Avert (4 page)

Sky shouted through the hole. “Ma’am, please. I am here to help!”

The door swung in and Sky found herself looking at the business end of a blaster. The woman on the other side of the door had a massive bruise on the side of her face and snow white hair.

“Why are you here, who are you?”

Sky took a breath. “I have come to take the child to safety. I cannot save you, but I can save her.”

Looking at the older woman, Sky noted that she had a peculiar crackling energy around her aura. The woman slowly lowered her weapon but kept it ready. “I have a companion with me. He only has a short knife. He is no danger to you. May he come in?”

The woman raised the blaster. “Why have you come?”

Sky sighed. “May I sit? You can let your granddaughter out of the closet now. They would have found her anyway.”

Absently, the woman gestured to the table and Sky had a seat. “You can call in your companion. I won’t shoot him.”

The sounds of battle were getting closer, but Sky acted as if she had all the time in the world.

“Tavik, come in. It’s as safe as it is going to get.” She adjusted her skirt as she sat and the woman focussed her gaze on Sky’s belt.

“Are those scissors?”

“Yes. I am a seamstress. Come in, Tavik.” She raised one hand slowly and beckoned him in.

The woman tightened her hands on the blaster, but she didn’t raise it when Tavik entered her home.

“Sky, the invaders are getting closer.” His tone was low and quiet, but she heard the tension in his voice.

“I know, Tavik, but she is determined to make a stand and I will not have the child traumatized by the removal. Her grandmother has to let her go. Now, sit down before she shoots you.”

There was a tea set on the table and Sky poured the hot beverage into a cup and offered the other to the stunned woman who’s attention was now firmly fixed on her.

“Have a seat, Randa. You are going to have to defend your home, but she will not be in it.”

Jerking forward with slow steps, Randa took a seat with the two strangers and sipped at her tea. “You can keep her safe?”

“I can deliver her to a place where she will grow tall and strong, living life to the fullest.” Sky placed her hand on the woman’s darker skin and smiled into the kind eyes that had been worn by time.

“How can I know that you speak the truth?”

Sky shrugged. “You can’t, but you can trust that with the death squad killing everyone in the village, they would not stop for one child. I can see two very distinct possibilities for your grandchild. In one, she dies here and her father’s people whisper rumours about her secretly living among them, and in the other, I take her to safety and the rumours say the same thing, but she gets to live a life on a free world with a family who loves her and will make sure her line extends far into your future.”

Randa had tears in her eyes. “How do I know that you are not working for them?”

Sky lifted her gaze and stared into the woman’s eyes. “Tell me what you see.”

“Stars, so many stars.” Randa shuddered.

Sky dropped her lids to half-mast once again. “Apparently, some call us Sentinels, but you can call me Sky.”

The sounds of battle drew closer and Tavik tensed. “We have to go, Sky.”

She nodded. “Will you trust me with her future?”

Randa’s tears streamed endlessly down her face. “Take my life with her. She will be in my heart as long as my soul lives.”

Sky waited as Randa went to the cellar and lifted a little girl out. The six-year-old was sniffling and her bright eyes were wide in her dark face. It was the ivory glow of her hair and brows that marked her as different.

“Veema, I want you to go with this lady and live a good life. My time is over, but they have promised me that you will have a chance to start over. You will behave and know for now and always that you are loved.”

Veema nodded and hiccupped. Her cheeks were marked with tears.

Sky held out her arms and the little girl curled against her. “Hello, Veema, I am Sky and I will take care of you.”

“Will you take care of Nanna too?”

Randa moved to speak, but Sky whispered, “No, sweetie, she has to stay here so that everyone thinks you are dead. When your own grandchildren come back, they will honour her for her sacrifice today.”

Veema stuck her thumb into her mouth and didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “That is what Gran said.”

Sky smiled at Randa as the truth of it came to her. “You screamed once when you saw your horror made real and that scream ripped through time.”

“I did?”

“You did, and now we are here, so the scream need not happen again. You are a precog, are you not?”

“I am. My daughter should never have wed above her station, but no one knew that Timmorn would ever take the throne. He was a simple Earl when they wed and there was no reason to think that the entire royal family would be taken by plague. Veema was their only child and is now the heir to half the continent. Take care of her.”

Sky bowed. “Make it good, Randa. We will be going now.”

In a rush, Randa embraced both Sky and Veema before backing away and lifting her weapon again.

Sky concentrated and focussed on the image in her mind of a quiet farm on a world with six moons. She looked back at Tavik, “I will see you at Home. This I do alone.”

As her skin glowed and power gathered, soldiers appeared in the doorway. Sky quickly took a step into the doorway as Randa laid down covering fire. The doorway closed before the gunfire began and for that Sky was glad.

Veema would always remember her grandmother going out fighting, not dying from a multitude of wounds.

That was a memory no one deserved.

Chapter Six

Veema cried quietly against Sky’s shoulder as she walked through the narrow path in the jungle.

Sky didn’t tell her that it would be okay. Nothing in Veema’s life would be okay for quite some time.

When the settlement came into view, Sky was relieved. She had trusted that her mind was steering her in the correct direction and that this place was not all a delusion.

The Azon colony of Colithar was deep in the woods and medical breakthroughs were coming out of their facilities every year. They were at the beginning of their triumphant stay on this world and with Veema embedded with some of the most protective creatures in the Alliance, she would be safe.

The woman that Sky was looking for was in a garden and examining the fruit she had grown.

“Teilia Athula?” Sky spoke in a low tone.

The woman jumped and whirled around, her lightly clawed hand extended in defence. “Who are you?”

“Who I am is not important. This is Veema and she is in need of a home and family.”

Veema was staring at the botanist with intense interest. Her huge bright eyes changed colouration with her mood. Her gaze went from intense grey to a bright amethyst.

Sky put her on the ground and she walked up to Teilia with the serious expression that only children forced to grow up too soon have.

“Excuse me, ma’am. My grandmother has gone beyond and I need someone to care for me. Will you take me in?” Veema extended her small hand to the Azon scientist.

Teilia looked at Sky, but Sky simply shrugged. “Her grandmother had precognition. She knew that this was an option but had no idea how to get Veema here. That is where I came in.”

Teilia took the young girl’s hand with a smile and shook the smaller appendage with her own.

Sky watched as an electric connection sparked between the young girl and her new parent.

Teilia lifted Veema in her arms and carried her into the house.

Sky waited outside and in a few minutes, Teilia came out to speak with her.

“Where is Veema?”

“Inside having cookies and some fruit juice. Now tell me why you brought her to me.” Teilia waved her over to a bench set in the garden.

Sky hiked over and took a seat. “You seem to take my eyes in stride.”

Teilia grinned. “My family has run into Sentinels before, but none of them have ever dropped children on their doorstep. What is Veema?”

“Heir to the mines of Mescaro and the entire Northern continent to boot. Her family has been killed and her grandmother gave her to me to keep her from dying in a horrible bloodbath that slaughtered their entire village.”

“What is her species?”

“She is Sorroh. Her eyes will change with her mood, so it will be easy to tell what she is thinking.”

“Why me? Why not a couple? I am a single woman who spends most of her time with her garden.”

Sky shrugged and tried to look innocent. “You have a man in your life and he will raise Veema as his own. She will become a pillar of your community and find a mate of her own one day. For now, know that she is in the right place at the right time, as are you.”

Sky got to her feet and began to make a portal back Home.

Teilia waved her hands, “Wait, how will I know who to look for? I am a master of sending men on their way.”

Sky laughed and as she stepped into the portal, “Keep a lookout for a man named Hynaro.”

There was a crowd waiting for her when she returned Home and they did not look happy.

Tavik immediately moved to stand next to her and faced the crowd with her. “No matter what happens, I am here for you.”

She reached out and took his hand. “Thank you.”

Ravikka gestured for her to follow and led the way back into the council hall. The councillors took their seats and a light highlighted Sky’s position on the floor.

“Sky, we realize that you have not had a chance to begin your training, but you have broken one of our most stringent rules.”

Sky blinked and waited. When no one spoke, she asked, “What rule?”

“To avert a death in a person who is scheduled to die is unacceptable.”

Sky tilted her head. “The child was only truly scheduled to leave her home under mysterious circumstances. Her descendants will enact the change that will occur two generations from now before they hand the mines and planet back to the people. It won’t damage her world in any way.”

“You have created a being that will affect nine different worlds by the very existence of her bloodline.” The man named Gwetho leaned into the light as he spoke.

The councillors murmured wildly in their shadows.

Ravikka sighed, “You also traipsed around without a cowl and you were seen. Rumours of our existence flared into life on Colithar and swept through their history. Apparently, this is not a singular visit on your part. You will visit the child as it grows.”

Sky nodded. “Well, if you are going to lock me up, can you do it now? I haven’t had any rest since I was shot. I am feeling a little dizzy.”

She didn’t have a chance to say anything else, the floor came up to greet her and she felt arms grab her as she faded into darkness.

* * * *

Ravikka sighed and sat back. “What are we going to do with her?”

Aura sipped at her tea and shrugged. “What is the Orb saying?”

“It wants her to tamper with time. There is no doubt that there are people who can improve the current state of dozens of worlds and she can see them. Averting death is her skill.”

“What is the problem then, Ravi?”

Ravikka smiled at the woman who bore more of the Orb inside her than any other Nameless.

Aura refused to take a place on the council. Rather, she enjoyed roaming the worlds with Randr, witnessing and being seen by folk on the lookout for the Hooded Ones. They had seen more history in their ten years together than any of the Nameless who had been called in the last century.

“Setting a bad precedent. The rest of the seven are freaked out about it. If she can go back and change history, our present may warp beyond reasonable expectation.”

Aura quirked her lips. “If the Orb wants it, who are we to say no? It will simply take her over and ride her into those situations and we all know it.”

“True.” It was a well-known fact that Aura had been possessed by the Orb over ten times in her tenure as a Nameless. Each time the Orb had taken over, someone had died. Removing folk from the time stream was not something most Nameless would attempt, but Aura was the Sentinel of Vengeance on at least six worlds that they had been able to pinpoint. She was now part and parcel of their legends and histories. The Orb was not big on concealment while killing.

Aura sighed. “Where is she now?”

“I have her under house arrest in Tavik’s quarters. He doesn’t mind. They have a future together. They just don’t know when it will start.”

Ravikka rubbed her forehead as the thought of her great, great, great, great grandson with the second Terran Nameless ripped through her mind. As speaker for the seven, she could see the situation of all of the Nameless at any given time and right now, she was trying very hard not to think about her descendant and his new partner.

Some things were better off left out of her imagination.

Chapter Seven

Tavik’s voice was a low growl, “Submit, Sky. This will go easier if you simply surrender.”

Sky’s muscles tensed as the heat of battle was upon her. “I will never surrender. E6.”

Tavik winced. “You sank my battleship.”

She clapped and raised her arms in triumph. “Woo!”

He shook his head as he reset his side of the game. “I cannot believe that you won the third round.”

She snickered. “I can’t believe that acquisitions were able to find this for me. I love Battleship.”

Her hands picked the tiny spikes from her board.

It was day two of her house arrest while the council argued about her. The previous evening, Tavik had offered her the bed while he took the couch. Surprised at his thoughtfulness, she had demurred and told him to take the other half of the bed. When they woke up tangled together, they very calmly extricated themselves without mentioning that both of their bodies had responded to the embrace.

She was attracted to Tavik and his obtaining Earth board games to keep her entertained while she was waiting for a decision endeared him to her even more.

Sky stretched and wandered out onto the balcony. She never got tired of staring at the star-scape in front of her. A strange glittering started on her right and she turned to watch something taking shape on what had been an empty plain. “Tavik come see this.”