Gambit

by Kim Knox

  Chae pulled away from him and shoved at the closed doors to her apartment. They didn’t give way, just as she expected. “If the power’s down for the doors, then the production unit is too. We need to get our guns—and snacks—somewhere else.”

  “Chae…”

  “I can’t take all my black crystal with me.” She gave him a short smile, not wanting him to press her right then. The light from the window threw him into shadow and the wrap of emotion, her need for him, twisted inside her. She’d never wanted, or loved, anyone more. It still scared her. “Reason enough to stay, don’t you think?”

  “Thank you.”

  Chae wiped her hand over her face and denied the burn in her eyes. “Guns, Imperial Advisor.”

  He took her hand, his fingers lacing through hers. “This way, Majesty.” Daned broke into a run, taking her with him down the twists of darkened corridors.

  “Where are the guards? Shouldn’t they be swarming to protect me?”

  “Yes. I had words to say about that.” He stopped halfway along the corridor. The chilled air steamed his breath, and curls of it vanished into the carved blackness of the wall. His fingers traced a straight line down, revealing a thin crack in the stone. “They said their princes called them away. That my presence was enough to protect you. I’ve overruled them. They’ll meet us at the throne room.”

  “Well, it’s true. You’re protecting me.”

  “It’s a lie.”

  Chae blinked. “I’ve seen how you work, Daned.”

  “My Family are seen as playthings. Grabbed and taunted as sex toys. Odgar reckoned on that when he chose me for the mission.” He grunted as his fingers pushed into the crack. “The others see us as little more than decorative ornaments for the Ara royals.” In the dim light, his mouth thinned. “Pretties.”

  Chae winced. “That’s why it pissed you off.”

  “Yes.” He swore and yanked his hand free. “I can’t break the seal.” He flexed his fingers. “No one ever considered the possibility of the sunder-seld dropping power.”

  “Then I need to get to the throne room.”

  His gaze narrowed on her. “Yes, you do.”

  In his run for the secret stash of guns, Daned had turned her around and she’d lost her bearings. Her thoughts reached out to the sunder-seld before she remembered that the chair was dead. Her stomach hollowed. She wasn’t certain whether it was her unexpected reliance on it or its absence that scared her most. She pushed the worry from her mind. “Which way?”

  Daned led the way through the maze of empty darkened corridors, the cut of the late afternoon sun breaking through narrow arches, gray light folding in from interconnecting rooms. The air tasted…dull. No delicious hint of cloves. Not that she’d liked cloves before, but their scent reminded her of the veins of black crystal woven through the stones around her. And she still liked being the richest woman in the quadrant.

  Her instincts prickled her skin and all thoughts of the hoard at her disposal vanished.

  “We’re close.”

  Daned’s words echoed her instincts and her heartbeat ramped. The artwork on the walls, the tapestries started to look familiar, and the pain in her hand for her gun ached down to the bone.

  At the end of the sunlit corridor, the wide doors to the Ara throne room stood open. There were no armor-suited guards snapping to attention and staring blankly into space, only the gusts of icy air washing over her as she paused. It cooled the sweat on her skin.

  “What now?” She frowned. “There’re no guards.”

  “I can’t touch their minds. There’s a resistance.”

  “But not for us?”

  “Nothing about this makes sense.” Daned released a slow breath. “We have to go anyway.” He eased her into the shadows that lined the wall, his feet silent on the stone flags.

  She tried to match him, but she’d never been good at creeping. She ran or she blasted. That was pretty much her defensive repertoire.

  “Now we get as close as we can. There are scents. Ladaians.”

  “On my throne?”

  His brief smile touched her, wry amusement edging it. “They won’t be there long, I promise you.”

  There was no glimmer of shielding blocking the arch. Still, her nerves held an echo of the inflicted pain and her feet were reluctant to move forward. Light cut across the vast room and over the men kneeling before her throne. She recognized one of the kneeling men as Odgar by his dark head and the breadth of his shoulders.

  She sucked in a breath as the man on the throne sat forward. Sunlight edged his thin features. “Kynon? How the fuck did he get out?”

  “He’d been transferred from the ship to the cells beneath the palace. With the power down…”

  “Wait. I have cells?”

  “Chae. Focus.”

  She pressed her hand to her mouth, kicking her brain into order. Her heart thudded and the rush of adrenaline had her mind scattering. She needed to get a grip. She’d been mired in shit far too often and never had a sentient slab of rock or a muscled bodyguard to get her out of it. Her luck was crap, but she managed to survive even that.

  She straightened. “So we wait for the guards and storm the room?”

  “It’s the safest plan. Though not the best…” His thoughts trailed away and she felt a strong pulse of horror, of fear surge though him.

  She didn’t want to know what could scare Daned, but she had to ask. “What?”

  It was several hard heartbeats before he answered. “There are only five princes. Meroga, Creador, Valens and his own replacement are gone.”

  “Gone as in…?”

  “His guards have Ar-20s.”

  Chae scrubbed her hands over her eyes. Kynon had obviously planned his own absolute monarchy. She stopped. That wasn’t what had the twist of fear lurking in Daned. “All right, why is that bad? Besides having dead princes.”

  “Removing all princes distorts the power of the emperor and brings on the Host.”

  Chae ignored the familiar ripple of horror that came with the word. “Of course it does.”

  Daned looked behind him, down the long corridor. Chae strained to listen, but she hadn’t been bred with his sharpened senses. She blinked. The shadows at the farthest arch flickered and she caught the glint of light across the barrel of a gun. More shadows shifted and boots shuffled against stone.

  “Your friends are here.” She couldn’t hold back her relief. They had to stop Kynon before he killed all of his rivals. Daned as a mindless killing machine scared the shit out of her.

  His fingers wrapped around her forearm, holding her tight, and he pressed her to the cold wall. “Stay behind me. And stay silent.”

  “I am capable of looking after myself.”

  “Above all else, trust me.”

  Chae willed her mind and body silent. His soft words speared her, but she didn’t want to have that conversation. As he’d said, she had to focus. They were about to go up against an insane emperor. And with Daned’s body hard against hers in the darkness, his warm scent adding fire to the already wild thrum of her blood, she didn’t need more distraction. “Your men.” She murmured the words aloud.

  The guards slunk along the shadowed wall as they had, the soft whine of their weapons breaking the silence. Daned tensed, blocking her from their view with his body. She pulled in a breath, held it and ignored the growing ache in her chest. Shit, she couldn’t see anything around the solid mass of his body. He knew the men, she could feel it in the press of his thoughts. What she didn’t know was whether it was good or bad.

  “Corryn Adda.”

  Kynon’s whip-thin candidate, his representative at Ladaia-prime. All right it was bad. Very bad. Why had she expected anything else?

  “His Imperial Majesty awaits you.”

  Men shuffled, boots clanking over worn stone and the increased hum and lock of weapons forced Chae to wince. So much for being empress. But hell, it was better than fucking nine skanky princes. Yes, there was always a po
sitive side to a gun in her back.

  Corryn grabbed Daned’s arm and shoved him forward, through the open doors of the throne room. Chae was pulled along with him, Daned keeping her close to his body. Clouds of dust caught on the long streams of sunlight breaking through the arches of the vast room.

  The sharp scent of scorched meat burned her nostrils. Chae swallowed bile, the reek taking her back too many years to a slaughter in one of Jobal’s caustic-angel dens. Daned was right. Kynon had vaporized his enemies. It seemed emperors were just as fucked up as low-life dealers.

  “He can’t control the sunder-seld.” Daned’s voice burned with anger. “Do you really want him to take us back to the Host?”

  “Have respect for your emperor.”

  Before Chae could react, the butt of gun cracked between Daned’s shoulder blades and it dropped him to his knees with a low groan. Anger shot through Chae in a hot wave and she lunged for Corryn. He caught her arms in bony fingers and jerked her down to the floor.

  “That goes for you too, Majesty.”

  Kynon tapped the arm of the throne in a slow, irritatingly smug rhythm. “Leave her next to her pet, Corryn.” A thin smile touched his lips. “It’ll be a joy to watch him kill her.”

  A chill ran through her blood, but she willed down her fear. The bastard on the throne wouldn’t see it. She had faith in Daned. Trusted him. Corryn dragged her across the short stretch of stone to the line of five silent princes. Each man knelt with his hands secured behind his back. More than one bore dark bruises, torn robes and streaks of dried blood. Kynon had been having his fun.

  “No witty comeback, Captain Beyon?”

  The new emperor waved his hand to Corryn, who kicked Daned forward. He fell to the stone beside Odgar with a grunt. The prince cast a glance down his nose, but didn’t move to help him. Daned lay there, still and unmoving, his mind shuttered and silent.

  Chae didn’t try to touch his thoughts. She hoped to hell that was what he meant by staying silent because she wanted to shriek at Kynon. Anger and fresh fear twisted in her gut and she glared at the man who had taken her throne.

  He relaxed back into the block of carved crystal and let out a slow sigh. “Are you feeling precious about Daned Traern? The senior Ara flesh-pet. He’s a toy. Nothing more.” He smirked. “They breed them like cattle. A sport to see who turns out the prettiest.”

  Chae ignored him. “How did you do this?”

  Kynon’s gaze flicked to Corryn and he cuffed her. Her head snapped to the side. Pain burst hot under her jaw, ballooned behind her eyes, and the copper taste of blood filled her mouth.

  She spat, spraying the stones red, and grunted as a guard pinched cuffs around her wrists. “You planned this.”

  Corryn raised his fist again, the blur of it in corner of her eye, and Chae flinched from another blow…that never came.

  Kynon had lifted his hand. “I did.”

  “You broke out of the cells and just…sat on the throne.”

  He looked at his nails before his dark gaze fixed on her again. “I have to thank you for your hard work. The arch would have vaporized me.”

  Chae frowned. He couldn’t have planned it from the beginning. He’d wanted the sunder-seld on Ladaia-prime. Had planned for that moment, not this. Something had happened to give him the chance to take the throne. “So now what?”

  “I kill princes.” He nodded to a guard behind her and the distinctive clunk of an Ar-20 filled the silence.

  Chae willed herself to breathe steadily and not to look at Daned, who still lay in a heap on the stones. His skin had paled and only the wisps of his breath in the cold room said he was still breathing.

  Shit, she was looking. Her gaze jerked up and caught one of the princes. She blinked. Their silence suddenly made sense. A resin plug sealed each one of their mouths. Every man strained to speak, each one of their faces blotched with sweat and blood. Chae’s heart pounded. Did she or Daned count as a prince in Kynon’s warped worldview?

  The Ar-20 clunked, there was a flare of harsh white light and the weapon released its narrow-beamed load.

  One of the princes burst into a cloud of steam and dust. Panicked, the others struggled, twisting, fighting the binds that held them. With a wave of Kynon’s skinny fingers, the guards laid into the princes with fists, boots and gun butts.

  Chae closed her eyes and willed herself not to listen. This had all happened before. Men had wanted Jobal’s network of dens and wanted to take them by fear. She’d been a lot younger, a child kneeling beside her mother, yet the bitter taste of fear was just the same. But Jobal had been dead fourteen years and wouldn’t mount a rescue of his people this day. No, she had to stay calm and wait for her moment. Whatever the hell her moment might be.

  The cool winds in the throne room wrapped around her. Hot grains of the vaporized man landed on her hair, pinpricked her skin, seared her lips and eyelashes and shot fire into her lungs. She wanted to gag, but that’d be a mistake. She didn’t want to inhale any more of him.

  Shit. Sleeping with the nine—now four—skanky princes suddenly seemed a much better prospect.

  The sound of fists and gun butts impacting bone and flesh stopped. Chae let out a slow breath and risked opening one eye. Some princes were struggling to remain upright, others had slumped to the floor, their blood leaking in dark pools across the crystal. Kynon simply tapped the arm of the black crystal throne, a thin smile slicing his mouth.

  Chae didn’t question why she’d avoided a beating. She couldn’t. Kynon would wave his bony fingers and the guards would work her over too.

  “Who should be next?” Kynon sat forward again, his body almost thrumming with nervous energy. His hands had clenched to bloodless fists. Why wasn’t he joining in? He wanted it. It was there in the manic gleam of his eyes…but his bony arse didn’t break contact with the throne. Excited heat lanced through her fear and she willed a wall over her thoughts. Was he stuck to the chair because he had to be? He broke contact and however he was dominating the sunder-seld vanished?

  So her plan was to get him to stand up. Not exactly a stunning plan, but she seemed to be the only one even halfway conscious. Her gaze dropped to Daned. She’d nose-dived him into a planet and he’d survived. A crack to his spine was minor. Wasn’t it?

  Chae ignored that new fear and straightened her shoulders. “You bought my friend, Majesty. The Samekh, Aleph-Nun.”

  “Make her stand.”

  Meaty fingers dug into her shoulder and hauled her up. Chae willed her body to ignore the agony…but it didn’t actually work. Hot stabs of pain dug into her collarbone. He’d cracked it. “How long have you watched me?”

  “Majesty…” Kynon rolled the word around, seemingly enjoying it. “You? I made certain to have all outer-Ladaians monitored. How that was achieved I left to others.”

  His disinterest twisted her gut but she kept down her anger. Was she the first person to call him majesty? Well, the first person who’d used the title voluntarily. He still wasn’t gagging her. And her mouth could get her out of a scrape. Sometimes.

  He pointed, a negligent flick of his index finger and the whine of weapons increased again. Chae breathed, even as her heart pounded and sweat coated her spine. A second later, light seared and there was a dull whoomph and another prince burst into dust. Hastily she shut her eyes and focused inward as the flecks and cinders of burnt man filled the air. Fuck. Kynon was already starting to point again.

  Chae gritted her teeth and pain swelled in her jaw. “What does the Host feel like, Majesty?”

  Kynon’s attention snapped to her and his fingers curled into a fist. The whine of the Ar-20s died around her. “The Host?”

  The familiar shiver rippled through her and she caught the slight tremor shaking his hand and forearm. Would a man about to control the Host still feel its effects? Shit, she really did know nothing. “It’s what you want for us, Majesty.”

  He closed his eyes and a vein jumped in his temple. He stabbed a hand outward, blind
ly, and Chae crushed her eyes shut, tears burning in her eyes. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Her skin burned, sharp points of fire stabbing at her cheek and singing her hair. The guard had obliterated the prince beside Odgar. Even if he had been a depraved prince, it twisted her gut that she didn’t know his name.

  “The Host will form when the last of the princes is dead.”

  The hollow ring to his voice deepened her shiver. There were only two men, Daned and herself left for Kynon to play life or death with…and for some reason she couldn’t work out, he was talking to her. Maybe using the title had caught him. But hell, he didn’t seem to be the same man who’d ordered them dead on Ladaia-prime. And that was an insane comparison to make.

  “What will it feel like, Majesty?”

  “Majesty, why are you allowing this fifth caste to question you?”

  Chae gritted her teeth and willed Corryn to shut the fuck up.

  Kynon opened his eyes, a shadow falling over him, and shit, she could almost feel the beginnings of change in him now. A darkness, a loss of soul that seemed to yank at her, wanting to pull her right down with him. “Princes Ewiren or Ara?”

  His finger rocked between the two men. Beside her, Odgar straightened his shoulders and his chin lifted. Tears burned behind her eyes as the ancient and unexpected tug of blood and loyalty mourned her prince.

  Kynon laughed, something cold and distant. “No, Odgar, it’s not that easy.”

  Chae’s heart twisted as the Prince of the House of Ewiren exploded into a cloud of burnt cinders. One more would see them all mindless killers under Kynon’s control. The dark slide of it already crept through her blood, the angry power of black crystal, the influence the princes had formed a barrier to for millennia.

  Chae blinked, ash stinging her eyes. She knew that because she was falling into one with her emperor…

  “I want you to see how it will end and how it will begin, Odgar.” Kynon snapped his fingers and guards dragged Daned to his feet.

  Fear jerked Chae out of her haze. A guard turned his jaw to Kynon, fingers biting into his skin. Daned didn’t react.

  “With one prince remaining, I have enough control to allow a demonstration.”