She Who Sees Through Darkness

Part Thirty

Payaa's talons hit the stone lip of the den sometime past midnight. An exhausted Katrina rolled off her back and radioed the hospital before passing out on the ground.

She woke up five hours later. Dr. Harper caught up to her before the nurses could unravel her IVs.

"Someone deactivated your tracking chips last night. You vanished for hours. Where were you?"

Katrina stretched. "Not sure. I'm new around here, remember? You'd have to ask Payaa; she knows the landmarks."

"I emailed her," Dr. Harper said. "She isn't talking."

Katrina grinned. "Then I'm not, either." She needed to get this bit right. "You chose me as her pilot. You want me to lead this army for you. I need you to trust me, Doc. Me and my methods." They'd find out about Vasilyev's disappearance soon enough. The smart ones would realize he was a spy and figured out she'd killed him. She'd be respected, her methods unquestioned. She'd fit perfectly into her role; the commander of an army built to destroy nations. And when the time came, she'd turn the tables and prove to Indigo the wyverns could be trusted.

"Your methods are barbaric and cruel," Dr. Harper said. "Let Payaa know it's her I trust. To gentle you." She turned and began walking away.

"You're holding something over me," Katrina said. "Something I did. The reason you recruited me for this project. Why?"

"I enjoy watching you suffer." Dr. Harper smiled. "Don't worry. You deserve it."

The bond told her Payaa was okay, if sedated. Some bit of wyvern etiquette she'd picked up told her that as long as two wyverns were in communication range, physical proximity meant very little to them. But whatever Katrina had become, she still thought like a human. The minute they released her, she set off for the den.

Tayamlaa and Quickfingers waited on the lip of the cave, relaxing after another shooting drill after a shooting exercise. Katrina fought the urge to embrace him as she approached. He had to remain in the dark until Indigo was ready to strike. Too many people knowing would quickly blow her cover. Besides, she wanted him to have time to live without the shadow of disaster hanging over him.

He hugged her, though. "I heard you two killed a polar bear. With a knife! Are you crazy?"

"I'm fine," she said, and meant it.

Payaa lay behind the two of them. Both of her eyes were open now, although the puffy slashes down the face would scar. Veick likes it, she thought. Katrina glimpsed what he hadn't liked—his wife's reckless pilot—but Payaa quickly shielded that discussion from her.

"Heard you need a new knife," Kyle said. "One of the security officers makes these in his spare time. Thought it would fit."

He tossed her something. She caught it: a sheathed dagger with a silver bear's head for a pommel. A symbol in the hilt where a maker's mark might go told her a witch had laid a spell in the blade. I'll have to ask what for. It reminded her of the Harris family sword, covered in gemstones and reinforcement spells, the one Shawn hated having to use. Myths and fairy tales were dead things, trapped within the past, their promises too dangerous to be unleashed on the world. But it might just be possible to bring down Dr. Harper and save the wyverns.

"New York's a thousand miles away," she said. "Can you believe it even still exists, Quick? We're in a different world. We're wyvern pilots. We're warriors. We really . . . we really are something else."

You guided me home through darkness when I couldn't see the way, Payaa said. You and I, together, we will see a way to lead our people through it. You are Nighteyes.

A pause fell over the four of them. Then Tayamlaa straightened up. Better go eat, she told Payaa, and dropped away.

"And we better find some furniture for the new recruits," Quickfingers said. "Ready to take inventory?"

"I'm ready for anything," Nighteyes replied.

If you like this story, be sure to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or your other favorite site!