19
Zyair
Rhodes and I crouched on the rooftop as we watched the flying barge approach.
My brother was in dragon form, and I sat behind his head spikes. I usually preferred to do the flying myself, but we had done this many times to avoid detection. My golden dragon scales glimmered even in the dark, whereas his were ideally suited for stealth flight.
It would have to be enough, because we had no other options. This was the only way to sneak into the shipyard.
The barge slowed, lining up for an open spot along the north fence. As it loomed overhead, the muscles beneath me tightened.
Rhodes waited until the dimly lit bow had gone by and the darker midsection was right over us. He launched, straight up, with a powerful thrust of his wings.
I hung on to the spikes as Rhodes carried us up along the side of the barge, and landed on top.
The transport was designed to carry logs, and as such, the tops only closed once they were loaded. The sides remained in place until the logs were ready for delivery, and then they retracted, spilling their cargo onto the waiting conveyors.
We had planned on sneaking in from the overhead hatch, but to our surprise, the top doors were not fully closed. This explained why the barge was coming to the shipyard still loaded with logs—there was something wrong with its door mechanisms. It must have also jammed the sides for them to have not unloaded before coming for repairs.
Either way, Fate had certainly smiled on us. I dismounted to one side of the partly open door, and Rhodes writhed his way to his humanoid form. I handed him his boots and cloak. Neither would stand up to close inspection, but we hoped to avoid that.
The footwear was clumsy on my feet as we hopped down onto the massive logs held within the barge. They were loaded to each side with vertical metal columns forming a channel in the middle. We slid down the enormous trunks, clambering our way to the bare stretch of floor.
The barge shuddered while the repulsors lowered it to its parking spot. As we jogged along the channel, the massive engines shut down.
There were lights on each column, but it was hardly well lit. Approaching the door, we heard voices. Rhodes and I slid between the cut ends of the logs and the wall just as the door opened and a group came through.
Three of them. The mechanics were not Nirzks, but the collars they wore marked them as slaves. They discussed something in an unfamiliar language as they wheeled a cartload of tools over to a compartment walled off from the logging bay, and vanished inside.
We slipped out from our hiding spot and left the bay, entering the hall beyond.
“Well, we are in,” Rhodes whispered in Drakonian. “Now we only have to find the engineering bay in an alien logging barge.”
I ignored his disparaging tone—it was Rhodes, after all—and tracked the conduit running along the ceiling. As a bare-bones working vessel, all the wiring and ductwork was exposed. I pointed to the conduit.
“All we have to do,” I said, “is follow that.”
Rhodes grimaced, but at the intersection he was staring upward as hard as I was.
“That way,” he pointed.
It was far from a perfect system. The small crew had clearly departed, and the hall was empty and silent.
Fortunately, the barge was a simple construct consisting mostly of huge engines that provided lift, a compact bridge in the bow, a galley behind it, a few large storage rooms—mostly filled with spare parts—and the engineering bay.
I had been worried that we would be faced with a locked door, but it slid open at our touch. Not many people stole things from logging barges.
Not much to steal—except the ship’s power core.
I slipped the pack off my shoulder and removed gloves and the spanner that would disconnect the core. Along with a bag Yani had promised would contain the energy, keeping ourcullionssafe. Not that it really mattered, if Princess Jazmin… Jaz… walked away from us. We would not be fathering children with anyone else.
I ripped my thoughts away from that and prowled the bay, tracking the conduit to a cabinet along the far wall. Opening the door revealed the core, carefully contained within plexsteel.
Our spanners were not a perfect fit but close enough to remove it. It took time, though, to ensure that the core was not damaged as I did so. When I finally got it loose and used the gloves to slip it into the bag, my wings and talons were so hot they almost glowed and Rhodes was sending me ‘hurry up’ hand signals from the door.
I dumped the spanners, wrapped the core into the pack and joined him. It was heavy as I shouldered it. The lights around us dimmed, but with the ship docked, there was enough power stored in its batteries to keep the basics running for a while yet. Our theft would not be noticed until someone tried to fire up the engines.
Rhodes had just headed out the door when I froze, seized by a sudden sensation of danger.
