Heyna's Tale - Chapter Eleven (cont.)

Surprise

“You know she’s going to have to glamour everyone anywhere she goes,” Beetah said.

“Sorry,” Keeva looked sheepish.

Heyna was annoyed with Keeva. She could not be openly Fennec. Secrecy was still important, but there was no stopping her. Truth was she could glamour everyone and do what she wanted anyway. Heyna had enough of being glamoured.

Ak’ne thought it was just as well to have a powerful Fennec, “witch,” aboard, which is how she referred to Keeva.

“Ha! Witch!” said Keeva. “I like it.”

“Well,” said Heyna, I hope you’re ready to glamour everyone we meet. You don’t get headaches like Sronban, do you?”

“Nope. But yeah, I’m sorry about… Look. I just wanted what you wanted. To see the world. Or some of it at least. Paititi sounds magical.”

“Well,” said Heyna. “I understand.”

“The world is beautiful,” Beetah admitted. “And terrible. I’m thinking I need a vacation too. I’m getting too old for this. I’ve had just about as much adventure as I could ever want.”

The sea was stormy when they reached Paititi, so Ak’ne kept the Tachi submerged in deep water. The boat sat on the sea bottom, twenty-five fathoms deep, to wait out the storm. Heyna, Ak’ne, Beetah and Keeva relaxed and chatted on the observation deck. The boat’s lights were turned on so they could watch the sea life. Schools flashed all around them.

They drank some of the sweet, frothy beoir. Heyna was feeling mellow. She’d be with Xico in the morning. She was happy. She closed her eyes and listened, hoping to hear the songs of the leviathans. Instead, she heard something else.

“Damn!” Ak’ne shouted and pointed. A shuuikan was churning along near the surface above them. Ak’ne shouted to his crew. “Run Silent! Run Dark!” The clear hull suddenly went gray and interior lights came on. The thrum of the engines died. Ak’ne and Heyna ran to the command deck, with Keeva and Beetah following.

“Blow ballast. Rise to periscope depth.”

“Blow ballast, Ai!”

“Up periscope!” Ak’ne shouted.

“Up periscope, Ai!”

“Let’s see what we can see,” Ak’ne said.

“This thing can see underwater?”

“Depends on the ocean,” Ak’ne said. “Might be able to make out silhouettes near the surface. Can see light, if the boat’s got them on. Quiet now.”

They listened for the telltale sounds of engines in the water. Heyna could hear the thrum of an engine vibrate through the hull. Another?

“Make it three boats,” said the helmsman.

“Right you are,” Ak’ne said. “We got company.”

“Hazu’s going to strike again?” Heyna asked.

“Too few, I think. Just scouts, or hunters.”

“What can we do?”

“Nothing to do. We can wait, but have to surface soon for air. We can back off and put you ashore further down the coast.”

“And walk back to Paititi? I’d rather swim.”

“Well. Can put you into a dinghy and you can row in. But one of those boats might spot you. Might cover you from the surface, but it’s mighty rough up there.”

“Probably the best time to try, then” Heyna said.

“Right. We’ll get you as close to the shore as we can without beaching ourselves.”

“Ready for a little adventure?” Heyna said to Keeva.

“Well…” Keeva swallowed hard. “I guess.”

“Not me,” Beetah said. “But it’s not like I have a choice.”

“Surface!” Ak’ne commanded.

“Surface, Ai!”

Heyna heard the engines thrum to life and felt the boat lurch forward. The water being pumped out of the ballast tanks made the Tachi more buoyant. The boat started to rise.

“We have to do one thing before we leave.” She walked Keeva back to the brig, where Screeble was being held.

“Hey, Kit!” Screeble said amiably.

“Hey, Screeb,” Heyna said. To Keeva, she said, “He needs to forget he was ever captain of this boat and he ever heard of the Fennec. Make him forget the location of the Misty Isle, too.”

“Right!”

“Bye, Screeb!” Heyna said when it was done.

“Bye, Kit! We friends, right?”

“You bet, Screeb! See you!”

“See you!”

Ak’ne could do what she wanted with the Tachi’s former captain. Heyna didn’t care anymore. She didn’t have the stomach to take revenge on Screeble. He was just a Ryujin dragon doing what Ryujin dragons do. She still hated Hazu. It was his fault her parents and Jaasi were dead. She was grateful to the Gods of Bark and Wood she had gotten as far as she had. Despite the danger, she was grateful she was going home.

The Tachi was on the surface. The crew had thrown a dinghy down into the water. The swell was rough. The surface was spotted with foam. Waves washed over the deck. No other boats were in sight. Heyna thanked Ak’ne and jumped into the dinghy with Beetah and Keeva right behind her.

“Now we use the oars to take us in!” Heyna handed out oars, and they all began to paddle furiously towards the shore. Heyna aimed for the lights she could see high in the canopy of the rain forest. The wind and the current tended to push them to the East, so they paddled harder to their right to stay on course.

Suddenly, the water twenty yards to their left exploded.

“They’re shooting!” Keeva said.

“Welcome to adventure,” Heyna said.

They paddled harder and heard a boom behind them, but didn’t look around. Heyna’s arms burned with the exertion, but she kept paddling. Finally they were close. They surfed the last fifty yards into the shore and pulled the dinghy up past the high tide mark. They heard another boom. Heyna looked back towards the Tachi, but all she saw were whitecaps shining in the dim light.

Heyna led the way as they ran for the lift to take them up to the rain forest canopy. Beetah was breathing hard and lagged behind. Some ten yards from their goal, the jungle came to life and blocked their way. A unit of Janizaree covered with jungle camouflage, fanned out on the beach. Heyna shouted for help. The Gryph soldiers pointed their weapons. Keeva glamoured them before they could fire.

“Heyna,” she said. “I’m Heyna of the Paititi Erda.”

“Heyna, of course,” the Sargent said. “Who are your friends?”

“Beetah of the Paititi Erda.”

“Keeva, of the Paititi Erda.”

Heyna turned around and there were two Erda behind her. Keeva now looked like she could be Heyna’s sister. In mind-speech, Heyna reminded her to put out scent. The glamour needed to be complete to fool the nose of an Erda. One of the Gryphon soldiers took out some type of a hand signaler and flashed a code up towards the top of the lift. An answering flash of light came back. The lift car started slowly down to them. Heyna looked anxiously out at the waves, afraid one of the enemy boats would start shooting again. As soon as the car had touched the bottom, the Janizaree shooed them in.

As they were hoisted, they could just make out the Tachi. She was doing all the shooting now. Heyna saw the Tachi take another shot at a shuuikan as it dove beneath the surface. Water plumed into the air and the boat slipped away. Then, it was the Tachi’s turn as her crew stowed her deck gun, and she too, slipped beneath the waves.

*

Heyna held her arms out to Xico, who wrapped her whole body around her. They stood entwined for long seconds, then minutes, until Beetah coughed loudly. The crowd around them had stopped cheering. The Quetz squirmed and puffed in discomfort at this interspecies display of personal affection. The Erda just stared in disbelief. Only Mrs. Plesh seemed untroubled and even pleased.

“I think these two want to be alone,” said Mr. Plesh. “We all need to freshen up and prepare for the celebration tomorrow anyway.” Plesh turned. “Beetah! It is so good to have you back. Your services have been sorely missed.”

“Pish,” said Mrs. Plesh to her husband, and shooed him away. She reached for Beetah and gave her a whole body hug. “We have missed you,” she said with the emphasis on the word “you.” Heyna saw what Mrs. Plesh was trying to do, but she was sure the wealthy and noble and haughty Quetzalcoatl would not be moved. They squawked and preened and pretended not to notice. Heyna wondered, if this would affect Mrs. Plesh’s re-election chances. Such a display of affection for a servant certainly would not be popular.

But the thought was fleeting. She was holding Xico, her Xico.

“Yes,” she said. “Some alone time would be good.”

“Yes,” was all Xico said.

They walked out of the crowd as another cheer went up. It was mostly the Erda this time, but Heyna didn’t care. She wasn’t going to be a servant or a slave any longer. Somehow, she was going to make her way in life following her own desires and her own will. Right now, she wanted to spend some time alone with Xico.

The city was almost completely repaired since the raid. The vaulted walkways and ornately looping and flowering vines formed beautiful arbors reminding Heyna of the paintings she and Tooly had done on the houses of the Fennec. She missed Tooly. He would really appreciate the beauty of Paititi. Maybe someday.

“Where are you?” Xico asked.

“Here,” she said. “Finally here with you. But also back out there. I’ve seen so much. I have so much to tell you. And I want to hear your story, too.”

When they got back to Xico’s arbor, there was a hammock slung from the curling branches of the ceiling. It did not look temporary. It was of the strongest and softest thread. It was woven with colorful fibers, and it was filled with pillows. Xico jumped in and held her wings out to Heyna.

“You live here now,” she said, “with me.”

“Oh, Xico, this is not… What will your parents say? What will the Quetz say?”

“My parents know. And the rest of them… They can go shit BelowLight, for all I care.”

“You are sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. You are Heyna the Brave! My Heyna. You are the Erda who traveled to the Dragon Isles, faced the Ryujin in their own city, captured pirate ships, helped the Fennec, and saved me.”

“But Jaz…”

“Jaz is the Erda who sacrificed his own life to save Tooly. He’s a hero, too.”

Heyna burst into tears, and she clung harder to Xico, who began to groom her has she had done all their lives. The sharp claws in her fur, combing and pulling, calmed her, and she felt the happiness returning. She couldn’t have her parents back, and she couldn’t have Jaz, but she had her new friends. She had Xico. Heyna figured maybe it was enough.

“Now,” Xico said, “tell me everything from the beginning. I want to hear every detail.”

“Every detail?”

“We have all night.”

As they lay together, floating on a haze of love, Heyna thought this is what it must feel like to fly.