“They’re coming,” Gillian says firmly. “Or we don’t go at all, and you become a donor.”
“They can’t come.” I drop down to my knees in front of Gillian. “What if they get the sickness again? What if they all die? I can’t have that happening. I can’t put them through it or my warriors. I can’t.”
“They survived the same sickness as your females had, Dalox. They haven’t got sick again, have you?” Gillian looks over at Dyoti and Dyris, who shake their heads.
“We’ve not had any further sickness, Lord Dalox,” Dyris says. “Our healer believes we are now immune.”
“But…”
“They’re willing to take the chance, Dalox.” She cups my cheek with her soft, warm hand, and I find myself leaning into her touch. “You should too.”
GILLIAN
Dalox’s eyes burn into mine for what seems like the longest time. I’m not quite sure what’s going on in his head, but I am willing him to make the right decision. I am not going to guess. I’m just going to hope. Dyris said there were many others of her clan who felt what Dyana was doing wasn’t right but weren’t prepared to challenge her after what she had done for them, and honestly, I can understand it.
I wasn’t quite prepared for how many, but if he can get this bucket of bolts in the air, then we’re gone, I guess.
“Then they can come,” he says, a curl of smoke coming from his mouth. “I can’t stop them.”
I fling my arms around his neck as there is a low murmuring cheer through the aircraft, followed by a crash and a number of growling squeaks.
“Does this belong to anyone?” One of the largest females I’ve seen has Deus by the scruff of his neck, his feet off the floor as he waves his arms and legs like a stranded beetle.
“He’s with me,” Dalox says. “And we should get out of here. Can someone release the wires holding this thing in place?”
“Already done,” a voice calls from the back.
“Then throw out anything not coming with us, and we’ll see what this ship can do,” Dalox growls. “Gillian, with me. This is going to take two of us.”
“I told you, I can’t fly a space ship,” I say as he grabs my hand and pulls me over to the console.
“Have you ever flown one?”
“Well, no.”
“Then how do you know you can’t?”
He sort of has a point, but also I don’t want to kill everyone on board in a fiery crash.
Even if those on board are, in fact, Sarkarnii, and would probably shrug off any fire.
“I need you to moderate the engine strength based on the blue line. They need to stay under it, and you have to hold them back as we take off, understand?” Dalox says as he uses a single digit to make the green lights underneath the blue line go up and down on the screen.
“Okay,” I say. “Are you sure there’s not someone more qualified?”
Dalox looks over his shoulder. “The warriors need to make sure this thing doesn’t fall apart. They know what to do.” He looks back at me. “Are you ready, my Gillian?”
“Er, no, but I doubt I’ll ever be. We’d better go.”
I’m looking ahead of us, through the viewing window, and it looks like there are lights coming our way.
“Then we will go,” Dalox says, and the ship shudders as the engines whine. I watch as the green lines rise up, and then I push at them with my fingertips as they reach the blue line. It’s weirdly harder than I thought it would be. The green lines want to go over the blue ones and I’m struggling to hold them back.
When I look up, we’re off the ground. Ahead of us, the lights from the ship pick out the vegetation we’re rising through until we breach the canopy. Which is when the first bolt hits us,rocking the ship from side to side and sending my green lines going wild as I try to hold them in place and grasp the console I’m working on.
“I’m going to go higher. They’ll follow in Sarkarnii form, but we can outpace them once we’re in the atmosphere,” Dalox shouts out to me.
“We will try to stop them,” Dyris says, her tail lashing behind her as she heads through to the back of the ship with Dyoti following.
