Beyond the Sky: Chapter 13
Monsters and Mysteries
Toras got the news upon his return to Trez Yafan. Though his training kept his composure, he could scarce believe it: The Princess, kidnapped?
Not kidnapped—vanished. The Governor, from his hospital bed, had probably mobilized the entire Occupation force now, to search. The stuff about kidnapping was scattered reports, unconfirmed. Yet, there’d been no communication from the Jepsei National Front, and this was clearly their handiwork. Had she been killed, in accident, and they simply dumped the body and fled? Or might some farmer or Strider fuzzweed-tender find her traipsing through their fields?
It was sickening. He dared not return to Mespreth, or even show his face at the Governor’s palace, unless it was with the Princess by his side. He should’ve stayed with her, curse it! Where had his curiosity led him? Chasing rumors of Black Triangles, while his future Queen fell under attack! Commissar Breval and the King would have his job, if not his head!
So there he was, out amid scores of Mespreth and Jepsei State soldiers, picking over the grounds of her disappearance for only the tenth time. There were the boats on the beach, driven ashore, the mansion (belonging to someone in Supreme Leader Enin’s circle, it seemed), and three divots in the ground like landing jacks. Footprints clustered nearby. Whoever landed here came out, went not far at all, and promptly reboarded. A copter? None had been reported, and none he knew of had landing gear like this.
The prints were strange. Toras’ field training made him a superb tracker, yet these left him baffled. They weren’t military boots, nor were they Cepic, Fesk, or Trinn. Stilt-Striders made six dents, and Shadowstalkers little handprints. Yunes, you had to see.
“Sir!” one of the Occupation soldiers he borrowed shook him from his pondering. “We got live ones!”
Toras rushed over. Some lieutenant had finally stopped waiting for permission and forced the mansion’s door. From upstairs, two distraught Nevi in Royal Household robes were retrieved.
Ipi and Gilp, Takji’s servants. Not a good sign—they’d taken the Bond, and her as their master. For them to be without her required no small reason.
They cried and wailed, hugging each other in consolation. It took three soldiers to carry them, and as they came out of the house and away from its trees, Toras noticed both casting their eyes skyward in fear.
“Tell me what happened,” Toras said when they’d been set down by the three landing divots. The soldiers here knew his status, as a member of Steel Hand, but not his identity, or his disgrace. They still respected him.
“MONSTERS!” Ipi wailed, and buried her face under Gilp’s chin. Toras reached out and turned her head back. “Monsters-monsters-monsters! In a big, flying—”
“Black Triangle.” Toras exhaled.
Both raised their ears. Ipi continued, “Big! Came when we fought the Trinn!”
“What Trinn?”
“On the boat, with the rebel?” the lieutenant suggested.
Toras crouched in front of the Nevi. “That Trinn?”
“In the boat, the boat! We told Her Highness, run! But the monsters!”
“Describe them. They were piloting the Black Triangle?”
Ipi’s wailing intensified.
Gilp, seeming more collected, replied, “They were thin. Like Cepic, but...not. No tails. Hands with five fingers. Came out when it landed.” She pointed to the divots and footprints. “Ipi saw its face.”
Ipi screamed. Whatever it was, it had not been pleasant.
“Listen to me.” Toras grabbed her again, tried to peel her off Gilp. They were sisters, he recalled. Didn’t remember which was older. “LISTEN! The Princess, your Lady, has DISAPPEARED! Tell me, did the monsters take her?”
They waved their ears like fans.
“We know not how, but two carried her. Asleep,” Gilp said. “Flat on a board, like a hospital. Up into the hatch. That was after the rebel.”
“The girl with the Trinn? What did they do to her?”
Gilp rubbed her eyes with long, knob-jointed arms. “One pointed a thing at her, then she fell over.”
“Killed?” He might have to start thinking where to flee, if so.
“I don’t think so, sir,” the lieutenant said. “I heard...never mind, sir.”
“No. Continue,” he demanded.
The man, a Cepic, probably a local recruit from Jepsei, looked nervous and scuffed with his foot. “I heard a man telling a story. In a... bar, sir. He said the Black Triangle had pilots, and they put him to sleep.”
“Clearly, he woke up.”
“That’s what we hear, sir. The Black Triangle is nervous. Runs away, like a Shadowstalker, soon as you see it.”
“Not this time.” He went back to Ipi. “You saw one of the pilots? The ‘monsters’?”
She screeched. “It... came. For us. Saw us and chased. To tree. Took off its—helmet!”
He let Gilp console her. “I was in the branches, I only heard her scream,” Gilp clarified. “Then the Trinn came, and the monster left. That’s why they did—they saw the Trinn, and grew scared.”
Ipi was now chanting: “Two eyes no snout. Two eyes no snout. Two eyes no snout. Two eyes no snout AND BIG WHITE TEETH!”
That did not describe any race he knew. Maybe a Cepic, with an unfortunate birth defect? “Which way, when they left?”
Gilp pointed up. Well, that sure narrowed it down. “Straight up. Then I lost sight, and we had to hide from the Trinn. He was a slave.”
“Ipi. Ipi! What species was the monster?”
“Flat-face, flat-face!”
“We’ll not get much out of her.” Toras stood. “Load them up.”
The soldiers picked them up, heading off towards an ambulance. The others gathered around began to depart.
Toras held up his hand, stopping the lieutenant. “Tell me: Which bar was this?”
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