Chapter 4

None of this is fair. Lemuel put himself at risk one too many times for us. He deserved better than how we left him. He deserves a proper burial, a decent sendoff for a man who made some difficult choices in order to help get us closer to a decisive victory against the Sky Tribe.

He saw the soldiers coming for us, though, and he still jumped in to assist us. They probably expected him to stand back as soon as he observed the buggies heading out to catch us. Boy, did he surprise them.

It cost him everything.

However, I’m not sure we would’ve made it out of there alive without him.

Once we’re certain no one followed us, we take the long road up to Sapphire City. It takes us a couple of days of driving in uncomfortable silence, but we manage to get there without incident. On the third day, we call a meeting with the entire leadership of the Fire Tribe.

Gathered in the grand hall of Selina Sharuk’s former mansion, I’m pleased to see so many of our tribal chiefs still standing and eager to push forward with this mission. It’s a reminder that my brother and I are not alone, despite our decision to stay away from Sapphire City in order to keep the others safe and the ceasefire standing.

I only hope the Sky Tribe doesn’t get word of our presence here.

Izzo and Binzen Mal lead the conversation while Amber, Cynthia, and Alicia stay by Jewel’s side. Helios and Kharo pour over the maps of the continent, adding pins to relevant locations, and Kai and Maur keep their eyes on Fadai and me as we present the situation.

Above us, the chandeliers cast a golden light across the room—it seems incongruous considering our purpose and mission. The grand hall was always reserved for state dinners and diplomatic luncheons in the past, in the days before the plague. The military wasn’t even allowed to set foot in there without an invitation from the king.

Yet here we are, our boots besmirching the fine black and gold marble.

“Pearl City,” I say. “Lemuel insisted.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Izzo replies, occasionally glancing down at the map that Helios laid out, a blueprint of the city. Just as we all know, there isn’t enough room anywhere for a hangar. “It’s a university city. It has schools and gymnasiums, student residences aplenty, and research centers,” he adds. “It has dozens of libraries, each with a specific specialization, but no military buildings whatsoever.”

“Even the shuttle runways were built a few miles north of the city,” Binzen says, shaking his head slowly. “And we sent drones out on recon as soon as your message came through on the telegraph lines.”

We made sure to notify Sapphire City of the intel we learned as soon as we reached one of the telegraph transmission posts Jewel helped us build a couple of years back. Just in case we got caught up somewhere along the way, we had to get the information back to the Fire Tribe.

“And there’s nothing,” Izzo says. “Nothing at all. The runways are derelict. There’s not a space shuttle in sight. Pearl City itself isn’t what it used to be, either. Gone are the days of the scholars and lecturers. At first glance, most of the university buildings seemed abandoned.”

“Truth be told, we couldn’t do a full scan of the city,” Binzen replies. “The Sky Tribe has drones of their own surveying the area on a regular basis, so we had to get ours out of their airspace before they could detect them.”

“You did right,” I say. “The last thing we want is Pearl City picking up on our prying eyes.”

Amber frowns as she leans in to speak to Jewel. “Are you okay, babe? You look pale.”

“I’m just tired,” Jewel replies with a heavy sigh.

There’s more to it than that, but she was never the sharing kind in terms of emotions. Jewel handles herself like a true soldier, and while I would like to see more of her feminine side, we need her hard character now more than ever.

“It’s been a long week; what can I say?” she chuckles nervously. Her friends know not to pester her when she gets like this.

Alicia is quick to shift the conversation back to the main focus. “All right, so we need to make sure Lemuel’s intel is correct, right?” she asks, glancing around the table.

“Yes,” Helios replies with a slight nod, love glimmering in his eyes when he looks at her.

Inwardly, I admit I’m jealous. I want what they have, and I’m constantly aware that I may never get it. There may not be a happy ending available for Fadai, Jewel, and me. It only makes me more determined to claim her before this war is over, before we die—before we sacrifice ourselves so that the others sitting at this table can look forward to a better future.

“We have to find a way to get better eyes on Pearl City,” Helios says. “I’m not sure drones will be effective, especially if the Sky Tribe suspects us coming.”

“They won’t be able to move that starship anytime soon either,” Kharo says. “The cat’s out of the bag. We’ll spot them if they try it.”

“We have to consider every angle here,” Kai says, scratching his short and stubbly beard. “They ambushed you outside Ruby City because they knew Lemuel was coming to meet you, right?”

“That is our assumption, yes,” I reply. “The drones we saw were flying in a different direction. We assume they were meant as a diversion.”

“So I’m imagining two different scenarios here,” Kai says. “One, Ruby City knew you were coming, and they used the drones as a diversion while their ground troops approached you. Two, Ruby City didn’t know you were coming. Their drones didn’t spot you, which is why they flew in a different direction, and it’s likely the ground troops in the barracks outside the city spotted you instead, and that’s who you dealt with. Lemuel didn’t survive for long enough to tell you, did he?”

“No, and I’m not sure it matters at this point,” Fadai says, sighing deeply.

“Right. They have radio communications. The ground troops would’ve informed their superiors in Ruby City that they were coming for you. But here’s the thing… Scenario number one only applies if they knew Lemuel was giving you inside information. It means the entire Sky Tribe is aware that we’re looking at Pearl City now,” Izzo surmises, eyes still on the map. “It means they didn’t bother to kill Lemuel right away because they wanted to draw you out, which they did. They caught you at the Three Fingers. You got away, which means they also know you’ll have your sights set on Pearl City. They’ve kept that location a well-guarded secret up to this point, but now they have to be really careful. We’ve already blown up too many of their starships for them to try to move one anytime soon.”

I nod slowly. “Right. Scenario two is purely a matter of chance. Their drones didn’t spot us, but their outside barracks did, which means Lemuel coming out to meet us at the same time their ground troops were gunning for us was a coincidence. This, in turn, means the Sky Tribe was only alerted to our presence near Ruby City. They don’t know we have intel about Pearl City, right?”

“Indeed,” Kai shoots back with a grin.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” his brother warns him.

“I’m not, Maur. But it would explain the entire incident. Scenario one has too many loose ends,” Kai insists. “If the Sky Tribe was aware that Lemuel was driving out to meet with the Kreek brothers, they would’ve caught him and killed him, letting the ground troops handle the rest of the situation. I assume they were trying to take Jewel alive.”

Jewel curses under her breath. “Those fuckers still haven’t learned their lesson, it seems. They’re never getting a human woman. They’ve been trying to capture one for years, and every attempt blew up in their faces. How are they not tired of losing?”

“They’re desperate, thoroughly indoctrinated, and persistent,” Helios replies with a casual shrug.

“You were lucky,” Cynthia tells Jewel, “one too many times, might I add. And that luck may run out soon.”

“What do you want me to do? Sit back and let the boys handle it?” Jewel scoffs, crossing her arms.

I can’t help but smile as she pouts like an angry child, furious that the adults are trying to keep her on the sidelines. I guess Fadai and I agree on one thing—we’d die for this woman, yet we can’t stop her from fighting this war with us. There’s no safe place for her, anyway. There’s no truly safe place for her friends, either. It’s all an illusion until we win and restore peace on Sunna. That’s the hard truth, whether anybody is ready to admit it or not.

“I’ll be more careful; it’s all I can do,” Jewel adds.

“You’ve got us, as well,” I gently remind her. “We made a deal, didn’t we?”

“Okay. What’s the plan, then?” Alicia asks, looking at the men seated around the table. “How do you intend to tackle this particular beast?”

“We need eyes inside first,” I say. “The boys are right. Drones are risky. If they see Fire Tribe elements snooping around, they’ll know we know.”

“Infiltration, then,” Fadai adds.

“Deep cover,” Jewel agrees. “That’s going to be a doozy.”

Murmurs flow across the table as ideas are formed and bounced back and forth. With our collective experience, we should be able to come up with a feasible solution to this problem. We know for a fact that the Sky Tribe intends to launch one of their starships soon, so time is of the essence.

We can’t afford any slip-ups at this point. It’s bad enough we had that Three Fingers skirmish on our hands, and the uncertainty regarding Lemuel’s position within his chain of command only serves to amplify an already swelling anxiety.

“And if we confirm there is, indeed, a hangar inside Pearl City, what then?” Binzen asks. “It’s not like we can drop bombs on the place.”

“The Opal City weapons only work surface to air, so they’re out of the question, too,” Jewel says.

“We’ll have to blow it up from the inside,” Fadai replies. “The safest bet is a two-stage operation. The first stage is infiltration and recon. We need to get close enough to confirm the location of the hangar and to make sure a starship is in there. The second stage has a team going in to place the explosives and get rid of the thing before they launch it. We can wear Sky Tribe colors; that won’t be an issue, but we don’t yet know what level of security we’ll be dealing with in Pearl City.”

“Hence the first stage,” Kai says, nodding slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense. We’ll need to plan accordingly.”

I offer a cool grin. “The Kreek clan will take the lead.”

“Well, yes, but we can’t let you go in there unsupported,” Binzen says. “You’ll need all of us for this, even if it requires mere logistics and supplies. We’ll have to transport the explosives as close to Pearl City as possible and smuggle them in. We’ll need help from the locals if only to make sure the Sky Tribe military won’t figure you out.”

I’m not sure we can trust anyone in Pearl City, though. After what happened with Lemuel, I’m hesitant to enlist the services of another informant—I’m sure there’s at least one Sunnaite there who would be glad to help, but I don’t think I can bear to lose another man or have another innocent’s death on my conscience. I’m already living with the ghosts of so many.

We don’t have any other choice, however.

We’ve come too far. We are too close to a conclusion to stumble at the last minute. As much as I hate what’s coming, I’ll have to soldier through it the way I did everything else. I’ve been lucky to have Fadai and Jewel by my side. Looking at them now, I’m starting to think our previous agreement needs to be revisited.

She already gave in to my brother’s affections. With so much on the line, with our very lives in the balance, maybe it doesn’t matter anymore.

I feel so close to death that Jewel’s love might be the very fuel I need to see this through to the end. The look in her warm gray eyes tells me she’s feeling the same way. I see the longing, the doubt, and the hesitation. I’ve felt the desire emanating from her skin so many times. We need to do something in every possible sense of the word.

My instinct tells me we’ve already run out of time. We’re dancing on the edge of a blade, and the only way to survive is to do whatever it takes: Infiltrating Pearl City, co-opting informants, sabotaging another hangar, and claiming as many lives as fate demands if it leads us to victory.

It’s been too many years.

It has to end.