Ashes of Candesce: Book Five of Virga

vessels parked by the stop. Returning to the corridor she found Venera already undogging the main hatch. The admiral's wife wore functional leathers and a bandolier, with pistols at her belt. This must be serious.

'What's going on?'

Venera spared her a quick glance. 'Those are two of the ships we sent to Serenity.'

'Oh!' They all waited impatiently for the dockhands to catch their ropes and haul them in. Before they were even tied down, Venera had hopped off the ship and was pulling herself hand over hand along a rope that led to the station's main building. Leal and Keir followed as quickly as they could.

The station building was a wooden sphere about a hundred feet across, with various blocky buildings crowding its inside surface. There was an administrative shed, two stores, a hotel, a bar, and something that might actually be a brothel, based on the apparel of the women drifting in front of it. The center of the space held a bank of crude electrical lamps, whose flickering light was competing with a bright glow from the bar. Loud music and raucous voices could be heard coming from there.

Venera, Leal, and Keir looked at one another, then sailed in that direction.

Venera perched on the lip of the door and looked in; Keir did so opposite her. Windup lamps in colored paper balls were bouncing around the bar's main room, and all the wicker half-spheres where you could nestle with your drinks and friends were full. Men and women were leaping between the bar itself and various loud conversations; clearly, whatever was going on here was at its height.

One laugh wormed its way through the noise of all the others, and Leal found herself rearing back in confusion. 'It can't be--'

She grabbed the doorframe and flipped herself into the room--and there he was, large as life and alive, in fact holding a helix glass of beer and cheering something. 'Hayden!'

He glanced over, did a double take, and let go of the glass. 'Leal!' Leaving his drink twirling in midair, Hayden Griffin launched himself across the bar, nearly colliding with another man who'd chosen the same moment to head for the toilets. Hayden opened his arms and docked with Leal, crushing her in his embrace. 'There you are!'

She returned the hug, only now aware of how dangerously thin he was. Pushing him back, she gave him a once-over. He was dressed in an ill-fitting airman's uniform in Slipstream colors. His cheeks were hollow, his face and hands sunburnt. But he was alive, and he looked happy.

He looked past Leal and grew suddenly serious. 'Lady Fanning.'

'Griffin.' Venera nodded coolly to him. They had a history, these two, Leal remembered, and not a romantic one. There was blood between them.

'Did all of your men make it?' Venera went on. She was looking around the room, taking in what was now clearly a strange mix of ill-sized Slipstream uniforms and ragged black ones that must belong to Home Guard members.

Hayden shook his head. 'We lost ten. Four on the plains, six yesterday.'

Venera looked startled. 'What happened yesterday?'

'Your secret city was attacked!' The speaker was a lean Home Guard officer, his uniform stained and torn. He hopped over to perch by the door. 'They looked like pirate ships, but there were eight of them and they were packed with men. They jumped us just as we were ferrying the last of our men out of Brink.'

'Venera Fanning, Niels Lacerta of the Home Guard,' said Hayden. 'Without Niels and his men, we wouldn't have survived long in Aethyr.'

'I remember you,' said Leal. 'You came to sit by our fire that first night after the crash. We talked about my message.'

He nodded. 'We've talked about little else since you left us, ma'am. --Whether you were right; whether your 'emissary' is a devil or an angel.'

'But...' Hayden looked from Leal to Venera and back. He ignored Keir, whom he'd after all never met. 'What are you doing here?'

Venera shrugged. 'A courier found us six hours ago, said there were damaged Slipstream ships at one of our designated rendezvous. Tell me more about this attack.'

'They definitely knew where to find the city, and they knew we were there,' said Hayden. 'It was a coordinated assault. They meant to capture Serenity, I'm sure of it. We managed to beat them back, but they may return. The base commander sent two frigates to Rush for reinforcements.'

'But who could it be?' Keir burst out. 'Nobody knows about the city but us!'

'Us, and Jacoby Sarto,' said Venera.

There was a momentary silence. Leal was confused. 'I thought he was a friend of yours?'

Venera appeared to consider this concept for a time. Finally, she held one hand out, and waggled it from side to side. 'Even odds,' she said. 'I'm going to say it was him.'

'The commander had planned to send Niels and his men straight back to the Guard, and us directly to Rush,' Hayden went on. 'But we were attacked again on the way out of the city. One of the cruisers was holed; we've been leaving a trail of fuel all the way across winter. The captain pulled us in here to patch us up and buy enough fuel to get us home. We were just...' He glanced around, grinning. '... celebrating being back.'

He shook his head impatiently. 'But anyway, what I meant was--Leal, we met your friends in the city and they told us a little of what happened. Is it true about Tarvey?'

'Ah,' she said, suddenly stabbed by deep sadness. Tarvey had been Hayden's loyal servant and friend. Loyalty had brought him to Aethyr, had led to him risking his life for Hayden more than once. Ultimately, it had cost him everything.

'Hayden, I don't know what to say.'

'Say what happened,' advised Venera. 'And I suggest you be quick about it. The admiralty's not going to like this tab we're running up.'