by SM Blooding
“Yes, sir!” he replied.
I headed back to the control dome. It was time to gather Ferran and Lana and take them back to the fleet.
Commander Wesley looked up as soon as I walked through the door. “Your presence has been requested in Ino City.”
I frowned, my thoughts elsewhere. “By whom?”
“Ino Nami.” He raised his hands in question.
It was odd being in the presence of someone who didn’t know my pedigree. “Tell Mother I’ll be there shortly. I’m sending the Yusrra Samma back to the fleet with Ferran and Lana. Do you think I could get a ride?”
He narrowed his eyes and tipped his head, biting off whatever it was he was going to say. “I’ll have someone meet you on deck.”
I left the control dome dreading whatever conversation I was about to have with my mother. A lot had happened today, and I wasn’t confident I’d handled it correctly. What I needed to do was find Joshua or Ryo, ask them what they thought. I did not need to enter into a battle of wills with my mother.
Captain Rose walked toward me, her chin held high. “I hear you need a ride to Ino City.”
How interesting. “I take it you’re offering to take me.”
She pursed her lips, running a rag under her nails and nodded. “I need a few things in the city anyway.”
“Then it sounds mutually beneficial.” I wished I had the energy to question her about her relationship with Nix. I was eager to find out more about her, but I really did have more pressing issues to focus on.
She paused, started to turn, stopped, and then turned all the way around, heading further onto the flight deck.
Her bird was the only one if it’s kind I’d ever seen. The four dragonfly wings were made out of dried jelly skin, the skeleton of metal. A lightning cannon was strapped to a bar that ran underneath the bottom wing. I walked around it. Another one hung on the other side. “Is that . . . ” I trailed off, pointing to the cannon.
“Family design?” she finished for me and nodded. “It is. I needed something lighter. The Hands’ cannons were too heavy. I had to dump them on my last mission so I could maneuver.”
“Hmm.” Pretty ingenious. “I take it you designed this plane yourself.”
Pride shown on her heart-shaped face, the sun glinting red in her pale brown hair.
Clambering up the wing, I slid into the rear seat. It was tight, but the flight was smooth. This bird had an organic control of the air, shifting with the winds, settling into the currents.
Once we landed in Ino City, I got out and handed her the flight cap. “We should talk sometime.” I gestured toward her plane. “I would like to review some of your designs, and I’d like to run a few of my own by you. See what you think.”
She frowned, her bottom lip tucked in.
“I, uh—” I shook my head. “Just think about it.” I turned and hopped onto the runway, heading for the elevator that would take me to the arena.
The games were still underway and it appeared as though word of the Tokarz attack on the Hand’s refueling station hadn’t spread yet.
I pushed my way through the crowds. Several people offered greetings, but I just wasn’t in the mood. Iszak Tokarz had destroyed a refueling station, had damaged my own, had harmed or killed innumerable people, and I could do nothing about it.
Mother was on the dais, but as soon as she saw me, she disappeared into the dark shadows.
I walked up the stairs, still too unsettled in my own mind, in the decision I’d made in the heat of battle to enter into a conversation with my mother.
She waited for me.
I paused, watching the games below. The crowd roared at something going on in one of the rings. I glanced down. A large, eight-finned, scaly beast attempted to evade three hunters. The roped-off area took up half the arena area, but it still seemed like a small space for such a ferocious looking creature. His gills flared under the thin fur along his neck as he opened his large mouth and roared. He rose onto his back feet, his front feet hairy and webbed, the claws bared.
I was glad I wasn’t down there. Whatever that thing was, it looked ferocious.
“It looks like you could use some advice,” Dyna’s soft voice said near me.
I glanced at her and turned my attention back to the beast. Not from her.
She sighed, her fingers curling around the rail. “The trick to being a good leader isn’t knowing the right thing to do all the time.”
I watched her out of the corner of my eye. Father used to say the same thing.
She kept her gaze on the arena. “It’s about finding the right people to listen to.”
“And whose advice do you recommend I seek?”
She shook her head, her blonde hair piled high on her head in extensive twists and clips. “Someone you trust. Your mother, your family, your friends, your second. I don’t know, Synn.” She turned to me, releasing the rail. “But seek them out, and make a well-balanced decision.”
What did she know?
She looked at her hands, then out at the crowd again. “I see that something happened.” She gestured behind her, toward what I assumed was my mother. “And I see the burden that’s on your shoulders. I know I’m not the right person for you.”
I narrowed my gaze at her.
She took in a deep breath. “Things are changing,” she said so softly I almost didn’t hear her. “I don’t know if any of us have the right answers. I see dark things ahead, but also a possible light. One wrong move could be disastrous.”
That was exactly what I needed to hear. “Thank you.” It was time to hear what wonderful news Mother had for me.
She waited until I approached her, then turned and led the way through the back of the dais to the family living quarters. We went up several stories to the main visiting room.
I remembered the first time I’d been here. I’d just escaped Sky City, been attacked by sphynktor bugs, and realized I’d been bonded to a psychotic queen. Things hadn’t changed much in here since then. It was a large room, with an opaque window that went all the way across the one wall. It pulsed with veins of yellow and orange and green and blue. The tile was turquoise, the throw pillows in varying shades of aqua and blue.
I reached over and picked up a strange tear drop shaped glass vial, and shook the milky liquid inside, letting memories waft through my mind.
Had I truly made any progress since that day? Yes. I’d drafted a great deal of change, but had I become a better adult?
I closed my eyes and set the vase down. What would my father say? What words of advice would he give?
“What are you doing,” Mother asked in Sakin, “about Iszak Tokarz?”
I gave her my full attention, but said nothing. It didn’t escape my attention that she addressed me in her language, not my own.
She was livid, though she hid it behind a wall of ice. “I didn’t allow this, all of this, to happen so you could play the coward when attacked.”
I kept my expression neutral.
“You must show them your power, your force, your might. You must obliterate them.”
“I should decimate an entire tribe for the acts and decisions of one man.”
“They follow him.” She stopped pacing and lanced me with her dark gaze. “So, yes.”
I breathed. Once. Twice. Three times. My mother was a lot like Nix in many ways. “No.”
She’d known I was going to say that. She didn’t even flinch. She took in a deep breath and walked toward me, her pink, silk robes sweeping the floor behind her. “You would show this new league you are powerless? With the might of a fleet, a letharan city, and a Hand’s station filled with planes?”
I narrowed my gaze, standing my ground. How had she learned about the planes? Probably the same way she knew about the attack. “I will show them a new kind of power.”
“And what is that?” she asked with a sneer, the pearls in her salt and pepper hair clanking together. “Weakness? Cowardice?”
I balled my ha
nds into fists and forced them to relax. “I want peace, Mother, and I will have it no matter how hard Nix or you or Tokarz attempt to sabotage it.”
Her eye twitched as she paused, breathing. “You are sure it is Nix?”
I ground my teeth together. “I have no proof.”
“Tokarz attacked the games, my lethara and her station.”
At least she wasn’t overlooking the obvious.
“You think they’re working together?”
“It’s too coincidental to think otherwise.”
“Why did you not attack?”
“And bring the League of Cities into war? That’s what Nix wants. That’s what Tokarz wants.” I shook my head. “That’s not why we’re here.”
Something shifted in Mother’s eyes before she turned away. “Then,” she continued in Adalic, “what would you have us do, sayyd?”
What trap was she laying out for me? I watched her closely and continued in Sakin. “Gather evidence and present it in a court of justice.”
“The Families,” she said over her shoulder in Adalic, “have a court of justice. Do you invite the league into it?”
I could almost hear the spring. Nix wasn’t the only one who wanted to control the power of the league. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and all along my arms. “If Eosif and Neira agree that is the right action to take, then yes.”
Her back went rigid as she turned her glare away. “Why did you give up the leadership of the league? It was yours for the taking.”
I ran my fingertips along the sheath of my curved blade. “Because I had earned it, or because I was set up to be its puppet leader?”
She didn’t say anything, and she wasn’t looking at me either.
That’s what I thought. “What are you planning?” I demanded in Adalic, advancing on her. “What is all of this? What political maneuvering did you intend when you agreed to hold the games here?”
She spun on me, her face exploding with aged fury. “Power, you ungrateful boy! How do you think the Ino have survived this long? By playing nice? What of the El’Asim? You come from a long line of supreme warriors and now you want to sit around and pout like an insolent child?”
I took a step back and eyed her. This was the mother I knew, the one I’d been watching for, wondering when she’d show up. “It’s too late, Mother. Your control is already slipping.”
Her gaze slid to the side. “You honestly think that Oki is controlling this city? I am in control of it, and do you really think Ryo is outside of my command? I now have control of your Fleet as well. And that lethara I gave you? Who do you think the people who really run your city are loyal to? You,” she sneered, “who has no idea how to run a letharan city?”
I raised my chin.
“The only thing you truly have is that station, but I have all the planes.” She smiled victoriously, rising to her full height. “You made the world trust you and now the world is here.”
How could I possibly be related to that? “What happened to you? Where is the woman my father loved?”
She took in a breath to speak.
I didn’t wait to listen. I spun and left.
But I didn’t know where to go, what to do, who to go to. I needed to talk to Joshua, but he’d been so busy getting all the tribes up to date with the radar and radios, and he had the Librarium. I clenched and unclenched my hands.
Ryo? Oki?
No. For several reasons.
Keeley? I hadn’t even seen her since the dance, so I could only assume that she was busy as well. Or mad at me. Or both.
“Synn,” a soft voice called.
I turned and took in a deep breath, watching Aiyanna walk up to me. She’d retired her scarves. Instead, she wore a black shirt and a purple leather vest, a red sash tied around her slim waist. Her legs were partially hidden in a short skirt that rode over the top of brown pants that were tucked into high black boots. Long, dark brown hair fell over her shoulders in waves. Relief dispersed my anxiety and nerves. What was it about her that put me at ease?
She tugged at her skirt and gave me a tight smile.
I met her halfway. “Aiyanna.”
She stopped, her doe eyes searching mine in warm understanding.
I just looked down at her in the gathering silence, a million things running through my mind. Had I completely screwed up by calling all the tribes? Had I trusted the wrong people? If I couldn’t trust my own family, then who could I trust? Could I rely on my friends who were all busy trying to run their own lives? Where were the right answers? Why were all of them wrong?
She grabbed my hand and led me to the stairs. She stepped off two floors down and headed toward a set of rooms I’d never been to. This corridor was tiled in dark blue with golden veins.
The set of rooms faced the exterior of the lethara. The thin, opaque wall of the jellyfish’s skin revealed little light on the other side. Gray on dark gray. Another storm.
“What are we doing here, Priestess?”
She led me to a short table and pushed me onto a pillow. She sat opposite me, her eyes serious. “The cards have a message for you.”
“I don’t believe in Tarot.” But I wasn’t leaving either. What did that say? I was desperate for direction, for someone smarter than me to tell me what to do?
She reached toward a small, leather-bound chest and pulled out a silken bag. “What do you have to lose?”
I stared at the cards as she shuffled them. Nothing.
She smiled. “Whenever I’m lost, I go to these. They don’t always have nice things to tell me, but they never cease to comfort me.”
I needed guidance, but how much stock could I really put into a bunch of cards? None, but the priestess . . .
She closed her eyes, shuffling. When she opened them again, they were completely black, her chin raised as she stared into space.
I jerked back in surprise. My heart pounded.
She laid down several cards and paused, not even looking at them, her hands moving over each of them, one in turn. “You are no longer a boy, but not quite a man.”
Her voice sounded much fuller than normal, as if someone else were speaking through her.
“You are pulled by two women, women of power, women of influence, each wishing to control you in her own way.”
I knew that already. Anyone with eyes could have told me that.
“One is a woman you have feared a long time. The other, a woman you have feared only a short time.” She set her hand on one of the cards in the middle of the arch. “Your fear of them is their control over you.”
“I don’t fear them.”
“Do you think that by hiding from it, it will make it less true?”
I clenched my jaw.
“There is much you have not dealt with. With the old, you have never had to. With the new, you’ve had no time.”
I stretched my neck and looked away.
“She tortured you, Synn. You should allow yourself to deal with that.”
“I did,” I growled, my fist curled. “I’m controlling the bond.”
“No,” she said softly. “I am.”
I took in a deep breath. “Is there anything that will break the bond?”
She glanced at the cards, her lids lowering. “Her death.”
I looked away and swallowed.
“There are many paths laid before you. Some are good, but that good is short-lived, bought and paid for through falsehoods. Most of the futures before you are grim, but necessary.”
I returned my attention back to the cards.
“When you face the truth of your intentions, you will understand what must be done.”
I clenched my jaw.
“You are conflicted. You want to think one thing, but you think another, something that fights in the face of what you have been asking of everyone around you.”
True. I asked for peace, truly wanted it, but in actuality, I wanted justice. Justice on Tokarz . . . justice on Nix. But that was something Aiyanna could ha
ve picked up by watching me. The cards didn’t say that. They were just cards. Nothing more.
Her black gaze met mine as she said in Adalic, “Do you think I would spin you yarns, my boy?”
I blinked, my heart still in my chest. That sounded like something my father would say.
“Do you think I am here because I have nothing better to do? You listen, Synn-ji. Listen. I do not have much more time.”
I sucked in a deep, gulping breath.
The priestess blinked and concentrated on the cards again. “This conflict centers around you, but only because you draw the attention of those in power. Were you to extricate yourself from the situation, these things would unfold, differently perhaps, but still ultimately the same. You have the ability to shape what is to come.”
I stared at the cards. I didn’t understand how they worked, but if my father really was trying to communicate with me—was that even possible? Except that he was exactly the person I needed to talk to, and I was desperate to believe almost anything. “What do I do?”
Her dark gaze met mine. “What does your heart tell you?”
“My heart gets me into trouble. You know that better than anyone.” Guilt hit me hard in the chest, tears welling in my eyes.
“That was not your fault. You are young.”
“Then maybe what we need is someone more experienced. Ryo, maybe. Eosif.”
“They have a part to play, but this is not yet their time. Synn.” The priestess took in a deep breath and let it out, so like my father it hurt. “You are not a bad leader. You have the potential to be great.”
“I have no idea what I’m doing half the time.”
“Neither did I.”
My forehead furrowed as I smiled.
“The art is knowing how to react in the face of tragedy. That’s when people will be looking to you.”
“But how do I do that?” I demanded, feeling small, like a child. How had I come so far only to be so stupid?
The priestess’ black eyes searched mine. “You follow your heart.”
“The same heart that got you killed, leashed me to a psychotic woman, and has me under the control of yet another? You mean that one?”
Compassion filled the priestess’ expression, but her lips were set. “Are you whining or making excuses?”
