Page 70 of Abducting Sarah

“Good evening,” I said, ignoring her comment and getting right to business. “Are you Mother Portend?”

“That depends. Are you here to kill her?”

“Unlikely,” I said.

“But not a denial?” She laughed hard. “Come in, boys. Yes, I am Mother Portend.”

We walked into her cabin, and I hoped it was not like Omen’s. I didn’t want to be stuck inside another ship. It was dumb luck that Omen hadn’t decided to escalate the situation—if she had, I would have been screwed. I looked around but had no idea how to spot an illusion. More than that, conduit powers varied widely, so there was no reason to suspect her of such a tactic. But the faded old lady didn’t hesitate to let us into her home, which meant she was not afraid of us.

“How are things all the way up here?” I asked her. “You like staying away from everyone else?”

“Who are you?” she asked, eyeing me cautiously.

“Jacaranda Cozz.”

Her brows raised. “You’re Wishful’s son?”

“You know my mother?” I replied in surprise.

She smirked. “We’ve spoken. And you boys?”

“Kapok and Tiger Orne,” I answered, introducing them both. “Why are you up here in the mountains all alone?”

“I like the quiet,” she said, her reply vague. “What brings you boys here?”

“Sightseeing,” Kapok lied.

She smiled up at him. “Not much to see here. Just a dead old lady on the top of a mountain, so unless you have a very specific fetish, there’s really no reason for you to be here.”

“I’m game, if you are,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, I like this one,” she said, her cackling laughter echoing in the room. “He has spirit.”

“I like him too, that’s why he works for me,” I replied, then directed the conversation back to business. “Tell me why the conduits have lost their minds, Mother Portend.”

“Getting murdered tends to put people in a bad mood,” she said flippantly. “You’ll find out one day.”

“Your mood seems just fine.”

Another smile. “I don’t let much get me down.”

Tiger said, “You were in charge of the conduits, right?”

“Yes, boy. Why do you ask?”

“They were your responsibility, and you’ve let them run wild here on Halla,” he said, an edge of hostility in his voice. “The violence here is your fault, isn’t it?”

Fuck. Why did he have to come out swinging?

She stepped up to him and roughly grabbed his cock over his uniform, making Tiger grunt in pain. “Sothisis why you think you can talk to me like that? Like I’m some sort of helpless old woman you can sass, boy?”

“Please—” Tiger’s voice was hoarse.

“Let him go,” Kapok shouted and lunged for her.

But she held her other hand up and he froze in midair. Her eyes never left Tiger’s though. “I am no one to be trifled with. You come to my home, running off at the mouth like this at me?Me?”

I tried to come up behind her, but she stomped the floor and it opened beneath me. I fell several meters into a narrow pit, crunching into a pile of bones. Some of the bones were stripped of their flesh. Some weren’t.

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