Way of No Return (Champions of the Crystal Book 8)

Chapter 10.3

Scotty was surprised to find he had an audience for his next message when he entered the secure communications room. "Your majesty, Subcommander," he said, saluting.

Baldaran grinned at him. "Scotty, that message was from Reya. It was her voice. She's alive!"

Scotty grinned back. "Glad to hear it." Then he frowned. "Wait a minute. They were all supposed to separate, per standard procedure. But Sabrina kept Seuréa, and Reya's with her too? That's an awfully target-rich environment."

Baldaran's expression lost some of its animation. "They must have had a reason. I asked Reya to stay close to Sabrina—I wanted her to learn from her example, but she might have misinterpreted it as a request for protection. Reya is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter."

Rigeon was glaring at Scotty, so he made an effort to appear more cheerful for the King. "Don't worry. Rina never does anything without a good reason, right? And they'll both look after each other."

"True," Baldaran said. "In your message, can you convey that I am safe?"

"I was gonna imply it, but I'm pretty sure they know. News of your death would get around pretty quick."

"On the contrary," Baldaran said. "Such an event would be immediately classified, per my orders. I have left instructions that only Sabrina and Ford are to be notified so that they may take charge. Since we do not know where Ford is, you would need to notify Sabrina. But she will be aware that my death would be kept secret. She may be in some suspense unless you verify my safety."

Scotty wondered briefly how he would ever convey such news if he had to. Mr. Burns is sitting on a cloud playing a harp? He cleared his throat. "I'll let them know." He held out a datapad to Rigeon. "I've composed the message for Kander to read. But, uh, I should coach him. He's got to get the names exactly right."

"We are aware," she replied. "He should be here momentarily."

Baldaran said, "I will not peer over your shoulder, Scotty. I trust all will go as it should. I merely wanted to express my gratitude to you personally for finding a way to communicate with my Heir that is not only impenetrable, but brought me such happy personal news."

"I'm glad," Scotty said sincerely. He thought about how he would feel if he could hear Aurora's voice and know she was safe. "I bet it was on purpose, too. Having Reya send the message is a kind of message from Sabrina to you, that they are safe and together."

"Yes," Baldaran smiled. "Sabrina has always been generous to me. I can never sufficiently repay her." He chuckled. "But then, it has become a dynastic tradition to be irrevocably indebted to the Devons. It is one I am proud to uphold."

"Gee, thanks," Scotty said, which made the King laugh as he turned to leave.

An urgent bleeping sounded on one of the consoles, so Scotty bent to look at it. "Hey. An encrypted packet just came through. I thought all our ships were gone!"

"They are. Or they were," Rigeon replied.

Baldaran came back over to them. "What is it?"

"The decryption is running," Scotty said. "The identifier is the Oath of Cinnavon. The signal's pretty weak—maybe they just dropped into the edge of the system and back out again. Maybe they found Mara!"

"Let us not get overly excited," Baldaran cautioned.

"But it must be important for them to take the risk," Scotty pointed out. "And I'm sick of the sand. I want to get moving!"

Rigeon cleared her throat, and Scotty said, "Sorry, sir. Ma'am." He turned back to the console. "It's coming through. Text only. Looks like the file got corrupted a little, but we should be able to get most of it."