Gill tapped the side of his head as he slowly shook it. “No, I am not. There are some abilities that drow possess that I have, and one of them is the ability to increase the innate abilities of those around me.”
Liza’s face brightened as she realized there was something she understood. “Kind of like buffs in VR, right?”
“Exactly. All I did was amplify the connection you and Chine already have. It’s something I unconsciously do all the time, making Jollies more charming, Jim more adventurous, things like that. This was the first time I’ve tried to direct it, though.”
Alex half-wondered what Gill was amplifying about her when she was around, but that could wait for another time. “So, that was Chine who pulled me out of there?”
“Exactly.”
Alex looked around the room as she tried to hold everything together in her head. Her mind was still swimming. “Okay, now we know the Dark One can attack Vardis from anywhere. What do we do about it?”
Gill came over and sat next to Alex. “We move the plan up. We find this weapon and end this once and for all.”
Alex looked at her mom, trying to force a smile. “Sorry dinner got ruined, but we’ll have another one once this mission over. The next time, I won’t get attacked by a psychic planet.”
Liza hugged Alex, holding her tightly as she ran her hands through her daughter’s hair. “Be safe, sweetie. If that thing can hurt you like that here, you need to get rid of it as fast as possible. I’m so proud of you.”
Alex managed to pry herself away from her mom and stood. “Gill, get everyone ready. Time to put in an end to this.”
Chapter Five
Team Boundless arrived at the base before nightfall. They were all tense. No one had spoken much about what had happened at Alex’s home. There wasn’t much to say. It made her uncomfortable.
An explanation outside of Vardis’ would have been appreciated. It wasn’t that Alex didn’t trust the alien, she thought. Instead, it was that she was used to having information fed to her by Myrddin and Roy. She had to admit she’d been caught up in the chain of command. Having to think for herself in this situation was more than she’d expected.
That was not to say she was bitter about it. Initially, taking orders had been difficult for Alex. She’d have preferred to think for herself. Now she had to admit that there was a lot of comfort in knowing Myrddin usually had the answers.
Maybe Chine had something to help her get a better understanding of the situation. He was linked to her mind, and a strong enough telepath to pull her out of whatever that attack had been. There was a chance he might have learned something from the attack.
Team Boundless met Manny in the stables. He looked stressed out, all of his eyes whirling in a frantic way that made Alex uncomfortable. She hated seeing Manny stressed. He was incapable of hiding it, and naturally, it ended up freaking Alex out.
The dragons were already on the augment platforms. They had been outfitted with an apparatus that Alex had never seen before. There were tubes stretching from the dragons’ mouths and wrapped around their backs, ending at the spinal anchor each of them was fitted with.
Goggles had also been attached to the dragons’ eyes. Something that looked like an exoskeleton was being attached to their wings. It created the effect of having the bones of their wings on the outside, making them look bat-like.
Alex walked up to Manny as the rest of the team moved toward their dragons. “What’s all this?”
Manny hardly looked up from his paperwork, floating back and forth. Alex hated it when he did that. The Beholder’s anxiety was so intense that it was contagious. “What’s what?” he mumbled distractedly.
Alex gestured to Chine, who was fidgeting uncomfortably as human scientists fiddled with the tubes that had been inserted in his mouth.
Manny glanced up for a second before returning to his paperwork. “Oh, that? We’ve had to adjust for the dragons being in space. I don’t understand it all. You’re going to have to get the technicians to explain it to you. And I need you to explain some things to me.”
“You heard about what happened at dinner?”
His main eye gave Alex all his attention. “Of course, I heard about it.” Manny sighed. “Gill and Jim both reported it as soon as it happened. But neither of them was very clear about what was happening, so I expect you to fill in the details.”
Alex hoped she had a good enough understanding of what had happened to give Manny a satisfactory report. Truth be told, she was a little confused. She knew she’d been attacked telepathically by the Dark One due to her connection with Vardis, but she wasn’t certain what the attack constituted.
Her body had been in pain, but at the same time, she’d been outside of it. That was the part that was confusing to her.
Alex figured it was best to just tell Manny what she’d experienced. “Vardis was attacked by the Dark One. I was dragged into it as well because we have a link. A psychic one.”
All of Manny’s eyes focused on Alex. “Does Myrddin know about the connection?”
Alex shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Yeah, he does. He wasn’t happy about it. Made him more uncomfortable than I am. But we’re linked together. I guess whatever hits him telepathically hits me as well.”
“What happened? Jim said you were in a lot of pain.”
Alex tried to find the right words, but there weren’t any. “I was, at one point. My
