Too Close to the Sun (The Sun 1) (39 page)

“Steep enough, especially in the dark.” She glanced up once more to check on the ship’s progress. “Hurry, Nicoli!” The ship’s lights were visible now. It wouldn’t be long before it was directly overhead and she and Nicoli made easy targets.

A quick, painful, tug on her foot and it came free.

“Come on.” He grabbed her arm and started leading her back to the ravine. The moment she put weight on her injured foot, intense pain shot through her ankle and it refused to hold her weight. She stumbled and only Nicoli’s grip on her arm kept her from falling.

Draping her arm around his neck, Nicoli held her by the wrist to keep the arm from slipping and then wrapped his other arm around her waist. In this way, he shouldered most of her weight and they moved with surprising speed toward the escarpment.

Reaching the edge, they stopped. The lights from the warehouse were visible below but their illumination didn’t reach all the way up the escarpment. The top few meters were treacherously hidden in shadow.

Nicoli released Angel's wrist to grab his searchlight which he directed downward. He flipped it on and then almost immediately off. How he saw anything in those few moments, Angel had no idea, but they were out of time.

The drone of the ship’s engines was loud enough that Angel didn’t need to turn around and look for the ship’s lights to know how close it was, but she couldn't help herself. The ship’s landing lights cut a serpentine path across the surface of the field with each sweep of light just a little closer than the last.

Then suddenly, Angel was pulled off balance, over the edge of the cliff. Her scream was cut short as she somehow landed on her feet with Nicoli’s body pressing her into the face of the cliff. A gust of wind buffeted them as the ship roared past them.

Unable to look away, Angel watched the ship descend. The canons on such a shuttle were intended for use on other ships and the crew must have known better than to discharge them in the tight confines of the ravine. That didn't mean the crew wouldn't pull other weapons to use on them as soon as they landed.

The ship continued past them, the heat of its thrusters blasting them like a desert storm. Angel held on, her face buried in Nicoli's shoulder to protect it from flying debris. She could just catch the smell of the soap he'd used that morning and she inhaled deeply, letting the scent soothe her. She found herself thinking she could stay like this forever.

Then the ship descended past them, further down into the ravine and Nicoli eased himself back from her, letting the cooler night air between them.

"Are you okay?" she asked him in a hushed voice. He may have protected her from the flying debris, but he'd had nothing to protect himself.

"No permanent damage," he assured her, his attention on what was happening below.

The ship’s hatch opened, spilling more light into the basin. Two men emerged guiding an anti-gravity pallet bearing items. It was impossible from this distance to tell if they were the same men Angel had observed earlier that evening or even what they were carrying. It didn't matter though since she'd already been inside once.

“You shouldn’t have gone in there without me.” Nicoli’s whisper brushed warmly against her ear. His tone clearly suggested that he did not approve of her actions. “What if they'd caught you?”

“They didn't, ok? And you're with me now. What are we going to do?” When he didn't respond immediately, she went on. "Do you have any explosives on your ship? We could wait until the ship leaves and then blow up the facility – destroy all the equipment. My grandfather will send warriors to deal with the villagers."

Nicoli only nodded, his eyes still watching the activities below.

“What’s the matter?”

He glanced at her in surprise, then shook his head. “It's something I saw in the village. I'll tell you about it later. For now, though, you're right. We need to do something about that facility - and an explosion might be what we need to flush out the Harvester leader and force him to expose himself."

Nicoli’s voice drifted off as he fell into thought, leaving Angel to focus on her ankle, which throbbed painfully. Afraid to move, lest they draw attention to themselves, they remained where they were and watched until the men below finished unloading the ship.

Closing the shuttle doors, they carried their last load into the warehouse. A few minutes later, the lights blinked out inside the warehouse. The shuttle's landing lights still provided enough illumination that Angel could see when the two men exited the warehouse and returned to their ship.

“I guess they’re not coming back tonight,” Angel observed.

As the ship lifted off, Nicoli once again pressed himself against Angel, blocking her from the buffeting heat and debris. They remained in that position until the ship cleared the ravine and the sound of the ship's engines faded into the night.

“Wait here.” Nicoli’s words seemed unusually loud in the sudden stillness.

“What are you going to do?”

“Shake things up.” He flipped on the searchlight and started down the escarpment. "This won't take long."

Angel’s foot and ankle hurt too much to protest, so she eased herself into a sitting position and resigned herself to wait. With each step down the steep embankment, Nicoli took the light further away. When he reached the bottom, Angel saw him walk to the building and try the door. It opened and he disappeared inside. As the door fell shut, the night enveloped her.

Once or twice while she waited, Angel pressed her fingers against her ankle in an attempt to relieve the pain. Each time she did, her ankle seemed more swollen, leaving her to dread the long walk back to the
Icarus
. The only thing she looked forward to less than that walk was the lecture she was sure to get from Nicoli for disobeying his orders.

It seemed a long time before she heard the sound of the warehouse door opening. Then Nicoli flipped on the searchlight and quickly climbed up the escarpment to where she sat.

“Time to go.” He offered her a hand up, for which she was grateful because she wasn't sure she could've stood without help. Her foot was killing her and she groaned out loud when she tried to put her weight on it.

“Can you walk?” Nicoli asked, shining his light on her ankle which was now swollen to twice its normal size.

“I’ll try.”

“Come on. I’ll help you.” Handing her the searchlight, he once again draped her free arm around his shoulders, put an arm around her waist and started up the escarpment. Nicoli moved quickly as he maneuvered them upward and by the time they reached the top, despite the cool breeze blowing, he and Angel were both sweating.

“Can we rest a minute?” Angel asked, trying to catch her breath. She knew Nicoli heard her, but he didn't stop. He kept them walking across the rocky surface, away from the ravine. Angel did her best to keep up, but the pain was becoming excruciating.

“I can’t go on, Nicoli. I’m so sorry, but I have to rest.”

“There’s no time, Angel.” His tone was affectionate but urgent. “We have to get further away.”

“Why? I don’t think the shuttle is planning to return tonight.”

“No time to explain.” Nicoli swept her up into his arms and strode across the field as she clung to him.

They left the rocky terrain around the escarpment and reached the grassy field.

When the explosion came, it shook the mountain. Nicoli fell to the grass and covered Angel with his body. Rocks and debris fell like a small meteor shower.

Nicoli remained on top of Angel for several minutes until the sound of falling debris subsided. Then he pushed himself up and off to one side so he wasn't crushing her.

“Are you all right?” His tone was tender as was the gaze he used to study her face. The brush of his finger against her cheek was as light and airy as the butterflies it evoked deep inside her.

"I'm...I'm fine," she assured him. "What...how'd you do that?"

He smiled. "What? You think you're the only one who knows how to blow shit up?"

* * * * *

“I heard an explosion.”

Nicoli ignored the High Counsel, pushing past the man in order to carry Angel to his cabin. He set her down on the edge of the bed and bent to remove her shoe. Even though he’d carried her most of the way, he worried that the walk back had done serious damage to her ankle. He undid the fastener, but couldn’t remove the shoe because of the swelling. Crossing to his desk, he opened the drawer and took out a knife.

“I’ll have to cut it off,” he said, coming back to stand before Angel.

She looked up at him, her eyes wide. “My foot?”

He smiled. “The shoe.”

“Oh. All right.”

Nicoli knelt before her and propped her foot on his knee to give him better access to the shoe. “Once the shoe is off, your foot will probably swell even more. When we get back to the palace, I’ll have Yanur look at it.”

“We have a palace physician.” The High Counsel spoke from the open doorway. “He will see to my granddaughter’s injury.”

“No.” Nicoli didn’t trust the palace physician.

“Nicoli, we need to get out of here before someone comes to investigate.” Angel sounded tired.

“I’ll see to this first.” He inserted the tip of the knife into the side of her shoe and applied pressure outward, neatly slicing through the side. He did the same on the other side and then sliced the top of the shoe open. Slowly he peeled it from her foot and tossed it in the corner.

“Okay. Shoe’s off. I’ll be okay, just get us out of here.” Angel reached out to touch his hand as he stood next to her. He didn’t want to leave her alone and it wasn’t solely because of her injury. He didn’t like leaving her with her grandfather and as unsettling as the thought was, he actually wanted to stay and take care of her.

“Go,” she ordered when he hesitated. He knew she was right.

He leaned down to speak softly in her ear. “I won’t be gone long. I’ll get us on course and then come back and check on you.” He pressed his lips to hers in a kiss too brief to get him into any real trouble, then walked to the bridge with the High Counsel hot on his trail.

Sitting in the pilot’s seat, Nicoli fired up the engines. A quick look at the perimeter scan revealed no other ships nearby.

So far, so good
.

It would be nice to get back to the palace before the news broke. Then he’d get to see Victor’s reaction. The sooner he ended this mission, the sooner he could get Angel away from this place.

“What was that explosion?” The High Counsel spoke from behind him, reminding Nicoli of a gnat that wouldn’t go away. “I deserve to know what happened,” the gnat continued, moving to sit in the co-pilot’s seat.

Nicoli sighed. “We found a warehouse where the Harvesters were building a transfer facility. I thought I might get the Harvester leader’s attention if I blew it up.”

“Without consulting me?”

“I didn’t consider that necessary.”

“You didn’t consider it necessary?” The High Counsel’s voice rose. “Need I remind you that
I
am the High Counsel?”

“I don’t particularly care.” And he didn’t. Nicoli was physically tired from carrying Angel all the way back to the ship and had done his best to control the anger and fear still simmering from when he’d returned earlier and found her gone. He simply didn’t have the energy to be polite anymore.

He barely looked up when the old man stormed off the bridge. Nicoli was glad to have a moment to himself while he set a course for the palace.

Only after they were safely away from the colony, did Nicoli activate the autopilot. With the perimeter scan set to sound the alarm if company should appear, Nicoli felt he could leave the bridge to return to Angel.

Halfway down the hall, he heard the unmistakable sound of flesh striking flesh. Running to his cabin, he found Angel sprawled across the bed, a hand pressed to her reddened cheek and her eyes, glistening with unshed tears, staring up at the High Counsel in childlike fear.

“You will not disobey orders again,” the High Counsel shouted, raising his hand. Nicoli took the last step needed to reach the old man and, grabbing the old man’s wrist in an iron-tight grip, Nicoli twisted his arm back at a painful angle.

“Don’t you ever touch my wife again, do you understand?” He growled the words in the old man’s ear.

The High Counsel grimaced, but did not cower. “Unhand me this instant. I am the High Counsel. She was instructed to stay on board and she chose to violate those orders. She must be disciplined.”

“Not by you.”

“I am the High Counsel. And I’m the oldest living male member of her house. It is my duty to see to her punishment.” The High Counsel twisted his head to glare at Nicoli in defiance.