Page 197 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
The spring air was a balm on his sweaty face as the doors finally gave and opened wide enough for Kase to fit the hover through.
He wiped the sweat away on the collar of his shirt, then jogged back over to the hover, his boots slapping the smooth rock floor. He scrambled up the wing and into the cockpit at last, nodding to the second seat. “Familiarize yourself with the weapons trigger over there and strap in. You’ll be my eyes during patrol today.”
The greenie dropped into his seat with a wince, setting his cane in the space between his seat and the side of the ship. The buckles latched with gentle, almost reverent clacks as he settled himself. Cautious movement—too cautious to be a pilot.
Kase’s cheek stung; he kept absentmindedly chewing on the inside of it to keep him from saying something he’d regret.
With that kind of hesitation, the greenie wouldn’t have made it through training even if he’d not suffered such a horrific injury—but he was here now, in a hover, ready to fly.
Kase had no choice but to train him. The other greenies weren’t much better.
Kase finished a few more pre-flight checks before buckling himself in, and then they were off. The hover jerked forward, creeping along the hangar until the nose reflected sunlight.
“Ready?” Kase asked, settling his goggles into his hair. The familiar weight added a sense of normalcy he craved. “If you see anything that strikes you as even a little odd, speak up. We’re looking for anything suspicious and will investigate as needed.”
“What exactly qualifies as suspicious?”
“You’ll know.” He hoped. “Just trust your gut.”
He pressed his fingers to the dash and sent a thought to the hover.Invisible.
The hover beeped in response.
For a moment, Kase’s heart stopped. He’d expected it, and he’d known exactly what he was doing, but combined with the knowledge of his uncle…
Deep breaths.
Trying to quell the shaking in his hands, he gripped the steering control and refused to let his thoughts run wild. But he was beginning to think maybe the sky wouldn’t provide the relief he needed.
“Head and shoulders back against your seat,” Kase instructed. “Tighten your core.”
“Yes, sir!”
Kase smirked a little. He wasn’t asirfor anyone, but he didn’t correct him. “Then let’s fly.”
After pressing a few other buttons and flipping some switches, he raised the craft straight into the air, his stomach dropping with the sudden movement. He clenched his core and braced himself against the gravitational forces. He almost wished they didn’t have the windshield. The cold air would’ve been nice on his skin. It would’ve distracted him even further from the revelations of the last hour.
But he also would’ve ended up eating at least a dozen insects. He didn’t need a distractionthatbadly.
He slowed the craft, and the forces pressing against him abated. He clicked a few buttons to stabilize the pressure in the cockpit. Any other maneuvers he did in the air, the craft should combat it, a countermeasure that Jaydian hovers lacked.
This one was a test for the greenie. Kase peeked over at him, hoping he hadn’t passed out.
Instead of finding a slumped form or a green face, he found the boy absolutely beaming.
Kase couldn’t help the smile crossing his own face. He knew that joy.
“Wow,” Hixon gasped as they rose at a more stable rate. The city shrunk with each yard they climbed until Kase leveled them out at about a mile or so above the capital. He pushed the craft forward. He’d do loops around the city, fanning outward and then back before doing a few lower-altitude sweeps above the trees and ruined buildings.
The familiar cold swept through his chest. He quickly retrieved the blanket from where he’d stashed it and set it behind his back. Warmth pulsed from where it touched, and he settled back. His theory about the blankets containing whatever made the hover run seemed to be mostly correct. Now that he knew the machine used his own Soul to power itself, so many things made more sense.
The question was, had the Cerls created the blankets because of what happened with his uncle? Or had Ezekiel already known about it?
Anderson still hadn’t awoken even with the blanket’s help. Clearly having an Essence power and then losing it was too much for even Cerl technology to help. That made him feel worse, because it’d been one of his ideas for keeping Hallie alive if she went through with her plan. It’d worked on Niels for now, but his injury hadn’t been because he’d lost some otherworldly power.
A red button flashed at Kase, and he hurriedly directed his thoughts toward his flight. Thinking of the stupid stars-ridiculous mountain man only made Kase jealous, even if he knew Hallie was his. He couldn’t help it.
Kase turned the craft southward, toward Crystalfell. He pointed to a display on the dash and said, “With the standard hovers, you’ll need to keep your eye on the fuel gauge as they tend to eat it up quickly, which is why a fresh refuel beforetakeoff is vital.” He pointed to the specific gauge that would’ve held the electrical input in a standard hover. This one was as blue as the sky, and now Kase knew why. He shook off his unease. “The larger, more advanced models rely more on electricity to power them in addition to what’s needed to activate the hover capacities. Either way, keeping the gauge in the middle of your dash will allow you to maximize your flight and reserve enough fuel and energy in case of a firefight.”
