The Curse of the Winged Scorpion
Dha-hali

Silencehung over Vedeca’s cabin like old cobweb. Fantel had decided that silence washer best and only defence, and magnanimous in victory, Rashari had left her toit. Through the wide window Fantel could see a blanket of stars painting thesky. The sun had fallen away and the airship cut through the night like a dartthrough a bolt of black cloth. Below them lay craggy hills and rough moorlandas they travelled westward. Fantel glanced across to Rashari finally breakingher silence, “We make for Aramantine?”

“Gatewayto the Steppes,” He agreed calmly, his profile sharp in the light from theflight control.

“Youwere going to steal the scion stone for yourself, weren’t you?” She asked him. “Younever intended to give it back to the Suluman.”

Rasharipressed his lips together into a fine line, still looking straight out into thenight sky. He took his time answering. Finally he released a soft sigh, posturerelaxing as he came to some sort of decision. He glanced over to her. “No. Iintended to give it back to the Suluman. My plan changed when Remus told me heknew what the Heart was – he meant he knew of its power. The only way he couldknow that is if someone else told him. That’s when I knew the Heart wouldn’t besafe with the Suluman.”

“Howdid Remus replace out?”

“Idon’t know,” Rashari’s mouth twisted upward in a bitter smile. He was lookingstraight ahead again. “I was endentured to Remus. He never trusted me, ofcourse. The man wasn’t stupid, he knew I’d betray him at the first goodopportunity, but he needed me. During our time together I set up a number ofhighly lucrative jobs. Remus got rich off my hard work and I was…” He hesitatedfrowning over the right words.

“Youwere what?” Fantel asked, softly. The almost subliminal purring of Vedeca’sengines combined with the dark violet glow coming from the walls made the cabinseem intimate, secluded, creating an aura where secret confessions amongstrangers seemed easy and natural. Fantel forgot that she wasn’t supposed tocare –let alone trust - what this human had to say.

Rasharishifted in his seat, right hand ghosting over the gauges and dials covering thecontrol panel, almost a caress. “I had safety, even if I didn’t have liberty. Workingfor Remus was the best option I had available to me for a very long time. Plus,working for him brought me and Vedeca together.” He smiled more genuinely. “Veeis the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Fantelfrowned. “It’s just an airship.”

Rasharilooked over at her sharply. “Bite your tongue. Vee is very far from just an airship.” Fantel arched hereyebrows at his tone. He grimaced. “Sorry. Remus might have been captain – inname only – but Vedeca is my girl. She and I have a connection. She is my home.I know every inch of her. I’ve cared and maintained her for nearly five years.”

“Whynot give the Heart back to the rightful owner? Why are you so sure it won’t besafe?” Fantel pressed him. This was the heart of the issue. Rashari knewsomething, something no one else seemed to know and whatever that knowledge wasit motivated his actions now.

“Becausenow there is demand for it the Suluman will sell it to someone else. HannickAnoush is this close to losing control of the Bhuvam Isles to the Dha-hali.He’ll sell the Heart to the first person to offer him protection from Einar.”Rashari shock his head. “No. No matter what I agreed, I need to get rid of theblasted thing.”

“Itis powerless.”

Rasharilaughed darkly. “No it isn’t.”

Fantellooked at him sharply. “You know this for certain?”

“Yes.”

“Thegoddess...?”

“Doesn’tmatter one whit; there is power in the stone.It would almost be better if the goddess Anoush was still active; safer,certainly. Humans possessed by wayward goddesses are less than ideal, but atleast everyone knows what sort of trouble to expect.”

“Idon’t understand.” Fantel frowned. How could the stone be more dangerous than aliving goddess? It was just a stone, wasn’t it?

Rashariglanced over to her, half his face blanched in the violet light coming off theconsole. “Look at it this way: phantasma is the concentrated power of deadmortals. You know what that can do. Imagine the power you could harvest from astone containing the power of a dead deity.”

Fantelcould not imagine any such thing. It was impossible. Gods did not die. Spiritsdid not die. They could be dispersed and dismissed but they did not die. Onlymortals did that. Mortals died and their ghosts returned to Mother Aldlis,resting deep underground, merging with the Mother and becoming veins ofphantasma ore. Gods and greater spirits were creatures of Anima, immaterial andethereal, when they ceased to be they simply returned to the ether, like raindrops evaporating in the air. Yet the Seraphim had found a way to capture partof their essence in stones, just like the one Rashari had stolen. If Fantel wasto believe the Seraphim had found a way to do that, was it such a stretch toimagine a seraph could leave behind a ghost to be stolen by greedy humans?

“Suchpower would be dangerous in the wrong hands,” Fantel ventured carefully. Shecould not imagine what the ghost of a seraph might actually do. Phantasma wasused as fuel; industry and aviation, weapons of war and conquest, even simplehousehold appliances, all dined on a constant diet of phantasma. Phantasmapowered almost all aspects of human life. But that was phantasma dragged out ofmines all over the human territories, from Bhuvam to the tropical MessonyaIsles far, far to the south. A single stone could not compete with that,surely?

“It’sdangerous in anyone’s hands,” Rashari replied shortly. “Which is why I’ve nointention of keeping the damn thing long.” He shook his head. “I thought when Imade this deal that Hannick Anoush would lock his family heirloom up in thepalace vault and be done with it. The Heart of Anoush would go on quietlygathering dust like all good relics should. But someone else out there knowsabout deific power. The stone won’t be safe unless it’s well out of humanreach.”

“Deificpower?”

Rasharishrugged. “Dead mortals make phantasma; dead gods make deific power. It’s justa name.”

“Youknow much about this power.” She probed without quite asking a question. Shewasn’t sure if her ignorance was due to the fact that she generally tried hardto maintain a certain ignorance of human doings, or if his knowledge wasunusual. She suspected the latter, which raised any number of questions she wasby no means sure he would answer.

“That’sa long story.” Rashari began uncomfortably. She had been sitting so she couldwatch him as they spoke and now she saw him swallow, watched as his throatworked. A tea-kettle wail ripped through the cabin. Fantel rocked back againsther seat. A series of red warning lights ignited across the control console.Rashari swore, eyes widening, and wrenched his left arm back. Vedeca rocketedupward, gaining altitude at incredible speed.

Fantelwas slammed back against her seat, the pressure squeezing the air in her lungsinto a painful, compacted lump. The cabin shook, and Vedeca seemed to wobble inmid-ascent. The console shrieked again. Rashari slammed his right hand down onthe console, fingers moving lightning fast over knobs and dials. He wrenchedhis left arm again and Vedeca went into a barrel roll. Fantel’s claws shotfree, ripping into the upholstered chair arms as the sky beyond the wide windowspun around and around. She caught a flash of starry night, the grey-blackveldt of ragged hills and dales, even the toad-stool cluster of a distant townfar below them as the ship pin-wheeled through the air.

“Thisis just not my bloody day,” Rashari spat out, breaking off his stream ofprofanity long enough to straighten out Vedeca’s flight before flipping themupside down in a breakneck loop. Fantel clung to the armrests for dear life. Atthe apex of the loop, just as she wondered if she was going to tumble out ofher seat and end up ricocheting off the cabin walls, she saw a streak of lightscour through the night sky and explode in a shower of yellow-green sparks inalmost the exact same spot Vedeca had been before Rashari threw them into theloop. Vedeca banked sharply to the left, tilting so that one wing was pointingstraight up and Fantel was thrown sharply to the side. Through the window shecould see a second airship, a dark hulking shadow in the night, only visible inthe dying sparks of the missile salvo.

“TheDha-hali?” She demanded astounded.

“Mostlikely,” Rashari nodded vigorously wrenching the ship side to side as theyraced through the air toward the ridge of jagged mountains denoting the borderbetween Tabris and Aramant. The cabin shuddered again and Fantel did not wantto think about how close that last missile had come to hitting them. Sheclenched her teeth, claws embedded in the armrests, and watched Rashari wrestlewith Vedeca’s controls as he tried to stay out of the other vessel’s targetingsites.

“Weapons?”Fantel raked her gaze over the console in front of her, wondering which of thedozens and dozens of incomprehensible buttons, dials, gauges and levers relatedto Vedeca’s armaments.

“None,”Rashari shot back and executed another sickening roll that took them up andover the pursuing craft. “Vee has no cannon. She isn’t that sort of girl.” Hedipped the ship low and Fantel clutched tight to the chair arms again as theyzipped under the belly of the larger vessel. “We’re going to outrun them, notoutgun them.” They flew out from under the other ship and burst forward. Theirpursuer lacked Vedeca’s manoeuvrability and speed. Rashari was able to pushthem forward, slicing over the tops of the mountains and dropping low into thepall of shadow the mountains left in their wake.

“Mostof Aramant is a no fly zone. The miasma from the Steppes messes with theengines,” Rashari told her. “I’m going to take us on a little detour, skirt theno fly zone. Hopefully that will dissuade our friends from further pursuit.”

“Andif it doesn’t?” Fantel demanded through gritted teeth as they bobbed and weavedabove a landscape of boulders and rolling dales. The night sky popped with thelight of strafing fire from the pursuing craft.

“Thenwe hit the miasma and fall out of the sky in a ball of flames.” Rashari saidwith far too much cheer given the circumstances. Fantel whipped her head aroundto stare at him. He ignored her, tilting his head back and bellowing at the topof his lungs.

“SMITH.”

Amoment later the automaton buzzed into the cabin from the back of the ship. Itsviolet eyebeam swept over the cabin before resting on the back of Rashari’shead with every sign of attentiveness. “Bloop.”

“Wehave company.” Rashari addressed the automaton, craning his neck to grin atSmith, showing far too many teeth in the process, “Our tattooed friends callingat an inopportune hour. Show Madame Chimera to the Baby Bird, would you?”

“Bl-blop.”Smith bobbed in the air, rotating fractionally on its floating axis so that thelight from its eyebeam fell upon Fantel.. There was something almost alive inthe steadiness of its ‘gaze.’

“Whatis going on?” Fantel looked from Rashari to the automaton. Something hit theship, throwing her and Rashari forward against the console and causing Smith tocrash toward the floor of the cabin. Alarums rang in the air. Vedeca waswailing in pain. Rashari snarled, a feral light igniting in his eyes as hestraightened up and started pressing buttons in sequence. His nose wasbleeding, a fast running trail of blood spilled from his right nostril downover his bared teeth before dripping off his chin. Fantel hadn’t seen him hithis head or take any injury. Vedeca started losing speed, her flight uneven.

“We’regoing down. That hit was to the thrusters. We can’t outrun them now, and soonwe’re going to hit Aramant air patrols. You need to bail out now while I canstill give you cover.” Rashari risked turning to face her directly. “MadameChimera, I swear to you: I would never have asked you along if I’d known wewere going to be ambushed. Please, go with Smith. You’ll be safe.”

Anotherbarrage of strafing fire lit up the night sky. Vedeca shuddered as her hull waspelted with tiny holes. Rashari sucked in a harsh breath of air, soundingpained, and his teeth bit down on his bottom lip.

Fantelhesitated. Smith waited in the empty air between their seats, the light fromits eyebeam falling on them both. “What about you?”

Rasharishrugged, hunched over the console. “Vedeca and I, we fly or we die together.”He said shooting her a harried look. “Please go. I can keep our friendsdistracted long enough to cover your escape but only if you go now.”