The explosion rocked the Revenant seconds later and threw me off my feet. I slammed into the side of the console with my bruised hip, toppled forward over all kinds of sensitive buttons and dials, struck my head, and briefly blacked out. When I blinked my eyes open later, possibly only a few seconds after the blast, I knew only one thing for certain: We’d survived, and the Digmaster had no energy lock. TheFuturehad self-destructed.
Chapter 25
Levant
I’d gone to the North Pole with Felicia thinking we’d get on her ship and fly away. I thought we had it under control, even if it was bad, and that it was as simple as flicking a switch to save the world. I’d been wrong. Getting injured had not been in the plan, and I blamed feeling invincible on the extra strength the mating bond seemed to give me. I could probably also blame the strange radiation the ship had been emitting for some of what happened next, which made me much more aggressive.
Then… then I’d come to believe we were going to die, but the world was going to be saved anyway. Strangely enough, I’d felt at peace with that too. A small sacrifice to save my people, my world. Like I’d believed it was right to sacrifice my bond to them if it meant staying with Felicia. Perhaps that peace had stemmed from the knowledge that my mate had chosen me over everything. She loved me the same way I loved her, and that bond—it was more powerful than the lure of home.
To suddenly wake up from a deep healing sleep aboard the Digmaster, with Auby’s snout at my neck and Felicia curled against my side… It took me a minute to shift gears in my head. We had lived? I vaguely recalled the savage Naga dragging me through a narrow pass of snow and ice. A dark metal passage had followed, but that had seemed more like a dream at the time, a figment of my imagination.
“Auby,” I whispered, because I did not want to wake Felicia. “What happened? Did we save the planet?” My chest achedbadly when I talked, but it wasn’t as bad as before. Rest had definitely allowed my body to recuperate. I was lucky I’d ended up lying on my back, because it felt like my ribs had all shifted back into place. I tested them gently with my fingers to be sure.
Auby lifted his small head and blinked his pale purple eyes at me; they glowed in a way I could only describe as happy. “The ship self-destructed correctly, and I believe there have been no more earthquakes since,” he reported in a low tone that matched mine. “I managed to pilot the Digmaster to the surface, and that’s where we are. I didn’t know what else to do, or how to get it to go back to your Clan, Levant. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” I whispered. “Auby, you saved our lives. You did a fantastic job.” He preened in response, and his chortle of happiness was a tad too loud. It woke Felicia, and though I’d wanted to let her rest, I was infinitely pleased to look into her brown-green eyes. “Hello, my sweet mate.”
She smiled back, so wide that it must have made her cheeks ache. “Levant! You’re awake!” Then she rose quickly and scanned my awkwardly sprawled body. “We need to get you to a healer right away! Where is the closest Shaman? Auby, can you set a course?” Auby shook his shaggy head, ears flapping, but Felicia was already headed for the controls herself to peer at them as if she could do it.
“I’m going to be fine,” I said to her. “The sleep allowed me to heal much of the damage naturally. We must call the Council first to report back.” I patted the pouches still on my belt and located the communicator. The planet had to be in turmoil after the quakes, volcanic eruptions, and more I probably didn’t knowabout. I wanted to go back to Serqethos as soon as possible to make sure the fisheries hadn’t sustained any new damage.
“Uh, guys, I think we should deal with the savage first,” Auby announced. He jabbed one hoof toward the open hatch leading out of the Digmaster. I felt a chill run down my spine. None of my senses had alerted me to the presence of another, but now that Auby had mentioned it, I realized someone was there. Deep in the dark, tucked back as far away from the control room as possible.
“Oh, he must be scared out of his mind. We should probably just open the hatch so he can get out. This is his home after all…” Felicia suggested. That was a solution we all agreed on, and one that Auby could comply with. The hatch opened, and on the viewscreen at the front of the Digmaster’s control room, we could see footage of how he slipped out and disappeared into the snow.
“I wish we could have thanked him somehow,” Felicia said. “He saved our lives in the end, you know?” I vaguely recalled that, but I was pretty sure the male would much prefer it if he never saw hair nor scale of us again. There was no sign of any other savage Naga outside, and only a collapsed circular hole in the distance to indicate where Felicia’s ship had exploded. It was night, but I was pretty sure no more than a few hours had passed since we’d gotten here.
The Shaman council answered when we called them. I still didn’t want to risk moving from the floor, so Felicia curled against my side and we peered up at the small screen together. Chen was very relieved we’d survived, and happy to hear us report that the threat was gone, destroyed for good. They also had theirhands full putting out fires all over the world after that massive upheaval. I needed to hear only one thing from them to help us decide our course of action.
“Is my exile lifted, or do you want me to remain at the Pole even longer?” Chen seemed surprised by the question, as if it hadn’t even crossed his mind. He shook his head, smoothed the edge of his blue robe over his chest, and laughed. I knew my answer then, my chest growing warm with happiness.
“Time to go home, Levant. I’m pretty sure you’ve done more than enough to earn it. Your people need you. I’ve been fielding requests for your return from Serqethos’s Queen for months, you know that?” I shared a look with Felicia. Good of Alshara, I knew she was my friend for a reason. “Artek too, and Corin, and well… honestly, I was ready to give in last week, but then this started to happen.” He gestured vaguely, and I knew he meant the upheaval the failing FTL drive had caused, and my finding Felicia.
We formulated a plan of action together then, but it took us several days of recuperating at my tent before we could put it into action. We saw no sign of the savage Naga at all as we packed up the camp on the last day, down to the last perimeter sensor. I had to assume that whoever was sent to search for them would have to use heat sensors to find them; they blended too well with the landscape. I was very grateful that task wasn’t going to be mine.
“You are a packrat, Levant,” Felicia said for the umpteenth time as we hauled crates onto my flyer. The tent would have to be struck last, but I had a very carefully balanced system. I knew everything would fit; after all,myflyer was much bigger thanthe one Kaylass had loaned us. Felicia and Auby had managed to recover it, and we were going to have to fly both back to Serqethos. Thankfully, only a handful of flying lessons were required to get Felicia up to speed on it. She was, after all, a natural-born pilot.
“You’ll be happy to have all this stuff when we make our home at Serqethos,” I assured her. “Your tent will be the only tent that stays cool during the day, you know?” Then I hesitated. I realized we had not discussed living at Serqethos; I’d somehow just assumed that’s where we were going to live. “Unless…”
She raised her hand to silence me, her mitten wet from the snow after we’d been hauling luggage onto the flyers for the past hour. “No, you want to live at Serqethos, Levant. You wouldn’t be happy anywhere else. I know there are humans at Ahoshaga, but they can visit and we can visit. That’s good enough. I don’t need humans to make friends. I’m pretty sure Merish is interested in the job too, maybe Alshara as well…” She cocked her head and considered that. “In fact, I think I need to make itmyjob to be Alshara’s friend. She’s too alone as the Queen.”
I was glowing with happiness, because I’d gotten everything I’d ever dreamed of: a human mate, my home, my Clan, and my people safe. So it was only with mild curiosity, not worry, that I answered my communicator a few hours later. We’d boarded our flyers and were flying side by side back down the continent toward Serqethos. Auby kept Felicia company, but we’d kept an open channel between the two vessels so we could hear one another. The Digmaster, unfortunately, had to be left behind. I’d planted a marker on it, though, so the Shaman Council could locate it. Now that the Revenant had fulfilled its task, it wasn’t moving anywhere on its own at all.
“Zathar, can I help you?” I asked as I answered the call. During the massive upheaval when we’d fought to destroy Felicia’s ship, they’d had to deal with an attack by Thunder Rock and Sun Fang forces on the massive, crashed Skywreck that the latest influx of humans at Haven came from. They’d managed to fight them off until an earthquake rocked the area, and then everyone scattered. Last I’d heard, all was well, but we’d had no further details. I figured Zathar had his hands full, but enough allies that he didn’t need my help.
“Levant, I have two requests,” the former Thunder Rock Prince announced. No greeting, no small talk as humans would have said, just straight to business. “First, I heard you have a human, and I wanted to extend an invitation to you and your mate at Haven.” I glanced out through the transparent canopy of the flyer at Felicia. She had her hands on the controls, flying manually because she enjoyed it, but she glanced my way once, quickly shaking her head no. Auby popped his snout against the window next to her, fluffy ears waggling.
“Thank you,” I said politely. “But as you know, Serqethos is quite welcoming to humans. Felicia and I will settle there. We have much to do to help the Clan recover from their food shortage.” Zathar laughed, not in the least offended by my rejection of his offer. In fact, he sounded a tad relieved.
“That’s good. I don’t know what we would have done with three smartasses in close proximity. You’d probably drive all the hunters crazy,” he said. He, of course, referred to both Artek and Corin living in or near Haven. While Corin was not officially a Shaman, hewasthe official caretaker of Ahoshaga and all its machinery. All three of us had shared lessons at the Shaman Training Camp as younglings.
“My next request is much more pressing,” Zathar continued. “One of our own went missing amid the chaos a few days ago. She wasn’t supposed to be part of the defense force against Thunder Rock and Sun Fang, but she managed to sneak in. During the earthquake, she vanished. We don’t believe she fell in or died; she has simply gone… missing. Jasmine is very capable, and very stubborn, so we don’t believe she’s dead. We just can’t find her.”
“I will keep my eyes open. When we pass the area with our flyers, we will also do a search. I can request volunteer dragon riders to come for an aerial search too once we reach Serqethos. Does that help?” I offered. I knew there would be eager young males happy to volunteer, especially when it involved rescuing a human female.
“I appreciate that. One of our hunters is also missing, so if you see him, please let me know. We’re not worried about Ekkire though, he wanders more often.” Zathar signed off with a promise to stay in touch. My thoughts churned as I wondered what could have happened to either of them. Best-case scenario, they were missing together somewhere. Spring was in full swing on this side of the hemisphere, the snow melting and food becoming plentiful again. If they had not been hurt, they had a very good chance of survival.
Felicia insisted on making a second pass before we moved on from the area of the skywreck. Her shock at discovering such a massive ship, crashed nearly intact and carrying thousands of humans in stasis pods, was huge. The ship had sunk partially into the ground thanks to the quake that had rocked the area, and it looked messy and unsafe. Patches of snow were still melting in place, and mud covered much of the area around theship. A camp of Naga and humans sat nearby, and they waved as we passed.
