I was marched down hallways of the airship, and down into the bowels of the ship with brisk efficiency, and then thrown roughly into a plain holding cell in the ship. I could hear the guards taking up positions outside, just as Commander Khine had ordered.
I looked around at my grim quarters, and then flopped onto the hard bunk hanging from the wall. I was too tired to care much about it, though my head kept replaying Darsh-
No, Lakshmi honey bless it, I should start using her proper name!
Lakshmi’s dramatic reveal and the look on her face as I was led away. I closed my eyes and lay my arm across them, letting out a sigh.
I should have felt my mana returning, at least a little by now, but the well remained empty. I suppose now I know what the spellcollar does. And as a nice added bonus, I’m going to feel exhausted all the time.
I rolled over onto my side. “Being the heroine sucks. Eshaan, I’m so sorry that I couldn’t stop being kidnapped again. Soriya, I’m sorry I failed you.” I said to the empty cell.
Then I closed my eyes and let myself sleep.
***
Lakshmi paced the luxurious cabin that she’d been assigned, while Daniyel stood silently against the wall, watching her. She flung herself down on the couch, then hopped up again and continued to pace.
Finally, she burst out “Daniyel, we have to do something!”
Daniyel raised one eyebrow; his voice impassive. “So you have said, princess, at least three times. As ever, I stand ready to protect you.”
“I don’t need protection, Daniyel, I need help!”
Daniyel shrugged his shoulders. “We’ve been over this before, princess. I will not stop you, but I will not assist you in this endeavor.”
“Daniyel, she’s your friend too! How can you just stand there!?”
“Everyone must stand somewhere, princess.”
“Again with the useless philosophical bullshitery!” Lakshmi flung herself onto the couch again, her arms crossed. “If only they would let me talk to her! I could crack that spellcollar and then she could do that… thing… she does.”
“I do not believe the Lady Lilyanna likes to unleash Tower. It seems to cause her great distress, and injury.”
Lakshmi threw her hands up in the air. “Things need to be done that need to be done! She’ll know how to get out of this! She’s a seer, right?!”
Daniyel was silent for a long moment then said “Her prediction was that Eshaan and Soriya would come to rescue her.”
Lakshmi ground her teeth. “And that burns! Why not me?!” She complained.
Daniyel shrugged again. “Indeed, why not you?”
“I told you to stop with the philosophical bullshit, Daniyel.” Lakshmi glared daggers at him.
Daniyel raised a single eyebrow. “Did you hear a philosophical question? I intended my words exactly as I said them.”
Lakshmi opened her mouth and then slowly closed it again. She hopped up and started pacing again. “We can’t get into her cell. We tried that.”
Daniyel nodded silently, watching her.
“And of course magic is out of the question.” She said dismissively. “We don’t have high explosives, and we can’t risk them anyway, if we set them off that close to her, she’d just be jelly when we got the door open…” she tugged on her lip in thought.
Her pacing slowed. “What am I missing…?” she asked herself. She flung herself back onto the couch and squirmed upside down, her flame red hair trailing on the floor. The amulet bounced on her chin, and she grabbed it with irritation, glaring at it.
“Damn it, that was… how dare Khine disregard me like that?! That was supposed to work! I blew months of work and nothing!” She ripped the amulet off and hurled it against the wall angrily before flopping backwards, her hair and arms trailing on the floor.
“And how am I even supposed to face Eshaan now? Or Soriya. It’ll be all ‘scrape and bow’ and ‘princess you can’t’ and ‘princess you mustn’t’… she heaved an angry sigh.
“Indeed.” Daniyel said serenely. “How would you even face them, they are in Breezewood and you are here.”
Lakshmi flipped upright and glared at him. “Well obviously I’d…” she stumbled to a stop, then continued, her eyes widening. “I’d need to steal an airship…” she said slowly. “And I’d need to do it fast, we’re almost at Spyre.”
Daniyel nodded quietly, his stoic presence the same as it had always been through her entire life. “And of course, how would you even get into the hangars? Your quarters are watched closely, and the shuttles are locked down since the Centurion is in flight.”
Lakshmi chewed pensively on her thumb, pacing quietly, the suddenly stopped. She turned to Daniyel. “But the fighter bays aren’t! And the ventilation shafts run from here clear to the hangars.”
Daniyel nodded again. “What a pity that I cannot come with you. I will of course need to arrive at the fighter bays to resume my duties, should you engage in this reckless and foolhardy plan.” He said with a perfectly bland and level tone. “How fortunate that I am not restricted to your quarters.”
Lakshmi gave him a flat stare. “You were like this when I escaped the palace, too. You said you wouldn’t help, and now you’re all but handing me the keys.”
“I?” Queried Daniyel stoically. “I have done nothing but point out the reasons why your plan cannot possibly succeed.” Daniyel said impassively, his arms crossed.
Lakshmi let her stare linger for a while longer, then abruptly turned and flounced forward. “Fine. Suit yourself, whatever keeps your oaths quiet.” She rapidly crossed into the stateroom, and started shucking the robes she’d been given, and pulling on her badly tattered ‘pirate’ gear. Slipping her goggles onto her forehead, and strapping on her toolbelt she nodded, satisfied that everything was where it should be. “Help me access the air vent. It’s time to bust out of an imperial battleship.”
***
Down in the battleship’s brig, Lilyanna stirred restlessly in her sleep, her dreams filled with ominous sensations of heavy weights shifting on greased bearings, massive gears turning with slow ponderous weight and then ‘chonk’ing into place.
***
The air grate to the guest quarters was an ornate and elaborate piece of work, and Lakshmi found herself sneering at it as she fiddled with it, carefully unscrewing the fasteners. “Why does everyone insist on using substandard materials?! This is utterly impractical metal for a flagship!” She growled as a second screw fell to the carpet.
Daniyel said mildly. “Perhaps they believe that value can be had in other ways besides the purely functional.”
Lakshmi rounded on him. “Onboard a battleship?!”
Daniyel shrugged. “I am merely a humble desert bodyguard, assigned to protect one far above my station. I would not presume to comment on the minds of the high and mighty.”
Lakshmi heaved out a long breath through her nose.
Daniyel paused, then continued “Have I told you the tales of my homeland? The story of the thirst for riches?”
Lakshmi almost threw her screwdriver at him, then turned and busied herself with the remaining screws on the vent cover. “No.” She growled to the vent. “Please enlighten me.”
Daniyel spoke absently, as though telling a story of no concern. “A great sultan once decreed the fountains of his palace should be made of gold. All marveled at this opulence, and his palace was a wonder of the world for travelers to see and gasp at the Sultan’s riches. But then one day, the fountains ran dry, and the city was without water. The sultan had paid for the golden fountains instead of paying to repair the waterworks under the city. The city was overrun by a neighboring kingdom, and the palace laid waste.”
“Dumb story.” Lakshmi commented as she wrenched the grate out of its socket, dropping it onto the carpet. “Should have just drunk the water in the city well.” She jumped and wiggled her way into the vent shaft, squirming slowly. “Glad I’m not Lily. Or Soriya, she’d never fit in here. At least their chests wouldn’t.” She grinned to herself. She scooted back out. “I’m going to the fighter bays. Meet you there.” She said, and then hopped up into the vent and shimmied into the darkness.
Daniyel stood there for a moment, watching her go, and then calmly reached down and picked up the vent and placed it neatly into its socket.
“And the golden fountains were melted down and used to pay for new pipes.” Daniyel said quietly to himself. “Thus proving that fools only see what is in front of them, while true value arises from deeper within.”
He stepped to the door of the cabin and banged once on it, sharply. “I am leaving to attend to the princess’s wishes.” He announced through the door, and then opened the door and walked into the hallway between the two troopers who stood to either side.
***
Lakshmi crawled through the air vents on her stomach, muttering to herself and fighting the desperate urge to sneeze. “Why did I think this was a good idea?” She asked rhetorically, stopping at an intersection of vents. She closed her eyes briefly to visualize the blueprints of the Centurion. “Was the Centurion remolded last year or this year? Did they already have the… yes. So that’s…” The patterns of the design flickered through her head and her eyes popped open. “Left.”
She wasn’t rightly sure if Daniyel was just playing dumb, or if he really thought he wasn’t helping, but she was irritatingly grateful for his suggestions regardless. She understood machines more than people. Machines made so much more sense.
Well, except for Eideth. Her I can talk with! And my poor little Sparrowhawk, sitting alone in Lily’s backyard. We were supposed to be safely in Spyre by now… She shook her head fiercely, a lock of her stupid hair briefly falling into her eyes before she blew it out with an irritated puff.
At least half the benefit to having that illusion, she wasn’t constantly being reminded of her failure. She crawled carefully along the venting system, before a snatch of approaching conversation from the corridor below her made her freeze.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Say, did you hear that the princess got rescued from air pirates?!” the first one said.
“No kidding? Is that what happened!?” The second queried.
The voices came from the grating to her left. She held still anxiously holding her breath. Moving in the vents wasn’t exactly a silent affair.
Come on, move, move, move, you lazy grunts. She thought to herself before adding a mental Sorry Eshaan. To the end.
“Yeah! I can’t really be surprised, girl like that runs away, of course she’ll get captured by air pirates.”
“How do you figure?”
“What, haven’t you heard? Girl can’t use magic. Complete dead stone!”
“What?!”
“It’s true! I heard it from the guards on the fourth wall, who heard it from the castle cook who heard it from the castle steward himself!”
Lakshmi ground her teeth together so hard she was briefly afraid the grinding noise would give her away, her cheeks turning purple with rage.
Moooove! Move, move, move you stupid lazy pieces of horse dung! She chanted in her head.
“That’s impossible, everyone knows the imperial family was blessed by the gods. The System itself assures they know every type of magic!” The second voice said skeptically.
“I’m telling you…” the troopers’ voices finally faded as the men finished their interrupted patrol down the corridor.
“And thank you so much, World Soul, for that wonderful gift you’ve given me.” Lakshmi spat with quiet venom as she resumed crawling down the vent system. Just what she needed. Now she wanted to punch something, in addition to needing to sneeze.
“If you didn’t have Lily in the brig, I would set a charge and scuttle this whole fleet.” She whispered viciously. “I’d sabotage the engines so you ran backwards! I’d make sure the power core couldn’t hold a charge! I’d put a horned rabbit in your bed!” She continued to recite the litany of terrible things she would do when she could finally take her vengeance unrestricted, quietly bumping up the priority of the Sparrowhawk’s weapon systems in her mind.
***
Down in the fighter bays, Daniyel loomed out of the darkness, grabbing two troopers by the helm and clapped them together soundly. With a groan and the clatter of falling armor they collapsed into an unconscious heap at his feet.
He stepped over the armored forms calmly, dusting his gauntlets against each other. “Apologies, gentlemen.” He gave the unconscious troopers a polite bow. “The princess has requested access to the fighter bay, and I do not believe you would have been amenable to this request.”
He neatly lined up the snoring soldiers on the deck, laying them carefully down on their backs then settled down near one of the fighter airships in a cross-legged pose and waited patiently. He did hope the princess would hurry; he did not want to have to clap too many trooper’s heads together.
Something close to thirty minutes later he heard a loud ‘clang’ from overhead, and a shouted “Look out!” from Lakshmi. Unhurriedly, Daniyel reached out and plucked a spinning metal grate from the air, before standing up. He looked up into the shadowed arches overhead to see a shock of bright red hair hanging out of a vent. An echoing sneeze made him wince.
“Ah, blessed spirits and dragon’s horn, that took entirely too long!” Lakshmi squirmed out of the vent, dangling by her hands before falling the 15 feet to the deck, wincing as she landed. “Ow. Forgot my knees don’t like that.” She said, standing upright shakily, and grabbing small vial of healing potion.
Daniyel shook his head in disapproval. “Princess, you know I do not approve of you abusing healing potions like that.”
“What? I need my knees in good condition to fly the ship! This is important!”
“Princess, I have expressed my distress numerous times over the overreliance on healing potions.”
“What, you have to challenge yourself to get stronger, that’s how the System works, right?” Lakshmi smiled cheekily up at Daniyel’s glower.
“That is not the approved way to grow in strength, Princess. Repeatedly injuring yourself will not lead to growth.”
“Says you!” Lakshmi dusted herself off and sauntered over to the nearest fighter ships, checking it over with a professional eye. “I’ve gained more levels hanging out with Lilyanna and her friends than I did in three years of effort in the palace!”
Daniyel gave a long-suffering sigh and shook his head. Still… he had to admit, it was good to know that the Princess had indeed been growing in power. He himself had gained several levels as well, he could not deny that challenges frequently came with injuries.
Lakshmi pulled down the boarding ladder and clambered up into the cockpit then beckoned to him. “Come on, lets get out of here before we get stuffed into another dead-end luxury suite.”
Daniyel followed up the ladder with quiet stoicism. Where the princess led, he was duty bound to follow. As he settled into the operators’ seat to the rear, he tapped a few controls thoughtfully.
“You ready to go, Daniyel!” Lakshmi said, pulling the canopy closed.
“Indeed. Let us depart.”
“Great!” And with no further warning than that, she pulled the drop handle.
The bay floor fell away, and the overhead latch holding the fighter snapped open. The fighter fell free, causing the lightheaded freefall. The fighter spun wildly in the slipstream of the Centurion, tumbling randomly.
Inside the cockpit, Lakshmi flipped switches and swore loudly, as she slapped her palm against the control systems.
“Spirits curse it, who did the fucking maintenance on this bucket?!” She yelled.
Daniyel calmly pulled the seat harness across his shoulders and fastened it, apparently unaffected by the wild gyrations and tumbling of the tiny vessel.
A bare furlong above the forest canopy below, Lakshmi finally got the engines to activate, and they streaked away, a tornado of torn leaves and branches in their wake. The raw acceleration of the little ship pressed both passengers into their seat turning Lakshmi’s wild grin of triumph into a death’s head mask.
“We will need to evade the perimeter escort ships.” Daniyel noted dryly. “Have you armed the weapons yet?”
Lakshmi’s face fell. “Oh. Uh, no.” She scanned the rows of switches and dials in front of her. “Weapons, weapons… if I were a weapon’s switch where would I be…” she muttered to herself, then exclaimed in triumph, jabbing her finger down. Glowing energy systems lit up, and multiple banks of instrumentation came alive in Daniyel’s console.
“I believe that was successful.” Daniyel said calmly.
The radio crackled and sparked to life, and a voice said “Approaching airship, you are not authorized for exit from this airspace! Repeat, not authorized! Turn around and dock immediately, or we will open fire!”
Lakshmi’s grin turned into a fixed rictus. “This is fine. I got this.” She said.
Daniyel quietly flipped a few switches on his console. “Let us begin.”
Lakshmi pushed the throttle all the way forward to its stops. The little airship shot forward like it was fired out of a cannon. The four patrol ships scattered to either side, radio chatter screaming wildly, their weapons firing into the space where the fighter had been moments earlier, blue white streaks of magitech energy vanishing barely missing Lakshmi’s hull.
“Special delivery!” Lakshmi shouted, grinning wildly. She flipped into a loop and dove down on the scattering ships from above, firing her weapons with reckless abandon. The bolts caught the lightly armored patrol craft amidships and the entire vessel blew into flinders and shards of metal and glass went pinwheeling past Lakshmi as she dove towards the forest floor below.
Lakshmi hauled back on her stick, but the little fighter ship was not designed with a mad princess in mind, and it fought her hard, the entire craft rocking and creaking as Lakshmi forced the craft to take strain it had never been design for. Leaves and branches cracked and snaped as the ship dove into the forest, slowly changing trajectory, curving ever so slowly upwards away from the now visible forest floor.
“Come on, pull up pull up pull up pull- yes!” She shouted, as her airship tore free of the forest below her and back into clear sky. She was met with a most unfortunate sight, the three remaining ships waiting for her.
“It appears they have anticipated our action.” Daniyel said mildly.
The enemy craft opened fire. Lakshmi’s stolen ship was made of sturdier stuff than the light patrol craft, but the salvos of energy fire slammed into it’s hull, tearing chunks away and making the ship scream in protest. A chunk of metal pinwheeled away from the central engine cowlings.
“I do hope that was not a vital piece.” Daniyel commented mildly.
“Not! Helping!” Lakshmi shouted, opening fire as she tore upwards into the middle of the enemy craft.
Once more, she scored a direct hit, and the vessel blew apart as she flew through the expanding debris cloud that had been an airship.
But it seemed that this time, Lakshmi’s luck had run out. Weapon fire hammered into the rear of the craft tearing chunks of armor and machinery loose. The console lights flickered and the engine started to stutter.
Daniyel nodded quietly to himself, and flipped two more switches, and quietly pulled loose control wires, splicing them together under the console.
“If I may suggest. I believe that the Lady Soriya has given me an idea.”
“I am entertaining all options at this point!” Lakshmi shouted over her shoulder.
“Then let us exit the scene with all due haste.” Daniyel said, and pressed a button.
The fighter craft kicked like a mule and it’s engines shrieked as the elemental energies of its core were directly routed through the engine systems. Daniyel and Lakshmi were pressed back into their seats, the control stick shaking wildly in Lakshmi’s hands.
“What did you do?!” She shouted. Daniyel opened his mouth to apologize, but Lakshmi continued “This is the best ride I’ve ever been on!”
Daniyel lowered his head, and hid a broad smile with his hand, covering it with a cough.
“The engine manifolds have been overloaded. Our speed will continue to increase until the systems burn out. We should aim for Breezewood.” He said, once he had recovered his poise.
Lakshmi grinned wildly. “Thanks, Daniyel! You’re the best! Punch it!”
There was a flash of light and a boom as the little fighter craft vanished in a glowing streak.
***
Standing at the windows of the command deck of the Centurion, Commander Khine turned as a red faced and exhausted trooper stumbled onto the bridge.
“Sir! Commander Khine, sir! Urgent news!”
Commander Khine turned smoothly from the bridge and nodded. “Very good. She’s away?”
The trooper took several panting gasps. “Yes sir! She’s overcharged her engines just as you said, and took off to the east.”
Khine nodded. “Casualties?”
“None sir.”
Khine turned, surprise registering on his face. “None? Not one? The patrol ships I understand, but not even the hangar guards?”
The trooper saluted again. “No sir. As you say, the patrol ships were warned of the deception, so they ejected smoothly, and the guards within the hangar and around the princess were found unconscious and restrained. Apparently, some effort was even made to make them comfortable?” His voice held a note of puzzlement.
Khine tapped his fingers together. “Curious…” He spun. “But irrelevant, regardless. The plan is in motion. Finally, I can drag these accursed churchmen into the light of law!”
The captain of the Centurion cleared his throat, and said “Permission to speak freely, sir?”
Khine turned to glance at the captain from the corner of his eye, and a corner of his mouth quirked upwards for a microsecond. He turned back to the window. “You’re wondering why I was willing to take such an awful risk, letting the rebel princess go call her friends.” He turned and walked slowly along the windows. “It’s simple. She’s of no use. A dead stone, on her own, her father hopelessly believing that she will be of some use in the future. The prince is the heir apparent now, even if the emperor has not yet recognized it. But in her pitiful flailing, she’s found what I needed. She has found the rebellion that I knew lurked in the heart of the empire, and now she will bring it here, drawn by whatever strangeness it is that has driven the church so mad.”
“You refer to the pink haired girl in the brig sir?”
Khine nodded. “I do. I could not put the pieces together until she appeared in company of Lakshmi, but once she did, it was obvious. The air pirates are a part of the rebellion, the rebellion is a part of the church, and the church is mad for this girl for some reason. When I confront the emperor with the proof of the Pope’s treachery, then we will finally be free of this awful leash around our necks.” Khine slammed his fist into the console. “And I will finally be able to bring order to the Empire!”
He flung his hand out to the crew at stations. “Helmsman! Make course for Spyre! All ships, full power to cores!”
The crew sprang into action and the Home Fleet of the Empire was soon glowing at full power towards Spyre.
***
The nameless fighter craft sped across the sky, shaking and whining as it’s overcharged engines slowly began to fail. Lakshmi fought the craft all the way to Breezewood, covering the distance in only 3 hours. To her surprise, the ship did not spontaneously explode as it neared the village, but with its fuel running low and the damage to the ship…
Lakshmi sighed with the weight of the world.
Daniyel said “The field to the rear of Lady Holly’s home should be suitable this time.
Lakshmi pounded the console in front of her. “It’s not fair! Why do all my ships end up like this!”
Daniyel said nothing, and as the last of the ship’s fuel was finally exhausted, Lakshmi set the craft for a long slow fall with the fading power of its elemental crystals.
“Hold on tight.” She said, and then the fighter crashed hard into the ground, tearing furrows into the wild meadows beyond Breezewood.
The ping and tick of cooling metal and the faint crystalline ‘ting’ as elemental crystals destabilized filled the air, before the muffled cursing and coughing. The canopy of the ship fell off crashing and shattering on the ground. Daniyel carried Lakshmi out of the wreckage, laying her down on the ground after he’d made a suitable distance.
“There was no fire this time.” Daniyel remarked calmly.
Lakshmi was silent.
“This is good.” Daniyel said gravely.
Lakshmi sat up, looking silent and sullen, then suddenly violently hammered the ground. “Why does everything I touch explode?! Why am I so useless!” she screamed at the sky.
Daniyel looked silently back at the smoking but mostly intact ship behind them, then said calmly. “This one did not explode. Or catch fire.”
Across the meadow, in Holly and Lilyanna’s home, lights were flickering on, and shortly Eshaan, Soriya, Eideth, and Holly had arrived.
Eshaan gawked at the two and the wreckage beyond, Soriya looked at the two curiously, while Eideth tsked.
Holly looked at the pair, and then said with a dangerously quiet voice. “Where is my daughter?”
Lakshmi wilted, and even Daniyel grimaced.
Holly took a step forward, her voice louder. “I asked you, where my daughter is.”