“Hey, hey, you can’t go that way!” The armed guard ran to intercept Bea as she sprinted for the hangar. “Hangar’s off-limits right now; there’s a – aah!”
Bea bowled him over without slowing. Ren, just behind her, caught the guard before he could hit the ground and set him back on his feet.
“Sorry!” the hunter chimed as he moved on. “Bit of celerity required here!”
“I’m authorized to shoot –” the guard began. Jen, running behind Ren, pulled the gun out of his hands almost without stopping and tossed it over the nearest railing.
The Cabal security, however, proved more of an obstacle. Ren and Jen caught up with Bea as she stopped in front of a line of centurions, and each of them grabbed one of her wrists before she could reach for the bow on her back.
“Greetings!” Ren said brightly, wondering if the Cabal actually understood English. Unfortunately his Ulurant was a bit rusty, i.e., nonexistent. “We would most politely and respectfully beseech you to let us through. It’s a matter of some urgency.”
The Cabal looked stonily at the three guardians. One centurion shifted his grip on his gun.
“Crow!” Caiatl’s raised voice echoed from the other end of the hangar; Bea surged forward, and Ren and Jen barely held her back.
“We’re lookin’ for Crow,” Jen said, her voice rather uneven with the strain of keeping Bea from tackling a centurion. “At least tell us if he’s back there. If not, we’ll stop wastin’ your time.”
“Ah, well, we’ll try,” Ren said out of the side of his mouth, glancing over his shoulder to see a contingent of very unhappy human guards forming behind them. “Jennifer, we may have caused a bit of a … ruction.”
“A ruction’s not so bad,” Jen whispered back.
“Well, no, but we should leave before it becomes a fracas.” Ren looked at Bea, then looked at the Cabal. He leaned down to speak to the side of Bea’s skull – to where her ear would be if she had any. “Beatrice, if you attack or otherwise circumvent these Cabal, the chances of incurring the exact kind of diplomatic incident which I believe Crow is currently endeavoring to prevent – what I mean is,” he changed tactics, as Bea pulled against him again, “you risk earning him more of the Empress’s ire …”
Bea let out a low “Nnnnn” of frustration – the first time Ren had ever heard her make more than a little chuckle or grunt of pain. She couldn’t sign, with Ren and Jen clinging to her arms, but Ren didn’t dare let her go; he could feel in the pressure of her arm against his that she’d be on the Cabal in an instant.
For a long moment the stalemate continued. The centurions stared ahead, clearly trying to pretend that the guardians in front of them didn’t exist. Bea didn’t have muscles to tense, but Ren could still feel the strain in her body. Just when he thought she would snap, the centurions lilted their heads, looked at one another, and disappeared in the orange light of a Cabal short-range teleport.
“Well that’s anticlimactic,” Ren muttered, confused enough to loosen his grip on Bea. He regretted that an instant later when she tore away from him and Jen and started down the hangar to the trio of figures at its other end.
“Shit,” Jen said, and they both ran after her as Caiatl’s ship started to take off. “Ren, if they’ve got Crow on that ship …”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” Ren replied. He was gaining on Bea, being rather lighter on his feet than she was. “We’ll take that if it comes.”
It didn’t come. By the time Bea, Ren, and Jen got close enough to identify the other three guardians, Saladin and Zavala were walking away together, leaving Crow standing alone and despondent. Ren almost felt surprised not to see a personal rain cloud hanging over his head.
Bea tackling him in a hug seemed to startle him out of it, though – and nearly startle him into meeting her with the point of a knife, but he managed to recognize her in time. “Bea? What …” Still in Bea’s arms, he looked up at Ren and Jen, who were not going to hug him. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Jen snapped. “We were worried about you.”
Crow’s eyebrows rose, and he mouthed “We?” After all, it had only been a few days since Madison Rembrandt had talked Ren and Jen into not utterly despising him.
“You implied that you might perish,” Ren said, haughty with anger – he’d made a habit of getting mad at Crow, so it was easy to slip back into it now. “What outcome did you expect? Did you think anyone who cared about you would simply twiddle their thumbs, ignorant, and leave you to your fate?”
Crow put his arms around Bea, who hadn’t released him. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I … I know I’m not a very good friend.”
“Don’t self-flagellate,” Ren snapped.
“Or if you’re gonna, wait till we get you home and do it in private,” Jen offered helpfully. “Come on. Let’s go before Zavala notices – ”
“Too late,” Zavala said calmly, standing less than ten feet away. Crow jumped and tried to push Bea away at the same time that she tried to put herself between him and the Commander. Neither of them really succeeded.
“Commander!” Ren said, his voice going up an octave. He glanced back to see if the cohort of armed guards were still unhappy about them entering the hangar. They were. “We were, ah …”
“Just leaving,” Jen supplied. “Bea, Crow, let’s go.”
Beside Zavala, Lord Saladin chuckled. What little of Crow’s face Ren could see with Bea clinging to him turned a delicate shade of purple, which Ren would have found quite amusing were it not for the burn in his own cheeks telling him he looked the same.
“These are your friends?” Zavala asked Crow.
Crow finally freed himself from Bea’s embrace, though she kept her grip on one of his hands. He glanced at Ren and Jen, clearly unsure whether he could apply that term to them, but when he spoke, he seemed to have decided on an answer. “Yes, Commander.”
“We just came to make sure he was OK,” Jen said.
Zavala nodded. “And I trust you’ll ensure he stays that way.”
His words had the weight of an order. Bea looked up at the commander for a moment before giving a solemn nod.
“Good.” Zavala turned away, but added over his shoulder, “No guardian is an island, Crow. We’ve all seen that today.”
“Yes, Commander,” Crow repeated, seeming to hunch in on himself a bit as Bea pulled him away.
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Just get off of Earth and stay off of Earth. Leave Europa alone, and leave the Reef alone. Leave. That's it. They invaded the solar system and have since infested everything. And they're still not the worst.
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#i like your collar thing#i don't know what it's called#the wings#and your earrings
It’s called a collar chain! Pretty straightforward. And I’m glad you like it all. That one winged earring is the one that’s enchanted to project the halo.
