by Rachel Bach
After months of conservative white button-ups, old-fashioned suits, and black alien scales, seeing him in combat gear was something of a revelation. He’d always been easy on the eyes, but seeing his broad shoulders and long limbs defined by the thin, clingy, black fabric of a long-sleeved Paradoxian underarmor shirt was almost indecent. He’d traded out his slacks and dress shoes for gray fatigues and tall combat boots like the ones I wore, except that he wore his much better.
He wore everything better, I thought with a sigh. Even before I’d gone off to the army, I’d always had an appreciation for guys in military wear. Combine that with my appreciation of Rupert, and I decided it would be much safer if I just focused on finding us some coats.
While I searched through the gear trunks, Rupert grabbed a black surplus duffel and headed for the mess. By the time I’d dug up two dark gray and red snow jackets, he’d packed the large bag full of prepackaged rations, the ship’s first-aid kit, and extra ammo for the standard-issue sidearm pistol he now wore at his hip. I’d grabbed one for myself as well, a sleek little Maraday S Class Automatic that was no bigger than my hand but still capable of punching a hole through most light-armored suits if you knew where to aim. It wasn’t a patch on any of my girls, but for a standard-grade gun, it wasn’t half bad. Home Guard always got the best stuff.
Loading up on Anthony’s gear made me feel a little guilty, but considering where we were, I reasoned it was just going to get stolen anyway, and it wasn’t like we’d be coming back. I had no doubt Rupert was right when he said Anthony would report that I was alive. The Paradoxian army would be combing the galaxy for this ship soon, if they weren’t already. If we wanted to stay free and clear, we had to ditch it, but I’ll admit I felt a pang as Rupert lowered the ramp. This ship was the closest I’d been to home in a long time now. Abandoning it unprotected in a pirate haven, especially when we had no ship to replace it, felt both reckless and blasphemous.
“Blasphemous?” Rupert asked, raising his voice over the wind.
I nodded, trying not to slip as I lugged my armor case down the rapidly icing ramp. “Home Guard ships are the Sacred King’s own property. Leaving it here for pirates to pick over seems wrong.” I glanced up at the ship’s prow where the Home Guard crest and serial were proudly displayed. “Are you sure you can find us another ride?”
“Sure as I can be,” Rupert said, strapping both bags over his chest so his gloved hands were free to help me step down into the crust of dirty ice that covered the starport’s landing deck. “Come on, let’s go.”
I nodded, lugging my armor case onto my back as we hurried toward the exit.
Kessel’s lone starport was guarded on all sides by five-story windbreaks to protect landing ships from being blow off course and possibly into mountains. Once we stepped outside, though, the wind hit us like a train, pushing me sideways into Rupert. He grabbed my arm after that, steadying me down the huge loading ramp to the covered road that had once been a railway between the starport and the mineral processing factory just across the valley. Now the rails had been paved over and huge pieces of sheet metal had been welded between the warehouses that flanked the path on either side, creating a covered corridor that was packed to the rafters with people.
The man-made cave was actually brighter than the cloudy day outside thanks to the glowing signs on the shops, carts, and kiosks that crowded into every possible nook of the sheltered street. The old ore warehouses had been sliced up into hundreds of shops offering anything you could want of the mostly legal variety. I knew from experience that the real goods were kept underground in the smuggler’s market, but on the surface at least, Kessel flirted with propriety. It was still a dive, though, as evidenced by the fact that we had to walk two blocks before we saw an establishment that wasn’t a bar, a pawnshop, a strip club, or a brothel.
I’d told Rupert that if we were going to find a doctor who was even remotely close to decent, it would be up here in the relatively legal aboveground. The crowds by the starport had been too thick to do anything except push through, but once we’d walked far enough to clear the crush, Rupert stopped and pulled out his handset, keeping one hand wrapped tightly around my elbow while he browsed the planet’s commerce grid with the other, his dark brows pulled in a scowl.
Normally I would have resented his grip on me and the control it implied, but at the moment I was glad to have him. Unarmored and wearing oversized clothes that made me look like a runaway teenager, I wasn’t exactly an imposing figure, a dangerous disadvantage on a planet where everyone was armed and abduction in the street was met with little more than annoyed looks. But with Rupert beside me, I didn’t even have to worry about it. Between the new military clothes and the scowl, his normal casual lethality had been turned up by a factor of ten. Add in his towering height and obvious comfort with the gun on his hip, and the crowd parted around us like water around a rock without him having to lift a finger. It wasn’t as nice as parting the crowds myself, but it was nice all the same.
After five minutes of reading through listings, Rupert told me an address and we started walking. Two blocks later, we turned off the main road onto another, much narrower covered street that looked like it had once been a wind gap between warehouses. There was barely enough room for both of us to walk side by side, and the wind channeling between the buildings was so intense I had to brace to keep from being blown over. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go far. I’d already spotted the clinic sign shining red like a warning, and my feet slowed down of their own accord.
“Devi,” Rupert warned.
“Oh, come on,” I pleaded, eyes wide. “There’s a freaking chop shop right next door.”
But Rupert would not listen to reason, and a minute later, we were walking through the clinic’s heavy door.
The best thing I could say about the tiny waiting room we stepped into was that it was clean. Like all the other shops that had taken over the old warehouses, this one had walls made from what looked like stolen metal sheets welded together, but at least these were painted a spotless beige. The door had barely closed behind us when a formidable, middle-aged woman with graying, tight-curled hair hidden under a threadbare shawl pushed through the curtains that separated the entry from the rest of the clinic.
She stepped up to the counter with a sour look, like having customers was a burden she could have done without. “Welcome,” she said in a voice that was anything but. “What do you want?”
Her Universal was so accented I could barely understand her, but Rupert’s face broke into a smile as he pushed back his hood and began speaking another language to her. I had no idea what he was speaking, other than it wasn’t the same language I’d heard him use when he’d panicked back on the ship. Whatever it was, the sour woman’s face lit up like a sunbeam the second she heard it. From that point on, she was eating out of Rupert’s palm, though I still got the stink eye. After a few minutes of happy chatter, they seemed to strike a deal, and the woman vanished into the rear of the shop while Rupert walked back over to me.
“What was that about?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “Greasing the wheels?”
Rupert’s smile turned sly. “In a manner of speaking. They weren’t going to take you since we don’t have cash on hand, but I convinced her otherwise.”
“You got us credit on Kessel?” I said, astonished. “What did you do, agree to marry into her family?”
“Hearing your home language in a strange place can be very comforting,” Rupert replied sagely. “Comfort brings trust, and trust gets us what we need.”
I snorted. “How many languages do you speak, anyway?”
“Ten,” Rupert said. At my incredulous look, he explained, “It was useful in my line of work, and I had a long time to learn. Also, they get easier as you go.”
The woman came back in then, giving Rupert an adoring look before waving at me to follow her. I sighed. There went any hope that I was getting out of this. “Are you coming with me?”
Rupert s
hook his head. “I have to go solve our funds problem. I shouldn’t be long, but if I’m not back before you’re done, wait for me here.”
I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but I couldn’t with the woman standing right there, so all I said was, “Be careful.”
Rupert smiled and ducked down, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek before I could react. “Don’t give the doctor a hard time,” he said as he walked toward the door.
I scowled after him, cheeks heating, but he was already gone. Behind me, the woman cleared her throat impatiently. I glared at her over my shoulder, and then I grabbed my armor and started my gallows march, grumbling a string of curses in my own native language as I followed her into the back.
I wish I could say it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, but that would be a lie. The doctor turned out to be the sister of the lady up front, and she looked exactly like you’d expect a Kessel medhack to, complete with old bloodstains on the front of her dingy medical apron. My only comfort was that at least she didn’t bother me with stupid questions about how I’d ended up with a handprint on my neck as she strapped me to the table.
I don’t do well with being tied up in general, but being lashed down on my back while a stranger ran a tissue repair wand over my exposed throat was a special kind of hell for me. The doctor had given me a shot for the pain even though I’d tried to tell her not to bother because it wouldn’t do crap. She must have mixed in some serious black market drugs, though, because even though it took over two hours to repair all the broken blood vessels, I only remembered about ten minutes of it. Before I knew it, the doctor and her sister were helping me sit up on the table and telling me not to move because I might feel dizzy.
I felt like I was going to hurl, but it passed quickly. My neck, on the other hand, felt great. When the nurse sister handed me a mirror, I saw my throat was whole and perfect, without even the shadow of a bruise. I still wasn’t sure the improvement was worth baring my neck to strangers, but at least Rupert would stop pitching a fit now.
After his cryptic remarks earlier, I fully expected to have to wait. But when I walked into the waiting room, Rupert was already there, sitting on the worn couch with his bags beside him. His eyes went straight to my neck, and though his face revealed nothing, his chest moved in a relieved breath.
While I waited by the door, Rupert paid the nurse in cash. That alone would have been noteworthy. Paper money was a relic. I didn’t even know they were still printing the stuff. But what really got me was that Rupert was handing her a lot of cash, enough to make me gape. I didn’t dare ask him about it in the clinic, but as soon as we were outside, I grabbed him and pulled him into the darkened doorway of a closed shop, crowding up against him to get out of the howling wind. “How much money did you give her?”
“Double fee plus tip,” Rupert answered without missing a beat, reaching up to tug my coat away from my healed neck with a gentle gloved finger. “I trusted them with something very important, and they clearly did an excellent job.” His voice grew tender. “I’d have paid much more to see you whole again.”
I smacked his hand away. “You can’t go throwing money around like that here! You’re going to get us targeted.”
Rupert gave me a skeptical look. “I’m pretty sure we can handle any would-be muggers.”
He had a point, but still. “We don’t have the money to waste. We still have to buy a ship off this rock, remember?”
“Actually,” Rupert said, lips curling as he reached down and unzipped the bag hanging from his shoulder, “I think we’re settled at present.”
My eyes went wide. The duffel bag Rupert had taken from Anthony’s ship was absolutely stuffed with cash. It was more paper money than I’d ever seen in one place. All Republic Script, too, no colony notes, and every bill had a four-digit number at the corner.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Did you rob a bank or something?”
“Of course not,” Rupert said, giving me a handful of cash before zipping the bag shut again. “I pawned my Royal Warrant.”
I was too busy shoving the money into my coat before someone saw it to process what he said. When I did, though, I went ballistic.
“You what?!”
My shout drew looks from passersby, and I dropped my voice to a hiss. “You sold a Royal Warrant? Are you crazy?” It would have been safer to rob a bank. At least then we’d only have the local authorities to deal with. They sent Devastators after people who abused Warrants.
“It was the best option available,” Rupert said patiently. “We don’t have King Stephen’s backing anymore, and the Royal Office tracks Warrants very closely. Using it from this point on would be asking to get caught.”
“Did you tell that to the guy you sold it to?”
Rupert’s smile turned sly. “Why do you think I asked to be paid in untraceable cash?”
I leaned forward with a groan, burying my face in Rupert’s coat. Not only had he sold the king’s trust, but the criminal he’d sold it to was going to get busted by the team sent to nab us as soon as he used it. My only consolation was that the pirate probably wouldn’t survive long enough to take his revenge. But while I had to admit it was a clever plan that neatly solved our current problem, I couldn’t shake the feeling that by accepting Rupert’s money, I was being complicit in high treason.
“I’m going to hell for this,” I moaned.
“Devi,” Rupert said softly, prying me up. “Listen to me. I was entrusted with that Warrant when the king signed you over to my protection, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. If you free the daughters and stop the phantoms, everyone benefits, including Paradox. I’m sure the king will forgive a little creative license with his Warrant in exchange for such an obvious greater good.”
When he put it that way, I guessed he was right. But still. “It’s a mortal offense.”
“For me,” Rupert said with a smile. “I sold the Warrant. I’d have done as much for the Eyes before, and I’d do far worse for you.”
“Well don’t,” I snapped. Rupert was a Terran, he didn’t understand. Even if the king did buy the greater-good angle, Rupert would still hang for it. The sainted king could be merciful, but he could never be lenient. “I know you love me and what’s done is done, but this is too much. You can’t just—”
I cut off when Rupert’s hand found my cheek, tilting my head up so that I had to look at him. “Love is only part of it,” he said softly.
Before I could ask what he meant, Rupert leaned down, pushing my hood back just enough to whisper in my ear. The position made me stiffen. Other than the fact that we were standing, this was exactly how we’d been when he’d first whispered he loved me back on the Fool, right before he’d taken my memories. That time, his voice had been despairing, desperate. Now it hummed with pride and determination.
“You are doing things I could only dream of,” he said quietly. “I used to think keeping what happened to me from happening to anyone else was the most important thing. But even at the beginning, even when I was a perfect loyal Eye, I knew we were doing the right thing the wrong way. I knew that what we did to the daughters was unforgivable, but I thought it was the only way, a necessary evil to achieve a greater good. It wasn’t until you appeared and demanded that everything be right that I began to imagine it could be.”
He leaned in a little closer, and I felt his smile against the curve of my ear. “Seeing you put that gun to your head nearly gave me a heart attack,” he admitted. “But at the same time, I never loved you more. From the moment you found out the truth, you’ve been fighting for everything I always knew I should but was too afraid to reach for before I met you. That’s how I know you’re the only one who can stop the abuse we perpetrated over seventy years of well-intentioned cruelty. Not because of the virus, but because you are too stubborn and proud to settle for anything less.”
I started to say something, but then he pressed a soft kiss against the curl of hair tucked behind my ear, making my heart pound. “That is
why I love you, brave girl,” he whispered. “Because I know without a doubt that your path is the right one, and now that you’ve given me the courage to walk it with you, no one, not the Eyes or Caldswell or the Sacred King himself, will ever put me from it. Or from you, Devi Morris”—he smiled wide against my hair—“the one who gave me back my life.”
I closed my eyes tight as he finished, fighting for control. Why did he always have to be so intense? When he said things like that with his heart in his throat, how could I not believe him? Trust him? How was I supposed to remember that he was my weakness when everything he said made me feel like he was my partner, and he was going to fight beside me whether I liked it or not?
But when I opened my eyes to tell him that I’d take the damn money, so would he please step away and stop undermining my resolve to not fall head over heels for him like a ninny, a flash of light caught my eye. I was so jumpy I looked, even though I already knew what it was. With that pale glow, it could only be a phantom. But when I glanced over at the busy street, it wasn’t a phantom. It was a girl.
Maat was standing in the frozen alley not five feet away from me. She looked just like she always did, straight dark hair cut flat above her shoulders, her small, thin body wrapped in a white medical gown that didn’t even twitch in the icy wind, because she wasn’t really here. The crowd in the street passed right through her like she was a projection, but the fear in her eyes was as real and cold as the snow-crusted wall at my back.
When her lips opened, I winced, bracing for her voice in my head, but nothing came. Maat’s mouth was moving, her expression frantic, but I couldn’t hear a thing. All I could do was stare as her lips made the same shape over and over. By the time I realized what word she was trying to say, it was almost too late.
Run, Maat mouthed at me, her eyes terrified. Run!
