Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) by P.S. Power Page B

had both been exposed to the mist too. Tiera
just hadn't screamed, so he hadn't noticed it as easily as with Kolb. They all
had blisters on their skin and were, thankfully, healing already. So it wasn't
permanent, no matter what it was.
    "Hang on." They didn't have to do it physically,
but Timon wasn't planning to be nice about what came next, given the use of
that kind of thing. It wasn't affecting the remainder of the people either, so
they were immune to it, or something. Hopefully that meant it was their trap,
instead of a nuke or strike from space.
    The craft expanded to the largest size he could make it,
which was nearly the footprint of the building they were in, that pretty much
caused the upper floors to fall in. The tricky part was that he took time to
wrap the mobile armored suit in the shield material, locking it in place with
no air. If it didn't have its own inside, the person there was going to be
pretty uncomfortable a few minutes later. The rest of it was done as soon as he
rose up, at about a thousand miles per hour. Maybe a little more. He had to
stop after about ten seconds so they wouldn't end up going too high.
    Then he let the forced air system start to work again, and
just sat there, hovering for a few seconds, and took off, headed for Noram, not
having any better plan.
    The others were doing better at least, though Julie wasn't
awake yet. If it was her at all. She looked right, but had her eyes closed
still. There was breathing, a mesmerizing rise and fall that he had to force
himself to look away from as soon as he realized what he was doing, which was
looking at her, instead of piloting the craft they were in. The one moving at
thousands of miles per hour. It was part of how she'd been created. She was
lovely, perhaps the most captivating person to have ever lived, or at least one
of them. Her skin, now that some of her natural tone was returning, was like
the surface of a pearl, and her hair wasn't just pure white, but glistened a
bit.
    That plus the fact that she was spraying chemicals out that
caused her to be addictively attractive would explain his lack of discipline
well enough. That was through his shield too, which he'd never turned off.
Making himself focus, he didn't speak, just doing his part, which was to keep
moving and evade capture, if there was pursuit. Nothing seemed to be following
them, but he couldn't see behind the vehicle, so had to circle in order to get
a good look. It was that or make the rest of the craft see through, which might
just be a problem for the others at the moment.
    Kolb rallied first, but didn't speak until he was back to
normal, more or less.
    "We need to do something slightly unexpected. Head for
Austra. It isn't ideal, but we'll have to make do. There are only so many
places we can go to regroup right now, and Noram is too obvious by far. I'd try
Vagus, but..." He paused for a long time. "Head there instead. I was
being prejudiced, because of their low technological level, but we don't need
tech right now, we need a place to work from that no one else would be thinking
about overly."
    "Right." Timon made the needed corrections, not
bothering to look at a map. It was his job to know that sort of thing.
Literally. He had the whole globe memorized as well as most of the biggest
cities. Even the ones in Tellerand. Just in case it ever came up.
    No one spoke for a while longer, Tiera so clearly holding
her mind in check that it radiated from her. It was nice. A peaceful thing that
Timon wasn't sure he could have managed at all. It was White that started the
conversation, making a strange noise that sounded happy enough, if odd.
    "Oh, good. I was wondering if anyone would notice. They
said they replaced me with a clone?"
    Timon had heard that one too, so nodded from the front.
    "Yes. Tiera and Orange worked it out. Sorry about the
delay getting to you. I don't want to be rude, but could you take your clothes
off?" He half expected someone to call him on it, but