The Complete Madion War Trilogy Read online

  "Hey, Theo!" Lanis called to me from the plane next to mine. He was covered in oil from the plane he was working on. "Good patrol this morning?"

  "Yeah," I said, checking the oil levels on my ship and continuing my routine inspection. "What do you hear on the next mission?"

  "Eh," he grunted. "Bayard was on the radio this morning, talking about how we're winning the fight against Kylaen aggression. That Cannon guy is still with him."

  I snorted; our president had been reelected four times in the past fifteen years, and the president before that had been in power since we first declared independence from Kylae. Bayard was the consummate politician, and had been known to keep war heroes by his side at press conferences. His latest pet project was Mark Cannon, a handsome captain who'd fought off twenty planes on the western front.

  "So what do you hear about the mission?" I pressed. The old man had been around; he'd been a pilot himself in his younger days, retiring after his twenty years in the service and coming back as a mechanic. But he retained his connections to the other pilots who'd gone on to become the higher ranking bigwigs in our military. So he always knew the secrets.

  "The princeling is about ready to start flying," he said, looking around. At my startled gasp, he added, "Now don't be spreading that around, 'neechai."

  "I won't, I won't," I shook my head and smiled. Coming from someone like Lanis, the Raven pet name meant more like little sister. Raven words were funny like that.

  But the princeling out in the air? That was good news. "Grieg is really sending his son out even after the other one was killed last year?"

  "Yep." Lanis nodded. "Turns out they made an upstanding citizen out of that playboy." He winked at me. "Don't go losing your head over him like these other girls."

  "Me? Please!" But I had to laugh. Galian was not wanting for handsomeness, and he'd managed to steal the hearts of more than one of my fellow female pilots. Somehow they could separate him from his family and his country, something I'd never been able to do.

  "You'd better keep an eye on some of your lieutenants." Lanis laughed. "They find out the princeling is up in the sky with you, they'll follow him back to the castle—hoping they can become a princess!"

  "Well, then they can follow him down to hell, 'cause if I see him up there, that's where he's going," I said, holding my fingers up to the sky and making a shooting sound. "Down he goes like his brother."

  "Just look for the one who can't fly, right?" Lanis laughed and I joined him, the absurdity of the situation so very amusing.

  "I'm not looking for anything if my plane doesn't get off the ground," I said, grabbing a wrench. I needed to work quickly. I never knew when the air raid sirens would begin to wail.

  Galian

  The Kylaen hospital was world-renowned for the quality of care provided. Doctors from all nations flocked here to take advantage of the research and most technologically advanced tools, and only the best doctoral candidates were accepted as interns and residents. Except if you were the son of the man paying all the bills. Then you just got in.

  The medical staff was led by the chief of medicine, Dr. Sebastian Maitland. He'd been my own doctor since I was in diapers, and one of the reasons I'd decided to go into medicine. Even before I put on my first lab coat, he was always available to dispense wisdom and guidance, and he was the man I wanted to see before this stupid farce of an air raid.

  He met me at the entrance to the hospital, undoubtedly tipped off to my arrival by trailing tabloid photographers. As soon as I fought my way past them, I shook the hand of my mentor. His bald head was covered in age spots, but he was as spry and as agile as ever.

  "Your Highness!" I had begged him to lose the formalities a long time ago, but it was rare that he called me by my given name. "How goes the flying?"

  "Ugh. I've got...a thing in a few hours." Even though I trusted Maitland with my life, Raven had become desperate lately with their spying. I wouldn't put it past them to have a spy stationed at the hospital.

  "In the meantime, we are understaffed today," he said with a knowing sparkle in his eye. "Perhaps I could persuade you to step in and help examine some of them?"

  He didn't have to ask twice. As quickly as I could retrieve them from my locker (which they'd kept out of respect for me), I was back in my lab coat and scrubs, following Dr. Maitland as he did his morning rounds. We paused at the nurse's station to get the latest, and I ignored the gaga-eyes from a young blonde while the head nurse spoke to Dr. Maitland. She recommended we pay a visit to a veteran in room four, as he was there alone without any family. I was pretty sure she only suggested it on my account, but I was more than willing to play "Prince Doctor" for one of our veterans. Or at least, that was what I'd tell my father later today when he asked why I returned to the hospital instead of prepping for the mission that afternoon.

  "It's...His Highness!"

  The man was seventy, in the hospital with a broken hip from slipping down some stairs. He began trying to get out of bed to bow to me, but I stepped forward quickly to keep him from reinjuring himself.

  "Please," I said, gently pushing him back to bed. "Please sit back down."

  "Bless you, sire," he whispered. He gripped my hands with his old, weathered ones, and smiled. Dr. Maitland quizzed me on the patient's chart and my recommended procedure, and it helped ease some of my worry. Being in that room, talking medicine instead of war, felt right.

  A nurse popped her head in to request Dr. Maitland's assistance with another patient, so he left me in the room to continue by myself. I glanced through the chart three times before I actually read anything. I questioned the patient on his pain levels and then, remembering what the nurse had said, asked him about his family.

  "Never had one," he said. "Spent twenty years in the Kylaen forces before I retired."

  The reminder that I was getting ready to go into battle and kill a bunch of people was unwelcome, and I let the grimace show on my face.

  "Sire? Did I say something to offend you?"

  "No," I said. "I'm just... Can you keep a secret?"

  "Of course." He nodded.

  "I'm sure you know I...joined the Kylaen forces," I said, hoping I didn't sound too bitter. "Today is my very first air raid. And to be perfectly frank, I don't think...well, it doesn't sit right with me."

  "Sire, I, too, was a pilot in our great Kylaen forces, on behalf of your grandfather. The Ravens are better off under Kylaen rule, and it's only their misguided need to be independent that causes their suffering. They're squandering freedom as it is."

  I smiled and thanked the man, squeezing his hand and asking if there was anything else I could get for him then left. His words would've had more impact if I hadn't seen them blazed across propaganda posters, or spoken at my brother's funeral to try to appease my grieving mother's heart.

  Dr. Maitland met me outside with a grim smile on his face. "Your sergeant is waiting for you at the nurse's station," he said quietly. "He said you're needed back at the airfield."

  My heart fell into my stomach. Dr. Maitland, perceptive as ever, offered to walk me to his office to delay the inevitable a bit longer.

  "I hate this," I said, finally, as he closed the door behind him. "My stupid father—"

  Dr. Maitland cut me off. "Sire, your father simply is trying to stem the tide of the war."

  "Yeah, I'd believe that if he'd quit starting all the fights," I noted, watching the old doctor bristle. Dr. Maitland and I had spoken at length about my father since I was old enough to have a problem with him, but the good doctor was never comfortable when I disparaged His Highness.

  "I have a gift for you," Dr. Maitland said, retrieving a black bag from under his desk and handing it to me. "For your first mission."

  The bag was filled with medical supplies—antibacterial wipes, needles and tubes, gloves. I looked up at him dubiously. "I doubt I'm ever going to need these in the air."

  "Galian, you're a perceptive sort of fellow, one who I've had the utmost ple
asure watching grow from an inquisitive boy into a very well-rounded and genuinely kind young man. I was so proud when you asked me to help you apply for medical school, and even prouder when you joined me here at the hospital."

  "Will you be proud of me when I kill someone today?" I asked before I could stop myself.

  "I believe you will do what is necessary for your safety and the safety of those around you," Dr. Maitland said. "Including any Ravens."

  I glanced up at him, confused.

  "Galian, you know we get all kinds of patients in this hospital," he began quietly, and I knew this conversation was to stay between us. "I don't have the luxury of discriminating between Kylaen and Raven patients when they come into my hospital bleeding to death. I heal who needs to be healed, and leave politics to your father.

  "I'm giving you this bag not to use, but to remind you that you are not..." He paused, swallowing. "You are not your father's man. You are your own, and you can choose to do whatever you will with the time given to you."

  I was shocked at the boldness of his words, and knew he was breaking his own strict code to say them. But I also needed to hear them.

  He smiled at me with sadness in his eyes. "Good luck, Your Highness."

  TWO

  Theo

  BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

  I looked up from my engine, my heart sinking into my stomach. Our radar had picked up an incoming Kylaen attack. No matter how many times I'd heard the alarm, it never got any less frightening.

  But I had no time for fear, not when my twenty (nineteen, I reminded myself) pilots needed me to lead the way.

  I quickly finished the work on my engine, touching each of the screws to ensure I had fastened them. Lanis had taught me that trick—one loose screw could be the difference between life and death.

  My pilots trickled into the hangar and crowded around me as they had been instructed. I forced myself to speak some words of support.

  "They've been targeting the armory the last few attacks," I said, my voice strong and authoritative. "Don't let them get past you. We haven't yet rebuilt the facility after last year. Don't let them set us back again."

  I could've gone on about the importance of Raven independence or any of the other topics I'd memorized, but it wouldn't have done much good. Most of my pilots wore their nervousness on their faces, their fear that these moments in this place were their last. And I knew that, for some, it was.

  Instead of a speech, I smiled grimly. "Good luck. Dismissed."

  The group of twenty (nineteen) dispersed to their ships and, after a moment, I turned and walked to my girl. Once more, I touched the bolts on the engine, making sure the torque marks I'd placed were still intact, as were the older marks. Confident my girl was ready for battle, I closed up the hatch and said a small prayer.

  "'neechai," Lanis called. I followed his gaze to one of my ships still in the hangar, the pilot unmoving inside. I hurried to him, avoiding the other planes as they taxied out of the hangar. When I reached his plane, I climbed up to sit on top of the nose. The young pilot didn't even acknowledge my presence.

  "Hey...Dobolek, right?" I said, reading the name on his uniform. He nodded slightly. "First mission?"

  "Yes 'neechai."

  "It's not so bad," I said, hoping I sounded convincing. Nothing really compared to the sickening fear that came with one's first flight. But I needed him to get out there and try to survive.

  "My brothers are dead. My friends died in training. Why should I get in this plane and go to my own death?"

  I hated this question. I hated it because I had no good answers for it. It was one thing to talk about honor and country and duty, but when faced with a thirteen-year-old who was asking why he had to die, I could never force out the words I'd been told to say.

  Instead, I told him the same thing I said to myself every time I got in a plane:

  "Look, you survived training. You survived a Raven childhood. You've come all the way to this point. And God wouldn't have let you survive this long if there wasn't a reason."

  He nodded as two tears ran down his face.

  "So maybe you die today, or maybe you make it back with the rest of us. But whatever happens—"

  "Theo!" Lanis called. "Radar tower's wondering where you are!"

  I waved to Lanis, and he understood.

  "Take all that fear and trust that someone else is in control. There's nothing else that you can do," I said, taking his hand and squeezing it. "I'll be right up there with you."

  I hopped off his plane and stood back, waiting and hoping that my speech had at least jarred him enough to get him to move. And yet, I didn't want him to go. I wanted him and the rest of my twenty (nineteen) pilots back in their bunks where they belonged.

  But at the same time, if we didn't go out there, the Kylaens would drop their bombs on our base, killing us anyway.

  With that thought firmly lodged in my own mind, I marched back to my plane, ready to defend my country.

  Galian

  Butterflies filled my stomach. I hadn't quite relaxed since I left the hospital, and now, as I flew over the beautiful blue Madion Sea, my hands shook on the joystick of my plane.

  I couldn't have told anyone what we were trying to accomplish. I could barely even remember my name.

  There hadn't been anyone to see me off, though Kader had gripped me hard on my shoulder before I'd walked into the hangar. I checked all my instruments again, although our ships were so heavily modified, they basically flew themselves these days. In the distance, the first wave of pilots was engaging with the Raven forces. I was part of the third wave, the backup to the backup. Some part of me wished that a miracle would happen before my part in this exercise began, and we'd all turn around and go back home.

  In my helmet, I heard the sounds of the pilots ahead of me, their cursing and hissing as they avoided being blown up.

  "Aargh!"

  I swallowed hard as a plume of fire exploded around one of the planes in the distance. Scratchy voices came through from our airfield some two hundred miles behind me, ordering in the second wave of forces.

  But the Ravens had gone on the offensive, nearly twenty planes headed straight for the third wave. Bullets flew and I turned my ship to the side to avoid being shot. A Raven plane zoomed too close for comfort. Unlike our advanced planes with a single propeller, they still had the twin props on their rusty, older models.

  "First wave, disengage from mission and provide cover," someone barked in my ear.

  A bright flame exploded to my right and there was screaming in my ear again as another Kylaen soldier went down. Martin's young face was in my mind's eye, and I imagined he was in the plane that just went down, even though he was waiting with Kader back in Norose. Perhaps I could stomach it if I thought of this as an exercise in protecting my fellow soldiers versus killing innocent people.

  I flew my ship high above the rest, firing half-hearted bullets toward the rickety old ships that, despite looking older than I was, were still holding their own against our modern planes. I'd even begun to root for the Ravens; if they fought us off too badly, we'd retreat back to Norose.

  A familiar voice floated through our secure channels.

  "Well, boys, looks like you're kicking some ass out there..."

  It was Rhys, my eldest brother and the heir to the throne. He was technically in the military as well, but only dropped in on special occasions. My first mission apparently counted.

  Truthfully, his voice calmed my nerves. It was nice to know he was back at the airfield supporting me.

  I switched on my microphone and hoped I sounded brave.

  "Hey asshole. They let you in the front door?"

  Something changed in the radio chatter, and a chorus of voices began talking quickly and frantically. My radio went out for a second and I fiddled with the controls—

  A bullet flew by my head, and I stared at the exit hole on my cockpit glass. If it had been an inch closer, I might have been looking at my splattered br
ains on the window.

  As if my mind were working in slow motion, I realized that I must've alerted our enemy that I was among them. Of course they'd been monitoring our channels and recognized my voice.

  And now, they were gunning for me.

  "Galian, get out of there!" Rhys's voice was in my ear, rising above the fracas and giving me permission to do the thing I'd been wanting to do all day.

  Theo

  I had the princeling.

  By my count, we'd lost fifteen planes of the two hundred in our base's fleet. I didn't know how many of mine were included in that number. It was an oddly populated battle, with more Kylaen airships than usual coming at us in their normal wave formation.

  I'd shot down four planes when a stagnant plane flying high overhead caught my attention. There was something about the way he flew. Careful, not engaging in the fight. Then word came over the speakers that they'd heard the princeling over the radio, talking to his brother back in Kylae. I just knew that if I shot that plane out of the sky, we'd soon hear word that the Raven military had claimed another Kylaen royal.

  Call it a gut feeling.

  When the plane turned and headed north, I left the melee in the air behind, knowing if I took my eyes off of it for a second, he could disappear.

  I'd be damned if I'd let him go.

  Several Kylaen airships followed me, but I hadn't survived five years of this shit for nothing. I rolled my ship, took a few sharp turns, all the normal evasive maneuvers to lose them. And when that didn't work, I cracked open the small emergency window on my cockpit and stuck my gun out, firing at their fuselages. Two explosions later, they were falling into the Madion sea below us.