by K. B. Wagers
“Someone told me there was whiskey,” he said.
“Gita’s got it,” I replied, pointing as she came back into the barracks with the whiskey in one hand and water in the other. She passed the bottle to Aiz.
“Really?”
Gita wiggled the water in my direction. “His sobriety isn’t my concern.”
I took the water with a sigh and then pulled the tray of food closer. “I think my Dve is warming up to you.”
Gita snorted and went to stand by the door. Aiz grinned and took a drink. “She hasn’t threatened to cut me into pieces lately, so I’d agree.”
I eyed the whiskey in his hand, but Aiz smiled and shook his head, tipping the bottle at the food in front of me. “Eat, Hail.”
“Mia still mad?” I asked, picking up a piero and biting into the flaky dough. The sharp spice of something that reminded me of curry filled my senses and I felt an abrupt longing for home.
“She’ll be mad for another fifty hours or so,” he replied, and took another, longer drink. “But it’s fine. I’d rather she’s mad and alive. I appreciate what you did, Hail. I know what it cost you. If it helps at all, once she calms down she’ll realize it, too.”
“I meant what I said.” I put the piero back down, my appetite suddenly gone, and pushed the tray away. “I’m tired of the choice being taken from me because they think they know better. You don’t get to have this both ways, dragging me into this fight and then withholding information from me.”
“I’m on your side on this, Hail. Though don’t think I missed the part about Mia seeing your death also.”
“I guess you’ll just have to follow us around, then, and make sure we’re okay.” I was surprised how easily the joke came to me.
Aiz glanced over his shoulder and then held the bottle out to me with a smile.
“She’s kept this from you a lot longer, how are you so calm?” I took a quick drink but Gita didn’t move from her spot.
“I trust my sister. Don’t get me wrong, I was—am—furious at her for hiding this,” Aiz said. “But I’ve known something was wrong for years, I just didn’t have the specifics. It’s easier for me to roll with it in a number of ways.”
He leaned forward and patted me with one hand, stealing the bottle back with the other and holding it out of my reach when I protested. “Plus, you will find a solution. One that doesn’t involve either of you dying.” Aiz got to his feet. “Eat your dinner, Hail, you’ll feel like shit in the morning if you don’t.”
I made a face at him, but picked up my discarded piero and finished my meal.
It wasn’t quite fifty hours, but it was close. I spotted Mia watching us as we ran through what amounted to a full-contact game of capture the flag late one afternoon on Horst. It was me, Emmory, and Zin versus Gita, Iza, and Indula, with Kisah refereeing the hits.
“Hail!” Emmory’s shout dragged my attention away from Mia and back to what I was supposed to be focused on.
Namely, Gita.
I managed to turn to the side, deflecting most of Gita’s punch, but the impact rocked through my shoulder and I knew it was going to bruise. I used my momentum and hit her in the diaphragm with the flat of my palm, knocking her back into Emmory.
“You’re down, Gita,” Kisah called, no small amount of glee in her voice. Emmory and I had gotten her with that same move on the last round when we’d defeated her, Hao, and Johar.
“Keep your head in the game,” Emmory said, and I nodded once. “Let’s go.”
With Gita down, Iza was alone at the flag. I would put money on Zin in a head-to-head against Indula any day. Which was less a commentary on Indula’s abilities than it was my faith in Zin’s.
“How are we going in?”
“You circle around,” Emmory said. “I’ll come in from the front and distract her.”
“She’ll expect it, and knowing Indula there’s probably some awful trap near their flag.”
Emmory chuckled. Yesterday, he, Hao, and Zin had decimated the rest of us until they’d been stopped by Indula somehow electrifying the area around our flag.
“I should have asked him how he did that,” I said with a shrug.
“Might have been a good idea. What’s your idea?”
“Go back to Zin. I’ve been wanting to try something but if she sees you it’ll blow the whole thing.”
Emmory studied me for a moment before melting back into the junglelike terrain we’d picked for this round. I took a deep breath and brought up an image of Indula on my smati.
I’d tried Priam’s trick of vanishing entirely, but it was surprisingly harder than changing my face. Aiz had explained it as projecting one image—a person, rather than the multiple images a background would require. That made sense, in a strange sort of way, though even he admitted that there was a difference between looking like a person and pretending to be that person.
“The longer you have to keep up the pretense, the more chances you have to fuck it up. Most people have pretty good instincts and the better they know a person, the more those instincts are going to be telling them something is wrong.”
I released the breath I’d been holding. There was no mirror to check my work and it never felt any different to me. “Only way is forward,” I muttered in Indula’s voice.
“What are you doing? I thought you were going after Zin?”
“No good, we need to regroup.”
Iza frowned and I was equal parts frustrated and proud of her. Not only for how fast her gut was telling her something was off but for the fact that she listened.
Speed was my friend here, so I moved in quickly. “We’ve only got a minute before they head this way, so—”
“Iza!” Indula’s voice rang through the air.
“Well, that’s the risk of it.” I laughed and dropped my façade.
“Majesty?” Iza took a step back.
I winked, grabbed the flag, and took off running. Iza’s swearing was quickly replaced by the sounds of her pursuit.
“Coming in hot, Emmory,” I said over the coms. “Where’s Indula?”
“No sign of him, Majesty. Keep your eyes out.”
The words had no sooner echoed in my ear than Indula emerged from the heavy leaves on my left. I dropped and rolled forward, avoiding his lunge with a breathless laugh, and bounced to my feet to take off running again.
I knew I could outrun Indula, but Emmory was waiting as I rounded a bend and I dropped a second time so he could shoot Indula with the specially designed pistols the Istrevitel used for the courses.
“Her Majesty’s team is the winner,” Kisah announced.
“That was a good one,” I said, holding my hand out to Gita as the scene around us disappeared. She took it with a smile but shot a stern look at my Ekam.
“After all the shit you’ve given me. You are entirely too comfortable using her as bait.”
“Maybe, but she’s more than capable and we may as well play to our strengths. We all know it’s an unusual situation.” Emmory’s smile was soft. “And I trust her to stay alive.”
“I feel like we’re in some weird role reversal with you two,” I joked, letting Gita go and reaching out for Iza with a smile.
“That was a good idea with the masking program, Majesty,” she said.
“Not a program.”
“What did you do?” Emmory asked, and I grinned.
“Keeping up with my Shen practice. I looked like Indula.” I demonstrated and everyone but Emmory inhaled in shock.
“That is wild,” Indula said.
Iza snapped her fingers. “You are too tall, that’s what it was!”
“Ouch,” Indula joked, putting a hand to his heart. “Her Majesty is not that much taller than me.”
“She is,” Zin said as I released the illusion. “That’s a neat trick.”
“We should talk about teaching everyone,” I replied, but Emmory shook his head.
“One thing at a time, Majesty.”
“Fine.”
“You cou
ld have just gotten a kill, Majesty,” Iza said as we gathered our things and headed out of the simulator toward the shuttle. “Why didn’t you?”
I reached out and cupped the back of her head, touching my forehead to hers. “Honestly? That would have been too easy. This way was more fun.” I glanced across the shuttle bay where Dailun stood talking with Mia. “Less violence, not more, right?”
35
It didn’t escape my attention that everyone had found something interesting to focus on at the front of the shuttle and left Mia and me with a rather large buffer of empty ship around us as we headed back to Ganyin.
“I am sorry.” Mia looked down at her hands and then back up at me with a small smile. “You were right, Hail. You are right about me taking your choices from you because I thought I knew best. I didn’t ever expect this to be so difficult.”
“What changed?”
“You.”
“How could that have been a surprise? You saw all of it happen. Didn’t you?”
“I didn’t.” She shook her head and laughed. “I saw you, but I saw the end before you and set myself on that path with the utmost resolution long before we met. I don’t see the whole of it play out in front of me; that’s not how this works. I see pieces, flashes, and I try to put them in order. Sybil has been doing this longer than any of us; she’s better at putting the pieces into order. I am also guilty of letting the things I fear take precedence over the whole.”
I held my hand out and told myself that the fluttering in my stomach when she took it was totally normal. “I don’t want to die, Mia, but I won’t sacrifice you just to save my own life. You should understand me well enough by now to know I can’t.”
“It was wrong of me to expect anything less from you. Your loyalty to those you care about has always been something I admired about you.” She squeezed my fingers. “I saw your shift during the training, it was good.”
“Iza figured it out pretty quickly.”
“Your people are very good at their jobs.” Mia reached out with her other hand, paused, and offered up a smile. “I also saw Gita’s punch. You must be sore?”
“I avoided most of it, but be my guest.”
This feeling I was familiar with, and I relaxed as the warmth of Mia’s energy flooded my arm, soothing away the aching muscle at the impact spot and radiating outward.
“Better?”
“Much,” I murmured. “Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?”
“For the moment.” She smiled. “To be honest I wasn’t ever really mad at you. I was mad at myself because you were right. But also because I am afraid.” Tears gathered in her storm-colored eyes. “I have seen what happens when you follow me, and while I can admit it is wrong of me to expect you to walk away, I still want you to.”
“You can’t ask me not to follow you. Don’t you get it?” I reached out and cupped her face in my hands, pressing my forehead to hers. “I have let so many people go in my life for the noblest of reasons. But I can’t—please don’t ask that of me.”
“I won’t survive the loss of you,” she whispered.
“Of course you will, but have some faith in me?” I smiled. “That’s all I ask. I am very hard to kill and we are nowhere near the end of this. Trust in me rather than the things you’ve seen. Stay alive for me, and I will come for you. I promise.”
Mia closed her eyes and blew out a shuddering breath. Then she opened them again and I could see my whole world reflected back at me. “I trust you, Hail. Completely and forever.”
The words were simple, but the feeling wrapped itself around my heart and squeezed to the point of pain.
“How’s Aiz?” I asked, clearing my throat and pulling back a fraction before I gave in to the need to kiss her. The illusion of privacy was just that, an illusion, and I didn’t much feel like an audience for that part of things.
“Much better.” Mia smiled. “Your Ragini has really impressed him. The fleet’s coms are back up, all the renimi have been fixed, and we have a defense against it if they try to infect us again.”
“Good.” I’d read the report from the senior tech that morning and was beyond pleased that she and her team had not only fixed the issue but figured out just how the Farians had slipped the virus past the complex security already in place for all smatis.
This had been something we’d never seen before, a combination of code and some kind of biological component that allowed the code to bypass the normal safety protocols. I hadn’t understood most of the explanation, but Ragini did and more importantly she had assured me it wouldn’t happen to the Shen again and that she’d put new safeguards in place for our programs to keep the Indranans and our equipment safe.
“Majesty,” Emmory said, and I tore my gaze away from Mia. “Captain Zov is back. Apparently Johar’s not with her.”
“What?” I got to my feet, Mia following. “What do you mean she’s not with her?”
“Exactly what I said, Majesty, or what Hao is telling me. I don’t have an answer for the question I know you’re about to ask me. We’re coming into the bay and will be on the ground in five minutes and you can ask her then.”
“Fine.” I reached out and patted Emmory on the arm. “Sorry, I shouldn’t take that out on you.”
“We know Johar can take care of herself, Majesty. She’s fine.”
I knew that, but knowing wasn’t going to make the knot in my gut go away.
A hush fell over the shuttle, some of our lighthearted feelings dimmed by the news and the worry. I caught myself clinging to Mia’s hand as we landed, but when I tried to let her go she smiled at me and squeezed my hand gently.
I suspected she kept a hold of me in part to force me to slow down, as striding off the shuttle at a faster speed would have left Mia scrambling to keep up and it would also prove damned difficult to take a swing at Captain Zov if Mia was still holding my hand.
But Dirah was smiling when I came off the ramp, even though a very pissed-off-looking Hao was standing next to her.
“Your Majesty.”
“Where’s Jo?”
Captain Zov held her hand out. “She decided to stay behind, Your Majesty. She recorded a message for you.”
“You could have told me that,” Hao protested.
Dirah gave him a sideways look and smiled at me. “Johar said to tell you first, Your Majesty.”
“Fair enough.” I glanced at Emmory, who nodded, and then I reached out to take the file from Dirah. “Barracks,” I said, and tipped my head at Dirah. “Join us, Captain?”
“Of course.”
“You weren’t spotted?” I asked.
“No, Your Majesty.” She smiled. “It may have been they weren’t looking for us, but also it appeared that the Farians were a little light on ships in the space above the planet. We are not sure why.”
We got to the barracks and I put the file from Johar up on the wall so everyone could see it. Hao leaned against the wall next to me.
“Hail.” Johar smiled. “We made it here in one piece and made contact with the rebellion.” The camera shifted sideways and my breath caught at the sight of not only Fasé but Stasia as well. “As you can see, everyone’s here and in good shape. I decided to stay since I’m the only one here with an uncompromised brain. Ha, how’s that for irony. Anyhow, that way we can get some messages going back and forth better than what they’re working with right now, which is not much.”
“Find Ragini,” I said to Gita. “We’ll want to figure out if we can transmit the antivirus to them and how best to do that.”
“Yes, Majesty.”
The flicker in the corner of my vision was back, but I steadfastly ignored it in favor of Johar’s message.
“If you had money down on the Adora theory, Hail, you’re the winner. Fasé says that shortly after you left, Adora’s supporters marched on the Pedalion. The virus started spreading and everything went completely to shit. Sort of like that Pinbree job. Fasé doesn’t know if Sybil and the others are
alive or not but our current guess is that they are.” Johar’s easy smile faded at that. “I can tell you that it’s messy down here and I am not sure how we’re going to do this. We’ve got a lot of innocent people on the ground who don’t support the Farian broadcasting from the Pedalion facility. I’ve attached a few of those broadcasts from Adora; have fun watching those.”
Jo gestured around. “We’re holed up on the southwest side of the capital. Adora’s got forces out but there’s a lot of fighting going on. I hate to say it but you’re going to have to move and move fast. We’ll see you.” She saluted and the image went black.
“Pinbree,” Hao murmured, and I whistled.
“It’s Jo and she’s fine.” Relief was sharp in my chest at the knowledge that Fasé and Stasia were safe, and I’d spotted the Royal Marines in the background when Johar had panned the room.
“You know that how, Majesty?” Emmory asked.
“We worked a job at Pinbree with Jo. Delivering medical supplies, legal run into a rather nasty contamination zone. It was exciting.”
Zin raised an eyebrow, clearly not getting the reference. While Gita’s expression cycled from confused to curious to horrified.
“I read up on the Pinbree outbreak. That was the Reev virus.”
“Regular medical corps wouldn’t go down to the planet.” Hao shrugged. “It was good money.”
“Until you end up with your intestines leaking out your ass,” she snapped.
“True. Portis was so mad at me we didn’t speak for a week. Money was good, though.” I ignored Emmory’s Look, but my smile faded as the memory played itself out. “It was awful. The Solarians firebombed the planet a month later when a ship of refugees tried to break quarantine. Anyway, it’s basic gunrunner code for ‘I’m fine.’ You mention a job we’ve all done together. If Johar was in trouble she’d have made up a job or not said anything at all.”
What I didn’t say out loud was that her choice of Pinbree wasn’t random. It told me a lot about the situation we’d be walking into on Faria, but primarily that it was extremely dangerous and potentially deadly.
I rubbed my hands over the tops of my thighs. “So, we were unfortunately right about Adora surviving the Hiervet attack on her fleet, which means we’re probably right about Thyra and Adaran and we’ve already had confirmation about this fucking army of theirs from Aiz. Where do we go from here? Do we have a timetable for ship repairs?”
