Page 15 of Lhora
“An agreement? What kind of agreement?” She searched him, but he was as confused as she was.
“I don’t know. Come on. We’ve got to keep going.” When he found her hand this time, she didn’t object.
They’d barely taken a dozen steps when Duren slowed down, then stopped. There was a click, and another panel drew aside. It was to an adjacent corridor, but this one was lit, albeit dimly. Duren turned to the right. “Lifeboats are this way.”
They reached the docking bay without another barrage hitting the galleon, which seemed to confirm the Coltrosstian’s remark that they’d been boarded. A couple of lifeboats had already been deployed, leaving a handful in stasis-ready mode.
Duren rushed to the nearest one. Lhora came up behind him, prepared to enter it, when he whipped around, grabbed her by the shoulders, and threw her inside. He pressed the locking mechanism as she fought to free herself from her confinement.
“What are youdoing?” she yelled at him. “Duren! Let me out of here!”
It all became clearer to her what he intended, and she didn’t know if she should be majorly upset with him, angry, or frightened out of her mind.
“Duren!”
He gave her one final look she couldn’t interpret because the solid transparent hull between them voided out her ability to read his emotions. Turning his face away at the last moment so he wouldn’t have to watch, he slammed his hand on the launch button, and jettisoned her out into space.
9
Strategy
The lifeboat shot away from the ship and out into the troposphere. As soon as there was enough air between her and the vessel, she grappled with the controls. The lifepod obeyed, and she put the craft into an arc.
Through the window, she spotted the besieged Coltrosstian ship lying just above the horizon. Three Tra’Mellian battleships surrounded it in a triangular frame. More grappling hooks jetted outward, embedding themselves in the hull to keep the captured vessel immobile. She could see two boarding tubes already extending from the largest one, a battlecruiser, to where they connected to their prey.
Lhora checked her vidscreen. In the far distance way above her she could barely make out two other lifeboats, but she knew neither of them could contain Duren. He wouldn’t have had enough time to reach that altitude in a shorter amount of time. No, they had to contain the men who’d taken off ahead of her. So far, either the Tra’Mell hadn’t seen the escapees, or they didn’t consider the deserters important enough to follow after them.
From what she could estimate, she was somewhere above the seas that bordered between the two main lands, and she set her navigational unit for Beinight. She was careful to keep herself between the sun and the enemy, and prayed she’d go unnoticed.
Her craft suddenly jolted. A hard beam of orange light enveloped the life pod, nearly blinding her when it struck the view screen. Lhora released the controls, throwing up one hand to shield her eyes from the tractor beam’s glare. The next second, the tiny craft jerked again, and she felt herself being pulled backwards. Unable to see who had a hold on her, she tried to bring it up on her vid. It was blank. Her console had been negated.
All she could do was wait and see if her captors were friend or foe.
As she was being drawn in, she stared at the sight of the Coltrosstian galleon and wondered what was going on inside. Had Duren made it out? Or had he gone back to help his father battle the Tra’Mell?
“Are you still alive?” she murmured. Her voice was nearly inaudible in the pod’s dampened interior. Memory of his body when she landed on it flashed through her mind, and she felt her own body tingle in response. There had been solid muscle, proving he’d earned the right to wear his sword.
What she couldn’t fathom was why he’d chosen to help her escape. Why he’d come down into the brig to rescue her.
Why he’d shoved her into the lifepod and sent her away.
The tugging stopped. She heard a scraping sound, and recognized it as a loading bridge. The lifeboat was being loaded onto an extended platform, where it would then be drawn back into the ship, since it didn’t have an entry hatch.
As soon as she saw the bay doors start to descend, she knew she was on another Coltrosstian ship. Lhora tensed, her hands on the hilts of her weapons. She was prepared to defend herself. Ready to go down fighting if that’s what it would take. Ready to fight like an Esstiss.
Two figures appeared in the view screen. Their faces went slack with shock upon seeing her.
They couldn’t open the pod from the outside, which meant she had two choices. She could remain inside. She had enough emergency provisions to tide her over, but she’d run out of air long before that occurred. Or she could open the exit and hope they wouldn’t cut her down before she had the chance to get out.
One of the men raised his sword and yelled something. The other man pounded on the nearly indestructible transparent cover. He eventually disappeared from view, but his companion remained standing guard while reinforcements were called. She could imagine what was going through their minds. Why was a Beinight inside a Coltrosstian lifeboat? Where had she come from?
She glared at him, showing no fear even though she quaked inside. Her hands gripped her weapons tighter to prevent them from noticeably shaking.
As she’d expected, more men appeared and surrounded the little craft. They suddenly parted, and a tall, burly man wearing a glaring pink overtunic came to stand in front of them. She narrowed her eyes at the man, who stared back at her.
Slowly, he shook his head and patted his weapons, then raised his empty hands to show he meant her no harm. It was clear he wouldn’t attack her unless she tried to go after him. At which time he still wouldn’t have to draw his sword. His men would take care of the task for him.
She released her hold on her weapons and held up her hands to show she wouldn’t attack. The man nodded and gestured for her to open the pod. Using one hand while keeping the other one in view, she reached down and pulled the lever.
