by K. B. Wagers
“What about Fasé? Her rebellion?”
Aiz’s frown deepened. “Did you hit your head? Fasé took off right after the peace talks fell apart. No one knows where she is.”
“I am not supposed to be here.” I reached out and grabbed him by the shirt front. “This isn’t real. I was back on the Hailimi, you and Mia already agreed to peace with the Farians. Fasé didn’t go anywhere. Sybil was showing me the choices Adora could make and we—”
“Hail.” Aiz’s voice was deceptively soft and he covered my hand with both of his. “This has been hard for you… for all of us. Right now I need you to focus so we can get back to base. Then we can talk, okay?”
I swallowed my next words. He was being strangely gentle and I refused to fall apart again. Aiz got to his feet, pulling me up with him, and together we made our way through the ruined streets.
I didn’t recognize the Shen who emerged from the shadows and hurried us into the dark tunnel with only a quick greeting. Aiz slipped an arm around my waist with a murmured “It’s safer than the surface. Just breathe through it.”
I did and somehow made it down and through the heavy doors. I blinked in the harsh light of the single overhead fixture. Aiz didn’t say a word, just ushered me down the corridor and into the room at the end.
Gita and Hao looked up from the map on the table in the middle of the room as we came through the doorway and my Dve held out her hands. There was a look in her eyes I didn’t like at all. She embraced me wordlessly.
“The fighting has moved south,” Aiz said, laying his guns on a nearby chair and rubbing at the back of his neck. “Our forces are holding here, but if Adora makes another push we may not be able to—”
Hao, to my shock, put a hand on the Shen’s arm. “We’ll hold, have a little faith.”
“Where’s Mia?” I murmured, and everyone froze. “Emmory? Zin? The others?”
Aiz shook his head and shared a strange look with Hao, who came over and pushed me gently into a chair. “Little sister.”
Oh, I knew that tone of voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut, suddenly certain his next words were going to hurt, and I didn’t want to hear them. Not even knowing this wasn’t real.
“No, I’m not doing this again.” I shook my head. “This isn’t real. It’s just a future. Sybil was showing me the future.”
Hao grabbed me when I tried to slide out of the chair. “Hail, you were there when it happened. You know it’s real.”
“No!” I slapped his hands away and stood, knocking the chair over so it clattered to the floor. “I am not fucking doing this again. Sybil, where are you?” I screamed the words at the ceiling, heard Hao curse as he grabbed me. The world spun around me again.
18
Hail. It’s me. You’re all right.” Hao still had me by the shoulders, but now I was in the ready room of the Hailimi. Fasé was on the floor, cradling Sybil in her arms and crooning softly in Farian to the unconscious seer. I wrapped my arms around Hao’s neck and held on.
“Hao.” His name was little more than a sob. “Oh Shiva.”
“It’s all right, little sister,” he whispered, tightening his arms around me. “I’m right here.”
I didn’t know when he’d gotten back, but I was really glad to see him.
“What happened?” I heard Gita’s voice just before her hand touched my back.
“I—where’s Emmory?” The question slipped out before I could stop it even as I pulled up their vitals on my smati, the need for reassurance right this moment overruling everything else.
“He and Zin are on their way.”
I exhaled against Hao’s neck as everyone’s vitals registered. “Help me up.” They did and I awkwardly clung to him for a moment longer, blinking away the tears that threatened. “I am so sick of this future shit.”
“Finally,” he muttered, and touched my face. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded and crossed to Fasé, kneeling at her side. “Is she all right?”
Sybil’s eyes fluttered open before Fasé could respond and the seer reached a hand out to me that I took with only the slightest of hesitations. “I’ll be fine,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Hail. I don’t know what happened.”
Emmory and Zin came into the room; the extra footsteps behind them belonged—I realized—to Aiz and Mia. I squeezed Sybil’s hand, then released her. “I don’t either. You were with me for the first two futures, but that last future you were missing and it was entirely too real.”
Sybil winced as she sat up. “I could only see flashes of it. I’ve never had that happen before.”
I helped her the rest of the way to her feet and then turned to face my Ekam. I tried to hide the shaking of my hands as I reached for him, but I knew he saw it. He pulled me into his arms and I buried my face against his shoulder.
“What happened?” His voice rumbled in my ear and I felt the quick squeeze of his arms before he let me go.
I cleared my throat of the tears. “Hao, where’s Dailun and Johar? Alba and Admiral Hassan also. I only want to go through this once.”
A stunned silence greeted us after Sybil and I detailed out the possible futures we’d seen. At least half of those assembled wore uncertain frowns, and I didn’t blame them. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d be questioning it, too.
The thought of trying to explain this to Caterina and the others made my jaw ache.
“I’m just going to say it. All those options are shit.” Hao dragged a hand through his hair.
“What he said.” Johar pointed and shook her head. “Don’t we have an Adora-gets-hers-and-we-all-live-happily-ever-after option?”
I laughed; it was sharp-edged and hard and I felt Mia’s fingers tighten against mine. “It’s not a fairy tale, Jo. Besides, this is just one piece of the whole mess and we do need to decide what to do about Adora. Preferably before the Hiervet show up.” I glanced in Dailun’s direction. “I’m hoping someone has good news for me, but it’s going to have to wait until we get this sorted.”
“Your Majesty. I recommend we send a message to Caspel right now about getting the royal family out of the capital, possibly even off the planet,” Admiral Hassan said.
“You know they’ll balk,” I replied.
Her smile was tight. “I’ll be vague about the ‘credible threat’ to the royal family. That should handle any objections.”
“Thank you.” I hated myself more than a little even as I agreed with her that the priority was getting Alice and her daughter away from danger. Sybil had been right—I couldn’t save everyone, but I could save some if Adora decided to attack Pashati. “Do it.”
Inana gave me a sharp nod and left the room.
“I actually agree with you, believe it or not,” I said to Hao, and tapped a finger against my lip in thought. “About these options being shit.”
“Good news is that some of what you saw isn’t going to come to pass,” Aiz said.
I frowned at him. “How do you figure?”
He lifted a shoulder with a smile. “Peace talks happened, Hail. The Shen and the Farians will be at peace. Fasé is still here. If Adora comes at Faria, the playing field will be decidedly different than what you described in the future you saw.”
He had a point and I was surprised I hadn’t realized it. The memory of Hao telling me to talk to Fasé surfaced, and everything after that fell into line. I’d convinced her to stay. She’d convinced Aiz to make peace.
There is no true shelter for sides that will collapse without each other to lean on.
The words from Sybil’s future were loud in my head.
Adora wouldn’t be able to get a foothold in Faria because I’d taken five minutes to talk to Fasé and reassure her that she could, in fact, do more than she’d dreamed.
“Why can’t I get Adora to surrender?”
Aiz snorted at my question, but I ignored him and kept looking at Sybil. The Farian shook her head.
“I don’t know. It’s always a choice, but not on
e I’ve seen specifically. Will Adora go that direction? I can’t think of anything, especially coming from you, that would encourage her to do such a thing.”
“She won’t ever surrender.”
Now I did look his way. “How do you know that?”
“I wouldn’t.”
“What if Mia’s life were at stake?” I saw her flinch when I asked the question.
“That’s a shit question.” Aiz shook his head. “You know I couldn’t, Hail. The safety of my people takes priority over my sister’s life, even if I would sooner cut my own heart out of my chest.”
“Everyone has a breaking point,” I replied. “Everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves for something—or someone—else. I think you’re lying about Mia, but I know you’d do it for your people.”
Aiz shot me a flat look and Mia watched us with haunted eyes.
“Look, I don’t particularly want to kill Adora. You and I both know that will just make her people fight all the harder. But I can’t let her run around out there—if she decides to attack us or Pashati or Earth?” I shook my head. “Way too many people are going to end up dead. I’d like to prevent that by taking Adora back into custody as fast and as quietly as possible.”
“What’s your plan for that?”
“I haven’t gotten that far.” I tapped a finger on the tabletop. A plan was forming, though, hazy and imperfect in the back of my head. “Dailun, what was the verdict from your people?”
“Not good, jiejie,” he replied, shaking his head. “As you can imagine, they were not particularly interested in helping us attack the Hiervet. But they claimed to have no way of finding the Hiervet even were they willing to help.”
“It was worth a shot, I guess.” I sighed at the ceiling. “All right, people. I am open to other suggestions as to how we find the Hiervet before they come crashing into this galaxy.”
“Hail, he’s not done.” Hao pointed a finger at Dailun.
My pilot smiled and folded his hands together. “We thought it best not to waste the trip, so I asked if I could pass a message on to the Istrevitel and approval was given.”
“You think they’ll help?”
“They did say they would be in touch, honored sister. I felt a representative of yours could request contact and that sending them a message first was necessary given the circumstances. They will hopefully welcome it, even though it was from me.”
We will speak with the Star if the time comes. Pray it does not.
Despite everyone’s hopes, the time was coming. Even though the Hiervet still seemed as intangible as smoke on the air and I knew we had to deal with Adora first, I could feel the certainty twisting in my gut.
“You did good.” I patted Dailun on the shoulder. “We’ll wait and see what happens. In the meantime let’s focus on our next move.”
“Which is what?” Johar asked.
“Finding Adora.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she replied. “Alba and I have an idea.”
Johar’s idea was brilliant, and oddly in line with the one that had been forming in my head. It also set off a firestorm of protests, not from Emmory but from Hao. “We’re seriously considering heading into an unknown situation, and worse, letting her lead us into it?”
“That hurts, Hao.” I didn’t bother pointing out we’d already decided to do the same thing where the Hiervet were concerned.
“You know what I mean.” He glared at me.
“I won’t send anyone else,” I replied. “Jo’s right, if we can have Thyra just take us wherever Adora is and we take over the ship. We’ll end this rebellion of hers before it even starts.”
“By fucking letting one of those treacherous bastards take you onto Adora’s ship,” Aiz said. His mouth was set in a tight line and it was fascinating to see both him and Hao on the same side of things. “Anything could happen and an unhealthy amount of the scenarios end with you dead.”
“I can’t just wait around here until the Hiervet show up, can I?” I set my jaw and crossed my arms over my chest to keep my hands away from my guns. “You’re busy. I can go take care of the Adora problem before the tension gets so high around here that someone accidentally starts a war.”
“How much worse will the tension get if you go and get yourself killed?”
I gave Aiz a look that could have put a hole in the side of a battlecruiser. “I did a reasonably good job of staying alive before I met you, you know. I don’t need a babysitter.”
Hao opened his mouth to reply, and I pointed a finger at him with a warning shake of my head.
“Enough, all of you.” That came from Mia and Fasé, the pair stepping to my side in a surprising display of solidarity. “Hail’s right,” Mia said. “What must happen here and now is peace between the Farians and the Shen. Which is our responsibility. It is Hail’s responsibility to find Adora before she does more damage.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling at the identical looks of frustration Hao and Aiz were wearing and instead glanced in Emmory’s direction. “Ekam?”
“We go where you go, Majesty.”
“Well, that’s settled, then.” I rubbed my hands together. “I will have to convince Thyra, of course, and see if it can even be done. From there we will figure out who’s going.”
The crowd broke and Fasé put a hand on my arm before she left, her voice so soft I almost missed the whispered warning. “This will not go the way you plan, Hail, and you cannot hide. Your voice is necessary. Only the Star can turn the hearts of those who are uncertain. Choose your words with care.”
“Don’t I always?”
A smile flickered over her face. “No, and even worse this time you will not want to, but if you value peace above war, you must.”
Fasé’s words were still lodged in my brain a day later when I strode into the Pedalion chamber, Emmory and Gita on my heels. Thyra looked up as we entered. The Farian Hiervet sat on the dais and tapped her front limbs together as she stood.
“Star of Indrana, what can I do for you?”
“I’m surprised you were not in the negotiations.”
She sighed, and an expression that was either resignation or annoyance twisted her face. “I would have, but Yadira and Delphine felt things would go smoother were I not.”
“They weren’t wrong. It is good of you to recognize that peace is beneficial to the Farians. It shows you care.” I watched the range of emotions skitter across Thyra’s face as I spoke and bit back a smile of my own.
It was probably not quite what Fasé had meant about me watching my words, but it was helpful. My continued effort to get a better read on the Hiervet’s expressions hadn’t abated, and I’d spent what spare time I had watching the compilations from Zin over and over, looking for the patterns.
Some of which may have included deliberately poking at them to get a specific emotion I wanted to see. Zin’s catalog of expressions was very helpful, but not quite complete.
“I do care,” Thyra said finally. “You see it differently, because of the Shen, but the Farians have been in my care for a very long time. I love them as if they were my children.”
There was something about the way she said children that made my skin crawl.
“Of course.” I offered up my best soothing smile. “I came to talk to you for exactly that reason.” That earned me a confused expression and I nearly grinned in triumph.
“I’m sorry, Star of Indrana, I am not following you.”
“It’s dangerous to the Farians for Adora and Priam to be out there spreading dissent. It’s also dangerous for my people and the whole of humanity, since if this peace fails and the Farians and Shen go back to fighting it’s only a matter of time before they spill back into our part of the galaxy.”
I left the and the Hiervet are coming unsaid, but it hung in the air anyway.
“Please continue.”
“I’ve come to request your help.”
Surprise, plain as day, on Thyra’s face, and
also satisfaction. “You are the Star of Indrana.”
“And yet I can’t teleport myself long distances. Any distance, really.” I pointed at her. “You can.”
“You need me to take you somewhere?” There was the confusion again.
“I would like you to take me, and a small strike force, to wherever Adora’s ship is.”
19
Have I mentioned this is a bad idea?”
“Repeatedly and at great length.” I shoved my Glocks into my thigh holsters. “Reminds me of that job in the Siberian wasteland when you invited all that bad luck on us by repeatedly bitching about what a bad idea it was.” I winked at Gita behind Hao’s back.
“You mean the job where I got shot?”
“One of them, yeah.” I shrugged, grinning at his look. “What? That one wasn’t my fault. You fumbled the code words at the door.”
“Sha zhu,” Hao said, and then stopped. It was the exhale that caught my attention, and it washed away my amusement. I stepped around Gita, waving off Emmory as I slipped my arm through Hao’s and walked him down the ramp of the ship into the cool night air.
“What is it?”
Hao didn’t answer, but he rubbed at his left shoulder as he slipped out of my grasp and headed to the edge of the platform the Hailimi rested on. He was silent as he stared out at the sharp-edged buildings jutting up in the distance.
I followed, swallowing down the urge to press. I’d shot him in that shoulder on Sparkos and I knew all too well the look on his face, the number of times I’d been on the receiving end of it while on his crew. It was a strange mixture of frustration and love with just a touch of pleading; it was very similar to the Look Emmory often shot my way.
I’d pushed Hao too far, missed the concern in his questions during the briefing as we’d planned out the best way to assault Adora’s ship. Call it arrogance, or nerves, or whatever. I should have paid better attention.
“I know that calling what happened to you difficult is a bit like calling a black hole an inconvenience.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I want to ask you something and you’re welcome to get angry with me, but I’d appreciate an honest answer.”
