Page 87 of Legend
“In the dungeons and knocked unconscious the last I heard.”
From her tone of voice, I had a feeling she had something to do with him being knocked unconscious. I definitely hoped she did.
“Have you seen Britta?” Fiona asked me then swung her gaze to Torq. “Or any Iron?”
I shook my head. “Not since breakfast. Why?”
“Another long story, but I need someone who’s good at tech to help me implement a crazy plan that just might save us from the Sythians.”
“Britta is your girl,” I said. “But I don’t know where—“
“I’m whose girl?” Britta asked as she emerged from a nearby stairwell at a jog with Morgan right behind her.
Fiona blew out a breath. “Just the Iron I need. How would you like to show off your holographic design skills?”
Britta grabbed her high ponytail and tugged two ends of it to make it tighter. “Count me in.”
Morgan glanced overhead. “Does this have anything to do with the sirens?”
“Long story short,” I said, “we might be in danger from an alien swarm, but Fi has a crazy plan to stop them that needs some serious tech chops.”
Morgan glanced at Britta. “Hence our brilliant Iron friend.”
Britta nodded as if she heard this type of request every day. “I’m in. What do you need?”
“First, I need to know where we can go to work on some seriously intense and large-scale holo-technology.” Fiona rocked back on her heels. “Then I need to know how we can recruit more Irons to help us.”
“Easy.” Britta shrugged and jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward the archway leading to the School of Engineering. “Irons like to tinker. All the best tech is in our school, and I’ll bet most of the instructors are, too.”
“Then let’s go.” Fiona started toward the high arch with the crossed hammers etched into the ebony stone.
“You sure you don’t want to find out who these guys are first?” Morgan asked in a near whisper, as she stared at the door that led to the shipyard.
We all turned to see a group of massive, bare-chested creatures striding into the academy with swishing tails, silver-striped horns on their heads, and dark marks covering almost every inch of their exposed skin.
“Grekme,” Britta said under her breath, as the aliens’ boots pounded the floor.
Torq tensed beside me, and Kann emerged from the School of Battle to come stand between us and the aliens who slowed to a stop.
Morgan leaned close to me without taking her eyes off the imposing aliens. “This is the best-looking swarm I’ve ever seen.”
Fiona
I puta hand on Kann’s arm. “These are the Taori, our allies.”
He glanced at me quickly then back at the group of warriors, but he did not relax his stance. Maybe a Blade wasn’t the right Drexian to turn to when it came to diplomacy. To be fair, the Taori’s tails had not stopped swishing behind them.
“She is correct,” the alien at the front of the group spoke, his voice deep and rough. “We are the Immortal Army of the Taori, and we have come to battle the swarm with you.”
Kann shifted, the stiffness in his shoulders unwinding. Now they were speaking in terms he would embrace—armies, allies, battles. I glanced at Torq, who had also stopped scowling.
“Welcome to the Drexian Academy,” I said, even though it was far from my job to be the one to say it. I didn’t have time to wait for all the introductions to be made. Not when I needed to get Britta and the Irons to work. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I need to put our plan to evade the swarm into action.”
One of the Taori stepped forward. “Ruun told me of your plan. I am Zav, a science officer on our sky ship. I am here to offer my skills.”
I waved him forward. “Then welcome aboard, Zav.”
His brow wrinkled as he walked toward us. “But we are not on a sky ship.”