Page 25 of Only Hard Problems

I needed to get to Asterin.

Silas had to have some kind of transport waiting nearby to take him to safety. If he managed to drag Asterin onto a ship, there would be no helping her. The Techwave abducting an Erzton lady from a Regal celebration would create a galactic incident that would further strain relations between the Erzton and the Imperium. No doubt Callus Holloway would blame me for the whole fiasco, and he might even make good on his threats to end me once and for all. I needed to save Asterin to save myself, along with my family.

Besides, Asterin might be a thief and a spy, but she didn’t deserve to die at the Techwave’s hands—or worse, end up in one of their labs as a gruesome experiment.

I picked up my pace, sprinting straight toward the woods and watching for any telltale flares of cannon or blaster fire. If I were Silas, I would have stationed at least a few Black Scarabs in the woods to cover my escape, but no bright pulses of energy erupted, and I made it to the edge of the trees without encountering any resistance.

As much as I longed to charge forward, I forced myself to slow down, soften my steps, and ease into the woods. Coniferous trees with gray trunks and silvery needles crowded together, casting out long, spindly, arrow-shaped shadows, while wild honeysuckle vines snaked along the forest floor like sticky green vipers with pink heads. The scent of the evergreens mixed with that of the flowers, creating a sharp yet sweet perfume.

Up on the lawn, shouts and yells drifted through the air, but the thick screen of trees and branches muffled most of the sounds and encased the woods in an eerie bubble of relative quiet. Overhead, the blue moons and stars were shining brightly and gilding everything in a gloomy gray sheen.

Still clutching my stormsword, I tiptoed from one tree to the next, moving deeper and deeper into the woods. In addition to reviewing the blueprints for Castle Rojillo, I’d also studied maps of the surrounding area. A small clearing was nestled in the center of the woods that was just large enough for a blitzer to safely land. That’s where I would go if I were trying to escape as quickly as possible, so I veered in that direction.

I stopped every so often to look and listen, but no glowing green eyes appeared, and no telltale clanks rang out. Silas must have sent most of the Black Scarabs to the lawn to cause as much destruction as possible and help cover his escape.

Since the woods weren’t teeming with Scarabs, I quickened my pace. Less than two minutes later, the trees and bushes thinned out, and the clearing came into view. A small blitzer was squatting in the open space, its hull painted the same grays and greens of the surrounding woods to help it better blend in with the landscape.

Silas was standing close to the bottom of the open cargo-bay ramp, hitting buttons on his tablet. The hand cannon he had shot me with earlier was dangling from a thick strap that was slung across his chest. A few feet away, Asterin was trying to peel a Black Scarab’s fingers off her neck. The mechanized troop gave her a violent shake. Asterin froze, but her anger and frustration rippled across the clearing and tickled my telempathy.

A sharp, warning beep sounded. Silas stuffed his tablet into his pocket, then spun around, grabbed his cannon, and snapped it up. “You tripped my perimeter alarm,” he called out. “Show yourself—or I start shooting.”

Still clutching my stormsword, I slowly eased into the clearing, my mind whirring with plans and options, considering all the players in this deadly game.

Silas blinked a couple of times, as if I was a ghost who’d come back to haunt him. “How are you still alive?” he snarled. “I shot you point-blank in the chest!”

“Just lucky, I guess.” I jerked my chin at the cannon in his hands. “Or perhaps your little toy doesn’t work as well as you think it does.”

His lips pinched together in frustration, and agreement flickered in his eyes before he was able to smooth out his expression. So therewasa problem with the new Techwave weapon, just as Holloway’s spies had theorized. That must be why Silas had only electrocuted the House Rojillo guards instead of killing them outright. His cannon hadn’t had enough juice to finish the job. Good to know, although the information wouldn’t help me right now.

“That’s far enough, Arrow,” Silas warned. “Unless you want my Scarab to snap her ladyship’s pretty neck.”

The Black Scarab slid its fingers around to the back of Asterin’s neck, so that she was standing in front of it, a clear human shield. Asterin grimaced at being maneuvered around like a doll, but she didn’t make a sound of protest. Instead, her sharp, searching gaze flicked from me to Silas to the surrounding trees, and I could almost see the mental calculations going on in her eyes as she thought up and discarded plans to free herself from the Scarab’s tight grip.

I slid forward another step. If I could just get a little closer, I could kill the Black Scarab . . .

“Stop!” Silas snarled. “Now!”

“Okay, okay, I’m stopping,” I called out, raising my arms in mock surrender.

Silas waggled his cannon at me. “Drop your sword on the ground. Your blaster too.”

I gently tossed my stormsword out in front of me, using a bit of telekinesis to make it land in exactly the position I wanted. Then I carefully plucked the blaster off my belt and held it up where everyone could see it.

“Actually, this isn’t my blaster. It’s hers.” I jerked my chin at Asterin. “What a lovely little weapon to carry around in your pocket, my lady. Nice and compact and deadly.”

“I don’t care whose weapon it is,” Silas snarled. “Toss it down. Slowly.”

I stared at Asterin, making sure her attention was fixed on me. Then I winked at her and tossed the blaster out in front of me. Once again, I used a bit of telekinesis to make it land exactly where I wanted.

Be ready, I whispered in my mind.

Silas didn’t react, indicating that he hadn’t heard my telepathic thought, but Asterin’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t send a thought back to me, but she blinked twice in rapid succession almost as if she was sayingokay. She didn’t know exactly what I had in mind, but she was ready to move.

I looked past Asterin, reached out with my psion power, and scanned the blitzer, but no loud thoughts, strong emotions, or other presences tickled my telepathy. No one else was on board the ship. No more Scarabs either. If Silas had had more mechanized troops, they would have been down here on the ground with him, already tearing me to pieces.

“What kind of tech did you steal from Lord Jorge?” I asked. “Surely the Techwave doesn’t need the latest, greatest air purifier. Unless the stench of all those polymetal troops is finally going to General Ocnus’s head.”

Silas chuckled. “Ocnus does love his toy soldiers, but no, Lord Jorge had something far more interesting and useful. Too bad you won’t live long enough to figure out what it is.”

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