Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (11 page)

As he moved, she could feel his crystal-clear eyes lock onto her, and she fought the urge to try and hide, to put something between her and that man, but there was nothing to hide behind. He stopped in front of their group, and his stare finally left her, moving from one person to the next, studying each until it settled on Ravan.

And when it did … he smiled. His hands cupped her face tenderly, he looked down into her eyes. “When, I wonder, will you finally disappoint me, Ravan Parkes?” Tiberius’s voice was soft, yet it carried weight, and though he didn’t speak slowly, he articulated each word with a meticulousness that seemed deliberate, as if every word was valuable.

Ravan smiled back at him. “No time soon, I promise.”

“You have brought back to me what I value most.” The words gave Avril a shiver. Sweet as the sentiment was, there was little emotion in it. She watched Tiberius reach down and take Ravan’s hand. “Congratulations,
Commandant.
” Then he raised the hand high into the air, and turned to the pirates that surrounded them.

“
This,
” he yelled for all to hear, “is the
taking
of power!”

The crowd erupted into cheers again. The dock rocked beneath Avril’s feet. Guns fired into the air. It was overwhelming. She could feel the tension from the Wind Traders on the ship behind her.

“Tiberius,” Ravan said, when he’d lowered her hand. “May I present your daughter.”

Avril swallowed. Tiberius’s gaze shifted back to her, studying her a long, inquisitive moment, his eyes raking over her, examining every piece, as if in evaluation, as if in judgment. When he moved to her, his smile grew, but, as always, it held no warmth. Whatever reason he wanted her back so badly, it had very little to do with fatherly love.

“Avril,” he said. “You have grown strong…”

He reached toward her … and Avril recoiled as if from a snake.

She felt the anger rise within her. This man had taken everything from her; Dane, her life, Gideon … and he expected tenderness in return? He was right. She
had
grown strong, he had no idea how much, but he would.

Tiberius gauged the reaction with only a slight sense of disappointment. He nodded, as if reaching some internal consensus. “We have time,” was all he said. “We have time.”

Tiberius looked up at the
Wind Rift,
docked behind them. The crew was on board, staring nervously back. Olive stood out front, waiting.

Tiberius glanced at each of the crew a brief moment, then simply looked away.

“Kill the crew, take the ship,” he ordered. “Strip it of anything of value.”

The words seemed out of place from such an unassuming figure, but the pirates expected nothing less. They moved for the ship, hands reached for guns. The crowd cheered again. Ravan frowned, slightly, but made no move to stop them. Above, Olive and her crew tensed, took steps back.

Avril, however, had been expecting it.

Her eyes scanned the figures of the two closest guards, their stances, noting their balance, deducing their dominant hands from where they kept their guns. It was enough.

Her first two kicks were blurs of motion. The first groaned as his kneecap snapped, and his weight brought him to the dock.

Before the second one could do anything, she spun, ripping the big hunting knife from his belt, then her knee found his groin and sent him to the ground with the other.

She grabbed Tiberius’s right wrist, twisted and spun again, pinning him where he stood and rested the gleaming knife against his throat.

The entire thing took maybe five seconds, and everyone on the dock and the platform beyond froze. A thousand gun hammers clicked into place, a thousand weapons raised, all of them at her.

Avril just smiled. They wouldn’t do anything. Shooting her was shooting their glorious leader, and it meant right now, she held all the cards.

Avril leaned in close so that her father could hear. “You wanted me home. Well, here I am.”

She sensed no fear from Tiberius, his body felt relaxed. He just craned his neck to look down at her. It infuriated her, his lack of response, the absence of fear. She pressed the knife into his neck. “You will relinquish any claim to the
Wind Rift.
They, at least, will
not
be yours.”

Where before his voice had seemed cold, now it was almost warm, affectionate. “Not taking that ship would be denying your people their share of profit and power.”

Avril dug the knife in again, feeling the anger build. “They aren’t my people.”

“Then why react so violently to the suggestion?”

Avril paused, staring at the man hatefully. “What would your men do? If I slit your throat right here? Even knowing who I am?”

“They would kill you, girl,” Tiberius said.

“Exactly. I will fight and
die
unless you tell your mindless thugs to leave that ship and its crew alone. I
swear
it. What happens to your
legacy
then?”

The two stared at one another. Tiberius smiled again, and this time, there
was
warmth in it. The sight only made Avril angrier. “I’m proud of you. For taking what you want, not
asking
for it like a Wind Trader. Perhaps your time with the White Helix was worth it. Perhaps Gideon and I had more in common than I assumed.”

“Say his name again, and I
will
kill you,” Avril whispered dangerously. “Gideon was more a father to me than you ever were, and you are
nothing
alike.”

If Tiberius was hurt, he made no indication. He just studied Avril, as if for the first time, long and intensely, and there grew a satisfaction in his face. He liked what he saw, and it made Avril nervous.

“We will grant my daughter’s wish, as a gift for her return,” he announced out loud. “This ship and its crew are
hers,
no harm is to come to them. You see her strength. You see she is worthy of us. With her here, more power will follow.”

The crowd stared back a moment, unsure … then it erupted into cheers again. More gunfire lit up the air.

Avril slowly released Tiberius, letting him stand, and she studied the pirates, perplexed. They were even more roused up than before, more excited, and Avril wondered if this hadn’t been Tiberius’s plan all along.

Her father turned and stared above them, far above, to the Pinnacle that flew the strange, reversed Menagerie flag. The boy at the top, the one with the blond hair, stared back a moment, then did something interesting. He
saluted
Tiberius, as if acknowledging a grand performance.

Who was that boy, Avril wondered. And what was going on in this place?

Tiberius looked away and this time his gaze settled on someone else, someone at the edge of the dock, behind everyone else, someone who had remained unseen until now.

“Hello, Holt,” Tiberius said.

Holt didn’t reply, but neither did he lower his gaze. The stare that passed between the two was intense, and Avril wondered again just what the history was between them.

9.
WIND SHEAR

“MAX!” MIRA YELLED
as the dog darted down into the lower decks of the ship and disappeared, in hot pursuit of the orange cat that had taunted him one time too many. She moved to follow, then felt the shock wave rip through the ship. Her balance faltered, she felt shaky, but it had very little to do with the explosion itself.

Maybe a hundred feet away, the
Wind Star,
the vessel she was supposed to be on, incinerated in a fireball.

“Keep your stupid dog out of the way!” Dresden yelled as he dashed toward the helm, dodging through his crew running everywhere like ants.

“It’s not
my
dog!” she said defensively, but her feelings on the subject were conflicted now. If it hadn’t been for Max, she wouldn’t be on the
Wind Shear
right now, she’d be dead, and all because of his obsession with a cat.

“Then why is it on my ship?” Dresden was, admittedly, a little flustered. “For that matter, why are
you
on my ship?”

Mira pushed through the chaos after him. “He was looking for your cat! It keeps baiting him and—”

“Nemo doesn’t bait
anybody.
” He cut her off.

Another explosion shook the ship, and Mira felt its wheels come off the ground and then slam back down. The impact sent her tumbling to the deck, and everyone else reeling.

Giant, colored Antimatter crystals pulsed through the air in both directions, some being fired, others begin recalled, but even the ones that were hitting their marks weren’t making much difference.

Raptors roared through the sky, plasma bolts streaking down. More bolts, larger ones, burned through the air from ahead as the Spiders finally returned fire. And then there was that massive shape in the distance, a walker so big it towered over everything else. Its beam weapon had incinerated the
Wind Star.
It would no doubt fire again soon.

The fleet, and the entire escape attempt, were in a lot of trouble.

Dresden frowned as he helped her up. “Enjoying yourself? This was
your
idea.”

Another ship exploded off the starboard side of the ship, and Mira saw the White Helix there leaping into the air.

“Helm, get ready for a hard pull to port!” Dresden shouted, trying to balance, leaving her. Another explosion rocked the ship. “When we clear past the line, we’re going afterburner, everyone brace for the hit.”

Mira looked to the port side. There was nothing there but empty land, it would take them south,
away
from the battle.

“What?” She pushed after him. “You’re not
leaving
!?”

“What the hell else would I be doing?” More explosions flared as another flight of Raptors blazed past. “This is a disaster.”

“What about your brother?” Mira pointed ahead of them, at one of the six remaining Landships, Conner’s vessel, the
Wind Mark,
bobbing and weaving, flame bursting all around it. “You’re just going to leave him?”

Dresden gave her a very disapproving look. “In case you haven’t noticed, he and I aren’t very close. Helm, on my mark—”

“If we leave, everyone is going to die!”

“Sweetheart,” Dresden’s patience was running out fast, “I gotta say, I think that’s kind of a foregone conclusion.”

“I don’t mean just
us,
I mean the others; the gunships are already hitting them and when we’re all gone, those walkers will too. If we don’t turn this situation around, you don’t just lose this ship, you lose the entire fleet
and
Currency.”

More explosions, the ground shook. The helmsman gripped the wheel tightly. “Orders, sir?”

“We
can’t
leave,” Mira insisted.

Dresden stared at her, thoughts swirling in his head.

“You’re not seriously considering this?” yelled a tall boy nearby with a shaved head and glasses. His name was Parker, Dresden’s first officer, and from what Mira had observed, the two seemed to have a combative relationship. “
Look
at that thing!”

They were close enough now to see the giant machine surrounded by the Spiders, a red walker unlike anything Mira had ever seen. Six giant legs moved a blocky, armored fuselage three or four hundred feet over the battlefield, brimming with weapons and what looked like its own communications tower. The thing was a walking fortress, and Mira could see a giant, oblong cannon installed on its top, so big it ran the entire length. Mira could feel the earth shudder whenever one of its legs slammed down.

“We have to get the hell out of here,” Parker continued. “
Now.
”

Dresden looked from Parker back to Mira, weighing things. “What are you proposing?”

Good question, Mira thought. She answered with the first thing that came to mind. “That big walker’s like the king on a chessboard.”

“You have a real knack for metaphors, darling, but how does that help us?”

She studied the Spiders in the distance, the Landships nearby … and the Raptors, dozens and dozens of them, filling the sky. She had an idea. A crazy one. “Can this thing go any faster? Get out ahead of the other ships?”

Dresden frowned. “She’s the fastest ship in the fleet, but why in hell would I wanna get out
front
in this madness?”

She looked back at the huge walker. “Can we fit under it?”

“
Under
it?”

“If we can, we can take it down.”

“Orders, sir?!” the helmsman yelled, his nerves shot.

“This is beyond insane!” Parker yelled as more explosions flared everywhere.

“There isn’t time to explain it,” Mira yelled, dropping her pack to the deck and riffling through it. “You want to save your people or not?”

Another Landship was incinerated, White Helix leaping off in flashes of yellow. Plasma bolts, both from above and ahead shred the ground as the
Wind Shear
roared forward.

“Orders, sir?!”

“Dresden…” Parker warned.

The Captain held Mira’s look, struggling with the choice. “Do you have
any
idea what the hell you’re doing?”

She could have said anything just then. She chose the truth. “None whatsoever.”

Dresden studied her a moment more … then smiled. It seemed, somehow, to settle it for him. “That’s all I wanted to hear.” He pulled the old brass sextant off his belt and quickly sighted through it. “Helm, set … two-six-eight, and
hold
that course.”

“Aye,” the helmsman echoed, without much enthusiasm.

“You’re a lunatic,” Parker said, but he was moving for the helm station with Dresden. The Captain had made a call, and that was that.

“I thought so at first too, Parker.” Dresden flipped open the lid of a small box on one of the workbenches there. Inside was a small red button, wires haphazardly connected to it and running down into the ship’s hull. “But the Freebooter’s right, running ain’t gonna save us.”

“Neither will playing chicken with
that
thing.”