A Flight of Broken Wings: Aeriel Trilogy #1

Chapter 70

Vikram gave a noncommittal little shrug. "She's beautiful, apparently. But then, which Aeriel isn't? That ain't saying much. There was one thing though..." At Ruban's raised eyebrow, he continued. "She has the red makings of a normal X-class, of course. Only, according to some accounts she's got two of them."

"What?"

Simani nodded. "Of course there's no way to confirm this one way or the other until we actually run her down and see for ourselves. But it's turned up in quite a lot of the source material about her. Like, you know how the Aeriel Queen has three markings on her wings? And of course the normal X-classes have one. Apparently, the Queen's second-in-command, whoever they are, will have two. It's umm...like a badge of some kind, as far as we could tell."

Ruban leaned back into the couch and groaned. "So, a beautiful Aeriel with an extra mark on its wing. That's what we're looking for? It'll be a joy handing out that description to a taskforce."

He had been careful for long enough, Shwaan decided. He couldn't withhold all information from the Hunters if he ever wanted to get this over with. Given enough time, he could have found Reivaa on his own. And if it had been a simple matter of him against her, he would have taken his chances on a direct confrontation. But nothing was ever simple when it came to this mess.

Reivaa would have backup on earth, and he had none. The last thing he wanted was to get his sister's troops involved in earthly conflicts. Bringing Vaan's army down into the Mortal Realm would be a recipe for disaster, he knew that.

And if Reivaa somehow managed to kill him, Safaa would not rest until she had her head on a pike and all her accomplices wiped out. An all-out war between Vaan and the Exiles was not something the universe could afford, and certainly not something Shwaan was willing to risk. No, the Hunters were his only hope for now.

"Uh, there's one more thing," he said, trying to make his voice sound hesitant and unsure. The humans turned to look at him questioningly. "Umm, I found out something else about this...ah...Reivaa from my grandma's old notes."

"Yes?" said Vikram encouragingly.

"Umm, according to my grandma, Reivaa had the power to control lightning. It's a rare gift, apparently, even among Aeriels. But according to the notes she left, one of the hallmarks of Reivaa's involvement in a battle during the Rebellion was...well, a thunderstorm. It made her more dangerous than almost all the other Aeriels, simply because she was perhaps the only one of them who could use the monsoon to her advantage."

"The power to control lightning?" repeated Simani doubtfully. "I have never heard anything like it."

"Aeriels have been known to have elemental gifts before," said Vikram thoughtfully. "Zeifaa, the first Aeriel Queen could apparently control the tides, though I always thought that was just a fairy-tale. Although I have to say, this is the first time I'm hearing about an actual, living Aeriel with elemental abilities."

Shwaan nodded. It was true that Zeifaa had had the power to control the tides, and had impressed many a mortal in her time turning the direction of the sea for kicks. It was rare to find an Aeriel monarch who was completely sane, now that he thought about it. None of the three he had known in his lifetime possessed anything resembling sanity, though their psychoses were of vastly different types. His grandmother had been flighty, his mother was murderous and his sister anal-retentive. Talk about a proud and consistent family tradition.

Still, elemental powers were a rare enough gift that he wasn't surprised the humans no longer remembered it. To his knowledge, Reivaa was the only one of the Exiles to have elemental abilities, and he supposed she wasn't exactly in a hurry to enlighten them.

"Well, it was raining cats and dogs on the day of the SifCo attack," Simani was saying, biting her lower lip as she stared contemplatively at the far wall. "Even if what you're saying is true, I suppose a stray bolt of lightning wouldn't have been particularly noticeable, under the circumstances."

"There was lightning that day," Ruban said suddenly, and something in his voice made Shwaan turn to look at him. The man was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared fixedly down at his feet. Shwaan couldn't see his eyes but he could make out the pinched expression the Hunter wore, as if remembering an old nightmare.

"Ruban..." Simani whispered, something like pain in her voice.

"I'd forgotten it, after everything that happened," Ruban continued. He didn't seem to have heard his partner. "But-but I'd seen a flash of lightning...when I went out for the flowers. Miki...she asked to come with me, but I'd wanted to surprise her," his face contorted with what could have been either rage or sorrow, or some unfathomable combination of both. "I saw lightning, there was a thunderclap somewhere in the distance and I remember...I remember being surprised 'cause it was March and...and it wasn't even properly spring yet. And then..." Ruban closed his eyes, as if he couldn't bring himself to say any more. He looked broken, like a man who had to struggle for every breath.

Simanileft her seat and walked over to her partner, placing a hand gently on hisshoulder. "We'll find her, Ruban," she whispered, her voice tender as she ranher fingers through his untidy hair, although her eyes looked like they hadbeen set in stone. "We're closer than we have ever been before, you know that.Wherever she is, we'll find her. We'll find the creature that did this. Andwhen we do...when we do, with her last breath she will be begging us to kill her."