Beyond the Sky: Chapter 11
Captive Chase
A few passing Flyers began to ascend and circle, intrigued by the commotion.
Whoever it was over there, he kept Takji’s guards occupied. The wounded Governor continued blubbering, unattended.
Velli tried for a kill shot, hosing the dock with bullets as the Princess’ party descended some stairs. One guard might’ve gotten hit, she seemed unharmed.
From the other side of the firefight hurled a tank of some kind. It struck between three guards, exploded, and blew them to ragdolls. From over the wall in that place, emerged a burly Trinn wielding a cellar door for a shield, a shovel as a weapon, and bearing the slave-mark of Elacmagolintec’s Company.
His eyes met Velli’s, and his ears raised.
“Head for the boat,” Teliv said. “I’ll hold them off.”
“Goodbye.” She suspected her odds of survival were getting better. Crouching, she pushed through a hedgerow and slid down onto the dockside beach. The Princess and her Nevi boarded the speedboat, the last guard untied it and, before he could get in, spotted Velli and turned back.
He opened fire, the boat’s engine throttled up and away it went.
Velli juked sideways, found a concrete anchor-post she barely fit behind. Then, with the staccato blam-blam-blam-blam-blam of a machine gun, the guard’s chest was perforated and he fell into the water.
The Trinn slave leapt to the beach, shovel and cellar door exchanged for a Royal Gendarmes rifle.
“Is there another boat?” Velli ran to him.
“This way!” He took her around the shore, to a shed built partway into the ground. A fiberglass speedboat lay within. In one quick motion, the Trinn hefted the entire thing from its dry platform and placed it into the sea. Velli took his arm and hopped aboard.
A button started the engine, she tested the throttle and felt it revving, then slammed it forward. The boat surged. She pulled away from the island, bullets kicking up spray where guards saw her and fired. Then, she went out of range.
Takji, or whoever drove her boat, was heading for a stretch of shore with mansions nestled among trees. Velli pressed on the throttle, as if willing her boat to go faster.
“Can we catch them?” she looked back to the Trinn and his huge bulk, then hoped he took no offense.
“This is the faster one,” he replied. “The Governor rarely lets it out of storage.”
“Why are you doing this?” She kept scanning the skies for copters or Yune soldiers.
“I came to this land to bury my cousin,” the Trinn replied. “For eight years I have been a slave, waiting all the while. The Ancestors told me this day would come.”
Velli didn’t know much of religion in Trinn lands. But if it opposed slavery, that was enough for her.
Takji’s boat drew closer now, she saw the Princess look back with fear in her face. The Trinn raised his rifle and fired.
“No!” Velli shouted. “We need her alive!”
“Fine by me.” He shouldered the weapon. “Though I may take an ear if your commander allows.”
The Princess’ boat headed towards the nearest shore, an open stretch of beach with a mansion behind, appearing unoccupied. Gambling for a better escape on land, she figured.
“What’s your name?” she shouted back.
“Jasam. Of the Blue Mountain Clan, where the river meets the three trees. And you?”
“Velli. Just Velli.”
Takji didn’t slow, running her boat straight up the shore so fast it actually collided with the stone seawall. In a flash she was off, and made a Fesk-style leap to the grass above, servants vaulting on their long limbs along after. Velli cut the throttle a second before impact, and skidded sideways to a stop. She unslung her rifle, only to feel Jasam grab her armpits and throw her up the wall.
“After her!” He grinned, and moved to climb.
The mansion was surrounded by a further wall, too high for a Fesk to jump. Takji bounded across the open yard towards a grove of desert trees, glancing back at Velli. She had to know what the JNF was playing at here, why she hadn’t been gunned down yet. Velli risked a single shot—better to catch her wounded, than not at all—and missed.
Jasam climbed the wall and began to run, then from a tree dropped the two Nevi servants. Attacking the bigger threat, it seemed. He grinned and swatted one aside. Velli kept running. Takji rounded a corner and disappeared from view.
Then, low enough to skim the treetops, came the Black Triangle. Velli knew not whether Takji saw it, but it flew in from right, slowed, and hovered there. The trio of landing legs folded out, and it descended.
Transfixed, Velli could do nothing but watch. In the distance behind came howls of surprise from the Nevi, and a shout from Jasam. Touching down with a thud, the Triangle came to rest.
Monsters poured from the hatch, sleeping-sticks in hand and helmets on their heads. Gunshots were futile, she knew. Behind the nearest monster’s helmet was a vile face she couldn’t make out, as it approached with metal cylinder lifted.
The monster clicked its button, and Velli’s world went dark.
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