On Mission

by Aileen Erin

  “You’re damned right I won’t. I won’t lose her. Not now.” Audrey didn’t look up from what she was doing. She was mixing two drugs together in a small glass vial. She took a pinprick instrument from the case and gathered a drop of Amihanna’s blood. As soon as the blood hit the concoction in the vial, the liquid turned green.

  “Damn it.”

  She threw down the vial, not caring that it shattered on the ground a few feet away. She stared at Amihanna, and muttered something under her breath.

  “One more. I’ve got one more idea.” She started mixing things again. This time when the drop of blood hit the vial, the whole thing went clear.

  “Thank God.” She rushed to make the mixture again, talking to herself about the formula, and then putting it into an injector. She pressed it to Amihanna’s neck and hit the button.

  I was holding my breath, waiting. I wasn’t sure what for, but then Amihanna gasped again, this time deeper. And again, deeper still. And then one more time before her breathing leveled off.

  Audrey looked at me and nodded. “She’s going to be okay. I promise.”

  I sat back on my heels and bowed my head, thanking the Goddess that she saved my betrothed. My everything. After a moment, I looked at Audrey again. “But she’s not waking up.”

  “The poison was bad, but she’ll be okay. She needs some time in a healing pod, and I need to run some tests. I want to make sure I have the dosage right, but I can’t give her more until I do the tests.” Audrey brushed a hand across Amihanna’s forehead. “I know it might not help, but she’s actually come a lot closer to dying. This is nowhere near some of the close calls on Abaddon or what happened when we were escaping Abaddon.” Her gaze met mine. “She’s so much stronger now. She won’t go. Not when you’re here waiting for her.”

  I pressed my fist to my heart, then bowed my head to Audrey. “You have my life. Anything you need, you ask.”

  There was a silence, and I knew everyone was watching and listening.

  Arms encircled me and I lifted my head to find myself being hugged by Audrey. She had risen up on her knees to reach over Amihanna and give me some comfort.

  She gave me a tight squeeze before letting go.

  “I owe you—”

  “Nothing.” Audrey sat back on her heels. “She’s given me everything. I never thought I’d have a shot at a free life, and she’s given me a dream I thought would never come true—doing work I love, living with a man I love, and reconnecting with family. You owe me nothing.” Audrey turned back to Amihanna and took another sample of her blood, running another test with it.

  I studied Amihanna’s stillness, and I hated it. I needed her to wake up.

  Someone sat beside me, wrapping their arms around me. Fynea. I leaned against her.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Fynea whispered in my ear. Her voice was shaking, and I wasn’t sure she believed what she said.

  “I need her, Nea. I need her to wake up and be okay because I can’t do this without her.”

  Fynea pulled away from me and placed her hands on my cheeks, turning my face to hers. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, and I knew she was as scared as I was.

  “I know you do, Lorne. I know how much you need her. We all know it, and you have teams here to make sure that you won’t have to do anything without her.” She swallowed and tried to blink the tears away. “But people are watching, so we need you to be the High King now. I know it’s hard to step away from her, but she wanted this fight. She wanted to come here so that you could have what you need to declare war. So, do your job now. Declare war. Don’t let her suffering be for nothing. Not again.”

  Ashino knelt on one knee on my other side. “Rysden just arrived on scene. He’s making his way here, and he wants to question the woman and the rest of the prisoners.”

  I nodded. Yes. That was good. Someone should question her. I couldn’t. Not without killing her, and that wouldn’t solve anything.

  Ashino looked at something behind me. “He’s waving you over.”

  I didn’t care. Amihanna’s dark brown eyes were closed, and I wasn’t sure I could move until I heard her say my name.

  I turned to see Fynea and shook my head. I couldn’t do this. I needed something. I wasn’t sure what, but I needed it.

  Fynea took a breath and swiped at her tears. She turned to Audrey. “She’s not awake yet. Why?”

  “She needs time in a pod and tests to make sure I have the mixture exactly right. There could be poison still lingering, or maybe it’s just an aftereffect of the poison, or maybe she just needs to rest and to let the antidote I made work. She might wake up in a few moments. I’m not sure. I won’t be until we get her in a pod and run more tests.” Audrey sighed. “I just explained this to him, but I don’t think he’s hearing me. I have to get it right. Too much could hurt her and… I can’t risk it. The stretcher should be here in a minute. We’ll know more soon.”

  “I understand,” Fynea said, and then she leaned close to whisper in my ear. “Your people are watching you. Everyone is watching you. There are cameras and this is being broadcast. Get up. Get up right now, and do your job. Trust us to keep Amihanna safe and alive.”

  Was she insane? I couldn’t move until Amihanna was awake.

  “Do your job, Lorne. Now.” She lowered from kneeling to sit beside Amihanna. “Go.” She gave me a little push. “I will take watch.” She took Amihanna’s hand in hers. “She won’t be alone. I’m here. Audrey is here. Her guards are here. And you’ll be in viewing distance. Show your people that you’re strong. Give them hope that they’re not about to lose both of their rulers.”

  She was right. I hated it, but she was right.

  It took everything to stand while Amihanna lay there unconscious. I forced myself to look away, but I couldn’t bear to leave her yet.

  Captain ni Eneko moved through the crowd to talk to Rysden. They motioned to the woman bound at their feet. I didn’t know which of the guards had captured her, and it didn’t matter. I stared down at the Earther, telling myself that killing her now would do more harm than good, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.

  Yes, we might be able to get some information out of her, but did we need anything from her? What was that information worth?

  Fynea was right. I had a job to do. I glanced down at Amihanna again.

  Audrey looked up at me. “She’s stable. She’s fine. If anything changes, you’ll be right there. I’ll shout.”

  I nodded. “I’m not going far.” I walked to Rysden and the Captain, and then I stared down at the woman. Spy. Kidnapper. Murderer.

  I wasn’t sure how best to kill her, but she needed to suffer.

  She needed to die.

  Rysden’s sigh told me he heard what I hadn’t said aloud. “Don’t do anything you’ll later regret, your majesty.”

  “She hurt Amihanna. She should die.” He was insane if he thought otherwise.

  “As a father, I agree. As your advisor, I have to ask you to think rationally for us all. You cannot afford to be anything other than calm right now. Too much—”

  I didn’t want to think rationally. I couldn’t be calm.

  I looked into Rysden’s eyes. “We’re declaring war. Today. Right now.”

  “Yes. This qualifies as an act of war. No one in the alliance would dare to argue.”

  I stared down at the woman, but Rysden gripped my arm and pulled me away.

  “Have her brought to holding, but not to the estate,” Rysden said. “I want to question her personally. No mistakes, and I’m not risking bringing an unknown into my house again.” The last was a warning to Captain ni Eneko.

  “Yes, sir,” Captain ni Eneko said, quickly moving to make it happen. He knew me well, and he knew what I wanted.

  That tiny distraction was done, and now I needed an update. Amihanna’s skin was too pale, making the red dots stand out more.

  I didn’t remember moving back to her, but suddenly I was kneeling beside Amihanna again, and Fynea�
��s arm came around my shoulders.

  Rysden knelt next to me. “How is she?” he asked Audrey. “No easing the truth, please.”

  “She’ll be fine. I’ve run some more tests, and I believe she should wake within the first few hours in a healing pod, if not sooner. Transport is on the way.”

  “She stepped in front of that bullet for me,” I said to Rysden. “That woman changed her aim at the last second, and Amihanna saved me.”

  “It was very brave of her, but my daughter is incredibly brave. I’m very proud of her actions tonight. I watched on the feed as soon as I had word of the attack. Although I will have to ask why I wasn’t told of this mission before it happened.” Rysden gave Eshrin a look.

  There was a lot that people had to answer for, but in the end, Amihanna had saved us. Again. With this action, with this secret mission, with the way she put herself in the way of that bullet, she’d saved us all.

  By coming here instead of sending Captain ni Eneko to pick up the suspects, she’d given me the freedom to declare war.

  There wasn’t a soul alive that could deny her courage, but tonight, I wished she was just a fraction less brave.

  My control started to slip and my skin grew brighter, but then she gasped and her eyes opened.

  “Son of a spacebat.” Her voice was raspy and reedy and so, so beautiful. “That hurts.”

  Fynea squeezed my shoulder. “See. Faster than Audrey thought.”

  I moved closer, and Audrey stopped me with her hand to my chest.

  “I’ve cleaned her face.” She pulled her hand away. “There shouldn’t be any residue, but—”

  “I’ll risk it.” I pressed my forehead down to Amihanna’s to hide the tears.

  Thank you, Goddess. Thank you for bringing her back.

  I rose just enough to press a kiss to her cheek, ignoring Audrey’s hiss. I didn’t feel any burn from lucole, and even if I did, I wouldn’t let that stop me. “How are you?”

  “Hurting and my lungs ache a little. A little cold, but my face burns.” She looked down. “Why is my sweater ripped open? And what are those things?”

  Her hand shook as she tried to poke at the devices that stuck to her skin just under the edge of her black active bra, but Audrey slapped her hand away.

  “No,” Audrey said. “You think your lungs ache now? You remove those and you’ll really know what pain is.”

  She grimaced. “Got it.” She tried to tug her arms through the sweater, but her arms were shaking and fumbling. Just seeing that scared me.

  I put my hand on her shoulder. “Can I help?”

  She let out a long breath. “Yeah. I just… I want it off.”

  I helped gently tug the sleeves off of her arms, leaving the sweater on the ground under her. I gave her a look, hoping she’d tell me why.

  She shrugged. “I have on an active bra. Somehow this is less weird than wearing a sweater that’s ripped open.” She made an odd face and smacked her lips. “Why does my mouth taste like I ate dirt?”

  “Lucole poisoning,” Audrey said. “How do you feel?”

  “A little bit of pain kind of everydamnwhere. A little iced, but mostly fine.” She looked up at me, and her brown eyes looked clear and alert, even if I knew she was weaker than she had been. A lot weaker.

  For the first time since I got word of the attack, the fear loosened its grip around my throat.

  She really was going to be okay. I hadn’t believed Audrey, and now that I knew she was going to be okay, my hands started shaking and I wanted to sob. But I couldn’t. Not now.

  Medics pushed through the crowd, led by a few of Amihanna’s guards.

  I moved just enough so that they could lower the hover-stretcher.

  Amihanna groaned when she saw it. She knew that meant time in a healing pod, which she hated. “I don’t need the stretcher. Can’t I walk?”

  “Better not,” Audrey said, pressing a hand on her shoulder as if she didn’t trust Amihanna not to try. “Just in case. Let them put you on the stretcher. No complaining.”

  “Everyone’s staring at us,” Amihanna said.

  I didn’t need to look to confirm. There was quite a crowd and cameras that were sending a feed throughout the galaxy and beyond. But if she hadn’t noticed the cameras yet, I wasn’t going to point them out.

  “Captain ni Eneko has your Earther friend,” Fynea said as the medics moved her carefully onto the stretcher.

  Amihanna snorted. “Friend. That’s funny. What happened to good old Officer Hill?”

  Thank you, I mouthed to Fynea. A proper distraction was exactly what Amihanna needed.

  “That’s the woman who shot you?” Eshrin asked. “Officer Hill? You really knew her?”

  “Yeah. Sort of. She was one of the prison guards in Albuquerque during my short stay in jail. She hated me. I’m pretty sure she—and Jason—let a Rojo into my cell.”

  “Rojo?”

  “A bad gang in ABQ. Chick had implants in her head that made it look like she had horns. It was nuts. But I kicked her butt and then got sent to solitary.”

  This was more than I’d ever heard about her actual time in jail, and I had so many questions. I didn’t like to push, especially about things that caused her pain, and she never really spoke to me about specifics when she was in jail, but now they were important if this Officer Hill had shown up in our market.

  “You said I got shot?” Amihanna looked down at herself, running a hand down her chest. “I don’t look like I got shot. There’s no blood.”

  “I stopped the bullet. Barely. A fraction of a second more and—” My skin started to brighten again and I knew I couldn’t talk about it. Not yet.

  One of the medics motioned to me, and I gave them a nod. I’d had enough of being here. If she was stable, it was time we left.

  I wished that I could just cradle her in my arms and carry her to the ship, but I didn’t want to disturb the devices on her chest. The medics raised the stretcher to hover off the ground, and I kept my hand on it as we started to move through the crowd. “Let’s go home.”

  She saw everyone silently staring and started to shift on the stretcher. “I can walk. I’m feeling a lot better already, and I definitely don’t need a healing pod. I—”

  “No.” I didn’t care what she thought about pride or anything else. She had devices helping her breathe. There was no chance she was avoiding time in the pod.

  I gripped her hand as I walked next to the stretcher, moving toward the south building where the ship was parked.

  She tugged on my hand until I looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” I wondered if I’d really have to explain it. “I thought you were dead.”

  “Oh.” She was very quiet as we travelled to the south building. “I’m okay, though. I’m pretty tough to kill.”

  “You didn’t even give me a chance to help. You just left. I didn’t even get your message about this mission until one of my assistants interrupted the meeting with the footage of you here and fighting and…”

  And she almost died.

  Again.

  She looked up at me. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you what I was doing instead of leaving a message. I just didn’t want to bother you, and…” She blew out a hard breath. “And I have absolutely no excuse. I should’ve told you that I was about to do something potentially dangerous. I messed up. I’m sorry.”

  The apology helped, but she couldn’t do this ever again. “You have to tell me. I don’t care what I’m doing or who I’m talking to. You’re the most important person in my life. The only thing that truly matters to me. You are my top priority, and I cannot survive you being injured anymore. I don’t know how many more scares I have in me before I lose it completely.” I saw a flicker of something on her face as we entered the lift next to the market stairs.

  What was that? Pain?

  “Are you okay?” I asked her as soon as the doors closed. Only Ashino, Fynea, Eshrin, and Audrey fit in the lift with us. “Are you i
n pain?”

  She shook her head slowly. “Yes. I mean… I don’t know. It feels like my legs are throbbing. Like something’s moving through them. Not like nanos but it aches. Everything hurt when I woke up, but it’s getting worse.”

  “The lucole will do that,” Audrey said from beside me. “I can give you a dose of pain meds now, but I’d rather wait. I want to run some tests.”

  I sent a sharp look at Audrey. Amihanna was in pain and Audrey wasn’t going to help?

  Audrey didn’t shy from my gaze. “I’d rather wait until she’s fully monitored in a healing pod before we do anything else to her.” Audrey’s voice was calm and even to keep me from losing what little bit of control I had left. “I don’t know if the serum I gave her will react to any pain medication. We’ve only just begun to learn about this type of poison, and I refuse to let Amihanna be my case study. There are a lot of unknowns, and I won’t risk hurting her more. I promise you if she’s in pain, she can handle it. She’s been through worse. I’ve gotten her through much, much worse. She’s not screaming. She’s okay.”

  Amihanna squeezed my hand again, harder. “She’s right. I’m okay. If I’m not screaming, I’m really okay.”

  I swallowed down the anger. It wasn’t meant for Audrey. She was doing her best, and putting Amihanna’s safety first. “My apologies. Thank you for taking care of her.”

  Audrey placed her fist on heart and bowed. “It is my honor, your majesty.”

  “Oh shit.” Amihanna winced.

  My heart raced. “What?” Was the pain getting worse?

  “The jacket.” She groaned. “Oh man. I really wanted it. Is Almya okay?”

  “Yes,” Eshrin said. “We were able to limit the casualties. Aside from a few of the Earthers, you are the worst off of anyone today.”

  He meant it to be comforting—and maybe to her it was, but not to me. The red dots on her face were getting bigger. They’d been pin-pricks before, but now they were nearly the size of a fingertip. It was scaring me.

  The lift’s doors opened onto the roof, and I lowered my forehead to hers. “You truly scared me,” I whispered to her as we walked to the ship.

  “I got that.” She kissed me softly. “But I’m fine. I don’t need a pod.”