Coalition 02.5 - The Kingbird (3 page)

“I had forgotten how close the anniversary was,” she said.

Califa
nodded, glanced at the girl who was like a daughter to her. “Hard to believe how long it’s been since he held
Galatin
against all odds.”

“And since he went into the mountains and never came back.”

“Yes. Fifty to one odds and it still took them six days to kill him and the men he led.”

“I wish I had known him rather than of him,”
Shaylah
said.

Califa
shook her head. “Be thankful.” She glanced at her mate, who was deep in conversation with Dare. “The loss is hard enough for those
 
who did.”

“
Dax
,”
Shaylah
said.

“I think he’d begun to think of him as a younger brother. They were much alike. But for
Rina
, who adored him as only a girl turning into a woman can, it is a wound that never heals.”

Shaylah
sighed. This long, constant battle against the Coalition had taken much from them. Family, friends, and peace for their children.

“I think we need to take a day off,” she announced abruptly to the room.

Dax
and Dare turned, startled.
Rina
cocked her head thoughtfully, looking more like one of the legendary pixies of the
Triotian
woodlands than ever despite the fact that she was an adult now. In truth, she’d grown up harder and faster than any of them. She’d had to.

“You have been working very hard,” Dare said, walking toward her.

“And accomplishing a lot,”
Califa
put in. “I saw that the school is nearly finished.”

Shaylah
nodded but waved aside the compliments. Administering the rebuilding after Coalition attacks had become sadly routine. But it seemed too small a price to pay for the esteem and respect and position these people had given her. They had accepted her at first for Dare’s sake, but soon had warmed to the
outworlder
who had become their queen. She’d vowed never to take that for granted, and so far she thought she had succeeded.

“Don’t underestimate the importance,”
Dax
said as he joined them. “I can’t tell you what the sight of their queen down in the rubble working alongside them means to the people.”

“Throwing rocks seems to help my temper,” she said.

“And that, my queen,” Dare added, “seeing that you are as angry as they are, means even more to them.”

“But you, alive, strong, and returned to lead them means the most,” she said, slipping her arm around him. “I still think we need to take a day. Just for us, all of us, as a family.”

“
Shaylah
,” Dare began, and she could see he was going to say he couldn’t.

“Our children have never known peace,” she said before he could go on. “And while they have visited most of Trios as part of their education, they have never gone anywhere, to any of the beautiful places that survive, to simply enjoy being there.”

“It has not been safe enough,”
Dax
said.

“I know. But if they hold true to form—and that’s something the Coalition excels at—they won’t be back for another attack for at least ten days. The seven of us could slip out for just a day, unnoticed, if we went alone.”

Rina
made a small sound, but when
Shaylah
looked at her she was studying the floor. The girl never seemed to get over being amazed at how they all considered her one of their joined family. It was,
Shaylah
thought, part of her considerable charm.

“It could be done,” Dare agreed, but he still sounded reluctant. Duty claimed this man like no other she had ever known. He was a leader in the finest sense, and she admired him nearly as much as she adored him.

And worried about him.

“Think of it, Dare. Just the people you love most, twenty-four hours with no demands, no decisions.”

He let out a breath and looked at the ceiling of the room.
Shaylah
knew it was to keep her from seeing just how much the idea appealed. She pressed her advantage, determined to see this man she so loved free of the burden for at least this short time.

“You deserve this. We all do. The children most of all. Especially if we’re going to put them to work when we return,” she added with a smile.

“Where were you thinking of going?”
Califa
asked, and something in her old friend’s voice told her she had her support in this. She felt a spark of relief; together, she and this premier tactician could get this done. She focused on Dare.

“I had in mind someplace that has escaped damage, despite it all, and continues to. And stands ready, with a dwelling built by your father’s own hand.”

Dare’s gaze snapped back to her. “Lake
Geron
.”

“Yes.”

“It’s only escaped damage because it’s
bedamned
hard to get to,”
Dax
pointed out.

Shaylah
turned on the man who had become as a brother to her. “Are you saying you can’t do it,
skypirate
?”

Dare burst out laughing at
Dax’s
expression. “Oh, you know him too well, my love.”

“I’m just saying I could do it,”
Shaylah
retorted, hiding her joy at the rare sound of his laughter.

“As I well know,” Dare agreed.

For a moment their eyes locked, memories flowing between them. Their connection grew stronger with every passing year, until now, they barely had to speak if they were alone. They sensed each other’s every mood, and communicated on some level
Shaylah
had never known. She assumed it was part of bonding, and had been surprised to realize the old
Triotian
tradition, mocked in the halls of Coalition power, went much deeper than she’d ever realized. It was more than a physical and emotional connection; it was a joining of spirits as much as bodies.

And now she sensed the full strength of that duty pulling at him.

“I can’t leave the city,” he said. “If something should happen, if the Coalition returned—”

“Perhaps,”
Califa
said, her tone deceptively neutral as she interrupted the king without qualm, another measure of how far they’d come, “it might be a good test run for a certain new ship?”

Dax’s
head snapped around as he focused on his mate. “The Star?”

Shaylah
stifled a laugh;
Califa
, too, knew her own mate well. Nothing could have brought him more swiftly to their side than the temptation of a run in his new flagship, the latest incarnation of the Evening Star.

“It is nearly ready, is it not? Surely a small jaunt would be useful, for fine tuning.”

“Please, both of you,”
Shaylah
said. “Lay down the crown, and the
flashbow
, for just this one day. For all of us.”

“Let’s do it,
Dax
,”
Rina
chimed in. “I’ve barely had a chance to be aboard her, I’ve been stuck in
Freylan’s
classes so long.”

“And doing wonderfully,”
Califa
said. The girl had had a lot of catching up to do. Her life with the sector’s most infamous
skypirate
had been wild and dangerous and no doubt exciting, but it hadn’t run to basic education.
Dax
had done his best for the situation, making her read what tomes he had available, and had assigned her to a sort of apprenticeship to every crew member to learn their skills, but he was no teacher.

As much as she complained,
Shaylah
had a feeling she was soaking it all up eagerly still, years after
Dax
had brought her home.
Freylan
had reported her to be a quick, smart learner, although he had protested mightily when, in the middle of her lessons on
Triotian
history
Rina
had insisted on accompanying
Dax
to
Arellia
when the rebellion had broken out there and Dare had sent the
flashbow
warrior and his mate to help.

“The Evening Star is not flying without me,” she’d said flatly. And given she had a unique talent that made her one of the best weapons aboard any ship, she’d won that battle.

“It would be a good chance to see how she handles,”
Dax
said now. “And to test out
Paraclon’s
water landing system.”

“Well, that ought to drown us all,” Dare said. “You know how his first try at anything never works quite as expected.”

“But his next try is always amazing. And I’ll let you all off on dry land first,”
Dax
added generously.

“Kind of you,” Dare said.

“Dare, listen,”
Dax
said. “Heating’s not an issue now, so we can leave the long range sensors working with the shields at half strength, and one cannon at the ready. If we take the Star and something happens, I can get us back here before they’re within firing range.”

Shaylah
felt the moment when the tide shifted. This man was Dare’s most trusted friend—the brother he’d never had—and his voice was the weight needed.

“All right,” Dare said at last. “If we go now. In the morning.”

Bless you,
Dax
Silverbrake
.

“Let’s tell the children,”
Califa
said.

“
Rina
, why don’t you tell them?”
Shaylah
suggested.

The girl grinned widely. “My pleasure, your highness.”

That quickly, she darted out of the room.
Califa
looked at
Shaylah
. “Thank you for that.”

“None needed. It was worth it to see her perk up.”

“Now let’s go pack.”

“Pack?”
Dax
looked puzzled. “We’re only going overnight.”

“With two children,”
Califa
pointed out.

“Four, if you count them,”
Shaylah
gestured at their mates.

Dax
scowled, but Dare smiled. “Yes, Captain,” he said softly. “You just may have four on your hands. I hope you don’t regret this.”

* * *

“DO YOU HAVE to do that all the time?”
Shaina
complained, scrunching up her face as her mother leaned over and kissed her father as he sat at the controls of the new ship.
Shaylah
smothered a laugh.

“Mine are worse,” Lyon said. “You’d think a king and queen would be more ... more ...” He struggled for an appropriate word and apparently couldn’t find one in his young vocabulary.

“Never.”

Dare said it to his son, but he was looking at
Shaylah
. There had been much for the king to do before leaving, and so there had been little time for themselves last night. But he’d promised, in a whispering against her ear before he fell into an exhausted sleep, that there would be hours for them soon. She felt her cheeks color as her body responded to merely the thought. It never faded, this instant, heated need for him.

“See?” Lyon asked with some
indignance
. “They’re always like that.”