Excerpt: Flight Over Telethar

“You’re useless. Why did I bring you along?”

“Because you know nothing.”

“I know enough to survive! I’ve managed it all my life!”

“You didn’t even know your own race!”

That stung. “And why didn’t I?” she shouted. “Because of you – all of you – because the Mageri killed my family!”

“That’s hardly a unique claim,” Alerid spat.

“And that’s supposed to make it better? The fact that you killed hundreds of thousands of people?”

“We’ve done what we needed to! The strongest survive, and the Fae weren’t strong enough!”

“You’re despicable!”

“And you’re a fool!”

They were both shouting at this point. Sherieth realized she had never heard Alerid raise his voice before, no matter how irritated he became, and felt a sort of savage satisfaction in the knowledge that she’d provoked him this far. At that moment she truly hated him.

Alerid was breathing heavily, surprised at how angry he had gotten. He’d completely lost control. Sherieth had fallen silent and still behind him. He took a deep breath, trying to recompose himself, but then suddenly the girl spoke.

“Do you really believe that?” she said softly. “That the Mageri were justified – justified – in killing all those Fae, all those human mages, simply because they had the power to do so?” He felt suddenly uneasy; something about the way she’d spoken hit hard. “How much of that is really you speaking, and how much is Mageri conditioning speaking for you?”

He felt another surge of anger at her words, but it was accompanied by a feeling of acute discomfort. Sherieth laughed to herself, not waiting for him to answer. “I’ll tell you what I’m really thinking, Alerid, I’m scared,” she said, her voice shaking with nervous laughter. “I’m really scared I won’t be able to get out of this. And then I’ll let Tozki down.” She took a deep breath, stiffening and then relaxing. “Listen. I can’t do this alone. You can’t do this alone. I wish it were otherwise, but… if either of us is going to escape, we need each other. So… why don’t we forget we hate each other for the moment and work on getting out of this?”

So now they were even, Alerid thought. For a brief moment, she had glimpsed past his emotionless Mageri persona and seen him truly lose control of emotions he’d held in check for so long. Now, he thought, he had seen something similar in her, the real uncertainty that lay behind her perpetual happiness. It made her seem almost a little less foreign, a little more like himself.

It wasn’t simple anymore. Right now, there were no orders to follow, no orders to give, no enemies to dispatch. He was running blind, and there was only one step he could take. “Very well,” he said quietly to Sherieth. “For the moment I will become your ally – not by force but by choice.”

He’d made his choice.