Nicole slept poorly that night. Every hour or so her nightmares were interrupted by an imagined knock on the door, or an imagined appearance of Jeff in her room. Each time she peered into the darkness until she was awake enough to realize it had all been a dream, and that she was still alone.
Oddly enough, while many of the dreams involved attacks and horror from the Koffren in the Q1 arena, none of them suggested attacks on her here in her room. Probably because Kahkitah had promised to spend the night outside her door, and her subconscious knew that nothing dangerous could get past him.
Two hours before the scheduled meeting with the Koffren and Shipmasters, she was back in the arena.
The Ghorfs had been busy while she’d been sleeping. The small, quarter-ring platform she’d requested had been attached about halfway up the right side of the leftmost rock bluff, extending from a spot over the river between the two stone pillars all the way around to the front of the bluff where she could look out across the ocean. With Nise’s and Sofkat’s help she climbed to the platform, while Misgk and Iyulik climbed the other bluff to the similar platform the Ghorfs had set up there.
“Are you all right?” Nise asked, holding her arm to steady her as she settled onto the platform.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, peering across the river through the early-morning gloom. The other platform, as she’d requested, extended from a spot facing her around the bluff in the opposite direction from hers, the far end of it facing upriver instead of toward the ocean.
“Are you sure?” Nise persisted. “You seem nervous.”
“No, I’m fine,” she repeated, suppressing a wince. The platform was barely wide enough for her to stand on, and the sight and sound of the water churning past twenty feet beneath her was a little intimidating. “Do you want to stay here until the Koffren arrive? It’ll be easier on your arms and legs than hanging on to the rock.”
“Thank you, but this platform is for you,” he said. “Sofkat and I will choose our own positions.” He touched her arm. “But one of us will be watching you at all times. If you need us for anything just signal.”
“All right,” she said. “Be careful.”
“We will.” He pulled himself off the platform and started climbing up the bluff, using both feet and all four hands. Sofkat was right behind him, and Nicole flinched a little as one end of the bow strapped across the other Thii’s back twitched toward her. Another look across the river confirmed that Misgk and Iyulik had settled onto their own platform and had unlimbered their own bows and arrow packs.
Now, with everything as ready as Nicole could make it, there was nothing left to do. Carefully easing down into a seated position with her legs dangling over the edge of the platform, she settled down to wait.
Ninety minutes later, a full half hour before the schedule she’d sent with Jeff, Misgk gave the warning crackle that announcing that the enemy had arrived.
They came through the hidden door on the right-hand side of the arena, the side yesterday’s scouting party had taken. The door was hidden from her view by the trees, but the swaying treetops as they passed was enough indication. A minute later the first ones in line emerged from cover as they crossed into the strip of reeds, then passed the reeds and slogged onto the dry sand.
At which point the leading edge again passed out of Nicole’s sight as the other bluff blocked her view.
She breathed out a curse. The arena’s lighting was still at early-morning level, though it was steadily growing stronger, and at her distance she could barely tell which figures were Koffren and which were Shipmasters.
More importantly, she couldn’t tell if any of them was Jeff.
But if she couldn’t see them, Misgk on the back side of his platform could. Even better, Iyulik had climbed to the top of the bluff, where he should have a clear view of the entire arena. Peering up the side of her own bluff, Nicole caught Nise’s eye and gestured to him.
A moment later he was on the platform beside her. “Yes?”
“Can Iyulik see what they’re doing?” she asked.
“Yes,” Nise said, slinging his bow again across his back and making a rapid series of gestures toward Iyulik with three of his hands. Across the river, Iyulik answered with his own set of gestures. “They’ve reached the wet sand and have turned,” Nise translated. “They’re walking toward us along the edge of the ocean. Two Koffren lead the way, followed by two Shipmasters and more Koffren.”
Nicole braced herself. “And Jeff?”
More gestures from Nise, more gestures from Iyulik. “He sees him now,” Nise said. “Jeff and the two Wisps you sent with him are near the center of the line.”
“How did he look?”
“He and the Wisps appear to be bound together across their torsos,” Nise said. “They’re walking on their own, without tether or leash, though two Koffren walk on either side of them.”
“How are they bound?” Nicole asked. “Is it spider gun goo?”
“Iyulik cannot be absolutely certain in this light,” Nise said. “But it appears to be so.”
Nicole took a deep breath. “Can he tell if Jeff’s been hurt?”
“I’m sorry,” Nise said. “They’re still too far for Iyulik to see such detail.”
“Understood,” Nicole muttered, gazing out at the rolling whitecaps. She knew Jeff better than Iyulik, and her eyes might be better than the Thii’s. If she moved around to the front side of the bluff she might be able to see better what kind of shape Jeff was in.
No. That would also make her more visible to the approaching Koffren, and at this point she needed to stay partially hidden as long as possible. She’d know what they’d done to Jeff soon enough. “You said there were some Shipmasters near the front,” she said. “Can he see if the Koffren have brought all the rest, too?”
“Many are there,” Nise said. “The last of the invaders has joined the line, and the light is getting better. Iyulik is doing a count now, and will soon know whether the Koffren obeyed your orders.”
And if they haven’t? Nicole could hear the unspoken question in his tone.
Right now, she didn’t have an answer. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t need one.
She lowered her eyes to the other platform. Misgk was standing there, two of his hands holding a pair of quivers, the other two holding his bow and a nocked arrow. He was facing upstream, his head slowly moving back and forth as he scanned the riverbanks behind the little group.
She turned back to the ocean. It hadn’t receded quite as much as it would have if the Koffren had been on their proper schedule, with maybe thirty feet of beach between the bluffs and the highest rise of the water. Briefly, she wondered whether or not that would work to her advantage, but there were too many variables and she gave up the speculation. Anyway, much of what happened next would depend on the Koffren and how suspicious they were of this meeting.
Which meant more waiting. She looked up at Iyulik, who could see everything, wishing she was up there. If the Shipmasters weren’t here—or worse, if not all the Koffren had come—
“The final group is within clear sight,” Nise reported. “Along with Jeff and the Wisps, there are fifty-two Shipmasters and thirty-six Koffren.”
Nicole tensed. “Thirty-six? Not thirty-eight?”
“Thirty-six,” Nise said, his tone going a little grimmer. “Two are absent.”
Nicole threw a quick look over her shoulder at the hill and river and trees behind her. So were the missing Koffren up here, trying to sneak around behind her or pulling some other stunt? Or were they in the Fyrantha’s main Q1 command center with a few Shipmasters still as hostages?
It was a crucial question … and she didn’t have an answer because, like an idiot, while she’d been concentrating on the Koffren’s numbers she’d somehow forgotten to ask the Caretaker and Oracle how many Shipmasters were aboard.
And unfortunately, right here and now, there was only one way to get that number. Swearing again under her breath at her stupidity, she dug into a pocket and pulled out her inhaler. “Caretaker: tell me how many Shipmasters are aboard the Fyrantha,” she called toward the arena’s ceiling.
“What are you doing?” Nise asked, snapping out a hand as if to grab the inhaler away from her. “That device contains poison.”
Nicole twitched it out of his reach. “Caretaker: tell me how many Shipmasters are aboard the Fyrantha,” she repeated. Warning Nise off with a raised hand, she put the inhaler to her mouth and gave herself a blast.
There are fifty-two Lillilli aboard, the voice said in her mind.
“Iyulik said there were fifty-two Shipmasters?” Nicole asked.
“Yes.”
“Then they’re all here,” she said, putting the inhaler away. Briefly, she wondered how much more of her life she’d just blown away, then put the thought aside. If this didn’t work, the rest of her life would soon be lost, anyway. “What about weapons? Can Iyulik see how the Koffren are armed?”
“They have their swords.” Nise hesitated. “He also counts eight greenfire weapons.”
“Terrific,” Nicole said, hissing out a breath. Eight weapons. Twenty-four shots. A potentially devastating advantage for their side.
Still, the plan she and Kahkitah had worked out had accounted for this likelihood. And it was highly doubtful that either the Koffren or the Shipmasters had the slightest idea what she could do with the river currently flowing along beneath her.
“Tell Iyulik he’d better get ready,” she told Nise. “If all the Shipmasters are here, all the Koffren presumably are, too.”
“Understood,” Nise said. “Don’t worry. The missing two shall be found before they can make trouble.”
“Just be careful,” Nicole warned. “They can’t afford to shoot me, but you’re open game.”
“Let them try,” Nise said, his voice dark with grim anticipation. Pulling out an arrow and nocking it into his bowstring, he headed back up the bluff.
A moment later, the front of the line of Koffren came into Nicole’s view.
Not just came into view, but marched into view, like high-school bands she’d seen in parades or like soldiers she’d seen in movies. Behind the two Koffren at the head of the line were the two Shipmasters Iyulik had mentioned, their shuffling gait looking weak and pathetic compared to the stride of the bigger aliens. Two more Koffren followed them, followed by three more Shipmasters, then two more Koffren.
On it went. They seemed to be taking their time, and after a couple of minutes Nicole stopped counting—Iyulik had already done that, after all—and focused her attention on the Koffren carrying the greenfire weapons. So far all of them had the slender black tubes slung across their backs, but she knew the weapons could be swiveled around and brought up into firing position pretty damn quickly.
And then, walking between a pair of greenfire-armed Koffren, Jeff and the two Wisps came into sight.
Iyulik hadn’t been able to see whether Jeff had been hurt at all. But even at her height Nicole could see that his face was red and bruised, and that he was walking with an odd limp that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the fact that he was strapped to two Wisps.
In fact, as they crossed the sand together, Nicole had the eerie sense that the Wisps were mostly carrying his weight.
What the hell had the Koffren done to him?
“Where is she?” came a Koffren voice from somewhere along the line.
From the Koffren standing next to Jeff, actually, she decided from the movements of that particular alien’s chest.
And even through the river noise, she was pretty sure it was the voice of Justice, the Koffren who’d accosted her and Sam outside the Q1 teleport room.
The Koffren the Thii had slapped with multiple spider gun shots. The Koffren that Nicole had humiliated.
And if there was one thing she’d learned from Trake, it was how long and how hard people could hold grudges.
“Where is she?” Justice demanded again.
Nicole filled her lungs. The rest of the line hadn’t made it past the other bluff yet, but it was time to get them all grouped together. “I’m here!” she shouted down to them.
The whole line stopped dead. Justice swiveled around, his helmet facing the river—
“No—up here.” Nicole waved a hand.
Justice’s helmet tilted back, and it seemed to her that the muscles in his bare torso flexed a little harder. “So,” he said.
“Yeah,” Nicole said. “So. You’re Justice, aren’t you? Justice and Revenge and Fire, if I remember right. How about I just call you Justice?”
“You said you’d repair the teleport,” he said, ignoring the question. “Come down and do so.”
“Not so fast,” Nicole said. “I have something to say first. Actually, before I start I need to know if you brought all the Shipmasters like I asked.”
For a moment Justice didn’t move. Then, abruptly, he stepped back and to the side, snatched his sword from its sheath, and snapped its edge up against Jeff’s throat. “Come down now,” he said, biting out each word.
Nicole braced herself. Grudges. “Take it easy,” she warned. “If you hurt him, you can kiss the teleport good-bye. Put the sword away, and gather everyone around the river mouth where I can see them. I have a proposition to offer.”
“I don’t wish to hear it.”
“Then step aside and let someone with more sense listen,” Nicole retorted. “Your leader, for instance. I assume you have an actual leader?”
“I am the leader,” Justice said. “I am Justice and Revenge and—”
“And Fire,” Nicole cut him off. “Yes, fine. I still need everyone to hear. And I mean both the Koffren and the Shipmasters.”
“You will come down and repair the teleport,” Justice said. “When that’s been accomplished, we may perhaps listen to you.”
“Then I guess we’re done here,” Nicole said. “If no one wants to listen, then you can all leave. Go back to the teleport and fix the damn thing yourselves.”
“You are a fool, Protector of the Fyrantha,” Justice said, his voice somehow both bitter and triumphant. “Now watch your arrogance betray you.”
Nicole’s heart seized up inside her. The two missing Koffren—“Thii—get clear!” she barked.
But it was too late. Even before she finished the frantic warning a pair of green beams flashed at the bluffs from somewhere up the river.
Nicole spun around, wanting to drop to one knee, afraid that the move would send her toppling off the narrow platform. A second pair of shots lanced out, once again targeting the Thii, who were now scrambling for cover, and she could see now that the fire was coming from a clump of bushes along the riverbank.
“Iyulik!” Nise shouted.
Nicole swore viciously. If the young Thii had been hit—
But there was no time to think. No time to worry about Iyulik, no time to consider the possible disastrous consequences of changing the timetable of her plan. Each of the hidden Koffren had one shot left—or more if they’d each brought more than one greenfire weapon—and unless she did something right now more of them might die.
She filled her lungs. “Fyrantha!” she shouted as loudly as she could. “Protector says: full shock flood of the Q1 river!”
And suddenly the roar of the river became a bellow as, at the top of the hill, the dormant jets she and Iosif had found came to life, erupting with massive horizontal geysers that sent a wall of water sweeping down the riverbed, rolling over and through everything in its path. The flood reached the snipers, and she caught a glimpse of a pair of Koffren bodies being thrown into the nearest trees before being swallowed by the flood.
She spun back around, holding her breath. Justice and two of the others had their greenfire weapons in firing position now, clearly ready to take out the remaining Thii if they moved around the bluffs into range. If Nise had been taken by surprise by Nicole’s sudden shifting of the plan’s timeline—if he and Misgk weren’t ready to act—
And then, even as the Koffren on the beach spotted the oncoming wall of water and scrambled to both sides to get out of its way, Nicole saw the two Thii lean out from their positions and fire their arrows at the group below.
Misgk’s arrow caught one of the greenfire-armed Koffren beside Jeff squarely in the center of his chest.
Nise’s arrow, in contrast, jabbed into Jeff.
A second later the flood reached the bluffs and roared past, the churning water splashing the underside of Nicole’s platform and sending spray as high as her chest. The Koffren and Shipmasters below who hadn’t gotten out of the way were slammed backward, tumbling to the ground and skidding across the sand toward the ocean.
The wall of water had been devastating inside the confines of the riverbed. But now, as it rolled past the bluffs and spread out onto the beach, its power and fury quickly faded. The Koffren who’d been right in the center were pushed back no more than a dozen feet, while most of those farther to the sides didn’t even lose their footing.
The Shipmasters weren’t nearly so lucky. Smaller and more delicate than their massive captors, many of them found themselves tumbling helplessly backward across the beach, some directly into the ocean surf, the rest coming to rest in the line of foam. Jeff and the Wisps had also been thrown backward, toppling over and sliding along the water until the force dissipated.
“Was that your plan?” Justice shouted up to her, getting to his feet as the burst of extra water that Nicole had set up ran dry and the roar of the flood subsided. “To try to drown us?”
“My plan was to talk to you,” Nicole said. “It still is.” Steeling herself, she walked around the platform to the ocean side of the bluff.
It was as intimidating a sight as she’d ever seen. Thirty-five of the thirty-six Koffren down there had drawn up into a battle line facing her, standing well back from the river mouth and any attempt Nicole might make to send another flash flood in their direction. The thirty-sixth Koffren, the one Misgk had shot with the paralyzing liquid they’d taken from the drones, lay motionless and probably unnoticed on the sand behind the battle line, the edges of the now quiet river swirling around him. His greenfire weapon, also unnoticed by the rest of the Koffren, lay in the wet sand beside him.
Not that the enemy needed it. The other seven greenfire weapons were pointed straight at Nicole, and several of the Koffren had also drawn their swords, though what they thought they could do with them at that distance she had no idea. The Shipmasters, for the most part, were lying or kneeling at the ocean’s edge, still shaken from Nicole’s attack.
The whole thing was like a bad dream from all the gang confrontations she’d witnessed back in Philly. Two rivals trying to intimidate and threaten each other for whatever stakes of honor or territory or revenge were the day’s reason for fighting. In nearly all of those clashes, the threats and bravado had eventually given way to violence and death.
Once, such standoffs had been terrifying. Later, Nicole had come to see them as pointless and even a little sad.
Here, somehow, it mostly seemed just plain sad.
Such a waste.
“You don’t have to fight me,” she called to them. “You don’t have to fight any of us. You want to take over the Fyrantha. I get that. But it’s not going to happen. The flight mechanisms, the Wisps, the Shipmasters, us—none of it is under your control. None of it will ever be under your control. Accept that, let me send you home, and it’ll be over.”
“You’re a fool, so-called Protector,” Justice said, spitting out the words. “You think that”—he jabbed his sword toward the river mouth—“is going to intimidate us?”
Nicole shook her head. Just plain sad. “No,” she said. “I never thought I could intimidate you.”
Justice’s helmet tilted slightly. Trying to read her as he suddenly realized there might be more to her plan than just a flood?
He was still staring silently as the bindings tying Jeff to the two Wisps snapped open as the dissolving fluid Nise’s arrow had delivered to the spider goo finished its work. Pulling away the last strands, Jeff rolled across the sand toward the greenfire weapon.
Maybe Justice heard something over the river noise. Maybe he caught a hint of the movement out of the corner of his eye. Abruptly, he spun around, snatching out his sword as he saw Jeff going for the weapon. “Koffren!” he snapped, twisting his arm into position to throw his sword.
Jeff got there first. Snatching up the greenfire weapon, he spun it around and pointed it toward Justice. “Freeze!” he snapped. “All of you—freeze!”
“All of you die!” Justice retorted. “Koffren—kill them all!” Ignoring the weapon pointed at him, he raised his sword a little higher. The other seven greenfire weapons twitched as the Koffren shifted their aim to the Thii and Nicole.
Justice might have seen it coming. Of all of the Koffren he was the only one facing the right direction. But he was focused on Jeff, and on vengeance, and his eyes and rage were directed elsewhere.
So it was that not a single one of them noticed the ocean suddenly boiling up with a line of monster waves, rolling majestically toward the shore. Even as Jeff sent a flash of brilliant green into Justice’s chest, the wave broke, its top curling over in cascades of white foam and slamming down on the line of Koffren.
And behind the wave, rising from the depths of the water like sharks moving to the kill, were Kahkitah and his army of Ghorfs.
The Koffren never had a chance. A few were able to recover from the hammering waves fast enough to turn to the unexpected attack. But even those few were still stunned and off balance and fell quickly to the Ghorfs and their improvised weapons. Most of the Koffren probably never even knew what had hit them.
Thirty seconds later, it was over.
By the time Nise and Misgk got Nicole down the bluff and onto the beach the Ghorfs were moving systematically among the bodies, collecting swords and greenfire weapons, pulling off helmets—the Koffren were ugly and startlingly baby-faced at the same time, Nicole noted—and checking for survivors. A few Ghorfs were working the water’s edge, rescuing Shipmasters who’d been dragged out to sea by the huge wave and bringing them to safety. Most of the latter seemed shaken but unhurt: the wave the Ghorfs had carefully engineered had expended most of its force along the Koffren line and had less effect on the inward area where the river had pushed most of the Shipmasters.
Kahkitah himself brought Jeff in from the waves.
Jeff was sitting up when Nicole reached him, Kahkitah kneeling beside him with a supporting hand behind his back. The two Wisps, Jessup and Lehigh, had taken up positions nearby.
“Hi,” Jeff said as Nicole hurried up. “Nice job. Always great when those one-two punches work out.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” Nicole said, trying to force a casualness she didn’t feel. There was something wrong with Jeff’s right leg … “Sorry I couldn’t tell you about it ahead of time.”
“No, no, that was the right thing to do,” he assured her. “We all knew there was a good chance I’d be taken hostage, and a prisoner can’t tell the enemy what he doesn’t know. I was supposed to grab the greenfire gun after you got me loose, right?”
“You were supposed to live through all of it,” Nicole said, dropping down on one knee beside him. Up close, the bruising on his face looked far worse than it had from the bluff. “Anything else was just bonus.”
“Good,” Jeff said. “I really wanted to nail that bastard.”
“Well, you did,” Nicole said. “Come on—Kahkitah and I will help you up.”
“No, don’t,” Jeff said, waving her back. “Standing up hurts. A lot. Sitting up isn’t as bad.”
“Oh, God,” Nicole breathed. “What did they do?”
“Well…” He paused, a flicker of pain crossing his face. “There’s this thing some people do to horses called hamstringing. The muscle and tendon in the back of the knee … well, we don’t need to go into details. Let’s just say walking is going to be a problem for me for a while.”
“Can it be fixed?” Nicole asked. “Wait—you were walking earlier, weren’t you?”
Jeff shook his head. “Jessup and Lehigh were carrying me. I only moved my legs so that…” He shrugged.
“So that I’d think you were okay and wouldn’t go berserk,” Nicole said. “Oh, Jeff. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he assured her. “Allyce can probably fix me up. If not, hey, I always wanted to sit around all day doing nothing. Now I’ve got the perfect excuse.”
“Glad I could help,” Nicole said, blinking away sudden tears. “Let’s get you back to Q4. Jessup, Lehigh? Come here.”
“A moment,” a voice called as the two Wisps started forward.
Nicole turned. Wesowee was walking toward them, half pulling, half supporting one of the Shipmasters. As they got closer, the alien turned his head and she saw it was Fievj.
“This Shipmaster has urgent news for you,” Wesowee said.
“Fievj,” Nicole said, keeping her voice steady as she thought back on her earlier conversation with Kahkitah. The Shipmasters had done horrible things, and if Fievj was looking to make a deal he’d come to the wrong place. “What do you want?”
“You’re in danger,” Fievj said, his voice even weaker than his unsteady legs. “The Koffren—more Koffren—are coming.”
“They’re going to have a job of it,” Jeff said. “The teleport’s out of service, remember?”
“Not by Wisp and teleport,” Fievj said. “They’re coming by ship. They’re coming by warship.”
Nicole’s breath froze in her chest, her mind flashing back to the space battle she’d seen from the top of the Fyrantha. “When?” she asked.
“Six hours,” Fievj said. “Perhaps sooner.”
“Can the Fyrantha withstand their attack?” Jeff asked.
Fievj closed his eyes. “No.”