After the Crown

by K. B. Wagers

  My own grief squeezed my heart to the point of pain. I couldn’t even begin to fathom a world without Emmory. I didn’t want to.

  Fasé swooned and Indula caught her before she could fall onto Emmory. “He’s stable, but there is a lot of damage. I will do more later when I have recovered,” she managed to say before she passed out.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To my cousin, Majesty, she lives on Red Cliff,” Alba said. “It was the major reason Emmory approved the planet.”

  Tears flooded my eyes and I wiped them away with the back of my hand. “He’s very good at thinking ahead. What we need now though is a way off the planet. Admiral Hassan and the loyal ships should be long gone.”

  “I’m scanning the registers at the closest ports, Majesty.” Alba’s eyes were unfocused as she skimmed through the data.

  “Send me the list when you have it. I might recognize something.” I closed my eyes against the glare of the setting sun. Sleep snuck up on me in the inevitable adrenaline crash, and before I knew it the vehicle was slowing to a stop.

  “Majesty.” Cas shook me gently. “We’re here.”

  A woman taller than Alba rushed out of the house, four young men on her heels. “How many wounded do you have?” The questions spilled out of her mouth even as she wrapped Alba in a fierce embrace.

  “Emmory was shot, Leia, and Fasé is exhausted.”

  “Your arm is broken and you’ve all got some superficial wounds. Let’s get inside. We’ll want to get the vehicles out of sight. The boys will hide them.”

  “Majesty, this is my cousin, Leia.”

  The woman gave an awkward bow, still holding Alba close with one arm. “I wish this were under better circumstances, Your Imperial Majesty. Alba has spoken very highly of you.”

  “We’re thankful for your help.”

  “Of course.” She turned and propelled Alba toward the house.

  I didn’t complain when Cas wrapped an arm around my waist to hold me upright as we followed. We were out in the countryside, nothing but rolling hills and trees for as far as I could see in the growing dark. The house ahead was a sturdy, two-story structure with a sharply sloped roof.

  He helped me into the house and lowered me to a chair in the living room. “Rest, Majesty.”

  “Coordinate with Indula for a list of our weapons and other supplies. We can’t stay here long. Trace will have his people scouring the planet for us.”

  “I know, Majesty.” A smile, so very much like Emmory’s, flickered on his face.

  “Sorry. I promise I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job.”

  “Except you are, Majesty.”

  My muttered response to that was short and pithy and made Cas’s shoulders shake with repressed laughter. Others tried but failed to muffle their snickers, and I rolled my eyes at the ceiling with a smile. “Go on.”

  I settled into the chair as the activity buzzed around me. The local news was already covering the attack, but their information was garbled and useless at the moment. Indula had been right and there were reports that Red Cliff’s planetary defense had recorded the Saxon ships’ weapons powering up just before the facility was destroyed. I couldn’t tap into any of the Indranan news outlets without access to the long-range transmitters on the naval ships.

  Without a ship, we were cut off from Indrana.

  “Majesty? Can you stand?” Stasia knelt by my chair. “We’ve got a shower running and Fasé would like to make sure you’re not injured.”

  “Everything hurts, but otherwise I’m fine.” I pushed to my feet with a groan.

  Fasé met me at the door of the bathroom. She was pale and shaking, leaning heavily on Zin. I shared a look with him.

  “How is he?”

  “There was a lot of damage, Majesty. I don’t—” He swallowed and looked at the ceiling. “She thinks she’s taken care of the worst of it and his vitals have stabilized. Now we just need time. His system should be able to keep him stable if we don’t have to move him for a few hours. I don’t know how he managed to stay alive long enough for Fasé to get to us.”

  I reached for his hand, squeezing it as I blinked back tears. “Because he’s a stubborn bastard.”

  “Even with what she did, it’s going to be touch-and-go. I’d feel better if we could get him to someplace with medical facilities.” Zin choked back a laugh. “Fasé insisted on seeing you.”

  “There’s nothing you can do except sleep,” I told the Farian.

  “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I wish I could do more. He’ll need medical care, ma’am.”

  “It’s not your fault.” It was Trace’s for shooting him in the first place. Anger rolled in my gut. “He’s a Tracker, Fasé. He’ll recover,” I lied, mostly to convince myself. Emmory’s healing systems were good, but Trace had nearly killed him and all the movement couldn’t have improved matters. “We’ll do what we can to help him until then. Go sleep.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Zin,” I subvocalized over our com link. “You stay with Emmory. You make him fight to stay alive. That’s an order. We’ve got everything else covered. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And link me into his vitals; I want to know how he’s really doing.”

  Stasia took my clothing to see what she could salvage while I was in the shower. I scrubbed down, inspecting the various scrapes and bruises, as I ran through the list of ships in port. The water was glorious, but I knew I couldn’t stay long. I stepped out and squeezed the water from my hair. As I moved on to drying off everything else, a name scrolled across my vision.

  There, buried among the thousand names, was one I recognized. “Bugger me.” I pulled up the details, praying for a miracle, and the manifest lodged with the port authority confirmed my suspicions.

  “Cas!” I scrambled out of the room, yelling for him and Gita. They came running, along with Iza and Alba’s cousin. I cinched my towel tight, rolling my eyes when Cas skidded to a halt and turned his back on me. “We’re in a bit of an emergency here, Cas, suck it up. We need to go.”

  “We can’t move Ekam Tresk, ma’am,” Gita protested. “And Fasé is out cold.”

  “Not them, Gita, they’ll stay here. The three of us need to go, right now. Iza, find Stasia, she took my clothes. I need something to wear and I needed it five minutes ago.”

  “Majesty, what is going on?” Cas’s cheeks were pink and he was looking at the wall behind my head instead of at me, but he’d managed to inject a note of authority into his voice.

  “Hao is here. We need to get to his ship before he takes off.”

  “All the ports are on lockdown.”

  “It won’t matter to him. If anything it’ll make him even itchier to get out of here. He’s our ticket off Red Cliff unless we want to go out in the belly of a Saxon prison ship.” It’d more likely be that they’d just bury us in shallow graves somewhere, but I didn’t want to say that out loud.

  “Majesty, you have to come see this,” Indula called.

  There was a viewscreen on the wall of the living room. The volume was turned down, but I didn’t need it to realize what was going on. Phanin stood on the bridge of a ship, his face grim. At the bottom of the screen the news of my death was blazoned in big black lettering.

  19

  It’s the moons I remember most about that night—Red Cliff’s twin spheres glowing in the black sky like a pair of half-shut eyes. I kept my gaze on them and my hands wrapped around the Glock I was carrying as Leia’s aircar sped toward the landing field just outside Behanden.

  The three of us in the car were all tense, adrenaline running high—no real surprise given it had been less than ten hours since Trace or Phanin, I still wasn’t sure who was responsible, had leveled four city blocks on a Solarian neutral planet in an attempt to kill me and start a war.

  They’d failed at half of it.

  Now we were skulking through the darkness in a desperate bid to get off Red Cliff before Trace co
uld do anything about the fact that I was still alive. My stomach was rolling. It was filled with anxiety for Emmory, whose vitals were even worse than I feared; worry for how I was going to get my people to safety; and anger that the only plan I could come up with was as dangerous as walking into a pit of venomous snakes.

  And it was dangerous. Going to Po-Sin was a gamble, a calculated risk born of desperation.

  Emmory was stabilized for now. My Tracker’s augmented systems were hard at work on the damage from Trace’s gun that Fasé hadn’t had the energy left to fix, but he needed real medical care and time to heal.

  And I needed allies, specifically allies who could get us off the planet.

  Going to a hospital on Red Cliff wasn’t an option, which meant we had to use my plan. The planet was swarming with Saxon troops, while my Durga-damned troops were back on Pashati, possibly embroiled in another damned coup attempt.

  Eha Phanin.

  That rat bastard. I almost cracked a tooth before I forced myself to relax my clenched jaw. The prime minister had orchestrated whatever plan he had going with an efficiency the gunrunner half of my brain admired.

  The empress half of things was less than amused, and unfortunately for Phanin, my entire being was on board with the plan to rip his still-beating heart out of his chest.

  According to his little speech for the news, Saxon agents within the capital had attacked and crippled the Indranan government at the same time they’d bombed Red Cliff and killed me. The matriarchs were scattered and Alice was missing, presumed dead because her home was a smoking pile of rubble.

  I really hoped that was a lie as much as my death was.

  I’d had to watch the replay twice because when I’d spotted the man standing next to Phanin, a red haze of fury blinded me.

  Wilson.

  The tall man stood with his hands clasped in front of him, a solemn expression on his face during Phanin’s announcement. That blue-eyed bastard was responsible for the death of everyone in my family—my sisters, my niece, my mother and father. That Durga-damned ghost had been working with Phanin this whole time.

  And with Trace.

  How many of my people had already perished in these madmen’s desperate bid for power?

  “Majesty.” My Dve’s voice wafted from the front seat of the aircar like a curl of smoke drifting on a breeze. The single word, delivered in a tone both comforting and chastising, shook me out of my fury. Cas had stepped into Emmory’s absence with far more certainty than I’d expected from someone so young, but I was grateful for his solid presence.

  “I’m all right.” I’m not sure why I bothered lying through my teeth. Maybe because while Emmory would have seen right through me and called me on it, Cas simply nodded.

  I was presumed dead by most of the universe, about to meet up with a gunrunner pal who would hopefully take us off-planet instead of double-crossing me and turning me over to either the man who’d stolen my throne or the insane Saxon king.

  Once we got off-planet my plan got even crazier: to take us straight into the dragon’s lair and ask one of the deadliest Cheng gang lords in the galaxy to be my ally.

  Despite my history with Hao, he was a gunrunner, and right now my head was worth a decent amount. Thanks to a private bounty issued by Po-Sin. I only knew about it because Hao had sent me a copy. If we boarded his ship, he’d have to take me to his uncle.

  Or, Hao might decide to betray me and deliver us into Phanin’s hands. I couldn’t be sure that wasn’t something my old mentor would consider.

  I slid out of the car, Gita at my side. Cas came around the other side and we all crouched in the shadows at the edge of the landing field.

  Spotting Hao as he strode down the ramp of an unfamiliar ship, I elbowed Gita and jerked my head to the left. She nodded in acknowledgment and Cas took the point as our party moved across the open tarmac.

  I whistled a complex tune. Hao froze, hand going to the gun on his hip when he saw us.

  “Cheng Hao, it has been a long time.”

  “Sha zhu, a fortuitous meeting.” Hao sketched a surprisingly elegant bow, keeping his eyes on mine the whole time.

  I locked my hand onto Gita’s arm when she flinched. “Nickname,” I muttered, biting back a curse. “It’s an old nickname.”

  Hao brushed his metallic-streaked hair out of his face, his gold eyes glittering with mirth. I swallowed down the second curse at my mistake. Now he knew that Gita spoke Cheng well enough to recognize slang when she heard it.

  I kept my bow short, unable to show my former mentor the respect I normally would. “I request permission to board your ship and speak with you.”

  “You may come into the cargo bay.” He turned his back on me and walked up the ramp. We followed, Cas whispering instructions to Gita as we went into the ship.

  “How did you find me?” Hao leaned against the stairs, the picture of disinterest for anyone who couldn’t recognize the line of tension in his neck and left hand as it hovered near his gun.

  “The Benson Porter?” I laughed at him. “You’re recycling old ship names. I need a lift off the planet, Hao.”

  “Force of habit. I figured anyone who knew the name didn’t care about it any longer. Probably should have thought that through. Under what terms are we negotiating this ride?” Hao arched a copper eyebrow and a smile skittered over his thin mouth. “You’d like to bring armed men and women onto my ship. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

  “I have more people at a farmhouse outside of town. We need to get off Red Cliff. I won’t leave any of them behind.”

  “And none of us will leave our weapons,” Cas said. “You will be paid for your assistance, gunrunner, nothing more. As long as your people stay out of my way and away from the empress, no one will get hurt.”

  “Strong words for a child.” Hao arched an eyebrow. “Where is your Ekam? Not dead, I hope.”

  “Cas.” I put my hands up before Cas could spit a reply. “Let’s keep this civil, shall we? I am sorry for his lack of manners, Hao. It has been—”

  “A difficult situation.” Hao gave me another bow. “The lack of manners is understandable and forgivable—this time. You didn’t answer my question.”

  “Emmory was shot. He is not dead.”

  Hao smiled slowly. “I have forgotten how taciturn you can be when the mood suits you. How do I benefit from this assistance, sha zhu?”

  “I can pay you.”

  “I do not need money. Sorry, but it is true. The Fates have been good to me lately.” He shrugged. “I am not even sure a promise of a favor is worth anything, little sister, seeing as how you have lost your empire.”

  I snapped my arm up and Hao went cross-eyed from looking down his nose at the barrel of my Glock.

  “Temporarily.” I snarled the word, listening as the whine of guns being charged echoed around the bay. “It has been temporarily taken from me, Hao, and you have no idea the lengths I’m willing to go to get it back.”

  “And there at last is my deadly little sister. I thought she might have died, smothered under a layer of lace and palace protocol.”

  “I was trying to be polite. Now what will it be, Hao? Favor? Money? Or do I just shoot you and take your ship?”

  “Temper.”

  “Sorry. I am a little pressed for time and every second we stand in the open is one less we have to get the rest of my people and get out of here.”

  “You don’t say,” Hao murmured. “They will be searching the smaller ports like this one once they get their heads out of their collective asses. I don’t want to be here when that happens. It would lead to awkward questions.”

  “Make a decision then,” I said, keeping my gun pointed at his head.

  “Favor.” He smiled slowly at Gita’s hissing exhale. “I give you my word it will be nothing to jeopardize your honor or force you to put your empire in danger.”

  “Done. One last thing I need to know. Has anyone been around asking questions about me? Did you sell me
out?”

  Actual hurt flashed in Hao’s eyes. “You are family. Even though I didn’t know your true name, I know your true self. I would never betray you, Cressen, not for all the money in the universe.”

  “I’m sorry. I had to ask.” I lowered my Glock and gave him a nod. “How much time do you think we have?”

  “I would send for the others now. Judging from the chatter, they are working their way through the main ports. We are close enough that it won’t take them all that long before someone thinks they should come out here for a look.”

  “Cas, call Zin. Tell him to get the others loaded, and double-time it.”

  He nodded sharply. I backed away from Hao and boosted myself up onto a cargo pallet. Hao barked a few orders in Cheng and the thumping of boots filled the air as his crew rushed off, presumably to get the ship ready for departure.

  Hao didn’t leave the cargo bay. He sauntered toward me, stopping when Gita stepped in his path. My BodyGuard was taller than the gunrunner, and she outmassed him. Still, his lazy grin was all too familiar as he looked her up and down.

  “Gita, let him by.”

  “He’s armed, Majesty.”

  “Hao, give her your gun.”

  Surprisingly, he complied and then joined me on the pallet.

  “Is she available?”

  I couldn’t stop the laugh. “She would break you in half.”

  “It would be worth it.” Hao ran his tongue over his teeth. “You have no idea how much flack I’ve taken for letting you ride with me, Cressen. A princess of the Indranan empire and a damned ITS trooper under my very nose.” He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “I think the only reason Po-Sin didn’t kill me is that he approved of you.”

  “I’d apologize, except I’m not sorry.”

  Hao flashed me a vicious grin I’d seen enough times to know I’d said the perfect thing. “I’m glad to hear it. I’d lose respect for you if you were. Why were you so far from home, little sister?”

  I smiled. “It’s a long story. If it helps your ego, I didn’t know Portis was still ITS—or rather my new BodyGuard.”

  “What’s the short version?”

  “I needed out and you were in the right place at the right time.”