Heart Fortune

Here, here! Zem said. Even before she could see him, she stumbled toward him, hit her head on some sort of metal.

Move right, RUN! He flapped away into darkness. Panting a word she lit a spellglobe and hurried after.

Whoosh, bang! and glass broke behind her and another explosion at her back pushed her down the hallway. She attempted to stay on her feet, but lost her balance, fell and skidded along the floor, and screamed when something hot seared her scalp.

* * *

A huge bang reverberated throughout the ship, followed by a roaring, rushing of . . . earth? And Jace just knew, that the girder had fallen into the ship, the entrance filled with dirt.

He sent his mind questing to see the area beneath the breach in the ship, the hole. To no avail.

It seemed as if the walls of the huge ship pressed on him. He gasped for air, claustrophobia squeezed his mind.

They were trapped. He and Lepid. No easy way out. His heart hammered in his chest. Trapped and dying, slowly dying.

Could they possibly last the days, weeks maybe, until rescue?

He didn’t think so.

Grabbing onto all his control, setting his teeth, he beat back fear.

Then he heard Glyssa scream. Close. Here in the ship.

Glyssa! Undisguised panic raged through their link from him to her. Glyssa! He didn’t have a shred of quiet in his mind to check the link.

FAMWOMAN, Lepid shrieked mentally. His claws dug into Jace’s chest. Zem!

“ZEM!” Jace yelled telepathically and out loud.

I . . . I’m fine, Glyssa sent, though he sensed her coughing.

I, too, am fine, Zem said. I am down the corridor away from the explosion. I sensed the top of the corridor and FLEW. I have perched upon a large box. I am in the dark.

Be right with you, Zem, Glyssa called.

Make a spell light! Lepid cried. Jace got the sense that the fox was more disconcerted by the lack of light than he.

I think we must save all our Flair energy, Zem said. Though he sounded calm, Jace knew from his link with his Fam that Zem could barely move from the panic coursing through him.

Lepid was accustomed to being in holes, underground dens. Jace was human and used to living in houses or tents. Zem had neither of those experiences. That he’d decided to come with Glyssa to save Jace humbled him.

I love you very much, Zem, Jace said, sending his Fam great love, composure.

I love you, too, FamMan, Zem said.

I LOVE MY FAMWOMAN! Lepid shouted.

We love each other, Glyssa said. I am making a tiny, dim light. I am accustomed to threading through the underground storage areas of the PublicLibrary with such a spellglobe. But Jace sensed her mouth was dry and she swallowed.

He rose from the bed and took hesitant steps toward the door, stopped when his foot nudged against Lepid. Jace couldn’t help it, he could no longer stay on the bed. Like a boy waiting for his girlfriend to come, he sat cross- legged before the door.

Glyssa? Jace? This is Raz T’Elecampane. Can you hear me?

I can hear you, Raz, Glyssa replied.

So can I, said Jace.

And I can link in our Fams who are with us, Glyssa said.

Good you can hear. Unfortunately the rest of my news is bad. I have been told by Cornuta Holly that the whole camp has been affected by several explosions, Raz Elecampane told them steadily. The mess tent, the workshop, our tent. Your nonfood no-time storage units remain, but your pavilion and all the furniture is gone. He paused. The land has shifted, the scenery changed. There is no way you can teleport out here to the camp.

Jace thought Glyssa had stopped her progress down the hallway and leaned against one of the walls, maybe even trembling.

Raz went on, We don’t know where such incendiaries for the explosives came from. We had no such materials in the encampment. The Holly guards believe that one of our recent visitors brought them to Trago. He’s working with someone else. No doubt someone wealthier and of higher status who wants to shut down this operation or make it so costly that they can buy in and seize control.

“Fligger,” cursed Jace.

STUPS! whined Lepid.

Raz T’Elecampane’s harsh chuckle came through the telepathic link. We are all considering how to rescue you, and request you stay put for a couple of septhours. None of you are in immediate danger, right?

No-oo, Glyssa said. But Jace sensed she ran rapidly toward him.

We will be in touch, T’Elecampane said. Jace got the idea that people surrounded the man, pestering him.

Some minutes later he heard Glyssa’s footsteps echoing before her. His heart pumped with hope, with need, with the wish to see her again. He closed his eyes tight against the sting.

Lepid hopped off his lap and began to scratch at the door, whining.

“I’m coming!” Glyssa shouted. A tremor went through Jace at hearing her actual voice resound outside the door in the hollow corridor. “Let me record the Captain’s Quarter’s door, first.”

Sniffing, Lepid thumped his butt on Jace’s ankle. Both Glyssa’s and Lepid’s actions made Jace smile. He rubbed his face. She was only a couple of doors away.

Then she was there, right outside the door. He could feel her presence. “There’s a control panel for the door to the right of it.” The words spurted from his mouth.

“So I see,” she said. “I’m increasing the light so I can examine the mechanism. Can you see it?”

“Not a glimmer,” Jace said a little too heartily to sound naturally cheerful. He stood.

Snick. Snick. Snick. Zem pecking at the door. I do not like this metal. I do not like this place. Then, on the private channel to Jace, the bird said, Lepid was a young fool to explore this terrible place.

Thank you for coming, Jace said as more thumps and bangs came from outside.

“I’ve tried,” Glyssa said. “The door crank won’t move. I tried applying Flair power to it until I thought I’d break it, then I stopped.”

“All right,” Jace said. He wanted to yell.

“I checked Hoku’s journal for data about the doors. He said they had schedules for some of the colonists to go in and retrieve their possessions and items they thought they might need to establish a town here, but the power was turned off and no one was supposed to be in the ship when the land beneath it gave way and it was lost.” She paused. “He didn’t know how much power there might be, but extrapolated that there could be some. It might have lasted, if we could find one of the control rooms.”

“No,” Jace said flatly. Cleared his throat. “Not until it is our last option.”

“All right.” Another pause. “I don’t want to stay out here when you’re in there!” Glyssa cried.

Me neither, said Zem.

Jace could actually hear her pacing. Thump, thump, thump– thump.

“We could at least die together,” she said.