Ilisa burst through the doors as I passed by and I signaled for her to follow me.
“You’re going to be assigned to guard Princess Ceritha during the pirate onslaught. She says she is skilled in hand-to-hand and telekinetic combat. Serpul has never been under siege. I do not know her skill level.” I managed to slip in a thought of her other hand-to-mouth skill, making my pants swell uncomfortably as we ran, then redirected my focus. “She is not thrilled with the order of being guarded and has disappeared. I do not, at this time, know where she is. I believe she took out her sailboat, the StarChaser. I don’t remember the exact slip. I think it was next to the MoonBeam and DolgonDancer. We need to go see if it is still there.”
“Yes, Commander.” Ilisa was all business, no questions, taking orders. A good soldier, one of my best. I had trained her myself, most of her junior training. She was in one of the Bristola Spec Ops Units, a skilled marksman and pilot, and one of the sharpest strategic minds we had. She blended in well anywhere, with a fairly bland, moon-shaped face, pale blonde hair, a slim, unremarkable, but athletic build, and piercing, pale brown eyes. I trusted her with my life. I trusted her with Ceritha’s.
“Bravo Laro will be watching her, as well, but she will not know about him. You two can communicate telepathically to keep tabs on her. He has not yet been informed of his task.”
“Confirmed.”
“Let’s split up and see if there’s an empty slip between those two boats.”
Ilisa raced off further down the docks as I turned up one of the slip lines.
I jogged up and back. No dice. Next line. Ilisa and I combed through them. Finally, she waved me down and I sprinted to reach her. We stared at an empty cleat between those two boats. This had to be where the StarChaser had been.
Damnit! Why had she taken it out? While we were under attack! Against my direct order! Did she think so little of me?
“Axis, where the hell are you?” Cartari was contacting me directly now.
“I’ll be right there. Ceritha is… missing. I think she took out her sailboat. I’m afraid Gorgin will be looking for her.”
“Send an open telepathic call for her.”
“Then everyone will know she is missing.”
“Better a hit to your pride than a lost bride.”
“Thanks, brother.” He was right, of course. And, even if the pirates didn’t have her yet and they were alerted to her being out and about, maybe her answering me would at least tell her to talk to me exclusively and I could tell her how important it was for her to get back, get back quickly, and get back carefully.
“Ceritha…” I called, opening myself telepathically. “Ceritha, answer me, please.”
I sought for a mental connection to her mind, the sensation of connection I had felt to her since we had started touching just days before… but it was profoundly blank. Almost fuzzy. Like it was turned off.
“Ceritha…” I tried again. “Ceritha, answer me, please.”
Ilisa looked at me and shrugged. “Maybe she has been captured and drugged.”
I clenched my fist and she took an involuntary step backward. I hadn’t intended to look like I would hit her. That wasn’t what my clenched fist meant: it meant I would kill anyone who would hurt my Princess.
And Ilisa was right; Ceritha might very well have been captured.
“Axis, you have to get to the Command room. Their ships have started to move. They were just sitting outside the harbor, but something has changed and they are moving into an attack formation. We need you now. I’m sorry, but you have to worry about Ceritha later. Or assign others to worry about her.” Cartari was right again.
“Ilisa. Take Laro and choose six others from within the Bristola troops. Make a search unit for Ceritha. You have my permission to use all means necessary to find her.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Ilisa sprinted away. I stared out at the ocean for a moment, my heart in my throat. I realized my clenched fist was shaking. Is Ceritha gone? Is she just out for a joy ride and will be back shortly? She is telepathically superior to me. Is it possible she has some sort of a block in her mind and is ignoring me? Can she be that callous?
The angry, panicked ball in the pit of my stomach told me, no, no, something was dreadfully wrong…
But, I had put some of my best on it. Now, I had to go be Prince and Commander. I didn’t have the time or luxury to think about my Virgin Queen.
I took one more moment to look out at the moonscape on the lapping ocean waters in the bay, just as five giant pirate ships loomed into shape in the gap of the seawall, then I spun and sprinted back to the command room. I had a battle to win.
Fourteen
Ceritha
I rolled my head into my hands as I struggled to sit up, moving against the rocking of the sea’s motion of the boat, but also against the rocking of splitting pain in my head. Am I drugged or is it just from the brutal hit I took to my head?
I forced my eyes open and blearily blinked them to look through the dim light around the room. It was a sparse cabin, portholes on one side of the room, looking out into darkness. I was on a ship, that was certain. A large one, it seemed. An older, wooden, pirate ship, perhaps…
What do they want with me? Ransom against Axis?
I have to find a way out of here…
I reached for
