Mekos nodded, not really taking it in yet. “I want to take her home. May I borrow your little vehicle?”
“Gladly. Ian...?”
“I think he’ll be all right.” Under Mekos’s shirt was Ian’s oval case and the little man was inside.
“May I visit you?” Davro asked.
“You are always welcome and we look forward to seeing you again. How do we get back to your house?”
Davro opened a door and they saw that the Spacer was waiting for them. “You don’t need to return. Everything you brought with you is in there, plus a few gifts, and all the equipment Qip wants. I will come to you soon.”
Mekos placed the unconscious Aradella inside, then put Ian’s case near his blue chair.
“Thank you,” Mekos said to his uncle, then he got into the Spacer. It quickly rose and started flying away.
When Aradella woke, she wasn’t surprised to find herself in the snug little vehicle. Ian was in his chair and Mekos was leaning back, looking at both of them. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“To Qip’s. We have some building materials to deliver to him. We put the biggest and heaviest pieces in that bag of yours. Are you hungry?”
“No! In fact my stomach is dancing about, but after what happened, that’s understandable.” She looked at him. “Are you all right? I didn’t want to do that alone but—”
He took her hand in his. “You and Ian are the heroes.”
She looked at the little man. “What did you do?”
“It was for my sister.”
She turned to Mekos. “Tell me!”
Ian made a gesture that Mekos could tell the story.
“Ian found Urah at a tavern near where her daughter was. He showed himself to her, then he taunted her.”
“Buzzing in her face? Wings against her ears?” Aradella asked. “That kind of thing?”
“I spit in her eye,” Ian said. “And I called her a few things.”
“She ran after him,” Mekos said. “Into one of those lifting rooms.”
“An elevator,” Aradella said.
“Yes. And when she reached the top, Ian was waiting for her.”
“She laughed at me,” Ian said. “She said she’d foreseen that amanwould kill her and since I wasn’t one, she was safe.”
Aradella’s eyes widened. “That must have made you angry.”
“I laughed and said that nomanwould ever want her, then I flew backward.”
“He means,” Mekos said, “that she ran after him all the way off the building.”
“Oh,” Aradella said. “As insplat?”
“Exactly like that.”
It took Aradella a few moments to ingest all that had happened. “They are gone. Both of those evil women are gone. Now do you think we’ll be forgiven?”
“Yes, I do. I think we’ll be welcomed home with enthusiasm.”
