The hatch door whisked open, and Lieutenant Taylor rushed in without so much as a by-your-leave. His gaze darted around until it landed on them, and Bannon’s unease increased tenfold.
“Quick! Come on.” Taylor reached out to them.
Bannon didn’t think, he just dragged Louie forward and grabbed Taylor’s hand. “What’s going on?”
Taylor hurried toward the door, tugging them along.
Releasing Louie, Bannon grabbed her hand and towed her with them. Even in the urgency and uncertainty, it crossed his mind to point out to her that Taylor was holding his hand, therefore he might still be gay. Stars, there was something wrong with the way his brain worked.
“We were attacked by a mercenary ship. We’ve destroyed it, but there are more on the way. Captain Kindros wants me to get you two to the shuttle.”
They practically ran through the corridors. Shipmen passed them, going the other way. Shouts from somewhere else in the ship echoed off the bulkheads. It was like trying to catch a train in Pruluce Train Station at teatime.
“Wait, we aren’t going to Skye. We’re supposed to let the delegates off and continue on to Englor.”
“Really, Bannon?” Louie growled at him. “You want to do this now, while we’re in danger of being killed?”
“I do not want to be stuck with Prissy,” he growled back.
They rounded another corner and headed toward a big iris-type hatch at the end of the hallway.
“You won’t be there for long. Just enough for us to take care of things up here. The crew is going to stay there on the surface until the threat is gone. The two of you don’t even have to disembark from the shuttle.” Taylor slapped a hand against the bulkhead.
A green light lit under his hand, and the hatch opened. Inside the docking bay, the noise seemed to echo. All of Eversleigh Manor would fit in here, and just walking inside made Bannon feel insignificant.
Shouting and heavy footfalls reverberated all around them while people ran to and fro. Beeps and squawks of people talking over an intercom added to the confusion. Several small black rectangular shuttles sat lined up in front of them, and to their right was a huge bay door.
Taylor led them to the conveyance closest to them.
Prissy stood there, with one of the other delegates, wringing his hands together. He took one look at Bannon and Louie, and his face turned red, and then his mouth pinched together. “What took you so long? We’re being shot at, for galaxy’s sakes.”
Being shot at wasn’t nearly as bad as enduring this man’s presence. Bannon dug his heels in, making Taylor stop abruptly and Louie slingshot forward and back again. Bannon had talked to Anna about several of her battles. She’d been in at least twelve in the last year, and she was still around. He’d take his chances with her and Captain Kindros, thank you very much.
“Bannon!” Louie jerked his arm and pulled him toward the craft.
Taylor, damn his dastardly soul, decided to help her, and together they dragged him right up to the door and Prissy.
He struggled to no avail. Curse these boots. The leather soles were so slick, they might as well be on ice.
Prissy let out an exasperated sound and rolled his eyes. He turned toward the shuttle and said to no one in particular, “An imbecile just like his older brother.” He made it as far as the hatch before the rein on Bannon’s temper snapped.
Bannon freed himself of Louie’s and Taylor’s hold and charged Prissy. Louie groaned behind him and made a grab for his arm, but Bannon jerked it away. He really was tired of the coxcomb’s slights toward Blaise.
Hitting Prissy square in the back, Bannon knocked him into the shuttle.
The dandy wasn’t expecting it and slammed up against the far wall. Sputtering and panting, he turned toward Bannon, with his eyes as wide as saucers and blood welling up on his bottom lip.
Good!
The other delegates gasped and stared at him, but Bannon didn’t care. He strode right up to Prissy and raised his fist. “One more word about my brother or my brother-in-law, and I’m going to draw your cork.”
Two sets of hands pulled him back, but his glacial stare didn’t falter.
Prissy made a great show of dusting off his morning coat, but when he glanced up, the fear in his eyes was enough to make Bannon smile. At least they understood each other now.
Bannon shrugged off the two other delegates’ hold, and Louie towed him forward again.
Someone announced that they should all be seated, and then the shuttle started moving.
Blast. He hadn’t even realized the door had closed. Bannon let Louie lead him to a seat next to a porthole in the very back of the shuttle, away from where Regelence’s diplomats sat. They were all staring back at him of course, and Bannon had no doubt he’d be hearing from his father by the time he got to Englor, but so be it. He was already in trouble and an outcast, so what was one more incident? It wasn’t like he could get more banished. With a sigh, he stared out the window and watched the shuttle bay rush by, followed by the blackness of space.
Louie leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You should have just planted him a facer instead of threatening him.”
Bannon chuckled and relaxed into his seat. Taking her hand, he leaned sideways, jostling into her shoulder without looking away from the porthole. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. He could get a better view of those clouds, and Prissy and the other men were getting off the shuttle. Too bad he hadn’t had time to grab a sketchscreen. Oh well. If Lieutenant Taylor was to be believed, they wouldn’t be long, and Bannon had an excellent memory. He rarely drew while studying his subject.
He was settling in to watch the planet approach, when Captain Kindros’s voice came over the intercom into the shuttle.
“Shuttle One, we have triumphed over our attackers.”
Yup, not long at all. Bannon smiled and finally took a deep breath to settle himself.
“But the Lady Elizabeth and her crew are under attack, and we have been called to the Hansark system to provide assistance. Please make yourselves at home on Skye, and we will return to retrieve you as soon as possible.”
Bloody hell! Bannon resisted the urge to bang his head on the seat in front of him. The Hansark system was one of the systems involved in the Aquarius War. Dust and imploding planets! It could take weeks for the Lady Anna to return!
§ § § §
Planet Skye
A cliff ridge was not the most comfortable place to lie. Yawning, Ciaran stretched his neck to the side, then rested his forehead on the ground in front of him for a moment. He had a crick in his neck, his shoulders ached, and he was pretty sure there was a rock under his left hip bone, but he couldn’t seem to tear his attention away from the spectacle below him. Caught between awe and apprehension, he lifted his spyglass again and stared down at the construction site.
He had helped build many cottages, and he’d even seen the new tower at Ellenwine, the Campbell keep, being erected when he’d been fostered with Patrick and the Campbells, but this was like nothing he’d ever imagined. He’d been here since a little after noon when he’d spotted the huge hole, easily the size of Lochwood Castle. Men had been placing metal rods in it to form a grid. It was approaching twilight, and now the men below were pouring some sort of mortar into the hole—though it wasn’t like any mortar he’d ever seen. This mortar was poured from huge metal barrels. The men were bringing the barrels in by horse-drawn wagons. The thick gray cement was poured into the hole as one after another the men brought barrels forward and tipped them off the ends of the carts. There were still more carts coming this way from the direction of the MacLean stronghold, Dris Abbey, all full of the metal barrels. It was mind-boggling. At this rate they’d have a whole building in a day or two. After three years, Ellenwine still wasn’t complete.