Pan began with a simple portal. It opened up beneath Ipomea and dropped her from the ceiling, into the Dipinta tree. Ipomea sank into the branches and got caught. She probably readied a circle of her own, but the tree was on fire, courtesy of Kat. So, that limited the kinds of circles that Ipomea would call on.
Pan did a quick check of the battlefield.
Meladee cast a circle of her own, and a great winged beast filled the space. Its wings were red and orange, and its scales like fire. “I figure back to fire makes the most sense.”
Camellia nodded beside Meladee, unarmed and unguarded, but not for long. Meladee conjured a giant bird. Its head bobbed when it walked. The bird took stewardship of Camellia and Aria, and it made perfect sense in a ridiculous sort of way.
Pan didn’t wait to cast her next circle. While Meladee had been summoning beasts, Pan longed to summon a beast of her own, but she settled for a portal beneath Dicentra. Pan dropped the Volanter woman atop both Ranunculus and Carex. Ranunculus thrust her into Carex’s reluctant tentacles, and began a cast of his own.
It was a single ringed circle, and Panphila knew it. More importantly, she knew its counter. She might not be able to bring most circles to fruition, but she could get all the runes to draw in place and at least make an appearance. Pan cast the opposing circle atop his.
Ranunculus’ circle disappeared, along with Pan’s. It was a perfect counter.
Ranunculus stood, with his mouth open, just a slit as Volanter mouths usually were. Still, for a Volanter, his mouth was agape. “You’re not bound to the ghost sight circle. You’re a genuine Volanter.”
“If I’m a genuine Volanter, what does that make them?” Pan pointed at the others.
Ranunculus answered with a circle. His multi-ringed cast finished in an instant. Rings of light appeared around every non-Volanter in the space.
Pan startled as light streamed around her. She hit its glowing surface. It flashed and held her, like a wall. They were trapped – she, the others, Meladee’s creations.
“Aw, shit!” Meladee shouted. “This trap spell is getting stronger. Get a spell off before it solidifies.”
Pan began a new circle. She hid it around the Mother Tree. Runes ducked under upraised roots and shrubbery to keep Ranunculus from casting the counter. She’d seen Kat’s little fires keep Ipomea busy, and Kat continued to send fire out.
Pan’s circle hummed its completion, and all of the plants hovered into the air. Stray soil fluttered, like drops of rain around exposed roots. Pan flicked her wrist and sent the plants on a trip around the room. Some plants tangled in each other. Others smashed lights above. The poor Mother Tree, still aflame, took its own circuit around the center of the room, breaking bulbs and turning Ipomea’s stomach.
“Nice!” Meladee called, amid a multi-ringed circle of gold.
The traps of light shattered, and Pan watched little shards of magic glitter like glass.
“Keep ‘em coming,” Meladee called. She cast a quick, three-ringed circle of green.
Pools of acid appeared in strategic places around the Volanter, halting Dicentra’s retreat. Carex got some acid on his tentacles. He hissed, and Dicentra stopped to heal him.
“We need more beasts!” Meladee shouted. Her offering happened to be a large octopus, with writhing tentacles.
Pan needed a beast of her own. She called upon the only summoning circle she knew.
It glowed, hidden from Ranunculus’ view by a gulf of acid.
“Pan!” Aria waved. “Make the portal! We should leave.”
Pan ignored Aria’s words. There was no way they were leaving without destroying the ship, and every other Volanter ship in the vicinity. If they didn’t, the Volanter could send a message to the other clans. Maybe, they already had, and whatever genetic contract awaited them in the mysterious Volanter home would come back to haunt them.
I just need a beast of my own.
She got her wish.
Smoke filled the space. Coughs erupted through the room, and all new spells halted. Pan’s entire team clustered by the door, with Eva and Camellia working on the lock.
Smoke continued to pump through the room. It burned off runes that shone through the acid. The red eyes appeared, and then, the rest – the beast.
It was ink black, like Pan’s hair. Its wingspan stretched across the center of the room, supporting a thin, snakelike body. Two sets of legs possessed long black claws, and the beast’s long snout was pointed and distinctly snakelike. A plume of horns and feathery fur topped its head, and the fur traced a path along its back, all the way to the tip of its spiked tail. The familiar red eyes, long and slitted, regarded Pan.
Pan stared at the beast that no reaper would turn away for want of presence. Pan ran to her friends’ sides as her beast confronted Ranunculus and Carex.
Pan drew a portal to the Ischyros’ bridge. “Go. Get to safety.”
Rooks pushed Aria and Camellia through. She nudged Kat next.
“Wait? Why me?” Kat asked.
“We’re all leaving. Now, go.” Rooks pushed Kat into the portal. “Now, you three.”
“No, no,” Pan said. “We need to stay and destroy their vessels.”
Rooks raised her eyebrows. “We can do that from our own ships.”
“It’ll be easier from inside,” Eva said. “We’ll stay together. We can come after you any time.”
Rooks hesitated but only for a moment. Then, she ducked into the portal. Pan dropped it. As her portal faded, another opened, not by magic but by engineering. The door to the rest of the ship slid aside.
“Oh god, I should have left.” Meladee backed against the doorjamb.
“We need you.” Eva grabbed Meladee’s arm.
Pan backed out the door, keeping her eyes on her beast. “Let’s go to the bridge, or maybe Engineering.” Her beast dodged a circle from Carex and swiped at Ipomea.
“That sounds like a good idea.” Meladee pointed ahead. “Bring your dragon. I’m gonna bring mine. Plus, the basan.”
Pan didn’t know how to get her beast’s attention – the dragon. But, she didn’t need to know. She thought of it, and it looked her way. She beckoned. It came.
Meladee’s dragon of red, and the basan bobbed through the doorway. Meladee and Eva led, already in the hall. Pan waited a beat longer, for her dragon of ink. Together, they fled the gathering room and its ruined garden.
Pan dropped a portal over the doorway and let it serve as lock. It would loop Ranunculus and his hench people into the gathering room, till one of them countered it.
Pan’s dragon hissed a laugh, and Pan got the impression that the counter might be a while.
Pan caught up to Meladee and Eva to find them clearing a hall of three Volanters. Eva’s staff of crystal sparked, and she pulled it from the side of an unconscious, possibly dead man. His tentacles jerked as electrical energy fizzled into the deck.
Eva fiddled with her equipment and hooked it inside an open access panel. “I’m trying to keep them from calling out.”
Pan glanced back the way they’d come. “That’s a good idea. Make sure they don’t get a message to the rest. We don’t want them to dig up our contracts.” She felt her dragon’s breath on her shoulder, reassuring and hot.
“I’ll check to see if they already have,” Eva said. “And, if they haven’t, we won’t let them.”
Pan looked at Meladee. “Can you stay with her? I want to find the bridge.”
Meladee pointed to her chest, and her eyes grew wide. “Me on my own? Against all these tentacle monsters.”
“The two of you just killed three.” Pan gestured to the pile of tentacles and limbs.
Meladee shook her head. “Uh uh. We took them by surprise.”
“Quit bickering,” Eva snapped. “The bridge will be at the fore of the ship. You need to head around the gathering room. Move through the circle, till you reach the longest hall. Then, take that hall. You should find the bridge at the end.”
“Thanks.” Pan began to trot around the gathering room. She passed hallways that Eva would probably call short. She kept moving forward, looking for that long passage.
Her dragon followed, with wings tucked and head low. It half ran, half flew in the tunnels of the Volanter ship. It was bigger than Meladee’s dragon but sleeker, so it belonged in the cramped space as well as any place open to the air.
Pan watched the halls grow longer. She skidded to a stop before a passage she would describe as longest.
Pan exchanged a look with her dragon. “Down here?”
The dragon gave no answer and, instead, streamed into the passage.
A scream sounded ahead of Pan. Her dragon let out a muffled roar. The sound of a circle hummed; then died. Chewing sounds followed.
Pan caught up and touched the dragon’s lower back, more like its butt. The dragon’s wings relaxed and filled the hall. It’s tail trailed back the way they’d come. Pan craned her neck, but she couldn’t see what her dragon had done. And, she couldn’t see to help.
Pan tapped the rear again. “Can we move?” She tapped faster. “Come on, move.”
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The dragon licked once and half-purred, half-growled. Then, it streamed forward, and Pan ran at her beast’s tail. She rested her hand atop its furred rear. Her touch bumped from light to firm and around again, as the dragon galloped.
Pan passed a mess of blood, but she heard no more screams and saw no evidence of a body. She kept pace with the dragon, till it stopped.
Her dragon slid to the side of the hall. It pressed against the passageway and revealed a door. With a predatory smile, the dragon curled around the locked portal and waited.
From her days of sabotage, Pan knew that she had very little time to affect a surprise. They’d found the bridge. Volanter would be inside, and those Volanter would be tough to beat, especially if Pan didn’t catch them off-guard.
Pan drew a portal and pushed it against the door. The door was just thin enough that her portal showed the way inside.
Pan’s dragon streamed through, and Pan felt the wind of its passage on her skin and in her hair.
Screams echoed from inside the bridge. Pan knew she should help, but she covered her ears instead. Blood flew across her view, and a few severed tentacles followed. The hum of a circle began. It died. Another began and set off. Pan’s dragon dodged back into view and out again. Two Volanter bodies rolled across the bridge. Her dragon flung a third through the air, and Pan heard it smack the wall. All went quiet.
Pan took her hands from her ears and stepped into the portal. She let it fade and turned to take in the room. On the edge, the dragon sliced open a Volanter’s gut and began to spoon out innards.
Pan ran to its side, arm outstretched. “Stop!”
Only when she touched its flank, did the dragon stop. It whipped its head around and gave Pan a glare of disgust. It roared.
Pan backpedaled.
The dragon resumed its meal.
Wide eyed, Pan turned away. “I’ll see if I can get pictures of the other bridges. Maybe, we can jump to one of the other ships.”
Pan worked the Volanter tech to the sound of munching.
Meladee crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “So, how’s it going.”
Eva abandoned her place at the access panel, scooped up her staff, and got to the middle of the hall. “I hear something.” She nodded back at the access panel. “I’ve shut down their communications by the way. All fifteen ships. Their tech is not very sophisticated.”
“Alright.” Meladee nodded with approval. She looked at the mess of wires that hung out of the panel. The brown earthy colors reminded her of worms. “Eww.”
The basan came around the corner holding little bits of flesh in its beak.
“Double Ew. Where’s the dragon?” Meladee asked, cringing as the basan scooped the flesh inside and gulped.
Eva shook her head. “Back towards the bay with our abandoned shuttle I’m guessing. Come on. We can’t stay here. Ranunculus or Carex might catch up.”
Eva held her staff tight and pulled one of her guns. She ran for the path that Pan had taken.
The dragon lumbered into view from behind.
Meladee spread her arms. “There you are. Come on. We’re going.” Meladee beckoned it closer. “You kill anything? Looks like basan got a bit of lunch stuck in his beak. How about you?”
The dragon didn’t respond. It just stalked closer.
Meladee frowned and tried to dispel the dragon. It wouldn’t go. “Oh shit. They didn’t summon anything because they took control of mine.” Meladee hoped it wasn’t permanent. She’d worked hard to create that dragon and basan.
The basan lunged at Eva, and Eva dodged the first jab of its beak. A metallic ting announced the beak’s collision with metal.
Eva countered with a swipe and jab to the basan’s neck, knocking it off balance.
The basan made a shocked face and staggered. Meladee would be missing a good friend, if she couldn’t regain control of the flaming chicken. She resolved to do so, but first, she had a dragon to deal with.
Meladee cast a quick shield and caught the dragon’s teeth on its slick surface. She got a good view inside the dragon’s mouth and finally understood how some of her enemies felt.
Eva crouched low in the shield. “Don’t you have another summons?”
“Yeah, but these two are my best.”
“Meladee, summon something now.” Eva backed away from the flickering shield.
Meladee sighed and performed another summoning circle. The giant rabbit that she’d been growing fond of appeared next to the dragon. She knew it had been a cruel thing to do, but the rabbit wasn’t there to best the dragon in a fight. Just to distract it.
Meladee focused on her basan. She cast a four-ringed spell. The white circles and symbols surrounded the basan. Its head jabbed side to side, surprised by the development. The circle erupted into sparkles, and the basan again looked dazed. Meladee prayed it would return to her side.
“Meladee! That bunny is getting slaughtered.” Eva fiddled with her large gun, having abandoned the small.
The bunny dangled from the dragon’s jaws, spent. The basan screamed at the dragon, and from the fire in its eyes, Meladee could tell that the basan was hers once again.
Carex slithered around a corner. “Ranunculus will be headed to the bridge soon. He won’t be alone, and we’ll capture your lying friend.”
“Leave him,” Meladee ordered the basan. “Get some more lunch.” She pointed to Carex.
The basan charged Carex, and the Volanter man’s eyes went appropriately wide.
“Let’s go.” Eva banged at the shield.
Meladee dispelled it, and they ran onto the path to the bridge. Steps thundered behind.
Meladee glanced back. “Oh, shit. Forgot my dragon.” She performed the reclaim spell, dropping it in place quick, as she kept at Eva’s side.
The dragon paused and shook its head. It roared and resumed its pursuit.
Meladee dropped a quick shield at their backs and caught a blast of fire.
Eva fired her large gun ahead. “You couldn’t have gotten the dragon first?”
Meladee waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, quiet.”
Meladee tried again. A circle, four rings deep, appeared around her dragon. It finished in a glittering hum, just as the dragon caught up to them. Her dragon ran past and attacked where Eva’s gunfire led.
The dragon spewed fire and added more scorch marks to the hand-sized round ones that Eva left.
As the fire cleared, Meladee glanced around her summon. Ipomea was there, watching the dragon.
“Get your own, bitch!” Meladee shouted.
She began another spell, one she’d learned courtesy of Inez and Eder’s experimental wormhole magic. Rings that were the absence of color flashed briefly across the floor, and Meladee could see a distortion in the air.
Ipomea also cast a circle, but hers reflected off Meladee’s distortion and hit Ipomea. Dragon fire erupted in the hall where Ipomea stood.
“Oooo, glad that’s not us.” Meladee cringed.
“Let’s reach the bridge.” Eva grabbed Meladee’s arm and pulled.
The first thing that Pan did was to find a camera. She flipped through the views, seeing different rooms on the ship, but she needed to get onto another ship.
Pan glanced out the forward view and could see into another ship but just one. “While I get this straight, you might as well go over.” Pan drew a portal.
The dark dragon streamed through, not even waiting for Pan’s order. Wind from its tail lifted Pan’s hair off her shoulders.
The dragon, as Meladee called it, was perhaps more than Pan had bargained for. Pan frowned and started to flip through more camera views.
“How am I supposed to see my way onto other ships? Imagine it? Or do I have to hop over?” Pan looked out the view and into the one where her dragon wreaked havoc.
Blood painted that far off windshield, and Pan felt concern paint her face. There was no other way, she would have to follow.
Pan pulled a piece of stray sketch paper from her pocket. With a nub of a pencil, she jotted a quick note. It read: Meladee, Eva. Have gone to other ships. Will be back soon.
Then, with a small com, Pan took a picture of her current bridge.
She took a deep breath. She was armed with a way to return. She drew the portal to the dragon’s bridge and stepped through.
A blood smell caught in Pan’s nose. She waved a hand before her face, but there was no helping the smell. She watched her dragon tear Volanter tentacles from their hosts. Every one of those dead Volanter expressions spoke of surprise.
Surprise.
Pan whirled to face the windshield and could see her way into three other ships. “Here we go.”
The dragon still tore at flesh in the background, but as soon as Pan made the new portal, it rushed through. This time, Pan followed immediately.
She cast her telekinetic circle and pulled shocked Volanter into the air. Night watch consisted of only three. Pan lined them up, and her dragon jumped, slicing through the group.
“Pan, what are doing?” Sotir called into her ear.
Pan touched the com button. “I’m making sure they can’t follow us. Like you told me.”
“I said to go on a murderous rampage?”
“I can’t think of anything better!” Pan faced the view again. She drew another portal to the next bridge.
She watched as her dragon took them, not by surprise, but by skill. It dodged three circles and locked jaws around a Volanter man. Pan stayed on the other side of the portal. When the remaining two Volanter began new single ringed casts, Pan countered. Their circles and their hopes died. Pan’s dragon ate the failed casters.
“Pan!” Sotir called.
“What were our chances of escape before? Slim?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
She knew. She’d improved them already.
“Focus on the ships at the center of the formation, stay in that area. Alban and Rooks are going to start attacking those on the edge. The Volanter are starting to become aware of our betrayal.” After that piece of advice, Sotir’s voice left her too it.
Pan looked around the bridge and found that her dragon had again taken care of the situation. Voices called from the other side of the bridge door.
“Let’s go.” Pan drew the next portal and slipped through with her dragon. She’d lost count what number she was on – maybe four.
Four times three meant they were about to kill their tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Volanter.
For the fourth ship and the fourth bridge crew, Pan decided to join her dragon in its revelry. She led with a portal to prevent escape. It blocked the door and would loop any fleeing Volanter back onto the bridge. Then, Pan cast the circle for telekinesis. She pulled all the Volanter into the air, spun them around, and tried to enjoy it.
The captain, or whoever the leader of the bridge was, must have searched his genetic memory for the proper counter, but he recalled it too late.
Pan watched his spell fizzle, shoddily formed and with no effect. After all, he had intended for it to be a counter, and the spell that it would have matched had already done its work.
Volanter drifted through the air, and Pan’s dragon was fast. It attacked those that cast first, breaking their circles before they could come to fruition.
A two-ringed circle appeared around Pan. It was a stack of runes, connected by a thread that wove through the whole. Pan portaled herself out of its effect and escaped what would have been an effective wind tunnel. She lazily drew another portal and caught the effect. She peered out the forward view and sent the wind tunnel to another bridge. They were ready to move on, after all.
The dragon zipped through the portal, not bothered a bit by the wind.
Pan almost put her face in her hands. She’d leave this bridge destroyed too, but not all the Volanter were quite dead yet.
A Volanter woman crawled in her own blood and curled up in a pile of tentacles. “Why are you doing this?” She tried to bring a potential healing circle into being, but her efforts fell short.
The circle barely made a song.
“Mother Tree, I don’t know,” Pan answered. “Maybe, because you want to hold us to some genetic contract.”
Pan waited for the wind tunnel to die or the Volanter woman. Whichever went first. It was the Volanter woman, but the wind tunnel was a close second.
Pan moved to the next bridge to find her dragon’s tail ensnared by a circle that had gone off in the nick of time. Reinforcements rushed on to the bridge, and Pan focused on them. She ducked behind her dragon, which shielded itself from circles with its wide wings.
Pan thought her usual fare served her well, but she could use some destruction at a time like this. Her dragon could not breathe fire it seemed, unlike Meladee’s creation. But, Pan could get fire.
Pan imagined that circle and clung to it. Kat hung on the tip of Pan’s memory, and the circle finished in hues of red.
Fire filled the bridge. It engulfed the entrance, swallowing the reinforcements. It swept over the remaining crew, killing the perpetrator of the circle that held the dragon entrapped. Against her will, the dead caster freed the dragon.
Once freed, the dragon rushed into the flames. The fire seemed not to touch it, and Volanter screams came over the crackle of fire. Several circles formed and died, or formed and never hit. Pan sat in the corner, finding it harder to breathe as the flames consumed the air.
She also found her breath hard to come by as she watched the dark figure dance among the flames, a smile on its jagged maw. Pan stared out the windshield. She saw a Volanter ship take a hit from either the Fauchard or the Ischyros. Iruedian circles from the Fauchard caught other Volanter ships, all of which were smaller than the Fauchard.
The Scaldin and the Irueidans were massacring the Volanter.
Pan had definitely lost count of the ships she’d taken her dragon through, and she’d had enough. She pulled out her little com and brought up the picture of the original bridge. Pan drew a portal back.
“Go in,” Pan ordered.
The fire roared, and the beast hesitated.
“In. We have to get Eva and Meladee.” Pan saw Eva and Meladee, waiting just inside the portal. Pan refused to meet their eyes. “Come on,” she told the dragon.
It roared and advanced on her. Flames licked its wings.
Pan quickly dispelled the portal and drew a new set. She viewed them on edge. One portal appeared ahead of Meladee and Eva, on the original bridge. The second appeared on the Ischyros’ bridge. She hoped they would hop through and make it home safe and sound.
Pan backed up and coughed. “We’ll suffocate. Let’s leave.”
She maintained Meladee and Eva’s portal escape, dropping it only when her dragon swiped her feet from under her. Pan hit the deck hard.
“We’re done here.” Pan pushed herself up on her elbows. “It’s time to go.”
Again, the dragon roared. Its objection blew by Pan’s face. She averted her eyes.
“Pan, we’re ready to go,” Sotir called. “And, that ship you’re on is about to be hit by a blast from the ship beside it. Come on back. We have everyone but you.”
Pan hit her com. “I’m coming.”
She looked the dragon in the eyes. “We’re done.”
Pan glanced at her bracelet of locations. She conjured the circle and the portal that would take them, not to the bridge but to her training bay.
The dragon screeched its protest and slapped Pan into her own portal with a sweep of its tail. It followed.