The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 1: Battles Royal

Warm sunlight filtered in from somewhere nearby, producing enough heat on Sabrina Devon's cheek to wake her. She yawned, then blinked in alarm. If the sun was up, she had overslept.

She opened her eyes to the sight of a white wall awash with morning sun, and it was only then that she realized she was not in her own bed, either in Palace Royal on Praxatillus or aboard the Wayship Khediva. Alarm turned to panic as she bolted upright, crying out as her head split with pain.

"Sabrina! Lie down," called a voice, as footsteps hurried toward her. Blinking through the red haze of pain, Sabrina identified Sehrian Haaron and his wife, Éllina. So she was on Praxatillus after all, she thought with relief.

"You're going to be fine," Haaron continued, as Éllina smoothed Sabrina's hair out of her face and added, "You just need to rest."

"Not again," Sabrina groaned, lying back against the pillows as her headache began to subside.

"Yes," Haaron said. "This time it was a considerable mercenary force. They had infiltrated our maintenance crews in the orbital shipyard. For a while we thought they might get away with it, but Scotty, as usual, did the unexpected." His voice turned faintly amused, yet somehow uneasy, as he spoke of her brother. Sabrina, familiar with the nuances of her friend's speech, recognized it as her cue to worry.

"Where's Scotty?" she demanded.

"He'll be fine," Éllina said. "Commander Rayland is with him, and Her Majesty is expected momentarily."

"Expected?" Sabrina asked, blinking at the halo the sunlight produced around Éllina's abundant red-gold hair. "Why isn't she here? Did—"

"They attempted to assassinate Tirqwin while stealing Khediva," Haaron said. "Her Majesty has been involved in rescuing and healing him. It has not been very long since we stood down from alert."

"Oh God, how long can we keep this up?" Sabrina moaned, before she could stop herself.

Haaron, who had been sharing shifts aboard Khediva with the Devons to help prevent Homeworld from stealing the Wayship back, sighed and shook his head. "Not much longer. They have grown crafty as well as desperate. They know that we are stretched thin already. All they have to do is provide enough distractions, and they will succeed. And ever since they determined that they cannot kidnap Tirqwin, their assassination attempts have been swift and vicious."

Sabrina closed her eyes. Flashes of memory from the night came to her, jumbled and frantic and full of fear. Yes, it had been a mercenary force that had boarded the Wayship, masquerading as a maintenance team checking her manual docking clamps. They had administered a precisely calculated shock of power, forcing Khediva off-line just long enough to board her. Sabrina, shaken awake by the jolt and Khediva's cut-off cry, had not taken the time to scramble into her combat armor, running to the airlock armed with a single blaster, expecting help in the form of Tirqwin, who would have felt the invasion through their link, and his wife, Queen Maratobia of Praxatillus, who was in turn linked to Tirqwin. But no help had come, and her solitary stand had been brief and useless.

"I blew it," she sighed. "If only I'd had my armor on."

"It's not conducive to sleep, is it?" Haaron said, smiling. "It's all right, Sabrina. No one blames you."

"I should have hit the manual intruder defenses—or set off the distress beacon—or—"

"Don't think about it now," Éllina advised.

"What happened to Scotty?"

Haaron grinned a little. "I am devoutly glad I was not involved in his piloting instruction. It must have been a heart-stopping task."