Joined: Book One

by Mara Gan

  “You can’t read mine,” he said quietly.

  I shook my head. “No, I can’t,” I agreed. “And the Mousai are usually more difficult for me. But I can still read them on occasion, and I have been getting much stronger lately.” I rubbed my face, feeling tired. “And it makes sense. I’m not stupid; I know the galaxy wants me dead. So a whole planet—now two whole planets—have died, just because one person wants me dead.” I closed my eyes. “And that’s probably only upped the bounty on my head. If killing me will save billions of lives, just to prevent one psychopath from destroying another planet, it seems like a fair trade.”

  “It is not a fair trade,” Perseus snapped. “And you can’t blame yourself for those deaths. Those lives are not on your head. You can’t feel guilt for that. It was not you who pulled the trigger, it wasn’t you who had the motive; if anything, it makes you more of a victim.”

  I had tried to use that logic on myself many, many times before, but I wasn’t sure if I could ever reconcile billions of lives… with mine. Kos insisted I was going to save more than that, but the lives I saved were never going to be enough for me. I had more blood on my hands than anyone in the entire galaxy.

  I took a deep breath, not wanting to look at Perseus. I wasn’t sure why I’d told him all that, but I was tired of secrets, tired of loneliness.

  Unfortunately, now I felt more alone than ever.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Callie tossed the data pad on the table, hands on her hips.

  Synie, Perseus, and I all looked up in mild surprise. “What’s this?” Synie asked as Perseus picked it up.

  Callie scowled and gestured at it. “See for yourself. Clee intercepted it a few minutes ago.”

  Perseus had gone still. He looked at me, his expression going from stoic to fierce, and I frowned.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Intercepted how?” Perseus asked Callie, ignoring me.

  She waved her hand. “Damned if I know. Clee sends tendrils out into the communications lines and comes back with all sorts of crap. She loves sorting through other people’s mail. This just happened to be relevant.”

  “Do we know anything about who sent it?” Perseus asked, scanning it again.

  “For gods’ sake, what does it say?” Synie asked, reaching for it.

  Perseus handed it to her, his eyes intense as they studied me. “We need everyone on duty, now. Send the alert.”

  Callie nodded and rushed out to obey.

  Synie glanced at Perseus, horrified. “But… but… this makes no sense,” she whispered. “This is wrong.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is anyone going to let me in on the little secret?”

  Synie turned to gape at me. “This is a message,” she said slowly, “demanding payment for your death.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s a little premature.”

  Perseus nodded grimly. “And inaccurate. I intend to keep it that way. Summon Kos; we have a would-be killer to catch.” He sat back, looking at Synie. “We need a plan.”

  “Whoever sent this is clearly trying to spur us into action,” Synie said, thinking. “Maybe we can use that.”

  An idea had been brewing in my head for some time, but I figured no one would ever go for it. Now that there was a sense of urgency, I brought it up.

  “I think I know how,” I said slowly.

  “How’s that?” Synie asked as she and Perseus turned to me.

  I did my best Protector impression and lifted one eyebrow at them. “If you want to catch an assassin,” I mused, “it seems to me that you need to give them what they want.”

  I briefly outlined my idea. It wasn’t complicated, and as expected, they hated it. But they also agreed it was the only way to offer a quick resolution.

  “I don’t like it,” Perseus grumbled, shoving away from the table.

  “Me neither, but I think we have enough safeguards in place to prevent anything bad from happening,” Synie mused. She eyed me as I stood. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”

  I almost laughed. “Honestly, any kind of resolution now would make me happy,” I said, pushing my chair back under the table. “I am so tired of this. I feel like a prisoner.”

  Perseus huffed something unpleasant as he and I made our way to my office for afternoon petitions. “You do remember that prophecy said you’re going to die.”

  “Maybe,” I replied. “That is the common interpretation. But I hardly expected to live forever.”

  We entered my office from the back to avoid the long line of petitioners. I wasn’t due to start seeing people for another half an hour, but I had work to do before they came in. I sat at my desk and pulled out my planner and the files of granted petitions I had to go through, looking at the list of logistics I needed to take care of. I had to find a merchant who would be willing to donate clothing to the orphanage on Lozha, and there were many, many referrals for people to speak to the city psychiatrist about for next week. And that was just the top of the list.

  Perseus gave me a glare—one I was now somewhat immune to— before heading back out the door. “Let it be known for the record that I did not like this plan,” he said, the door closing behind him with a bit of a slam.

  I didn’t care. My idea was simple: no one would dare to come near me when Perseus was around. So Perseus shouldn’t be around me. That didn’t mean that Egil or Kenzi couldn’t be, but Perseus was a major deterrent.

  And as long as there was some assassin out there, regularly taking potshots at me or those I loved, no one could relax. I wanted this over.

  I had been making notes and going through files for fifteen minutes when something was thrown on my desk.

  I jumped a little, looking up from my work. “What’s this?” Perseus had tossed a blaster on my desk, interrupting my scrambled thoughts. “Put it somewhere safe,” he said. “But where you can access it quickly.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, thought better of it, and simply said, “Thank you.”

  He nodded and headed for the door. “Nia and Erie will be here momentarily,” he said, opening it.

  Egil entered as he left. They nodded briefly to each other, and Egil came to stand behind me.

  I looked up at him and offered a smile. “Lucky you, eh?”

  He looked down at me and frowned. “We should begin, Princess.”

  I sighed at his lack of humor and motioned Nia to let the first petitioner in.

  God, Egil was even more stoic than Perseus was.

  ***

  I was falling asleep.

  I had been listening to petitioners for hours now, and I was tired.

  I tried to listen intently to the man in front of me, but I hadn’t been sleeping well. My shoulder still ached, despite all the healers and painkillers Remy had been giving me, and I was just exhausted from all the stress of my job and this assassin business. Really, I had enough to do without adding an assassin to the list.

  I should just grant this man’s request and head off to bed.

  I smiled at him gently, trying to catch his attention, but the poor man was too afraid to look directly at me. He just kept reading his petition, his hands shaking, stumbling over his words, hoping to finish what he wanted to say before I could interrupt.

  I mentally closed my eyes. He was hardly asking for much. The man—a farmer, from his thoughts—was asking for soil regenerators to help his crops grow; his land had been suffering a terrible drought for years, and he could no longer support his family.

  “Excuse me,” I said, interrupting him as kindly as possible. “Mr…?”

  He gulped, closing his eyes. “Bene, highness,” he mumbled, sounding miserable.

  I could feel the fear, sadness, and helplessness overwhelming him. My heart ached for him. I shut my eyes against his pain, pinching the bridge of my nose with my fingers.

  “Mr. Bene,” I said, trying to smile through my own pain. “Please worry no more. We will give you as many regenerators as you need,
and we will send you enough food and clothing to help your family and neighbors through the coming winter.” I quickly jotted down a few notes on my pad, stamped it with my seal, and handed it to him. “Please take this to the Office of the Mousai. They will get you everything you need.”

  Poor Bene looked ready to fall over. His eyes widened in shock, and an overpowering wave of relief and hope washed over me. I closed my eyes against the warm, bubbly feelings, a soothing aloe to the burn of heartache from moments before.

  “Th-tha… thank you, my Heir,” he stammered. “That’s-that’s so… so unbelievably… you are so generous!”

  His stammering of thanks was suddenly muffled.

  The warm feelings were dampened by a commotion outside. All three of us looked at the door.

  Egil frowned and quickly moved toward it, pressing his ear against the solid wood. He glanced at me and Bene, then cracked it open. I couldn’t read his emotions, but I could read his face.

  Something not good was happening outside.

  Egil slipped through the door, shouting over his shoulder at me to stay put.

  I leaped to my feet and grabbed the blaster from its hiding place, yelling to Bene to hide under my desk. I slipped through the open door behind Egil skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding running into his back.

  What seemed like hundreds of dwarf-sized, blueish goblin creatures were swarming into the Chamber, hacking away with swords at the waiting petitioners. People were screaming in terror and attempting to flee, but the creatures had blocked the only entrances and were leaping on their victims with ferocity and fangs.

  “Kobaloi,” I breathed, my eyes wide in horror. “Oh my god, look at them all!”

  Nia growled and Egil tensed the kobaloi streamed into the Chamber. Erie let out a few choice curse words and drew her sword from her back. She looked at me angrily. “Dammit, Princess! They’ve seen you now! Can’t you ever stay out of sight?” She shouted a few more curse words and flung herself into the fray, sword swinging.

  Nia dipped into her bag of weapons and began flinging the stars at the kobaloi, her dark red hair whipping behind her. She somehow nailed two of them with one star. “Stay by the dais!” she yelled, moving forward. “Keep your back to the wall!”

  I nodded, wide-eyed, as Egil moved in front of me. “If you won’t listen and remain in your office, then stay behind me, Princess,” he said, voice low. “Use that blaster of yours.”

  I was so shocked that I had almost forgotten I had it. I raised it and began firing, carefully avoiding Nia and Erie. I shot down two that had jumped on Erie’s back. Erie looked back at me and nodded briefly before cutting down another goblin.

  Nia leaped over a kobaloi and, grabbing its head as she went, snapped its neck. I couldn’t help but grimace, even if I was impressed. Her temper clearly getting the best of her, she grasped two kobaloi by the arms and, throwing them to the ground, jumped onto their backs and ripped their arms from their bodies. She glanced up, blood spattered on her face, and I looked away.

  Definitely awed by her skill but terrified out of my mind at the same time, I shuddered.

  If Nia was angry, then Erie seemed to be enjoying herself. She was focused but efficient, spinning away from one kobaloi’s teeth to slice another’s head clean from its neck. She parried sword thrusts from another, flipped over its head, and slashed her sword at its knees, severing the legs. The kobaloi howled in pain as it went down.

  Egil was viciously cutting down every kobaloi that charged us, but there were just too many. I fired and fired from behind him, hitting as many as I could, but the monsters kept swarming into the Chamber, their snarls combining with the terrified shrieks of the petitioners to make the room echo with chaos.

  “We can’t keep this up forever!” I yelled at Egil.

  “I’m not planning to,” he yelled back, slicing his falx through three kobaloi at once. He hooked a fourth one around the neck with the curve of his blade.

  I didn’t ask him what he meant by that, preferring not to add to the noise. I wanted so badly to cover my ears but didn’t dare lose focus with my blaster; I had never been somewhere as noisy as this. The kobaloi’s bloodlust and frantic emotions were hammering into my brain. The sounds of Nia and Erie slaughtering kobaloi, the screaming of the petitioners as they tried to fight back, the screaming of others as they were cut down, Egil’s falx cleaving kobaloi in half, even my own blaster—I felt faint from the physical and emotional noise pounding all around me.

  Anxiety and overstimulation from the battle threatened to consume me, swamping my brain with the thoughts and images of everyone in the Chamber. A headache pounded at my skull and my focus began to waver from the onslaught. I watched as a merchant I didn’t know attacked several kobaloi at once, bravely engaging them without any weapon at all; another merchant was trying to attack and failing, clearly at a loss for what to do, and I watched in horror as the kobaloi overwhelmed him.

  I looked away, gasping, as I heard the sounds of crunching flesh.

  “Focus, Princess!” Egil yelled, cutting down more kobaloi. “Don’t drop that blaster!”

  I fought through the haze swarming my vision and raised my blaster again, shooting as many as I could get an accurate shot on. My arms were beginning to shake from the tension and focus; my vision was swimming.

  I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up.

  “Excuse me.”

  I jumped a foot in the air, nearly shooting the ceiling in the process. I glanced up, panting, into the serene face of Eute.

  “Eute!” I exclaimed.

  She smiled. “Need some help, Princess?” she asked amicably, eyeing the scene. Eute unstrapped her bow and nocked two arrows. She tilted her head and aimed carefully, then let loose.

  Two kobaloi fell, arrows in their chest and side.

  She nocked two more arrows and felled the two goblins who came at us, hitting them both square in the chest.

  I sagged with relief against the wall as I noted the rest of the room. The rest of the Mousai were here.

  Clee and Kenzi moved through the crowd with skill and ease, looking almost bored. Kenzi sliced one kobaloi in two while Clee slammed her swords into two separate goblins at the same time. Synie speared two at once with her kalis and flung her dagger into another that had jumped at her. Even Callie and Mel were there.

  Perseus, unscratched as always, dispatched the one he was dealing with and nodded to Egil and Eute as he jogged to me.

  “Wow,” Kenzi said, joining us. “They really want you out of the way, don’t they?”

  “Which is why we need to get moving.” Perseus grabbed my arm. “Let’s go, little girl.”

  “Want some help?” Kenzi asked. “I could watch your back.”

  Perseus shook his head. “They need you here.”

  He hauled me away from my shelter behind Egil and pushed me behind the thrones on the dais. I glanced up at him, confused, as he slid open a panel in the floor and dropped down through the hole. I gaped down into the blackness, stunned to find out there was a passageway here; I thought I had discovered them all.

  A hand snaked up out of the darkness and dragged me down.

  My yelp of surprise was halted as I landed roughly in his arms. He set me down in the blackness, slid the panel closed, and grabbed my upper arm again.

  “What is this place?” I whispered, still shaking. “I didn’t know this existed.”

  “Neither did anyone else,” he replied, voice low. “I found it when I was studying the plans for the station. Apparently no one’s been down here in centuries.”

  “You found it?” I whispered in awe. “How did you know?” How was there a secret passage he knew about, but I did not? And what plans? I didn’t even know plans for the city existed.

  “The plans showed a missing space between the Chamber and the next room,” he said. “I wanted to know why.”

  I stumbled in the darkness. “Isn’t there a light?”

  “I can see just fine.”


  “Well, I can’t,” I hissed, stumbling again. He hauled me upright and continued pulling me along.

  “Trust me, little girl, you’d rather not see what’s down here.”

  I would have stopped in my tracks if he hadn’t been pulling me so roughly. I shivered as my imagination envisioned all sorts of—

  He paused. I could hear his hands searching for something along the wall. He muttered, then something gave a slight click.

  Bright light flooded my eyes as he slid another wall panel open a tiny crack and peeked through. Seemingly confident that it was safe enough on the other side, he slid it open, did a quick scan in both directions, and stepped through. He pulled me through the wall behind him and kept tight hold of my upper arm as he slid the panel back into place, effectively concealing its existence.

  I blinked in the suddenly bright light.

  We were in one of the corridors behind the Esplanades.

  “I know this place,” I murmured, looking around. “This corridor leads to a cargo hold and a few scattered offices. I’ve been here.”

  “Good for you.”

  I scowled at him, but he ignored me as he hauled me down the hallway. My feet barely skimmed over the ground; he was practically carrying me, which was extremely uncomfortable. His fingers were digging into my arm, and I winced but was determined not to complain.

  “How did you and the others know to come to the Chamber?” I asked, trying hard to step on my own, but having little success.

  “Egil.”

  I gave him a confused look. “What?”

  “Egil keeps an open comlink with me at all times,” Perseus clarified, not looking at me. He was scanning the hall ahead and behind us. He waved his wrist communicator at me. “I was listening to you through Egil’s communicator the whole time.”

  My mouth fell open. “You were listening?” I exclaimed. “You heard everything?”

  “Egil and I long ago agreed it was best,” he explained. “Backup that arrives without being called for is the best kind.” He lifted his wrist to his mouth. “Yalan.”