The Sword of Myn’: VII: Exile
O min nefrydyr Dhiós! Eos-fylakas-inä, m’éneia, aurös! Mitená min, mará velthaya en ärdos!
O my beloved God, the Star-keeper, keep my family, I beseech thee! Mother mine, may my pain, like yours, not be eternal?
The words were repeating, punctuated by the ancient Aves taught by the abbot, running as a river through Eya’s mind. She was aware of little else, barely conscious of the words themselves, staring at the carriage wall, seeing now in her mind a dark prison where her family might be; or a desert; or a tomb.
The carriage was rolling up to the spaceport now. The river sparkled on its way down to the bay, and transports zipped to and fro; even on a quiet day, many travelers were leaving Solaria for home. The carriage halted at a side door, nearest to the east wing where Brendan’s ship, the Altair, was waiting.
Earthiana stirred, and looked out from the deep recesses of her hood into which she had withdrawn. The cloak’s bonnet, wired in sunburst pleats, kept her face in shadow, within which her mask was lost.
A sound of someone jumping down, and Brendan opened the carriage door. He lifted Eya out reverently and set her on her feet. Liralei was next, similarly unrecognizably shrouded in a hooded cloak; William and Mira had already obtained entry earlier in the morning, the latter packing away Eya’s things as though they were her own.
Eya waited as Liralei paid the driver; the horses went their way, their burden easily lifted. If only hers could be!
She was leaving home. She was doing what everyone had told her not to. Would her family tell her otherwise now? According to the Abbot and Liralei, they would. She was leaving everything, and yet everything – save those two – had already left her.
“Princess… we need to get you through as swiftly as we may.”
Brendan was already holding the door for her. Earthiana tore her eyes away from wandering the distant city skyline, dropped her head, and entered. The sleek lobby opened directly into the well-organized tri-leveled port, arranged in a crescent, the concave side allowing for easy exits over the riverside.
Brendan found a kiosk and obtained the key to the lot he had taken, and paid the final fee. Then it was back into the open air to dodge transports and bikes, until the lot they sought appeared, barricaded in on both sides by massive cargo ships. It would seem that loads of precious stone and newly-filled greenhouses were on their way out of the system, too.
The Altair proved to be a small cruiser, the kind that knew its worth both in battle and in cargo runs. Its double, backwards-hooked wings recalled that of an eagle, covered in marbled aluminum and chemically strengthened tridymite tiling. The hatch was opened, the ramp lowered; William was standing at its foot, watching for Eya’s arrival. Just as the others, he hid his face by a cloak, capped, for it was unhooded, but the collar covered his mouth in the cold.