Page 56 of Vindicated

As I started to turn away, a flash of vivid blue caught my eye several levels below, and I jerked to a stop so abruptly Dawz nearly collided with my back.

Was that Lettie's hair? I squinted down through the dim, pulsing emergency lights, and my dread solidified as more came into focus including Hal's distinctive orange hair, Vern’s loping gait, and Vallia’s lavender hair.

What thetvekwere they doing out here? They were supposed to be safe in my quarters. The steel door might not be impenetrable, but it was safer than a raging battle. Then I saw Athena.

Fear coursed through veins so fast it nearly buckled my knees. Had they been discovered? Were they on the run from Zagrath soldiers? I had no way of knowing, but none of thereasons mattered. All that mattered was that she was exposed and, from the looks of it, unarmed in a warship full of enemy soldiers.

I was already moving before a strategy had fully formed, breaking into a dead run along the walkway. Mymajakthundered after me even though I had given him no order, and I didn’t know if he’d seen what I had. Still, he followed my lead.

Another quick glance over the railing told me that she was too many levels below me. There were too many twisting bridges and staircases between us, not to mention the enemy soldiers. A Zagrath soldier lunged into my path, and I threw him aside without breaking stride, barely registering the crash behind me. Another rounded the corner with a blaster pointed at me, but I slashed him with my axe without slowing, my focus only on reaching Athena.

I looked down again, and my heart seized. Two enemy soldiers had cornered Athena and her friends in the middle of one of the suspended bridges, the chains creaking under the weight of too many bodies crowded together. The two lanky actors stood on either end of the group, acting as a barrier between the soldiers and the others. Their fists were raised and their bodies braced, but they held no weapons. They were holding the line with nothing but their bare hands against blasters.

I calculated the staircases I would need to descend, the bridges I would need to cross, and the platforms I would need to leap between. I knew with brutal certainty that I would not reach her in time. Not even if I ran faster than I’d ever run in my life.

“Time to stop running,” I told myself, as I sucked in a single, sharp breath, and threw myself over the railing into the vast, open chasm below.

Chapter 48

Athena

I'd thought racing through Kashara under attack had been frightening, but it was nothing compared to being trapped on a swaying bridge above an enormous chasm with blasters pointed from both directions.

"Get back!" Hatch bellowed, to the enemy soldiers as he sidled toward the center of the bridge with Vern flanking him.

"Back where?" Hal asked as he shuffled closer to me and away from the cable railing. "There is no back. There's just down."

Lettie glared back and forth at the soldiers on both sides of the bridge, as if she could scare them off with attitude alone. "You call yourselves soldiers? Cornering a bunch of unarmed civilians? That's real brave, that is."

The soldier in front sneered at her. “If you’re in a Vandar warbird, you aren’t civilians anymore. You’re criminals, just like them.”

“Look who’s talking,” Lettie snapped, and a part of me wished she’d stop antagonizing the ones holding the weapons.

I scratched absently at the strange burning sensation on my chest and wondered if I was getting a stress rash. Being held at blaster point would definitely qualify as stressful.

"Traitors to the Empire," the officer said, leveling his weapon, "deserve nothing but death."

I didn't close my eyes, even though I didn’t want to watch him fire at us. Some stubborn part of me refused to give any of the Zagrath the satisfaction of me flinching. I did reach for Lettie’s hand, though, and then Vallia’s, comforted by the feel of their hands in mine.

Both women smiled at me, and a strange peace settled over me. If I were going to die, at least I would be with my friends. Then something enormous slammed down onto the bridge.

The impact threw all of us to our knees. The entire steel structure bucked and swung with cables screaming in protest, and for one gut-lurching second I was sure we were all going over the side.

Then I locked eyes with the Vandar who was crouched where he'd landed, axe already in hand, tail lashing behind him with barely contained violence. “Lorken?”

He didn't answer me. He was already moving, a blur of rippling muscle and glinting steel, cutting into the soldiers who'd cornered us from one end of the bridge before they'd found their footing.

A second crash sounded behind us, and the bridge lurched again, sending everyone scrabbling for the railing. Dawz had dropped from somewhere above, landing hard enough that I felt it in my teeth. He came up swinging and took the other end of the bridge, dispatching the Zagrath soldiers there before they could get off a single shot. When the last soldier crumpled to the floor, we all stood and looked around.

Our small group was accounted for, if shell-shocked and shaken, and the two Vandar were breathing heavily at either end of the bridge.

“Fuck me sideways,” Lettie whispered, as she looked up where the two raiders had come from and then to all the dead Zagrath.

“Same,” Hal muttered.

I ran to Lorken, and he caught my hand in his, his grip fierce, already pulling me off the bridge. "We need to move.”

“To where?" I asked, half-running to keep pace with his long strides as Dawz brought up the rear behind my wide-eyed friends.