Scarlet didn’t answer.
“Because the palace walls have been bleeding for years, and no one else sees it.” She shrugged, as if this were a perfectly normal thing to say. “No one believes me, but in some corridors, the blood has gotten so thick there’s nowhere safe to step. When I have to pass through those places, I leave a trail of bloody footprints for the rest of the day, and then I worry that the queen’s soldiers will follow the scent and eat me up while I’m sleeping. Some nights I don’t sleep very well.” Her voice dropped to a haunted whisper, her eyes taking on a brittle luminescence. “But if the blood was real, the servants would clean it up. Don’t you think?”
Scarlet shivered. This girl really was crazy.
“This is for you,” she said, astoundingly bright once again. “Doctor’s orders are to take one pill twice a day.” She tilted toward Scarlet. “They wouldn’t let me bring you real medication, of course, so it’s just candy.”
Then she winked, and Scarlet couldn’t tell if the wink was to indicate that the box contained candy or not.
“I’m not going to eat it.”
The girl listed her head. “Why not? It’s a gift, to cement our forever friendship.” She pulled the lid off the box, revealing four small candies nestled in a bed of spun sugar. They were round as marbles and bright, glossy red. “Sour apple petites. My personal favorites. Please, take one.”
“What do you want from me?”
Her lashes fluttered. “I want us to be friends.”
“And all your friendships are based on lies? Wait, of course they are. You’re Lunar.”
For the first time, the girl deflated a little. “I’ve only ever had two friends,” she said, then glanced quickly at the wolf. Ryu had lain down, resting his head on his paws as he watched them. “Other than the animals, of course. But one of my friends turned into ashes when we were very little. A pile of girl-shaped ashes. The other has gone missing … and I don’t know if he’ll ever come back.” A shudder ripped through her, so strong she nearly dropped the box. With goose bumps all down her arms, she set the box on the floor between them and picked mindlessly at her dress. “But I asked the stars to send a sign that he was all right, and they sent me a shooting star across the sky. The next day was a trial, like any trial, except the Earthen girl standing before me had hair like a shooting star. And you’d seen him.”
“Do you ever make sense?”
The girl pressed her hands onto the ground and leaned forward until her nose was almost touching Scarlet’s. Scarlet refused to pull away, though her breath hitched.
“Was he all right? When you saw him last. Sybil said he was still alive, that he may have been used to pilot that ship, but she didn’t say if he’d been injured. Do you think he’s safe?”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
The girl pressed her fingertips against Scarlet’s mouth.
“Jacin Clay,” she whispered. “Sybil’s guard, with the blond hair and beautiful eyes and the rising sun in his smile. Please, tell me he’s all right.”
Scarlet blinked. The girl’s fingers were still on her mouth, but it didn’t matter. She was too baffled to speak. The battle aboard the Rampion was mostly a blur of screaming and gunshots in her memory, and her focus had been on the thaumaturge then. But she did vaguely recall another person there. A blond-haired guard.
But the rising sun in his smile? Please.
She sneered. “I remember two people trying to kill me and my friends.”
“Yes, and Jacin was one of them,” she said, evidently unconcerned with the whole killing part of Scarlet’s statement.
“I guess so. There was a blond guard.”
Glee spread over the girl’s face. The look had the power to stop hearts and brighten rooms.
But not to Scarlet.
“And how did he look?”
“He looked like he was trying to kill me. But I’m sure my friends killed him first. That’s usually what we do to people who work for your queen.”
The smile vanished and the girl shriveled away, tying her arms around her waist. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do. And believe me, he deserved it.”
The girl was beginning to shake now, like she was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Scarlet decided without much guilt that if that happened, she wouldn’t do a thing about it. She wouldn’t try to help her. She wouldn’t call for the guard.
This stranger was no friend.
Across the aisle, the wolf had climbed onto all fours and was pawing at the base of his enclosure. He began to whimper.
After a few moments, the girl managed to get herself under control. Sliding the lid back onto the candies, she settled them into her basket and stood, hunching in the small cage.
“I see,” she said. “That will conclude this visit. I prescribe adequate rest and—” She sobbed and turned away, but paused before she could call for the guard. Slowly, stiffly, she turned back. “I wasn’t lying about the walls that bleed. Someday soon, I fear the palace will be soaked through with blood and all of Artemisia Lake will be so red, even the Earthens will be able to see it.”
“I’m not interested in your delusions.” A sharp, unexpected pain shot up through the arm that Scarlet was using to support herself and she crumpled to the ground, waiting for the pinpricks of pain to fade. She glared up at the girl, angry at how weak and vulnerable she was. Angry at the flash of concern in the girl’s eyes that seemed so honest. She snarled up at her. “And I don’t care for your mock sympathy, either. Your glamour. Your mind control. You people have built your entire culture on lies, and I want nothing to do with it.”
The girl stared at her for so long, Scarlet began to wish she hadn’t said anything. But keeping her mouth shut had never been a great talent of hers.
Then, finally, the girl tapped her knuckles against the bars. As the guard’s footsteps patted down the pathway, she reached into the basket and retrieved the box again. She set it down at Scarlet’s side, tucking it beside her so the guard wouldn’t see.
“I haven’t used my glamour since I was twelve years old,” she whispered, gaze piercing as if it were very important to her that Scarlet understand this. “Not since I was old enough to control it. That’s why the visions come to me. That’s why I’m going mad.”
Behind her, the bolts of the cage door clunked open.
“Your Highness.”
She swiveled on her toes and ducked out of the cage, her head lowered so that her thick hair hid both her beauty and her scars.
Your Highness.
Stunned, Scarlet lay on the ground until her tongue began to turn to chalk from thirst. As far as she knew, there was only one Lunar princess. Other than Cinder, of course.
Princess Winter, the queen’s stepdaughter.
The unspeakable beauty. The scars that, according to rumor, had been inflicted by the queen herself.
When she glanced back toward the wolf’s cage, Ryu had wandered away, toward the back of his enclosure. He had been given much more space to prowl than Scarlet, perhaps a quarter of an acre of dirt and grass, trees, and a fake fallen log that formed a quaint little den.
Sighing, Scarlet looked back up at the glass ceiling, where she could see black sky and countless stars between the tree branches. Her stomach panged, a reminder that her one small meal had been devoured hours ago, and unlike Ryu and the white stag that lived in an enclosure farther down the aisle and the albino peacock that sometimes wandered freely between them, Scarlet wouldn’t get another meal until tomorrow.
It took a long time of battling with her weakened willpower, feeling the weight of the candies beside her. She had no reason to trust that girl. She didn’t trust that girl. But after her stomach had begun to ache from hollowness and her head to spin with hunger, she gave up and pulled the lid off the box.
She pulled out one of the candies. It was glass smooth beneath her teeth. The outer shell cracked easily, giving way to a warm, melty center that burst swee
t and sour on her tongue.
She moaned and let her head fall onto the hard floor. Nothing, not even her grandmother’s prized tomatoes, had ever tasted so good.
But then, as she was working her tongue around her gums, searching out any missed bits of the candy, a tingling began to warm her throat. It expanded outward, into her chest and through her abdomen and along her limbs, all the way to her missing finger, leaving a trail of comfort in its wake.
When it was gone, Scarlet realized that it had taken her pain with it.
Fifty-Nine
It was like being drawn slowly from the serene darkness, the way one wakes up when they’ve been having a lovely dream and their subconscious is struggling to hold them there, just a little while longer. Then, with angry resignation, Kai was awake, his eyes wide-open and staring up at unfamiliar slats. The underside of a bunk bed.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking maybe he hadn’t awoken entirely yet. His chest was throbbing, and there was a nauseous twist in his stomach. He turned his head to the side and felt an ache in his neck. Reaching up, he discovered a bandage taped beneath his hairline.
But his attention was already moving on, wandering around the room. There was a tiny desk and a utilitarian closet on the other side, though the room was so small he almost could have touched them from where he lay. A dim light had been left on beside the door. The walls were metal and the slightly scratchy blanket he lay on was military brown.
Pulse speeding up, he reached for the bunk overhead to keep himself from hitting his head as he swung his legs over the side. His feet landed on the uncarpeted floor with a thunk and he was surprised to discover he was wearing shoes.
Dress shoes.
And dress slacks.
And his wedding shirt and sash, now wrinkled and untucked.
Great stars. The wedding.
Mouth suddenly dry, Kai lurched out of the bed and stumbled toward the small window. He pressed his hands to either side. His stomach dropped in unison with his jaw.
Great stars indeed. He’d never seen so many in all his life, and never so bright. It gave him a strange sensation of vertigo, like he should have been looking up into the night sky, but the gravity was all wrong. Where was the horizon to orient himself? A cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he pressed his cheek to the wall, trying to peer as far down as the small window would let him, and then—
Earth.
Kai shoved himself away from the wall. He nearly fell over, but caught himself on the upper mattress of the bunk. His heartbeat clanked and shuddered.
Mysteries began to click together in his muddled brain. Cinder. A knife. The bandages on his wrist and neck—his tracking chips. Wasn’t the chip in his neck supposed to be top secret? And a gun, or something embedded in her hand. The lingering sting beside his sternum.
Had she shot him?
Raking a hand through his hair, he turned and wrenched open the door.
He found himself in a narrow hallway, more brightly lit than the room had been. At the far end it opened up into a kitchen of sorts. He could hear voices coming from the other direction. Pulling his shoulders back, he marched toward them.
The hall opened into a huge metal room, cluttered with plastic storage crates. Through a doorway he saw the lights and instruments of a cockpit, and another breathtaking view of Earth.
Two people were seated in the cockpit chairs as he approached.
“Where’s Cinder?”
They spun to face him and the girl launched herself to her feet. “Your Majesty!”
The man, a huge grin spreading over his face, was slower to stand, first grabbing a cane from against the wall. “Welcome aboard the Rampion, Your Magesticness. Captain Carswell Thorne, at your service.” He bowed.
Kai scowled. “Yeah, I recognize you.”
“You do?” The man’s smile grew wider and he nudged the girl with his elbow. “He recognizes me.”
“Where’s Cinder?”
The girl swayed nervously on her heels. “I believe she’s in the podship dock, Your Majesty.”
Kai turned and marched out toward the cargo bay, and yelped.
Another man was sitting cross-legged on top of a packing crate, shirtless, with a needle in one hand, a thread in his mouth, and a pile of bloodied bandages beside him. His torso was marred by numerous wounds and scars, both old and new. He had a black tattoo stamped on his left arm.
Pulling the needle through a gash on his chest, he let the thread drop from his mouth, and nodded. “Your Majesty.”
Choking on his heart, Kai found himself anchored to the floor, expecting the man to leap at him and maul him to death at any moment. He hadn’t yet seen one of the queen’s wolf soldiers in person, but he’d seen plenty of vids. He knew how fast they were—how deadly.
But after an awkward, silent moment, the man simply returned his attention to his wound.
“Um. Your Majesty?”
Starting, he whipped his gaze back to the blonde girl.
“Would you like me to take you to the podship dock?”
He forced his hands to unclench, reminding himself that he was the ruler of the Eastern Commonwealth and would behave accordingly, even among criminals and monsters.
“Thank you,” he gasped. “That would be appreciated.”
* * *
Cinder chewed on her lower lip while she twisted the wires together, fastening them with a wire connector. “All right, try that.”
Iko, flat on her back, cast her gaze downward, then tilted her head to the left. Her eyes brightened and she tried to the right, daring to test the full range of motion. She beamed. “It works!”
Cinder tapped her chin with the end of the fuse pullers. “There’s still a little bit of a bend in that third vertebrae, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. We’ll just have to wait until we can find a replacement piece. Try your fingers again.”
Iko wiggled her fingers, then her toes. She lifted her legs until they were perpendicular to the floor, then kept going so that she was practically kissing her knees. Letting out a yelp of delight, she flipped forward, using the momentum to spring up onto her feet. “It works! It all works!”
“Iko, knock it off!” Cinder scrambled up beside her. “I still need to—”
Before she could finish, Iko pulled her against her bosom, squeezing and swaying and trembling with joy.
An android. Trembling with joy.
“You’re the best mechanic an android could ever ask for.”
“Say that when you don’t have an enormous gaping hole in your throat,” Cinder said, prying herself out of the embrace.
Iko checked her reflection in the window of the podship and flinched. The paneling from the top of her throat to her sternum was flayed open to give Cinder access to her internal workings. Her central processor, wiring, and mobility mechanics were on full display.
“Oh, yuck,” said Iko, trying to cover the hole with both hands. “I hate when my wiring is showing.”
“I know the feeling.” Cinder pulled a pair of pliers off the wall’s magnetic strip. “Come here. I’ll see if I can bend some of that external paneling back into place. A lot of your skin fibers are beyond repair, so it’s not going to be perfect, but it’s all I can do right now. You might have to wear turtlenecks for a while.”
Sighing, Iko came to stand beside Cinder. “Figures that as soon as Captain Thorne brings home this marvelous body for me, those stupid Lunars go and ruin everything.”
Cinder smirked. “Stop talking for a minute while I do this.”
Iko impatiently tapped her fingers against her hips while Cinder warped the external paneling into something that resembled the shape of a clavicle.
Behind her, the door hummed open. “Here she is, Your Majesty.”
Cinder stiffened, the pliers still clamped on to Iko’s paneling. She heard footsteps and then Iko screeched and shoved Cinder and her tool away. “Don’t let him see me this way!” she yelled, diving behind the podship.
Gulping
, Cinder tucked the pliers into her back pocket and slowly turned around. Kai’s gaze was dark as it swooped over her to the podship—and Iko’s legs beneath it—to the tool chests and power cords fastened to the walls, before landing on Cinder again.
Cress and Thorne hovered curiously by the door.
“You’re awake,” she stammered. Then, realizing that was a stupid thing to say, she attempted to stand straighter. “How do you feel?”
“Kidnapped. How should I feel?”
She rubbed her wrist, tempted to call up a glamour to disguise her cyborg hand. Which was also stupid, of course. And besides, it was something Levana would have done.
“I was hoping maybe you’d feel well rested?” she said, attempting a weak smile.
She was met with no reaction. No smile. No chuckle. Not even a flicker of humor.
She pressed her lips together.
“We need to talk,” said Kai.
Thorne let out a slow whistle. “No one ever likes to hear those words.”
Cinder glared at him. “Thorne, why don’t you go give Iko a tutorial with the cockpit controls?”
“Excellent idea,” Cress chirped, nudging Thorne back out the door. “Come on, Iko.”
Iko was still hiding, hugging herself self-consciously. “Is he looking?”
Kai raised an eyebrow.
“He’s not looking,” said Cinder.
A hesitation. “Are you sure?”
Cinder gestured exasperatedly at Kai. “You’re not looking.”
He cast his eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, for all the stars.” Crossing his arms, he turned his back on them.
Cinder waved at Iko. “All clear. We’ll finish that up … later.”
Braids bouncing, Iko darted to join Cress and Thorne in the hallway. “I’m so happy to see you’re all right, Your Majesty!” she called to his back.
As the door slipped shut, Iko flashed Cinder an encouraging thumbs-up.
And then they were alone.
Sixty
“I can’t believe you kidnapped me!” Kai yelled, spinning back to face her before Cinder could brace herself. “We’re on a spaceship, Cinder. In space!” He pointed at the wall. It wasn’t actually an exterior wall, but Cinder didn’t feel the need to point that out. “I can’t be on a spaceship. I have a country to run. I have people who need me. We are on the verge of a war. Do you understand that? War. Where people die. I cannot be up here, messing around with you and your band of misfits! Do you even know that you are housing one of her mutants up there?”
Cress Page 43