Enoa and Jaleel had maneuvered the Aesir under the trees. They were tall hybrid willows with thin trunks and intertwined plumes of foliage that formed a roof above them and hid them from view.
Enoa waited, sitting with her legs dangling out of the Aesir’s door, watching the researchers and the Antler Clan.
Ramses and his fellow roamed the area around the ship and the gathering of researchers. They were observing the foliage, sniffing at trees, stooping down to examine plants and mosses and berries.
“They look like they’re gardening,” Enoa said. Dr. Schultes turned to see what she was looking at. She needed something to take her mind off of her accidental role in the attack at the lab. Being left behind, idle, did nothing to ease her mind.
“They care for the health of their ecosystem.” Schultes stood from the moss-covered log where he and the other Advisory scientists had planted themselves when Ikaro and Nefertiti had left with Orson. “They understand when plants are diseased. They know when trees are dying. And they’re smart enough to ignore most of our studies to judge their intelligence.” He laughed.
“What kind of… What are they?”
“They’re only distantly related to the deer family,” Schultes said. “If that’s what you’re asking. Both males and females grow antlers, and they keep them from their adolescence. Their forelimbs have keratinous layers like their hind feet, but its grown on flexible grasping digits. We’d love to start a new classification for them, but we didn’t feel prepared to make any sort of final statements until the global scientific community rebounds in some form.”
“They don’t have a scientific name?” Jaleel called from inside the ship, where he was doing his normal tinkering with his bow. His call was loud enough that both the researchers and the Antler Clan looked toward the ship. Enoa glanced over her shoulder. “Uh, sorry. Didn’t the Hierarchia know about them for a long time?”
“The IHSA didn’t allow the proper classification of organisms that fell under their jurisdiction.” Dr. Schultes sighed. “Once the IHSA’s work passed on to the Scientific Advisory, ten years ago, it was a nightmare to get acquainted with the system, because of their code-speak. And the Antler Clan’s numbers boomed in the twenty years after the IHSA departed. We’re still not sure whether the Hierarchia brought more of them here from isolated pockets, elsewhere in the world, or if other members of their species found their way here in the intervening years.”
“Found their way here?” Jaleel asked. “You think they walked here through the desert?”
“We have no theory,” Schultes said. “I will say new adults seem to appear every so often, with very little genetic connection to documented individuals. Perhaps we’ll have our answer when we arrive at the Sanctuary. It would seem more logical that the IHSA transported individuals here who were not documented, but they usually kept immaculate records… if you know how to see through their coded names and phrases. But spies and soldiers have a different way of doing things. Their way can be quite antithetical to learning and science.” He looked back to the other researchers. “No offense meant to dear Atkins and the Thirty-fourth. May Captain Gregory find them in better health than I expect.”
“I can’t believe they kept the Antler Clan a secret.” Enoa watched Ramses press his face to a tree, analyzing something by scent. “I guess there’s something more unbelievable about them even than…” …than everything else she’d seen, than her own abilities, than the fact that they’d accidentally brought danger to this place.
“Aren’t there like, uh, deer people in the, uh, your lore?” Jaleel spoke after giving her a pause to finish her thought. He left his work and leaned against the doorframe, beside her.
“My lore?” Enoa asked.
“Uh,” Jaleel said. “Native American lore?”
“Not Nimauk lore,” Enoa said. “I won’t speak for anyone else.” Enoa didn’t intend to sound quite so harsh, but her words were very sharp in her ears. Schultes must have thought so too. He started back toward the other scientists.
“I’m sorry.” Jaleel stepped away. “I just thought that deer people were a thing that I knew about your… in your culture, and I thought talking about that might be a good thing.”
“I…” Enoa knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, but the oppressive feeling of responsibility had not faded. One thing that was part of Nimauk belief – bring no pain to the innocent, but she had, if only by accident. “You meant well. No, there are no deer people that I know anything about. I really don’t talk…”
The Aesir’s dashboard began to chirp, but this was not a sound she knew. This wasn’t any of the warnings or communication tools she recognized. Jaleel stepped to the front of the cabin, and she stood. Most of the researchers again turned and looked in their direction.
“Trouble!” Jaleel pointed to the bottom of the windshield, where small black letters had appeared.
‘WAYFARER ONE: Liberty Corps fighters in the air. Send Antler Clan and the Advisory to the Sanctuary. Then stay out of sight. Stay in the ship.’
“I’ll tell them to leave.” Enoa had visions of Sun Talons diving from the sky, splintering the trees, killing researchers and Antler Clan alike. “I’ll get them out of here.” She ran from the ship.
All the researchers looked up as she approached. Ramses quickly moved to stand beside Schultes, like he still expected Enoa to launch a sneak attack.
“We heard from Captain Gregory! The Liberty Corps has ships patrolling the area. He’s afraid you’ll be seen. He says you need to go to the Antler Clan Sanctuary now.”
“Did he say what kind of ships?” One of the researchers asked. “Did he say where they’re headed?”
“The message was really short.” Enoa watched Schultes begin the Antler Clan sign language. “He just said fighters. We all have to hide.”
Ramses and his fellow grasped their forelimbs together. Enoa thought it was some kind of communication gesture, but they stayed that way, without further motion.
“They are refusing to leave without Nefertiti,” Schultes said. The other researchers had stood. All of them were gesturing at the Antler Clan, who were seemingly ignoring them.
“Enoa, I’m gonna take a quick peek at the scan,” Jaleel called.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What if they notice us?” Enoa ran back to the Aesir’s entryway. Before she climbed inside, Jaleel had pressed his hand to the dashboard console.
The console began to ping in a constant beat, its tempo increasing, imminent.
Jaleel yelled. He slammed his hand back down on the dashboard, deactivating the scanner.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“I’m glad I looked. There’s something almost here, maybe a hovercraft, something close at ground-level. I think it’s coming up the river. It’s less than a mile away.”
“I have to get them to leave.” Enoa jumped into the ship just long enough to retrieve her staff and feel the reassuring warmth race up her arm. “Or hide all of us. Close everything behind me.”
She again jumped from the ship and found the researchers how she’d left them, madly gesticulating at the unmoving Antler Clan duo.
“Someone is coming.” Enoa arrived beside Schultes. “You need to leave now. They’re coming up the river.”
“Maybe it’s best not to go,” he replied. “I believe the Antler Clan Sanctuary is not far from the bank. Why else would they keep us so close to the river?”
“Then go deeper into the forest.” Enoa warmed up her mind, running simple exercises, the simplest transmutation. She shifted molecules in the air around her into condensation and back to gas. It was easy with the humid air near the river, easier than it had been even with the water trucks outside Littlefield. “It’ll be hard to see soon. It might not be too easy to do the signing. I study Shaping, and I’m going to hide us from the river.”
Enoa forced the humidity to partially condense, turning the moisture into visible vapor. It would become the enshrouding fog that had blinded Sloan’s War Force.
The researchers looked around, as if confused by what they were seeing, but both Ramses and his fellow stared at Enoa. They knew she was the cause of what was happening.
A mass of particles masked the river from view, spreading across the bank and the trees, until it reached her. Only a light haze spread around the Antler Clan and the researchers, enough for her to sense their motions. But they could see the deep forest. They could see to escape.
Enoa closed her eyes. She sensed motion in the muggy air. She felt the scientists clustered together. She felt the Antler Clan usher them deeper into the forest, guiding them away from the river and away from Enoa.
But she held the shroud. She held the Midnight Sight and watched her surroundings with her mind until she could feel the hovercraft above the water. It wasn’t flying fast.
She had no idea what the Liberty Corps knew of the area, what they would think of the fog, or what they could sense from her.
Enoa relaxed her grip on the water in the air. She hoped that would hide her influence, but she wouldn’t risk revealing the fleeing researchers. She could not intervene to save the lab. She could save those people.
The hovercraft kept moving. It passed her, headed further up the river. Enoa could distantly hear it, a small sound, no greater than a car.
That soon faded and was gone.
Enoa turned back toward the Aesir. The plan hadn’t worked the way Orson would have wanted, but she’d sent the researchers away. She and Jaleel would stay in the ship.
But feet from the doorway, she felt electricity at the back of her neck. Enoa stopped. She raised her staff.
Someone had arrived in the midst of the blinding shroud. They’d appeared. One moment, the bank was vacant. The next, a mind was there, another Shaper. She could feel them. Someone had dropped from the sky into the outer bands of riverside mist.
Enoa knew the mind sensed her too. They were aware of each other on a level without any physical sense.
“You have a powerful mind, Enoa Cloud.” A strange, distorted voice called to her, like the speaker was talking around a mouth guard or something between his teeth. “It’s a pleasure to feel Anemos again. And you’re so young! I can’t believe my luck.”
Enoa’s shroud was thrown aside. All the vapor suddenly parted and was swept away. Enoa tried to force the air together, force it to condense. She failed.
A burst of wind flew out from the man, like he’d released a gale from his lungs.
The blast scattered the fog, leaving only lightly moist air behind.
Enoa and the Aesir were revealed. She saw the Shaper who had sensed her, who knew her, who’d cast aside her shroud without effort.
He wore the white armor of a Liberty Corps Knight, like Nine-Flails who’d fought Orson. His helmet was different, with a long tube or trunk dangling along the front. The breastplate too was unique. Enoa could see small orbs sticking out at the Knight’s shoulders and sides.
The Knight walked toward her.
Enoa did not answer him. She didn’t know exactly what Shaping he’d done, but it had not removed all moisture from the air. He’d only swept the fog aside. She hoped a physical attack would be harder to counter.
She hadn’t practiced the Bullet Rain since she’d performed the technique against Rinlee, but she remembered the focus and the movement of her thoughts.
Enoa felt the moisture around her. She didn’t reach to the river’s supply of water. It was too far away for her to use effectively, but the humid air was enough to attack.
Enoa followed the method, the mental process for forming Bullet Rain. She launched the condensation at the Knight. She formed it into droplets. She shaped them. They would explode on impact.
The Knight breathed in and exhaled a wall of smoke. Her Bullet Rain entered the gas and was gone. She lost all sense of the attack.
“Your mind is so strong,” the Knight said. “But you’re a novice. You’re strong enough to make Bullet Rain, but too untrained to hide the transmutation – you are a delicious puzzle, Miss Cloud.”
An arrow flew at the Knight.
Enoa hadn’t noticed the Aesir’s tarp rise. She didn’t hear Jaleel step from the ship or the arrow leave his bow.
But she saw the arrow strike another wall of smoke. It was turned aside, redirected, and sent flying off between the trees.
“And who are you?” the Knight asked. “Who knew Orson Gregory was a Peter Pan-type. How many little girls and boys does he have hiding in there? Will you attack me with spears and wooden swords?”
“Nah,” Jaleel said. “I wanted to see what defenses you’ve got, Long Snoot.” He fired another arrow. The Knight actually laughed, but not for long.
When the arrow reached the Knight’s smoke, when it was turned aside, the arrowhead exploded.
The Knight fell to the ground, thrown onto his side.
“Ruby, start the engines!” Jaleel yelled. “We gotta go!” Enoa did not hear Ruby’s response, but she heard the Aesir come to life. She ran toward him and the open ship.
Before she could reach the opening, two figures fell from the sky. They dropped to the ground, between her and the Aesir. One faced her. The other turned back at Jaleel. They wore the regular Liberty Corps Officer armor, but their helmets were modified with front tubes like the Knight’s, and their shoulders were studded with small orbs.
“Do you have the Key of Cloud’s Legacy?” the closest Officer asked her. “Do you have it on you now?”
Enoa always wore the key. Could they sense the Cobalt Nine, like Tucker?
Enoa held out her staff and imagined an explosion blossoming from the metal, shattering this Officer’s helmet. She thought of the attack on the lab. She could destroy this man. She wouldn’t hesitate.
“Run!” Jaleel yelled and sent an arrow at the nearest Officer, but a wall of smoke left the man’s helmet. It was the technique that had protected the Knight. This blast flew outward, sending Jaleel’s arrow wide.
The Officer drew a handle from his hip. A blade extended from the device, a weapon that danced with electricity. Jaleel grabbed another arrow, but the Officer struck his weapon across the curve of the bow.
Jaleel’s bow snapped in two. He held onto one of the broken pieces, but some of the electricity of the strike bowled him back into the entryway of the ship.
“Don’t move!” the Knight yelled. The Officer didn’t advance toward Jaleel, who’d risen onto his elbow and stared in horror at his destroyed weapon.
“We don’t know what defenses Gregory has,” the Knight continued. “I’ve sent Lancea Twelve to recover the animals and the researchers, but once the scanning crew is here, then we will board Gregory’s vessel. Our priority now is to retrieve Cloud’s key.”
“Yes, Sir Rowan.” The Officer kept his weapon pointed at Jaleel, but he turned and watched Enoa.
The Knight began to advance toward Enoa. She was caught between all three attackers.
“We might have missed you if you didn’t try to hide the lab team,” Sir Rowan said. “My Lord Baron knew Captain Gregory couldn’t resist playing hero. He gets high on reckless heroics, doesn’t he? It will cost him today. I’ve just informed my master’s flagship that the Aesir crew has arrived at the Crystal Dune Complex. When Baron Helmont brings the Manifest Destiny to the laboratory, I think he’ll find Captain Gregory already there.
“Today, we claim two keys to the Dreamside Road.”