Destiny's Blood by Marie Bilodeau (best authors to read .TXT) 📗

The man looked her up and down and managed to hold both her eyes prisoner with his one. Beside him, the woman named Travis did not lower her gaze or her contempt. “What did you do, anyway, girl?”

She shrugged and gave a weak smile. “I owned a flower shop and paid my taxes.”

The man stared a moment longer and then, to Layela’s relief, he began laughing. “That sounds downright criminal!” He sobered for a moment and looked at Travis. “It sounds about right, though.”

Layela took a small step forward, and didn’t have to fake the despair in her voice. “Then will you please help us?”

Travis locked eyes with Josmere for the first time, as though seeking some admission of guilt in the green eyes. “I swear,” Josmere said, meeting the woman’s gaze. “The Berganda were never involved in the ether wars. And,” she added in a whisper, “I’m sure you’ve heard that our powers are dwindling. I’m hardly a threat to you.”

Travis broke a little smile. “I had heard that rumour, and I call it justice.” Josmere’s hands became fists, but she made no move forward.

The man put his hand on Travis’ shoulder, as though holding her back. “You’re welcome to stay, but down here, in the shuttle bay. We’re heading to Crast and Thalos IV.”

Josmere’s eyes grew wide for just a second and she looked at Layela.

“We’ll get off at Crast,” the Berganda said. “It’s closer anyhow, and less of an imposition on you.” Layela had barely the time to register the implications. Crast was a quiet planet, mostly pigpens, slaughterhouses and air freshener factories. Or Thalos IV. She felt a shiver spread from her spine to her toes and the roots of her hair. Layela had left there vowing never to return.

And yet...Crast didn’t seem right. Thalos IV. Thalos IV.

A gentle pull toyed with her heartstrings. Thalos IV.

She put her hand on Josmere’s arm. “I think I’d like to see Thalos IV.” Josmere’s eyes grew wide. “It seems a more...lively planet.” Josmere held her eyes a second longer, as though searching for a flicker of Layela herself.

 “We may meet some old friends, too.” She turned towards the crew again. Layela nodded. Old friends, as in the Dark Knights, the best information network for illegal activities on Thalos IV. If they could find them. It had been a few years, and such systems had a tendency to vanish overnight.

“Crast might be safer,” the man said slowly. “Thalos IV is at the edge of Solarian territory. Crast is less...political, and out of your hunter’s reach.”

Layela gave a thin smile. It wasn’t just the colonel she had to worry about, but she wasn’t about to tell him that and get kicked off the ship.

“Which channels are advertising my wanted status?” she asked.

“Military.” He shrugged. “Old habits die hard, so we still scan those channels. Someone important is pushing to have it released to the public, but there is opposition to putting a price on your head. Lack of funding.” He gave a wry smile.

She nodded. “Thalos IV might be safe, then. Thank you for the information,” she hesitated, and then added, “and for your kindness.”

“Just never mention our encounter, and I’ll make sure never to mention you,” the man said and turned on his heels, Travis not far behind after casting a warning look at Josmere. Within seconds Josmere and Layela were alone in the cold shuttle bay.

Thalos IV. Layela wished she knew exactly why it felt so necessary to head to that planet, yet she knew any other decision would be foolish. And she knew she would be fine, because the root of her nightmares, the Kilita with his glowing orange eyes, wasn’t currently there.

He was behind them somewhere, perhaps hunting them still.

i

Layela was sitting in the shuttle, her eyes closed, trying to recall any thread of her visions. And trying to understand her need to return to Thalos IV. She was cold — the ship barely heated its shuttle bay — and bored out of her mind. In almost five hours, she’d had no success.

Josmere had been exploring the large shuttle bay for the past few hours, and Layela suspected the Berganda was avoiding her so that Layela couldn’t press her to show her the vision.

 She jumped as a voice boomed over the intercom. “Prepare for arrival at Thalos IV Veruvian docks.”

The Veruvian docks, located in the city of Veruvia, could not have been a better place to land. Josmere’s family lived there. Layela hoped they could stay at her family’s home, although she had never seen it herself. Josmere had only mentioned it in passing, and she suspected the Berganda had run away. She hoped they would be welcomed nonetheless.

The city was also exactly half a planet away from the Solarian embassy. Layela stretched and stood up, walking towards the small viewing port by the bay’s control stations.

The ship slowed out of light speed, the stars no longer stretched around them. The Thalonian system leapt into view, and nostalgia clutched Layela’s heart.

Two stars held the system together. A huge white Super Giant was orbited by a much smaller yellow sun, the two sometimes so close that their solar flares slammed into each other, and for a few moments the stars seemed linked, like one. The first five planets of the solar system were too close to the suns to bear life on their hot and radiation-filled landscapes.

Thalos I was the farthest from the suns, a simple mining community with little atmosphere and protection from the thinner radiation. It was used by the royalty as a prison planet. Its orbit was far past the two suns now, not even a flicker in their sky.

Thalos II was so small that people had argued whether it was a planet or a planetoid, until the royalty of Thalos III declared it to be a planet, simply because they wanted to retain the “Three” in their own name — a sign that the Three Fates were with them.

Thalos III was filled with royalty — brimming,