Hammer of Time (The Reforged Trilogy) (8 page)

"He says that Titania lives," Maeve repeated. "And that she summons them to her."

"The White Queen has tamed the Devourers,"
the knight shouted and Maeve recounted to her friends.
"They serve her now, brothers and sisters. And in that service, our rightful queen summons you. She needs you! Together with our once-enemies, we shall restore the White Kingdom."

"What does that mean?" Panna asked. "Is she going back to Arcadia?"

Maeve shook her head. She did not know. Now the other knight raised his face, looking up to gauge the effect of his words. Suddenly, Maeve recognized him.

"Calathan!" she cried. "Calathan la Nyra! How can you stand beside one of those who destroyed our kingdom?"

Calathan turned to look at Maeve. There was recognition in his eyes, but no affection for the fellow young squire who had helped him up from the grass after a tourney match, who had shared an entire bottle of wine when they both lost their winners' ribbons to the indomitable Sir Orthain Fyre and the royal consort, Sir Anthem Calloren. Rage twisted Calathan's already maimed face and he leveled his spear at Maeve. Even the ribbons hanging from the haft of his spear were as black as her own hair.

"Maeve," he snarled. "Twice now you have slaughtered my kin. You will answer for that!"

Twice... First Arcadia and then the Nihilists. That explained the black under Calathan's armor and how he knew about her role in the White Kingdom's fall. Behind Calathan, something pale flashed in the dark depths of the Devourer's face. Teeth? Was he smiling?

"The littlest Cavainna." The voice came not from the huge alien's mouth, but issued from the swarming black cloud of nanites. "I've heard your name. Commander Dhozo tells us we have
so
much to thank you for…"

Calathan leapt at Maeve, his spear aimed right for her unarmored midsection. A beam of light sliced past her and struck Calathan in the chest. The laser splintered into harmless flashes of red. Maeve leapt back to stand next to Logan, still aiming his laser at the fairy. Calathan's spear came down, slashing a deep line into the packed dirt.

"Have you got this, dove?" Logan asked, bringing his laser up to the Arcadian knight's face.

Maeve heard Panna scream and Duaal shouting at her to get away from the Devourer. She spun her spear down to the guard position. "I do, enarri. Go!"

Logan spared Calathan a cold glance before dashing away to help Duaal. Xartasia's knight in black lunged, slashing his spear at Maeve's wings. She knocked the blade aside with her own and leapt into the air. The crumbling old settlement spun beneath her, flickering like disturbed water with the shadows of the frightened, swiftly scattering Arcadians. The Devourer was a seething pillar of black blades, flashing red and blue-white with lasers and lightning.

She could hear Panna shouting again. "Wait! Come back! That's your princess up there! She needs you!"

But no one seemed to be listening. Maeve had no time to spare for Panna or even her hunter fighting for his life below. Calathan vaulted into the air and arrowed past her, forcing Maeve to fold her wings and swoop beneath. He circled to make another pass and Maeve beat her wings hard, climbing. Calathan's armor protected him from both laser and blade, but its weight and restricting plates made him slower. Maeve arced and dove again, throwing all of her weight behind her spear. Orthain always told his young squire that it was the height of dishonor to aim for an opponent's wings and force them to the ground. It was a cheap victory and hardly worthy of an Arcadian knight. But this was not the Morningfire Court and Maeve had given up her honor long ago. She could not afford chivalry when there were so many lives at stake.

So had Calathan. He rolled and Maeve's spear glanced off his curved pauldron. He thrust back at Maeve with his own spear, aiming for the delicate membrane of her left wing. Maeve spiraled away almost too slowly. The point of Calathan's spear raked her wings and several red-streaked feathers tore away. Pain burned a searing line along the injured wing.

The two fallen knights circled each other, trying to gain the higher position. Calathan's glass armor reflected the flashes of fire and lightning and churning darkness below and Maeve fought the urge to look down. She parried Calathan's spear again, but he used the momentum to spin the shaft and crack it against the crest of her flight-taut wing. Maeve ground her teeth and lost several feet of altitude as she wheeled to recover.

Calathan sang a resonating note of triumph. He shot at Maeve in a straight line, trusting that his strike against her wing had slowed Maeve. But it was hardly the first time Maeve had fought with injured or even broken wings. Logan knew nothing of Arcadian honor and had never hesitated to take advantage of the inviting targets. Maeve twisted and dove beneath Calathan's head-on aerial charge. She beat her wings hard at the bottom of her dive and soared up behind him. Calathan was slow to turn, to break the swift, straight line that had been his gamble. Maeve brought her spear down and drove the blade through his back, into the unarmored spot between his wings. The glass slid past his spine and into his heart. Calathan shuddered, raining blood to the ground below as he convulsed, and then fell.

Maeve banked sharply. Below, the Devourer raged between Duaal and Logan. It lashed at both men with scythe-like blades of glittering black, but the nanite swarm was thin, tenuous as shadow. Duaal threw up one arm and the curved blade shattered like cheap glass against an invisible barrier. The sharp shards did not fall, but turned instead into smoky darkness and flew back to the Devourer's amorphous armor.

Ignoring a deep, bloody gash through his calf, Logan circled the alien monster as the nanite swarm shifted, accommodating the returning machines. He found a thin spot and fired a long burst of laserfire. It burned through the Devourer's thigh, driving him to one knee with a rasping bellow of pain. Duaal raised his hands in front of him and then swept them down again. The nanite swarm sagged toward the ground around its master as though in a great wind, though Maeve felt nothing. Logan took aim as the Devourer's face was suddenly revealed. It was wide and gray-skinned, with a grimacing, sharkish mouth full of sharp teeth. Even as he staggered backward, away from the alien, Gripper's shocked exclamation was clearly audible. The Devourer looked like some nightmare reflection of Maeve's Arboran friend.

Logan fired three careful shots through the back of the Devourer's exposed skull. The alien surged to its feet, the holes through its head steaming slightly, and whirled in a wobbling circle to face Logan. Maeve dove, landing hard against the Devourer's broad shoulders and bearing him to the ground. The creature fell with a boom and lay still. Maeve leapt free as the black nanites billowed like smoke all around her. The uncontrolled machines twisted this way and that and then fell on the dead Devourer. Blood welled up from the hairless gray skin and then vanished as the nanites consumed their own master. Maeve stared in revolted fascination as the huge body vanished.

"What the hells–?" Duaal asked. "Are they coming after us next?"

Even as he spoke, the black cloud was turning an ashy gray. Dying? Logan grabbed her wrist and pulled Maeve back. "We don't want to be their next meal, dove," he said.

Xia and Panna crept closer – but not too close. "What is that? Some sort of self-destruct?" Xia asked.

"Probably a system problem," said Panna. "Most cultures care at least a little about proper disposal of remains and wouldn't want their armor eating them after they die. We already know that the Devourer nanotech runs on chemical energy. I'm guessing that without someone operating the central computer, the nanites turn on the nearest power source."

Gripper ran toward them, waving his arms and pointing. "The ship!" he cried. "There's still someone in there!"

As if in answer, the Oslain'ii's airlock slammed shut and the engines – sleek black bullet shapes mounted under the backswept raven wings – roared. Duaal shielded his face from the sudden storm of hot wind and broken pieces of cornstalk.

"They're taking off!" he shouted. "Gripper, how far away are those police?"

"I'm still on hold," the Arboran yelled back, brandishing his com.

"Get back to the Blue Phoenix," Logan called over the noise. "You, too, Gripper."

He was already running. Xia and Duaal were close behind, Gripper hesitantly bringing up the rear. Panna moved to follow, but then turned on her heels and bolted the opposite direction, deeper into the field. Maeve called out to her, but there was no time to go chasing after the other Arcadian. The Oslain'ii was already rising.

Reluctantly, Maeve leapt into the bright white Sunjarrah sky and dove after the others. By the time she landed and ran through the Blue Phoenix's airlock, Duaal was vanishing through the door that led to the fore of the ship. Logan took the stairs two at a time, shouting for Gripper to follow. The bewildered Arboran loped after him, pulling himself up over the railing.

"But I need to be in the engine room–!" Gripper protested.

"We need you in the cockpit," Logan told him. "And bring your computer."

Xia jabbed the airlock controls as Maeve bolted past. The Arcadian clipped one of her wings on Gripper's planters, winced and landed on the catwalk. She ran toward the cockpit, her view entirely eclipsed by Gripper's wide silhouette. He ran a crooked line as he juggled his computer from hand to huge hand. Maeve staggered into Gripper's back as the Blue Phoenix lifted off and pivoted sharply. Even from the hallway, she could hear Duaal yelling at the Oslain'ii.

"Where the hells do you think you're going, you Narsus lump of slag?" he shouted. "Get back here and let the cops get a good look at you! Tell me you've got a plan for this, Logan…"

"Shut up and follow them," was the Prian's curt answer. "As close as you can."

Maeve and Gripper stumbled their way to the cockpit's door as the floor pitched beneath them. The big Arboran nearly crushed her as Duaal pulled the Blue Phoenix up, knifing up through a thin layer of clouds and high into Sunjarrah's atmosphere. The planet spread out below, gently curved and smooth as far as Maeve could see. Above, the darkness of space was full of stars, celestial orbs of fire and the less impressive blinking green and yellow of satellites. There were faster points of light sliding between them like shooting stars. Ships.

One of them slid past on the left, past where Logan sat, back absolutely straight and icy eyes narrowed. The ship was black and graceful, almost invisible against the darkness but for the stylish violet running lights up and down its length. Duaal cried out and jerked on his controls, whipping the Blue Phoenix around to face the Oslain'ii, but the black ship was already speeding past, silent in the cold emptiness of space.

"Damn, she's fast," Duaal grunted.

"That's a Narsus Predator," Logan said. "It can spin up the FTL drive in twenty seconds. If the Oslain'ii gets out of the system or above the stellar plane, it's going to be gone."

Duaal slammed down on the accelerator and gave chase. The Oslain'ii dove, back toward Sunjarrah's atmosphere, then up as the Blue Phoenix followed. Condensation streaked white along the two ships and then boiled swiftly away. Temperature gauges flashed orange across the cockpit and the canopy flickered with azure light as spots of phenno ignited in the rising friction and temperature. Duaal tightened his hands, white knuckled, on the controls and pulled the old freighter up after the Oslain'ii.

"Get us closer," Logan told him.

"I'm trying!" Duaal said through clenched teeth. "But her engines are better than mine."

"Why are we trying to get closer?" Gripper asked.

Logan did not answer. Maeve wondered what he had in mind, but now was not the time to question him. Logan worked fast, intense and hard. Asking him why or how was only a waste of precious time. Maeve was having trouble enough just remaining upright as the Blue Phoenix swerved in pursuit. Duaal pushed the accelerator down to full, but the Oslain'ii was vanishing quickly into the distance.

Logan leaned forward, frowning. "They're going around the autotraffic belt. We can catch up if we go through."

"Through?" Gripper squeaked. "Captain, you can't–!"

But Duaal was grinning, teeth bright in his dark face. He yanked the Blue Phoenix onto a new vector, mashing Maeve and Gripper into one another again in the narrow fibersteel corridor. A stripe of strobing lights was coming closer outside, alarmingly close. The autotraffic belt – the band of latitude reserved for communications satellites and other unmanned orbital objects. Maeve's stomach lurched, but before she could say anything at all, Duaal was diving between the lights. Metal and flickering points of color flashed past. One of them came so close that Maeve swore she could reach out and touch it… The Blue Phoenix shuddered and there was a shrill metallic squeal. A cylinder of rotating segments careened away, tumbling awkwardly end over end until it collided with a delicate cloverleaf cluster of relay dishes.

Duaal grimaced. The young mage pulled back and eased up on the throttle. Sunjarrah's gravity pulled at the Blue Phoenix, slowing the ship and tugging the dented nose down planetward. Logan's metal fingers scraped loudly over the screens and readouts of the powerless copilot station.

"Give me control," he said.

Duaal spared a short, sharp look at Logan. Even in that fraction of a second, the Blue Phoenix drifted and Duaal had to wrestle it back on course. The Oslain'ii was barely visible through the lane of satellites, just a faintly shining spot of darkness. Duaal swore.