Spear of Destiny James Baldwin (free romance novels .TXT) 📖

the Strelitzia, where we found the repairs in full swing. Gar was in his element, fitting rivets to the ship at improbable speed as he barked orders at the workmen assisting him with the engines and hull. The ship was already looking better. In another half day, it’d be ready to fly.

“Ooh, look at this. Both of you finally got some metal in your faces.” Suri set her load down and dusted her hands off, grinning at me as I swaggered over to her. She reached up to finger the earring. “Cute. I like it. A gift from Solai?”

“Not the kind of gift you’re insinuating,” I teased back, pulling her into a hug. “It lets me get through the Shield of Ancestors.”

“Same with mine.” Karalti was still disgruntled, kicking stones and hissing softly under her breath. “Ugh, Hector… I can’t believe you.”

“I didn’t know what was happening, okay? I was drugged out of my mind.” Even now, thinking about the hangover made me groan.

“Hmmph.” Karalti’s mouth sloped to one side. “How’s our new momma?”

“Doing fine. Brooding over her eggs and threatening to kill anyone who goes within ten feet of her.” Suri let one arm rest around my waist, and reached up to push her mop of flaming red hair back from her face. “She lets me bring her food, and that’s it. Anything else—any ONE else—gets the chop.”

“Gar’s bringing her back to Kalla Sahasi?” Karalti asked. “I can’t wait to see the chicks!”

“Christ. Don’t remind me.” Suri rubbed her face. “Yeah, he’s bringing her back. And by her, I mean, us. I know you two need to get back with Rin, but I can’t leave her alone with Gar.”

“No, that’s absolutely fine. You stay with Cutthroat.” I squeezed her around the middle. “Rin’s going to need at least four or five days to sort out these Warsinger schematics. And while she’s doing that, Karalti and I need to help Vash with something. He gave me a quest, something private to do with his family.”

Suri’s expression shifted to one of surprise—and sympathy. “He finally tell you a bit about that, hey? Well, good luck with that. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride over those mountains.”

“Nothing I can’t handle. But… Suri?”

Suri tilted her face. “What?”

“Five days is a long time. I’ll miss you, okay?” Karalti hesitated, then quickly rushed forward and looped her arms around both Suri and I, hugging us together. I opened the embrace to her, letting her get closer. And to my pleased relief, so did Suri.

“I’ll miss you too, Special-K.” Suri pecked her on the forehead. “Take care of my man.”

“Of course! He’s mine too.” Karalti chirped happily, headbutting us gently before stepping back.

I grinned. “Do I get a say in this?”

“Nope,” they both said, in unison.

“Hector! Karalti! You’re back!” Rin’s voice cut through the bustle around us, and I looked over to see her heading for us at a quick walk. “Sorry to interrupt, but I was thinking —if we leave any unnecessary cargo with Gar and Suri, do you think we can transport seven hundred pounds of lambidium to Litvy?”

“Uhhh… okay?” Karalti gave her a puzzled look. “Is that how much you need to build the plate-decoding thingy?”

“It’s more than I need, but we can use the leftovers for the sonic weapons we’ll need to kill that Voidwyrm Empress.” Rin jiggled on the spot in agitation. “I can’t WAIT to get started on the projector! Lord Soma is going to be so excited about these schematics!”

“We might eventually be able to pull all kinds of records from these Chorus Vaults,” I said. “The projector… it doesn’t necessarily only have to be used for these, right?”

“The one that displays the schematics? Yes, actually, I think it does.” Rin slowed her nervous stimming as she thought about it. “This one is specialized, because the records can only be accessed with the Keystones.”

“We’re gonna need all the Keystones to unlock all the blueprints?” Suri asked. “Even if we rebuild the machine that can use them?”

“Yes.” Rin nodded. “The Keystones are bound to the tablets, not the device that reads them. The device just allows them to communicate, for lack of a better term. The information is coded to the Keystones. However, if… I mean, when I re-engineer the console, I can modify the design of the console to make generic projectors that don’t have extra security like this one.”

“Right. I hope we can find Withering Rose’s blueprints somewhere.” Suri sighed, breaking off from the group hug. “My Warsinger was used during the last Caul cycle, right? So maybe her schematics are somewhere more recent than the Vault we just cleared.”

“That’s my hunch.” I nodded. “Don’t worry, babe. We’ll find them when we find them. You ready to go, Rin?”

Rin jumped, then opened her HUD and began to frantically scan something I couldn’t see. “Oh! Ummm, just a minute! I’ve got all the lambidium staged, but I think I’ve forgotten my tools somewhere…”

Chapter 48

The only facility in Myszno large enough to house and rebuild the Warsingers was the Royal College of Engineering in Litvy. Part boarding school, part guildhall, part airfield, it was the biggest airship-building hub in Vlachia.

Count Lorenzo Soma was in the assembly hangar of the College, as usual. While theoretically the ruling lord of Vastil County, Soma left the daily humdrum of leadership to his castellan and spent most of his time engaged in his true passion—airship design and artificing. When found him, he was flat on his back underneath an airship engine hoist, working on a clockwork engine core the size of a VW Buggy.

“Hi, Lorenzo! We’re back!” Rin called out to him from the catwalk, her musical voice carrying easily within the cavernous warehouse. “You won’t believe what we found!”

“Eh?” Soma pushed out from under his labor, tense at the sound of