Short story excerpt: THE SHORT-LIVED ESCAPE OF JORONO CYNES, an AFV Defender story

 The small buildings were nearly uniform, all cubes three meters high and maybe eight meters wide and ten meters deep, with a door on the right side, and a slit across the remainder of the front of each building. M’kar watched through several sets of drac eyes as people opened the door to step into a building with their burdens. They came back out a few moments later empty-handed, and pushed up on the top portion of the slit in the front wall. Support bars dropped down as the top half lifted upward, and it turned into an awning, extending out into the clearing.

It's an open air market, Thyal said, after M’kar watched a dozen more buildings be opened, and bundles and crates unloaded and shared the images with him.

It’s an illegal market.

I still don’t understand why Tress thought she smelled hooples, though, he said, after they watched a few proprietors set about assembling racks outside their shops.

M’kar didn’t respond. She focused on a heavy-set figure that had emerged from the jungle. She sent the dracs up for reconnaissance and backtracked him, discovering a path through the jungle. That path led down past the place where Tress had caught the scent of hooples. M’kar held still, watching the figure who was little more than a dark silhouette.

Then he stepped into the light and paused, turning from side to side to study the bustle of the half-assembled market.

Is that --? Thyal made a mental sound that equated with choking.

Jorono Cynes. Only the need for silence kept M’kar from spitting. That explains the hoople smell. Tress either caught a glimpse of him, or she heard him -- he talks to himself constantly, he’s talking to himself now. She didn’t know what she heard or saw, but it translated into hooples in her head.

How had Cynes escaped custody and the sentence that guaranteed he stay under strict watch and unable to travel the galaxy for the rest of his days? Had he gotten his hands on hooples, despite all the precautions taken to keep hooples from falling into anyone’s hands, much less his?

What are you going to do? Is it going to be fun? Thyal’s chuckle held all the mischief of their childhood adventures and exploits.

I certainly hope so.

M’kar left the dracs patrolling the sky while she headed back up the slope. The first thing to do was let Tress and Jorgan know they had done very good, then send them back to the camp. She sent Barroo back to Decker, requesting he send Spitfire to escort the children. M’kar paused a moment to be grateful Treinna hadn’t yet sent Moonrise back down to the camp to spend the night with Tress. Explaining what her daughter was doing right now might be tricky. Especially if she had to calm a panicky drac who only knew that this situation wasn’t what her Human parent expected. M’kar swore she could hear Decker bellow when he read the last part of her message, which she had scratched into the plasti-strip, because there was no code to stand for the most important words in the message: Cynes here.

Spitfire popped in, spitting and snarling, but quietly. Barroo brought M’kar a plasti-strip with two words code punched into it: Wait. Coming. 

“Thought you might want to join the fun,” she whispered, and gestured for Tress and Jorgan to obey Spitfire and go. She settled down where she could comfortably sit and close her eyes and really concentrate on what the dracs were showing her of the market as it opened. She saw enough details that she had a plan by the time Decker marched up the slope to join her, seething and yet somehow silent with his intensity.

Short story excerpt: THE SHORT-LIVED ESCAPE OF JORONO CYNES, an AFV Defender story

 

With Spitfire cleared and set free to go back to playing, hopefully wiser and willing to follow instructions, the two of them could turn back to helping Decker attend to the children in the post-dinner lesson and storytelling time. Currently they were sitting in a clump on the other side of the camp from the medical tent. Their adoration-mixed-with-terror for the Security Chief ensured that when he snarled and marched back and forth in front of them, hands clasped behind his back and shoulders hunched, they listened. Even more important, they remembered what he told them.

Currently, Decker regaled them with one horror story after another about ensigns and new graduates of the Academy who messed up big time. They thought they were experts in wilderness survival, but took two steps beyond the sensor field protecting their camp on their first dirtside mission, and immediately faced disaster.

“And don’t you forget, you smelly lumps of walking bait, we got no sensor fields or even those sissy vermin repulsion fields, so everything’s zooming in on you right this second, drooling over the snack they’re gonna make out of you!”

M’kar noted that Decker at least had the sense to vary the many and messy disasters the arrogant, careless idiots encountered. So far, while she hadn’t really been paying conscious attention, she had heard about three arms, six legs, and various hands and feet that were lost, either swallowed whole or mangled so badly they couldn’t be regenerated before various disgusting flesh-eating bacteria set in or venom melted flesh off bones, along with large chunks of flesh bitten away so various organs were revealed. When that happened, usually the companions of the said careless idiots had weak stomachs and were too busy losing their last four meals to apply medical aid. Someone always died in each story.

The children loved it, even as they cringed and squealed and made gagging noises. M’kar hoped she and Brea could find something suitably silly to entertain them before they curled up in their sleeping bags, to dilute the images in their minds and deflect nightmares.

“I’m thinking the older ones should get guard duty tonight. Wear them out, have them available during the period when nightmares usually hit, so they can help quiet down the ones who are noisy when they wake up crying.” She pitched her voice soft enough only Brea heard her, as they settled down between the fire pit and Decker’s audience. 

“All of them get guard duty. Prove to them that the shadows aren’t going to solidify and swallow them whole,” Brea countered. They locked gazes a moment, nodded, and turned back to listening to the end of Decker’s story.

Short story excerpt: THE SHORT-LIVED ESCAPE OF JORONO CYNES, an AFV Defender story

 M’kar stood at ready to use her animal-focused psionic Talent to assist Brea. The ship’s medic currently was bent over Spitfire, who obediently lay on her back, wings spread, legs splayed, while the woman ran a medical scanner over her. M’kar had to admit the little drac did an admirable job not swiping at the distraction of the flashing lights on the scanner. She hoped that was a result of Decker impressing on her how important it was to lie still for the make-feel-good-again-lady. The only alternative was that Spitfire’s calmness was a sign of just how sick she got from overindulging in some local berries that hadn’t been cleared by Brea’s medical scanner yet.

“How is she?”

“Better.”

“Honestly, I told her multiple times, but as soon as I turned my back, she cleared off half the bush so fast, half of what went down her gullet was leaves and bark.”

“I’m not blaming you.” Brea set down the scanner and brought out a strip of spiced goho jerky. “If I’m going to blast anyone for the situation we’re all in, I’ll go after the dee-ee who cursed us all by asking what could go wrong on a planet with no permitted technology.”

“You heard about him, huh?” M’kar shook her head at the obliviousness of one of the newer members of the crew. He hadn’t learned yet that asking such questions usually invited Fate to drop an entire garbage scow of trouble on the crew of the Defender. She hadn’t had to do anything to correct the dead-head. His friends standing around him at the display in the visitor welcome center had turned on him quickly enough and tried to hush him. But too late. She was just glad he wasn’t in her department, and had no Talent or potential whatsoever. That meant she had very little responsibility for correcting his thinking and training him not to jinx their current mission.

The two women shared a grin as Brea waved the jerky in front of Spitfire, then tossed it high overhead. The little pink drac squealed with delight. That proved she had been obedient, rather than lying at death’s door. She leaped straight up, popped out, then popped back in at the top of the arc, just as the piece of meat started to drop. She snapped it out of the air and popped out again. Spitfire was no dummy. She knew better than to linger around the campsite, where the other dracs might get a whiff of her treat and try to persuade her to share.

Besides being a reward and a signal that the medical examination had ended, the goho jerky had an added ingredient, to purify her blood and finish the recovery process. M’kar thought about how droopy and clumsy Barroo had been for several hours after he woke up from an allergy-induced hibernation when he indulged yesterday. She thanked Enlo once again that her crewmate enjoyed experimenting with and studying natural compounds and discovering new healing potions and powders.

Short story excerpt: THE SHORT-LIVED ESCAPE OF JORONO CYNES, an AFV Defender story

 

A story between novels.

 

The crew of the Defender had run afoul of the irritating, silly little con man Jorono Cynes one time too many. He was supposed to be in custody for the rest of his life, but somehow Cynes showed up in the middle of a shore leave that was anything but relaxing.

 

Lt. M'kar and Security Chief Decker were supposed to be guiding some of the ship's children through a wilderness survival experience, but even though they were on shore leave, they knew their duty. They had to deal with Cynes and get him back into the hands of the authorities ASAP.

 

And if they could have some fun and frighten the irritating little troublemaker while they were at it, all the better.

Novella ebook available at Ye Olde Dragon Books and any online vendor.

“I’ve got an idea,” Chief Linguist Treinna Lore said, coming into a meeting of the drac parents and other command crew who had gathered after the latest intrusion.

The big draw of the planet Mendax was also a factor in the problems the crew of the Defender were facing. The government was desperate to become accepted as a member of the Alliance. They had thrown out the welcome mat to prove their world would be a good tourist planet, overflowing with natural resources. They treated Alliance diplomats and Fleet personnel like royalty. That meant the Defender crew who were on shore leave were given entire compounds for shore leave quarters, guaranteeing privacy and palatial accommodations. However, that generous welcome mat included refusing to screen anyone who wanted to come down to the planet, no matter how much of a perpetual ruckus was caused by people who wanted to get their hands on a drac. The “guaranteed privacy” of the compound they were currently meeting in sometimes failed through sheer force of numbers seeking out the presence of Fleet personnel. Even the most bumbling hunters could get lucky if there were enough of them stumbling around.

“Does it include making friends with that ship full of Ankuar that’s hovering at the outer orbital, and putting Security uniforms on them until the crisis is over?” Med Tech Brea asked.

Her lemon-yellow drac, Boomer, let out a series of chirps that certainly sounded like he was still irritated over the latest attempt. A group of loud, garishly dressed tourists (Captain Arroyan referred to them in her incident report as terrorists disguised as tourists) had broken into the sprawling compound the Defender crew had been staying in until two hours ago. This group of people worked on the assumption that if the dracs couldn’t see, they couldn’t teleport. They had tried to throw large boxes over the dracs. Boomer had shrieked fury and offended feelings. He had refused to be separated from Brea ever since then, and she complied eagerly. Fiercely.

“No, but I’ll hold onto it as a secondary plan.” Treinna gestured at M’kar but wouldn’t meet her gaze. That was a bad sign.  “The children have been begging M’kar to take them on a training campout,” she continued. “Ever since we returned to Mendax. That’s the easiest solution -- send them all away, send our dracs with them as guards, and impress on the entire ship’s complement of teacher dracs that they can’t come back to the ship until all the children come back. They might ignore us a lot of the time, but the teacher dracs are devoted to the children.” 

“I would love to head out into the wilderness and investigate some of the local wildlife, try those rapid-riders, do a little bow hunting,” M’kar said. “Some of the older children need a really tough wilderness survival session before they head to Fleet Academy. Just one little problem. We’d be heading off with a huge group of children and all the gear we’d need to feed and shelter them for a dec of camping. What’s to stop the wannabes from realizing what we’re doing and just swooping down with a shuttle and doing some kidnapping?” She pointed at the white noise device sitting in the center of the room, which made it impossible for people with listening devices to hear their discussion.

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 Thyal chuckled and linked their arms. They set off down a paved pathway to the right and he increased their pace.

"Are we in a hurry to get somewhere?" she asked after several moments.

"Mysteries …" He winked, a most un-Le'ankan expression. "Father suggested I might be interested in something a ship of Gleaners brought for examination. Since the others are delayed – how long?"

"No telling. They'll contact me when Dulit arrives."

"Since we have some time to wait, I thought you might be interested also."

"You did say Gleaners? The garbage-pickers of the universe? The carrion-birds of every known stellar battle since spaceflight began? Gleaners?" She shook her head and let out a low whistle of amazement.

The path took them down a short tunnel, below a dividing wall older than the last major conflict to scar Le’anka. The wall stood there as a reminder and warning, of the damage that people could cause themselves when they tried to rewrite Enlo’s teachings to suit their tastes and inclinations, and put political expediency over truth and honor and purity of the soul.

"Exactly." His voice echoed softly against the tiles lining the tunnel.

"Does it give you a cold shudder of impending disaster? The idea of Gleaners sharing something they found? Before they could profit off it?  Yet it's totally in character with Gleaners to want all the profit, and trick others into doing all the work. Take all the risks."

They came up the tunnel on the other side of the wall and faced a dimpled landscape, with massive buildings for lecture halls, and facilities for scientific demonstrations. Each building sat in its own depression in the landscape, shielded and decorated by hedges and flowering trees that gave no indication of the serious, universe-shaking matters discussed and decided and discovered within those sedate walls.

"Father says Master Pejoris and his team theorize these Gleaners fear another faction of them will unlock this mysterious thing they can’t analyze. Before they figure out how to profit from it. They're desperate enough to win the race that they are asking for help."

"Enlo take me home now. I've seen it all," she murmured.

Thyal sighed. Their gazes met and they laughed quietly as they approached the double-wide, metal-bound doors of their destination. The building most often served as a lecture hall with amphitheater seating for four thousand. Analysis equipment was stored under the center platform and raised as needed. Containment facilities and equipment in this particular building, on the far side of the Academy grounds, made it useful for examining questionable materials.

They were quiet as they walked the last length of pathway to reach the building and went inside. The building’s passive security system scanned them for identification. Thyal’s master’s pin gleamed softly, pale blue for a moment, reading his bio-signs. M’kar’s locator wristband flashed green, acknowledgment of her identity and rank, and recording her location, if anyone in the Fleet might need to contact her. 

The Gleaner mystery object sat in the pit in the center of the vast hall, on the platform where a lecturer would stand. M'kar and Thyal stayed at the place where the doorway let them into the amphitheater seating, halfway between the roof and pit floor. They leaned on the railing and looked down into the pit. The craggy lump looked like dirty, metallic slag from more than a hundred meters away. M'kar guessed it to be maybe two meters tall, roughly ovoid, maybe six or seven meters around the widest circumference. 

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 "It's not real, is it?" The female voice that broke through the pleasant humming of relaxation in M’kar’s mind sounded far too young to hold such strong cynicism.

M'kar turned to gaze up four steps to the doorway of the contemplation pavilion. She had passed those five new students maybe twenty minutes ago. How had they found their way down here already? These contemplation pavilions should be marked as out of bounds for first-years. They were rather personal territory, established for each special class for a reason.

She knew if Thyal were here, he would tease her for being so territorial. Still, that girl’s tone of voice irritated her. Knowing her private quiet time had just died, M’kar stood and stepped out of the shadows and looked up the steps to the doorway. Five sets of eyes widened and flicked down and up and back and forth, translating the emblems and ranking marks on her uniform.

Lieutenant. Talents grouping. E&D ship assignment. The stylized shield emblem for the Defender.

None of those big, suitably impressed eyes flicked up high enough to catch on her facial tattoos: red lightning bolt on her left temple and blue lines extending her upper eyelids.

Thank Enlo.

M’kar could almost laugh. The first students within five meters of her who didn’t immediately stink of panic, silently shouting, What is that barbarian doing here on Le’anka?

"What isn't real?" M’kar asked.

"The sunbird." The smallest of the five, a boy, gestured into the center of the pavilion, at the infrenx.

"Here on Le'anka, it is an infrenx. On my father's homeworld, there is a similar creature, with a name that translates as emberwing." She held her breath, waiting for them to ask what her father's homeworld was.

"Sorry for disturbing you, Commander," the tallest girl said, giving her a little nod-bow.

M’kar decided to be generous and not correct her; lieutenant, not commander. "As your teachers will tell you many times in the years to come, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding is always disturbing to someone, but that is no reason to hesitate." 

"Always apologize, however," the smooth baritone voice of Master Scholar Thyal interposed. A moment later, robed in dun brown, with the infinity symbol pin of a master glistening at his throat, he stepped into view in the doorway behind the students. "Politeness is a mark of civilization. As the Lieutenant will testify, it knocks aggressors off balance and buys you valuable time."

Short story excerpt: CLASS REUNION, an Infrenx story

 

One of these days, I will write a book or two about the Academy years of Lt. M'kar, Thyal, and the other members of Infrenx, the special Talents class at the Academy on Le'anka. This short story, and several chapters in ETRUSCA'S VOW deal with those years.

This is a story set in the AFV Defender universe.

If you've read FRIENDLY FIRE, the first AFV Defender novel, then you heard about the battle that injured Thyal and sent M'kar on her quest .... and I won't say anything more if you haven't read the book yet. (Why haven't you?)

Available in ebook from Amazon and other online sites. And Ye Olde Dragon Books, of course.

Through the end of the month: excerpts from CLASS REUNION.

 

The Academy

Northern Continent of Le’anka

Headquarters of the Alliance

 M’kar stopped counting after the ninth student in the soft green robes of first-year students turned to stare at her as she walked through the central plaza of the Academy. She considered how her classmates would laugh if she remarked on how above-average the eyesight of first-year students was, compared with the students in their class. None of them had stared very long at her, when they were first gathered together in the garden of the home of their teacher, Premier Master Reydon.

In her dark silver-blue dress uniform, she should have blended in with all the other Fleet officers who were arriving at the start of the academic term, preparing to teach. Instead, she constantly drew second looks. Mouths dropped open and faces went pale when her gaze met theirs. More than she would have garnered if she walked across the plaza barefoot, with her favorite knife raised and dripping blood. From several dozen meters away, they couldn’t possibly see her facial tattoos and recognize her as Nisandrian. Could they? How, when she had such a deep tan from her last planetside mission? Did she have a sign hovering in the air above her head, flashing glowing letters, warning everyone to stay away from the barbarian? Or had someone she had clashed with during her own time here as a student decided to get revenge, and sent out her image and a warning, as soon as she landed on Le’anka and stepped onto Academy grounds?

Then again, it probably wasn’t a former classmate. More likely her father was punishing her for not coming to see him and her mother before she met with her classmates. Chieftain Ashrock of Nisandros was nearly a tourist attraction in his own right. He was probably wandering throughout the many paths of the Academy, looking for every first-year student, warning them to be on the lookout for his daughter, a Fleet officer, who was probably in a bad mood while she was separated from her ship.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Listen to your fellow warrior, mi’sho’ki,” Ashrock said, his voice coming from the shadows of the hallway. A moment later he came around the corner. He scowled at them, brow furrowed. “Didn’t we tell you both to find your beds? You have had a long, draining day, and the days ahead will be even more so. Go!” He made a shooing gesture down the hall.

M’kar laughed. “Tell me a bedtime story, Po’pa?”

“Ah, there, you see?” He sighed gustily and crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, still scowling, teasing, at the two children. “You win one small battle, and you think you know better.” He lunged, catching M’kar around the waist with his massive hands. She squealed as he tumbled her upside down and hung her over his shoulder. He held her ankles with one hand and swatted her bottom hard with the other. “You will obey as long as I can spank you!”

M'kar could hardly breathe for giggling. Thyal’s wide-eyed expression melted into a grin. 

“I have an idea, my fine young warriors.” Ashrock nodded as he lumbered down the hall to M’kar’s room, three doors down from Thyal’s, on the other side of the hall. “In the morning, we will have the hearth-kin ceremony. You fought together and for each other. That is something to celebrate. Even if you did not, sadly, shed any blood.”

 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 “Everything’s all changed. You can’t take the classes with your friends that you wanted to.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged, then grinned. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. Think about what you did today.”

She couldn’t help thinking about any of it. Especially the part when the two men calmed down once the animals left them alone, and they got angry and cursed her, and kept cursing her until Security hit them with stunner wands to shut them up. They spoke in the war tongue of Nisandros, and M’kar wished she had never teased her father to teach it to her. Those men vowed they would find her and kill her no matter what it cost them. She had embarrassed them. They were trained, dedicated killers, sent on an honor vendetta decreed by the Ancestors. Not that she cared about the Ancestors. But those men should have been able to find her and shred her before anyone realized what was happening. She was just a little girl, nine years old, and she had defeated them. Not only that, but she had made them scream like frightened little girls. She had commanded all the animals to come in her defense. They had shredded the men’s clothes and scratched and bit them and defecated all over them. That was the worst part of the embarrassment. The smell. 

“We both learned to do new things today, that we didn’t know we could do,” Thyal said. “People come from all over the Alliance to ask my father to be their teacher, and he wants to teach us. Do you know how special we are? And that’s because of you, because I wouldn’t have figured out what I could do if I didn’t have to help you.”

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 Master Reydon insisted on taking M’kar as his student. He specialized in dealing with anomalous Talents. He was currently taking a period of rest while preparing to assemble his next group of students. Maenta was part of the dinner discussion, and she agreed to be in charge of M’kar’s foundational teaching before handing her over to Reydon in three luns. M’kar would be the youngest student he had ever taken, and the youngest member of the class.

Thyal had felt the energy and psionic resonance as M’kar’s Talent awoke. His instincts guided him in trying to shield her as she called all the animals for nearly a full kilometer in all directions, to defend her against the would-be murderers. He kept her shielded from possible physical damage, until Maenta felt the disturbance in the mental atmosphere and came to investigate and help. Reydon and Thean made no effort to hide their deep pride in their son. Thyal would be like his father, with an over-arching Talent that would allow him to touch on and interact with and even control other Talents, when necessary.

Because of that, Thyal would be part of this new class. M’kar thought he looked happy, but even more he looked stunned. Had she made trouble for him? Many classes he had planned for the next few years at the Academy would have to be canceled or delayed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, as they walked down the hallway to the bedroom wing of the house, after their parents sent them to bed.

The five adults were still talking in the common room behind them, their voices muffled with seriousness and the lateness of the hour. 

“For what?” Thyal frowned.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“Ah, better already? Very interesting,” Maenta said with a smile and a nod. “You can let go now. You don’t need me shielding you.”

M’kar didn’t understand.

“Master Maenta has been shielding your mind,” Thyal said. “You have a Talent and it woke up, and you weren’t able to turn it off.”

“Because you didn’t know how you turned it on,” Maenta added, nodding. “Yes, young Thyal, I understand now why your parents insisted you be given advanced classes. You will be a great asset to the Academy, when you have finished your training. As for you, little one …” She sighed. “You’re confused, aren’t you?”

“I have a Talent?” M’kar couldn’t yank her thoughts off what Thyal had said. “I’m not old enough.”

Thanks to the psionic heritage of Dr. Jeyn’s family, and the genetic manipulation that had been done to the ruling families of Nisandros centuries ago, there was no way to be sure if the emergence of M’kar’s psionic Talent was too soon or right on time. Everyone agreed, as they talked over dinner and into the evening, that the combination of so many drastic changes in her life and environment, combined with the trauma of the attack, had awakened her animal-focused Talent rapidly and with some violence. Her course of studies would now have to include mental and physical disciplines to help her harness this newly awakened ability and avoid the physical shock and draining she had endured today.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 

M'kar tumbled out of the cart and landed in the lavender and rose-streaked moss lining the side of the pathway, retching. Thyal shouted something and suddenly he was there, kneeling over her, holding her as she shuddered and fought to breathe. He was still holding her when Security found them and used stunner wands to drive away the swarms of birds and small ground-dwelling creatures that covered the shivering, weeping, ragged, bleeding, smothered men. He didn’t let go of her until a small, pink-faced woman with a crown of white braids wrapped around her head knelt and put her arms around M’kar and patted her back.

M'kar didn’t know how she knew it, but the little woman made the angry, confused cries of all the creatures go away. Shuddering with relief at the quiet inside her head, she burst into tears. 

By the time Security found her parents, and Thyal’s parents, and dealt with the two failed murderers, M’kar and Thyal had been taken to the closest healer station. The little woman introduced herself as Master Maenta. M’kar had calmed down enough to notice how everyone hurried to do obey her, and they didn’t ask questions. Maenta held M’kar’s hand the whole time, and that was even more comforting than Thyal holding her hand. She asked for a room where the three of them could be alone, and quiet, and asked for a drink that was all creamy pink and lavender and mint green swirls. M’kar didn’t think she could swallow anything, but she tried. All the shivering and throbbing and brief sharp stabs in her head quieted, and she felt the humming in Maenta’s hand holding hers.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 The cart stopped, startling a yelp out of her. She opened her eyes, expecting to see the door of the cart shelter at Thyal’s house. Instead, the cart had stopped a dozen meters from the path to the house. She looked at Thyal, then turned to look where he looked, with a frown darkening his sharp-boned, tanned face.

Two men stood on the pathway to the front steps and main door of the house. One faced the cart. The other turned around from the door and looked at the children in the cart.

“Go, go, go,” Thyal snarled, and slapped the controls for the cart. “Security. The intruders are at our house!”

The men yelled and raced after them. The cart seemed to crawl as it moved forward. M’kar wanted to jump out of the cart and run, but she knew it went faster than she could run. The smart move was to save her energy. She turned to look as the men ran and shouted, cursing Thyal and the cart and her.

M’kar understood those words. The language. They were speaking Nisandrian. She hadn’t heard Nisandrian since leaving Nisandros. She wanted to laugh at how strange the words sounded, but she couldn’t breathe. Everything felt wrong. She should be able to fight and defend herself, but her head pounded and her limbs had frozen. What was wrong with her? Had they already shot her with a tranquilizer, and she didn’t feel the dart?

Go away. Go away! Leave me alone! I’m not going back.

The bird cries and squeaks and pips and creaks of all the creatures filling her head to the point of bursting exploded into fury. 

A dark cloud swirled down out of the sky and enclosed the two men. They screamed and cursed and waved their arms and spun around, trying to break through the cloud. It grew thicker. A matching cloud of darkness snaked across the ground. The animal sounds erupted out of M’kar’s head and into her ears. The darkness reared up like a wave and engulfed the men. They went down, lumpy shapes that writhed and screamed.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 

The moment passed and the cart darted into the tunnel. M’kar sat upright. The sharp sensations faded but her head still throbbed. She thought she heard birds calling inside her head. The frightened and angry squeaks of little furry, sharp-toothed creatures joined them. She didn’t know their species. The voices grew louder with every heartbeat. She yelped when the cart emerged back into the sunlight and pressed her hands over her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Thyal said.

M’kar tried to say she didn’t know, but her throat felt stiff and hard. She couldn’t force the words out. She shook her head and held on tighter to the edges of the bench.

“Are you sick?”

She nodded.

“Take deep, slow breaths and close your eyes and listen to your heart. Tell it to slow down. That helps.” 

M’kar didn’t think it would, but she tried it anyway. She closed her eyes and listened to the rattle-hum of her heartbeats. The gasping hiss of her indrawn breath. 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

“I’m sorry.” M’kar looked behind them. No one had followed them from the restaurant. She gripped the edges of the bench seat and willed the cart to move faster. She couldn’t remember any of the landmarks they had passed, and that was stupid. How could she find her way back to Thyal’s house if something went wrong and they were separated?

“It’s not your fault.” Thyal patted her hand. “They’re not very good hunters, making a stupid mistake like that. What do they want?”

“Kill me or marry me, it’s all bad for me.”

That made him laugh, though he did manage to smother the sound into a snort. Security responded, asking for more information. Thyal gave the officer the names of the cadets who had been talking to them.

“Be careful,” the woman said. “The only Nisandrians we have on record currently on Academy grounds are Dr. Jeyn Fleetwind, Ashrock of Ba’e’do’stra, and M’kar Fleetwind-Ba’e’do’stra. Please take shelter quickly and stay there, until we locate the intruders.”

“Understood.” Thyal frowned at the control panel as the connection died. “Maybe someone is pretending to be Nisandrian to cause trouble?”

M’kar didn’t have any answer for that. She flinched as the path the cart followed dipped down and they headed for a short tunnel, passing from one section of the Academy grounds to another. Muffled thuds echoed out at them, then shadows erupted from the tunnel, turning into birds. She caught her breath and ducked down, even though the clear panel at the front of the cart, and the curving roof protected them from collision. 

For a heartbeat, she thought she saw herself. Multiple images of herself. Crouching down in the front seat with her arms raised as a shield. Her head throbbed like something sharp wanted to erupt from her temples and through her eyes. 

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 “Is that real?” He gestured at the white lines paralleling the long, thin scars on her right arm, then upward to the lightning bolt at her temple. “I got to tell you, playing around like that could get her in big trouble.”

“With who?” Thyal asked, his tone going quiet. Just like Master Reydon’s voice had become when dealing with a very rude Ankuaran who had intruded on their dinner in the garden the night M’kar’s family arrived on Le’anka. That was the quiet her father wanted her to try for, when dealing with troublesome people and animals.

“Oh, hello.” Another of the cadets turned around, glanced at M’kar, then back to Thyal. “Two baqwaks, pretending to be Nisandrians. Came through the plaza this morning, saying they were looking for their little sister.” He glanced at M’kar again, gray eyes narrowing. “Described her tattoos pretty accurately.”

“I don’t have any brothers,” M’kar said. “They’re liars.”

She caught her breath, positive that frown on Thyal’s face meant he was going to contradict her. Yes, she had three half-brothers, but they wouldn’t come to Le’anka to look for her, and they wouldn’t go around telling people she was their sister.

“We should go back,” Thyal said, and reached for her hand.

M’kar held on and ran, keeping pace with Thyal all the way to their cart. He didn’t let go until they were seated, and he needed that hand to program the commands to head back home. When the cart jolted forward, he contacted Academy security, then asked them to contact Dr. Jeyn and Ashrock and Master Reydon.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 The restaurant Thyal took her to specialized in packaged food for Academy students to take with them and eat on the run between classes. It sat on a rise in the rolling landscape of the Academy grounds, with a half-moon-shaped paved courtyard on one side, full of two- and four-seater tables. The L-shaped building was open on the inner side, displaying the many shelves full of packaged food and drinks, and a bank of heating units and eating utensils on the side that opened into the eating courtyard.

Four young men in the dark gray uniforms of Fleet cadets stepped into the serving line just ahead of Thyal and M’kar. One turned around and nodded greeting to Thyal, who nodded back. Then his gaze drifted down to M’kar. He nodded to her, started to turn away, then frowned and looked back. M’kar got a prickle of warning down her back.

  

M’kar met the cadet’s gaze and tried to put on that neutral expression her father insisted was far more frightening than a glare or frown or baring her teeth. He stared at the sharp dip where her eyebrows met between her eyes. She had laughed when her father joked about disguising themselves by shaving that little bit of their eyebrows, but now M’kar felt sick. It was such a small thing, this telltale, so why did she hate the way his gaze seemed to snag on her face like that?

“Don’t tell me you’re courting already,” the cadet said, turning back to Thyal.

M’kar muffled a snort of laughter at the wide-eyed look Thyal gave the cadet, then her, then him again. He shook his head. “M’kar is a guest in my parents’ home.”

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 "Grandfather?" The tension in her father’s voice seemed to lift M'kar off the bench.

"He says we have to leave. He says not to trust anyone but the Ankuar," she hurried to tell him.

"Does he now?"

"Take the little one to safety, boy," Aquid said as he struggled to his feet. "She's worth more than the entire clan combined. This one is going to fix things. She's going to remove the poison from the craters. You are leaving, aren't you? It's not just an old man's daydreams? I dreamed this one right, for once?"

"Yes, Grandfather." Ashrock held out his hand and M'kar ran to him. He took tight hold of her hand.

"Good boy. Always knew you were the smartest one out of them all." He nodded and tottered out of the room, muttering, "Good boy," several times, until he moved out of earshot. 

Ashrock slowly went to the door and closed it, then sat down on the same bench Aquid had used. He had M'kar repeat back for him everything the old man had said. Her father never told her if he talked to the one-eyed man or the woman with the ahsnaq, but she shivered when she glimpsed the pilot of the shuttle they took early in the morning, two decs and eight days later, as the last of the winter storms sputtered out. He was a typical Ankuar, with white hair and cocoa-dark skin, and silvery-blue eyes.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 His gaze focused on M'kar again and the humor faded slowly, like water draining from a basin. "You need to flee, Little Blade. To a kinder place. Where you will make many strong, brave, clever friends. You will need them when you come back. To anchor you." His voice took on that hollow tone that made her shiver. "A good place where you don't need honor scars. Always more and more honor scars, until you're erased, buried under them. Come back when you don't want to. Make sure the boostifaks don't get what they want. Make sure you do get what you want. When you come back, the surbda craters will be safe hiding places. Understand? The safest places on the planet. Even though they need to be taken apart once and for all. Hear me?"

"Yes," she whispered, and nodded hard, when he gripped her shoulder with a bony hand and looked deeper into her eyes.

"Safe for you. Maybe you'll see Etrusca. But remember this, child. You can only go in and out safely a few times. After that, you leave pieces of yourself behind. You'll get eaten. Bit by bit." The intensity shattered off his face, and he was only a frail, crackle-voiced old man again. "But who knows? Maybe you're the one who can fix the broken pieces. Pull the rotted tooth before the whole body is poisoned." His fingers tightened on her shoulder again. "This is important. Take the broken pieces away. Off the planet. Where their power won't pull at us and keep trying to shred us. Promise me, Little Blade."

"I promise."

"Good." His eyes filled with tears and he shuddered and exhaled, then gulped in air like he had tried to run a race up the highest tower steps. "Etrusca's marks protect you." A snort escaped him, turning into a snicker. "Old Anguak would have a brain-spark, if he got a look at you. Proud of you," he added, as the door swung open and Ashrock walked in.

New Release: ETRUSCA'S VOW. AFV Defender Book 3

 "You need to leave as soon as possible," Aquid said, his voice normal again. "You went to Etrusca's Wall." He patted the bench next to him. "Tell me about it. Did you see Etrusca? Is that why you wear her mark now?"

"Did I see Etrusca?" She settled on the bench. He smelled of tongue-stinging fire sweets, rather than the medicine-and-paper-skin smell of most old people. "Is she supposed to be there?"

"I don't know if she's supposed to be there." He chuckled and winked. "But I've seen her. Many times. I've talked to her. Contradictory woman won't tell me if she's dead or alive." Another chuckle. "Don't tell Yntriell, but I asked her to marry me a few times."

M'kar nodded. Yntriell wasn't her great-grandmother, but she was Aquid's third wife.

"Every time I asked, she laughed at me." He chuckled again. "She was right to laugh. Don't have the gift of being eternal, like she does." He sighed. "That was a long time ago."