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." 

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

 M'kar bit her tongue to keep from asking what "right on time" meant. The crazy old man would just say he had seen into the future, so he knew when she would be back in the suite.

Of course, he was waiting for her, so maybe he did have visions?

Her father would laugh and say that showed the old man’s cleverness, constantly playing mind-tricks on people. They were very good tricks, M'kar had to admit. Especially when his voice got hollow and his eyes rolled back so all she could see were the whites. Many people would say the Ancestors spoke through him when he talked like that.

"Tell your father, don't trust the one-eyed pilot, and don't trust the woman with the blue-tufted ahsnaq riding her shoulders. Trust the Ankuar," he finished on a whisper. "Wait until the Ankuar comes and then bargain with him for the ride up to the station."

M'kar wanted to ask, "What station?" but she was afraid to play games and pretend she didn't know what the old man was talking about.

How had Aquid figured out they were trying to find a shuttle ride up to the Alliance's orbital station, and from there arrange passage to Le'anka? Her mother had the best spy-killing equipment, straight from a friend in Fleet security. She regularly swept their suite for anything that would help the clan spy on them. There was no way her great-grandfather could have been spying on them, listening to their plans.

Yet he knew. How?

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

 

Ashrock and Jeyn put their plan to leave Nisandros into action as soon as they got up the next morning. There were dozens of little details and messages to handle, material to collect, loose ends in research projects to tie up, promises to fulfill, and private farewells to perform with friends who could be trusted to keep their secret. The winter storms in the northern hemisphere would end in three decs, and that wasn’t nearly enough time to make all the arrangements to take the first shuttle that could go up to the Alliance’s orbital station. The formal announcement of their departure had to be made at the right time and the right place, with the right witnesses, or the uproar could justify their family being detained. Hurt feelings and insult claims had to be prevented at all costs.

M'kar had her part to play, running errands for her parents, returning borrowed items, retrieving items that had been loaned or taken without permission. She returned to their family suite with a handful of book chips that had been borrowed from her mother's library over the years. M'kar was grinning in triumph, until her cheeks hurt. She had retrieved the chips with as much sneaky stealth as they had originally been taken by various cousins and aunts and uncles. Considering how dusty some chips were, and how deeply they had been buried among personal possessions, she doubted anyone would realize the books had been reclaimed until luns or even years after she and her parents had left.

Then she saw the shriveled old man sitting on the bench by the fire pit in their common room, and her grin fell off her face. M'kar immediately looked around for Anguak. She sniffed hard, trying to find him by his dirty wet clothes stink, since she couldn't see him in the shadows. 

"Little Blade," Great-grandfather Aquid wheezed. "Right on time." He beckoned, holding out a bony, wrinkled arm covered in blurry red and black and green tattoos.

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

 If they crashed into Etrusca’s Wall, they might vanish forever.

They were going to die.

"You have to turn back before we get killed, that's what it means!" M’kar shouted, as the alarms resumed their ear-splitting shrieks.

The craft tipped. Ke’Jor slid out of his seat, hitting the floor with a thud. Ke’Niq and M'kar slid sideways, he on his knees on the deck of the craft, and her falling sideways along the bench seat. Ke’Niq caught hold of her wrist with one hand and with the other hand caught a cleat in the deck used for tying off cargo nets.

"Get your hands off her!" Ke’Jor lunged at his cousin. "She's mine. Grandfather says so."

M'kar twisted around to kick Ke’Jor in the face. He shrieked like a goosigah, threatening to go so high no Human ears could hear.

The craft kept tipping, and the engines shrieked loud enough to cover up Ke’Jor's cursing and spitting and the slapping of his hands on the deck plating as he tried to climb the steep angle. M'kar got her own grip on a cleat in the deck. She stayed a good meter out of Ke’Jor's waving, slapping hands.

The craft tipped over on its roof, hard enough to knock them loose. They hit the ceiling. M'kar yelped. Ke’Niq swore. Ke’Jor shrieked for Ke’Niq to make the air-car behave.

Then the craft hit hard, bouncing all of them up to the floor, now the ceiling. M'kar's head hit. She saw stars and bit the inside of her cheek. Her neck snapped. She fought to hold onto consciousness as the craft tipped and slid, then hit and flipped up in the air, then turned over.

For a few heartbeats there was nothing but tumbling and trying to grab onto something. Ke’Jor shrieked for Ke’Niq not to tell their grandfather he crashed another craft.

Then blackness.

Good. She was tired of hearing Ke’Jor shriek.

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

 

The air-car jolted, dropping suddenly. M'kar thought about trying to crawl across the deck and reaching Ke’Jor before they crashed. If they were going to die, she wanted to hit him as hard as she could, first, as many times as she could.

The air-car jolted. She grunted. Ke’Jor cursed. The bouncing as they plummeted downward broke his curses into fragments and threatened to slam her into the roof. Shrieking alarms filled the air, deafening. Through the wail of the engine and the blatts and squeals of the alarms, the wind’s howl grew stronger, and soon drowned them out.

"Alert," a mechanical voice said, while the alarms silenced for a few seconds. "Approaching Etrusca's Wall. Change course. Continuing on this course violates a blood edict of the Council of Clans."

"What does that mean?" Ke’Jor shouted, as the voice repeated the message.

How could he not know? Etrusca's Wall was the surbda crater on the dividing line between Ba'e'do'stra and Rissor clan lands. Didn't they teach them anything in the Rissor Clan? 

This was the largest surbda crater, with a wall of rubble ten meters high surrounding it. Legends said the warrior Etrusca had pulled it up from the netherworld during one of her many resurrections from the dead. Navigation equipment and sensors refused to work within ten meters of most surbda craters, but that trouble zone reached fifty meters out from Etrusca's Wall. All transportation equipment refused to work. Animals refused to go into it. There were nine total surbda craters, scattered across the planet. All were forbidden, by ritual and common sense. All equipment, whether transportation, probes or drones vanished once they crossed into a crater. 

RELEASE DAY!!! ETRUSCA'S VOW, AFV Defender Book 3

 

Snarling, Ke’Jor swept his hands across the control panel. The air-car jolted straight up. Only proximity sensors kept it from hitting the roof of the dock. The hatch slammed closed. The car jolted forward, out into the open air and churning sandy winds. M’kar rolled and slid backward, her abdomen slamming into the support for the bench seat, knocking all the air from her lungs.

The air-car tipped hard to the right, then righted itself. It rattled. M'kar was sure it shouldn't make a sound like that. Maybe her uncles were right, and it was boobytrapped, rigged to fall apart when it went far enough into the Barrens to make rescue difficult.

A low rumbling came from outside. It sounded like thunder, or very strong, brutal winds. Or both. And got stronger, louder, shaking the vehicle more with every second.

M'kar needed to laugh, but she couldn't seem to get any air. A growing storm swirled around the air-car. She was sure they couldn't go very far. If Ke’Jor wanted to take her to his clan territory, he had to cross the Ring Mountains, which divided Rissor from Ba’e’do’stra. Storms were always worse in the mountains.

"You have to go back," she finally managed to croak, when she got her breath back.

"I'm not turning back until you apologize," Ke’Jor snarled.

"Apologize for what?" Ke’Niq shouted. "She didn't do anything wrong."

"She's supposed to be nice to me. Grandfather said."

"Your grandfather is a narding indiferp with delusions of being Human!" M'kar reached for the bench seat to pull herself upright.

"You take that back!"

"You take me back home, you thief!"

"You have to obey me. You have to be nice to me." 

"I'll never be nice to you. You're an even worse idiot than your grandfather. And my grandfather says that!" She thumped her fist on the cushion for emphasis. It didn't do much good, but the gesture made her feel better.

Upcoming release sample: ETRUSCA'S VOW

 

There was no security on the air-car, no alarms or locks on the dock. Only someone with a death-wish would take an air-car up before the winter storms had passed, so no alarms went off when Ke’Jor set about hitting the control panel.

"You don't want to do that," M'kar blurted, when the vehicle rumbled into life far too easily.

Uncle Ashreel would rage if Ke’Jor flew his new air-car before he did.

"If you sit with me, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go." Ke’Jor patted the bench seat next to him.

"I don’t want to go anywhere with you. Ever," M'kar snapped.

A loud rumble of thunder answered her words, followed by a wailing shriek of wind that swirled around their heads and filled the air with clouds of gritty dust.

"You're supposed to be nice to me." How did he talk clearly with his lower lip sticking out like that?

"Laws of hospitality don't count when you weren't invited."

"I mean when we get married."

"I am never marrying you!"

"Grandfather says you have to."

"Your grandfather can't make me do anything!" She stomped up to the pilot's seat, intending to punch him. 

He reached for her. She flung herself backward, kicking up with both feet in a one-two swing that would have made her father proud. The toes of both her shoes slammed into Ke’Jor's chest and chin before her back hit the deck of the air-car. She hadn’t mastered the somersault part of the maneuver yet.

Upcoming release sample: ETRUSCA'S VOW

 

"I wish I could go up to the Alliance orbital platform right now," M'kar murmured, stroking the control panel.

Too late, she heard footsteps scraping on the sandy floor behind her. Both boys had followed her into the air-car dock. She ducked back further into the vehicle, hoping they hadn’t seen her.

No, stupid move. Now she was trapped.

Ke’Jor leaned into the open hatch and grinned at her. "Of course, this is the best place to hide. No one will expect you to hide here. Know why?"

M'kar said nothing. She had learned the hard way over the last few days that no matter what she said, Ke’Jor would keep talking.

"It's because girls don't like to fly air-cars."

"Our cousins and sisters don't want to fly with him, because he lectures them like he knows everything," Ke’Niq said. He flung himself into the air-car, avoiding Ke’Jor’s punch, which hit the side of the open hatch instead of him. M'kar muffled a giggle.

“I can fly just fine,” Ke’Jor growled. “You want to go up to the orbital platform? Let’s go.” He tried to vault through the hatch to the cockpit, caught his foot on the lip of the hatch and sprawled through the door, hitting his face on the support bar for the pilot's seat.

"Can this fly that high?” Ke’Niq said. He and M'kar settled on the bench seat across the back of the compartment and watched Ke’Jor wipe the blood off his face and reach, half-blind, for the control panel.