Chapter 6: Smoke and Flame | page 9

The cockpit of the Blue Phoenix was small, only a pair of pilots’ chairs crowded in front of a busy crescent of displays and controls. Duaal was elsewhere in the ship, but sitting in his chair comfortably was impossible. She stood in the open hatchway.

Tiberius was not alone in the cockpit. Orphia watched Maeve coldly. The hawk was perched on the back of her master’s seat, carving another set of deep gouges in the hard plastic with her talons, matches to dozens of others she had already left. Orphia’s once-vivid black and brown markings had faded with age, but the old police hawk was still as deadly and unfriendly as her master. She clicked her wickedly hooked beak at Maeve, cocked her head to one side and then decided that the other winged creature was no threat. The hawk flipped her wings and ignored Maeve.

“Princess, I need to know something before I take us to Stray. Two somethings, I guess,” Tiberius said.

“Why did you bring Kessa here?” he asked. The captain rubbed his chin. “I can barely rely on you to come back to the Phoenix when we land. You’re loyal to nothing. Not even the pay I give you, far as I can tell. You’re a wild bird, feral. Coldhand was right to ask you why you give two chips about Kessa, and you were right not to answer him. But now I’m asking.”

“My kind gives birth infrequently,” Maeve said slowly. “It is a sacred right granted by our oldest god.”

Tiberius’ eyebrows shot up at that. In their years of association, she had never spoken much about her religion and didn’t seem particularly pious. Maeve made herself meet her captain’s gaze. After a moment, Tiberius looked away, brow furrowed, but he inquired no further. He didn’t even know what questions to ask.

“Okay. The…” Tiberius cleared his throat and began again. “The second question may be the more important one, at the moment. I’ve given up on Coldhand being any help to us, but I need to know if he’s going to be a problem. Of everyone on this bird, you’re the only one who knows him at all. I can sure as hells tell you that no sacred law made him help Kessa. He must have known we weren’t going to let him go once he was on the Phoenix. Why did he come at all? It seems idiotic. Not to let you out of his sight, he said, but now he’s worse off than if he had let you go. He must have known, or at least suspected, that it would happen. So why did he stick with you?”

The princess just shrugged. She had no answer. Coldhand never did anything without a reason, usually a reason involving money or his own skin or… something else. Tiberius sighed when she didn’t answer. Orphia preened her feathers, ignoring the conversation entirely.

- End Chapter 6 -