"What's your point?" he asked.
"Other than the fact that you put too high a value on possessions? A reality check for both of us, I guess." Tears threatened. "I'm so tired, so unbelievably tired." She closed her eyes and fought for control.
His arms wrapped around her. "It's hard for everyone. It has been for a while, now." He cleared his throat. "The Zar got harsher since Guerreterre destroyed Latawba. He lost his famil-"
"He only lost a brother, who he rarely saw.” She gave Preston a significant look. “I lost Gornt and everything that was good about Dalf." Her jaw tightened as she looked toward the water, which covered the deeper levels of her home and hid her secret from the world. "For all purposes and standards, I lost Dalf, too. Now, all I have is you and it is rare to see you. The Zar still has Brock and Annya and his niece, Marsha, too. They all live with him, so he sees them whenever he wants, so, don't you dare try to tell me about The Zar's loss. There’s no comparison."
Preston studied her face. "Caring for Dalf is too much for you. Eventually will you let me recl-"
"Never," she said. She would never allow him to hide the fact he’d done one decent thing in his miserable self-centered life. They’d saved Dalf and she would care for him as long as she lived.
As Preston hugged her; his thin arms felt like thin ropes and failed to give the security Gornt’s strong embraces had. “You’re exhausted because caring for him takes too much.”
Raine pushed away from him. "I know he's not really my son. I know he's more animal than anything, but he's all I have."
"What about Shay?"
Coldness gripped her heart. "What about her?"
"Whenever I see her, she complains that you-"
"Marsha's maid is not my little sister." She was merely the orphan their parents had taken in.
"Sure looks like her to me."
"The eyes and face are the same." Unwilling to get into this discussion for the hundredth time, she turned her back on him.
"Raine-" Preston choked back whatever else he'd intended to say.
Since Shay had entered into Marsha's service at the Pinnacle, their adopted sister had changed from an adorable, sweet girl into an egotistical dolt, who acted worse than Preston. If that wasn't bad enough, she’d fallen in love with Brock Vole d'Laire and was making such a fool of herself over him that Raine had heard pilots making jokes about her.
Shay was even naïve enough to believed the future planetary lord cared for her in return. Raine's mouth flattened. Shay would be lucky if Brock recognized her after he finished satisfying his carnal desires. Within two years, he would bond with his cousin, Marsha, and thus assure the strength of the imperial bloodline, as had all the generations before him. If Shay was lucky, she’d be banished to live out the remainder of her life toiling the marshes in disgrace; but more likely her nutrients would be recycled to fertilize the crops, so that no evidence remained of Brock’s dalliance with a servant.
How she despised the Reclamation Unit! The memory of the day her mother retired slammed into Raine’s memory. The Vole d'Laires squeezed every drop of value out of a worker; if the individual wasn't worked to death by their fortieth birthday, when the person's good years were past, then, on that day, their useful elements were salvaged and the remains were turned into fish food.
Their word: retirement.
Her word: murder.
How could Shay be so stupid about her choices and delusions?
Eyes closed, Preston sighed and seemed focused on his breathing. Was he remembering the day they lost their mother, too? She watched his fisted hands unclench. Raising her gaze, she noticed that the tiny wrinkles next to his eyes appeared smoother. This wasn't her brother, this was The Zar's physician, the man the Vole d'Laires counted on.
As if sensing her watching him, he raised his head and locked his gaze on her. "You truly believe Shay is courting disaster?"
Good pun. Too bad he didn't get it. Raine held in the harsh laugh. "You're there, watching it. Can't you see it?"
"It's her life," he said. "Shay is old enough to choose. If she makes the wrong choices, she will be the one to pay." He shrugged.
"How typical,” Raine spat. “Let your kid sister do whatever she wants as long as you don't have to pay for her mistakes."
He looked at her as if she was one of his lab experiments. "I don't think you ever forgave Shay for endearing mother and moving in.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You liked being the pampered one.”
“Oh, for the lov-“
“Of course, you eventually learned to care for the kid, too, but then she grew up and followed me to The Pinnacle, instead of you into the void.”
“That’s ridiculous.” As ridiculous as the thought that being last-born was a pampered position. Raine clenched her teeth, unwilling to respond to the bait.
“Is it?” Preston’s smile was icy. “I don't think she ever forgave you for bonding below-"
"Gornt was not a lesser being. He had ten times your strength. And twenty times your compassion."
"I think Shay's infatuation with Brock has its roots in the embarrassment over you and your beloved bakufus."
"Stuff kelp in it." Though she kept her tone surly, she shifted uneasily at the idea that Shay's fatal fixation on the future overlord could have been caused by her actions. The one thing she had never understood was why Marsha seemed to ignore the obvious attraction.
"Only if you take a strong look at what you've done and your motives. Why did you bond with Gornt? Surely you weren't that desperate for a mate."
"Gornt was intelligent and good company." He had been her best friend. Her only true friend.
"Which can explain a friendship, but a bonding?"
"He'd lost his mate and needed help raising Dalf. Plus, Gornt was the best mechanic I've ever known and he kept Nambaba in perfect operating order."
"You like being needed," he said. "Is that why you brought home an injured enemy? Is that why you expect me to be happy over this 'wonderful opportunity'?" Preston's tone was laced with phony sympathy. His expression hardened. "Is that why you insisted on saving the kid? So you would be needed by something?"
Raine stared at him, wondering why he kept pushing her after she’d told him how tired she was. "Go throw yourself in the Sea of Doom, but only after you move the warrior off my table." He reached into the folds of his ornate robe, brought out the lifting ball and tossed it to her. She turned and took a step toward her front door.
“The levitation pin is with his clothes. You can return them to me, later.”
“Thanks.” She turned away from him and went toward her home. "I'll go nurse my new slave." Raine felt a slight undulation under her feet. She didn't need to look back to know his long-legged stride was catching up to her.
"Come back here and-"
"You and Shay live in The Pinnacle’s luxury where high-placed maids have assistants.” Her jaw clenched at the memory of her last visit and how inferior her home seemed afterward. She squared her shoulders. “You delude yourselves with visions of power and prestige. Those kinds of misconceptions always carry the price of death." That truth was the only thing that helped her get through the days after experiencing such pampering.
"I think you're jealous."
Raine paused and looked back at him. His face was bathed in the ominous red glow of Vilecom's setting light. A shiver rushed over her. "In a way I am." Rained turned to look at him in time to see his look of surprise at her easy agreement. "You take your life for granted and have freedom and privilege the rest of us can't even imagine. But I do not want your life or to live in a place where fifty strangers constantly watch my every move." Raine focused on a throbbing portion, which was visible under his wave-crest neck-collar, with its golden healer insignia. She gestured toward it, "You criticize me because I want to help others, yet that was the reason you originally chose medicine." His fingers touched the emblem, as if surprised it heralded his primary function.
"You amaze me. You decide to go for glory and finding new ways to end life, yet you still wear the healer insignia."
"I earned this."
She tightened her fingers around her own wave collar. "And I earned this." Even though she hated it and everything it stood for. She especially hated the Vole d'Laires. "The Zar must think we're all fools for being taken in by baubles. All these bands are good for is to tell us that we are special slaves.” But only those special enough to live at The Pinnacle benefited. “These collars give him the right to demand more from us.”
Preston nodded. “Longer hours, but more interesting work, better food and silks.” He caressed his robe.
“Responsibilities that if not completed to his satisfaction mean death.” Her brother winced. “It doesn’t matter what made the task impossible, he’ll call any explanation an excuse and then point the way to the recycling chamber.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“Are you certain?” He opened his mouth to say something, but no sounds came out. Raine pressed her point. “Think about how you got your illustrious position.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“What did your promotion cost D'nor and his family?” Raine watched his eyes shift as he thought about the circumstances, which had taken his superior's life and given him the position he felt so arrogant about. “Was his life worth that gaudy robe?”
Preston chewed his lower lip as if eating unsaid words.
Raine relented a bit. “So maybe, we'll get a second or two extra if … no make that, when, The Zar decides we're no longer useful." She looked him in the eye. "The only ones who die of old age are the Vole d'Laires and maybe the bakufus who disappear into the wild seas." Deaf and blind Dalf would never have that chance at pure freedom. She clamped her jaws together, lest the lump in her throat reveal itself.
"I know you haven’t liked the Winslow Vole d'Laire or his family since losing Gornt." Preston's tone was placating. Raine crossed her arms over her chest. "But he's a good man."
Her fury boiled. "The Zar gives us emblems so we'll work ten times harder than we did before, but we don't get the things we really want." Again, she clamped her jaws shut and tried to calm her thundering heart. "Have you ever known anyone to actually achieve nobility status or gain their freedom?"
Preston's eyes widened. "No."
"That's because no one ever has and no one ever will." Raine snapped her mouth shut before she could blurt out more seditious thoughts, which if whispered in the right ear, would mean instant death.
Preston tilted his head to look at her. "Is freedom so important to you?" His incredulous tone surprised her.
"Everyone should be free." It was the main thing, which had first attracted her to Gornt.
He pulled at his ear. "Would any of us know what to do without someone to test our skills and abilities, then direct us how to study?”
“Wouldn’t you have liked the opportunity to find your path by yourself?
He shook his head. “The Vole d'Laires perfected their sorting methods over a millennium and know what is best."
"Before they came, our ancestors were free," Raine said.
"And starving," he shot back. She looked away from him. "You can't look back at the past and only acknowledge the parts you approve of. You have to see the whole. Before the Vole d'Laires came here to rule, Kalamar was a frozen world inhabited by illiterate masses."
"Twaddle. I'll grant you that the ice caps were huge, but the bakufus who lived in the oceans were not stupid."
Preston's lips thinned. "The Vole d'Laires promised warmth and food in return for allegiance. Are you saying they haven’t lived up to their part of the bargain?"
She shook her head. "Perhaps it was a fair trade a millennium ago, but can you honestly say you still believe it is?" Would her ancestors have made the pledge if they'd known all future generations would be born into bondage?
"What are you really upset about?"
If he didn’t understand, he never would. "Everything," she said. As he waited for her to clarify her statement, silence began to stretch like the reflection of Vilecom's final vermilion rays. Strange how it looked more sinister from her home water than in space. Raine shivered and tried to rub circulation back into her arms, but with every heartbeat, the blood red seemed to cover more of her world. The moon seemed to become a menacing face.
"I came when you called," Preston softly said. "And I tended your new 'slave'."
"Yes, you did."
"And even though you didn't tell me why you needed me, I came."
"I'm sorry for what I said,” Raine said. “I really am happy that you've been so successful."
"All three of us have come farther than we ever believed we would."
"Are you angry because I've put you in jeopardy?"
"What do you mean?"
Raine gestured to her home, which held the warrior and Dalf within, then to Nambaba, with its droid cargo. "First you helped me save Dalf, now the warrior. If any Vole d'Laire finds out, we'll be executed."
"Not if the tox works." He sounded impossibly confident.
Spirit, was her brother that dumb? "If the tox works, you are dead. Winslow Vole d'Laire will not share glory with a slave." Preston's distressed look made her wish she'd stayed quiet.
"Winslow might claim the formula, but he won't kill me." Preston's voice lacked conviction.
She looked him in the eye. "Think back to the exact chain of events that lead up to D'nor’s disappearance. Did they ever find his body?" she asked.
Preston swallowed and refused to meet her gaze as he shook his head.
"Did you find any proof that he'd really moved off planet, as Winslow Vole d'Laire claimed?" Preston took a step away. Raine grabbed his arm. "Don't you find it interesting that a few days after he vanished, Vole d'Laire, our all-powerful and capable Zar, went to his own lab and discovered xamahas? I personally found Yeeehoohaaaa interesting, especially since I knew D'nor had spent decades trying to find just the right gas to use as a vehicle for air-borne toxins." Raine hated to make him relive his panic over the loss of his beloved mentor. Preston fought to maintain a neutral expression, but the tic next to his eye gave him away. "Don’t you realize that you're dealing with a far worse dragon than I am?" she asked softly.
"You think working in my lab is worse than herding dragons?"
"They don't kill us, we kill them." His shocked expression was comical. "Only when necessary, of course. Some will not be tamed, so we have to kill them. You don't need to look so surprised. We don't make the choice. The Zar makes it. His philosophy is that if they can't be controlled, they shall be killed – they and any offspring."
"But the eepyllihg!" He glanced at Vilecom. Its red glow stained his face.
"He can afford to lose some mooncalves, but not to another moon or sun, where someone might learn the secret formula and go into competition against him." Raine shrugged. "Besides, when there's less eepyllihg to sell, he charges more per unit. Believe me, it doesn't cost him anything. Life – all life, except his own – is irrelevant to him." She silently watched her brother's expression while her meaning clarified. He shook his head, as if he'd just come to the surface after a very deep dive.
"How do you learn these things?"
"I watch and listen."
He looked around their isolated location. She decided not to point out that several people, particularly nobles, seemed to assume radio transmissions were private.
"Do you have a plan to overthrow his dynasty?" Preston's voice cracked. "Something to do with that warrior?"
Where had that idea come from? It was so ludicrous that she nearly laughed in his face. "Why bother? We're all going to die within this generation anyway."
"What do you mean by that?"
Raine pointed to Vilecom’s setting arc. "Ever since the first Vole d'Laire brought that moon to this system, it's been spiraling closer and closer to our planet. The rate it is falling is increasing. If something isn't done about
it, it will soon be close enough to be caught in our gravitational pull and we will all die."
"How would you know?"
"I've been up there every day for most of my life. I know what I'm seeing on my instruments."
"And you never told anyone?"
"I told my superiors," Raine said.
"You should have told me."
She nearly laughed. "Why? I was told that our all-powerful Zar would take care of it.” She took a deep, calming breath. “He hasn't.” She didn't believe he would if he could. “When he finishes milking our planet of everything possible, he'll abandon us to face our death while he finds a new world to rule."
"That's outrageous," he said.
"Perhaps.” She shrugged. “But it's also true."
"You have no proof."
"Don’t I?” She asked. Preston shook his head. She nodded. A confused look crossed his normally taciturn features. “Answer this question: why did Winslow Vole d'Laire begin storing his excess wealth off planet a decade ago?"
"How would you know where his wealth is?" Preston demanded.
Raine raised an eyebrow. "Pilots talk.” She smiled. “And we overhear lots of interesting things." Preston rubbed his forehead. “Think about it, if you spent half your time up there,” she pointed, “with dragons, which have been taught their place and routine for a millennium, don’t you think you’d try to find ways to relieve the tedium?”
“By spying on Winslow Vole d'Laire?”
“By watching patterns.”
He blinked, as if assimilating what she’d told him. "Do you have some sort of plan to save our family?” His eyes widened and he glanced at her home. “Is that why you captured the warrior?"
No, but she needed to now that he’d brought up the idea. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe."
"Oh, Spirit! What is it?" She shook her head. His eyes widened. "Do you plan to tell him our battle strategies and release him?" he asked. She raised a brow. "Granted that would get even with Winslow for declaring war and ruining you life, but-"
Thunder Moon: Book 2 of the Chatterre Trilogy (Chatterre Triology) Page 11
