A starship roared overhead. As soon as it pierced the misty film, Jace recognized the cadence of its thrusters. It settled down in the middle of the entrance hall with robotic movements, perching on three landing struts. Smoke chuffed out its stack, and the rigging lines holding up its fine shuddered.

  “That’s your starship?” Ash exclaimed.

  “It’s a death trap.” Perril looked down and sighed. “Are you sure you couldn’t afford something that wasn’t going to fall apart, what with your Crimson Table allowance?”

  Kinfild glared at the two of them, then walked up to the hull and tapped its side with his staff. He pounded a rhythmic pattern, and after a few seconds, the ramp unfolded with a puff of steam. “The Luna Wrath had been with me for many years and many adventures, and I’ll not have you underestimating her.”

  “I don’t think I’m underestimating her,” Perril said. “I think I’m estimating about precisely right, aye?”

  “I concur,” Ash added.

  “Look, she’s not the fastest, and she’s not got the most weaponry, and she’s not the prettiest,” Jace said. “But she hasn’t blown up on us yet?”

  Ash and Perril both rolled their eyes.

  “Oh, come on!” Lessa said. “The Wrath is home! She’s got lots of space inside, too!”

  “I did warn you that we’d need more bunks, though,” Kinfild said as he walked up the boarding ramp. “I sleep in the pilot’s seat, and Jace and Lessa usually use the bunks, but the couch is available for the time being.”

  “You have a couch?” Ash asked as he climbed up the boarding ramp. “In a freighter?”

  “We don’t haul much freight!” Lessa chuckled. “But Kinfild is a man of style and comfort, right?”

  “Not style,” Ash and Perril said in unison.

  “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Kinfild led the way into the main hold. It looked the same as the way they’d left it, though the temperature was a lot more pleasant than the warmth of the dungeon depths. Err-Seventeen scurried past on his tracks, nattering away in the kyborg language, before disappearing into the engine room.

  “Where…where to now?” Jace asked.

  “If you don’t mind,” Ash began, “I would like to report my findings to Lady Fairynor at the very least, and she can carry the message on to the Starrealm, to whoever it pertains to.”

  “We can arrange that,” Kinfild said. “To Kinath-Aertes, then.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Jace slept for nearly the entire hyperspace jump between Ifskar and Kinath-Aertes. It was almost a twelve hour jump, but it felt like minutes. When he woke up, Kinfild announced that they’d almost arrived.

  Lessa still slept on the top bunk. Having shed her exo-suit, one of her arms dangled off the side, and her tail draped down lazily. Jace pushed it aside, then rose to his feet. He’d kinda just dumped his equipment in a pile at the foot of the bunks, and now, he actually had to find a place for it.

  He slipped his armour into the drawers beneath the bunks, where it fit almost perfectly, then hung his backpack on a peg on the wall—though there wasn’t much in it anymore.

  Finally, he picked up the Halcyon Spear. He couldn’t just leave it lying around, especially when he didn’t even know what it did. For now, he opened up the pantry and tucked it into the far corner, behind a set of shelves, then covered it in a spare tablecloth (which he didn’t even know why Kinfild had; they didn’t have a proper table that it’d fit).

  Someone strong might be able to sense the spear, but the majority of cargo inspectors just passing by wouldn’t notice it at all.

  “We’re almost there!” Kinfild called, and on cue, the floor began to shudder.

  Perril and Ash, who had been sleeping on opposite ends of the couch, bolted upright, and Ash tumbled to the floor. With a groan, he rubbed his head, and staggered back to his feet. “Is that the usual wakeup call?”

  “The hyperjump timing display is slightly off,” Kinfild said. “Sometimes, I don’t get the most warning.”

  “Oh, because that’s so reassuring,” Perril muttered. “Aye, we’re all going to die.”

  Jace ran back to the bunk and shook Lessa’s shoulder. She hadn’t seen Kinath-Aertes yet, and she wouldn’t want to miss it.

  After a few seconds, she rolled out of the bed and swung down, then yawned. “Are we…are we there yet?”

  “We’re getting close,” said Jace. “I thought you’d probably want to see it. You can have the copilot’s chair if you want.”

  Immediately, the sleep faded from her face, and she bolted toward the cockpit. “No takebacks!”

  “Wasn’t planning on it.” He glanced over at Ash and Perril. “Not sure if the couch has seatbelts, but…”

  “Seatbelts?” Ash tilted his head.

  “Uh, crash harnesses. You might want to strap yourselves down.”

  “Oh, Split save us…”

  Jace ran back to the front of the ship, but this time, he ducked into the radioman’s seat and pulled on his crash harness. As soon as he sat down, a boom ran through the ship, and the floor rattled, then the glow of a hyperspace tunnel faded from the viewscreen. The light peeled away, revealing a terrestrial planet clad in dark red forests, swaths of mountainous terrain, now, approaching from the dark side, enormous glowing metropolises.

  The cities, though many were probably bigger than the main administrative capital, clung to the surface and made enormous, glowing rings. Smog wafted off them, and streaks of natural white clouds floated overtop, interrupting some of the glowing streaks.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The Luna Wrath circled the planet until it arrived at the sun-facing side, where the capital city was. Or…as Jace recalled, the Old City—that was what its inhabitants called it.

  They descended through the atmosphere amidst a line of other sky traffic, passing through real clouds and waves of smoke, cast orange in the late evening light. Lessa let out a surprised gasp every few seconds, almost every time they passed a large starship.

  Finally, she said, “I didn’t think there were so many starships in the entire galaxy.”

  Jace raised his eyebrows at first, but they hadn’t exactly been visiting highly populated systems, and he’d never seen anything as impressive as his first visit to Kinath-Aertes, either. Even their first excursion to Roteac paled in comparison.

  Finally, they emerged from the clouds above a mountain range, and they flew toward the setting sun—and a spike of metal towers and city-smoke.

  Nestled in a mountain valley, the Old City filled it up to its brink, and some towers reached even higher.

  “Where would we find Lady Fairynor?” Kinfild asked, gripping the controls tight. He glanced over his shoulder, then asked the question again, but this time a little louder, so Ash could hear.

  “Head to the Artanor Hall. Aim for the citadel tower.”

  “They’ll blast us out of the sky if we get too close,” Kinfild warned. “And I doubt it’s proper form to land a starship in front of the hall’s plaza.”

  “Allow me to broadcast my clearance code,” Ash said. He stood up and staggered through the hull, navigating to the cockpit.

  They passed over the outer ridge of the city and passed between a set of towers, then followed the central procession of starships as they approached the Artanor Hall, its enormous plaza, and the citadel tower behind it.

  Ash leaned between the two pilots’ seats and activated the transmitter, then sent a short signal. “The hall’s defenses will not target you.”

  “Much appreciated,” Kinfild said. “So…we just set down in the plaza?”

  “When Lady Fairynor sees my code, she will be curious, and come to investigate.”

  “If you say so…” Kinfild said.

  The tall buildings peeled away, and the Luna Wrath descended, until it arrived at the massive plaza ahead of the hall. A delta of gray brick masonry fanned out in front of the gargantuan Artanor Hall, and a procession of trees ran down the center. Jace expected them to have changed colour, given that four months ago, they’d borne blue blossoms, but they still had their bright sky-blue leaves, despite now a light dusting of snow falling over the city.

  Kinfild flew the Wrath within a hundred paces of the hall, before bringing it to a halt on the central procession, between two rows of trees. Civilians scattered, and fallen blossoms and snow fluttered up in a wave.

  Ahead, at the doors of the hall, stood a platoon of yellow-armoured guards, and in front of them, a few people in elaborate suits and dresses. Parliamentarians, probably.

  One woman pushed to the front. She wore an emerald-green dress, and immediately, she dismissed the two guards trailing her.

  “And there she is,” Jace said, unbuckling his crash harness. “Ash, you lead. Just in case she’s mad we crashed a dinner party or something.”

  Ash chuckled. “It’s more likely that a debate went late into the afternoon.”

  The five passengers all hopped up and walked to the boarding ramp, which Kinfild conveniently lowered for them, then stepped down onto the plaza.

  Jace took a big breath, basking in comparatively fresh air. The blossoms took the edge of the acrid city-smoke, and the winds brought fresh forest air over the mountains. Already, it felt like it’d been weeks since they’d delved through the dungeon.

  Then Jace ran a hand through his hair. It was greasy and dirty, as were his clothes and probably his face. He probably didn’t smell very good either, considering how long they’d been down in the dungeon, but he’d long since gone nose-blind to their party.

  Still, the crowd kept backing away, regarding the sudden visitors with gasps of shock and turning up their chins in barely-disguised disgust.

  Lady Fairynor rushed forward, though, and stood before Ash. He bowed to her, and for the sake of the crowd, Jace figured he and the others should do the same.

  “What happened?” she asked. “And…Kinfild? Jace? How come you are with Ash? I must admit, I didn’t expect to see either of you two again—nor you with a band of friends.”

  “We should speak in private,” Ash said.

  “In this…starship?” she asked.

  “My lady!” a guard called. “I must protest. That—”

  “I will be safer with them than out here, I imagine,” she retorted, then without another second of waste, lifted the hem of her dress and marched up the boarding ramp.

  “Feisty,” Perril muttered.

  “I think it was a long day for her,” Jace whispered back.

  Jace and the others ran back up the ramp to the Luna Wrath’s main hold, then sat down around the hologram projector—either on the couch or on chairs.

  Kinfild ran back to the cockpit and moved the Luna Wrath, flying them a few blocks over, and settling down on a landing platform outside a fancy coffeehouse.

  As they flew, Jace, Ash, Lessa, and Perril explained what they’d learned about Rallemnon and the Generous Hand—and the Wall. For good measure, Jace showed her the Halcyon Spear.

  “My plan is to seek out the Generous Hand and stop him…preferably before he does something horrible—whatever his plan may be,” Jace said. “Last I checked, these guys are with me. But I have no idea where to even start looking.”

  “And you’ll need to be more powerful,” Lady Fairynor said. “There is no chance of you defeating the Generous Hand in your current state. If what you say is true, and he is one of the old Worldjumpers, then he has a hundred year head start.”

  “Are we…out of options, then?” Jace asked.

  Lady Fairynor folded her hands in her lap. “I might be able to pull some strings.”

  “What sort?” Ash asked.

  “Remember when I had you attend the Sevencore Academy?”

  “Yes, my lady. But I am a little old for that now.”

  “These two”—she motioned at Jace and Lessa—“are the perfect age. I can enroll them in the entrance exam, and give them a chance at admission. They will learn and advance, and grow strong…but the Sevencore Academy is at the heart of the galaxy, immersed in the power and glory of the central sects and guilds. With some clever investigation, they might just learn a few more clues about this…Generous Hand.”

  Jace nodded. “I’d be willing. But…my abilities are kinda illegal there, right?”

  “They’re illegal here, too,” Perril pointed out.

  “Okay, but like…really illegal there.”

  Lady Fairynor dipped her head. “I am aware. You may be able to procure some treasures to hide your aspect, but you would have to keep much of your power a secret while in attendance.”

  “I…I see.”

  “And I don’t have magic, miss,” Lessa said.

  “If you can pass the exam, they will have to admit you, no matter what,” said Lady Fairynor. “There is no stipulation of having magic or not. And I hope you will have your friends’ help all the way.”

  “Then…we’ll give it our best shot,” Jace said. “What do we do?”

  “I will have my people clean you up, make you presentable, and then…we will send you to Centralis Major, where I believe this year’s entrance exam is taking place—in about a month.” She stroked her chin. “Perhaps we will have to work on your manners, too.”

  Jace and Lessa shared a nod. Then, somewhat sheepishly, Jace said, “That sounds like a…a good idea.” More confidently, he added, “When do we leave?”

  End of Volume 2

  To Be Continued…