Stargazers

by Bella Forrest

  Harko grinned. “That’s a real shame.”

  “Harko, there’s something we need to ask you,” Bashrik urged, trying to set the conversation back on track.

  “You have my undivided attention, bro!”

  “I doubt that very much,” Bashrik murmured. “Anyway, we were wondering if you might like to have a little family reunion.”

  “Not another wedding! One laughable ceremony is enough to last me a couple of years.”

  “No, not another wedding. We’ve sprung Father out of prison.”

  Harko whistled. “Damn, Bash, when did you grow such enormous balls?”

  Stone chuckled. “I’m startin’ to like this one.” Truth be told, I was too. The only problem was, I didn’t know how much we could trust him. He seemed to have some loyalty toward his family, but, if we told him everything that had happened, there was nothing to stop him from running off to the queens with all the information. He didn’t owe us anything.

  Unbidden, Kaido’s words came back to me: “But he is family, Riley. It is my brotherly duty to look after my family if they are in need of help.” Right now, Harko’s family was in need of help. Navan, Bashrik, Jareth… they all needed this task force to be a success. I had to hope that Harko’s morals were close enough to Kaido’s.

  “Why did you break him out?” Harko wondered, with genuine interest.

  “Long story,” Bashrik replied, before launching into the basis of what we had endured. There were a few points he skipped past, like the Stargazers and Nova, but he told Harko of the immortality elixir, and the rebels, and what we were doing to fight against them. He explained all about the anti-elixir, and why were in the palace—to speak with Nisha and to steal some ingredients. “You see, we’re going to need people to administer the anti-elixir when it’s ready. For that, we want to create a citizens’ task force, a group of people who believe in the future of Vysanthe and want a fairer leadership, to ensure peace reigns across our planet. A government, so to speak. Leadership that’s of the people, for the people.”

  A mischievous grin flickered across Harko’s lips. “Rask, bro, did you come along at the right time! I’ve been looking for an excuse to blow this tired-ass job at the palace for ages, but with Gianne lopping off heads left, right, and center, I didn’t feel like losing mine, y’know? Wouldn’t look too pretty stuck up on a pike, rotting in the sun.” He shuddered dramatically. “So yeah, I’ll help you out. What are brothers for? Anyway, I probably owe you big for that vandigrade trap you stepped into. Do you remember? I told you there was a naked girl in those bushes, and off you went. I had to cut your pants off when that thing trapped you, and you had to run home naked! I’ll never forget the look on your face!” He howled with laughter, Bashrik wincing with embarrassment. Ronad was cackling away in our earpieces, and somewhere in Sarrask’s chocolate-box cottage, I knew Angie would be sensing a missed opportunity for mockery.

  “Can we please stay on topic?” Bashrik begged. “And please, no more stories. My ego can’t take it.”

  “But I have so many!”

  “Aye, and I think we’d be right interested to hear more o’ them,” Stone chirped.

  Bashrik narrowed his eyes. “No. More. Stories.”

  “Ach, yer a killjoy, Bash.”

  “What about Nisha?” I asked, wanting to relieve Bashrik of his embarrassment. “Do you know where we can find her, Harko?”

  He nodded. “She’s easy to find. Just look for all the puny coldblood guards running for their lives,” he joked. “They’re all terrified of her. Ah, blood, I remember when she first came here to join the ranks, and all the guys were acting big and tough, whistling at her and stuff. She challenged one of them to arm wrestle and damn near broke his hand off! There was no messing with her after that, let me tell you.”

  “Harko, where is she?”

  “Oh… she’s guarding a room of test subjects on one of the lower floors. Like I say, easy to find.”

  Lauren and I exchanged a look of mutual anger. Humans had been taken from Earth by Gianne’s ships, and I was willing to bet that those humans were being kept in that room. Even now, even after the race for the immortality elixir had already been won, it looked like the queens were still trying to create their own version. Rage flickered inside my chest.

  “Okay, then we go there,” Lauren said sharply. “We also need to get to the alchemy labs so we can collect the ingredients for Jareth. Are they close to one another?”

  “They’re nearby,” Ronad’s voice crackled through our earpieces.

  Harko nodded. “Yeah, not too far. Did I do something to annoy you?”

  “Not you, per se,” Lauren replied.

  “Hey, the name’s Harko, not Percy,” he joked. Lauren shot him a withering look that silenced him immediately. She really had become the queen of badassery, and I loved her for it. It looked like Stone did too, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

  “Shall we go?” Bashrik asked, moving toward the door.

  “No time like the present.” Harko leapt to his feet, shaking off Lauren’s glare. The boy was tenacious, I had to give him that.

  With him leading the way, and Ronad warning us of oncoming guards, we made our way safely down belowground. The network of hallways and tunnels was mindboggling, making me feel like I needed a ball of yarn to get back out again, Theseus-style. Every corridor looked the same, drenched in dingy lights that flickered ominously. There were doorways branching off from every angle, though Harko breezed past them all, leading us farther and farther down into the subterranean depths of Gianne’s palace.

  “Not far now,” he whispered, taking us down a narrow hallway. Pausing for a moment, he pointed toward the very end of the corridor. “It’s just around that bend.”

  Before we could take another step forward, every single one of us froze. Two familiar voices were chattering up ahead, the sound echoing off the walls until it felt like we were surrounded. The queens were coming, and we had nowhere to hide.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Ronad, we need a place to hide,” I whispered. “Now!”

  “Crap, they came out of nowhere,” he muttered in my ear. “Okay, there’s an empty room to your left. If you sneak in there, you can let them go past.”

  I turned to a warped wooden door directly beside us. Turning the handle as quietly as possible, I pushed open the door, ushering everyone inside. It was a bedchamber of some description, though it didn’t look like it had been used in months. A blanket of dust had settled over every surface, and the air was hot and stuffy. Keeping the door open just a crack, I peered out, waiting for the queens to pass by.

  “If we stay here, hiding like cowards, that gives Ezra and his band of cretins more time to come up with an antidote to the sleeping mist,” Brisha insisted, her tone frustrated. “At this current moment in time, that mist is the only thing keeping the frostfangs from our door.”

  “Yes, but if we go on the attack with our diminished forces, we are as good as dead,” Gianne replied tersely. “Have you forgotten that these ingrates are currently immortal? Did that small fact slip your mind?”

  “No, of course it did not, as you well know. I am aware of their newfound resistance to death, but they will attack us in due course. This mist will not hold them forever, Sister. And once they discover a means of avoiding it, they will charge at us with nothing but murder on their minds. Ezra does not want us captured, Gianne—he wants us dead. He wants to take up our position, and he will never be able to do so as long as one of us remains alive.”

  Gianne snorted. “I am certain he can be bargained with.”

  “Then you are a greater fool than I gave you credit for. He will never permit us to live. If anything, he shall make an example of us, to keep any royalists from rising up against him. You realize this is all that maggot’s fault, don’t you?”

  “On one thing, at least, we can agree,” Gianne replied. “I should never have trusted Aurelius. Everyone at court told me there was somet
hing deceitful about him, but I could not see it.”

  “I have been in such a position before.” A sad note tinged Brisha’s words.

  Pandora, I thought.

  “Anyway, I believe an offensive strike may be our only chance of utilizing this advantage,” Brisha went on. “Our soldiers have already placed countless rebels in the sleeping chambers, so their numbers must also be diminished. It may be our only chance to gain back ground.”

  “Diminished numbers bear no relevance when the army is immortal, Brisha. I do not think you fully comprehend the meaning of the word!” Gianne sniped. “They could have a handful of fighters and still make a dent in our forces. They could face a barrage of artillery and walk away from it as though nothing had happened.”

  Brisha grumbled. “I am aware of that, Gianne. What I am trying to say to you is, if we remain here, doing nothing, sitting on our royal behinds, then we shall never progress in this war. The rebels shall swarm down upon us, once they no longer fear the sleeping mist, and they shall kill us in our beds.”

  “Since when are you on the side of violence? I had expected you to agree with me on this, considering it is your usual means of doing things—hiding behind defenses.”

  “I understand these rebels better than you, that is all. I know that staying here will not be of any benefit, though I am loathe to cause any further bloodshed,” she explained. “Alas, in this situation, I cannot see an alternative. Ezra has left us with no choice but to attack him. Aurelius, too.”

  “I am so looking forward to getting my hands on that ungrateful worm. His shall be the last head to adorn my palace walls; you can assure yourself of that.”

  Brisha sighed. “I really wish you would take those ghastly things down. They do very little for military morale.”

  “I beg to differ. I believe they remind the soldiers of what they may face if they try to desert.”

  “Well, I think they are more likely to desert from seeing what you might do to them.”

  Gianne laughed. “You have always been much too soft, dear Sister.”

  “Says the woman who does not wish to attack these rebels.”

  “Defense is the best form of offense.”

  Brisha groaned. “That is nonsense, Gianne, and you know it. Has somebody been leaving inspirational quotes around for you again?”

  “Oh, hush, you know I am right. I can hear it in your voice.”

  “Gianne, this sleeping mist will not last. It cannot last. Already, we are running out,” Brisha said earnestly. “We must find another means of gaining back the upper hand, and if that means attacking the rebels head-on, right there on the battlefield, then we have to be ready.”

  “But why fight with entire armies when we can simply send a strike force to steal the elixir? We can remain here, defending our territory, while our soldiers retrieve a sample that we can emulate.”

  “Wait… I think I have a better idea,” Brisha said, her tone hushed.

  Gianne sighed. “Of course you do. You always have to go one better than me, don’t you?”

  “I think you will like this plan, Sister.” She paused. “The samples will be too heavily guarded. Instead, we ought to steal the alchemist who created it. He can replicate the formula for us and administer it to the populace. That way, Ezra and his rebels lose any advantage over us.”

  A gasp escaped from Gianne’s lips. “Yes… that Idrax fellow. Not the one who betrayed me, the other one. I forget his name.”

  “Lazar Idrax,” Brisha chimed in. “If we get our hands on him, we get our hands on the elixir’s formula.”

  A shudder ran up my spine at the thought of two immortal armies. The queens’ voices faded, the hallway taking them around the corner and out of sight. Releasing a breath I didn’t even know I was holding, I turned to the others. Harko appeared unfazed, but the others looked exactly the way I felt… terrified of the turn this war might take.

  “Is the coast clear?” Bashrik asked.

  I peered out into the corridor, listening for the queens’ voices. “I think so. Ronad?”

  “There is one figure in a room at the top end of the hallway, but they don’t seem to be moving. If you’re quick and you’re quiet, you should be fine.”

  “Thanks, Ronad.”

  Carefully, we opened the door wide and stepped back out into the corridor. I was still paranoid that the queens were going to come back at any moment, my gaze turned over my shoulder, just in case. Bashrik stood at the front of our group, all of us moving stealthily along the hallway. We kept our eyes peeled for Nisha, praying we wouldn’t bump into anyone else before we reached her.

  We found her a short distance away, up two more corridors. She was standing on the threshold of a cell, speaking with someone distinctly human, who was peering through the grate in the door. He sank back into the shadows as we approached, giving me the feeling that she wasn’t supposed to be talking to him. Then again, Nisha wasn’t exactly the kind of woman to do what she was told. I remembered that much from our last encounter. Honestly, she hadn’t changed one bit. She looked as grizzled as ever, standing over six feet, with scars crisscrossing her broad face, her muscular arms bulging out of a Southern Vysanthean uniform.

  Her eyes turned toward me, widening in surprise, while a nearly toothless smile spread across her mouth. “Ah, so the true rebellion has finally come, has it?”

  “Anyone would think you were expecting us,” I said, reaching out to shake Nisha’s hand. With a hearty chuckle that rumbled through her chest into mine, she pulled me into a tight embrace, clapping me so hard on the back I thought my teeth might fall out.

  Releasing me, she kept one hand on my shoulder. “Oh, I have been expecting you for a long time now,” she admitted. “Come in here, where we can speak more privately.” She gestured for us to follow her into one of the rooms opposite, though she stood in front of the door and kept it ajar, listening out for anyone who might be passing. The room was simple and bare, with a bed and a desk, and not much else. I presumed this was her guardroom, where she slept between shifts.

  “You were saying?” I urged.

  “Ever since that day at the fighting pits, when you and Navan came along to use the mountain pass, I’ve lived in hope of a better future on the horizon. I didn’t expect an all-out war, to be honest with you, but you left change in the air that day.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “I haven’t been idle, either,” she insisted. “After you left, it got me to thinking. If I wanted to see something happen, I realized I was going to have to get the ball rolling myself.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She grinned. “It might sound weird, but it’s easier to move around unseen during times of war,” she explained. “Letters can reach folks they ordinarily wouldn’t, and people are more inclined toward rebellion. Not everyone agrees with either side.”

  “You’ve sided with the rebels?” My heart jumped into my throat.

  She snorted. “Behave! As if I would side with those scumsuckers. No, I’ve been making connections of my own, forging an underground network of contacts who think the same way I do and want the same things I want. Our goal is to find a way to stop this never-ending cycle of war, once and for all,” she said quietly. “We call ourselves the Defiance. Nice name, right?”

  I nodded. “Very nice.”

  “Has the Defiance made any strikes on the crown or the rebels? Have you made any progression in stopping the war?” Bashrik wanted to know.

  “Bashrik, right?” Nisha gave him a onceover, her eyes narrowing. “Navan’s brother?”

  “How do you—”

  She snickered. “I told you, I have contacts. In answer to your question, no, we have yet to make our first move on either the crown or the rebels. In fact, we’re considering leaving this place altogether and setting up a colony on a vacant planet somewhere, letting the queens and rebels fight over Vysanthe until there’s nothing left but rubble and dust, with a throne of death to sit on.”
>
  “Well, how about you hold off on moving planets for a while?” I suggested, with a conspiratorial smile.

  “You got an alternative for me?”

  “First of all, we’re going to put an end to this immortality stuff by creating an anti-elixir,” I explained. “It’s one of the reasons we’re here in the palace, to steal some ingredients. Once a successful anti-elixir has been made, we’re going to need a lot of people to administer it to the rebels. I was hoping that might be where you come in, if you’re interested.”

  She tapped her sizeable chin. “A task force of sorts?”

  “Precisely!”

  “So, the rebels will be mortal again?”

  I nodded. “After that, you can start your colony elsewhere, or you can continue to help us and see where this planet might end up. I’ve got some really high hopes that things might turn out better than we could ever have expected.” Xiphio’s words about Seraphina entered my mind, spurring me on. If she could lead this planet to peace… man, Vysanthe might actually stand a chance.

  “Is that so?”

  “I have a few ideas in mind, though they’re in the brewing stages right now.”

  “Well, you just let me know when they’re ready to pour and I’ll see what I can do,” Nisha replied, clapping me on the back again. I jolted forward, almost losing my balance. Much more of this, and I was going to end up having an embolism.

  “Will do.” I cast her a nervous glance. “Does this mean you’ll help us?”

  “You’re damn right I will. I believe everything happens for a reason, Riley. You turning up at the fighting pits that day was no coincidence. If you think there’s a way to fix this, my contacts and I will follow you to the ends of the universe.”