Page 14 of Triplets for the Barbarians

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.”

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