“All right, then load them up on the burns and promise them triple wages for all those who return. Tell them we burned such-and-such ceremonial thing for such-and-such days. Bring out a priest and do whatever you want. Just find Jase and his Trios.”
“Will do.”
“Rotcher. I want them alive. The women will be good to add to my collection and Jase I need alive. You understand that right, Rotcher? Make sure the soldiers understand, that, too. There will be consequences for anyone who forgets my orders under the pressure of the moment. If Jase isn’t kept alive, then my plans fall through. Make sure the Generals convey that to all their men and women. Not just the Ten Sevens, but all the troops.”
“Absolutely, m’Lord.”
I watched Rotcher leave and played with the flame of the candle on my desk. Going out in the storm was our best bet at finding them. They likely had a sense of security, thinking we would be holed up. They would probably be active and not holed up themselves, waiting for their reinforcements in hiding, like they should be…
This was my chance to capture the Alpha Warlord of Emerona. I could almost taste his blood on my fists. The best thing about capturing an enemy was demoralizing them in front of the people that held them so dear. It would be the only way I could successfully take over his Empire, would be to so humiliate Jase that the people would have no choice but to turn to another, stronger, better leader: me.
Ten
Jase
I hadn't been able to skip through the tunnel since I had to crawl on my hands and knees, but I felt like skipping down the salt hill. I certainly felt like I was dodging raindrops in a much happier fashion than I might have been if my heart hadn't been thrilling about what had just happened with Vania.
She is amazing… That body, those hands, those eyes… That passion… I remembered the taste of her lips on mine, the way her tongue put just the right amount of pressure, the sensation of her hands in my hair, the way she grabbed at my shirt, and her sharp gasp when she saw my chest.
She better still be there when I get back. I want more of that. She is amazing…
The lightning lit up the valley with flashes that revealed craggy termite mounds, shadows of the salt hills, and huge boulders set to tip on their sides. The flames at the crash site of our transport had been entirely extinguished by the rain. I could hardly see where it was anymore, just the general direction. The camps where Tarsine's soldiers were camped had slight flickers of light from parked aircraft and fires protected from the rain.
I rubbed my shoulder as I looked at the crash site. I had been so concerned about stopping Vania’s bleeding, first out of annoyance and necessity, and now, suddenly, out of earnest care… that I had forgotten how much my shoulder hurt. I had banged it up pretty good in the crash, too. I whirled my arm around and around and grimaced. I had full extension, so nothing was pulled or broken or out of its socket, but it was bruised rather substantially. Oh well… I didn’t want to think about the members of my Crew I had lost entirely… I didn’t have time to think about Helga and Honcho right now… They had been with me for so many years…
I pulled my cloak’s hood tighter around my face and shook back my shoulders, coughing at the pinpricks in my throat. I don’t have time to think of the losses right now! There will likely be more. I need to plan…
My plan was to sneak around the hills near Tarsine’s camp and get a sense of their numbers, to have better information for my teams when they arrived. The code I had sent to Aimer was likely the same plan she had already enacted: send a few teams of our Special Operations this way to search me out. We always ran in Crews of twelve for the Spec Ops. 4 advanced teams would do the trick in fleet-footed, low-flying vessels armed with anti-Surface-to-Air Missiles that could hopefully avoid what had happened to our transport, now that we knew where Tarsine’s troops were.
Then, get the rest of the troops down here. Fast.
I hoped she hadn’t sent word to Kajo, yet. I wanted to be in command of my troops when I asked for his help…
It rankled a bit that there was still a grounding command on the area. I couldn’t teleport closer to the transport, nor closer to Tarsine’s camp. Couldn’t teleport anywhere.
I let my mind open to the telepathic communique from Aimer's group, and the same soldier was reading the same message, letting me know it was still a Code Blue, with no change of status. The only line that had been added was at the end of the message: “Alpha Jase, please respond. We have been trying to contact you for five hours now. This is a Code Blue. Alpha Jase, please respond to your Trio. It is dark now.” The portion that stated, “It is dark now” indicated that my message had been received and that it was being acted upon with full adherence. I could expect the next communication to be in person. There would be no further updates to the telepathy. That was good news.
I headed by foot on a roundabout route, down toward the Wazuun River and the backside of Tarsine’s tents. It was unlikely there would be any movement from them in this deluge. The Bordash had been traditionally superstitious about lightning and thunder through the ages. I couldn’t imagine them changing it, but I didn’t want to risk a scout finding the route to Vania, either.
I
