30. Chapter 30

NIARA

“Welcome to the vissy club,” Kyra held out a cup to me. Surreptitiously I sniffed it, it smelled like bromm tea and something stronger.

“It’s morning,” I protested.

“It’s a tradition,” Thalia said, “it’s how we welcome new vissies on the morning of a battle.”

I blanched, “Does this happen often?”

“What that we welcome a new vissy or battles?” Saskia asked with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Actually, both, usually not on the same day though,” Thalia clanked her cup against mine. “Drink up, sister.”

Sister ?

I liked the sound of that. I had always wanted a sister and now I had three. Well more, if we all belonged to the same club , but I hadn’t met the others yet, who had accompanied their husbands on scouting missions with our susserayn .

“I like the sound of that,” I admitted, clanking my cup to the others before drinking it, copying them by emptying it in one swallow, making my esophagus burn.

“By the gods, how much did you put in there, Kyra?” Saskia sputtered.

“I warned you,” Thalia giggled. “My drink is a virgin as my body is obviously not,” she pointed at her swollen baby belly.

For some reason I found her statement hilarious and laughed harder than her little joke deserved, resulting in Kyra and Saskia also laughing harder.

Thalia rolled her eyes. “I’m doubly glad now I didn’t make an exception and let Kyra add spirits to my drink. You three are already drunk.”

“Not quite, but we can change that,” Kyra held up a small bottle which I suspected contained the spirits in question.

“I’m good,” Saskia waved her hand. “I’ll stick to tea, Niara?”

“Me too, please.” I held out my glass while Saskia had already lifted the pitcher with tea.

“I should be the one serving you.” I said a bit sheepish, realizing once again that the women now were my guests too, that I was the Vissy of Oceanus.

“Not today, today we’ll celebrate you,” Kyra said, waving her hand.

“I knew he would eventually come to his senses,” Thalia took both of my hands in hers before she kissed me on both cheeks. “I’m happy we have another sister. ”

“Thank you,” I blushed a little, “for being so nice and including me.”

“Nonsense, us humans we need to stick together,” Saskia hugged me awkwardly from behind, while Kyra nudged me, grinning she lifted her cup once again.

“To new friendships and sisterhood.”

This morning had started with a dreadful good-bye to Myles before he left to join his fleet. Once I joined the other vissies though, in the situation room , my spirits had lifted somewhat. It was good to know that I wasn’t alone in this.

Us vissies were sequestered in one corner, after promising we would not interfere or make a scene , to observe our men fight in space.

My stomach turned nervously and whatever Kyra had added to the bromm tea quickly dissolved in my body, leaving not a trace of tipsiness as I stared at the large monitors giving us a 360 view of space around Oceanus.

Some monitors displayed blinking dots, representing the various fleets assembled around our planet. Kyle, who monitored and commanded the battle from the ground, had explained the various dots to us earlier. The red ones represented the Chrymphten, there were so many of them, I thought I would throw up when I first saw them.

But then Kyle had shown us the orange, yellow and green ones representing Wyltham’s, Claymor’s and Duncayn’s fleet as they moved in position behind and left and right of the Chrymphten .

“How come we can see them but the Chrymphten can’t?” Saskia had asked when Kyle pointed them out, taking the question right out of my mouth.

“The Cosmic Coalition gave our fleets new shields, something the Chrymphten can’t pick up.” Kyra explained, while Kyle nodded.

The other fleets, still spread out on the bottom of Oceanus’s sea, didn’t show on our screens yet.

“They will once they reach a certain water level, for now they’re still invisible to all of us,” Kyle had informed us.

Now, after my small welcome party , Kyra, Saskia, Thalia and I stood hand in hand, staring at the screens, waiting for something to happen just like all the other dragoons in the situation room.

The queasiness in my stomach churned, increased with every minute we waited. Part of me wanted this to be over, while another told me that right now, Myles was still safe at the bottom of the ocean. Once the fighting began there would be no turning back.

“Your brother is arriving,” Kyle approached us, nodding at me.

“Horn is here?” I asked.

He nodded patiently.

I should have went down to the docks, taken a ship and welcomed him, but the idea of leaving the situation room and not knowing what was happening kept me rooted to the spot.

Nathan would be alright on Horn, there were many things that needed to be organized if the floating city stayed anchored here for a while, I told myself .

“I will go see him after the battle is over,” I informed Kyle, fighting against the ice cold hand reaching into my stomach and flipping my intestines over. After the battle is over … there were so many different future scenarios, they made me dizzy and swallow against the rising bile.

I had sworn to myself that I wouldn’t entertain the idea of something happening to Myles, but the possibilities were endless. Out in space, one small hit could implode his entire ship in the blink of an eye.

Oh Myles, please don’t take any risks , I prayed. We had just found each other, would the gods be this merciless and separate us now? I couldn’t believe it, but all this was still new to me and as someone who had never before implored the gods for anything I felt a bit of a hypocrite.

I looked at the faces of the other vissies around me and found the same, tenseness about their features that I was sure was mirrored on mine. Saskia held my right hand and Thalia my left, both were clenched just as tightly as I clenched theirs and I was sure Kyra did on her side, who gave me a small, grim wink.

“There!” Kyle shouted out excitedly.

Instantly the four of us turned our attention back to the screens, where now, one by one, more colorful dots became visible, rising from the depths of the deep. Soon there were so many, this quarter of Oceanus looked like it had been dipped in glitter.

The first ships broke through the surface and by the way the red dots, representing the Chrymphten moved into a formation I realized that they too, were seeing the approaching fleet now .

Counting the dots was futile, not only because they constantly moved, but because there were so many of them.

Leandar had sent three quarters of their fleet for this battle, yet, they seemed to barely outnumber the Chrymphten.

“Is their empire this large?” I asked breathlessly not explaining who I meant with they .

“This is the largest fleet they have organized yet,” Kyle agreed, “which is why this will be a huge blow to them.”

I wished I shared his confidence, or maybe I did, because all the dots were closing in on the Chrymphten now and they clearly outnumbered our enemy, still, Myles’s ship could be just as easily shot down as any of the others.

Anxiously I watched as our fleets broke through the atmosphere where the Chrymphten had already aligned themselves into battle position. Thalia’s hand was ice cold in mine and Saskia’s hot and sweaty. Intermittently we squeezed each other’s fingers as blinking light after blinking light turned into a black nothing. Red, purple, blue, white, all alike. I had no idea which of the blinking dots was Myles’s ship and afraid to ask Kyle.

With my heart stuck in my throat I stared at the screen, willing the orange, yellow and green dots to move, to enter the battle, but they remained hovering just outside the edges. What were they waiting for?

I wanted to scream at Kyle and demand to know why they hadn’t entered the battle yet, but bit my lower lip instead. I had promised I wouldn’t make a scene or interfere , and from the looks of it, Kyle was busy thundering orders into his comm .

Just as Thalia let go of my hand, bending over moaning, the orange, yellow and green dots moved in. I was momentarily too elated to notice Thalia’s discomfort, but a moan from her brought me back.

The ground underneath her was wet, drenched wet. Thalia looked up, “Ups, I think my water broke.”

“You think?” Kyra asked with a nervous giggle.

A new worry pierced me. As the Vissy of Oceanus, it was up to me, to take charge now. I had helped with births before, but that had been on Horn, where everything was familiar to me. Here, I hadn’t even finished touring the entire city yet.

“Alright, let’s get you back to your quarters first,” I decided.

There were no women here besides us four humans, I didn’t have a maid, and I hadn’t paid any attention to any servants who had brought Myles and my food so far.

Saskia and Kyra grabbed Thalia underneath her arms and I the first dragoon unlucky enough to cross my path.

“I need a healer, hot water, towels.” I ordered him, praying they even had a healer here, because Thyres didn’t usually get sick. They had to have someone in case a dragoon chopped off his fingers or something, though, right?

“Zyn, Vissy,” the dragoon nodded and I breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Trusting they would know where to find us, I led the women to the elevator that would take us up to the Vissigroth’s chambers where the guests were housed.

“Talking about timing,” Thalia giggled nervously .

“You’re sure you’re only having one this time?” Saskia checked.

“Positive,” Thalia assured her with a crooked grin before it turned into a grimace of pain. “But we better hurry, because this baby is coming.”

As sophisticated as the elevators were, they weren’t very fast, helpless I stared at Thalia and the two women holding her up, stamping my feet impatiently.

Finally the doors opened and Saskia nearly toppled back, shouting, “Fraysa protect us… damn, these snygging sirens give me the creeps.”

My eyes followed the siren in question as she slithered waited for us to leave the elevator before she entered it. What was she doing here? This floor only housed Myles’ quarters. Sure there were guestrooms, but I was certain she didn’t occupy one of those.

“What did she want?” I asked one of the dragoons guarding the entrance.

“She wanted to enter your suite, Vissy, but since neither you nor the Vissigroth were here, we declined her request.” He answered with a bow.

I didn’t have time to contemplate what she could have possibly wanted, from Myles or me, because Thalia nearly sank to her knees, barely able to keep upright even as she was assisted by Saskia and Kyra.

“Help us in,” I ordered the dragoons.

One swooped the vissy up into his arms and carried her inside, taking her to the chambers that had been reserved for the Vissigroth of the Icelands .

“Where would you like me to put her?” he asked, turning toward the couch.

“The bed,” idiot , I almost added, but kept my tongue in check, while Thalia cried, “Not the bed.”

“Thalia, you have to lay down,” Kyra implored.

“Not the bed. I’ll make a mess on it.” Thalia insisted.

“I’ll have a new bed brought in for you, I promise,” I assured her, nodding for the dragoon to take the vissy to the bedroom, and hoping Myles wouldn’t mind me giving these kinds of orders. Then again, I was a vissy now. His vissy and as such I should be giving exactly these kinds of orders.

When the dragoon had put Thalia on the bed, I pulled him aside. “I ordered a healer and supplies, have them send in as soon as they arrive.”

“Zyn, Vissy.”

“Oh, gods!” Thalia writhed on the bed, pulling her skirts up. “Here he comes.”