She nodded back and took a deep breath. Then, she closed her eyes and breathed in slowly, deeply, lifted her hands, and pulled them back, then pushed forward. A huge wind rushed through the tents below, sucking so deeply from the storm around that we were almost thrown into a spiral and the aircraft jerked around wildly for a moment, the pilots fighting for control. The Seawards and my Trios cursed and steadied.
As we straightened back out, we looked down at the flaming Bordash tents. Our enemies were running in droves out from their hiding places, some on fire, some firing their knives up to click harmlessly against our aircraft’s underbelly while they ran for cover.
The tents were all blown asunder, their canvas cover flying off into the desert far away, lost to the wind or to the flames, and, my eyes lit up with the sparks because beneath them, was the most gut-wrenching sight.
Ducks and yellow flowers.
What the spy had said made sense now.
He wasn't just delirious. And, if we had landed, we would all have died. Tarsine had delivery charges that were shaped like ducks, and he had halanas, the yellow flowers deadly to Curans, but to which Bordash were immune. If he had unleashed the charges and the scents of the yellow flowers, we would all have died. The wind would have swept the scent around the battlefield in mere moments. It was why they weren't attacking out transports, but just waiting for the hand-to-hand combat landing.
I grabbed Vania and squeezed her tight. I whispered in her ear, "I will explain later, but you just saved all our lives." I turned to Cassala. "Radio Aimer and the rest. Tell everyone that he has ducks and yellow flowers. No one is allowed to land until the flowers have been destroyed.”
“So, we will bomb the camp? What about taking prisoners alive?” Vania asked.
I pursed my lips and thought quickly. The only way to destroy the flowers was to burn them, and we couldn’t burn them from close by, so yes, bombing the camps meant a large loss of life. Which was not ideal.
“Send out a message to Tarsine. I want to talk to him.”
It took a few moments to send the wide broadcast after making sure our troops were alerted to get out of firing range and to wait for orders about the landing. Then, Tarsine came in over the radio.
“Tarsine. I see your yellow flowers and know your plan. We will not land, which means we will bomb the shit out of you, killing most of your soldiers. I have another idea. Let us fight, just you and me. Hand-to-hand. We are both cocky enough to think we can defeat the other, but I think that will be the easiest way to clear this conflict with the littlest bloodshed.”
There was silence for a long moment. I shifted impatiently. The Seawards were staring at me, stunned, but Axis nodded at me with approval. He had seen me defeat many men in hand-to-hand combat at the Academy and since then in many battles. He knew I could take Tarsine, even if he was rumored to be the biggest Bordash ever born.
“And what happens when I win? The Beast King will just let me rule your lands?”
"You will have to negotiate that with him, but I, at least, will be out of your way. And don't you think that's the best first step?"
“Fine. Let’s do it now. I’m not afraid of the storm. To the north of my tents, by the mouth of the Wazuun. Fifteen minutes.”
"Deal." I looked at my soldiers. "Alert the rest of the troops. We will need strong protection against the wind. Right now, it is blowing southward, so if they do burn the halanas, we will not be affected, but I want to make sure we are all wearing gas masks. Tell each unit to choose ten people to wear a mask to be there for the duel. Everyone else stays on board and aloft in their ships.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
I turned to Vania and slipped the ring out of my pocket and gave it to her. “I want you to have this.”
“I thought you said I didn’t need it.”
“You don’t. Clearly. You just cleared aside a trap that was set for us—”
“Then, why…?”
I looked deep into her green eyes and sighed. My throne was incredibly important to me, but why did slipping away into the night and laying under the lightning seem so much more appealing than dueling to protect it right now?
"I just want you to keep it safe for me, okay? Just in case… But everything will be okay, okay? Just give it back to me when this is over."
She bit her lip and reached up to pull my head down so she could kiss my cheek. “Be brave.”
I smiled at her. “I always am.”
I handed her a gas mask as Cassala brought me two. “I want Vania, my Trio, Catari, and Axis on the ground with me. You guys choose the other five from this ship. The only two people that must not be on the ground are Aimer and Xane. They must make the decisions from the air.”
“Neither one of them will be happy about that.”
I shrugged. “I’m the Alpha.”
Cassala conveyed my orders, and soon we were swinging over the Bordash group that had marched to the north of their camp. We opened up the side door, and I reached for Vania's hand as we jumped out into the air. I wanted to feel the tingles of her hand in mind, but I also wanted to make sure she descended with the proper pace. I didn't know how often she had practiced telekinetic float jumps.
Turns out, it wasn’t often, and she almost slammed us into the surface.
I just made all the sand that sprayed up around us look on purpose and for theatrics and rose up out of it like a superhero.
All my soldiers had been instructed to wear their gas masks
