Chapter 785: Weapons

"Tell me where your people are before deciding whom to kneel to," Alex said.

The answer came quickly.

"Outside the damaged district. We heard the fighting, but the roads were full of Imperial troops."

The speaker was on Proxima.

Alex looked toward Dorian at the doorway. The commander straightened as soon as he heard there were more of their people within walking distance.

"Can you bring supplies?" Alex asked the voice.

"We have weapons."

"Cloth, water, something to move injured people on. We have enough people holding weapons while someone else bleeds beside them."

A pause followed.

"We can bring those too."

Dorian gave Vesa a route that avoided the ruined service yard and the streets where his soldiers were still containing Thepes’s scattered followers. She passed it on.

The caller accepted the directions, calling Alex his king before the exchange faded.

Thepes made another harsh sound from the floor, and Alex glanced at him.

"I heard it," he said.

"Then get used to it."

Alex did not answer. Another voice was already waiting, and it wanted something more useful than permission to bow.

The pilot had finished checking his route.

"We can reach Proxima," he said. "That doesn’t mean I can bring everyone aboard into an Imperial port."

"The emergency fleet left the city," Alex said. "It can come back. I won’t tell you the planet is safe."

"Then why should I turn toward it?"

"You said you had wounded."

"I also have people who aren’t wounded yet."

Alex looked toward Mingyue.

Alex had no answer for that. The fleet could return while the pilot’s passengers were still on the ground.

"We have treatment in Edonia," Mingyue said. "Your wounded can reach it from our receiving area. The rest of your passengers can stay aboard."

"Where do I land?"

Alex called Dorian back before the commander left the doorway. The pilot described the approach his navigator had found, keeping away from the direction taken by the withdrawing warships.

Dorian listened, then named an open freight ground outside the damaged district.

"How much can that ship carry once the wounded are off?" he asked Alex quietly.

"Ask the pilot after they’re off."

"We have soldiers who could use it."

"And he’s deciding whether to come at all. Give him a place to land."

Dorian’s mouth tightened, but he turned back to the call.

"My people came past it," he said. "The road to us is clear. I’ll send someone to check the landing ground before you reach it."

"How far from your wounded?" the pilot asked.

Dorian described the turns between the freight ground and reception. The wounded would need carriers for that stretch.

Alex looked at the injured people being carried past the doorway.

"We’ll have carriers waiting. Tell me how many need to lie flat."

The pilot spoke to someone beside him. His voice grew distant while he counted beds with the attendant, then returned more clearly.

"Some of them can’t walk. And I won’t unload anyone who wants to stay aboard."

"Ask them," Alex said. "Their attendants can go with them."

Mingyue contacted Selene to arrange the receiving space. Vesa passed the landing directions back to the navigator and asked her to repeat them before the pilot committed the ship.

The pilot returned after speaking to the passengers.

"The wounded want to come. Two attendants will go with them. The rest want to stay on the ship until we know more."

"All right."

"You understand what I’m saying? I’m bringing people for treatment. I haven’t agreed to put my ship under your commander."

"Dorian is finding you somewhere to land," Alex said. "He isn’t taking your ship."

After a pause, the pilot called to the navigator to change their course.

Alex heard an alarm sound faintly behind the man’s next words.

"I can keep the engine feed steady now that my strength is back. It still needs watching. I’ll give you our arrival estimate after we finish the turn."

"Keep this response available," Vesa said. "Tell us if the route changes."

The pilot broke off to order everyone seated for the turn. Vesa lowered that response, leaving the engines and the argument over where to put the stretchers to the people aboard.

Dorian sent two of his own people toward the freight ground. They would check it and return a report before the transport arrived. Selene began finding enough carriers for the passengers who could not sit upright.

***

The older vampire inside the sealed shelter listened to the answer from Proxima, then opened his eyes.

The young man beside the entrance was still waiting.

"Well?" he asked.

"They say they have people receiving the wounded."

"Then why are we still here?"

The older vampire looked around the room.

Some of those listening were ready to leave the moment he lifted the seal. Others had moved closer to the inner wall when the distant voices began speaking of ships, armies, and a city that had just fought an Imperial fleet.

Their blood had strengthened, but they still disagreed about leaving the shelter.

"We aren’t leaving this shelter today," he said.

The young man’s expression hardened.

A knock came from beyond the sealed entrance.

Everyone went quiet.

The older vampire moved toward the door and listened to the voice on the other side. He knew it. A family from the neighboring ruins had heard the same call and come looking for someone who could explain it.

One of them was hurt.

The young man looked at him again.

The older vampire put his hand against the outer seal.

"We open the first room," he said. "The inner door stays closed until we know who is here."

He loosened the outer formation himself.

The family entered carrying a man whose leg had been bound with strips of torn clothing. They had not come with demands or an army. They wanted somewhere to put him down while the renewed movement in his blood made the injured limb twitch painfully.

The older vampire helped clear a bench while the young man took the injured man’s weight without waiting for an order.

When they had him settled, the older vampire returned to the faint call.

"We will stay where we are," he said. "We opened the outer room for injured neighbors. We can receive more people near us. Tell us what to watch for when the blood answers badly."

He did not give the shelter’s location, and the voice from Proxima did not demand it.