The special forces unit drew a lot of attention as it moved through the terminal, bypassing the civilian queues and the security checkpoints. Passengers waiting in line stared as the military procession passed, their expressions ranging from respect to curiosity, and some to alarm.
The cable car reserved for us was a standard passenger model, designed to hold roughly thirty people. Today it held me,Lieutenant Solgev, and ten soldiers, who distributed themselves throughout the car.
"The descent is smooth," the lieutenant said. "But the transition through the cloud layer can cause some turbulence. Nothing dangerous."
"I know." I smiled at her. "I still remember the ride up here. That's not something a flatlander like me can ever forget."
I expected her to respond with questions, to show some curiosity about me, but it seemed that she had been instructed not to interact with me beyond what was absolutely necessary. Either that or she wasn't the talkative sort.
I took a seat by the window and admired the view, which was spectacular and terrifying in equal measure. The cable stretched out over a void that made the drops I'd flown over on Veynathei seem modest by comparison. Below, the mountainside fell away in sheer cliffs and jagged outcroppings, thousands of feet of vertical rock before the slopes gentled enough to support vegetation.
The car lurched into motion with a mechanical clunk and began its descent, swaying gently as the cable took the weight. The sound was familiar from my ascent months ago but unsettling in a new way. Back then, I'd worried about maintenance and cable integrity while Codric teased me about my paranoia.
Now I just felt numb.
The mountains slid past the window, their scale diminishing as we descended. The eternal cloud layer approached, a gray wall that marked the boundary between Elucia's rarified world and the lowlands below.
We passed through the clouds, and for several minutes the windows showed nothing but gray mist. The car swayed more in this layer, buffeted by winds that the cables handled well, or so I hoped.
Several of the soldiers gripped their armrests. I stared at the gray and thought of nothing.
When we emerged below the cloud line, the lowlands spread out beneath us, and the sight of them had an unexpected effect on me.
Green. After months of gray stone and white snow and the muted colors of high-altitude vegetation, there was so much green. The foothills below were covered in forests and farmland. Roads threaded between settlements, and I could see hover-vehicles moving along them.
This was the world I'd grown up in. The world of mild weather and gentle slopes and cities built for comfort rather than survival. The world where dragons were admired on television screens during rescue operations, not partners bonded for life.
It looked foreign to me now.
The lower terminal came into view. I'd been awed by it when I arrived, the industrial-scale engineering, the cables stretching upward into the mist, the sheer ambition of a small, poor nation that had built something to rival any Elurian achievement.
Now it looked like a gate ready to slam shut behind me.
The car docked with a series of mechanical clanks and hydraulic hisses. The platform outside was cordoned off, military personnel keeping civilian traffic at a distance. Through the window, I could see the Elurian unit waiting, a platoon of Federation soldiers in their distinctive gray and blue uniforms.
Lieutenant Solgev stood. "End of the line, Mr. Alar Tekum."
So, I was no longer Cadet Alar Tekum, and not yet Prince Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fifth.
I stood, shouldered my pack, and followed Solgev to the car's exit.
The transfer was brisk and professional. Solgev exchanged documents with the Elurian platoon commander.
"Prince Alaranthus." The colonel saluted with a precision that bordered on aggressive. "Colonel Davin Krest, Royal Guard of Catonia. Your father sends his regards and his relief that you are safely returned."
His relief. As if I'd been rescued from captivity rather than torn from the life I'd chosen.
"Thank you, Colonel." I returned the salute out of habit.
"We are looking at approximately two weeks by road, Your Highness. We'll travel through Tarina province and then north through the central corridor. Accommodations have been arranged at stations along the route."
Two weeks in an armored hover-vehicle, crawling across the Federation's road network while the bond with Veynathei stretched thinner with every mile.
I could already feel it, the subtle weakening at the edges of her presence in my mind. She was still there, warm and steady, but the signal was faint. Distance was already doing its work.
I turned back toward the mountains one last time. The cable car terminal rose above me, the cables stretching upward into the clouds, and somewhere beyond those clouds, beyond the peaks and the snow and the auroras, a dragon with shifting scales was waiting for me.
"Your Highness, we should head to the vehicles." The colonel reached for my pack and handed it over to one of the soldiers. "The sooner you are protected, the better."
