“Will you be all right sitting here while I finish speaking to Lieutenant Commander Zucar?”
“Uh, yes,” Lena murmured. “Thank you.”
Vor smiled. “You're welcome.”
Something crashed. Lena and Vor both looked toward the sound. One of the Nethren seated before a cacher had dropped their control panel. He fumbled to pick it up.
“Sorry, Commander,” he said.
“That's all right.” Vor went back to the dark-haired Nethren, his lieutenant commander. “All right, Zucar. I want a full report.”
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant commander whispered. Then he straightened. “Uh, we sent some soldiers over the wall unseen. Then we started the diversion. It went smoothly until that wingless Aethari summoned energy blasts from the sky.”
“Wait.” Vor frowned at the man. “The wingless Aethari? You mean the large one with the black hair? The one I captured?”
“Yes, Commander!” The lieutenant commander lost all shock and fear, gaining momentum with his story. “That same Aethari is here, and he possesses special magic. I didn't know they could do that.”
“Do what exactly?”
“He flew, sir. Without wings. Then he pointed at the fortress, and this bright white line of energy blasted out of the sky and hit the fortress right where he pointed. He killed one of our soldiers in the camp with another energy blast. The man was struck dead instantly.”
“Instantly?” Vor stepped back.
“Lightning.” Lena couldn't stop herself. She was just so shocked that they didn't know what thunder and lightning were. Even worse, she felt bad for them. Only people who had never seen a rainstorm would be ignorant of thunder. “That energy slash is called lightning. It's a natural occurrence, usually happening during storms.”
Everyone in the room stared at her as if she had spoken another language.
“Lightning?” Vor asked. “I've read about it. It's a sudden, high-voltage electrostatic discharge that occurs within clouds, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. It's caused by an electrical imbalance in the atmosphere that creates a violent, rapid flow of energy.”
“Yes, electricity,” Lena said. “Not just energy. And it's hot enough to melt sand.”
“Like our geothermal fuel.” Vor frowned in thought.
“Holy fuck,” the lieutenant commander muttered.
“That man is my brother-in-law,” Lena went on proudly. Then she processed what Vor had said earlier. “You're the one who took him below?”
Vor lifted his chin. “Yes, during a raid.”
Lena shivered. This was the man who was responsible for the loss of Thaxvarien's wings. How could she feel sympathy for Vor? But then a wash of calm came over her, and Lena suddenly understood that it had been fate. Destiny. Without Vor, Thaxvarien would never have become who he was meant to be. And now Lena was Vor's captive. They were all connected.
And then the insight shivered away, and Lena was left staring at Vor. “Because of what you did to him, Thaxvarien became the strongest Aethari alive. He is blessed by both Sources and speaks for them. He can converge, but not just as we Medeans do. Thaxvarien converges living things. He controls the elements.”
“That's not possible,” Vor growled.
Oh, she had struck a nerve. But of course, it wouldn't sit well with Vor that his actions had empowered his enemy.
“Your people have seen the proof.” Lena waved toward the cacher screens. “You're lucky you got the ward up before he destroyed the ward tower.”
Vor strode over to her. “This wingless Aethari, you say his name is Thaxvarien?”
“His name is Thaxvarien Rennux. He's the Speaker of the Sources, son of the Speaker of Icara, and my sister's husband. He's here for me, and he won't stop until he's freed me.” She smirked. “In other words, you're all fucked.”
Chapter Sixteen
Vor
Commander Vor stared at Lena. He had stopped thinking of her as his captive or his woman. She was her own person, a woman of incredible beauty and aching fragility, but that was just the surface. Inside, she held so much more that Vor was just beginning to discover. In short, Lena was magnificent. And she had just stood up to him in the most shocking and arousing way.
