Out Past the Stars

by K. B. Wagers

  “Okay, so if healing is a skill unique to the Farians, how come I can do it?” I repeated my earlier question, swallowing back the urge to add, How is Johar able to do it?

  Thyra was silent for a long moment, blinking her vertical eyelids at me in a rhythmic pattern. “You misunderstand, Your Majesty. I am not saying that their ability to heal is a unique skill. It is their energy that is unique and the way that it interacts with us. It has kept us alive far longer than our creators designed.”

  “Their excess energy,” I said.

  Thyra tipped her head to the side in a dismissive gesture. “If it makes you feel better to think so. That is what we told them all those years ago. The truth is a bit more complicated. Energy like this is not something that can be separated and contained. It pleased them to think of us as their gods, so we took what was our due.”

  Anger flooded through me. Thyra’s words took what pieces I’d known about the Farians and their gods and slotted them neatly into a horrific picture. These aliens had enslaved them without firing a shot. They’d fed off them. Worst of all, they didn’t see anything wrong with it.

  Thyra seemed unaware of my fury as I unclenched my jaw with a great deal of effort. “So, what now?” I asked.

  “I do not know, Your Majesty. Our lives are in your hands. There are only three of us left thanks to the Cevallas.” Her attempt at calm was spoiled by the sharp way she said Mia and Aiz’s last name. “However, that is a discussion for another time. I have shown you what you needed to see. We should go back before your people worry.”

  Everything shifted and suddenly we were back in the room.

  “Emmory?” Zin’s quiet voice broke the silence.

  “We’re all right,” he replied, and the tension dropped from the room.

  I blinked dry eyes; my smati clock said almost ten minutes had passed even though it hadn’t felt like it. I didn’t let go of my Ekam as I nodded to Thyra. “I appreciate the history lesson. It was helpful.”

  “I’m glad, Your Majesty.” She dipped her head in return. “We’ll be here if you need to speak with us again.”

  The dismissal was fascinating and earned her the ire of my Guards, but I turned for the door without giving her the reaction I knew Thyra wanted.

  We were back out in the hallway and headed for the Pedalion chamber before Jo spoke. “Someone want to tell the rest of us what that ten-minute staring contest was about?”

  “History lesson,” I replied, and then came to a stop. “Emmory, did you get a recording?”

  He gave me the Look and I grinned.

  “Sorry, that’s not what I meant; let me see?” My smati pinged and I closed my eyes for a moment to better focus on the image in my head. “Interesting.”

  “Majesty?”

  “They look like Farians.” I tapped a finger against my lips as an idea took shape in my head. “Zin, if I give you both these recordings, can you split-screen them with a single audio?”

  “Should be able to, ma’am, and if I can’t I’m sure Ragini could.”

  The Indranan tech specialist had come on the Vajrayana with Admiral Hassan. Her involvement at the battle of Canafey had tipped the scales in our favor and I was glad to have her expertise at my disposal again. “Good, here’s both files, make it happen.” I started walking again. “Once it’s done, spread that around to our people. I want everyone to have a chance to see what Thyra is claiming happened to them.”

  I want everyone to see their true faces.

  “Claiming?” Jo asked. “You don’t believe her.”

  I laughed. “I don’t. There’s something off about this.” I gestured around. “And the fact that they’ve been feeding off the Farians for who knows how many years only makes my gut scream louder.”

  “They’re doing what?”

  I came to a stop for a second time as we rounded the corner and came face-to-face with Fasé, Mia, and Aiz.

  5

  I looked around the hallway. It was deserted except for us. “Thyra admitted that she and the others have been feeding off your people.”

  “Hail—”

  “I know.” I cut Fasé’s exclamation off and reached out to tip her eyes up to meet mine. “I know you’re angry. I know it will get worse when you see what I’m about to show the Pedalion, but I need you to let me handle this part without interfering. I promise you: I’ll see this through to the end, just trust me.”

  She stared at me for a long moment, her gold eyes searching my face for something before she finally saw whatever she was looking for. “I trust you, Star of Indrana. Now and always. And I will be there when you need me.” The words were an echo of what she’d said to me on Encubier after Hamah’s attack, and it loosened the knot of dread in my stomach.

  I released her and nodded. “Good. Let’s go talk to the Pedalion.”

  “We just left there,” Aiz said. “They’re not in the chambers but the room farther down.”

  “You met with them already?”

  “Yes,” Mia replied, falling into step at my side as we continued down the hallway. “The formal start to the peace negotiations will be tomorrow. We had just finished the preliminaries when I heard your voice, so we came to see why you were here.”

  “Thyra showed me where they came from.”

  She glanced at Fasé. “You’re not only worried about what they’ve done to the Farians.”

  “There’s more,” I replied. “But now isn’t the time for it.”

  We hit the door of the room and I didn’t slow for my Guards, though it earned me a sharp “Hail, damn it” over the coms from Emmory.

  The four members of the Pedalion looked up, as did the other Farians still in the room, though at a wave from both Sou and Rotem they filed out past my BodyGuards.

  “Good morning, Your Majesty.”

  “Itegas Rotem. I spoke with Thyra this morning and have some information for you, but before we get into that, do you want to tell me why the Pedalion hasn’t yet informed its people of the truth?” It was a guess on my part, but at the look the two Farian men shared I knew I was right.

  “We were waiting,” Rotem replied.

  “For Pratimas?”

  Aiz choked on a laugh. Rotem’s mouth tightened. I ignored both of them and pointed a hand at the door behind me.

  “Your people deserve to know the truth and if you won’t tell them, I will. The time of veneration for these so-called gods is at an end. They have been using you.” I moved to the wall and put my clip of Thyra up for them to see.

  “You misunderstand, Your Majesty. I am not saying that their ability to heal is a unique skill. It is their energy that is unique and the way that it interacts with us. It has kept us alive far longer than our creators designed.”

  “Their excess energy.”

  “If it makes you feel better to think so. That is what we told them all those years ago. The truth is a bit more complicated. Energy like this is not something that can be separated and contained. It pleased them to think of us as their gods, so we took what was our due.”

  Fasé’s indrawn breath was painful but I looked to the Pedalion, who stared at the image in shock. Delphine got to her feet. “Your Majesty—”

  “Announce this news to your people or I will. When I come to see you tomorrow to officially request that you make peace with the Shen and with Fasé’s people, it had better be done, or I will take them and leave you all to the devastation that is coming. Are we understood?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Good.”

  “There’s got to be a better name for them than gods,” I said to Hao as I sipped at my chai from the comfort of the chair in my quarters. He was sprawled in the couch opposite, a cup of tea in his hand. Stasia had refreshed our drinks after dinner and then disappeared out the door with only a nod to my thanks.

  I rubbed at the edge of my mug with a fingertip. “Just calling them the Hiervet doesn’t work. It’s too confusing with the bulk of the Hiervet bearing down on us. I thou
ght Farian Hiervet might be better.”

  “It fits as well as anything,” Hao replied. “You didn’t ask me to come see you just to talk over naming conventions, though. What’s up?”

  “I don’t trust them.” Putting the words into the air brought a swell of relief, and I relaxed my grip on my mug.

  “I’d be disappointed in you if you did.” Hao made a little “go on” gesture at me. “Why?”

  “Their story was clean. Did you see it?” At Hao’s grunt, I continued, shifting in my chair so I could rest my forearms on my knees. “It all made perfect sense. Except for that ridiculous bit about starting a war by accident—which not only doesn’t at all match the story we got from the Svatir but is completely unrealistic. How can you possibly start a war by accident?”

  “Portis almost did on Mars, remember?”

  I laughed. “Knowing what I know now about him I’m almost inclined to believe he did that deliberately to keep me from getting killed.”

  Hao stared at me for a long moment and then muttered a curse, shaking his head with a laugh of his own. “That son of a bitch. You’re not wrong. He probably did.”

  We lapsed into silence until Hao drained the last of his tea and set his cup aside. “I miss him.” His confession was barely a whisper, the echo of my previous words ringing loud in the room. “I missed both of you, Hail.” He lifted his head until his eyes met mine. “I was going to com you when I got back from the quiet after Gy’s death and beg you two to come with me to Po-Sin’s. You were the only thing that made the thought of taking over the operation bearable because I knew with you and Portis watching my back, we’d all be okay.”

  I put my mug down on the desk and reached my hand out, squeezing his fingers when he took it. “If it makes any difference, I would have said yes and you know he would have, too.”

  “He would have said yes because you did, but he would have been pissed as hell at both of us the whole way. That’s always how it worked.” He grinned and winked. “But here we are instead without him.”

  I blinked away my tears. “We’ll muddle along, right? I think he’d be proud of how we’ve managed to stay alive this far.”

  “Possibly.” Hao smiled. “I confess I’m a little grateful that you’re the one who ended up with the responsibilities, little sister. I just get to be along for the ride.”

  “You’re such an ass.” I let go of his hand with a glare and reached for my chai again.

  “The Farian Hiervet’s story is too clean,” Hao said once he was finished laughing at me. “You’re right to be suspicious. It’s practiced, polished. Sort of how you tell a lie so many times even you start to believe it?” He shook his head. “The inconsistencies about the war are almost explainable as two sides of the same story. The Svatir would have interpreted anything as an invasion because that was their mind-set. And the Hiervet could have just been defending themselves from the attack.”

  “But the Farian Hiervet are also warriors,” I replied. “I don’t buy that they went from super soldiers to pacifism after a single revolt, and given their behavior with the Svatir and then the Farians it seems more likely they came to this galaxy looking to conquer it. Aiz fought them. Thyra carries herself like a fighter. Even as strange as they look to me, I can still see it.”

  “A happy coincidence, that’s just what I wanted to talk to you about,” Aiz said.

  I looked away from Hao to the Shen standing in the doorway and raised my eyebrow.

  “Emmory said to come on in,” he replied.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hao tense, and the humor that had been in his golden eyes bled away.

  “Hao, you promised.”

  “Don’t blame him, Hail,” Aiz said, baring his teeth at my brother. “Would killing me make you feel better, Cheng Hao? I can give you a free shot.”

  “That’s not my name any longer,” Hao replied evenly. “Believe me, Aiz, if I were going to take my revenge, it would involve making you watch, unable to save her, as your sister bled out on the floor.”

  “Hao!” The frozen sharpness of Hao’s words drove into my chest with the force of a blade.

  The humor slipped from Aiz’s face. “You would be dead before you could lay a hand on her, and all the pleading the world would not convince me to resurrect you.”

  6

  Enough.” Two pairs of eyes, one whiskey brown and the other gold, swung my way as I stood. “There will be no killing,” I said. “Of anyone, is that clear?”

  “He almost destroyed you, sha zhu.” Those golden eyes of his were molten with anger. “That is the only appropriate revenge.”

  “You saved me, gege.” The sick feeling in my gut was rolled up with a fury I hadn’t ever directed Hao’s way and tangled in the love I could see on his face. “If you have any love for me at all you’ll never say such a thing in my earshot again.” I stepped between the two men. “Aiz, you will not touch my brother, or you will deal with me, am I perfectly clear?”

  Aiz watched me for a moment as if trying to decide how serious I was before he nodded once.

  “Now. Did you have something to discuss or did you just come in here to pick a fight and ruin my evening?”

  “Is everything all right, Majesty?”

  “We’re fine, Emmory. Though stand there in the door and shoot one or both of these idiots if they decide to start pissing on my things.” Wrestling with my own emotions, I pointed at the chair I’d vacated. “Sit down, Aiz.”

  “I’m assuming you mean stun them, Majesty?”

  I shrugged. “Either. Maybe they’ll behave better if they don’t know which you’re going to pick.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I turned around and spotted Aiz grinning at me. “What?” I snapped.

  “It’s a treasure to see the empress make an appearance.”

  “She’s always been like that,” Hao murmured. “Even before they put a crown on her head.”

  “Start talking, Aiz.” I ignored the warm glow Hao’s praise put in my chest.

  “Thyra and the other so-called gods—”

  “Farian Hiervet,” I corrected absently.

  Aiz dipped his head in acknowledgment of the new term. “You’re right. Whatever lies they’ve told about the rest of their people, when my father and I fought them, they knew what they were doing. I expected the same kind of fight, hence your training.”

  I saw the flinch Hao couldn’t quite hide and for a moment contemplated hitting Aiz for the comment. My training at the hands of the Shen had been brutal, designed to push me past the limits of human frailty. Hao was right; the combination of thinking everyone I loved was dead and the training had put me on the brink of madness. Aiz had wanted me to be able to fight gods, and in so many ways he’d succeeded, but the cost had been high. Now I had no gods to fight, just an unknown army bearing down on us, and no amount of training in the universe could make it so I would triumph over that.

  “Why bother telling me the truth?” I shoved a hand into my hair and gritted my teeth in frustration. “They had the Farians under their thumb; they could have easily lied about all this.”

  “They want you cooperative.”

  That was from Emmory, and I glanced at my Ekam. He was staring at Aiz and I realized that he was still as angry as Hao, he was just better at hiding it.

  “Why me? What the fuck is it about me that has the Farian Hiervet so convinced I’m the solution to their problems? I cannot fight an army alone, and I swear to Shiva I will shoot the first one of you who laughs at me.”

  “You’re not armed, little sister.”

  “I could take Emmory’s gun and have all three of you dead before you realized it.”

  “She’s not lying,” Aiz said, and the smile slid off Hao’s face. “She’d shoot me first because though I’m the farthest away, I’m also the biggest threat. While your brain was trying to figure out what’s happening, she’d take you and then Emmory because he’s the most likely to hesitate over killing her.”


  “I’d probably shoot Emmory next, to be honest, since he’s closer. Hao’s fast but the shock value would work to my benefit.”

  He was also probably more likely to hesitate than my Ekam, but I decided to let Aiz have his misconceptions. I’d realized early after my return that Emmory understood the threat I presented. Right now, he was watching me as much to keep me from hurting anyone else as to protect me.

  Hao knew I was dangerous; he’d seen me wreak the kind of vengeance that gave even the most hardened gunrunners nightmares. The woman standing here now was even worse, a battle-hardened and blood-drenched killing machine. But Hao also would always think of me as his little sister and assume he was somehow safe from me.

  I shrugged a shoulder, suddenly uncomfortable over how my joke had turned into an earnest discussion of my new fighting abilities. I couldn’t seem to escape it, no matter how hard I tried.

  You’re not the same person you were, Hail; better to just acknowledge it and move forward.

  “Why me? The Hiervet”—I pointed at Aiz—“and the Shen and the Farians all want something from me. But I don’t understand what it is about me specifically.”

  To my shock Aiz laughed. It wasn’t mocking, but a genuine laugh that warmed his whole face. “I used to think this was a game of yours. This humility. You truly don’t see it, do you, Hail?” He pointed at Hao and at Emmory. “They do.”

  I wanted to scream, See what? But Aiz wasn’t finished.

  “You are special, Hail. I’m not talking about the futures they’ve all seen or this chosen one shit.” He waved his hands in the air. “Though Mia and the others would smack me for that irreverence. You are a born leader, and they are rarer than people think. Those who can convince others to follow with little more than the strength of their own actions. You are like a tidal wave.

  “Honorable ones. Rogues. Rebels. You charm criminals and princes easily and drag them into your wake. Entire armies have thrown themselves at your feet. This could be dangerous in the wrong hands.” He exhaled, his humor fading. “Except you take none of it lightly. I have never once seen you be thoughtless about the people under your care—be they human, Shen, or Farian. The Farian Hiervet want you because they think you can save them from the consequences of their choices and turn aside this army of their people bearing down on us.”