by s. Behr
My stomach threatened to unleash another round of bile when I saw the first of the rescuers begin to appear along the shoreline and in the devastated market. My eyes searched, hoping I wouldn’t find the deep blue skin of the little girl who loved her catfish.
The screen split into four camera views, forcing my gaze to flit from one frame to the other. The first frame stayed on the village where many people I recognized as Neyr citizens combed through the debris, searching for survivors beneath the fronds and broken walls. Suddenly, I saw rescuers pull Raya from the wreckage. I held my breath as I waited for her to show signs of life. When she sat up, looking dazed, I squeezed my eyes tight with relief, only to be greeted with grief as I saw the little girl screaming while a transporter whisked her parents away. My heart broke as she cried, when a pink-haired girl appeared and disappeared with Raya.
“Wait!” I gasped, wanting to know what happened to her, but I remembered that this was hours ago.
My gaze drifted to the next frame showing the beachfront. Three transport hovers slowed for a landing side by side, and I saw the team from the Hg-1, headed up by Lance, jumping from our hover a dozen feet above the sand. They hit the ground running. Lance sprinted down the only pier still intact. While the others in his team were still twenty paces behind him, Lance jumped off the end, diving straight for a group of people who were flailing their arms trying to stay above the water.
I lost sight of the team as the hovers landed, and I saw myself emerge. I was mortified to see that I just stood there as everyone around me seemed to know what to do, how to help.
Transporters began popping in, dropping healers all around me as I walked into the ocean.
The third screen must have been mounted on the pier because when the hovers lifted off again, my attention split between the two. Both showed Lance back at the pier with his team pulling people out of the water one by one. Francesca had a small body in her arms and ran down the pier as fast as she could. The giant William followed her, carrying two full-sized men, one over each shoulder, as he kept pace with Francesca. When they got halfway down the pier, a transporter with pink hair appeared, touched them both, and all the bodies with her vanished.
The final screen was clearly mounted to a buoy out in the water as its camera bobbed while slowly panning in a 360-degree view of the chaos.
Willow continued to call the scene as it unfolded on all of the screens, and I stood watching, feeling just as helpless as I did then while so many others jumped into action without fear or hesitation.
Breaches and glowing bodies began appearing in the sky as legions of ocean dwellers from all three realms dove like hail from a storm into the water. I saw the glacier blue of King Vale with both Nyssa and Gage leading the way while Reyna with her mother Queen Delta followed closely behind.
“King Laurence of Maie has reached the Pelham Village Biosphere. His sons, Prince Benji and Prince Adam were reported to be by his side when they left Chrysler Tower. Princess Alana I have learned has been taken back to the Capital Biosphere. Queen Augusta was said to have traveled with her. We don’t have confirmation yet on the extent of damage to Pelham Village Biosphere.
Willow continued to report as the next wave of rescuers arrived with transporters dropping guards with shield abilities to the water. They landed on the surface, creating shield barriers to stand on flattening the water around them like a floating glass island on as they began directing victims to swim to them.
Then, the third explosion rocked everything once again as The Rise, the largest Neyr tour boat docked at the mouth of the harbor, split in two while the center sent a volley of shrapnel toward rescuers and victims alike. I watched as the video from the buoy slowed and enlarged.
“Barton!” I gasped. I saw him standing on the water, his arms spread out to cast his invisible net of energy as fragments of the boat hurtled toward him. Hundreds of shards crashed into the wall of energy splintering even more.
When the wave of debris fell into the water, he lowered his arms, seemingly sure he had blocked it all, but at the top of the screen, a sliver of metal glinted in the air.
The Exan Prince was so preoccupied with searching the water, he didn’t even see it coming. I held my breath as he finally looked up. He tried to pull up his shield to block the shard, but he was too late. The metal pierced him through his hands, and I screamed just as his face contorted in a violent roar of pain.
Blood sprayed Aspen as she had suddenly appeared. Her face sharpened with terror as she saw Barton’s neck. The tip of twisted metal had lodged under his skin, slicing his jaw, blood spurting down the side of his face. She pressed her hand against the wound to slow the bleeding. Then they vanished, leaving behind the blood spreading in the water.
Grief, anger, and rage filled my stomach as the four cameras continued to show dizzying chaos, but I forced myself to watch and witness.
Soon the rest of the kings and queens began to appear. The Cana King Siku, Camelia’s father, jumped into the middle of the chaos from a hover and created a floating island of ice. Dozens of rescuers and victims who could still swim began piling rescues onto the ice as Queen Helena, Aspen and Clark’s mother appeared and disappeared with dozens of people at a time.
From the pier’s edge, Queen Leda lifted her arms, and the remaining halves of the boat targeted in the third explosion rose from the water. By her side, King Lindstrom drained the water faster than it could empty on its own, but then I saw what he was truly aiming for. Twenty or so lifeless bodies floated in the air toward the pier, where healers stood by and waited to see if any could be saved.
At that moment, I saw myself vanish as the pink-haired transporter touched my shoulder, and the wave of anger I felt earlier at being banished returned.
Willow continued her report. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first attack on Ameran soil in our history. I am Willow Dane reporting to you live here in Hattan City. Phoenix Prince Regent Leo heads up the relief center here in Empire Tower and has confirmed at the latest count sixty-six dead and one hundred ninety-four injured. Exan Prince Barton Bowie is in critical condition. We will keep you posted as soon as we have more information on his recovery. All other courts are beginning to report in. So far, all members are well and accounted for. The Neyr Princess was seen being taken back by the royal transporter of Phoenix. She has not been seen since.”
I squeezed my wrist, and the screen went dark. I couldn’t watch any more.
At some point, Ameli had come and urged me to shower and change. She put me to bed, and I lay there thinking of all that useless misery. I didn’t understand how the TSA could do this.
How anyone could.
Lost in the memory of destruction and dreams, I barely noticed when Lily slipped into bed beside me. This was the first time she had stayed the night since we were kids.
“How is your family?” I asked Lily, her round, blue eyes red and puffy.
“My mother is with the team finding fosters for the children whose parents are in the healing center or…” She swallowed, not finishing her sentence. “My father is helping find homes for all the people who have to be relocated from Heart’s Cove. My brothers were out of the realm. They are on their way back from Exa now. Have you heard from your parents?”
I realized she had no idea what was happening with my family. I closed my eyes and said, “They won’t be home for a while. Lights dim,” I ordered, my voice quiet and weary.
We lay there in silence and near darkness until I felt my best friend shaking by my side. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight as she sobbed. When the tears slowed, Lily took a deep breath.
“Do you think Penelope is okay?”
I tried and failed to picture the human’s wide, beautiful smile instead of her floating lifeless in the air. “I hope so. But I don’t know anything more than what you probably already know.”
Lily cuddled up to Jane. “I… I don’t know anything. I tried to find out, but they wouldn’t tell me.” Her lip tremb
led. “Should we go over there?” she asked.
I stared at my friend who by all accounts had not lived a sheltered life. She was raised by the first general, and I knew his best talent was being prepared. He would have expected no less from his daughter. But seeing her like this, I realized no one in Amera would have been prepared for an attack of this magnitude. Something like this was theory; a bedtime story of what could happen if the Hg-1 ever tried to take back Amera. We were so busy worrying about the Hg-1 we rarely thought of anyone else out there in the world, let alone someone capable of this.
“We should wait until morning,” I answered, my teeth grinding.
A fire inside me began to smolder as I fed it my anger. Anger for being sent to my room, locked in this tower, helpless while all the others were out there doing what they could. Anger became rage for knowing there was nothing I could have done to help even if I had been out there. And my rage became fury for those responsible for this savagery.
As my friend trembled in my arms, I tried to snuff out the growing flame as I pulled Lily into a hug, and Jane settled blissfully ignorant between us.
“People are still fighting for their lives tonight. I would only get in the way.”
And with those words I vowed, one day soon that would no longer be true.
“Are you awake yet?” I heard Lily ask as my eyes fluttered open.
I didn’t remember falling asleep. The dim light of dawn was barely a shimmer on the horizon, but I knew by the look on Lily’s face she had been waiting for as long as she could for me to wake up.
“Yes. Let’s go see Penelope,” I said as Lily practically pulled me out of bed and threw clothes at me as if we were racing to see who could change the fastest.
Before I even finished buttoning my sleeve, Lily yanked me out the door and to the hover bay. We headed to Empire Tower before the sun had brightened enough to wink out a night star.
Lily was quiet, her fingers pressed against her chin. “Thorns!” she finally snapped. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”
“We are going at the appropriate speed,” the com answered her, reminding me that I needed to pick Hailey up as soon we had checked on Penelope and everyone else.
When we arrived, the hover stopped at the doors, and we scrambled out.
“Where do you think they’re keeping her?” Lily asked.
I had spent hundreds of afternoons shadowing my mother around the different healing wings. But there was one section I was usually not allowed in, and if I had to guess, that was exactly where Penelope would be.
“The isolation suites,” I said grimly.
“That’s what I thought. But it can’t be that serious, can it? Queen Catalina wasn’t injured,” Lily said, concerned.
“Queen Catalina can turn into a ball of energy. Her body doesn’t play by the same rules. But I wasn’t thinking about Penelope’s injuries; I was thinking of her security.”
“I agree. That’s what my father would have done,” Lily said as she twisted the ends of her hair in her fingertips.
When Empire and Chrysler Towers were first built, they had opened only eleven months apart, but they were more than four-hundred-foot difference in height. After each had been reclaimed, many of the upper floors in Empire couldn’t be saved and were outfitted for design rather than function, making the two towers nearly the same height. Only the canopy of the outer tree varied, making Empire the taller of the two. Within the towers, however, the floor-by-floor structures were the same, seventy-seven floors including the layouts of both the King’s Palace within Chrysler and the Queen’s Palace within Empire being nearly identical.
“This way,” Lily said, suggesting we use the Private Royal Family Lift as it would bypass security protocols because this palace, although not in use, was in title my home as well.
“Queen’s Palace, Level One. Authorization, Princess Violet,” Lily said as she held up my wrist and waved it around as the doors closed.
“That won’t make it go any faster,” I said flatly.
“Sorry.”
“Why the Palace?” I asked her, rubbing my wrist.
“Well, the delegation has been staying there. They were moved to lower levels last night, so the security has been changed back to normal, but even with your status as a princess, you won’t have access to the isolation suites. But when your dad is the General of Defense for the city and the realm, occasionally you see things he would rather you didn’t. In this case, I found plans for ancient stairs that began renovations at the end of last year. Even if the project isn’t completed, it’s probably still safe enough for us to get where we need to go.”
I studied Lily’s face. Her eyes were shadowed with dark circles. I had never seen her like this, and looking at her now caused guilt and worry to coil in my chest.
“When did you have time to figure all of this out?”
Pulling me along, she shrugged. “I was restless, so I did a little light research.”
I frowned, but understood. “Okay, but how does that get us where we need to go?” I asked. I was still not sure how we would get by security.
“You may have princess clearance, but I have project manager clearance,” she said as she narrowed her eyes.
“How? Nope, I don’t want to know.” I closed my eyes with a sigh. It was either too early or too late for this—I wasn’t sure which.
“No, you don’t, plausible deniability.” She winked.
“I think we’re well past that.”
“You don’t know how I got it. I can take the heat for the rest. I know the person in charge of reprimands.” The doors slid apart, and the Queen’s Palace opened before us.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but knowing the layout didn’t prepare me for the rows and rows of beds laid out neatly across what would have been the family great room. The decadent hall with tall ceilings, gilded in silvers and golds became nothing more than a backdrop to the quiet groans of the people in the beds with healers by their sides and volunteers wandering between them all, changing out fresh linens and giving cups of water to both the injured and the healers.
Lily and I went unnoticed as everyone worked or slept, some nearly on their feet from exhaustion. Our day had just started, but their yesterday never ended.
Before I could enter the hall and see if my mother was around, Lily pulled me to a darkened corner of the lobby. With a wave of her wrist, a panel opened, and a set of new stairs spiraled both up and down. The smell of the newly polished wood filled the air.
“Looks like they just finished,” Lily whispered. “We’re lucky this pass still works.”
“Why don’t we just find them using the regular stairs?” I asked.
“Shh. I don’t know if the monitors have been activated.” She led me down the first flight of stairs at a slow, precise tiptoe. We reached the landing. As I turned to take the second set of steps, I bumped into Lily, not realizing she had stopped.
“I lost her, Vi. I’m the reason Pen’s where she is. If I hadn’t lost her, none of it would have happened.” Lily’s head bowed. “They’ll never let me in to see her.”
“Lily, none of that was your fault,” I whispered, putting my arms around her.
“I’m the First General’s daughter. I know how to protect someone. But I was distracted.” She grimaced.
“Lily, it was not your job to keep her safe. If it was anyone’s, it was mine or her brother’s.”
“Thanks for trying, but we both know that isn’t true. I know it doesn’t change anything, but I just have to know she’s going to be okay,” Lily said, straightening her shoulders.
Understanding her need, I said, “Let’s go.” We took the stairwell down two more levels and stopped.
“I hope this works. The project was slated for twenty floors,” Lily said. With a swish, the door opened, and the sterile scent of cleanliness wafted over us. “Hurry,” Lily urged as she pulled me along.
“Which way?” she asked.
“I’ve only
been in this wing twice,” I whispered.
All of a sudden, we heard voices, one sounding exactly like my mother. “Quick. In here.” I yanked Lily toward a dark room. Instantly, I recognized this wasn’t a healing chamber. This was a room that was supposed to be for families waiting for news on their loved ones. But when we stepped into the room, we found we were not alone.
“Good morning, Your Highness.” Lily and I gasped in unison to see not one, but both the Yzer sons.
“Violet. You do see two of them, don’t you?” Lily asked, squeezing my hand.
“Yes,” I answered. “Lily, this is Kai, and though you may have met him, you wouldn’t have known, this is Lance Yzer.”
Kai’s expression morphed from surprise to confusion back to surprise, while his brother’s remained calm. His gaze trained on me.
“Lavender and apples, that’s a unique combination,” Lance began. “I have seen a lot of trees here in Neyr, but only one that fits that description. I knew there was something special about you.”
He must have gotten into the greenhouse, I realized, wondering where else he had gained access to? “How did you know?” I asked, matching his stance.
Lance crossed his arms. “I have learned a lot about flowers since I have been here. I never would have guessed that when we arrived.”
“I’m glad you have enjoyed the gardens,” I said, studying him.
He looked me over. “I have, but did you know there are dozens if not more types of lavender?”
I crossed my arms, mirroring him. “Your point?”
“Here’s the thing. You would think they would all smell the same. Little purple flowers. But since the day I met you, there was just something familiar in the air around you. I have only had the pleasure once before.”
He eyed me as I stood my ground, not giving anything away. “It seemed a little suspicious, the timing of your mysterious journey. The day you showed up. All the pieces that didn’t make sense, now they fit. I knew there was something the A.I. wasn’t telling me.”