“We have to move the ship,” Yani said. “Right away. If they find us, it’s game over.”
Xandros’s conflict showed in his expression. His instincts were to assist his brothers, but Yani was right, and he knew it.
“We won’t get far,” she warned. “We have repulsorlifts, and I’ve got the engines running, but without a power core, they can’t do much. Our battery is only one-quarter charged.”
“Whatever we can manage will have to do.” I looked at Xandros.
He nodded. “I will pull the trees off. You locate where we can hide the ship. But then, I must go.”
As he strode off, Yani straightened and swayed. I reached out to steady her, but she waved me off. “Get the navcube.”
We’d left it in the galley. By the time I returned with it, the Drolgok had brought the main control panel to life and was flicking switches on the power containment unit.
“There is enough in the batteries to ignite the engines and take us for a short cruise—but we will not be able to get much lift, so the repulsors will have to do that.”
The thumps and scrapes from outside indicated Xandros was hard at work removing our cover. After I activated the navcube, Yani and I peered at the terrain around us.
“Senaik knows we can’t get far,” I murmured. “They’ll be searching all over this area.”
We panned the navcube around, but there was nowhere to hide a ship from a determined search. There weren’t even that many places where we would be able to land it.
Then I stared. Not enough land…
“We can put her under water,” I said.
Yani’s eyes widened. “Not with that rift in her side.”
“We’ll repair that first. Let’s find water deep enough—we’ll need to work fast.”
I found it—ten miles from our current location. The area was dotted with lakes, but this one offered a rocky outcrop that stretched out over the water. Once we were submerged, it would help shield us from prying eyes and scans.
When Xandros entered the engineering bay shaking long yellow feathers out of his hair, I turned to him. “We’re submerging. So we need to get those panels welded on right away. And we’ll need your dragon to manipulate them.”
His mouth pulled straight—his every instinct was to fly to his brother’s aid. But we couldn’t do this without him. So minutes later, we were outside—his dragon was holding the metal in place while Yani and I spot welded it, after which he switched to human to help us finish.
I met his tortured gaze. “You want to go,” I said.
“Not until you are safe,” he ground out, working along the seam with the laser.
I flinched with every gust of wind, expecting to be descended upon before we could complete our task. We ended up using both panels to fully close the gap.
I ran my fingers along the joint. “Is this good enough?”
Yani waved her hands at me. “I’ll spray it with atmospheric sealant, just to be sure.”
At the top of the ramp, Xandros stopped moving. My heart was in my mouth as I looked up at him. He was gazing at the sky.
I reached up to pluck a stray lizard-bird feather from his hair. “If you’re going, I’m going with you.”
“You can’t come with me.”
I planted fists on my hips. “Are we, or are we not, matebonded? Or did that not mean what you said it did?”
His lips quirked in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You are even pushier than Rhodes.”
“We have to hide the ship first,” I said. “Or we have nothing to bring them back to.”
“Get us to the lake,” Yani disappeared into the engineering bay while Xandros and I pointed ourselves for the bridge.
