by Brandon Barr
He met her eyes. “You finally got somewhere?”
She grinned. “Yes. It’s taken a lot of searching, but finally I have something.”
She saw the excitement on Rueik’s face at the news. Together they had been hunting for the killer of the three Emissaries. The murders had taken place at the Royals’ masquerade ball over three months ago.
Zoecara carefully suppressed her true feelings. But she enjoyed knowing that Rueik was totally blind to the fact that the lips he kissed were the same lips that had delivered the poison to the three dead Emissaries. It had been so easy. With wine in their stomachs, it had taken little persuasion to entice each Emissary to leave the ball and accompany her to the Royal garden for a walk. An application of poisoned gloss on her lips, a short kiss, and then she’d held them tight as the exotic hallucinogen deadened them to the numbness spreading through their limbs. It had taken her entire life to build up an acclimation to the toxins, and the hallucinogen made each death its own euphoric thrill. Then she’d stabbed each of them through the heart after they died, to throw off the authorities.
Ever since, she and Rueik had been searching for the killer, while the whole time the killer was right in front of him. It was delicious, really. She couldn’t remember when she’d enjoyed anything so much.
“What did you find?” he asked impatiently. “Did you grid any documents?”
“I did. And they contain big names. Princess Kyrnae of the Second Quorum, Queen Lani of the Second Quorum, King Drakenhaur of the First Quorum, Prince Damien—no surprise there—and Chancellor Geraldus, the man I saw in the shadows, but now I have a name to his face. And of course, as we suspected, Detective Slee. Look for yourself.” She pulled a screen from under her bed sheets and handed it to Rueik. “It looks like Slee’s being paid a Royal purse to do the dirty work, or as they put it, twist things. There are some other names, but what I find especially interesting is that all five court astronomers seem to be pushing this. And there is a cryptic reference to ‘the foreign contact’ or just ‘the contact.’ That leads me to think that somehow they’re in touch with someone from an upworld, perhaps mercenaries. Why else are the astronomers involved?”
She watched his eyes twitch back and forth over the screen as he soaked in her lies and filled in the missing pieces.
“A ship,” said Rueik. “Nephitus has the portal on lock. Any upworld has to come from space.”
“I think you’re right. The only question in my mind is…”
He finished her open-ended thought. “Is a Beast behind this?” He met her eyes. “Almost certainly the answer is yes. Killing Guardians is practically their call sign.” His eyes narrowed. “We have to tell Karience. Now that we have—”
“No! Not yet.”
“Why?” Rueik’s eyes were intense.
Zoecara had anticipated this. “I need another week. Maybe two. Look at the second document.”
He flicked his finger across the screen.
“There,” she said. “It mentions ‘two seeds.’ And then down here.” She read aloud: “‘Give them time to infiltrate. Information is invaluable. Once the seeds have what they need, then we can move toward eradication. Our contact is adamant we remain patient.’”
Rueik bit his lip as he absorbed the full import of what she said. A hunger stirred again in Zoecara for his lips to be on hers. He was such a fun pet to play with.
“It’s clear to me who the two seeds are,” said Zoecara. “It’s the young farmers. Think about it. Two orphaned farm children with no family and no contacts are chosen for Emissary duty. There’s no other possible reason. It’s borderline crazy, how bold the Beasts can be.”
Rueik stared hard at the screen, his jaw tight. The shadows of his face were so attractive when he was tense. “If that’s true, they’re amazing actors. Just like we were warned in training. They seem so normal. It’s hard to imagine they could be someone else underneath.”
Zoecara waited, her eyes searching his face, as if their next step was still uncertain and she needed him to help discover it.
“I’ll stay close to them. Be their friend. We have some time, according to the letter. They could be here a year or more before they feel they have enough intelligence. But I think we should let Karience know right now. I see no reason to keep her in the dark.”
“I do,” said Zoecara. “We can tell Karience, but only once we get some dirt on them. And…” She let her voice trail off.
“Why wait?”
“Because I’m not sure there isn’t someone else already inside. I’m not sure the ‘contact’ isn’t a Guardian.”
“One of us?”
“How else are two random, uneducated farmers chosen to be Emissaries? Like I said, no other explanation makes sense. They had to have help to pull that off.”
Rueik shook his head. “The only person who oversaw the selection of new recruits is Karience, and she’s untouchable, as far as I’m concerned.”
She wanted to tell him that no one was untouchable, but that wouldn’t be the best direction to lead his thoughts.
“Why did she choose them?” she asked. “There were certainly dozens of more qualified entries.”
She saw her question work just a little at his confidence.
“You see what I mean?” she continued. “I agree with you. Everything I know about Karience tells me she’s a Guardian from heart to soul. But maybe there’s something else going on. Pressure from certain Royals, or maybe from higher up in the Guardian ranks. It’s unwise to dismiss the possibility that she’s involved, no matter how unlikely it seems.”
“All right,” said Rueik. “I’ll keep quiet. In the meantime, I’m going to follow Winter and Aven around like a dog. And you, you’re going to use your contacts and figure out how those two got in here.”
A spark caught fire in his eyes. “I have an idea. I could try my hand at some of the physician arts.”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Zoecara, interested, but trying to hide it. What did he think he could do?
He held up the first screen that she’d given him. “This screenbook has a lot more than brain wipes in the section on mind. If there is an insider, I could search memory easily enough without anyone knowing. But I need a particular tool a physician carries.”
“The mind probe?”
“Exactly.”
She waited, finding this aggressive train of thought slightly alarming. Maybe getting him the screenbook was a mistake. This was not the conservative, cautious man she was used to. Still, perhaps this avenue could be used to her advantage, but…how far was he willing to go?
Rueik shook his head. “It would be impossible to get our hands on one, even on the black market…and yet, there is one way. I don’t like it, though.”
She knew exactly what he was thinking. They had a physician in the tower. Alael. It was a rare opportunity. But this was a dangerous track, and she needed to control it.
“What would you say if I could get it for you?” she said.
Rueik hesitated. She could see the storm on his face.
“We’re talking about a Beast infiltrating our ranks,” she pressed. “This is bigger than both of us. You brought the idea up because you know the stakes. We have to do what we can in the moment we are in.”
His eyes softened, and he nodded slowly.
She’d never actually get the tool for him, for it wouldn’t do having him look in one of the new Emissary’s minds and find nothing, but she wanted to encourage him, keep him believing in her story. She leaned up against him and brushed her lips against his. She saw the moral and ethical dilemmas still fighting for life behind his green eyes.
To that, she whispered, “It’s all right. Stop thinking. Just kiss me.”
Chapter Nine
WINTER
Aven looked handsome in the white uniform of the Guardians. Winter could see her father in him, especially his eyes and mouth. She, on the other hand, had never experienced pants before. They rubbed her skin oddly a
nd constrained the movement she would normally have in a dress or skirt.
“I wonder if we are paid as Emissaries?” asked Aven.
Winter smiled. “I never considered that. I wouldn’t know what to do with coins in my hands.”
“Karience said I could buy a farm,” said Aven. “Now I can’t stop thinking of it.”
When Winter had awakened that morning, she couldn’t help but contrast it to the previous morning, waking in the Baron’s household, the perfumed sheets, the feeling of luxury. In one day she’d gone from fear and anxiety to living a dream. It was more than she could have hoped for.
And then she’d gotten up and seen the view from the window. The height of the Guardian tower was greater than any tree, giving her a magnificent view. The sun hadn’t yet broken the horizon, a soft glow illuminating the city as it awaited daybreak. She had stood there in silent awe. The city was so much larger than the farm village she was used to. Even at that early hour, the streets were teeming with people, riders, and carriages. In the distance was the Royal Palisade, castles upon castles, with rows of towers stretching into the sky like spines on the backs of the sunfish found in farm ponds.
Aven had joined her there, in her room. And they stood there now, gazing at the vast expanse of human activity they had never really known existed.
“Have your feelings changed a little about this place?” she asked him. “You seem cheerier than last night.”
“I’m a little more hopeful. Karience said I could marry and buy property. I intend to. If I can have a farm and a family living with the Guardians, I will be happy. Even if they are, in the end, just another form of the Baron, always watching and controlling.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, brother,” said Winter playfully. “It’s my job to find you a mate, now that our parents are gone.”
He took her hand, contentment bringing a peaceful aura to his face. “I’m going to find someone who can answer more of my questions. And get some breakfast.” He squeezed her hand. “Coming?”
“No. I’m not hungry.”
Aven put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. She felt better now that her brother’s mood had changed. When he departed, she stood at the window, but she no longer saw the view. Her thoughts were on Leaf. She felt certain the Maker was listening.
I know you are here, in some way. As close as my next breath. Your child is ready. Take her where you will.
______
AVEN
Aven found his way back to the large room the Guardians had greeted them in. The room was brightly lit by overhead strips of light. Four hallways ran off in opposite directions. Each one glowed softly in a different color. Last night, Hark had explained that this was the center of the second floor. The Guardian Tower was twelve levels high in the shape of a…the right word formed in his mind with an image…a cylinder. The outer edge of his bedroom, like Winter’s, was curved. Hark had shown him the simple layout by giving him a tour of the sleeping quarters. Aven and Winter’s rooms were in the orange-lit hallway. The kitchen was down the red-lit hall, on the level above them. Hark had pointed out the lift that moved one up and down between floors.
Aven eyed the lift door suspiciously, where it blended into the strange edgeless room, almost indistinguishable from the wall. He hadn’t much enjoyed the journey here from the underwater ship dock.
A child’s shrill laughter echoed from the hall lit in blue. Curious, Aven walked toward the sound. Around a bend in the hall stood Hark in a doorway, talking to a woman holding an infant. Ambling about Hark’s legs was a little boy, pulling at his loose uniform pants.
The woman’s eyes turned to Aven as he came near. Her eyes were strange: tilted downward at the corners, justifying her long, freckled face. A glint of intrigue marked her expression as he approached.
“You’re up early,” said Hark. “It’s barely daybreak.”
“Is that early on your world?”
“I’m an asteroid miner, remember? The idea of early and late have no meaning on my world. On an asteroid, you can be eating breakfast, and by the time you finish, you can call the meal dinner. It depends on the size and rotation speed of the rock you’re working on. Different than planets like yours, where you can get a pattern going.”
The woman beside Hark bowed her head to Aven and spoke, but the words were strange.
“Akexi welcomes you,” said Hark.
Aven bowed in return. He hadn’t thought about the VOKK device since he’d awakened that morning. Now he wondered why it wasn’t working.
“Why can I understand your words, but not hers?”
“She speaks a language not yet translated by the VOKK.”
Aven nodded. “So, she can understand me, but I can’t understand her?” Aven glanced at her face as he spoke. Her eyes were fixed on the baby in her arms who was starting to squirm.
“She could understand you, and you her, if she had a VOKK. But they’re costly, and only Guardians receive them.”
“So how does it work?” asked Aven. “Am I speaking your language, or are you speaking mine? It feels like you’re speaking mine.”
“Yes. I am speaking yours. But if you were to travel to my asteroid belt, or any chartered world, you could speak and understand their language the moment you arrived. And if you traveled to a world like my Akexi’s, you would pick up their language quickly. That is how the Missionaries learn the language when they arrive on a new world. And if you continue to speak to my wife a little more, you’ll find the VOKK will begin to learn her language on its own. But if I find you’ve become fluent in my wife’s language by the end of a week, I’ll rip that VOKK straight out your brain.” Hark winked. “That’s a joke.”
Aven smiled, but an intriguing question had wrapped around his thoughts. “Your family lives with you here?”
“That’s right. Wherever I go within the Guardians, that’s where they go. Unless I’m on a mission.”
“Right now I’m on a mission to get some breakfast,” said Aven, smiling down at the boy at Hark’s feet.
“I didn’t finish telling you about our tower.” Hark hefted the little boy into his arms and carried him down the hall, leading Aven back to the center room. “Think of it as a tree with twelve branches. The lower nine branches belong to the Shield Force. We, in the Missionary enclave, get the nicest view from the top three branches. Branch ten is the one we’re on now. It’s our sleeping quarters. Branch eleven of the enclave has the kitchen, recreation room, a library, an exercise facility, and at the center is the lounge. The upper level—branch twelve—is where we Missionaries train. And Karience’s office is on that level too.” He pointed to two buttons on the wall. “Black is up, white is down. Press them and just tell the lift where you want to go.”
Hark pressed the black button. “Kitchen,” he said.
A section of the wall slid back, revealing the lift.
“Go on,” said Hark. “I already told you where the kitchen was. Down the red-lit hallway on the floor above us.”
Aven stepped inside. The door closed. There was a brief sense of movement and then, almost immediately, it opened again. He stepped out into a large room like nothing he had seen before. Tall, comfortable chairs and deep sofas were organized around low tables. The room was empty, but for Arentiss, who sat on a large cushion hunched over some kind of game. Beside her was a tray of food.
“Hungry? Come, I’ve brought breakfast out from the kitchen.”
Aven took a seat.
“The kitchen has tables and chairs, but I prefer to eat out here. Go ahead. Fill your plate.”
“Who prepared this food?” asked Aven.
“The Royals provide cooks around the clock. Whenever you’re hungry, go into the kitchen and you’ll see a wall display with the current food choices. When you see what you want, just speak it and the cooks will send it up.”
“They make it down below then send it up to us?”
Arentiss nodded, then began scooping food onto a plate. Egg
s. Sausage. A sweet-smelling bread.
“This is for you,” she said. “I hope parsing out your food wasn’t too motherly of me.” Her last sentence held some sarcasm.
“I insulted you yesterday,” said Aven. “I am sorry. I meant nothing by it.”
“I’m teasing you,” she said softly. “I’m the one who should apologize. Upworld cultures like mine are much more sensitive about age.” She gave him a strange look. “You are a handsome man. When you made that comment about my age—comparing me to your mother—I was contemplating the possibility of your being attracted to me. That’s why I reacted as I did.”
Aven grinned awkwardly. Was she making a joke? But her eyes showed no humor, so he didn’t know what to think. He escaped her relentless gaze by looking down at his food.
“Thanks for breakfast,” he said finally.
“You are welcome.”
Arentiss put a small bite of food in her mouth and stared at him with her sharp eyes. Her small nose tilted upward as she continued to observe him, as if studying a specimen, not a human being. He shrugged away his discomfort. He didn’t think she was trying to make him uncomfortable. She was just, odd. Different worlds. Different cultures.
He ate his food in awkward silence for a while.
“I should tell you about Pike,” said Arentiss, tapping the prongs of her fork against her lips. “Karience wants you and Winter to meet him again today.”
The coming meeting with Pike had been on his mind ever since the last one. “I promise, Winter and I won’t cause trouble this time.”
“Good,” said Arentiss. “We’ve erased his memory of yesterday’s incident. You’ll have a fresh start. Karience had the physician create more distance between Pike and you and your sister. He will now have a new memory of the last five years where he barely saw you, and when he did, it was just a casual greeting, or a comment on the weather, or asking how the family is.”
