“Ohmigosh, Lina!” Surie cried, flinging her arms around Lina’s neck and squeezing her hard enough to force the air from her. “I can’t believe you’re leaving so soon!” she pouted, her eyes shimmering with tears. “But I understand… Mom can be a real pain in the—”
“Suriah,” Bain said, a warning in his voice.
Surie rolled her eyes and muttered, “He knows it’s true, but he’s gotta be the loyal one or something.” She shrugged and squeezed Lina again.
“It’s going to be so weird without you around. I mean… I know you haven’t been here long, but you just fit into our lives so quickly and I was really excited for a friend that didn’t care about all this princess crap,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Lina nodded, her eyes darting to Bain who was looking stone-faced away from them, doing his best, Lina thought, to avoid thinking about what they were actually doing. She knew the feeling.
“We should go,” he said, looking out over the lush green fields that led to the stream and then the caverns. Neither landmark was visible from this distance, but Lina could practically hear the babbling brook in her mind and had a sudden daydream about the three of them swimming and splashing each other, laughing as they cooled off from the hot summer sun.
It seemed like a thing they’d do, though now they’d never get the chance.
Just as well, she didn’t need more things to miss.
“You’re right,” Suriah said dejectedly. She took Lina’s hand and squeezed. “I’m really glad you came here and were my friend for a little while.”
Lina gave her a small, sad smile and nodded. “Me too.”
Suriah started walking without releasing her hand, and Bain fell into step with them, taking Lina’s other hand. It was a little awkward, but comforting all the same. They had her back. That was real friendship. Something she’d never known before coming to Mabnoa.
They crossed the meadow without incident and soon the stream came into view, two uniformed guards posted by the big boulders that marked the bridge’s location.
Bain muttered a curse under his breath and both girls turned to him with a surprised look. He offered a sheepish shrug. “The one time I hoped to be wrong…”
“So what’s the plan?” Surie asked in a low whisper.
Bain seemed stumped, his eyes going wide. “I… uh... Distraction?”
Suriah grinned and shook her head, patting her brother on the shoulder in a pitying gesture. “You just leave it to me, big brother.”
His eyebrows rose and Lina sent him a questioning look, but he only shrugged in response as Suriah waltzed off toward the guards.
“What is she doing?” Lina hissed. She was walking right up to them!
“What Suriah does best,” Bain said, sounding a little weary of the whole thing, despite the amusement she heard in his voice.
“Hey there,” Suriah said brightly. “How’s it going?”
The guards muttered something, looking straight ahead and not really acknowledging the princess. That seemed odd to Lina, but maybe the queen had given them specific instructions, or — if Bain’s confidence was anything to go by — they were just used to this from her.
“What did you guys do to get posted all the way out here?”
She was met with stone-faced silence. Lina was sure this wasn’t going to work. “Maybe we should try to go around another way,” she whispered.
Bain held a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Trust her.”
“It’s pretty out here though… So far away from the palace. Hot though, don’t you think?” Surie asked, fanning herself with her hand. “The palace is always so nice and cool and shaded. The sun is nice and all, but those uniforms must be stifling. I’m hot just looking at you guys,” she said. Even from a distance, Lina could hear the flirtatiousness in her voice, she could see it in the way she moved.
Bain was still as marble next to her.
“I don’t know how you boys do it. You’d think they could at least send you some cold drinks out here now and then. You look thirsty. Are you thirsty?”
By now, the guards were absently wiping sweat from their forehead. If they hadn’t noticed the heat before, Suriah was making sure they couldn’t ignore it now.
Surie paced around them, working her way toward the water, but they wouldn’t let her past.
“It’s just such a beautiful day, I was thinking a swim in the stream is exactly what I need to cool off…” she said, sidestepping one of the guards to climb on a big rock.
“Princess Suriah,” one of the guards said, his voice a warning, but also clearly concerned. “Please get down, it’s not safe.”
“Oh, nonsense! It’s perfectly safe to go swimming. I’ve done it a hundred times!” She reached for the hem of her shirt and began to pull it up, revealing her smooth flat belly as she did.
Lina turned to Bain and he looked like this whole charade was causing him physical pain, but he held his position. He didn’t move and didn’t make a sound. Lina reached for his hand and squeezed, bringing it to her lips in a silent thanks for going through this for her sake.
One of the guards stared unabashedly at the princess while the other looked supremely uncomfortable, trying his best to both shield his eyes and coax Suriah off the big rock.
“Princess, your mother—”
“Wouldn’t know fun if it hit her on the head,” Surie said, dancing away from his reaching hands. “It’s just a little swim in the river. You’re here to keep a close eye on me. What could possibly go wrong?” she said, dousing her words with innuendo as she switched focus to the guard who couldn’t stop staring. Not that Lina could blame him. Suriah was beautiful and vivacious and commanded attention everywhere she went. Not to mention she was a princess. What guy wouldn’t be drawn to that?
“Come on, can’t a girl have a little fun?” Now she was taking off her shoes and still spinning out of the way of the guard who was determined to get her off the boulder for her own good.
“Princess, please. You have to—” The guard lunged for her and Suriah dodged out of the way. Her foot slipped on the moss-covered rock and time slowed down as they all watched her tumble into the river.
“PRINCESS!” the guard cried, likely seeing his whole career flushed down the drain as her head disappeared under the water.
It was the ogling guard that immediately dropped his weapons and dove into the river, resurfacing with Suriah in tow.
She spluttered and coughed, clinging to him dramatically.
Once he pulled her to shore, he brushed her hair out of her eyes and checked her over quickly. “Are you alright?”
Suriah seemed entranced with the man now that they were face to face — her, sitting in the mud, him kneeling at her side, concern etched into every line of his face. Even Lina noticed the guard was super cute and it was no wonder that Surie was suddenly tongue-tied as she nodded.
“Just… wet,” she said.
“That was very dangerous,” he said sternly, standing and holding out a hand to her. Meanwhile, the other guard looked like his whole life had just flashed before his eyes. He was pale and sweaty and bracing his hand on a nearby boulder for support like he might just faint at any moment.
Surie slipped her hand into the cute guard’s and he pulled her to her feet. Instantly, she winced and wobbled, falling into his chest as his arms instinctively went around her to catch her.
“My ankle,” she whined. “I think I hurt it when I slipped…”
Cute-guard frowned, pulling away from her enough to look down at her bare feet. Nothing looked swollen from Lina’s vantage point. “We should get you back to the palace,” he said, turning to his companion.
“But… The queen said…”
“The princess is injured. It is our sworn duty to ensure her safety.”
The other guard still looked like he wanted to argue but he snapped his jaw shut and slumped, knowing defeat when he saw it.
“Alright, but this is on you.”
Cute-guard was unfazed. “Do you think you can walk with my support, or should I carry you?”
“I… I think I can make it,” Surie said, testing her foot and wobbling back into the guard after a tiny cry.
Without saying anything else, he swept her into his arms, one under her knees, one wrapped around her back, and started off toward the palace, his fellow guard trudging behind them.
As the trio passed, Bain and Lina crouched further down into the tall grasses. Suriah turned and found them, giving them a big smile and a thumbs up.
“You’re so strong to carry me like this,” she said, awed as she squeezed the guard’s bicep. Soon, they were too far to hear and then, out of sight entirely.
Finally, Bain and Lina stood, stretching after being crouched down for so long.
“Gotta hand it to her, that girl knows how to distract some guards,” Lina said with a chuckle.
Bain still looked pained as he nodded. “She does. I just wish her tactics weren’t so…”
“Effective?” Lina teased.
He granted a conciliatory smile. “Alright, fine. You got me there. They are that.”
“Shall we?” she offered, knowing he didn’t want to dwell on his sister’s budding seductress talents. Though, the way she was looking at that guard… maybe she wasn’t too far away from the kind of relationship her brother had found. Only Lina hoped she’d be a bit luckier in that regard.
Bain raised the bridge across the stream and they crossed to the caves without saying much of anything. Once they got to the main cavern, Lina grinned.
“I can’t believe we did it,” she said.
“Well, it’s not done yet,” he reminded her.
“Right.” She’d tried to not think about the daunting task of putting together a spaceship when she had only the vaguest idea of how the pieces fit together. But it was her only hope.
“I found something that might be of use to you, when I was scouring the archives. It was buried in a link chain that ran ten links deep, so I’m sure my mother isn’t aware it’s accessible at all. It seems like it should have been buried with everything else, but this one reference slipped through the cracks.”
Lina shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
From his back pocket, Bain pulled a stack of folded papers and presented them to Lina. Her brow furrowed and she took the papers, flipping through them one by one until her heart was soaring. “Are you serious? This looks like everything!”
“I’m pretty sure it’s everything. I grabbed everything that was there. Will it help?”
Her grin threatened to split her face in two, but she didn’t care. She threw her arms around Bain’s neck and peppered him with kisses until she couldn’t contain her delight anymore and squealed happily. “Help? Bain, these are complete blueprints. They’re going to make everything so much easier.” Repairing, she could do. The thought of building this thing just from how she thought it worked had been terrifying, but with blueprints? She could fix anything.
“Well then, let’s get to work. I don’t doubt my mother will send more guards the moment she realizes Suriah’s deception. Hopefully, Surie can hold her off for a while.”
Lina nodded, already scrambling down into the basin where she began to cobble together the scattered pieces of the destroyed ships. She salvaged what she could, welding the hulls of three different ships together in a patchwork of metal, but it would hold. It didn’t need to look pretty, it just needed to get her out of here.