Down Among the Dead Page 4

  “You think we should try to escape again?” I looked around as all three women nodded, but I spotted Jagana’s ghost shaking her head at me in the corner of the room.

  “Majesty, what are you planning?” Gita asked.

  “I am considering our options.” It was a cowshit answer and we both knew it.

  “See that.” Gita pointed at me. “That makes me nervous.”

  “Wrapping me up to go toe-to-toe with guards who could kill me with a touch didn’t?”

  Gita laughed. “The only part of this I believe is that they don’t want you dead. I don’t know why, and I don’t trust that it’s for our good or the good of Indrana. But you are right that they could have killed us all at any point here and they haven’t. The question is why?”

  “Mia said she—they—needed me.” I shrugged. “And Aiz seemed to agree. They need me to get them back home so their half-human offspring can be as immortal as the others. They need me to scare some sense into the Pedalion. I don’t know.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I sat back down in my original spot. “When did my life become a vid-drama?”

  The chuckling that echoed unknotted some of the grief in my heart, and Gita sat next to me, her shoulder pressing into mine. “If it is, Majesty, that gives me some hope.”

  “Why?”

  She smiled. “Because the good people always win in the end in those vids.”

  I laughed bitterly, then turned into Gita’s embrace and wept.

  5

  The Shen who knocked on the door to our room the next evening favored me with a smile when I opened it. “Star of Indrana, I am Talos. It is a great pleasure to meet you,” he said in heavily accented Indranan. He was taller than me, by a few centimeters only, but it was a rare enough thing among Indranans and even more unheard-of among the Shen and Farians. His brown eyes were warm as he extended a bare hand to me, palm facing out.

  I studied him for a moment. “A test?”

  “A greeting,” he replied, his smile never wavering.

  I pressed my palm to his, and his smile spread as he gestured toward the doorway. Despite my wariness, my gut liked him and I smiled back.

  “I will bring you and your Dve to the Thínos for dinner. There is food coming for the rest of your companions soon.”

  “Gita is my Ekam, Talos.”

  “Of course, Star of Indrana, my Indranan is not very good. I’m sorry.”

  I followed him into the empty corridor, Gita at my side. True to her word, Mia had left us to roam as long as we had a guard, but I decided to wait a day or two before we explored just to see how serious she was about agreeing to my request.

  Talos escorted us away from our room and through another series of twisting corridors before we ended up in a softly lit room. Aiz and Mia were in quiet conversation on the far side and they turned as we came in. They were wearing the same gray clothing as both Gita and I were.

  “Thank you.”

  “Star of Indrana. Dve—My apologies. Ekam Desai. Thínos.” Talos bowed and left us alone in the room.

  “Majesty, Gita, have a seat,” Aiz gestured at the table. “We’ll talk about killing gods.” He grinned. “That’s good dinner conversation.”

  Mia rolled her eyes. “This is why no one invites you to dinner, brother.”

  “Killing gods,” I repeated, an eyebrow arched upward as I took the seat Gita pulled out. She sat on my right, between me and Aiz, and though I admired her determination to protect me, I wasn’t sure Mia was any safer.

  “When you say that, it’s a metaphor for something, right? You didn’t really fight and kill gods when you and your family came back to Faria?” I asked.

  Aiz continued to grin at me.

  I stared back for a long moment until Hao’s ghost whispered in my ear. Find out what they want, Hail. You can’t operate on zero information.

  Mia rose from her seat and poured wine into a glass, studying Gita when she waved it off and passing it along to me with a smile. “My brother is a trifle too blunt at times and incredibly obnoxious at others. However, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t kill him with that.”

  I smiled. “You heard that story, huh?”

  “Everyone has heard that story,” Aiz replied. “The great Hail Bristol, getting her revenge on the man who destroyed her family and tried to steal her throne. Killing him with the broken stem of a wineglass. It’s a thrilling tale.” He looked like Hao used to at the promise of an easy job with a high payoff. So very pleased with himself. “But my sister and I rejoiced because we knew it meant it was finally time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “Time for the Pedalion to fall. Time for the Farians’ so-called gods to meet their long overdue justice.”

  “The Farians are not the only ones with plans for the future,” Mia said. Her smile was gentle. “I meant what I said. I would like for us to be friends.”

  I passed the wine to Gita so she could scan it; as much as I was sure the Cevallas wouldn’t kill me, not scanning it seemed like an insult to Emmory’s memory.

  “It’s clean, ma’am.” She handed it back to me.

  “To friendship and victories.”

  “I don’t expect either of those things to happen, but cheers,” I replied, and took a sip, and the earthy scent of it morphed into cherries on my tongue.

  “Start talking.” I picked up my fork and dug into the plate in front of me. “Tell me why all this cowshit showmanship with the negotiations, which did nothing but put my people in harm’s way, when you could have just told me from the outset what you wanted. Tell me what the fuck is going on here and hope to whatever gods it is you follow that I believe you. Because if I don’t, I promise you that fighting gods will be the least of your worries.”

  The challenge was snarled, my anger and grief almost slipping free from the box I’d shoved them into, and I felt Gita tense at my side. Part of me was tempted to let it out, let it free to wreak the kind of havoc I knew it would. I’d kill Aiz, kill Jamison, and kill anyone else in my way. I’d burn this whole damn galaxy to the ground and then set the ashes on fire out of spite.

  Some undefinable emotion crossed Aiz’s face. “We follow no gods, Hail. We are bound by nothing outside of our own hearts and the vows we choose to make to each other. That is Shen law. Not some dogma dictated from a council lording over the masses. People pledging themselves to the cause of a greater good.”

  I watched him over the rim of my glass. In another world, we could have been friends—his words echoed so deeply in my soul—but we weren’t in that world.

  We were in my own personal Naraka.

  Aiz continued. “I realize how little my word means to you right now, but we didn’t kill your people. Don’t you realize that would be counter to our desire to enlist your cooperation?”

  “Prove it. Tell me what you want from me.” Setting my glass down, I leaned back and crossed my arms.

  The siblings shared a look, timeworn and battle-tested. It said a hundred things in the span of a heartbeat and reached an agreement without use of smati or silent coms. I’d shared that look with Hao in what felt like another life entirely. I’d seen that look passing between Emmory and Zin, and it made my heart ache to see it now.

  “The Shen have been the rebels from the beginning,” Aiz said, looking from his sister to me. “You’ve heard of our return home. How my family and others brought justice to some of those who’d enslaved us.”

  I had heard it; moreover, I’d heard it from enough varied sources that I had to admit to myself the story as I knew it was probably true.

  The Shen had been Farians who were sacrificed into the black, Farians who’d then returned and slain their gods. All but three of them. If I were to believe Adora, Aiz and his parents were the ones responsible. They would have been her parents, too, I realized.

  “I’ve heard it,” I replied.

  “We want your expertise in the fight against the Farians. You know the mercenaries we have hired. They respect you. They wil
l follow you.”

  “You are assuming an awful lot.” I blew out a breath and laughed. “But go on.”

  “And I want you to help me kill those who escaped me before.”

  My amusement fled, and Gita stiffened at my side. “You want me to help you kill gods.”

  Aiz shook his head. “The Farians call them gods. They are not gods. They are powerful beings, devious and deceptive. It will not be easy. But they can be killed.” There was no humor in his voice or his eyes. Mia’s back was straight and her gray eyes were locked on me.

  “Why do you think I am even remotely capable of succeeding where you have failed?”

  Aiz smiled and lifted a shoulder. “You are the Star of Indrana and my sister has seen you standing in triumph over our defeated enemies.” His smile vanished. “It’s why we can’t send you home. If we don’t fight, if you’re not there, we won’t win. And the light that comes after burns everything to the ground.”

  “Fight a god. They were serious about that?” Alba blinked at me as I recounted the conversation later that evening.

  “Three to be precise, or the universe goes up in flames. Though according to Aiz they’re not gods.” I tapped my palms on my knees and then pushed to my feet to pace the room. Alba sat cross-legged on a nearby bunk doing something on her smati. Gita was at the table, meticulously drying out her hair.

  “They want you to fight several beings that the Farians believe are gods.” Gita threw her hands in the air, her laugh sharp enough to draw Alba’s attention for a moment. “It’s madness. Never mind the cryptic: Something worse is coming if we fail.”

  “Something worse is always coming,” I replied, unperturbed by my Ekam’s outburst.

  “Mortals don’t fight gods, Majesty.”

  I chuckled. “You and I both know that’s not true. Not if we’re to believe the stories of our own gods.”

  “The more I hear of this, the more I think the Farians and the Shen are off the rails.” Johar was in the corner, braced against Alba’s bunk. “But then, I don’t believe in gods,” she muttered, not looking up from her work of painstakingly chipping away at the concrete wall holding the thick plastic window in place.

  “Honestly, I’m not going to get hung up on the god bit,” I replied with a shrug of my own. “Aiz may have been telling the truth there—that these are just powerful beings. Hai Ram, they’re probably unknown aliens who played themselves off as gods to the Farians. Whatever they are though, Aiz wants me to fight them and the idea holds more than a little appeal.” I sighed, raking a hand through my hair, knowing Gita was going to protest my next words. “I did what Fasé asked and tried to stay out of this fight.

  “I followed that future and all it got us was chaos and lot of dead bodies. I need to pick a side here, and even though the Farians may not have been responsible directly for what happened on Earth, they knew what was coming.” Images of Adora leaving the party filled my brain, and my hands shook with the need to hit something. “What choice do I have but to join the Shen in this fight?”

  “Majesty, no.”

  “I know it’s not ideal. Alice wasn’t ever supposed to be on the throne unless something happened to me, but now she’ll be on it whether she likes it or not. She can rule until Ravalina is of age.” Alice’s newborn daughter had become the true heir to the throne at the moment of her birth.

  “What happened to trying to escape again?” Johar asked.

  “If they won’t let you go, I say yes, keep working on it.” I shook my head. “But I won’t go with you. I’ll stay here and make sure the galaxy is safe. Or at least I’ll make sure Indrana is safe, because if we can’t trust the Farians, then I should be fighting with the Shen to stop them.”

  “You can’t trust them,” Gita protested.

  “I can trust my own eyes.” I very pointedly did not look to where Jet’s ghost was sitting on the bunk above Alba watching our discussion. “This war between the Shen and the Farians needs to stop because it will spread and it will continue to kill people. I will do what I can to stop it.” My tone was ominous enough to have everyone frowning.

  “Majesty, I can’t leave you.” Gita closed her eyes and shook her head. “Emmory will—”

  “Emmory is dead, Gita.” I hated that it got easier every time I said the words out loud.

  “You want to sell yourself in exchange for our lives.”

  “I am empress, Gita, for the moment anyway. That’s kind of the job description.”

  Jet smiled at my words. They were an echo of the ones he’d said to me once upon a time.

  “I won’t ask anyone else to die. Not when I can stop it.” If it meant my death I was okay with that also, but I didn’t think it would help my argument to say that out loud to Gita.

  “This is a horrible idea,” Gita replied.

  “The one I had that ended with Hao jumping off a building on Pluto was worse,” I replied with a bitter laugh. “I can’t deal in maybes or hope, Gita,” I replied. “I have to look at what’s in front of me, and my priorities are very clear here. Your safety. The safety of the empire.”

  “With respect, Majesty, you’re my priority.”

  “If the councils do their damn duties, they’ll declare Alice as empress once we hit the two-month mark of my absence.” I spread my hands wide. “Problem solved. I will no longer be your problem.”

  “You’ll always be my empress.” She met my look with a calm expression that kicked at the wall I’d built around my broken heart. “No matter what. You can order me to quit, I won’t. You can try to fire me. It won’t make any difference. It’s not something you or anyone else can take from me, ma’am.”

  Tears threatened to break free and I rubbed my hands over my face to hide them as I wrestled with the emotions digging their claws into the raw place in my chest. “I need you all safe,” I whispered. “After what happened, I can’t—”

  Gita got up and wrapped her arms around me, holding on even when I stiffened at the contact. “I know you do, but you can’t shut us out. You can’t sell yourself for our safety. It doesn’t work like that.”

  “How’s it supposed to work? You want me to stand here and watch you all die?” My words were muffled against her shoulder.

  “I’m not planning on dying, but yes. If it comes to that. I—we expect you to be the last person standing. We expect you to survive and to lead Indrana.” Her voice caught. “I won’t dishonor the memory of my fellow BodyGuards by leaving you alone here.” Gita pulled back, cupping my face in her hands and pressing her forehead to mine. “Do what you need to do, Majesty. I promise I won’t fight you on it as long as you let us stay. Don’t make us leave you here.”

  “It sounds like I can’t make you do anything, Ekam,” I whispered.

  “Maybe not.” Gita smiled. “I’m reasonably sure that goes both ways.”

  “Gita, I’m in.” Alba’s announcement broke us apart, and I frowned first at my chamberlain and then at my Ekam.

  “In what?”

  Alba smiled, holding out a hand, which I took. Her palm was warm and solid against mine, a reminder that I had a duty to keep them all safe that went above and beyond Gita’s comfort level.

  “When we first arrived I could see several signals on the base, Majesty,” Alba said. “They were all on lockdown, though, and two were military-grade encryption that I can’t hack.” Her fingers tightened around mine. “But I poked around at one of the smaller ones for the last month to see if I could find a way to piggyback off it. I’ve got access to their network. I may be able to find out where we are, maybe even get a signal out to Em—” She broke off, and worried at her lower lip.

  “Emmory’s gone, Alba.”

  “I don’t want to believe you, ma’am.”

  “I know. I don’t want to either, but it doesn’t change the truth of it.” I sighed, knowing I should tell Alba to leave it be and let me handle our hosts.

  “Majesty,” Gita said, leaning against the bunk. “Let us do this while you see wha
t you can learn from the Cevallas.”

  “All right.” I nodded, glancing in Johar’s direction.

  She didn’t look up from her work on the window. “You could cut my hands off and I’d still keep working on a way to get this window open.”

  “You know we can walk out the front door, right?” I replied.

  “Yeah, with a guard.”

  “Jo.” I shouldn’t be smiling, but I couldn’t help myself. “It’ll be easier to walk out the front even if we’re escaping.”

  Johar muttered a curse and turned to glare at me. “Why do you ruin all my fun?”

  6

  Tell Aiz to look at these.” Mia smiled up at Talos as she handed back the tablet. “I want all those troops ready to move out of there in the next ten standard days to the rendezvous point.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Talos nodded once and headed for the door.

  “Why can’t you fight the gods with Aiz?” I asked. “I understand the risks of you dying, but he can still bring you back from the dead if you’re killed, right?”

  “He can.” Mia watched Talos leave the room, a smile on her face. They’d interacted so much like me and my BodyGuards it was almost painful to watch. All the Shen who spoke with Mia came away with smiles on their faces, yet I could already tell there were a handful at this base she was closer to—Talos and Hamah among them. The latter stood in the doorway, ignoring Gita, who was on the opposite side.

  True to their word, most of the Shen didn’t seem to consider us prisoners even with our constant guards; however, I could pick up on the little pieces of concern that some of the others couldn’t quite hide. Gita wasn’t armed, a fact that was still a point of contention with our hosts, but I had faith that she could get Hamah’s weapon from him if the need was dire.

  Especially if he kept gripping it that tight. There was no way he could get a shot off before she’d be on him.

  And I’d be right behind.

  “But you can’t help him?” I dragged my attention away from my Ekam and back to Mia.