After the Crown

by K. B. Wagers

  “Emmory, someone shot Admiral Hassan. I saw it before—”

  “Copy that, ma’am,” he replied. “Team Three, we have a Zulu situation. Repeat, SitZee in progress. Transport has been compromised.

  “Lan, do you read me? Get your asses up to the bridge. You kill anyone who won’t stand down in the empress’s name. Is that understood?” The answer he got must have satisfied him, because he didn’t say anything more.

  “Let’s get you out of here.” Stasia turned, and fear gripped me when I realized she was going to squirm back out.

  “Don’t leave me.”

  “Stay with her, Stasia.” Emmory’s soothing voice rode down and vanquished the crushing claustrophobia before it could take root and suffocate me. “Tell me what you can see.”

  While Stasia relayed the layout of my confinement, I focused on getting my left arm free. It cost me some skin, and I hissed a curse as I pulled my arm out.

  Stasia loosened the rubble around my left leg enough for me to scoot out from under the chunk of ceiling that had nearly crushed me, and I scrambled up through the hole after her.

  “It’s all right, Majesty.” Emmory cupped my cheek. “We’ll get you out of this, I promise.”

  The familiar hissing whine of a Hessian 45 said otherwise, but before I could pinpoint the location, Emmory threw me to the side, covering me. I heard the discharge and the thud of a falling body.

  “Emmory?” Zin called.

  “Okay. We’re okay. What the hell was that?” Emmory helped me to my feet.

  In the slowly clearing smoke I saw Zin standing over the body of a Saxon guard. He rolled the man over with his foot, keeping his gun trained on him. “Dead,” he said with a shake of his head. “He was about to shoot you in the back.”

  “That answers that question,” Emmory muttered. “Come on, Majesty, we have to get out of here.”

  We crawled over the rubble and the next sight stole the breath from my lungs. “Oh gods.” The exclamation slipped out and I pressed a hand to my mouth. Will was trapped under a concrete pillar from her chest down and it was clear the lower half of her body was mangled beyond repair. Cas was at her side, speaking to her, gently stroking her dark hair.

  Ignoring Emmory’s curse, I dashed across the space and dropped to a knee next to her. “Will, damn it.”

  She coughed, blood bubbling up from her mouth. It trickled down the side of her face. “S’all right, ma’am. It was a good run. A great honor. Thank you—” She convulsed, spraying blood, and then went still.

  Cas murmured something as he pressed her eyelids closed and then turned his face toward me. “Majesty, we need to go,” he said, tears standing in his eyes.

  I wiped my face, smearing blood and tears across it as I got to my feet.

  “Emmory, I found Gita and Matriarch Saito. They lucked out and the room they dove into didn’t get touched. I’ve also got us a way out.” Kisah poked her head up over a pile of rubble to our right, breaking the stunned silence. “Oh, damn it, not Will,” she muttered when she spotted her friend.

  “Grieve later,” Emmory said. “How do we get out of here?”

  “This way, sir.” Kisah blinked away her tears and pointed back over the pile.

  We stumbled across the rubble, crawling at times, still choking on the dust until we emerged into a hallway that was still mostly intact.

  Sunlight streaked across the debris-strewn floor from the bank of windows. I was still grappling with the idea that one of Trace’s men really had taken a shot at Zin when I spotted the wreckage.

  “Bugger me.” The city I’d seen not moments before from my now-demolished room was nothing but a smoldering heap. “All those people, Emmory. The other matriarchs?”

  “Nothing yet and I’m sorry, Majesty. But my priority is you, not them.”

  “Damn it, Emmory,” I said even though I knew it was a futile protest. He gave me the Look until I nodded once, trying not to hate the coldness in his words. This is what they’d been tasked for and precisely what they were supposed to do.

  “Gita, are either of you hurt?”

  “We got lucky, Majesty.” She shook her head. “The matriarch is in shock, ma’am, but she’s uninjured.” She was supporting Caterina by the arm and the woman’s dazed look said it all.

  I reached out and touched her face. “Caterina?”

  The matriarch blinked. “Majesty?”

  “You stay with Gita, do what she tells you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Fix her sari into something she can run in.”

  “Indula and Tanish just checked in,” Zin reported. “They’ve got Alba; she’s got a broken arm, otherwise unharmed. Matriarch Tobin’s guards report her quarters were untouched and Matriarch Vandi is with her. Phanin’s are partially gone but he hasn’t been located and I can’t raise him or his guards.”

  “Tell Masami’s guards to head for the Solarian military base. That’s their safest option at this point. We’re making for the shuttle bay. Once Lan and the rest of Team Four get the bridge locked down, we’ll get the empress onto the Vajra.” Emmory muttered, staring down at the map of the facility that Kisah was sharing on the floor. Cas and Iza had their guns out and were sweeping the hallway with wary eyes.

  I hadn’t missed the fact that Zin was between me and the window, or that my maid was at my back with a pair of dull-silver Glocks in her hands.

  “Give,” I said, and she passed one over to me with a smile.

  “Let’s see if this way is still clear.” Emmory glanced up. “I’d rather get out of this building as soon as we can and circle around to the hangar to see if the shuttle is still intact than work our way through.”

  Kisah nodded and the map vanished. Cas and Iza started down the hallway at Emmory’s signal, the rest of us following. We reached an exit and staggered out into the sun.

  “Caspel said there was gunfire outside his office. I was talking to him just before the building came down.”

  Emmory swore. “Apologies, Majesty. I can only deal with one crisis at a time.”

  “I know. I don’t want you asking me later why I didn’t tell you.” I grinned at him with a bravado that was only half-real.

  “Majesty, can you run?”

  I nodded at Emmory’s question and sprinted across the ground after him.

  I wasn’t the only one whispering a prayer of thanks when we spotted the hangar still standing. Our joy was short-lived. As we came around the corner, the group of men inside the hangar turned on us with their guns drawn.

  Skidding to a halt, I spotted Jul’s bloody form on the floor at Trace’s feet.

  “You’re alive.” He laughed, the noise high-pitched and brittle. “By god, you really are damn near impossible to kill.”

  “Jul’s dead, Majesty,” Emmory murmured.

  Trace stepped on my BodyGuard’s back and spread his arms wide. “Can you believe this? I thought they were going to just blow your rooms, not bring the whole damn building down on our heads.”

  The words jumbled together in my head, all jostling for some kind of prominence. “You knew?”

  Trace shrugged and fired at us. The blast slammed into Emmory, knocking him back into me. Instinct alone had me bringing my own gun up, but my shot was off. It cut harmlessly through the air and took a chunk out of the side of the building, showering Trace and his guards with bits of concrete.

  I grabbed Emmory as we fell and fired again. This time my shot caught the man on Trace’s left through the throat. He dropped, flailing and spitting blood. The others scattered as Cas and Zin each killed two more, buying us enough time to drag Emmory to the dubious cover of a pile of cargo crates.

  “Emmory, damn you. Don’t die on me.” There was blood, far too much blood on my hands. Portis’s face flashed in my head, covered in blood as I begged him not to leave me. My knife slipped and slid as I tried to cut through Emmory’s shirt and I swore again.

  “Majesty, let me.” Stasia took the knife, wiping it off on her
pant leg and slicing through the black material. “I need something to stop this bleeding with.”

  “Here.” Caterina shoved the end of her sari at my maid. The noblewoman seemed to have come out of her shock. “I have medical training. I can help you.”

  “Majesty.” Emmory grabbed my arm before I could turn back to the fight. “You need to get out of here.”

  18

  I’m not leaving you.”

  “Let me do my job, Majesty. Zin, take her and go.”

  “Let’s go, Majesty.” Zin reached for my elbow. His expression was hard, but it couldn’t conceal the resigned pain in his eyes.

  “No. Damn you, your job isn’t just to die for me!” I slapped at his hand, leaning in close to Emmory’s face. My voice trembled, but I ignored it. “I won’t leave you here to die.”

  Either the fierce determination in my voice or the sudden influx of gunfire convinced them. Zin cursed and returned fire. I pushed away from Emmory, leaving Stasia and Caterina to do their work. “Find Fasé,” I hissed. If the Farian had been killed in the explosion, I was going to lose not only my Ekam, but Zin also. The pain wrapping itself around my heart was like razor wire, but I fed it into my anger and it kept me upright.

  “Trace, what in the holy fires of Naraka are you doing?” I shouted. My voice carried through the hangar and the gunfire halted.

  “Haili.” Trace’s voice was singsong. “Come on out, I promise I won’t shoot you.”

  Zin locked his hand on my arm as I started to rise. “Majesty, don’t.”

  “He didn’t miss me and hit Emmory by mistake. He was aiming for my Ekam,” I snarled, a deep growl filled with pain that made Zin blink.

  “What?”

  “Trust me.” I mustered up a smile and patted his cheek. “Keep trying to raise Fasé on the com. We need her.” I’d seen the wound when Stasia cut away Emmory’s shirt, and Caterina’s inhale had confirmed my fears. I had to buy us some time.

  I tucked my gun into the back of my pants and stood carefully. Trace was out in the open, but his men remained behind their cover.

  “Haili, come on.”

  “You promised you wouldn’t shoot me. What about your men?”

  He threw his hands in the air with an exasperated laugh. “I promise my men won’t shoot you either. I just want to talk.”

  I stepped around the cargo crates. “All right then, talk.”

  “This isn’t personal, you realize that, right?” His grin was manic as he bounced from one foot to the other like a schoolboy.

  “You shot my Ekam. That’s extremely personal.” I held up my hands and then wiped the blood and dust off on my pants.

  “I wanted your attention.” Trace dismissed my words with a raised shoulder and a wiggle of his head. “I mean, this whole war thing isn’t personal, Haili. It started before you ever came home—you really shouldn’t have come home. It’s inevitable and I would have felt much better about it had it been your mother instead of you.”

  A cold lump settled into my chest as he babbled. “You? You murdered my sisters? You’ve been trying to kill me?”

  “Oh no!” Trace took a step forward, a hand outstretched, and then thought better of it as Zin’s weapon powered up in the stillness of the hangar. “No, that wasn’t me. I didn’t have anything to do with it. Phanin said your cousin went off the rails, she just completely lost it and thought she could rule Indrana. It put a kink in our plans, for sure. But we’ve worked around it.”

  “Our plans?” The lump grew, implanting shards of ice into my chest. “Phanin—”

  “Is a smart man. Your empire is bleeding out much like your Ekam.” There was such glee in Trace’s voice that it took all my self-control not to grab my gun and shoot him right then. “My kingdom isn’t doing all that great either, truth be told. The only way to save us both is to marry Indrana to us. Figuratively speaking, of course. I don’t think—”

  “Majesty.” Cas’s voice over the com link was steady in my head. “Message from Lan: Admiral Hassan is critical but stable. Lieutenant Moran is tending to her now. They’ve put down the attempted mutiny on her ship, but those warp signatures were imperial forces arriving. It’s Admiral Shul’s fleet and he’s coming up to Red Cliff fast.”

  “Tell her to run,” I said.

  “Majesty, it’s our only ride out of—”

  “Now, Cas! Tell her to get the hell out of here, that’s an order.”

  “Your Majesty,” Indula chimed in over the link. “We’re with Fasé. We’re on the other side of the hangar behind the Saxons. We’ve heard everything. What do you want us to do?”

  “Zin, is Emmory—” I couldn’t say the word.

  “He’s still alive, Majesty.”

  “Can we move him?”

  “It doesn’t look like we have a choice. What are you thinking?”

  “Indula, is there anything to blow that shuttle with?” I glanced at Trace. He was still talking, unaware that I’d stopped listening as he paced back and forth, waving his hands in the air.

  “I’ll find something, ma’am. Give me five minutes.”

  I started the clock. “On my signal, then. Circle around the hangar and meet us on the other side. Cas, get everyone ready to run.”

  “—this was a foolish experiment to begin with, Haili. Women are too soft to rule. Phanin said your sister was so easily led, she would have walked Indrana straight into our arms without a fight.”

  “Why are you doing this? Billions of lives are at stake, Trace.”

  “We need the money.” His eyes were glazed over with fevered dreams. “Your empire killed my father. Left my mother alone and grieving. I was just a kid, but I had to rule a kingdom in the daytime. Then at night I comforted my siblings as they cried themselves to sleep missing him. I like you, Haili, I always have. You should have gone back to gunrunning while you had the chance. The life expectancy is better there.”

  “Tough shit. I’m the empress now and you’re just going to have to deal because I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I don’t want to have to kill you, Haili.”

  “You leveled a building with me in it!”

  Trace laughed. “Oh, true, I guess. But, really, I don’t want to have to kill you. Just run. Take your people or leave them and get out of here.”

  “You should have been following things a little closer, Trace. I’m harder to kill than people think. And my empire has lasted for more than a thousand years. If you think you’re actually going to tear it down, you’re mad. All those people who live there are my people. I’m not leaving them behind.”

  Trace’s eyes hardened into something unpleasant. “I will see Indrana destroyed for what you did to my family.”

  Indula said, “We’re good to go, Majesty.”

  “Everyone take cover,” I said. “Do it now, Indula.” Then, out loud to Trace, I said, “I could say the same to you. You killed my family, my friends, and you’ve put my empire in danger. You have no idea the wasps’ nest you’ve stirred up, you stupid bastard. According to the reports I’m seeing, they’re saying Saxony is responsible for the attack on Red Cliff.”

  “You bitch!” He sputtered at my insult, or at the news, it was hard to tell.

  The shuttle exploded. All the air was sucked in and then flung outward along with flames and shrapnel. I was already running toward Trace and hit him in the chest as the fireball filled the hangar.

  We hit the floor hard and slid across the hangar, slamming into the wall on the far side hard enough to knock the rest of the air from my lungs. I flopped around like a beached dolphin for a few stunned seconds until I got my knees under me.

  Trace’s eyes were wide as he gasped for breath. “My shuttle. You blew up my shuttle.”

  “That’s on me, and so is this.” I grinned unapologetically as I shot him in the knee.

  He screamed in pain and thrashed underneath me.

  I shoved my gun up under his chin and he went quiet except for the whimpering. “Be thankful I need yo
u alive. That was for shooting my Ekam.”

  “Your Majesty.” Ivan’s voice, as hard as diamond plating and colder than space, cut through the air. I looked up to find him looming over me. “Put the gun down.”

  “Not happening.” I shook my head. “And you know if you shoot me now it’ll go straight through to him. So I’m out of here. If I so much as think you’re going to fire on me anyway, I’ll squeeze the trigger. I can obliterate his head before you kill me.” I rolled away from him, keeping my gun under Trace’s chin and putting the king between me and his man.

  “Put the gun down!” Cas said from behind me, but Ivan didn’t move.

  “I told you to run for it.” I glared at my Dve over my shoulder.

  “Sorry, ma’am. Not going to leave you here either.” He grinned and dragged Trace upright as I got to my feet. “Saxon troops are incoming. We have to move.”

  “I know.” I also knew my prisoner was just going to slow me down. So I shoved him at Ivan and grabbed Cas. “Run!”

  We bolted around the wrecked cargo crates and out the hangar doors, leaving the shouting and cursing behind us.

  “This way, ma’am.” Cas took the lead, veering to the right. “They found us some ground transport. We’ll head for the Solarian base.”

  “No.” I shook my head as we reached the vehicles. “That’s the first place they’ll check. Message Matriarch Tobin’s guards and tell them to get out of there. Tell them to get back to Indrana any way they can but to stay off the radar. Warn her about Phanin. I still don’t understand what’s going on, but we can’t trust anyone right now.”

  Cas nodded, opening the door and ushering me inside before running around the front of the vehicle and getting into the driver’s seat. I closed the door, squeezing Alba’s outstretched hand. She had her broken arm bound against her side and the pain was etched on her face.

  Fasé was bent over Emmory in the back, her hands red with his blood. Zin was next to her, his forehead pressed against Emmory’s and his lips moving in a prayer or desperate pleading. Grief hung in the air like a fog.