Bridger: a Dystopian Serial

The city of Eskalon

The lights came on, and a moment later the door to the room opened. Char sat up.

"Leader Char, please get up. Leader Taig has called for you." Venn glanced from Char to Seth and met her eyes without a hint of surprise. "I will wait for you outside."

The door shut.

"I told you they'd barge in," she groaned. She swung her legs off the bed and peeled off Seth's shirt. She had her back to him, but she could feel his gaze on her body. Char smiled.

Knobby knees and skinny ankles be damned, an ass was an ass.

Char ate breakfast with Leader Taig, Leander, and Seth in Taig's apartment. It was just a slightly larger version of her own room with a table and a window that looked down over the red valley. They drank a hot, sweet, creamy beverage that had a floral taste to it. Their food looked like army rations to Char—items that seemed like dried fruit, and a hard, savoury bread.

After a white-robed Na'odani cleared away the breakfast, Leader Taig pulled a thin, letter-sized sheet of metal from her robe and lay it on the table. She tapped it, and the dark surface shifted. Some kind of markings appeared.

"A message came from my superiors in Eskalon," she said. "You will state your case to the high council."

Char swallowed. "I-I'm not authorized to make deals. I'm just an envoy."

Taig stared at her stone-faced. "You may state your case, and the high council will decide if we will negotiate or keep you prisoner." She folded her hands. "Venn tells me your people intend to come into Kaa."

Damn it. Why did we let Venn hear the protocol?

"Yes," Char said.

"We will bridge to Eskalon soon. Go to your team and prepare them." Leader Taig got up[N1] . The door opened and Jezeen and another Na'odani stepped in.

"Take Leader Char to her people," Leader Taig said. "I will call for the aircraft."

<>

"You slept with him."

Char sat pinned in the corner of the packed aircraft with Leander beside her. Seth sat on the opposite side of the triangular craft talking to Callum.

Leander drilled her with a stare. "Did you?"

Char ignored her.

"Did you?" The other woman barked.

Char glanced around the aircraft. "Can you be quiet?"

Leander raised her eyebrows.

"Yes," she hissed. "We fucked and I'm not sorry."

Leander faced front again and peered at Char from the corner of her eye. "Are you out of your mind?"

"He's an attractive man who's dynamite in the sack. Do I sound crazy?"

Leander glanced at her. "Hmf."

"It doesn't mean anything." Char regretted saying it as soon as it left her mouth, but she didn't take it back. Seth was out of earshot.

The aircraft began to rise gently above the compound.

Char thought they were going to land and walk through the portal, but as their craft flew over a high, black pinnacle, she suddenly felt a sucking sensation. Around her the craft seemed to contract, then expand rapidly, bursting forth into open air.

Char sucked in a breath. The craft floated in blackness, but through the portholes she saw that around them were bright strands of blue and purple light, loosely woven together like reeds in a basket.