In the infinite darkness… she plucked

  the strings of the universe…

  The goddess leaned in and whispered,

  “Let it be something born of defiance.”

  And oh my, she was a fool.

  —fragment of a wildling text

  Soldiers throw me at their commander’s feet and the particle band holding my cuffs together zaps my stomach. Pushing myself up, I blow stray hair out of my face. I spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground and look up at the commander with a crooked, toothy grin.

  The commander crosses one leg over the other, looking down her nose at me. “So this is the one that’s been giving us the slip and causing chaos in the process.”

  “Sure am,” I say before either of the soldiers behind me answer.

  “Confessing?” The commander raises an eyebrow. “That’s a first.”

  I laugh. “I’ve got nothing to hide.” I look her up and down, sharp uniform and weapon on her hip dissonant with my worn, sand-covered clothes and empty pockets. “I guess that’s make two of us.”

  “How so?”

  Spitting more blood, I say, “Between the weapon and the outfit, you’re not really hiding that you’re a murderous son of a—”

  One of the soldiers grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me backwards. “Watch your mouth.”

  I press my lips together and form them into a curve. “Would you mind letting go?”

  The commander sighs, resting her chin in her hand. “At least there’s no need to interrogate you properly. Makes things faster. The empress will be pleased.”

  For the first time, my smile falters. “What does the damn empress want with me?”

  It’s the commander’s turn to smirk. “She’s taken quite an interest in you. On account of you being more difficult to dispose of than the typical wildling.”

  My hands clench into fists. I spit the next mouthful of blood in the commander’s face.

  She jumps to her feet and wipes the blood off with a look of disgust.

  I make a show of running my tongue along the edge of my pointed teeth. “I’ll show you a wildling.”

  She backhands me, knocking me to the ground again. “You won’t last long in an acropolis.”

  “That’s assuming I’m going to an acropolis.”

  The commander crouches in front of me, chuckling. “You gave us an impressive chase, but it’s over now.”

  “Xen, we’re ready.”

  At the voice in my ear, I smile. “About that,” I sit up again, “you ever stop and think how it’s a little weird you managed to catch me after… how long of not? Or that I didn’t have any weapons on me?”

  The commander tilts her head to the side as the soldier to my right falls down, dead. The arrow swerves and hits the second solider, gone before the they hit the ground, puncturing the shelter wall on its way out. Eyes darting, the commander reaches for her weapon.

  “Oh, did you think I was here for fun? I’m just the distraction.” I pounce, plant my hands on either side of her torso and drive the particle band into her stomach. She jerks violently a few times, then goes limp.

  I snatch the deactivator from a dead solider—my cuffs dropping to the ground—and the commander’s weapon. A metal rod the length of my hand that expands to a dual-ended spear almost as tall as I am. “Hm. Nice.”

  “Xen,” Jai asks over the coms, “are you up?”

  “Yeah, I’m up.” I wipe the blood from my chin. “How much more time do you guys need? I can still cause some chaos.”

  “I think we’re—Ah!” Muffled blaster fire mixes with cursing and heavy breathing. “Okay, a little chaos would be good.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Then chaos, my dear, you shall have.”

  I burst out of the commander’s tent, attracting the attention of three soldiers. Grinning, I twirl the weapon a few times—metal smooth and light—and run at them. They don’t get over their surprise in time and one is dead before the other two draw their weapons.

  “She’s loose!” the second shouts. I stab his throat and duck out of the path of the third’s spear. Her next attack hits my stolen weapon. I twist, dragging one pointed end across her chest, and take off across the battalion’s camp.

  “Over here assholes!” I shout as—

  “Xen, we’re on our way out.”

  “Oh, now you tell me, after I’ve told the whole damn battalion where I am.”

  “I said a little chaos, not Xen-levels of chaos!”

  Blaster fire on this side of the com forces me to duck behind a shelter, “Next time, specify,” itching for an arrow or a few knives I didn’t mind losing.

  “Should I send Ritz your way?” Jai asks.

  I spot a shelter with guns stamped on the side and smirk. “Nah, I got it. Just get everyone outta here.”

  Plasma blasts leave charred craters in the ground behind me as I dash to the weapon’s storage. I grab the first two grenades I see and run back out. One, I toss at the feet of the soldiers shooting at me. I’m close enough the explosion makes me stumble. The other, I throw as far as I can into the center of the encampment and sprint in the other direction. It goes off as I get to the edge of the camp.

  Breathing’s a sharp ache, probably from the knees to the ribs I took when they grabbed me. The familiar whir of a dragonfly glider pulls my eyes up. My glider hovers above me. Gasping, I grab onto her, the forcefield pulling my legs horizontal.

  Getlas beeps at me.

  “I know, I know. What would I do without you?” I turn us away from the encampment towards the thin forest and, beyond it, the desert. “Jai, did we get what we came here for?”

  Speeding out of the camp towards the forest is a hoverskid tethered to a giant bird-like creature, a few more gliders and their riders close behind. Through the com comes the screeching of a jillabird along with the smile in Jai’s voice. “We did.”

  “Home it is then.”

  +++

  Hels already has a line of people outside their tent when I get back. I take my place at the back.

  Camp is a far cry from the identical, right angles of the shelters in the soldier’s encampment and coming home is like massaging a sore muscle. A mix of sheet metal and mismatched fabric, our shelters look more like rings of crooked teeth. Wires run between the shelters like stray threads. They connect the hoverskid charging docks and ramshackle lights; powered either by shiftgens buried under camp that make energy from the shifting sands, or usama magic.

  Ritz cleans blood off her arrow as she leaves Hels’ shelter. She checks her gloves—embedded with steering controls for her arrow—shakes her head at me as she passes, and mimics wiping her mouth. My thumb comes away stained when I copy the gesture.

  While I wait my turn for with Hels, I watch Jai and the other wranglers try to take the jillabird’s restrains off. Every time they approach, it screeches and throws itself at them and the wildlings retreat to the edges of the corral. The jillabird flaps its wings, but particle bands keep them from doing more than stirring up sand.

  Kio eventually leaps from the fence—usama strength sending them high in the air—and drops down on the creature from above, clinging on long enough to unlock the muzzle around its beak before getting thrown off. Two more wranglers pull Kio away as Jai steps forward.

  “Easy, easy,” Jai coos, inching closer with a hunk of meat. Then, equally as gently, she says something in the wrangler language that to my ears sounds like high-pitched gibberish.

  The jillabird snaps at her, teal feather-like scales rippling.

  Extending her arm as far as she can, Jai offers the meat to the creature. It snaps again and grabs the meat. Jai jerks her arm back and jumps away as the jillabird lifts its head and scarfs down the food. Kio takes the chance to deactivate the cages around the bird’s talons, but in the process the jillabird rounds on them, hissing.

  “Ah fuck—” Kio ducks and runs, the jillabird chasing after them until they jump the fence.

  “Next!”

  I turn away from the show and step into our resident maker’s shelter.

  Hels scans me, the visor in front of their eyes popping up different alerts as it analyzes the damage.

  “Looking good, right?” I ask.

  “Wrong.” Hels spins their chair around and grabs some tools. “Shirt, up.”

  I lift up my shirt.

  Hels holds up a bundle of thin metal pieces that open like a twelve-fingered hand. Without explanation, they jab the needle at the base on the hand into my side.

  “Ow!”

  The hand grabs along my ribs, cold.

  “That’ll make breathing less painful until your ribs heal. You managed to fracture four of them.”

  “Com still okay?”

  Hels grabs my chin and jerks my head to the side, tapping my jawbone, more alerts appearing. “Yup.” Turning my head forwards again, they yank open my mouth with their thumb. “Why are you bleeding so much?”

  Through the hand in my mouth, I say, “I guh hih in tuh facsh a foo chimes when ney gabbed me.”

  “Yeah, I can tell.” They spin around and grab something else. “Open mouth.” I do. They place something at the back of it. “Bite.”

  My mouth explodes with cold. “Gah! What was that?”

  “Something to stop the bleeding.”

  I rub my face, trying to warm it up. “I’ve never had you use that on me before.”

  “It’s new.” Hels pulls my arm out and I look away as they jab a syringe with dark purple liquid into it. “And that’ll help with the bruising. Next!”

  Outside, Jai, Kio and the other wranglers have tethered the jillabird to the center of the corral with an extending particle band around its ankle. They brush themselves off, glancing at the bird as they talk.

  Jai looks over at me, watching them. She waves.

  My stomach does summersaults. I grin and wave back.