Chapter 20

I didn't expect it to be so beautiful. In terms of fighting Chiamajan was even more hostile then Kitsnujitar. But the landscape...

Rolling hills of blue-green grass, or something enough like grass. Colourful patches of flowers, dotted around those meadows. Pools and rivers that reflected the colour of the sky. The blue sky. The exact right shade of blue.

It felt like coming home.

Except for one crucial difference.

As we stepped off the shuttle belonging to the smuggler who'd brought us here, we all looked around nervously in the bright sunlight. We'd become used to sneaking around under cover of darkness. But we couldn't do that here. Chiamajan had no night. Its orbit and twin suns kept the whole planet bathed in sunlight at all times. No darkness. No night. Ever.

The Chias didn't sleep. Nothing on the planet did. Ilyan explained that sleep hadn't evolved here since it conferred no advantage.

I'd met Chias back in the days when we fought beside them not against them. They used to sneer at humans and jeer at how weak we must be, needing to spend a third of our lives unconscious. That handicap meant we could never beat them in a war, they claimed. Since the 'sleepers' were currently kicking their arses here and elsewhere I think we could be entitled to a formal apology.

"We're staying on foot," Ilyan said, looking up from a map he and Maiga had been studying for ten minutes. "Humans are holding most of this area, fighting Chia hill troops around the edges of the plain." He waved a hand at the distant mountains. "We've got some locations. Let's go."

He strode off, easily shouldering his pack. A much larger pack than the little one he'd swapped with mine all those months ago now. I quickly fell into step beside him. The others, who had relaxed and put down their gear, now scurried to collect it together and catch up to us. Maiga waited for them and took rear guard.

I glanced at Ilyan as we walked ahead of the group. His face looked set and determined. He'd changed. Not only over those months since I met him, he'd changed ever since that day in the convoy.

The journey from Kitsnujitar to Chiamajan took nearly three weeks and we'd used the time to continue his hand-to-hand training. After one training session, we'd sat drinking water, sweaty and tired. His eyes had been far away, but eventually he'd turned to me.

"I can't stop thinking about her."

I knew he meant the young soldier who'd died in his arms as we raced back to the garrison.

"I've never said we shouldn't fight," he went on. "I just want us to fight for ourselves. But now I have to wonder if I should be going further."

"If you mean telling people not to fight at all then I think that's going to be a less than popular approach."

"I know." He looked depressed. "I know. But perhaps it is the only answer. If the... If my prediction comes true and the aliens come after us perhaps it would be better not to fight at all. Perhaps we should surrender."

I almost choked on my water. "Humans never surrender!"

"Give me your rifle!" Ilyan snapped suddenly in a commanding tone.

"Come and take it!" I snarled back, and then blinked, frowned. I didn't even have my rifle. Pure ingrained reaction. A reflex now. You learned that when you turned twelve and they put a training rifle in your hands for the first time. A classroom full of high or quavery voices spitting back: "Come and take it!" when the instructor ordered "Give me your rifle!" You didn't even know how to fire it yet, but you knew you'd die sooner than hand it over voluntarily.

Ilyan sighed. "Right."

I sat and thought about it for a while.

"Are you suggesting that if we surrendered and..." I could barely even say the words. "Gave up our weapons that they might leave us alone? Not destroy us?"

"It's one possible strategy."

I thought about it some more then shook my head.

"It can't work. They would never trust us. They know us too well. They know..."

My hand moved fast, reached down, reached under the ankle cuff of the loose training fatigues I wore and pulled out the knife Ilyan didn't know I had strapped to my leg. I tossed it to stick into the back of a chair across the room and I turned back to look at Ilyan.

"They know we always have another weapon."

~/~/~

We walked until - well until it should have been night on any normal planet. We walked until we were tired and hungry enough to know it must be dinnertime.

After we ate, I lounged on the grass, head resting on my pack and let my eyes drift closed. Blue sky above me, outside my head and inside. It circled in the air, gliding as I lay on my back and watched it float on the air. Before it...

"No!" I sat up, gasping. "No!"

"Jadeth," Ilyan came to my side at once, holding my arm, talking soothingly. "Shh, it's just a dream, you're safe."

This place looked and smelled so much like back there I found it hard to shake off the dream. I closed my eyes again, gripped the sweet smelling grass in my hands. Sweet smell, blood smell. I didn't go back to the barracks for hours. Got chewed out and assigned punishment detail for a week. After I'd been to the infirmary to get my hands bandaged of course.

I opened my eyes again to find everyone staring at me. Even the damn space ninjas looked at me if I'd gone nuts. Pretty rich coming from a couple of football bats like them.

"What am I, a cabaret act?" I snarled. They turned away, some of them at least looking embarrassed. Ilyan's hand pressed on my shoulder, pushing me to lie down again.

"Go back to sleep, Jadeth. You're tired."

I didn't fight him. I let him push me down on my back and started to drift again. Ilyan bent over me, outlined against the blue sky, his hair golden in the sun light.

Golden hair. Golden feathers. Gold. Blood. Death. Eyes closed, fighting the dream, I sank deep into the cold dark earth.

~/~/~

I slept for six hours and woke to find most of the others asleep too with Rish on watch. The only other one awake was Esha. She sat cross-legged with her eyes closed, hands resting on her knees.

I looked around and couldn't see Ilyan.

"Captain and Ilyan are patrolling," Rish said quietly. Esha opened her eyes.

"Together?" I asked and laughed. "Yeah, that'll work."

I stood up and stretched then pulled a clean shirt out of my pack. Esha watched me as I took off the old one and I made sure she got an eyeful of the muscles in case she might be having any thoughts about repeating the head kicking move.

"You really should have paid that man the money you owed him."

I spun to gape at Esha, my hand automatically covering the big scar on my side.

"How the hell do you know about that?" I demanded, speaking too loudly. People stirred in their sleep and Rish shushed me. Esha shrugged.

"We know everything."

"Yeah? You know what I'm gonna do to you if you don't keep it zipped?"

"I suspect I could make a fair guess." She didn't look remotely intimidated and I turned away from the little weirdo with a disgusted snort. I picked up my rifle.

"Think I'll go and see just how alert our perimeter patrol is."

~/~/~

Checking their alertness might be a chance to score some points off Maiga, but really I just hated to have Ilyan out of my sight. Sometimes I wished I could do without sleep like the Chias. Then at least I'd know he had someone I trusted watching over him all the time.

When I saw them, I stopped short and ducked down into the long grass. Ilyan and Maiga sat on a sun-warmed rock checking out the view across the plain to the mountains. Not in a 'planning our next move' way though, but more in a 'pair of lovebirds' way. He had his arm around her waist, holding her close. Her arm rested on his back and she ran her fingers through his hair.

His hair reached half way down his back now. The sergeant in me wanted to tell him to get it cut, but another part of me just wanted to watch it shimmering in the sunshine. Gold. Like golden feathers. I groaned. Why the hell couldn't I shake off the dream?

They kissed.

I felt sick. Their affection should have been touching, but instead it disgusted me. The cheating bitch's kisses told him lies without words. I put my head down on my forearm and let the scent of the earth fill me.

When I looked up again they had gone. I glanced at my watch to see nearly an hour had passed. I must have fallen asleep. I got up, suddenly disgusted with myself, feeling like some kind of pervert for watching them. What would I have done if they had been about to have sex? Stayed and watched?

If I had then I doubt I'd have been able to keep down the last thing I ate.

We hiked around that plain for a week, back in our familiar routine. Despite the beauty, the constant light scraped our nerves, making it hard to sleep properly.

We hooked up with several units of humans and most of them already knew us. Even said they'd been waiting for us. And I finally figured out why Ilyan had brought along the ninjas, as opposed to say tying them up and dumping them headfirst in the nearest septic tank. After he made his speech the soldiers would ask all of us questions, and the sight of that pair at work was a thing to behold. They laid it on thick as butter. They glowed while they talked. They convinced others with the sheer weight of their belief. So they had a use after all.

I found them bloody useful for taking the piss out of too. Especially when they did their morning exercise, taking up odd positions and stances, usually in unison. "Body control," Esha said, when I asked her why she was standing on one leg, her arms moving slowly from straight out in front to reach for the blue sky.

Their bodies looked fine. Their brains on the other hand... no comment.

~/~/~

It had to happen one day. I'm just surprised it took four planets and several months for it to happen.

"We're lost." I glanced back from point where I walked with Ilyan at my side. I spoke again. "Definitely lost."

"We are not lost," Maiga insisted, looking at her snapper. "Keep moving."

"We should have found the camp by now, surely?" Ilyan said.

"So they've moved on," Maiga said. "That does not mean that we're lost."

"Well I'm not going any further if we're lost," Tesla insisted, slowing down, starting to shrug off his pack. Maiga grabbed him by one of the pack's shoulder straps.

"Don't you dare," she snapped. She called ahead to Ilyan and me. "Keep moving!"

"Sure, Captain." I replied. "Road to nowhere is obviously where we're meant to be." I grinned at Ilyan, but he gave me a small frown in return.

"Stop it," he said quietly, and I at once went deadly serious.

"Right, boss."

We walked on, with mutterings coming from behind from Tesla. I didn't complain. What's to complain about when I'm strolling along by a stream with the sparkling water laughing over the stones, the sunshine warm on my face and nobody trying to shoot me? I could walk here beside Ilyan all day.

"We are lost," I said quietly to Ilyan, but he just shrugged, didn't seem to mind that we were heading nowhere. He did looked rather tired though I noticed. We all did actually, the continual daylight playing all kinds of hell with our sleeping patterns. So the part of me that wanted a good night's kip looked forward to getting off this planet. But another part of me would be happy to stay here for a good long time. We'd have to move on eventually of course. Ilyan hadn't talked about where we'd go next yet, but I think I knew.

Home.

We'd go back to Earth and we'd have a lot of people behind us. High Command would have to listen. According to the news we kept getting in over the Snappers belonging to Akil and Esha, High Command had started getting very jumpy. Human units had already abandoned several small conflicts and remained unaccounted for. Ships refused to answer hails and intelligence reports showed them making the long trip home to Earth. Some rumours even claimed a sizeable fleet of Earth ships had built up around Neptune. Growing steadily. Waiting to move into position. Waiting to fight.

They needed only one thing now. A leader.

I glanced at Ilyan again. Did he feel the weight of destiny on his shoulders? Could he see the direction fate pointed? He'd been right all along. A grass roots movement had been the only way to do this, the only way. Because Earth was all any of us really had.

Right now Ilyan didn't look as if he was thinking about destiny. He had a piece of grass in his mouth, his hair hung loose stirred by the breeze and he hummed a tune, off key. He glanced at me, sensing my gaze perhaps and smiled, then looked ahead again and stopped suddenly, staring. I looked forward, my stance shifting, my rifle coming up. But I paused and frowned.

"What the hell?"

A cloud rose from the ground, ahead of us, then all around us. Insects, wings the same blue green as the grass, shimmering in the sunlight.

"Butterflies," Ilyan gasped, and then laughed with delight. They swarmed like locusts, thousands of them, but did look more like butterflies. The beating of their wings made a low hum but no harsh buzzing.

"Farasha!" Jia called, laughing too.

I looked around at her. She held out her hand and one of the insects landed on it briefly before flying off again. Tesla, still bug-phobic, looked less happy and swatted away any that came too near him. Tanashi scanned them; perhaps worried they would sting or bite. Maiga stood beside her, checking the readouts too. In a moment Tanashi shrugged.

"They're harmless."

One landed on the barrel of my rifle and crawled along it towards my hand. I watched it, marvelling at the delicate beauty of the thing. Despite the Doc's assurance, I still felt wary of letting it touch me. I didn't swat it, but when it crawled too close I shook my rifle until it flew off again.

As quickly as it rose the cloud turned, as if blown by the wind and sank to the ground again, into the grass. A few of the 'butterflies' remained in sight, lost perhaps, hovering over the stream.

We'd all come to a halt, when the insects surrounded us so Ilyan turned to the group, smiling and said, "Come on everyone, I'm not paying you to stand around."

"You're not paying us at all!" Vimal called back, brushing a stray butterfly out of Jia's hair and laughing.

"Nah, Vim, he's just not paying you." I grinned, teasing the lad. "The rest of us are all on big salaries."

"Then I wish to lodge a formal complaint," Vim said adjusting the shoulder straps of his pack and grinning back at me.

"Are we moving then, or what?" Tesla asked, looking as if he'd prefer the 'or what.' I think I would too. I felt hungry and ready for a nice snooze in the sunshine.

"Er, no." Maiga looked up from her Snapper. "Sorry, we are lost." She glared at me, as if it was my fault. She really hated it when I was right about something.

~/~/~

Sometimes I hated it when I was right about something. Like about Maiga and Tesla. The next day, or rather, nineteen and a half hours later, since "days" doesn't exactly apply around here, I finally decided to do something about it.

We'd got ourselves back on track and were now heading to a hospital unit. Ilyan liked field hospitals. Some of the patients would go back into combat; some would be on their way home either for convalescence or for good. All of them could spread his message, even from their beds.

Ilyan actually brought up the subject himself. The subject of Maiga anyway. He'd been brooding again, which he did a lot lately. That weight of destiny maybe. After a while sitting staring ahead he said he wanted to take a walk. I went with him of course. I went everywhere with him and Rish went everywhere with Tesla. I'd tried questioning Rish to see if he had suspicions about Maiga and Tesla too, but he said he'd noticed nothing.

Ilyan and me walked in silence for a while, moved well away from the others before he spoke.

"Jadeth, I'm glad you and Maiga have been making an effort to get along better."

"Mostly we've been making an effort to keep out of each other's way."

"Yes." He sighed. "Yes. Well I don't suppose I can force you to be friends. It's just, well things might come to a head soon. I don't want to have to worry about you two fighting."

I felt bad then, ashamed that I might have given him extra stress and worry.

"Ilyan." I hesitated, apologies not coming easy to me. "I don't want to do anything to make your work harder. If that's what you think I've been doing with Maiga, then I'm sorry. I will try to get along better with her."

"It would help me." He smiled. "I hate to think that two people I care so much about can't be friends with each other. You are both so important to me, to the work

"Ilyan, about Maiga." Here goes. Stupid maybe, but here goes. He deserves to know the truth. Better now, so he can deal with it before things, as he says, come to a head. "Do you... Do you really trust her?"

Ilyan looked at me puzzled. "I trust her with my life."

"Right." What about with your heart? I wanted to say. Didn't say. "And Tesla. Do you trust him?"

His face flushed dark and he stopped walking, swung around to face me. He's not a fool; he got the hint right off.

"What are you implying, Sergeant?"

"Look, Ilyan." I said, stopping too. "I hate to have to say this, I hope it's not true, but you deserve to -"

"Spit it out, man!" The officer snap came through in his voice and my spine straightened involuntarily.

"I think Maiga and Tesla are..." I hesitated, not wanting to be vulgar. "I think they're sleeping together."

For a second I thought he would hit me. He took two quick steps towards me and I flinched back a little. Not afraid of him physically, I just didn't want Ilyan to hit me. Because of what would change between us if he did.

But he regained control and spoke instead. His blue eyes blazed and his face had turned pale.

"Do you have any evidence?" His haughty voice chilled me.

"No," I admitted. "Not what you'd call hard evidence. I just, well, things I've seen, a feeling I have."

"So because you have a feeling you are accusing my lover and my closest friend of deceiving me?" He almost spat the words, anger now replacing the haughtiness in his voice. I'd never heard him speak in such a harsh tone.

"I shouldn't have mentioned it." I looked away, ashamed. He was right. I had no evidence. A feeling? A feeling of what exactly? Paranoia? Jealousy? I'll admit it felt like he'd punched me in the gut when he called Tesla his 'closest friend'. And that was so fucking stupid. He'd known Tes for years; he'd only known me a few months. And he and Tesla were the same type of man. Intelligent, sophisticated. Me? Just a grunt who thought with his gut and his cock first and only last with his brain.

I glanced back at him as he moved. He turned away from me, stood with arms folded, his shoulders high and tense. For a few moments he fumed silently.

"I'll thank you not to raise this subject again," he said at last, his voice still cold, but also trembling a tiny bit.

"I won't. I'm sorry." That last's no lie. I'd made a stupid mistake, stupid. You don't interfere between a man and his woman. That's a basic rule. And I'd broken it and of course, as I should have known would happen, he'd turned around and taken lumps out of me. Had I really believed he'd thank me for telling him?

"Your job, Sergeant, is to protect me physically." He still had his back turned to me. "Please remember that your remit does not extend to any part of my personal life."

Speaking of having lumps taken out of me, that's bigger than the one that left the scar on my side.

"Aren't I part of your personal life?" I bit my tongue after I said it. What the hell did that even mean anyway? He swung around, looking surprised, the anger draining from his face.

"Sorry," I said, almost grunted. "Better get back, we'll have to make a move ASAP."

I turned away before he could speak and started to stride back towards our camp. After a moment I heard him following me.

I remembered back to Hollow Jimmy and to thinking that if I could meet myself I'd beat the crap out of me. Well after this I could add slapping myself silly for the making of basic schoolboy errors. The pair of us, me and myself would have a damned lively time of it.

I woke sweating and panting as it screamed out of the sky. Reality came back slowly, reluctantly, I had to grab for it. I'm lying on the ground, I told myself, not running through the long grass, looking for revenge, looking for blood.

I sat up and hugged myself, hands on my arms, feeling the heavy muscles there. The large hands and heavy muscles of a grown man. Not the small hands and frail arms of a child. Of a boy still too small and weak to take the revenge he thirsted for.

Finally I got my head back to reality and saw Esha watching me, while everyone else slept. Now who the fuck put the ninja on guard? Especially that one. I sat up and shoved the blanket away. Too damn hot.

"Do you dream of the people you've killed?" Esha asked me.

"Shut up."

I glanced around making sure everyone else was okay and not, for example, murdered in their sleep by the soup sandwich or her wacko buddy.

"I've killed sixteen people," Esha went on conversationally. "Humans I mean. I don't count the aliens as people."

"You're sick."

I wanted the dark. I wanted the blanket of night to conceal me. Ilyan hadn't spoken to me all day. I wanted to hide in the darkness. My hands stung and I looked down at them, expecting to see grazes and torn fingernails and blood, but found them clean and unmarked.

"Do you think we're going back to Earth next?" Esha asked. I really needed her to be quiet.

"Which part of 'shut up' didn't you understand?" I snarled.

She shrugged and finally did shut up.

I stood up and walked to the perimeter of the camp. I looked up into the blue sky that I'd become sick to death of. I wanted the sky to be black. I wanted to see the stars. I wanted to be able to pretend I could pick out Earth.

I wanted to go home.

~/~/~

I didn't like it. Too many doors to cover. Four of them for fuck's sake. How many damn doors does one room need?

We'd found the hospital and started talking to the medical staff first. They all wanted to hear what Ilyan had to say, but I wished they'd chosen a different location. The hospital wasn't a prefab unit, but rather a municipal looking building the medics had taken over. Ilyan had given his speech in a small auditorium, which had been the perfect place for it. But now my people and the medics all stood around chatting as if they were at a damn cocktail party.

I prowled around after Ilyan, mostly ignored by everyone and glowering at anyone I didn't like the look of. Right now that included pretty much one hundred percent of everybody.

Keeping an eye on the four doors did my head in. I had backup from Rish of course, who stuck as close to Tesla as I did to Ilyan, even when Tesla said "excuse me" and headed out, presumably to take a piss. Rish followed him and Tesla scowled at him. But Rish had his orders and Marines were good at those.

I turned my attention back to Ilyan. The medics had stopped asking him questions about the prophecy, everyone knew all about that now. They'd turned to talking about the rumours flying around on the networks. And they all asked Ilyan about his next move. Of course he wouldn't confirm anything, just talked about considering several options.

I saw him glance around and frown at one point before he turned back to the medics. I looked around too. Well now, there's a thing. Tesla and Rish hadn't come back yet and now Maiga wasn't in the room either. But Maiga and Tesla couldn't get together with Rish around, surely. He said he'd seen nothing suspicious.

Unless they were paying him off. The thought occurred to me suddenly and a rush of anger made me growl in the back of my throat. Dammit, that could be it. Or it could just be a case of the officers all looking out for each other. Probably laughing about a dumb grunt like me thinking he could catch them out.

Well maybe I could, maybe now I could get the proof Ilyan demanded of me earlier. I made a quick gesture and brought Vim and Jia over to me.

"Watch Ilyan for me," I said. "I need to go check something." They nodded, serious looks on their faces, and took up position behind him. Ilyan glanced over his shoulder at me as I moved away but didn't speak as I left the room.

~/~/~

I'd gone out of the same door I'd seen Tesla leave by. This part of the building looked unused, and the windows, smashed by whatever fighting had gone on here, had been boarded up, leaving the place dark as a bag. But somewhere ahead a light glowed dimly.

I took out my small flashlight and moved slowly through the corridors, making sure to memorise my route so I could find my way back. I passed a dark staircase and noted it when I heard a sound. A groan. I froze and listened again. It came from under the bottom flight of the staircase, a little cave of deep darkness formed there. I shone the flashlight in that direction saw a foot sticking out from under the flight of steps.

"What the hell?" I ran into the black space and gasped when I shone the flashlight down. Rish lay on his back, blood pooled on the floor around him. His dark hands clutched at his belly and blood ran over the fingers.

"Rish!" I knelt down beside him. I could see he was still breathing, in shuddering gasps. When I spoke, he opened his eyes and stared up at me, his eyes hazy with shock. His dark skin had gone grey, sweat pouring off it. "Hang on, man, I'll get you some help."

But he grabbed at my arm as I started to rise. He had no strength in his hand, but made me stay kneeling by him nevertheless. I clasped his bloodied hand in my free hand.

"Tesla." He gasped out.

"I'll find him." I tried to reassure him. "I'll make sure he's okay." Typical of Rish that he'd be thinking of his charge and not himself right now. And in that moment I wished that I'd taken the time to know him better, because now he had no more time.

"No." Rish gasped. "He's -"

A yell interrupted him, making me look up. High pitched. A woman. Maiga? I looked back down at Rish when I felt his hand in mine convulse once and then go limp. His eyes went blank. I let go his hand and swept my hand over his face to close his eyes. I stood up. The yell came again. Definitely Maiga. I could hear other voices too. I pulled out my radio, spoke into it quiet but urgent.

"Vim, Jia, do you read?" No reply. "Tanashi? Diliph?" Still nothing. "Ilyan?" I started to feel very cold. "If anyone can hear, we are under attack. Get Ilyan out now."

I shoved the radio back in a pocket. Probably being jammed. I drew my pistol and flicked off the safety. The yell hadn't been far off, down the corridor and a left. I glided there silent as one of the actual ninjas, paused at the corner and poked my head around.

A group of them, a few meters away. Special Ops bastards by the looks of them. Dressed all in black, but bulky with equipment and weapons, unlike the ninjas. Right in the middle of them Maiga made a nuisance of herself, fighting fiercely.

"Someone put her the fuck down!" One of the Special Ops boys ordered.

Yeah, because once she's on the floor then I'll take all your fucking heads right off. I started to bring up my pistol, wishing I had my rifle, when a shout came from behind me. Not yelling at me, a yell of warning to the bastards. I spun and fired even as a dark shape charged me. He hit me and we went down, sliding into full view of the others. He was on top, but didn't move. Dead weight. I felt his blood soak into my clothes. I shoved him off and rolled away, back into cover.

"Jadeth!" Maiga yelled, must have seen me before I moved out of view. "Protect Ilyan!"

No mistaking her tone. Direct order. Forget her. Protect Ilyan. I took the order. I scrambled up and ran. Rounds and pulse fire hit the wall but didn't hit me. I heard Maiga scream and heard the scream abruptly cut off. I ran, back the way I'd come, past the stairway, past Rish's body.

Gunfire chased me. Scorched the wall the floor and then my left leg buckled, burning pain just above the knee. I went down, yelling, sliding. I turned the slide to my advantage and slid right around the next bend.

No time for the pain. Not now. My breath came in sobs as I climbed back to my feet. Impossible, my leg wanted to insist, can't walk. Can't walk? Run instead.

No breath for yelling, just for running, for bursting through the door of the room where I'd left Ilyan. Left him unprotected, alone, unawares.

"Under attack," I gasped, as I staggered in. Shocked, concerned people tried to grab me, but I pushed them away.

Ilyan. I couldn't see anyone else. He stood on the raised dais still. Couldn't be a better target, tall above the rest of the people. I had to reach him, get him out, keep him safe.

"Protect Ilyan." My head rang with her order. My order. My life.

I couldn't see anything but Ilyan, but I could hear the screams when the gunfire started. Ilyan looked around wildly. Vim and Jia pressed close to him, protecting him with their bodies. Vimal's chest turned red, he fell.

Ilyan pushed Jia away, stopping her shielding him, as if he could save her from Vimal's fate. His eyes locked on me as I struggled to reach him, clawing through the pain that tried to drag me to the ground.

No more than a meter away, then half that. I could reach out and touch him...

A shot shoved him away from me. He staggered backwards, grabbing at the blood that started to flow from the wound in his gut. The edge of the dais tripped him and he fell down the two steps and hit the floor on his back.

I fell too as I reached him, collapsed half on top of him. The screams around me faded away. I don't know if they had stopped, if everyone had died already, but I couldn't hear them any more. A thin red stream of blood ran from Ilyan's mouth, ran over his face, into his hair. He coughed and spat more blood up. His breath rattled in his throat.

I had to tell him. Before his eyes closed. He had to know.

"Ilyan, I was wrong." I hoped desperately that he could hear me. "Maiga never betrayed you. I was wrong." It could have been a lie. No evidence either way and now I'd never know. But in my mind I heard Maiga's order again. "Protect Ilyan." Only one way left to do that now.

The blue eyes that fixed on me had never been more like the sky. I could hear the sky screaming, see gold and blood raining down. The sky looked into my eyes.

"Jadeth..." I had to lean very close to hear the weak whisper. "Thank you."

Blue faded. Blue light gone grey. Everything became grey. Empty. Then grey darkened to black as my head slumped to the floor beside his.

A voice, nearby, somewhere above me. Something, a boot, nudged my side.

"This one's still alive."

Then I felt nothing and I welcomed the darkness.

The sky is empty.