Chapter 18: Onboarding

A beefy, brutish Royal Guard escorted Etzli straight from the King's Keep to the King's Personal Flight Line.

Night had fallen. Endless lights twinkled above. Not stars, but air traffic and the flashing beacons of the Curtain.

Etzli once again found herself chained at the wrists. "Seriously," she said. "Can we drop it with the chains?"

"No," the guard said.

"But the King absolved me!"

"He didn't absolve you. He gave you a royal task. It's different."

They passed a row of absurdly large royal yachts parked along the tarmac. Most of them hadn't been used in years; nevertheless, they'd been scrubbed that very morning. They looked fresh off the showroom floor.

Ahead, a noticeably shabbier ship waited. A commercial starliner. It could carry 100 passengers, but it stood empty, like a ghost ship.

Staring up at it, Etzli felt dread soak into her chest.