Rook Di Goo by Jenni Sauer

Author:Jenni Sauer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ivory Palace Press
Published: 2020-05-29T19:10:43+00:00

Chapter 18

Seven days after leaving Resna, the Aderyn landed on Philosanthron.

The ship was abuzz with energy. Not just the usual landing energy that came with the difference in the schedule—of dealing with air control and a sophisticated one at that—but there was a shift in everyone’s moods. They were all on edge, as they knew what they’d come to Philosanthron to do was important, but none of them wanted to discuss the gravity of it. So it hung there in the air between them all, unspoken, but a clear, defined presence.

“We’re boarded in five,” Captain Behnam when they’d landed, poking his head into the cockpit.

El jumped up, making a dash for her bunk, slipping into the panel underneath it. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, picturing the cockpit, putting the details into place one by one—her sitting at the boxy comm console, Trapp at the controls, the clicking as she typed and he . . . did whatever it was he did, the smell of musk mixed with whatever those snacks Trapp was always munching on here, salty and sweaty—until she was there in her mind and no longer trapped in some stuffy metal coffin about to be arrested.

It wasn’t a full inspection, thankfully. Even if Gibbs wasn’t acting in any official capacity right then, he did still have some sort of political immunity afforded him. So there would be no inspection of the ship, no reason for El to worry that she’d be found out.

But then footsteps approached and El had to remember how to breathe again. It didn’t mean anything that she didn’t recognize the footsteps. It didn’t mean anything at all.

Maybe one of the soldiers just needed to see the control room. Or maybe one of the crew was wearing a different pair of shoes. Maybe she just didn’t recognize the footsteps when she was locked in a metal box.

Maybe the room wasn’t getting smaller and smaller. Maybe the walls weren’t closing in on her. Maybe her lungs weren’t being squeezed by a vice and maybe her heart wasn’t going to explode in her chest from beating so hard.

Deep breaths, she reminded herself, Ginger’s voice in her head. Picture the cockpit, picture each detail one by one, putting it into its place—sights, sounds, smells, to make it as real and detailed as she could. She’d never been good with her imagination but even just trying helped her breathing to steady, her heart to not feel quite so sure to explode.

“Elis?”

It was Captain Behnam’s voice, followed by the sound of the panel being moved. Light flooded the little space.

“It’s all clear.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s all good?” she asked as she took the Captain’s offered outstretched hand, allowing him to support her as she wiggled out of the space and into the room. He helped her to her feet before releasing her once she was stable.

“All good,” he confirmed. “We’re—uh—meeting in the grubbery in five.”

She nodded, brushing the dust off her clothes and trying not to think about how small the room was with two people in it.

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