“You don’t get to make demands,” I said. “I’ve got to decide what to do. I need to get advice from trusted sources. If you want to make some kind of a deal, if you want protection, then you’re going to have to work with more than just me.”
His face paled. “Aemi, listen to me. If you go to the wrong people, you could get me killed.”
“I’m not going to get you killed. Listen, if you’re telling the truth about Nautilus—”
“I am.”
“If you’re telling the truth, then you will be protected.”
He sighed. I realized he hadn’t been as certain as he pretended, not until I’d said that.
Some of the annoyance leaked from me, replaced with weary exasperation. “What do you want, Valus?”
“Guaranteed amnesty. Protection from my father. I want it offered by a senator.”
“Ah, so of course you came to me,” I said. He knew about my connections to Annah. He knew I knew him, I would potentially trust him enough to listen, and he could speak to her.
He stepped back. He looked me over once, and something about it made me flush.
“Good to see you again,” he said, and his fear vanished underneath a smirk once more. “I’ve missed our talks.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I’ll be here when you decide you want to work with me.”
He strolled away as if he didn’t have a fear in the world, and I stood staring after him a moment before my feet came unfrozen from the ground, and then I hastened down the stairs to find Tallyn.
~ ~ ~
Tallyn did not take the news of Valus’s presence well. He paced the length of his quarters and back again like a restless animal, his brow knit with a look that signaled brewing anger even though his expression was composed as always. “He must have arrived when I was gone rescuing you, because this is the first I’ve heard of it, and I have eyes and ears all over this house.”
“What do you think about what he’s proposing?” I asked. Focusing on failure was pointless. We needed to move forward.
“He could know nothing at all, and he’s lying to save his skin. He could be working for his father.”
“Valus is arrogant, but not stupid. I can’t believe he would come here, of all places, where he could be identified by me, if he were bluffing.”
Tallyn swung around to face me. “And he wants to speak to Annah?”
“Yes. My connections, it seems, are in great demand these days.”
Tallyn sighed. “I don’t want you to become a pawn in the middle of this war, Aemi. It’s too dangerous, and your safety is my highest priority.”
“I think it’s too late for that.” I paused. “What about the attacks on my life? Do you think...?”
“I think it’s quite possible there could be more from Tempest. But it’s also possible, given the chaos of Primus’s capture, they could be over. We have no way of knowing who survived, and your presence here is not yet public.”
“But it’s about to be.” I thought of the gala my mother was going to throw.
“Let’s focus on getting the Dron to your grandmother.”
“And Valus?”
He nodded reluctantly. “And Valus.”
~ ~ ~
I waited impatiently in my chambers for Valus after I’d sent the message that I wanted to speak with him. Nervousness gnawed at my stomach. So many things were riding on the meeting with Annah tomorrow. Like an intricate dance with many partners, everything had to be timed and executed perfectly.
A knock came, but it was not Valus. A servant wheeled a cloth-covered object into my room and dropped a bow.
“My lady, this was found in the storage room. I understand you requested its return.”
I drew back the cloth and stifled a gasp.
The toy city of glass from my memory. I dropped to my knees beside it and ran my fingers over one of the arches.
The servant hovered in the doorway. “Will that be all, my lady?”
“Yes, thank you.” I didn’t even look up at him. I rose and wheeled the city to the window, where it could flash in the faint blue light just as I remembered. A wave of something thick and sweet and wistful swelled in my chest and squeezed into my throat.
I remembered this. Faintly, but it was there, a tickle, an image, proof that I had been here before, that I had been that child called Aemiana before I was snatched away, before I was lost, before I was Aemi the thrall in a stone village surrounded by green-blue sea.
Domes, columns, arches, all in perfect, sparkling miniature. Some of the glass was threaded with golden streaks, or mottled greens and blues. Others were milky white. I caressed the smooth surfaces, captivated by every tiny detail. Even the windows and doors were etched into the glass.
A footstep startled me into awareness, and I whirled around.
Valus.
“I knocked,” he said, not sounding apologetic at all. “I don’t think you heard, and I couldn’t linger in the hall for fear of being seen.” He raked me over with his eyes and then looked at the glass city. I pulled the cloth over the city and blocked it with my body.
“We need to discuss the plan for getting you to see my grandmother.”
He drifted over to the cloth-covered city and tugged at the corner of the blanket. I grabbed his wrist. “Leave that alone.”
He looked at where I was touching him, and then raised his eyes to mine with a grin. “Relax, Angelfish.”
I dropped his arm in disgust. Had we really once been something that I might have called friends?
“What’s so special about it?” he asked after a beat.
“It’s just a childhood memory, that’s all. I don’t want you putting your hands on it.”
“I remember it too,” he said.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s not. We met as children, remember? We played with this together. It was a gift from your father, you told me.”
I longed to hear the memory but I loathed the idea of asking him to recount it. I was silent.
Valus observed my reaction. He seemed to enjoy putting me in a place where I felt uncomfortable. “You were different when I was in a cell,” he observed. “More willing to be kind.”
“And you were not such a dangerous loose thread,” I shot back.
Finally, he relented.
“We played Seek and Find, remember? Once you hid behind this toy, but I found you anyway, and then you showed me what it did.”
“What it did?”
“Something with lights. I don’t recall now.”
I didn’t recall either. I shrugged. “I barely remember anything from that time.”
“Pity,” he said. “Maybe you would trust me more.”
“I find that unlikely. Now listen, tomorrow I am going to leave the estate under the guise of visiting the Primus garden sphere and seeing the memorial. You can accompany me, if you do as I say. I’ll get you to Annah.”
He nodded. “Thank you.” This was delivered sincerely, without a smirk.
“Do exactly as I say,” I repeated. “Don’t cause trouble or talk to anyone else. We won’t be alone.”
“I’ll be a model citizen,” he promised.
I wasn’t so sure I believed him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE GRAYWATER HOUSE contained a long, narrow room in the lower level for exercising, which one of the Indentureds helpfully directed me to, and I spent the early hours of the morning in it since I couldn’t sleep. A pool covered half of the space, the water warm and smelling faintly of salt, the floor of it patterned with blue and green glass. Columns held up a ceiling painted with dolphins and mermaids. I swam laps to deal with my nervous energy before emerging, dripping, to practice defense moves on padded leather mats that lined the floors. I worked until I wasn’t sure if the dampness on my skin and bodysuit was from the water of the pool or my sweat.
The door closed behind me. I turned, expecting Tallyn. Shock rippled through me as I saw my mother instead, c
lad in a simple gray bodysuit, her hair pulled back from her face in a braid. She regarded me silently for a moment.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” I said, the words tumbling out as I grappled with my surprise.
She took a place beside me on the mats. I watched as she ran through a series of moves not unlike the ones I had been practicing. Every motion was precise, measured, swift. She was poetry to look at, her limbs long and lean, her body tight with muscle beneath the fabric of the bodysuit.
She paused and arched an eyebrow at me. The faintest of smiles hovered on her lips. “Are you going to stand there staring, or are you going to practice your defenses?”
I threw myself into the routines again, running through them until sweat trickled into my eyes and between my shoulder blades. Beside me, my mother made no sound except for the occasional grunt of effort.
“Spar?” she offered suddenly.
I paused, astonished, and then nodded. We faced each other. My mother’s expression was smooth, but a line between her eyes hinted at concentration. She flicked her gaze over me once and then, without warning, she lunged.
I reacted on instinct, dodging as Tallyn had drilled into me. She was a little taller than I was, but we were more evenly matched than anyone else I’d practiced with.
Immediately, she attacked again, this time going for my legs. She knocked me down and then pounced on top of me, her hands on my throat. I broke her hold easily and rolled left.
“Good,” she said, panting a little. “I see your lessons haven’t been wasted.”
Did she know I’d been taking lessons in defense? Had she supported the idea? I couldn’t remember. I gazed up at her without speaking, and she seemed to read my mind.
“I know everything that goes on,” she said, offering me a hand up. I accepted it, and she pulled me to my feet. We faced each other a moment, both breathing hard. “And you might as well be developing your defenses, in this world we’re living in now.”
I watched her face, trying to understand what she was thinking.
“Again?” she said.
“Again,” I agreed.
“I see you’ve been trained mainly to elude an attacker,” she observed. “This is wise, of course, if you have limited time for instruction. But you may have to face someone your own size in a situation where you cannot run. Perhaps you should learn more.”
I was quiet, focusing on my moves. If she wanted me dead, why was she encouraging me to better prepare myself against attackers?
A chime rang in the hall, and we drew apart. My mother favored me with a small smile. “I see you’ve learned to control some of your outbursts with me. I see Graywater ways in you yet.”
I gazed at her, studying her composed expression, her sharp chin and eyes. Did she really not realize who Valus was? Were we fooling her with our plans and schemes?
Without another word, she turned and left the room, leaving me staring after her as I struggled to regain my breath.
~ ~ ~
I left the estate after breakfast to visit the Primusean garden sphere, accompanied by the Dron, Valus, and Tallyn. We took a Graywater rail carriage to the middle of the city. Nol walked confidently to the carriage, while Garren and Olis moved more carefully, approaching it with caution. Valus winked at me as he stepped inside, and I smothered a frown as I turned away. I forget him momentarily as the carriage rose, and the corridors and spaces of Verdus flashed past. I stared as hungrily as the Dron at the visage before us.
The city was a village compared to Primus’s sweeping spaces, but not much smaller than Celestrus. The tunnels were almost entirely glass in different shades, woven between the kelp forests and granting stunning views of the greenery and animal life beyond as we traveled the rail above the corridor below. Plants grew freely in plazas and squares, and men and women in plain brown tunics hurried along with purpose, carrying boxes and barrels. The floors were patterned with mosaics and tiles. Everything was close, knitted together with plant life and various shades of green, and it had a tranquil effect. But the halls and corridors were also crowded with people carrying bundles, their faces drained and anxious. Refugees, Tallyn informed us, probably just arrived from slower carriers.
“Verdus’s main function is food production,” Tallyn explained to anyone who might be listening, but probably mostly for the Dron’s benefit under the guise of my own. “They have many warehouses that are currently being used to house refugees from Primus, anyone who could not find shelter with a willing family as Dorian here did.”
“Shouldn’t we take in more people?” I asked. “The Graywater estate is so vast.”
“Your mother is already graciously housing seven strangers,” Tallyn said. “Your fellow escapees, Dorian here, Lyssia and her father, and Ben.”
“But there are so many rooms in the estate. Surely we can do more.”
Tallyn gave me a look that said many things, not the least among them a reminder of the fact that attempts had already been made on my life. “Security is a concern for a family like the Graywaters,” he said.
“Relax, Angelfish,” Valus said. “Everyone will be fine. Verdus is the most hospitable city in Itlantis.”
Nol’s gaze sharpened as he looked between Valus and me. “Do you two know each other?”
“We’ve met a few times,” I admitted with a bit of a snarl directed toward Valus, who smirked.
Valus didn’t know how close he was dancing to the razor’s edge. If Garren knew who he was... I mirrored his smirk, and his expression wavered.
Nol shifted, angling his body closer to mine.
“Besides,” Valus continued, also taking the opportunity to step closer to me. “I hear they’ve repurposed the Volcanus and Magmus garden spheres for public shelters. Might as well use them for something, yes?”
“I’m surprised they weren’t burned to the ground, given the way Itlanteans feel about those who hail from Volcanus these days.” I met his eyes squarely as I said it, and he smirked at me.
I turned back toward the glass to watch the city slide by.
The Verdus garden spheres, unlike the other cities, were not located in a cluster. Rather, the city was laid out like a star, with a sphere at each point. The Primus sphere radiated with pale blue light. Every column hung with garlands of flowers, and the glowing mourning spheres lined the paths. People had scribbled names and drawn portraits at the entrance to the gardens, and a heap of the mourning spheres cast a splintered glow over the gate. Men and women wrapped in black scarves stood or knelt near the spheres, some weeping.
“Oh,” Olis said softly, looking at the names. “Are these the dead?” She sounded surprised, almost shocked.
“Dead or missing from Nautilus’s attack,” Tallyn said. “Come, there is more in the center of the garden.”
Olis gazed at the memorial another moment before moving after him, her expression unreadable. I paused beside her, my throat tightening.
The plan was to separate the Dron from Valus, so each party thought they were being taken alone to speak with the senate. The Dron could not know about Valus, and Valus about the Dron. I would be staying with Valus, to ensure his cooperation. I saw Tallyn nod at Nol, a signal that they were to follow him, and the three Dron hung back as if fascinated by a flower-covered sculpture. I strode along the center path, and Valus followed me. He hadn’t given much attention to the Dron, and he didn’t seem to notice that they had fallen behind.
As soon as we were alone, shrouded in green and shadow among the garden plants, I whirled on him.
“What are you trying to do, making snide remarks like that? You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“Just testing the waters,” he replied smugly. “I thought the yellow-haired one had an interest in you, and I was right. I think you have an admirer. Perhaps I should tell him that I’m your betrothed, and I don’t appreciate the competition.”
“You are not my betrothed anymore, and if you want to betray yourself as Nautilus’
s son, then dig your own grave. I don’t care.”
Valus lifted an eyebrow. “So he knows about your past, then. I see the relationship is more than cursory.”
“I’ve known Nol a long time.”
“Hmm,” he said.
I began walking again, still heading for the center of the garden. Drooping blossoms brushed the top of my head, dusting me with pollen. To the left, a waterfall trickled down a stair step of stones, and blue flowers that looked like sea anemones clustered around the water. Mist from hidden jets drifted over everything, making the leaves drip and the flowers shiver. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t let myself sink into the aura of it. I needed to keep Valus distracted until it was time for us to go.
“Soon, we’ll slip away and take a rail carriage to meet with Annah. The others won’t know,” I said. “We’ll be there and back in an hour.”
Distractions.
“Has my mother treated you well during your stay? How did you introduce yourself to her? I’m surprised she didn’t recognize you.”
“You know,” he remarked as we walked, “this all feels so familiar. Haven’t we done this before? The garden, the small talk, you acting as a diversion?” He was referring, of course, to when I’d taken him to a garden sphere on Primus and discovered his identity as Nautilus’s son.
My heart jumped. Did he suspect what I was doing? Had he guessed who the Dron were, or that they also had a secret meeting with Annah?
Valus continued, “I’m not stupid, you know. I know you’ve told your friend Tallyn. Is he waiting somewhere in the bushes to waylay me?”
I smothered a sigh of relief. He had not guessed. “You will be taken to Annah. I promise you that.”
Valus grabbed my arm, stopping me. He pulled me around so I was facing him. “Promise me again.” He studied my face. His eyes were vulnerable for a second, naked as they stared into mine. He looked scared, young, alone.
“I promise,” I repeated. “I’m not betraying you, Valus.”
He nodded once, satisfied, and let go. My arm dropped. We stayed still, the air heavy with the moment, with the honesty of his fear. I understood, and something in me ached in sympathy. I knew what it felt like to be a pawn, chosen because of parentage and birth, forced to play games and manipulate circumstances to stay unscathed.
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