The harbinger was standing by the landing platform a few miles from the fortress.

There was no point in trying to hunt down the females there. One way or another, the ship had to make itself known and come out. It couldn't teleport into orbit.

He stood, waiting. Ragnar's mood was so visibly grim that every warrior with good sense kept a distance from him. They were all Mjorn's. He figured the captain deserved to bring his men along to see that his work was being recognized and rewarded.

Mjorn himself was pacing like a caged animal, the comm link in hand.

"We should have searched the fortress," he said again, repeating the words Ragnar had already heard a few times. "We should have destroyed the ship before it ever took off."

"No," Ragnar said.

Mjorn glared at him, shaking his head.

"What if Kathleen blasts her way through the roof of Isidor-Fol?" he asked. "The other domains are too far. Half of your people stand to die if that crazy bitch decides to take the first blow of her revenge."

"No," Ragnar replied again, his deep voice impassive and cold.

It was hard for him to feel anything after Selena had fled. He had no doubt about where the female had gone. To her friends, where else. Once again proving to him that she had stronger connections to them than she was willing to admit.

The doubt kept nagging at him, however. The more Ragnar thought back to Selena's words – not just that day, but all the ones before – the more he started to suspect.

The female wasn't blameless in the whole mess, that was certain. The harbinger was merely slowly coming to the conclusion that he had pushed her into all the wrong decisions she had made.

He didn't know how he felt about that. Selena's betrayal was still too painful for him to think about, but his fated's image didn't leave him. His hands ached for her body under his fingers, his body ached for her warmth. His heart longed to see her smile and hear her voice.

"How can you be so damn sure!?" Mjorn demanded from him.

"I know where they are," Ragnar replied, his eyes never wavering from the skies above their heads.

He should have been in the ship, but he had chosen to delay those three seconds it took for him to get in the pursuit vessel. The harbinger wanted to see the ship take off with his own eyes.

His failure, his charge. That's what the females were now.

Mjorn was staring at him, so angry he couldn't even utter words.

"You –" he began, changing his mind and focusing on the important. "Why!?"

"I will not risk the fortress," Ragnar said. "You think Kathleen will risk damaging the ship by driving it through the roof of a Nayanor fortress? That female is a whole lot of things, but she is not stupid. I would hand over my sword if she has let a scratch come on that ship.

"It's her only chance. She's not going to risk it. We, on the other hand, stand to do a whole lot of damage. I will not have an open battle with the females inside my fortress days before the long night comes. They will be armed. One plasma blast gone wrong and the ship might explode indoors. Then we really won't have a roof above our heads."

Grumbling, Mjorn nodded.

"All right," he snapped. "We take them in transit then. I can't believe you would think battling them and their possible plasma weapons in space is safer."

"It's not," Ragnar shrugged. "But we are warriors. To die is our fate. If that will be our end, so be it. The fortress is a home to dutiful females and children. I will take the fight as far away from them as possible."

Even Mjorn couldn't argue with that. The captain nodded once more, resuming his pacing.

"Just to sate my curiosity," he said. "Where are they?"

"Under the air ducts," Ragnar said. "How else would they get outside?"

Mjorn swore so harshly that the harbinger was glad to have a few minutes of rest to let the captain cool himself down.

The females were very clever, although they were playing with fire. Ragnar was once again forced to consider if it wasn't him that had permitted the escape plan to develop. After all, he had suspected the truth the second Mjorn had first told him about the ship.

It was a simple mechanic of knowing his own fortress and knowing the enemy.

If there was a ship, it had to be inside Isidor-Fol. Kathleen would never have risked damage to the ship. Ragnar hadn't yet figured out how she'd come to have one, but it couldn't have been easy. It would be precious to the female. That meant keeping it safe, somewhere out of harm – from the storm and from Nayanors. That meant the fortress.

What followed from there was even easier.

There weren't that many places a ship could enter the fortress. Main gate was out of the question, although Isidor-Fol did have a shipyard in case some vessel was late leaving the planet. Then there were the side gates which were just as heavily guarded. None of the gates would have let an unidentified ship in.

The only other place that remained big enough for a warp-capable ship were the air ducts.

The fortresses were sealed off from the storm, but even Nayanors needed to breathe. The air systems of Isidor-Fol were massive and dangerous. They needed expert knowledge, but it was doable. By someone who had been on the planet for eight years, for example. Whether Kathleen had stumbled upon a suitable site or meticulously hunted for it didn't matter.

The air passed through Isidor- Fol through a series of tunnels that created an enormous draft. Surviving in the main tunnel was impossible during the long night. The winds that were brutal outside could have skinned a man alive in the main channels. From there, small ducts spread out like a maze all above the fortress, carrying air around.

Ragnar might not have been able to pick the exact location of Kathleen's ship, but it was obvious that she was under a passage to the main channel.

If he'd wanted to, the locations could have been searched in an hour.

As the ship finally emerged from the fortress and Mjorn roared his men into action, the harbinger wondered why he hadn't given the order to do that. They had been waiting for longer than that for sure.

Wanting to spare the fortress was only one reason. Stepping into the pursuit vessel Olerea, Ragnar couldn't shake the feeling that it had something to do with Selena.

"Pursue," he ordered the pilot. "Let the ship get out of atmosphere if it can before we take it. Destroy the warp engine. Fire at will."

"Wouldn't it be easier to shoot the ship to pieces?" the pilot asked over the comm link.

Selena.

His fated's name wouldn't leave Ragnar.

"No," he replied. "I want the ship and I want the females alive."

The ship picked up speed. Ragnar rested his back against the wall and wondered if he should be concerned that for once, Mjorn hadn't argued.