s gaze darted to the destruction.
“I worked while you played with this guy.” Era jabbed a thumb in Lamic’s direction.
Lamic beheld the damage. Devastation settled on his face.
Pan nodded. It was good. She glanced around. It seemed the ships were a little bit closer.
A ship on the Volanter’s vanguard exploded, and a sporadic spray of Scaldin fire lanced inside. The Volanter pulled tight.
A second ship exploded, followed by a third. Iruedian fighters dodged inside and aimed for the remaining weak ships. The Volanter tightened again.
“This is it!” Inez’s voice came over the come. Come up top. Pan. Era.”
A fourth ship exploded, and Pan and Era exchanged a final look. Era gestured up, and Pan flew that way. She dodged through the vessels, which barely seemed to notice her passage. No riders came, as they all headed for the vanguard. Even Lamic disappeared, as he scrambled to bolster his people’s defenses.
The topmost vessel sank towards them, and Pan struggled to dodge around it. She skimmed the surface, and her claws scraped the hull. She held the syringe in both hands, close to her chest.
“We should have just gone through,” Era laughed.
As Pan came around the ship’s edge, she beheld two great circles, each twelve rings strong. Both swirled, like spirals, and Pan could see that the rings ran in one great loop. One circle showed its center, occupied by a little version of another spell. The second circle presented Pan with an empty center.
Pan didn’t see the source of the circles. Inez and her little ship hid, and that was a good plan. The Volanter couldn’t stop the magic if they couldn’t find the caster.
Era broke free and stayed behind. She took up a guard position. Pan flew on.
She reached the chain circle’s face and hovered before it. With care, Pan placed the needleless syringe inside. It remained plugged by a cap, and all of the magic suppressant sloshed in the glass tube, not a drop lost. The magic of the chain circle would take the suppressant out and into the Volanter.
No one gave Pan further instruction, but she knew what to do.
Dispel. That was the answer. Pan took a step back from her dragon. She felt separate and a bit nauseous.
Come home. She willed it to dispel, and it did.
Rooks held her breath.
Alban was on the com for her, but he was hiding so far away that Rooks could barely hear his message. She assumed that he’d gotten through to the rest of the fleet as other commanders ordered a steady line.
The call to tighten the Volanter continued. Fauchard was doing just that. Every mage; every ship; every person pressed the attack.
Rooks thought that they could press a little harder. The spells that glowed atop the Volanter formation sparked and blazed.
Rooks’ had already shaded her ship, and she watched the whole thing through a dimmed view. One great spiral fired; then, the other. Volanter magic ceased.
Some Iruedian and Scaldin vessels hightailed their way back to the line. The Volanter froze.
Ivo’s voice came through the com, loud and clear. “By now, you will have noticed that your magic is gone. Your enchantments are dormant. You are helpless. Now, I don’t see any way around it. We have to destroy a lot of you. Choose the ships that you want to live. No more than six.”
Rooks stiffened. She knew it had to be this way, but the Volanter certainly had a hard choice.
No answer came from the Volanter.
Then, the cloud covered ship exploded. Rooks put a hand over her mouth, surprised to see the sacrifice. A couple of ships drifted away from the bunch. The rest held their ground. The Scaldin opened fire.
Rooks had to order the same. “Those seven ships that are moving away, leave be. Open fire on everything else.”
Pan sat in Alban’s seat. She had a little cup of soda and some crackers. Nausea rolled over her, from her head to her hips. Every time she closed her eyes, space zoomed in her sight. When she opened her eyes, she still felt motion. Doctors declared her and baby fine, under the caveat that someone carry her off the bridge. Pan was okay with that, but first she had to eat a little. She bit a corner from a cracker. Crumbs scattered in her lap and fell in Sotir’s hair. He laid on her thighs and slept. She pet his hair and brushed the crumbs away.
In the background, an officer listed the losses.
The Scaldin lost some. Rooks got to keep her remaining five, and that seemed fair, given that she had so few. Only five of the Volanter vessels made it out. Seven had shown promise, but two self-destructed at the last minute. They deemed the Iruedians and the Scaldin too scary to become their captors. Odd given that they used to feel so akin to Pan’s people.
“Did you hear?” Aria leaned over the side of the chair. She steadied herself on the frame. “Genista’s people were the ones in the five ships that survived. They didn’t have that aura reader, Silene with them. She died.” Aria bowed her head.
“I’m sorry, but if it makes you feel better, in a few months, you’ll have less in common.” Pan stroked Sotir’s hair. He continued to sleep.
“Uh…do you have the energy for unbinding me?” Irini sidled close. “Or, should it be tomorrow?”
Pan shook her head. “Not today. I’ll botch even a test after that fight.”
Irini exhaled. “Alright. I can wait till you’re ready. Even if it takes a few days.” She turned and stared out the view at the destruction that littered Scaldigir’s solar system. “I wish I could have done more. I’m so tired of following this thread.”
“Is it because of what happened to Eva?” Aria asked.
Irini nodded.
Aria touched Irini’s arm. “Nothing you could have done would have changed that. A few years ago, I made a big mistake in misreading Pan. Pan spent years helpless against spirits. You got the circle you got, and you had to live with that. Now, it’ll be just be a short while longer.”
Irini smiled. “Maybe for you too.”
“I might wait till I know it won’t affect my daughter.” Aria hung her head.
If Aria opted to wait, Pan would test the circle a hundred times and makes sure she had it just right.
Irini sighed. “I guess I’ll still be expected to do it. Read the thread. Even after I’m unbound. That’ll be okay.”
“It’ll come to you easiest,” Pan agreed. “Forevermore. You’re marked by it. But, we’ll see what else we can teach you.”
Pan mused on the strength of the Anther. She hoped they could find some way to preserve that power beyond a generation. If she unbound everyone, there would be no more people like her or Sotir. Ideally, they could find a way to improve the binding process and save their bodies the degeneration.
It wasn’t just the Anther’s magic that they should preserve. They needed to preserve it all. From the rotating circles of the Rhizo to the uncountered rayed circles of the Stolon. The Blath, now the Iruedians, had the strongest, most versatile magic. But, there was strength in all the techniques, especially the spiraled spell, thought up by a man who was a tree.
We need to take those ideas and make them all work.
Pan stopped herself. What was she thinking?
She was thinking like a Volanter.
Pan rubbed her forehead.