I hunt those that harm children, came the reply.
Arella pulled herself from the water and stood, clothed in some sort of form-fitting, flexible armour, looking like some sort of oceanic warrior goddess with her braids and her trident. “The small boat. There were two humans on it. Rikshi will go after them.”
Two? Who else had escaped with Harris? My blood suddenly ran cold. The person in the cloak—it had to be. There hadn’t been any more magickal attacks and she’d disappeared just before I’d boarded. “Will you warn him there might be a witch, or at least someone who can use magick, with the man? And a crow and a falcon following them who are on our side?”
She cocked her head at me, looked down at the orca, then back at me. “He understands what you say.”
A bit late, but that was good to know. “Rikshi, be careful. I don’t know what the one with magick is capable of and the man might have a gun.” I thought back to the pendant and gun the man who’d confronted us had. “Possibly a magickal gun.” The orca rolled to study me with an intelligent eye, then flipped around and sped off. I had no idea what the guns actually did, but forewarned is forearmed and all that jazz. I turned to Dorn and Arella. “Are we ready to hunt?”
Chapter 16
Mopping up
Dorn took point as we moved around and between the shipping containers, Arella between us. Trixie had managed to dry me off somewhat, but my salt-encrusted clothes stuck to me uncomfortably, chafing and itching as I moved. We’d just made it past the containers when Dorn held his trident out, stopping us.
I watched and waited for whatever had drawn his attention, my palms up and at the ready. Then I heard it—metal tapping on metal. Dorn pointed toward the large cargo bay door I hadn’t noticed before. I heard yelling, faint, but . . . “The pixies!” I whispered. Rushing past Dorn, I ran for the door. It looked like a garage door, but I didn’t see any handle or way to lift it. I tapped on the door as quietly as possible, trying not to draw attention. The voices on the other side of the door went silent. “Hey guys, it’s Roxie,” I said as loudly as I dared. The voices began talking over each other so fast I couldn’t make out any of what they said.
“Anyone know how to operate this door?” I asked.
Dorn and Arella approached, looking the door over. I tried pressing against it and pushing it up, but it didn’t budge. Dorn shook his head. “I am not familiar with this. Perhaps I can use my trident to pry it up from beneath.”
Maybe if he’d had two good arms it would be a possibility, but even then . . . I took a few steps back, examining the door and everything around it. There was a keypad on one side of the door. Did it take a code? I kept looking and then I spotted the pedestal. There were two buttons on it, one red and one green. I pushed the green one and cringed at the loud grinding noise as the door slowly rose. When it was less than a foot off the deck, pixies began streaming out from underneath, their swords held out in front of them, looking for all the world like a flock of angry hummingbirds.
“What happened?”
Rasta, the last one out, answered through gritted teeth. “We chased our prey into this place and then the door went down behind us. We could not escape.”
I leaned around the edge of the door to look inside and regretted it. The area was lit by dim emergency lighting. The first body sprawled across the floor was little more than a bloody mess. The pixies must have taken out their wrath on the person when they realized they were trapped inside with him. A few feet beyond lay another body, face down. Arella and Dorn looked at the bodies, but didn’t seem affected. In fact, Arella nodded in satisfaction.
“Where is the king?” she asked.
The tiny pixie queen scowled. “We were split up almost as soon as we arrived. Your man, the king, and the healer’s familiar were battling up there.” She pointed to the upper deck with her bloody sword. “That is the last we saw of them before we were trapped here.”
That must have been long before Sebastian said that the king and Rand had gone inside the central structure. I eyed the stairs leading to the cabins. There were three levels above us. I had no idea how ships like this one were laid out, but we needed to start searching. Rand and Olen could be trapped, injured, or worse. Where was Sebastian?
The king and your mate are still inside. They are cornered, but uninjured. I am having trouble finding their exact location; there are too many doors with tiny rooms and they all look alike.
“Rasta, will you and your flight keep an eye out for any stragglers up here while we search inside?”
She nodded reluctantly. She didn’t want to be left out of any action, but she wasn’t ready to be trapped inside again, either.
As they flew off, I headed for the stairs, my legs beginning to feel like lead. Frankly, I was surprised I was still moving as well as I was. I felt a tingle from my wrist, and my legs seemed less heavy.
What was that?
I’ve been feeding you small amounts of energy—magick—to keep you going.
That explained a lot. Thank you. I wondered how it affected her, though.
They are very small amounts and affect me little.
We made it to the first
