Destiny's Blood by Marie Bilodeau (superbooks4u txt) 📕

The man’s body shivered and a spasm made him leap off the floor for an instant. That he had been able to take so much with little physical effect was a testament to his spirit. That is, the spirits he had consumed.

She pulled her own mind back, visualizing a clear separation between the two. Once she was confident that she held nothing of him captive, and that her actions would not leave him as inactive as a Collarian mushroom for the rest of his days, Josmere removed her hand from the warm flesh.

She took what little money the man had on him and headed back to get Layela, to make a quick escape in the few remaining minutes before the ship re-entered the tunnel.

She wished he had known more.

She suspected strongly that the crew of the Destiny and the Delamores had much in common.

i

“Tunnel access granted.” The computerized tunnel traffic controller beeped on the console.

“Bring her in, Ardin,” Cailan said, and the second-in-command proudly shouted orders to see them safely through. Avienne leaned against her console, bored out of her skull and suspecting the walls of the ship were smothering her. A small notification on her status panel caught her attention.

Thirteen minutes ago, someone had opened the doors to the gardens. And three minutes ago, the bay doors had opened. She checked her instruments, making sure the error had not been at her end. Docking bay access was routed through the engineering panel and Travan would have noticed any unscheduled access.

No error on her end. Travan would have said something, unless someone had blocked the signal to his panel. Tactical was routed differently, which few on this ship knew.

She furrowed her brow and, on a hunch, checked another section of the ship.

Ah ha! The room where the two women were kept had reopened about ten minutes after Ardin had left them.

Wily little thieves.

“Thirty seconds to entry,” Travan reported in Lang’s stead. The navigator was off getting drunk somewhere, his job done here for the day.

Maybe he was on the shuttle with the girls? Avienne was certain the two had more sense than that, and was willing to bet that they had even taken one of the clean shuttles. She suddenly felt a chasm open under her feet and unexpected tears welled somewhere near her eyes, a rare and surprising condition.

The Destiny groaned as her tachyonic engines came to life. And then she groaned again, and a red light flashed on Travan’s console.

“Tachyonic engines aren’t in synch. Field still unstable.”

Cailan still said nothing, and Ardin was the one who voiced the question. “Should we abort?”

Avienne held her breath. If they aborted, the chances of the shuttle being spotted were high; the decision to reveal them might be out of her hands. The thought gave her no relief.

With a few touches on her control panel, she called up the engineering display.

“Twenty seconds to entry,” Avienne chimed.

“Travan?” Ardin asked. Avienne was amazed that his voice was still steady. If they entered the tunnel without the tachyonic engines’ field protection, they would be flattened to one dimension. A speck of dust would look impressive beside them.

Spotting the shuttle would be better than that!

Destiny’s groans stopped and she began gently humming, the screen covered by winking lights as the field stabilized and enveloped them. Avienne felt relief and sorrow all at once.

“Ten seconds to entry,” Travan intoned, nodding gravely to Ardin.

“All hands prepare for tachyonic tunnel entry,” Ardin spoke clearly over the ship’s speakers.

The tears still felt near her eyes. But why?

She wished she were on the shuttle with them.

But she wasn’t.

And if she didn’t stop Destiny from entering this tunnel, as the Three Fates had failed to do, Layela and the Berganda could easily get a few hours’ head start before Destiny could even pursue.

But I need the money! Avienne bit her lower lip, wanting to say something, anything to stop Destiny and get her profit. She looked up at Ardin, proudly standing in the middle of the bridge, guiding the old ship through, his chiselled features as striking as Destiny’s must have once been.

You’ll never have to believe you were a kidnapper, or have this shadow hang over you, she thought, and she smiled. She reached her decision, and the tears vanished before they were shed.

The worst part is, she thought, looking at her brother and his loyal dreams of heroism that involved neither kidnapping nor a life of his own, you’ll never know how I came to choose family over freedom.

They entered the great mouth of the tunnel, its blue energies lashing at the ship as the great shutters closed and blocked out the rest of the universe.

CHAPTER 14

Josmere sighed in relief as she watched Destiny vanish into the tunnel, only a glittering distortion marking its existence. The stars danced in coats of blue beyond the length of the tunnel, distorted as the wave of tachyon particles stretched before them to create the fastest, most efficient and most dangerous route in the charted universe.

Once in a while, the shimmering length would tremble, and wild, bright colours would travel along it, spread in shapes all intermingling together, as though for one second a portion of the universe was a rainbow viewed through broken glass. That meant a ship was passing, so quickly that a blink of an eye would mean missing its initial splendour, to be left with its scintillating brilliance.

Some races believed that wielding the power of the tachyons was too dangerous, and humanity had paid the price with seizures that had claimed quite a few lives before shutters became obligatory.

But then again, few races aside from humans ever felt the need to leave their homes. Josmere remembered the history of her own people, passed down from aunt to sprout through the generations.

“Time to go.” Josmere ignited the shuttle. They had remained without power, waiting for Destiny to move out of range. It had been a bumpy ride when its engines