The Outskirts: The Sky Raiders (Jace x OC) BOOK 1

The Sky Raiders: 33

Unlike the rest of the room, the revelation came as no shock. At least I knew for sure.
Cole sprang to his feet. "Mira? What do you want with Mira." I grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. Jace was staring at me in shock and understanding. "You knew?" I nodded. He ran a hand through his hair making it spike up in different directions, which I loved, despite the situation.
Picket looked at Cole. "I want nothing. I'm under orders. None of you know this slave. Not really. She is here under false pretenses. The High King will have his property returned."
In the distance, we could hear the drumming of hooves.
"Please believe me when I say this business will be much more pleasant before Commander Rainer gets here." Picket said.
I risked a glance at Mira. Her eyes were wide with terror.
"The girl has some shaping skills," Adam said. "That makes her at least five times a talentless slave."
"Understood." Picket said.
"And you'll give us ten times her value?"
"I expect that could be arranged."
They were going to sell Mira! I quickly stood up and crept towards the back door. No one has noticed me leaving, except Jace. He was looking at me with wide eyes. I held a finger to my lips, and crept out the door.
I hurried down the hall in a sprint. I ran down to the caves and to my room and grabbed my sword and strapped it to my waist, then I swung by the porch and grabbed Cole's bow from where he stashed it. We would need it more than him.
I sprinted back to the common room, but I could here hooves, and they were loud. They weren't at the door, but they would be in a couple minutes.
I loaded an arrow up and stepped into the room.
"Not so fast." I pointed the arrow at Picket.
The legionaries grabbed there swords.
"What's this about?"
Adam raised his hands. "Not my doing. This girl is a slave, not an owner. She'll wish she was never born after we disarm her. Mira is yours. If she runs, we'll help you give a chase. You've got to many comrades out there. I don't want the deal spoiled."
"Yeah, about that," I said. "Your not going to get the chance." I gave him a less than friendly gesture and yelled, "Now Mira! Time to go!"
For a moment, all was still. All the attention was undoubtedly on me. Everyone was staring in shock.
The spell was broken when Mira lunged from her seat. Picket grabbed his sword and rushed forward. Joe sprang from his chair and tackled Picket. Hard. Cole sprang up too.
One of the legionaries ran at me, trying to stop us from escaping. I swiveled and prepared to let the arrow fly.
But before I could let it fly, a golden lash snapped forward, coiling around a legionaries boots and jerked him into the air. The lash slung the legionnaire brutally into the wall. The legionnaire let out a loud grunt and crumpled to the floor.
Jace held the other end of the rope. I stared at him in awe and shock.
He smirked. "Told you it gets bigger."
I rolled my eyes and turned to Cole who was with Mira and Twitch. "Cole! Catch!" I tossed him the bow and he caught it, and I started running, Cole, Twitch and Jace on my heals.
"Don't spoil this, men!" Adam bellowed. "After them!" Raiders sprang up and started sprinting after us.
Jace caught up with me while we were running.
"Your insane you know."
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling. "That's why you hangout with me right?"
Jace just laughed and we kept running.
The on coming raiders collided with one another. Some stumbled and fell. Others were jostling one another and grimacing and elbowing, making slow progress. Suddenly it clicked. The Sky Raiders hadn't become sloppy. They wanted us to get away. They were helping us.
We had reached the stairs, and I bounded down recklessly, Jace next to me, and Cole a few stepped behind. We followed the underground route to the landing bay.
While making our way towards the hanger, I heard footfalls and glanced back. It was Mira.
"Why are you behind us?" I said, slowing down so she could catch up.
"Had to stop by our room." She said breathlessly. "We need an operators stone to fly a lifeboat. I noticed she had her sword as well.
We sprinted down the hallway together, and caught up with the boys pretty quickly. I had done track back on Earth, so running was pretty easy.
We burst through entrance to the landing bay to find all the Cliffside exits closed. I swore under my breath. The hanger was totally sealed.
Jace was yelling at a guy named Martin.
"Adam will have your head if you don't open it now!" Jace yelled to Martin while we were running towards the gate. "It's Situation Spoiled! He said it twice!"
"And if your lying?" Martin said with his arms crossed.
"Then we'll be the ones in hot water!" Jace shouted.
"He's not lying." Twitch said. Twitch was a nice guy, he shared a room with Cole and Jace, and he was friends with Mira. But he was the kind of guy that was worried about anything and everything, so I was surprised he had come with us. He also hasn't told anyone about his special item. Plenty of people have tried to get him to spill, but he said he had never had to use it, so he wouldn't tell anyone.
"I have a stone!" Mira called, using her sword to leap aboard the Vulture. Me and Cole followed her with our own swords. Jace used his rope, and Twitch ran to the ramp.
I didn't hear footsteps until Picket burst into the landing bay, sword in hand. Cole tried to shoot him with the bow, but missed. Cole shot another arrow, and it hit his thigh, and Picket crumpled to the ground groaning. So far, all the other legionaries were still inside.
We climbed into a lifeboat called the Fair-Weather Friend. Turning a wheel set against the wall, Martin started opening one of the smaller Cliffside entrances, not much bigger than a garage door. Late afternoon daylight streamed into the hanger. Mira was in the middle, Jace at the tiller, with a dark, smooth stone hanging on a cord around his neck. Twitch hopped in too.
"You sure, Twitch?" Jace asked.
"I'm with you." He said.
"Hurry!" Picket cried. "They're aboard the Vulture!"
Jace grabbed the tiller and tugged one of the levers. The lifeboat lurched forward, almost knocking Cole out. The boat tilted so much, I had to cling to the edges so I wouldn't fall out. After a steep climb, Jace leveled out the lifeboat, and flew out the cliffside entrance.
"Do you know how to fly this thing?" I asked Jace as the lifeboat tilted again.
"Sure I do." But it wasn't very convincing when the lifeboat kept tilting.
"Stop them!" Picket cried, still on the ground.
I ducked as arrows pierced the lifeboat, some striking the stern near Jace.
"You out of arrows?" Jace asked Cole, the lifeboat wobbled as Jace tried to duck and steer at the same time. Cole sat up and shot some arrows at the legionaries. He missed every time.
"Hold your fire!" Picket yelled. "You might hit the girl! Block there escape!"
To my horror, I saw Martin slumped against the floor, three arrows sticking out of his chest.
"Why aren't we going up?" Cole asked Jace.
Jace gave an annoyed look. "If we go up to fast, the cavalry will use us as target practice. We'll go higher once we're farther from the Brink."
"Of course today has to be clear." Twitch grumbled.
I looked around. The sun was dropping toward the dark mass of the Western Cloudwall. The only normal clouds were high and wispy. The few castles were far and distant.
"How long until they come after us?" Mira asked.
"They'll demand a skycraft." Jace said. "Adam is in no position to deny them. He'll stall a little, but not for long. Situation Spoiled doesn't call for direct resistance."
"They'll also track us from the cliff top." Twitch added. "Even at top speed, a lifeboat can't outpace a horse."
"Fantastic." I muttered under my breath.
"Maybe not at full gallop," Jace said. "But a horse can't gallop forever."
"The legion has good horses," Twitch said.
"They can probably gallop long enough to keep us from landing on the Brink before they have the skycraft after us. Even if we get ahead of them, on a day like today they'll see where we return to the cliff and track us down."
"If we're doomed, why'd you come?" Jace snapped in frustration.
Twitch gave a little shrug. "I'm done with Skyport. We risk our lives on every mission. This seemed dangerous, but I'll take one big risk over all the missions I have left. If we can stay free until nightfall, we might slip away into the
darkness."
The lifeboat was climbing again. Skyport shrank behind them, the horses and the legionnaires becoming an army of ants. With the fresh breeze in his face and the warm sun about to set, I could almost forget we were still in danger.
"What are our assets?" Jace asked. "I have my rope. Mira, Kendal, and Cole have their Jumping Swords. Where'd you score the bow, Cole?"
"On my last mission." Cole said. "I stashed it away in case I needed it."
Jace whistled. "That could have gotten you in deep trouble. I won't complain, though. How long until it runs out of arrows?"
"Supposedly, never." Cole said.
"That'll be useful if they get close," Jace said,
"You have rotten aim, but you can make up for it with volume. By the way, when a guy is coming for you, don't shoot at his legs. If it's worth shooting him, it's worth shooting him dead. Aim
for the middle of his chest. Trying to wing an enemy will get you killed."
"I didn't want to kill the guy just for doing his job," Cole said, obviously embarrassed.
"His job was to kill you," Jace said. "They obviously want Mira alive, but they'd take out the rest of us without losing any sleep.
"He's right, Cole," I said. "The legion plays for keeps."
"How about you, Twitch?" Jace asked. "What do you have that might help us?"
"Nice try," Twitch said.
"It's not a game anymore," Jace insisted. "Tell us."
"It was never a game," Twitch replied, wringing his fingers. "I kept my special item secret before, and I'll keep it secret now. Knowing what it is won't affect our plans. You'll find out if I have to use it."
"Can it camouflage us?" Jace asked. "Make us invisible? Knock a skycraft out of the air?"
"If I could do something like that, I'd tell you. My secret won't affect our strategy."
"What is our strategy?" Mira asked. "Try to evade them until it gets dark? Hope for a moonless night?"
"The landing bay is opening up," Cole said, eyes on the cliff. "All three of the big entrances."