"Down in one," the pilot intoned.
Kass's breath caught in her throat. Her heart raced. It wasn't even dark yet, the sun's last rays still casting a rosy glow in the sky behind the trees. If K'kadi lost the concentration he seemed to take so lightly . . . If he became so absorbed in observing the land of his father that he forgot why he was here . . .
Pok! That way lay insanity. K'kadi was a warrior now. This wasn't at all like forgetting he wasn't supposed to reveal his sister was a princess. This time, their lives depended on him.
She worried too much. After disappearing a huntership in the face of a Fleet battlegroup, cloaking a shuttle wasn't much of a challenge. And yet . . .
A slight bump and they were down, the abrupt silence as the engines cut off leaving them all whispering. But K'kadi's cloak must have successfully muffled noise as well as sight, because a group of young men playing veriball about fifty meters away never lost their concentration on the game. Just another rumble in the city.
Kass unfastened her seat belt and maneuvered into a seat next to her brother. Gently, she turned his face toward her. "I know you want to go with us, K'kadi. You want to see the palace, see our father, but this isn't the right time. It will happen, I promise. Sometime when things aren't quite so scary. But right now"-Kass emphasized each word-"right now we need you to keep the shuttle hidden every single moment. Promise?"
K'kadi gave her a look any brother would give an older sister after that little speech. "My apologies," Kass murmured. "Coming home has turned my wits to mush." She squeezed his shoulder, brushed a kiss to his cheek. "I know you'll be fine."
From now on, Kass thought, as she responded to an imperative wave of Tal's hand, the group going to the palace had to rely on Jagan, not K'kadi. Five people whose only worry was not if Jagan could sustain the illusion of invisibility, but would he? Did he really want to become a rebel organizer on the planet he had fled just before the invasion? Or did he have some less benevolent plan in mind? Was he perhaps so annoyed by losing his chance to become king that he would drop the cloak at a strategic moment, revealing Ryal and Jalaine consorting with their rebel daughter and wiping out the royal family in one great swoop? And, not incidentally, beheading the rebellion with the capture of S'sorrokan?
Kass made a face. She definitely thought too much. They were committed. On the ground, with the shining spires of Crystalia, the royal palace, rising above the dark green of the dense patch of trees about sixty meters from the shuttle's exit ramp.
Pok! Kass clutched Tal's arms as a combination of dire thoughts and the sight of her childhood home nearly tripped her up as they hurried down the ramp to the ground. Home. Jagan. She could not possibly be bringing betrayal into the heart of Psyclid. To mother, father, sister. She simply could not be that wrong.
Steady. A chance we have to take.
Tal. In spite of his freezing formality since they'd left Blue Moon, their soulmate bond still worked. One of these days-if they lived past tonight-she'd find a way to convince him they were on the same path, no matter where that path might take them.
But for now she had to take point, leading them to Crystalia, the first part of the journey relatively easy as they followed a winding path through the woods. Kass allowed herself a moment of congratulations. The park was exactly as she remembered it. She'd chosen their landing site well.
Cloaked by the invisibility shield thrown around them by Jagan, they walked across the grass, Kass and Joss Quint in the lead, Tal and Jagan behind them, with Anton Stagg as rear guard. As dusk settled around them, Kass could see several couples strolling along the banks of a pond. She shivered. In case of any glitch in their plans, they were all dressed in black, but she didn't even want to think about what the loss of Jagan's cloak could mean.
If only some of K'kadi's cheerful confidence had rubbed off on her. But with each step closer to Crystalia, tension rose, pounding against her nerves like a drum beat. She had to force herself to breathe.
A sigh of relief as the woods closed around them, but the shelter lasted only a scant five minutes. Ten steps short of exiting into the glare of the palace's brilliant security lights, Kass waved them all to a halt. A fourteen-foot wall topped by spikes loomed ahead of them. Twenty meters away, a gate with armed guards standing at stiff attention.
Unable to hide her anxiety, Kass glanced at Jagan.
You think I cannot do my job? he huffed.
Will you? she challenged.
Terrified of a few Regs, midamara? And here I thought you were fond of them.
Tal was watching them both. How much did he sense?
Too much. She'd swear he had a dash of Psyclid in him somewhere.
"Keep close," she ordered, and led them out into the direct glare of the spotlights and the watchful eyes of the guards.
No shouts, no alarms. Just a peaceful Psyclid evening. Though surely the guards must hear the thudding of her heart.
"Now," Kass whispered. A soft gasp from Joss Quint as all five rose in the air and sailed over the wall. Kass grinned. Better, much better. A great feeling when a plan actually worked.
After that, it was surprisingly easy. Moving single file, their little black column snaked past guards, past servants carrying trays, courtiers and ladies-in-waiting lounging around a fountain. A good sign, Kass thought. Evidently, their information about the royal family was correct. Life in the palace appeared to be functioning normally. They wouldn't have to look for Ryal, Jalaine, and M'lani in the dungeons.
They did, however, need an obscure entrance into the royal suite, one where it was unlikely anyone would see a door open and close all by itself. Kass grinned, her confidence increasing. Accessing the royal suite was an easy task for someone who had run free in the palace from the moment she could walk. Although Crystalia had no secret passages, there were many hidden ways for servants to come and go unobtrusively. Unerringly, Kass led them down a long unguarded corridor, three steps around a corner, and opened the door on what appeared to be a supply closet, with shelves full of sheets, pillows, pillowcases, and bedcoverings along two sides.
Jagan chuckled. Even I didn't know about this one.
Kass flashed him a grin, while enjoying the puzzled faces of the two marines. Tal simply raised an eyebrow. Strange creature. She'd swear he was enjoying himself.
"Lock the outer door," Kass told Anton, then put her fingers into an indentation on the rear wall and slid open a panel, revealing a passage dimly lit by small bulbs evenly spaced along the wall. "This is it," she told them quietly. "This passage leads directly into the royal sitting room. As I've told you, Ryal and Jalaine are usually there this time of day."
"And if not?" Jagan prodded.
"We wait." The voice of S'sorrokan. No arguments. "As agreed, the king's private sitting room is the safest place for this meeting."
A mere six meters and Kass was at the peephole. Goddess forfend that any servant should interrupt the royal pair if they were engaged in something more interesting than reading a book or enjoying a cozy fireside chat. Her breath hissed out. She clapped a hand over her mouth.
Until this moment she'd refused to seriously consider worst case. But now that she saw her parents sitting in their favorite chairs before the fire, their backs toward her, each peacefully reading and obviously in good health, her knees almost buckled. Mama! Papa! And M'lani, sprawled on a sofa, looking infinitely bored, occasionally plucking the strings of the lutá she held in her lap.
Father, mother, sister, just as she'd dreamed of them. Goddess, praise be and thank you!
Quietly, Kass slid the servants' panel open, motioning the others to follow her into the room. The room's three occupants didn't move, but Kass felt her mother go on alert, her body tensing, searching . . .
Fizzet! She didn't want to startle Jalaine into some psychic reaction they would all regret, give her father a heart attack or provoke M'lani into a scream that would bring guards running. Kass glanced at Jagan. Can you drop my shield only? He nodded. Then do it.
"Mama?" she said softly. "Papa?" The queen, sensing her elder daughter's presence, was already turning. "Yes, it's me, not an illusion. I'm really here." Tears spilled down Kass's cheeks as she ran forward to be enfolded in her parents' arms. More sobs as M'lani inserted herself into the family circle.
Sheer, unadulterated joy. So many years, so many trials. The ever-present fear of not-knowing her family's fate. Kass had tried to shut it out, or she wouldn't have been able to do the work required of her, but the questions were always there. Were Ryal, Jalaine, and M'lani being treated with respect, as rumored? Or were they constantly harassed, perhaps even kept locked up in Crystalia's ancient dungeons?