“Do you think the Underground knows about Valen and Nor’s DNA?” Dex asked Andi.
“I don’t know what I think about anything anymore,” she admitted. “But we’re not going to tell them anything until we learn if we can trust them or not. Hopefully we can use the information as a bargaining chip. A way to get them to help us with supplies and a ship, to get to Arcardius and the girls.”
“Agreed,” Dex said, nodding. “So...it seems like Cyprian was telling the truth when he died. That Valen was a monster. That he feared for his life when he was around him, and even more so, the possibility of Nor and Valen getting together and combining their abilities.”
“Then the general was right about one thing, at least,” Andi said.
“He is not the general anymore,” Alfie answered suddenly, his voice sounding so matter-of-fact from Dex’s wrist, like a child insisting they were capable of eating their dessert before dinner. “The General of Arcardius is—”
“I think that’s enough out of Alfie for now,” Dex said quickly, turning off the watch in one swift motion. The silver band went dark.
“What the hell?” Andi glanced at him, suspicion creeping up her spine. But Dex only stared straight ahead, his teeth still worrying at his bottom lip—as if he had something to hide.
“I could use some quiet time,” he explained at last. “Enough has happened to us already, and a hell of a lot more is soon to come. We’ll be in Craatia in a few hours—why don’t you take some time to rest?”
“What are you, my mother?” Andi asked blankly.
Dex quirked a dark brow. “I hope to the Godstars that I’m not.” He swallowed and repositioned his hands on the wheel. “I just think you deserve a rest, Andi. After everything. That’s all.”
He was right. They’d had enough talking, enough contemplating the new world around them. Still, Andi watched him a moment longer, eyeing his tense jaw and tired eyes. She knew him well enough that she could tell he was hiding something, though she had no idea what it could be. Either way, it was clear he wasn’t ready to talk about whatever it was.
Right now, getting to the Underground headquarters was of the utmost importance, and they needed to be alert when they got inside, for they had no idea what awaited them there. Once they made it through, if they determined the Underground was completely free of Nor’s power...they’d use Alfie’s knowledge to negotiate the help they needed to rescue Andi’s crew.
So Andi sat back and closed her eyes, Dex a silent presence beside her as they soared over the icy tundra toward Craatia.
* * *
A storm began during the second half of their journey.
If it weren’t for the radar equipment on the transport, Andi doubted they would have been able to navigate their way through the snow and sleet. The wind on Solera was a beast in its own right as well, kicking up the snow beneath them until everything was a sheet of white.
“We should be getting close,” Dex said. “Radar shows that it’s just ahead.”
“It better be, otherwise we won’t have enough fuel. And I’d hate to think of what we’d become, out here in the cold.”
Though they’d last longer than Lon would have, since their planetary suits were still intact, they would eventually die of exposure. The memory of Lon surged through her again at the thought—how determined he’d been to save them, ready to die as he leaped toward the dragon’s gaping jaw. Andi gritted her teeth and changed her focus, thinking of Valen and Nor instead. She was desperate to remember any clues or signs that Valen might have given about the truth of who he was.
But of course, he’d fooled them all.
She hated the cautious friendship that she’d allowed to blossom between them after his rescue. The conspiratorial smiles, the quiet conversation they’d had by the water on Adhira, speaking of their shared past with Kalee. Forgiving each other for the mistakes they’d both made. Attending the Ucatoria Ball at his side.
Now Andi wondered if Valen had been holding back the desire to murder her the entire time they’d been together. She wondered if any of his so-called forgiveness was ever truly real.
And her girls had so often been alone with him during their journey. Gilly in particular had been fascinated by Valen.
That should have been warning enough, Andi realized. For Gilly had always been drawn to the darker things in life. The backpack, now nearly ripped to shreds by Havoc’s claws, was proof of that. And judging from the ache still present in Andi’s chest when she moved, the wound that had closed over but wasn’t even close to healed...
Valen had been the darkest of them all.
Andi’s thoughts wandered to her crew. She often feared what they were being commanded to do. If they were out there in the galaxy somewhere, killing in Nor’s name. Or if they were still on Arcardius, silently doing her bidding, or falling on their faces in worship of her.
“There!” Dex shouted, drawing Andi’s attention as he leaned forward and pointed. The radar beeped, signaling that they were closing in on their target. “I see them.”
The domed sector of Solera appeared from the snow like a cluster of ghosts upon the icy surface. The radar showed ten domes spread across the expanse, and Andi knew from her previous visits that each of them had their own unique feel, as if every one contained its own little world.
This part of Solera was densely populated, and the domes varied in size. The spring domes, Mravio and Devtraci, were meant to look similar to Adhira, and had been terraformed into dense jungles, the greenery lush and overflowing with waterfalls and rivers. The weather inside was warm and beautiful at all times, and flowers the size of Andi’s head bloomed year-round. Then there was the summer dome, X’Ani, its landscape like that of a sprawling desert, with sand dunes instead of snow mounds and buildings like sand castles sprouting from the earth.
Craatia, as Solera’s capital, was the largest and most central of the domes in this sector. It was a city that still honored many of the planet’s most ancient customs, filled with sparkling glass bridges and buildings designed to resemble ice castles—though the temperature inside was warm enough for its inhabitants to shed their coats and grow food that otherwise wouldn’t survive on Solera.
As they sped closer to the domed cities, Andi felt a slippery sense of fear wash over her. Not fear of the job at hand, because she’d learned to shove that away, ages ago. Jobs like this always pumped her full of adrenaline.
No—this was a different sort of terror, the kind that whispered into her ear that she would not succeed.
And that if she failed, she’d unwittingly destroy the future her crew deserved.
“Hey,” Dex said, his voice quiet beneath the hum of the transport. “We’re going to make it. Even if we have to take out everyone we come across to get into the Underground.”
For the first time, Andi considered something about the people inside those domes, the ones whose blood truly did glow silver with the Solis curse... Were they really enemies, when they weren’t in control of their actions?
Andi had a code that she obeyed fiercely, the way a soldier obeyed a commanding officer’s orders. No death blow, unless the enemy was endangering the life of Andi and her crew. She would never lift her sword to harm an innocent.
But when they entered Craatia, it was possible that nearly everyone would be trying to kill or capture her and Dex. Yet under normal circumstances, none of them would blink an eye as the two of them walked through the streets. The thought made her wonder whether other Unaffecteds shared that opinion—whether or not they felt any hesitation or remorse over killing Nor’s mindless followers, even in self-defense.
So as Dex eased up on the throttle, slowing the transport for their approach, Andi said, “We can’t handle this like our other missions, Dex.”
He turned to stare at her, a silent question in his eyes. “Think about it,” she told him. “The people inside�
�they’re just like Lira, and Gilly, and Breck. They don’t know what they’re doing. If anyone comes after us...we can’t just take them out, like you said.”
Dex’s expression grew thoughtful. “I hadn’t thought about it like that,” he admitted. “I’ve just been so concerned with trying to stay alive, and keeping you safe. But...you’re right.” Dex took her hands in his for a moment. “Incapacitate only. No killing.”
“Not unless they’re aiming to kill us,” Andi said.
He nodded, his eyes full of understanding. As he pulled on his hood and mask to conceal his face from view, Dex said, “Remember—we’re worshippers of Nor. Just like everyone else we pass. We blend in, as best we can.”
“And if they see through it?”
“Then I guess we’ll die together.”
Andi glared at him, all earlier gratitude disappearing. “Thanks for the positivity.”
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “I learned it from you, love.”
The wind was howling outside now, a mighty and furious roar. Snow tumbled from the banks, whipping by them as it went, but when it touched the exterior of the domes, it melted away, their heating systems designed to keep the domes from being buried in the landscape.
Andi knew they shouldn’t stay exposed for much longer—they needed to find the Underground as soon as possible. She had no idea what awaited them, deep in the belly of the dome. But the longer they dawdled, the more likely it was that they’d get caught—or freeze, once the fuel in their transport ran out.
The dome’s main entrance came into view, a steel-reinforced opening where a few other transports were lined up, waiting to gain entrance inside.
“Here goes nothing,” Dex said with a sigh.
As Andi allowed the mask of the Bloody Baroness to overtake her, slipping into that place of darkness and death, she knew that she would have the strength, the fury, to face whatever lay ahead.
There was no other option.
* * *
The doors opened to reveal the splendor of Craatia.
Buildings towered up to the farthest heights of the dome, glorious in their make, as if a mighty architect had come down from the stars to shape this place. Some of them looked to be carved out of ice, shimmering as they stood above the rest. Others were blue or purple in color, spiraling and twisting like the horns of a mighty beast. Magnificent statues overlooked it all, and an engineered snow trickled down from the dome’s ceiling, falling gently upon Andi’s visor as she gazed upward.
Birds soared through the city, their feathers morphing colors with each flap of their wings. Great, sweeping silver tunnels passed through the dome from street to sky, a network of passenger pods that allowed the citizens to travel quickly from one end to another.
A frozen lake separated the docking sector from the city’s entrance. Hovering boats glided above the ice like slinking ghosts.
“Wow,” Dex breathed. “Hard to believe this place harbors the Underground.”
A yowl sounded over his shoulder, from inside the squirming, half-shredded backpack that Andi had shoved Havoc back into before they’d disembarked the transport, much to Dex’s dismay. But she knew Gilly would murder them both, probably slowly and painfully and creatively, if they’d left the creature to die in the snow.
Then again, if Havoc didn’t stop kicking up such a fuss, they’d likely wind up attracting the wrong sort of attention, and die at the hands of Nor’s minions instead.
“Glorious, isn’t it?” Dex asked, drawing Andi’s attention back to the view ahead.
It was true—Craatia was a glorious city.
And so full of people that it made Andi feel as if she were being crushed.
All around them, Craatia’s citizens moved as one, heading toward their homes, their jobs, all manner of errands and entertainment. But no matter how different everyone looked on the outside, it was impossible to overlook the fact that they were all united in one dark, hideous cause. Prisoners whose chains lurked in their very veins.
Andi wondered if they were stuck screaming from within their own minds. If they screamed endlessly, wondering if anyone would ever hear them, or if they were happy to serve Nor, mindless in their devotion to her.
“Andi?” Dex said, turning his face toward her.
“So many of them,” she whispered. “How do you think it happened so fast? The feeds spoke of silver clouds that filled the galaxy, but with the domes...”
Dex shrugged. “Klarisa said there were Guardians here, ones loyal to Nor’s cause. They likely stormed the domes one by one and used the bullets to overtake everyone in sight.” His eyes turned distant and troubled, the way they often did when he remembered the night of the Ucatoria Ball. “It happens almost instantly, once they’re shot. All these people...”
“Five hundred thousand and seventeen, to be exact.” Alfie’s voice buzzed into her com. Andi flinched at the sound of it. “I have connected to the communication systems housed in your suits, Androma Racella and Dextro Arez.”
It was strange, hearing a different voice where the girls’ used to be. As if someone else had occupied a space that should have been theirs. It filled her with a guilt she knew she shouldn’t need to carry, but it was there, all the same.
“No more numbers or stats, please, Alfie, unless you want me to unleash Havoc on you,” she told him, muting her com with a swipe of her fingers across the brim of the helmet. “And stop popping into my mind unannounced.”
Dex jostled the backpack a little too roughly over his shoulder, silencing the angry feline.
A mother and child walked past, heading for the loading dock of a giant freight ship. On its bow, a flag bearing the Solis crest waved proudly, the false snowflakes landing upon it like gentle kisses. And all across the city—on the sides of the icy buildings, flickering atop the turrets of the castles—were massive holograms of Nor Solis. Her rouged lips were curved in a deceptive smile, and her eyes bore down on the city, as if she were demanding any of them to defy her.
Andi felt her hands balling into fists, nails digging into her palms beneath her gloves.
“I know,” Dex said, stepping closer. “Trust me. I know.”
Seeing this display of power made anger well up in her chest. It was as if the queen was teasing her, testing her, waiting for Andi to crack under her watchful gaze.
“We have to move,” Andi said. If she stood here any longer, staring at the people, staring at the massive hologram of her enemy, she might very well rush into the writhing crowd and tear everyone apart, limb from limb. Or she’d unzip Havoc and let him loose in the hope that, with everyone she took down, she could somehow weaken Nor, bit by bit.
A million tallies on her swords.
A million deaths to mourn, at her own hands.
Her girls, her crew, wouldn’t have to wait much longer for her. For when they found the Underground, Andi wouldn’t rest until she made it back to Arcardius and ripped them away from Nor’s iron grip.
With a deep breath, Andi stepped forward, Dex behind her as they followed the citizens of Craatia onto the waiting ship.
CHAPTER 13
DEX
It took no more than ten minutes for the ship to traverse the frozen lake and enter the city. The outskirts of Craatia contained the financial district, its castle-like structures overflowing with Soleran men and women dressed in the latest cold-weather fashions. Their brows were crusted with false icicles, their hair dyed shades of blue, purple and white to match the wintry cold beyond the dome.
“Klarisa said the entrance to the Underground is within an ice pub in the Briog Sector,” Dex said, reciting what the Guardian had told him in her final moments. “But in the capital city of an ice planet, how many of those pubs exist?”
“A hell of a lot,” Andi said. “Or perhaps not enough, depending on how you look at it.”
He could
use a drink. Or two or three. The bag over his shoulder hissed again as Dex and Andi disembarked.
Okay, perhaps four drinks, he thought.
“How will we even know when we’ve found the right one?”
“I imagine we’ll ask the same question Klarisa asked us.”
He hated to think what would happen if they asked the wrong people that question. In this city, everyone seemed like the wrong people.
They walked in the midst of a pack of citizens crossing a busy intersection, heading for one of the pod stations that filled the city. It was what set this place apart from Arcardius, where the sky was often overflowing with transports and personal drivers taking their wealthy passengers from place to place. Here, people climbed spiraling sets of stairs and slipped into the waiting passenger pods that took them where they wanted to go.
“Fastest route to the middle of the city,” Dex said, nodding to a pod station overhead. Holographic maps hovered in the air in front of the station’s stairwell, noting the different sectors of Craatia. The dome was enormous, large enough to rival some of the cities on Arcardius.
“Briog,” Andi said, pointing to a glowing line on the map that intersected the city center. It looked to be an industrial sector, likely full of pubs and the sort of people Dex wouldn’t mind being around, if the galaxy wasn’t wrapped up in Nor’s clutches.
“We’ll start at the front, stop at every pub that fits the bill,” Dex said.
“You should be good at this,” Andi commented with a wink in his direction. “Being a bounty hunter and all.”
In a sense, Dex was bounty hunting again. Though he’d never had to find an entire group of rebels before, especially not with a demon Fellibrag slung over his shoulder.
“I’ll try not to impress you too much,” Dex told her.
Andi huffed out a laugh and sauntered past him, beginning the climb up the stairs. Dex followed behind her, and they boarded the moving walkway together. He could see the pods in the distance, but there was a lengthy line ahead of them. As Dex settled in to wait, scanning their surroundings for potential threats, a nearby conversation drew his attention.
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