Starkov From Space

7. Zeroing In

I wasn't sure I was ready to face the Fold.

Well to be honest, what I wasn't ready for was to lose the freedom I'd had for the last almost ten years of my life.

I wouldn't be able to easily hide anymore once the events of the Fold happened, my secret would be out. My name would be known. I would be unmasked.

As I stared out the Black General's carriage window watching the landscape pass by I couldn't help my knees bouncing in nervous energy or how I always kept him in the corner of my eye. I didn't want him to 'accidentally' brush against me before I saved Mal and now I realized one of my own was going into the Fold. Of course with my long blouse sleeves and black gloves he would have to actively have to try to make a grab for me.

He sat across from me and I could feel his eyes boring holes into me. I could tell he was trying to decipher my secrets. It must have bothered him that he couldn't figure me out, after all he had so many centuries of experience.

"Stop that!" The rough voice of one of the Corporalki spoke up from my right, no doubt getting tired with my fidgeting.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ivan." I watched his face grow uncomfortable as I spoke his name. "I suppose it's rude that I know all your names and you don't know mine. Alas, you'll just have to wait a little longer."

The one who I knew as Fedyor spoke up with a teasing grin on his face to my left, "Well, what are all our names?"

I could feel as my lips spread into a too wide grin, the kind that made the Darkling's secret guard shift slightly uncomfortably on either side of him.

"Well you're Fedyor of course. All my dear ones have nothing but good things to say about you."

Fedyor blushed just the tiniest bit before biting back a grin as he nodded towards Ivan, "What do they say about him?"

"Oh, Ivan. He commands respect. The little ones are frightened of him usually at first, but the older ones always show them his loyalties are to the Grisha."

I shifted my gaze to the oprichniki blonde haired guard to my left beside the Darkling, "You are Kuzma. Do you know your name means harmony?" I tilted my head to the side before looking to the Darkling, "Then there's of course the Darkling or also known as currently General Kirigan." His eyes narrowed dangerously at my phrasing and I just smiled back at him before shifting my gaze over to the last person in the carriage. "Then last but not least we have Lyosha, whose name means 'the one who helps the people'. I heard you did that for my little ones on several occasions." I crossed my arm across my chest and bowed my head to him, "I thank you for your kindness."

We made several stops along the way to the Fold. However, it would seem the Darkling wished to view me from a far for a while. My statement seemed to have made him wary. It was perhaps a stupid thing to say, but I had been far too close to saying his true name.

We were only a day away from the Fold when I nearly couldn't take it anymore. The silence within the carriage was driving me up the wall. Once upon another life, even living in space astronauts would play games with each other to pass time.

"So...do you have any games you play to pass the time?"

I heard Ivan scoff to my right even though I was sure he had been pretending to be asleep.

I glanced at Kuzma who looked at his partner on the other side of the Black General and shook his head.

"We are on duty."

I let out a huge sigh and let my head thunk against the back of my seat.

The Darkling's dark grey gaze shifted onto me and I glanced toward him but kept my relaxed pose.

"Why do you believe something is going to happen in the Fold?"

His forehead was stiff in the way it got when he was thinking hard about something. I had been observing him just as much as he had been me.

"They could make it safely through. However, it would be better if I was there beside them. Better safe than sorry." I shrugged.

He leaned forward and I watched as his eyes took a journey through all the features my mask didn't hide which wasn't much.

"Why the need to go when the trackers do?"

I held his gaze and hoped my eyes didn't flicker when he mentioned the trackers but I couldn't be sure.

"That I'm afraid is harder to explain. Mostly I need to account for how much time has passed..." I pursed my lips, "However, now that one of my kids will be on the ship it's gotten more personal."

He sat back, "You stated that all would be clear if you needed to save them in the Fold. What happens if they make it through safely? What assurance do we have that you won't disappear on us again?"

I let out a huff, "I won't ever completely disappear." My voice drifted off as I saw his severe gaze and bit the corner of my lip, "I suppose I can give you something that you would have either way. I'll give you my name, if they make it through unscathed. Either way you will know it."

"I find it curious how we have never been able to find any information regarding you. Only whispers and descriptions, sometimes what seemed to be names for your vigilante form."

I had the strange urge to stick my tongue at him impishly but held back and instead I just smiled.

"Yes. I suppose it's strange how someone can be known by only titles for many years. For myself it's only been about ten but I can't imagine what it would be like for centuries."

The call for the last stop perhaps stopped me from his next retort, but his piercing gaze followed me.

This time as the grisha and oprichniki were around the fire, he sat beside me. From the corner of my eye, I could see him glance at how I even ate with my gloves on. I knew he was close to figuring out what I may be, I had left far too many clues as it was. I couldn't really help myself, I would have teleported straight to the Fold but Liliya had stopped me and encouraged me to stay with the right entourage to justify why I would be on a skiff. Her sensibility was annoying.

Maksim, one of mine and the Squaller that would go into the Fold the next day, sat beside me. His big blue eyes bright with cheer as he looked around the campfire, and his dark auburn hair caught the firelight so that the golden in it shone brighter. He didn't show any of the fear that others would know what would face them in the Fold. I glanced at his hair and I couldn't help ruffling it.

"Stop, Ma!"

I giggled.

"They don't call you it often, you said." The silky whisper was right next to my earlobe that I had to pull back quickly worried his lips might actually brush against my skin. Could any patch of skin on an amplifier affect a Grisha? He was ancient, I didn't want to find out if he could sense my power with even a bare brush.

I turned in my seat after having Maksim scooch further down the log, "I think they can feel a change in the air."

I stood abruptly, "Goodnight gentlemen."