“And I’llletyou know when I’m plugging good and ready, and not a moment sooner!” Sov yelled back. Walking up to him, he poked his son’s chest with two fingers. “Yourjob is to obey orders, not question them. You obey to the letterwhenI tell you to, and where. Are we clear on that? Otherwise, I may have to just drop you back at Montismet, and let the enemy have their way with you.” Sov gave him that oily grin Duren hated to see. “You know what they’ll do to you. You know you won’t last a day under their torture. You know that, don’t you? They’ll inflict pain on you that you’ve never felt before in your life, and not just physical pain.” He tapped his temple. “Mental pain, as well. Those torgarts are masters in mental torture. They can make whatever you’re feeling feel a thousand times worse. And that’s what they’ll do to you because they’ll know you were instrumental in the abduction of one of the Esstika’s prize guards. They’ll know because they’ll scrape it out of your brain with their mental knives.”
Straightening, he crossed his arms over his chest and continued to glare at the young man. “I don’t care if you’re my son and heir. If you plug up this mission, I promise I’ll personally fly us back over their imperial city and drop you in their laps. Now, do you have any otherrequests?”
“I trust you’ll treat her with the deference she deserves. She’s earned her position of respect.”
Sov blinked in disbelief. “What’s with you, Duren? Are you growing…” His eyes widened, and he threw back his head and laughed. “Dearest goddesses, you’ve become enamored with her!” He guffawed again, delighting in the irony, before suddenly sobering. “Well, now that that little tidbit is revealed, it’s obvious I can no longer trust you to be with her. From now until we reach Avergild, you’re to remain either on the bridge or in your quarters. Are we clear?”
Duren gritted his teeth. He knew that from this point forward there was nothing he could say or do to make the man change his mind. He clenched his teeth harder to prevent a smile from curling the corners of his lips. But that didn’t prevent him from questioning members of the crew. If he was lucky, he might glean enough scattered information from them to get a clue as to what his father had in mind.
“Well?” Sov demanded a second time.
“I hear and I obey,” Duren muttered in obeisance.
Sov nodded. “Good. Now report to your station. We will speak no more of this issue. Ever.”
Bowing his head, Duren took a step back, then turned and left the room. The Sarpi may have banned him from seeing Lhora again, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t look in on her in other ways.
He watched from the corner of his eye as his father returned to the bridge and took a stance in front of the ship’s wheel.
“What’s our position, bosun?”
“Approaching the twentieth parallel, Sarpi.”
“Altitude?”
“Sixteen thousandhuares.”
“Steady as she goes. Geravay! How many sails do we have employed?”
“All from the foremast and main mast. Awaiting your orders to unfurl the mizzen.”
“Wait until we reach twenty thousandhuares,then employ the jibs.”
“As per your orders, Sarpi,” the crewman acknowledged.
“Sarpi!” The helmsman monitoring the radar looked up from his view screens. “Sarpi! Three ships approaching!”
“Has to be those plugging Beinights.” Sov turned to give an order to the navigator, when the helmsman interrupted.
“No, Sarpi! These aren’t Beinights! The configuration is wrong, and they’re coming from the lower hemisphere!”
Sov reacted immediately. “Hard about! Pull up! Pull up!”
Duren hurried over to where the navigator was seated and peered through the scope. “They’re Tra’Mellian ships!”
“Can’t be!” Sov argued.
Angrily, Duren waved at the monitors. “Look for yourself! Unless the Beinights have suddenly changed their ships’ designs, those are Tra’Mell!”
Sov dashed up the steps to the upper deck and looked out through the transparent dome. “Distrad! Ready the cannons! All crewmen below decks! Ready the cannons and fire on my command!”
“Sarpi, we’d have a better chance at outrunning them!” Duren called out.
Jusgil added his voice. “I agree! We need to go full sail!”
“And go where?” Sov countered. “If we head for Avergild, they’ll follow us there. No. We make a stand here!”
“We could go back to Beinight,” Distrad suggested.
