Chapter Seven: Plan
"We need a plan."
Abby blinked at him, confusion written all over her features as she stepped out of her bedroom. It had been seven full days since their escape from the floating city, and nothing had been done. He'd allowed her time to recover from her ordeal, and now was the time to act. This inaction was unacceptable, and it was making him restless.
Sorrin had done his waiting, and now he wanted to move forward.
"What?" Abby rubbed her eyes and pulled her robe tighter around herself.
"A plan," Sorrin said again, speaking slowly, as if she was hard of hearing or a bit on the slow side. "We require one."
"Oh. For the Camadors. Right."
He watched as she dragged her fingers through her hair and moved into the small kitchen area. Sorrin had watched her in the mornings enough times now to know her routines well. She was going to make herself a cup of tea and three slices of toast. Once she looked more alert, she would shower and then change her clothes. And then they would sit in her home and do nothing.
Not today.
"Yes," he said, following her into the kitchen. He watched as she filled the tea kettle and then put it on the stove to heat. "For the Camadors. Unless you want them to take over your world and destroy your people, you need to help me. That was our arrangement." If he'd known she would be useless, then he would have left her in the cell.
"I know what the arrangement was, Sorrin," Abby replied, tone clipped. "I'm fully aware that you only helped me because I said I could help you." She sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Sorrin narrowed his eyes at her. "You just said that to get out of there, didn't you?" he accused. "You didn't actually have any plan to help me."
Her head snapped up, and she narrowed her eyes right back. "Are you saying I lied to you?"
"That is what I am suggesting."
"I did not!" She snapped it vehemently. "Just because I don't know how yet, doesn't mean I never planned to help. You don't have a plan either, I'd like to point out."
She had a point, and Sorrin inclined his head, taking a step back. He was aware that he could be physically intimidating sometimes, and he didn't want her to think she was being threatened because that wasn't his goal here. Sorrin just wanted progress to be made. "My apologies, then," he said. "My statement still stands, though. We need a plan."
"I know that," she said. "You're the one who showed up here on your own thinking you could take on the might of the Camadors or whatever without backup. If you'd had a plan to begin with then you wouldn't have ended up being thrown in a cell."
Clearly she was still annoyed with him. "If I had escaped that happy fate, then you would still be in the cell," Sorrin pointed out.
Abby made a face at that. "Fine, alright. You're right." She heaved a sigh and rubbed a hand over her face before looking up at him. "What do you want to do?"
It was one of those questions that he didn't have an immediate answer to. Going running into the city again was a terrible idea. This time they might actually kill him, and he wasn't willing to risk it. But he needed information. He needed to know what they were planning and how to stop it.
"We need to find out what they want. Do you know?"
Abby fidgeted for a second and then sighed. "I don't know. I think...I think they just want Earth? They haven't made any threats, not really, and they're just holding people hostage, and I'm not sure why. Maybe for leverage, maybe for information. They never said."
Sorrin made a face. It was like them to be secretive about their plans, and it was a long shot to think they would have told their captives about it. What they needed was to talk to one of the Camadors. They needed to get one alone. In a group, they were extremely deadly, but on their own, Sorrin was confident that he could make one talk.
"I know what to do," he said, allowing himself a smile.
"Wow," Abby breathed. It was three hours later, and the pair of them had made their way back out to where Sorrin had left his ship. He was relieved to see that it was in the same condition he'd left it in, and he watched Abby as she took it all in. It occurred to him that other than the Camadors' floating city, she'd never really seen a spacecraft from another planet, and while by his standards, this wasn't anything resembling a fancy or even high quality ship, to a human, it was clearly a marvel.
"You came all the way here in this?" she asked, turning wide eyes to him.
Sorrin inclined his head. "Yes. It isn't in the best shape, but a...an acquaintance of mine fixed it up enough that it would get me here."
"Are we getting on it?" Abby wanted to know, and for the first time since he'd met her, she seemed very young. Her eyes were large in her face, and she was bouncing on the balls of her feet, clearly eager.
He hadn't been intending to do a tour of the ship, more just to get on it and use the onboard scanner to see if he could detect any lone Camadors wandering the city, but he figured he couldn't just leave her out here on her own. Anything could happen.
"Yes," he said. "If you'd like."
Apparently she liked. As soon as he opened the hatch to let them onboard, she was climbing the short set of stairs. Neither the dents nor the rust seemed to deter her, and she ran her fingers over the outside before stepping in.
Sorrin had to duck his head to follow, but she was the perfect height to fit right in the doorway.
"This ship is usually used to transport cargo," Sorrin explained as he placed a hand at the small of her back to usher her further inside. "Passengers are usually very minimal, which is why there aren't many comforts."
Everything was old and industrial looking, but he supposed it was still ahead of the tech humans had now.
"Can I..." She made a gesture that he took to mean she wanted to wander around.
"If you like. Don't touch anything you don't understand."
He watched as she made a face at him and then began to wander and explore. Sorrin made his way to the command center.
Calling it such was a bit of a stretch, if he was honest. It only had the bare minimum, two scanners, the control panel for the ship itself, and a comm system. Cargo runs were usually short or set up in relays, so no one was meant to be on a ship like this for longer than a couple of weeks at the most.
Still, the scanners were functional, and Sorrin set them to searching. They picked up on the floating city quickly enough, and his fingers moved across the screen, isolating the signature emitted by the residents of that city and spreading out the search to look for smaller instances of that signature. If there were any wandering Camadors, he would find them.
As the machine did its work, Sorrin sat down in his seat and leaned back. Earth was...interesting so far. Granted, he hadn't seen very much of it yet, and he knew that he wasn't seeing it at its best, but so far he was seeing a place and a people who were more resilient than he had anticipated.
Honestly, he hadn't given Earth all that much thought. He was here because the Camadors were here, and his mission was to destroy them if at all possible. It hadn't really occurred to him that he might have help doing it, but humans likely had a similar grudge to the one he was holding against the Camadors.
Abby hadn't spoken of her family, but could only assume that she had one and that they had missed her while she was being held captive. Surely there were others in similar situations. It dawned on him that the humans the Camadors had in their cells could be used as forces on the inside. They were considered neutralized, he was willing to bet, and if there was some way to communicate with them without their captors knowing, then it opened up quite a few possibilities.
If only there was some way to get a Camador on their side...
"This is amazing."
Sorrin looked up to see Abby standing in the doorway. "Done exploring?" he asked, looking away from her and turning his attention back to the screen of the scanner.
"Yep. It's not a huge ship, and there are only so many crates I can look at before I've seen them all. What are you doing?"
He glanced at her and then away again. "Searching."
"What for?"
"A Camador."
"Just one? There's a bunch in that floating city, you know. I don't know if you've seen it."
Sorrin didn't dignify that with a response, and Abby sighed before coming to look over his shoulder. "Okay, I give. Tell me the plan. I can't help if I don't know what you're doing, you know."
She had a fair point, and he let out a sigh. It had been just him for so long that the idea of trusting someone else was strange. This was his mission, but he was coming around to the idea of having assistance. "I believe that we will have better luck finding a lone Camador and getting information from them than trying to take on the horde of them."
"No kidding," Abby said. "You think you can make one of them talk?"
"I do." He explained his thoughts to her and was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't hard at all for her to keep up with what he was saying. She asked questions about how he thought they could get to the other humans who were still in captivity and how he would do it without tipping off the Camadors. For the entirety of the time that the scanner was working, they talked. They threw ideas back and forth, discarding some and keeping others to tweak to be better. By the time the machine gave a tinny wail, announcing it had located something, Sorrin was feeling better about working with this human woman. She was quick and bright, and that was much more than he had expected.
"Ah," he said, eyes narrowed as he enlarged the map he was being shown on the screen. There were four pulsing green dots on the map, showing where the Camadors were. "Do you know these places?"
Abby tilted her head to the side, and Sorrin gave her time to get her bearings on the map. It was a low tech version of a map anyway, all glowing green and red and white lines on a black background.
"We're here?" she asked, finger hovering over the only blue dot on the screen.
"Yes."
"Then..." she traced her finger up and to the next dot and then smiled. "Yeah. I can get us here."
Sorrin smiled again, pleased. Finally something was going right. He nodded and then beckoned her to sit down beside him. "Strap in. I'm going to take us closer."
It was a lot like the old days.
It was nothing like the old days.
Having a co-pilot was odd and familiar all at once, and it took him several minutes to get used to it as he fired up the ship. Sorrin kept seeing a superimposed image of everyone who had ever been his number two layered over Abby's face, and he made himself look away and focus on other things.
"People are going to see this, you know," Abby said as the ship rumbled to life with a groan and then began to lift off of the ground.
"Yes," Sorrin replied simply. People would see it, and if they panicked then that was their problem. He had more important things to worry about. "Hold on," he warned before throwing forward the lever that sent them careening along.
Abby yelped loudly, and when Sorrin looked at her, he could see that her fingers were wrapped tightly around the armrests of her seat, her eyes wide. She looked frightened and exhilarated all at once, and it was a good look for her.
Sorrin frowned as he had that thought and then shook himself, focusing on the space ahead of them again as the ship climbed higher.
"Are we flying there?" Abby asked, speaking louder to be heard over the roar of the engine.
"No," Sorrin said back. "We're only getting close enough to surprise them still. You'll stay with the ship."
"I will not!" she said. "You don't even know how to get there!"
"You can point me in the right direction."
"And then what? Sit here twiddling my thumbs?"
"I don't know what that means."
She made a noise of wordless frustration and glared at him. "I'm not staying here. What if you need me?"
"Why would I need you?" It was harsher than he'd meant to be, but his point still stood. There wasn't anything she could do to help him capture a Camador. Except perhaps serve as bait.
Actually...
He held up one hand to cut Abby off in the middle of the rant she had gone on while he wasn't listening. "There is something you can do," he said. "But I don't want to hear any complaining about it."
"I hate you," Abby hissed. "Did I mention that? That I hate you?"
Sorrin rolled his eyes. "What did I say about complaining?"
"This isn't complaining, this is me telling you how much I hate you. Totally a different thing."
He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. The sad part was that this was continuing to remind him of how things had been when he was a warrior. Some of his men hadn't always thought his ideas were good ones. The sadder part was that he was actually starting to enjoy himself. How long had it been since he’d had someone to work with?
It didn’t bear dwelling on, and he shook his head to clear it, motioning for Abby to be quiet. “You can go back to the ship if you’d rather,” he said, smiling when she scowled at him. It was becoming far too easy to smile at her.
“Shut up,” she hissed at him. “I’m not going back to the ship.”
“Then stand there and look like bait. And stop complaining.” He pushed her forward and then ducked back and out of sight. The key here was not to be seen until the last possible second. It wasn’t a sound plan, if anything it was a hastily thrown together one, but it would have to do. “Abby,” Sorrin whispered, holding her gaze when she turned to look at him. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Something softened in Abby’s eyes, and some of the irritation drained out of her face. “I know,” she whispered back.
That was surprising. She had no reason to trust him beyond the fact that he’d gotten her out of the floating city in one piece. For all she knew he was throwing her right back to the Camadors now. But apparently, she didn’t believe that. Apparently, she thought he was trustworthy. Something warmed in him, but he pushed the feeling aside, making himself focus.
This was the closest location on the map, but it wasn't exactly the easiest one to deal with. It was some sort of warehouse, with one way in and who knew how many ways out that they couldn’t see. Old boxes were strewn about, and everything was covered in dust and grime from years of disuse. Why one of the Camadors would be here, Sorrin didn’t know. They preferred for things to be clean and orderly if at all possible, so this was a very strange place to find one of them.
But the scanner had been certain, and this was where Abby had led them according to the map, so he was crouched down behind a stack of boxes, watching as she wandered further in.
“Hello?” she called, her voice echoing slightly in the high ceilinged area they were in. “Is anyone here?”
Sorrin tensed as they both listened, the sound of footsteps echoing in the distance alerting them to the fact that someone was coming.
“Hello?” Abby called again. “If you’re there, please help me!”
“Who are you?”
A melodious voice, soft and sweet, and Sorrin knew they were in the right place. Only Camadors sounded like that.
“H-hello?” Abby’s voice wavered with either real or invented fear, and Sorrin mentally cheered her on. “I need help. Someone’s chasing me, and I can’t—”
“Oh, dear. You shouldn’t be here. You really should not be here.” Out of the shadows stepped a Camador. She was tall and thin, willowy just like the rest of her people, and her hair tumbled down her back in ebony curls. She looked tired and afraid, like she was expecting someone else, and Sorrin wondered if all the Camadors were as united as they appeared to be.
“Please,” Abby said. “Please help me.”
The Camador stepped closer and then narrowed her eyes. “Wait a moment. I know you. You’re—”
Before she could get another word out, Sorrin was up and on his feet, moving as quickly as he could. The Camador woman gave a startled shout and lifted her hands, but it was too late to stop him. He wrapped strong fingers around her wrist and pulled her closer to him, gripping her tightly. “Don’t say a word,” Sorrin hissed. “Do you understand?”
She nodded, and he could feel her trembling against him.
“You’re going to come with us,” Sorrin continued. “And you’re going to tell us what your people have planned. If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
The woman snorted. “The Caran will kill me either way. Why should I fear you?”
“Because it will be so much worse if I have to do it.”
“Hardly. You do not know our Caran.”
“Sorrin, maybe you shouldn’t…”
He shot her a sharp look. This was not the time to be second guessing their plan. It was the only thing they had against these creatures, and he wasn’t giving it up. Not now that he finally had one of them in his clutches. Abby fell silent.
“I could kill you so easily,” he murmured. “Talk to me.”
She let out a shuddering breath and then hung her head. “Alright. The Earth will be forfeit. A city that floats can have no dominion, but ruling from a planet as rich in resources as this one will cement us in history.”
“And the humans?” Sorrin wanted to know.
“Slaves. Labor.”
He could see the horrified look in Abby’s eyes at those words. “No,” Sorrin said. “It will not happen.”
“You can’t stop it,” she said. “The Caran has her ways. She has her spies. She has her plans. You will all die. Anyone who opposes her will die. Don’t you understand? You will die like vermin. Like every other victim of the Camadors.”
Fury leapt in him, and he let out a harsh breath. His instincts were telling him to snap this creature’s neck, to end her now before she could spew more filth about their victims, people like his friends, his family, who had probably died screaming and in fear.
“You will be silent,” he hissed.
“You will be dead,” she countered.
Sorrin let out a roar of anger and shoved the woman away from him. His heart was pounding with his rage, and he was shaking, even though he didn't notice at first. His sword was in his hand before he could register the decision to draw it. The woman was on the floor in front of him, her lustrous hair spilled over her face, but he could see the fear in her eyes, the way she wanted to scramble back from him, but was making herself stay close and not show her fear that way.
He wanted to kill her.
He wanted to watch her die on the floor like she had probably caused someone he cared for to die.
Even if she wasn't one of the ones who had hurt his friends and family, she was one of them, and that was all that mattered. All she deserved was to die like the vermin she kept saying everyone else was.
Sorrin took a step forward, ready to deal a blow.
Abby got in the way, drawing him up short.
"Don't," she said.
"Move," Sorrin growled. "You do not understand."
"I do understand," she said quickly, her voice low and urgent. "They did something to you, they hurt you or someone you care for. But don't do it like this. You need her, remember? You need to know what they're planning."
Her words penetrated through the haze of anger in his brain, and he licked his lips and swallowed hard, taking a step back. In his mind he still saw himself, ready to remove the Camador woman's head from her body, but he let that go. Abby was right. This wasn't vengeance, it was murder, and it would be much more satisfying to take them all out at once than to kill a single one in this dusty warehouse.
“Very well,” he said through gritted teeth. He leveled his sword at the woman’s face, eyes narrowed. “You owe your survival to a human. Think on that.” His eyes flitted back to Abby, who was watching him with barely concealed trepidation. “Find out their plan,” he said. “I will be outside.”
Close enough that he could hear if Abby called for help, but far enough away that he would calm down and not rush back in and murder this woman when she spoke.
He turned and strode out of the warehouse, fingers tight around the hilt of his sword.
Air, he needed air, and he needed to get away from here. He needed…
Sorrin didn’t know what he needed, but the pit in his stomach that had been there for four years felt particularly large and ragged, and it was hard to breathe.