by K. B. Wagers
“Let me go, Hail.” His jaw flexed and somewhere in the back of my head a voice was babbling in surprise that I could hold him at all.
“Promise me you won’t try to kill them.”
I could feel him pushing, feel my grip slipping. And then, nothing.
“Enough, both of you,” Mia said, putting her hands on us. “Aiz, mi corazón eas eínai ragisméni.” There were tears in her eyes. “Hail—”
I touched her face. “Go. I’ll deal with this.”
I met Johar’s eyes as they headed for the door and tipped my chin upward. She nodded and followed them out. Silence filled the room.
They would have killed Fasé. They would have killed Aiz.
I took a deep breath and counted to ten, then turned around.
The younger two members of the Pedalion wore identical looks of horror, while Rotem and Sou looked grim but unsurprised.
“You knew. You fucking knew. Adora knew. All that time in the negotiations—”
“Your Majesty—”
“No.” I sliced a hand through the air, cutting off Rotem’s protest. “I should kill the lot of you. Burn this place to the ground and let Fasé start over on your ashes.”
“Your Majesty, we did not know.” Delphine stood and I held a hand out behind me, knowing that my BodyGuards had moved when she did. “I understand how little difference that makes. We were still complicit for not asking. We will agree to whatever demands the Shen require to put this right.”
“You don’t have the authority to do that!” Sou protested.
“You’ve lost whatever authority you had with these lies!” Yadira joined Delphine. “This Pedalion is broken and done. As it was foretold. We were warned and you decided to ignore that warning. We will have to find a better way forward.” She held her hand out. “Fasé, what would you have us do?”
“Me?”
“Yadira, you cannot—”
“I can and I will,” she snapped at Rotem. “You had your chance to save us from disaster. The Council of Eyes warned us and you did nothing because it didn’t serve your ego to bend to change. Therefore we will decide. You can either join us or get out of the way.” She turned, held her hand out again. “Fasé, help us save our people.”
Fasé glanced my way, suddenly looking very young and uncertain, and I offered up a smile. She gave a jerky nod and rose, taking Yadira’s hand. “I will have to think on this, but I agree we must move forward not only for Faria but for our siblings. The Shen are the ones who have been wounded in this. I will speak with them, if they will hear me.”
“Well, I think that’s quite enough excitement for the moment.” I pushed away from the table. “We can reconvene this evening to discuss things in detail. Fasé, do you want to stay here or come back to the ship with me?”
“I’ll go with you,” she said, squeezing Yadira’s hand before heading out of the room, her cousins trailing behind her.
I let the others go ahead of me, meeting Emmory, Gita, and Hao at the doorway.
“Little sister, you just engineered the coup of the century without firing a shot,” Hao murmured.
“I didn’t do it. They did.” I looked back at the Farians one last time before I walked away. “And the cost of it may have been too high. Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into a shit-show.”
I wanted to go straight to Aiz and Mia’s quarters on board the ship, but instead found myself in the captain’s ready room trying to debrief Admiral Hassan and Alice.
Johar’s reply to my ping was that things were as well as could be expected.
Sybil spoke with Fasé quietly in the corner. The seers hadn’t joined in the deliberations, but Sybil had met us on the way to the Hailimi and didn’t seem the least bit surprised by the quick rundown Fasé had shared with her.
“Hail?”
I looked back at the screen, smiling as Alice handed off her daughter—the new official heir to the throne—to someone out of the camera frame. “Sorry, what?”
“I said it seemed to go as well as it could?”
“Well, no one killed anyone else so, yeah.” I shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting the kind of defection that Yadira and Delphine pulled off, and I’m not convinced that either the Farian Hiervet or Rotem and Sou will take this lying down. I don’t trust them, Alice.” The last bit was soft enough that it wouldn’t carry across the room.
“Do what you think is necessary. Bring home Farians and Shen and whoever needs a place.” She pressed her palms together and touched them to her heart, lips, and eyes. “Indrana has the room and the resources. We are happy to share.”
I knew it wasn’t quite that easy, but I trusted her to figure out a way to make it happen if we needed it. “I doubt it will come to that, but I appreciate your backing on the matter.”
“Is there any further news about the Hiervet?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s the next thing on the list, though. I don’t know how the rest of the negotiations will go. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Gods willing it won’t end in bloodshed.”
“Don’t tempt them.”
“Too late for that,” I replied with a snort of bitter laughter. “I’ll talk to you later, Alice.”
“Take care of yourself, Hail.”
The screen on the wall went black and I shared a look with Inana.
“You know Caterina is going to scream if you bring several million aliens back to Indrana.”
“Caterina would probably be okay with it, surprisingly,” I replied, rubbing at the back of my neck. “Prime Minister Tesla? She’ll scream. But let her. If it’s what needs to happen. If the Shen truly don’t have to be on Faria to come back, then what would be the point of them staying here, surrounded by eons of bad blood?” I shook my head and glanced at Fasé. “While the Farians struggle to rebuild themselves into something new? That’s a recipe for disaster.”
“That seems to be the road we’re on at the moment,” Hao said as he joined us. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m supposed to have a plan for this, too?”
Hao laughed. “You always have a plan. It might be shifting and changing faster than the asteroids around Santa Pirata, but somewhere in that brain of yours is a plan.” He tipped his head to the corner of the room.
“I thought you and Dailun were leaving?”
“Not quite yet. Things are chaotic enough around here I figured we should stick around. You might want to go have a word with Fasé before she has a complete meltdown.”
I stared at him and Hao lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, I know. She and I get along like matter and antimatter. However, that expression is what someone on the verge of losing it looks like. There’s a big difference between leading a rebellion and suddenly being asked to run the whole government.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered.
Hao flashed me a grin. “I may not like Fasé, but she wasn’t expecting this, and weird fucking reincarnations aside, she still acts like a twenty-three-year-old at times. This will break her if you don’t help, and losing her right now could destabilize everything.”
Of all the things I’d learned in my time out in the black, the major one was that when Hao dispensed advice, it was best to listen to him. I crossed the room to where Sybil and Fasé sat.
“You never came to see me,” I said by way of greeting to Sybil.
“I did not, my apologies, Your Majesty.”
“There’s a lot you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
She smiled. “There is a lot you haven’t asked.”
“Yadira said the council saw the fracturing of the Pedalion. That you warned them of it.”
“We did.”
“Are you going to tell me what the warning was?”
“I don’t need to,” Sybil replied with a shrug. “You just saw it. The Pedalion thought themselves invincible and acted as such. It was their downfall.”
I had what felt like a million more questions for the future-seer, but the miserable look on Fasé’s face pushed me
to put them aside. “I’d like to talk to Fasé alone, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. I will meet you where they are holding Adora when you are finished.”
I watched her walk away, my stomach rolling. It was stupid of me to even wonder how she knew I’d planned to speak with Adora next, but my brain insisted on doing it anyway. I took the seat Sybil vacated. Fasé immediately threw herself into my arms, her sob shaking us both.
“It’s all right.” I wrapped my arms around her.
“I am not prepared for this,” she whispered. “Majesty, what have I done?”
“Set your people on a better path, one that leads to peace.”
“At what cost?”
“I can’t answer that. You know as well as I do, Fasé, our choices lead us in unexpected directions. The better question is what are you going to do with this opportunity?”
She lifted her head. “What do you mean?”
I wiped the tears from her face. “Are you going to continue to think of your people and make the best choices you can for them? Are you going to rise up to this challenge and continue to be the leader I’ve seen you be? Or will you wallow around because things didn’t turn out exactly how you imagined they would?”
Fasé stared at me for a long moment of stunned silence and then laughed. The sound rang through the room, stopping the conversations around us as everyone turned to look.
“Oh, Hail.” Fasé shook her head, still laughing. “You’ve come so far from when we first met.”
“So have you.” I hugged her back, then pulled away to look at her face. “I am so proud of you, Fasé Terass. You are going to do great things for your people. I don’t have to see the future to be able to tell you that.”
13
Majesty, where are we going?” To Emmory’s credit he didn’t ask the question until we were headed back down the ramp into the night air.
“You and I are going to have a conversation with Adora.”
“Hail.” My name was barely a breath of air. The wind snatched it and carried it away.
“It’ll be all right. Sybil’s meeting us there.”
“I am, somewhat ironically, more worried about what you might do than for your safety.” Emmory didn’t slow as he voiced the concern, but kept his steps measured with mine.
I’d been surprised that he hadn’t even fussed when I’d tapped his arm and tipped my head toward the door earlier, or that he’d simply passed instructions over to Gita that we were leaving the ship.
It seemed such a far cry from the Tracker I’d first met, the one who’d threatened me over his brother’s memory, who’d chastised me about punching an assassin. Then I remembered this was also the same man who’d turned around and given me a gun.
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Emmy?”
He glanced at me and smiled. “We have, Majesty.”
“I promise I’ll behave myself. I want to see if Adora already knows what happened today.”
“You think someone’s feeding her information?”
“I’d bet the empire on it.”
“I don’t think you’re allowed to do that, empress or not.”
Our humor bled off as we met the guards on the path. They murmured a greeting at my regal nod and moved to the side without questioning where we were headed.
“That’s an interesting turn of events,” I murmured.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Sybil sent me directions,” I replied. No one stopped us as we strode into the building, through the sharp corridors, and down into the basement. My anger grew in the silence and I had an irrational urge to burn all of this to the ground. The Farians, the Hiervet, all they’d done was cause misery and suffering.
Not all of them, Hail. The normally acerbic voice in my head was gentle this time. I knew it was right—about the Farians at least. They weren’t to blame for the folly of their leadership, and hurting them wouldn’t punish the people truly at fault.
“Star of Indrana.” Sybil bowed formally, the nervous guard on her left following a half second behind. I blinked and lifted an eyebrow upward. I was glad that Sybil’s eyes were on the floor, because I realized I’d seen the young Farian at the meeting of Fasé’s rebels.
That was the moment when it sank in that no matter what the Pedalion wanted, Fasé had managed to wrest control of the people away from them. She had done it right under their noses. Her rebellion had spread from every corner of Faria and even into my empire. The news of the true identity of the gods had solidified her position, but the foundation was already in place and there was nothing that could shake that now.
They would follow wherever she chose to lead.
And she’ll follow you, Hail. The whole of Faria at your beck and call. That’s power.
I shook off the slightly menacing voice in my head as the guard unlocked what I assumed was a cell door and then backed away with a second bow. They’d apparently moved Adora from medical to someplace a little more secure.
“You are safe within,” Sybil said. “Adora cannot use her energy inside the cell.”
I wondered briefly if I could and shared a look with Emmory as we passed over the threshold. Adora didn’t seem any worse for wear since I’d seen her last despite the change in accommodations. Her hair was bound back from her face and she was dressed in a dark gray outfit that reminded me of the clothes Fasé had worn in the days after saving Emmory.
The juxtaposition of these two women hit me like a throat punch. Fasé had risked everything to save Emmory—not for me, but for Zin, for the love she could feel stretching and breaking between them as Emmory had died on the floor of Hao’s ship.
Adora had sacrificed her family in pursuit of power, and though I tried to remind myself that she’d been as fooled as the other Farians about the nature of the Farian Hiervet, it still wasn’t enough to excuse everything else she’d done.
Like paying Jamison to attack us on Earth. I fisted my hands at the reminder, earning a quick, sideways glance from Emmory.
“If it isn’t the great traitor and the great failure,” Adora said. “To what do I owe this dubious visit?”
“Good morning, Adora.” Sybil seemed unbothered by the greeting and I saw the spark of angry fire in Adora’s platinum eyes. “I have betrayed no one. I have merely shared the knowledge I have.”
Adora snorted in reply and flicked her eyes toward me. “Come to gloat over your supposed victory, Star of Indrana? Or has someone else died?”
“Your anger is misplaced. The Farian Hiervet are the ones who have lied to you and used your people for all these years.” I didn’t know where my calm response came from but it only served to infuriate Adora further.
“You are a reckless child,” Adora said, the hatred plain on her face. “Meddling in things you don’t understand. Our gods showed me their true faces a very long time ago. I was chosen to see them because of my faith.”
Bugger me. I froze, and fought to keep the expression on my face neutral.
“They told you?”
“Of course they did. I alone was chosen because they knew I could bear the knowledge. You think that just because you can see the future you understand it?” Adora’s smile at Sybil’s question was cruel. “You don’t understand anything about what we’re building.”
“Then why the performance in the Pedalion chamber—oh.” I bit back the curse that wanted to follow my realization into the air. “The others didn’t know what Thyra and the others truly looked like.”
“Doubt is good for the soul,” Adora chirped.
“It didn’t work,” I replied. “Your followers aren’t louder than those who want out from under the Farian Hiervet’s reign. There will be peace between the Farians and the Shen no matter what you do.”
“I very much doubt that, given my brother’s reaction to today’s news.”
One of the problems with thinking you had control of a situation was overconfidence, and I kept from smiling as A
dora gave me more information than she’d probably intended.
“Someone is feeding her information, isn’t that interesting?” I subvocalized to Emmory without looking in his direction.
“You were right, Majesty. We know none of our people would have told her.”
“Which means it was one of the Pedalion, or Thyra.”
“Priam seems more likely, given how cozy you said they were before.”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you knew of that, too,” I said aloud to Adora. “You sent your own family to their deaths.”
“My family did not understand the power they were walking away from, and worse, they were trying to oppose our evolution. They deserve everything they’ve gotten and more.”
“We’re done here.” I turned on my heel and left the cell, the sound of Adora’s mocking laughter trailing behind me.
As soon as the door closed and we were far enough away from it, I muttered a stream of curses bad enough to blister the air around me. Emmory stayed quiet. Sybil, thankfully, probably didn’t recognize them and any translations would have been gibberish.
The Svatir were nonviolent, but they had some incredible curse words.
“Better, Majesty?”
“Not really.” I chose my next words with a great deal of precision. “Sybil, can you take us to see the Farian Hiervet?”
“I cannot, Majesty,” she replied even as Emmory glared at me. “We don’t have access to Etrelia, but I could call for them.”
“Do it. We’ll met them in the Pedalion chamber.” I glanced at my stone-faced Ekam. “It’ll give Emmory a chance to get some more BodyGuards over here.”
If anything it was far more likely the Farian Hiervet were going to need protection from me than the other way around.
I was leaning against the solid white surface of the Pedalion table when Thyra and the others appeared in the center of the room. My BodyGuards stiffened but didn’t move between us, and I straightened slowly to look down at Thyra.
Being on the dais gave me the height I wanted, even if it was a mostly superficial advantage.
“Your Majesty, Sybil said you wanted to speak.”
“Yes, I want to know how you are going to make this right.”
