“Put down your weapon.” Sir Rowan advanced toward Enoa. Wisps of haze gathered at the tips of his boots. His steps made no sound, like his feet never reached the ground, landing only in his cushions of air. “We don’t want you damaged, My Dear. You’re the only new Anemos Shaper in so very long, but we’ll learn nothing from you if I have to desiccate your lungs to win your key.”

Enoa held her ground. Only the Knight advanced toward her. His two officers maintained their stances, but did not move. She kept her staff pointed at them. They were the nearer threat, and she could blast either of them before they laid a hand on her.

“You can learn a very great deal from me too,” Sir Rowan said. “Old Su didn’t finish your training, did she? I can do that. I learned the same rudiments she did.”

One of the officers took a step toward her. Enoa leveled the staff at his face. He did not take another.

“You need a teacher,” Sir Rowan said. “Who else is there? The Dreamthought Project is almost extinct. Grant, the Perez family, the Montgomerys, the Buckthorns are all dead or retired. No one knows if Sir Merritt or old Ophion still live. The others haven’t set foot on this continent in decades. I’m your best chance. You do want to learn? You want to be a master of the change like the woman who raised you?”

Something slid along the forest floor, an unfamiliar slithering sound. Jaleel had begun to reel in the fallen end of his bow, using the bowstring to pull it back into the ship. Both officers turned toward him and glanced away from Enoa.

She struck.

Enoa slammed her staff into the back of the nearest officer’s helmet.

No ignition. No explosion.

A burst of hot air left the staff and sent the officer stumbling away, flailing to find his footing.

The other officer laughed. He stooped down and took the other half of the broken bow. He tugged on the bowstring, but Jaleel held onto his half.

“Excellent intention,” Sir Rowan said. “You have all the pieces. You’ll be a marvel with my help.” A shrill whistle left his helmet’s trunk. The second officer turned toward Sir Rowan and his master’s piercing call. “We’re needed at the lab. There’s a situation. Show her our work and finish this.”

The officer released the bow-half. He spun and aimed his closed fist toward Enoa.

She reached out to the moisture in the air. She’d botched the staff blast. She felt rage, thinking of the murders at the laboratory, but her anger was diluted by guilt and fear and confusion. With Rinlee and Nalrik she’d understood what she was fighting. Now she had to fight and observe. She wasn’t ready. She needed more training. She…

Her stomach roiled. The nausea hit her before her nose noticed the putrid smell.

When the smell reached her, she almost retched. She smelled rot. The stench was like a whole battlefield of the dead, corpses uncounted. She would have vomited if her stomach weren’t empty. The world spun around her.

The officer stepped toward her, his fist still extended.

This was Shaping. This man had made poison in the air.

Enoa could almost see the intangible force reaching out from the man. Even the heavy moisture of the air felt different.

The influence was spreading. The poison was expanding around her. Enoa stepped away. She reached out, trying to push back. She needed to figure out what he was doing. If she could make condensation, could she pull pure oxygen from the moisture? Could she purify her air supply?

Enoa retreated. She held her breath. She had to find clean air. She had to find safety from the poison. The officer continued to advance. His compatriot walked far around her. Sir Rowan did the same. The Knight spoke again, but in her concentration she missed his words.

They were surrounding her, herding her into position with the toxic gas. And if she didn’t do something to surprise them, they could attack from all sides. She could not fight off three poison attacks.

Wamp!

The poisoning officer screamed and collapsed. A wound appeared on his left knee. It stained the trailing mosses with blood.

Jaleel stood outside the Aesir. He held the bottom half of his bow and the stolen spray-stick he’d attached to it.

Before she could call out to him, both Sir Rowan and his officer flew at Jaleel. They actually flew, cushions of visible, translucent vapor growing beneath them, undulating and propelling them forward.

“Ruby!” Jaleel yelled. “Fire at the three O’Clock target!”

Enoa heard Ruby answer, too far away to make out the words. The Aesir didn’t open fire. The Liberty Corps Shapers descended on Jaleel.

If they hurt him, it would be her fault. He would be like Archie Grant or the researchers at the lab – more pain because people wanted her abilities and her birthright.

Enoa seized the heavy air and forced condensation. She transmuted the moisture into projectiles, so sudden that the forest steamed. Both Shapers stopped their flight in time to face the Bullet Rain.

This attack still wasn’t the great volley that had bested Rinlee, but it was enough to send Sir Rowan flying aside. That burst of Bullet Rain missed him and soared away through the trees.

Her second volley was true. The projectiles burst against the flying officer and threw him to the forest floor.

Enoa ran for the Aesir. Her retreat from the Shapers had moved her further away from the ship than she’d realized.

Sir Rowan flew again. Now he aimed for her. Enoa called on her Bullet Rain, but she had no time to use it.

The Aesir’s tri-cannon came to life, spitting fire and light at Sir Rowan. The first strike missed him, but the trees beside him splintered, their boughs thundering down toward the forest floor. Sir Rowan flew away from the attack, deeper through the trees, the cannon shredding foliage, trying to land a clean hit on the fleeing knight.

“Ruby, stop, you’ll set the forest on fire!” Jaleel yelled. “You’re not gonna get him. Only shoot at him again if he tries to come back.” Enoa ran to meet him, but he rushed past her.

“What are you doing?” Enoa watched him kneel beside the officer he’d shot, still moaning on the ground. He drew a knife from his belt.

“Head for the ship. I’m keeping my looting game strong,” he said. “These ball things lit up when the guy was attacking you. I need to see what they do.” Jaleel sliced through the officer’s pack, removing the set of orbs. He cut through wire and insulation and heavy tubing. Then he pulled the orb pack away from the man.

Enoa turned back to the ship and found the second Officer racing toward her, on foot. She was ready for him. She could feel the poison spreading from him. She could feel the change in the air.

Enoa filled her lungs and ran.

The officer drew an electrified device like the one that had destroyed Jaleel’s bow. He raised the weapon, defending his face and his chest.

Enoa slammed her staff into the weapon and then again into the man’s stomach. Two proper explosions bloomed from her staff, breaking the Officer’s weapon and his armor. He flew back onto the ground in a heap.

Multiple loud pops sounded from his back. Enoa heard a sharp hissing and she backed away from the man. She could feel a new change in the air around the officer.

“Damn!” Jaleel said. “I wanted to collect his too. I think their Shaping lets them mix different gases from those balls.”

Enoa didn’t feel the exhaustion that used to overwhelm her senses, but her fingers tingled, like the aftermath of an electric shock. “I think so too,” she said. “I can feel it.”

He nodded. “Well, I’m ready if…”

A siren called from the Aesir, the proximity warning. They both ran for the ship. Enoa’s senses were sharper since her attack on the Officer and she felt the pounding alarm in her temples. The siren stopped long enough for Ruby to speak.

“IHSA land-skimmer incoming. Beacon active. Would you like me to offer some evasive maneuver suggestions?

“No!” Jaleel ran for the pilot’s seat. “I’ll fly, Enoa. You can shoot at them.”

“You’ve flown the Aesir one time.” Enoa propped her staff at the wall beside the passenger’s seat and sat down. “I’m really not sure you piloting is a good idea.”

“I’ll stay right above the ground,” he said. “But…”

“Would you like to hear about the onboard missiles list?” Ruby asked. “We have one homing missile, two disruptors, and Captain Crockett’s Trick and Track Special. Would you like me to tell you a little more about the missiles?”

“Yes, please!” Jaleel said.

“Maybe we should get permission before using one of Orson’s four missiles?” Enoa watched her copilot screen come to life. She saw nothing but the usual topographical local rendering and the green arrow indicating the Aesir’s presence – no enemies close enough to shoot manually.

“Another time.” Jaleel patted the dashboard and hit the repulsor. Enoa felt the usual strike at her feet as the ship left the ground. “Where is this skimmer?”

“The likely enemy craft is accelerating down the Rio Persistente,” Ruby said. “Would you like me to expand the view on the sensor screens or switch the windshield to sensor mode?”

“Do we want that?” Jaleel sent the Aesir in a slow turn toward the river. “What do we do? Do we go toward the river and stop them from cornering us?”

“I don’t know.” Enoa watched the red enemy dot appear up the river. She took the controls and followed the enemy ship with the tri-cannon. “Ruby, what weapons do they have? What can skimmers do?”

“Sensors indicate that the skimmer is preparing to launch a rocket,” Ruby said. “Would you like me to prepare evasive maneuvers?”

“How good is this rocket?” Enoa asked. “Will it hurt with the shields on? I don’t think we know enough…”

“Target lock!” Ruby yelled.

Jaleel hit the throttle and sent the ship flying out of the trees. He yelled and twisted the control stick. The Aesir swerved and came to a stop over the open water – facing the skimmer! The enemy ship almost on top of them!

Jaleel screamed. Enoa yelled with him, but she found the red dot on her screen and opened fire.

The skimmer never launched its rocket. It exploded in a shower of burning metal.

“Holy shit,” Jaleel said. “Holy shit. We flailed our way through another fight… and I think we won.”

Enoa tried to feel the presence of Sir Rowan or either officer. She felt nothing.

“The Aesir won,” Enoa said. “You’re forgetting the cannon shooting at him on automatic.”

“I’m not forgetting,” he said. “But I’m taking the credit for that. You didn’t hear Ruby trying to pick a target. What’s the deal with that, by the way? Like, why does the Aesir have a super basic voice assistant. There has to be some kind of story there, right?”

“Probably,” Enoa said. “Where are we going now?”

“I don’t know.” He turned the Aesir around in a slow circle. They hovered, just above the water. He eased them downstream, moving slower than the current. “If that skimmer was being tracked, the Liberty Corps will know they’re gone. But if we keep going we’ll get to the lab and mess up Orson’s rescue mission.”

“If we stay too close,” she said. “Sir Rowan will find us again. He’ll find me again.”

“He can sense you and know where you are?” Jaleel asked. “Like in Dragon Ball Z? Can you sense him too and feel if he’s really dangerous?”

“No.” She remembered how he’d swept her fog aside and how she’d felt as his blast had passed over her. “Maybe.”

“I can’t stay on top of your Shaping stuff,” he said. “I just don’t understand how it works.”

“I don’t either.” Enoa groaned. “I don’t know why my first explosion failed. My thinking shouldn’t change that much. I should have more control, but everything has to be just right or it doesn’t work. And I hate that.”

“You can hit people with a stick and make them blow up,” Jaleel said. “I’m sorry you’re having a hard time, but honestly, I’m pretty okay with it being difficult.” He coasted the Aesir along the shore. “That was a joke. Maybe we can find somewhere to hide until Orson is ready for us. Maybe…”

A red dot appeared at the right of the screen, headed toward them. Distantly, Enoa could hear a metallic shriek.

“Oh shit,” Jaleel said. “I know that sound. That’s a Hierarchia fighter.” The ship sped up, down the river. “Let’s get away from whatever beacon that skimmer had. Maybe they won’t notice us.”

A second dot appeared on the screen.

Then a third.

Then a fourth.

“Multiple Saw-wing fighter craft detected!” Ruby yelled. “Full squadron detected. I strongly advise evasive maneuvers.” The entire western side of the screen filled with red dots.

Jaleel hit the throttle and sent them hurtling down the river. “We better let Orson know he’s out of time.”