by Tammy Walsh
“Then we’d better rescue him,” I said.
“You betrayed him,” Emana said. “You worked with his enemies against him. As you got closer to him, you must have known you were falling for him. Why didn’t you tell him why you were there? Or tell me?”
“Oh yeah, right. Imagine the conversation: ‘Hey. Do you remember when we first met at the palace? Funny story. I was put there by your mortal enemy. The one who just conquered your entire species.’”
Emana rolled her eyes.
“Okay,” she said. “So maybe you don’t need to say it exactly like that…”
“I know. I just… I didn’t realize before now how much he meant to me.”
“But you still could have told him.”
“I was afraid! Okay? I was afraid I was in love with a big sexy alien man.”
Emana grimaced.
“Ew,” she said. “He’s my brother. You can’t talk about him like that with me around.”
“Sorry. But he is. I don’t ever want to be with someone else.”
Emana grinned.
“Aw,” she said. “That’s pretty cute. But look, if you betray a Titan, you have to at the very least get your arm broken.”
“Woah!” I said. “I’m not a Titan, remember? I don’t heal super-fast like you guys.”
“Not my problem.”
I whisked my arm away from her at the last moment.
“Then can we at least do this after we rescue your brother?” I said.
By now, I was desperate. How was I supposed to rescue anyone with a snapped arm flapping in the wind?
“Okay, fine,” Emana said. “But I get to be the one to snap it. Okay?”
“Sure, sure,” I said. “All arm snapping duties belong to you.”
I wiped the cold sweat that’d suddenly beaded on my forehead. Titans were nuts.
“That’s a relief,” I said. “The truth is, we’ll probably both be dead by the time we rescue Kal. Death sort of takes care of the whole broken arm thing, right?”
“I’ll try to snap it before death claims you,” Emana said. “I wouldn’t want to leave you dishonored.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly. “That’s… That’s really sweet.”
Above us, a shout rang out.
Emana shifted her weight to make a run for the trees. It would make her an easy target.
“No!” I said, grabbing her by the arm.
“Let me go!” she wailed.
“Hold on!” I said.
“Why? They’ll catch us!”
“Come with me!” I said. “Even if you make it to the wood and get in the shuttlecraft—”
“There’s a shuttlecraft?” she said.
Damn. I wish I hadn’t said that.
“Yes,” I said. “But you’ll never make it off this moon. Not with that huge Changeling ship perched over the town.”
Emana peered at the huge ship with its multiple turrets shifting from one target to the next. Then she lowered her eyes to mine.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll follow you. But only until we break my brother free. Then I never want to see you again.”
It made me sad but I accepted.
“If that’s the way it had to be,” I said.
Heavy boots thumped on the wall above us as a contingent of a dozen or so guards marched in our direction.
I tugged Emana down to our knees. I scrambled through the ivy and ran my hands over the stones underneath.
“What are you doing?” Emana said.
“Looking for loose rocks,” I said. “See if you can find them. They should be here somewhere.”
Together we searched, coming up empty.
The guards marched closer and dirt rained on our heads.
“They’re going to see us,” Emana said.
“Can you slow them down?” I said.
“How long do you need?”
“A couple of minutes.”
Emana picked up the fallen bedsheets and tugged them over us. We continued scrambling for the displaced rocks.
They all looked the same! How could they all look the same?
Had I chosen the wrong section of wall? Had someone found the loose rocks and fixed them?
Above, the boots came to a stop and the Changeling guards peered over the side. We couldn’t make them out through the material.
But we knew they were there. Looking down at us.
“You’ve got until they start pulling these sheets off us,” Emana said.
“What happens then?” I said.
Emana whipped out a blaster pistol and took aim at the top of the wall.
“Then things get real noisy,” she said.
I sure hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I’d seen what bolts of condensed energy could do to a living creature. It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t want that happening to my body.
I focused on the rocks.
One stone shifted beneath my hands.
The sheets began to move, slithering up the wall as the guards pulled them up.
We were perched under the final sheet. We would be visible for sure within the next ten seconds.
I felt at the adjacent rocks and they gave way too.
This must be it.
I shoved several aside, producing a hole.
I placed my face in front of it and peered through—no way I was sticking anything through there. I’d seen Indiana Jones.
There was something on the other side.
Empty space.
I tossed a small stone through the hole. It bounced across the surface and hit something on the other side. A wall.
“How are we doing?” Emana said, aiming with her pistol through the sheet. She would open fire the instant it was yanked free.
“Almost… there,” I said, working another rock free. It wasn’t yet wide enough to fit my fat ass through.
Why didn’t I stick to just one of my many diets?
The sheets shifted as they unfurled further up the wall.
I grabbed the last rock and slid it aside. I wasted no time and slithered forward on my arms. I grazed my shoulders and elbows on my way through. I wriggled until I reached the other side.
A narrow tunnel greeted me with sconces lined at regular intervals along the wall. Not quite as empty as I thought it was.
“A little help?” Emana said.
Her ass—firm though it was—was also not the smallest in the galaxy. It was bulbous and round—all the rage with men back on Earth these days. I didn’t tell her about that. I doubted she would have been appreciative.
I grabbed her by the forearms and braced a foot on either side of the hole. I pulled hard but she wouldn’t come free.
Voices shouted on the other side of the wall. The guards must be shouting at a flapping pair of legs.
Any second, they might fire…
“Get me out of here!” Emana screamed.
I worked her left and right. She slipped through one inch at a time until…
Our heads smacked and I got a face full of her.
She pulled her legs up behind herself and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
I got down on my front and began putting the rocks back in place.
“Don’t bother,” Emana said. “We don’t have time. And they’ll only shoot us full of holes if they see us. Come on.”
She took up her pistol and led us down the long hall.
My legs were shaking. How could she take all this in her stride?
It came with being a badass Titan, I guess.
We followed the long passageway as it wound through the thick darkness. In some places, the hallway was very low and even I had to crouch down to fit through it. Then it grew so narrow I had to expel the air from my lungs to squeeze through. It was difficult for me and almost impossible for Emana to negotiate.
“How did you not know about this place?” I said. “I thought all you kids would be playing together, discovering these secret passages.”
“I was more of a puppy and doll kind of gir
l,” Emana said.
That was the very last thing I expected her to say.
“What?” Emana said, noticing the expression on my face. “You thought I was a tomboy growing up?”
“Kinda,” I said. “Yeah.”
She grinned.
“That didn’t happen until later,” she said.
We turned a corner and the hallway came to an end.
“It’s a dead-end,” I said. “We must have needed to turn off somewhere.”
“Are you sure?” Emana said. “What did my brother say? He’s usually pretty good at giving instructions.”
“He said to keep going until we reached the end. It will open onto the prison and we’ll have full access to the cells.”
Emana edged all the way to the dead-end and placed her hands on the solid wall of stone. No way she was going to push it aside. She perked up and turned back to me.
“I told you he was good at instructions,” she said.
I met her at the end wall. As I drew closer, I witnessed the optical illusion as the wall on one side fell away. The crack wasn’t big but it was enough for us to slip through. Beyond that, a long row of bars and a set of cages awaited us.
My heart thumped in my chest at the thought of seeing him again. Would he embrace me? Ignore me? Toss me over his shoulder and punish me?
(Yes, please.)
We moved into the narrow space between the cells’ rear walls and the craggy interior of the subterranean world we found ourselves in.
The cells were empty—all but one.
The ragged man.
“He’s not here,” Emana whispered.
“He must be,” I said.
I ducked and weaved to identify him tucked behind one of the bars, momentarily out of view.
But Emana was right. He wasn’t there.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“Oh, I think I understand all right,” Emana said.
It was the coldness of her tone that snared my attention. When I turned to her, I found her pistol aimed directly at me.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“This is a trap,” she said. “You brought me down here to lock me in one of these cells. You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’m going quietly.”
I raised my hands.
“I didn’t bring you here for anything except to set your brother free,” I said. “I swear.”
“Then, where is he?” Emana said.
I felt my blaster pistol press against the waistband of my pants. Could I get to it before she opened fire?
Definitely not.
Not without a distraction.
And even if I could, I didn’t want to shoot at Emana. She might suspect me for dodgy dealing—I knew I deserved it—but I could never accuse her of the same. She was a good, kind person.
“We’ll figure this out,” I said. “Please. Put the gun down. This doesn’t need to be the end. Your brother has to be here somewhere. We can find him. But we need to work together.”
Emana blinked and lowered her weapon. She didn’t holster it but it was a step up from having it pointed at my face. Staring down the business end of a gun had turned my mouth dry.
“Is the showdown over already?”
The pistol was in Emana’s hands faster than I could blink. She spun around and aimed at the only other person present.
The ragged man who wrestled with Zes in Kal’s room. The scars seemed even more redraw down here. Maybe the dust was making them itchy.
“Hands up, buddy,” Emana said.
The ragged man raised them.
“Do you have any weapons?” Emana said.
“Besides my keen intellect?” the ragged man said.
I didn’t know he could talk. He hadn’t said a word in Kal’s room. He’d looked so despondent, I assumed he couldn’t speak.
But I’d seen him fight, and I didn’t want to take the risk he might snap out and grab one of us. There wasn’t a whole lot of space between us, the bars, and the wall.
I pulled the pistol out from my pants and aimed at the ragged man.
Emana was shocked to see it in my hands.
“You’re full of surprises,” she said.
“Against someone like you, I wouldn’t stand a chance,” I said. “But a man in a cell? That’s my kind of fight.”
We focused on the caged man.
“What happened to Kal?” I said.
“He was taken,” the ragged man said.
“By who?” Emana said.
“The Changeling guards,” the ragged man said. “Who else?”
“When did they go?” Emana said.
“About ten minutes ago. He was shackled, so he wouldn’t have gotten far.”
I shared a look with Emana. Ten minutes. We saw the stage being built earlier. It didn’t take Sherlock to put the pieces together.
“Thanks for your help,” I said as we tucked our pistols away and turned to leave.
“Wait,” the ragged man said. “Don’t you want to know what they’re going to do with him?”
“They’ll take him to the stage,” Emana said.
“For what purpose?” the ragged man said.
“To perform a play,” I said, growing impatient. “Why don’t you just tell us, if you know something?”
“You might have been joking, but you’re not far wrong,” the ragged man said. “He has to perform a role, a role I’m not sure he’s ready for but he’s going to have to play it if he wants to get through this day.”
Emana looked between us.
“Have you guys met before?” she said.
“Just once,” I said. “In Kal’s room earlier. He’s been bringing him letters, written in strange little symbols that my translator strip can’t understand.”
“Letter?” Emana said. “What letters? What for?”
“Why does anyone ever bring anyone letters?” the ragged man said with a toothy grin. They were surprisingly straight and white considering the hard life he’d had.
“If you’re going to keep playing games, we’re leaving,” I said.
“Because there was something you wanted him to read, right?” Emana said.
I gave her a look. Don’t play with this guy. He’s nuts.
Emana gave me a shrug as if to say: How can it hurt?
“He needed to know his loyal followers understand why he did what he did,” the ragged man said. “They’re ready to fight. We’ve been preparing for war ever since the Changelings attacked. The Titans are desperate for battle. They feel it’s owed to them. Give them the chance, and they will attack.”
Emana drifted closer to the prison bars. She let her pistol drop to her side.
“Come closer,” she said.
“It’s not a good idea for someone like me to get too close to the likes of you, little lady,” the ragged man said.
He had a cheerful tone in his voice. Either he was mad or he knew more than he was letting on.
Emana peered closer at him.
“What’s your name?” she said.
“I don’t have a name,” the ragged man said. “Not since I was reborn.”
Reborn. He was cracked after all.
“Let’s go,” I said, turning to leave. I was surprised to find Emana hadn’t turned with me.
“You… remind me of someone,” she said to the ragged man.
He shook his head.
“I remind everyone of someone,” he said. “A man you passed one day in the street, maybe.”
But Emana didn’t look sure. She backed away and resumed her position beside me. Then she tucked her pistol back in its holster.
“You said Kal will have to play a role,” she said. “What sort of role?”
“That will be up to him,” the ragged man said. “But the performance is nothing but a trial. One that has already been decided—on both sides.”
“What will they try him for?” I said.
“For dishonor, for lying to the people, I suspect.”
>
“But he never did either of those things,” I said.
“No, but they will try to make the people think he did,” the ragged man said.
“They won’t believe it,” I said.
“They will when it comes from Kal’s own mouth,” the ragged man said.
“He would never say that,” I said. “It’s not the truth.”
“Many people have concealed the truth when it suits them,” the ragged man said. “I should think we’re all guilty of that at one point or another.”
Emana peered at the ragged man once more. Why did she keep getting distracted by him?
“An honorable man might lie if he thought he was doing it for the right reason,” the ragged man said. “To save a loved one from infinite torture, maybe. Or a sister from a similar fate. And to prevent the death of his people. That’s a big one. I think there is plenty of motivation for him to say what he thinks he needs to.
“If he does, and the people believe him, he might think he’s protecting them, but in reality, he will be condemning them to a lifetime of servitude. If their faith in House Taw is destroyed, they will have no one else to turn to. And in their desperation, they’ll turn to whatever they’re given.”
“Zes,” I said. “He wants to be the new lord.”
“His claim would never hold,” Emana said. “It’s not strong enough. He’s not bound by blood.”
“He would be with the right marriage,” I said, eying Emana warily.
“That’s right,” the ragged man said. “It is what the Changelings planned this whole time. To replace your brother with a puppet they control. Zes… and with you on his arm.”
Emana grimaced.
“Zes?” she said. “He’s like an uncle to me!”
“That didn’t stop him from falling in love with you,” I said.
Emana turned pale.
“In love?” she said.
She shook her head in disbelief.
“Impossible,” she said. “I’ve known him… known him my whole life… Since I was a little girl…”
“And you’ve ignored his affections the whole time,” I said.
“I didn’t know about them!” Emana said. “He always protected my brothers, my father…”
“And you,” I said.
That gave her pause for thought as she revisited a thousand memories from across the years. Small instances when she might have unknowingly turned him down or insulted him.
