Seven Devils
Page 49
Stars didn’t judge.
In the privacy of that room, Nyx coughed into her hand. Her palm was speckled with blood. Her whole body burned, like splinters were growing in her muscles.
The others hadn’t showed any signs of infection. But she’d felt this illness before she’d landed on Laguna, if she were honest with herself. She’d felt it not long after Ismara. She’d stumbled against the walls of the ichor in that underground crypt. Her hand against the rough rock, the tear in her suit. The tiny scrape. Small enough she’d thought nothing of it. Large enough for endospores in the rock to infect her.
With the first speck of blood, she’d known.
The others were safe from her. It was the first strain, the one that had taken Talley. Not infectious, or the rest of her team would have shown symptoms before they even came close to Laguna. She didn’t know how long she had.
There was no honor in this. No battle. Just a slow, painful ebb into nothing.
Nyx lay back, shooting herself up with an antitoxin when Cato wasn’t looking.
She knew it was useless. There was no cure, or at least not one they could access or develop quickly enough. So, she’d enjoy what little time she had left. It could be days. Weeks. Months. Years.
She’d do what she could to destroy the Empire before the end.
EPILOGUE
Two Weeks Later
Prince Damocles’s broadcast went out across the galaxy. To every planet in the Evoli and Tholosian Empires. Every corner, every nook, every quadrant.
And it reached a ship adrift in the darkest parts of space, one that had powered down and hidden itself. There, seven of the most wanted people in the galaxy watched the broadcast.
The newly crowned Archon wore his ceremonial Tholosian cloak and a collar reminiscent of an Evoli’s Oversoul collar in a show of good faith. The Oversouls were a collective until the new Ascendant could be chosen. He was an honorary, though closely watched, member of the council.
He had one final new addition.
An eye patch of smooth gold, covering the ruin of his left eye.
When he spoke, it was in a solemn, steady tone. “After the senseless attack on both Evoli and Tholosian citizens at Laguna, our Empires are united in a common cause. I am relieved to report that through the work of myself and my soldiers, the population of Laguna that was not at the site of the treaty were spared the effects of the contagion. These million Evoli lives show how committed I am to this treaty, this peace.”
Clo’s garbled shout of outrage echoed through the command center. “Are you fluming kidding me? He took credit?”
Ariadne glared. “That was my idea, you stupid man. That was all our work.” She took off her slipper and threw it at the screen as he spoke again. All four quadrants had seen the images of Discordia holding the weapon before the smoke had flooded the ballroom. The footage was glitchy from the presence of ichor, but it was unmistakably the lost Heir, returned as if Avern itself had spat her back out.
“In the future,” Damocles continued, “we will build our civilizations alongside one another, but for now, our purpose is simple: to find and execute those responsible for the murder of my father, the Ascendant, and the Oversouls.
“Led by my sister Princess Discordia, they have devoted themselves to eradicating our way of life, our truce, and our peaceful path going forward. Anyone who aligns themselves with these seven criminals are accessories to aggression against our united Empire, led by Archon and Ascendant, once they are chosen. As we move into this new era, anyone who harbors and aids these individuals will be tried for treason. They created weapons unlike anything we have seen before. We must remain committed against our common enemy. Rest assured, they will be found, punished, and executed.”
“Seven devils, we’re screwed,” Nyx muttered.
Ariadne grinned, as if Damocles’s words bounced off her like a child’s rubber ball. “Hey, I like that. Seven of us, and we’re devilishly clever.” She gave a clap. “I hereby dub this our team name.”
“Really? You’re going to name us after a curse?” Clo asked. Then she paused, considered it, and gave a half-shrug. “Actually, it’s not bad.”
“So sacrilegious,” Rhea said, though she sounded amused more than offended.
“See?” Ariadne said. “Devils. It’s wicked.”
“Seven of us,” Eris murmured, the metal of her new bionic tongue heavy in her mouth, looking at each of them in turn. A disgraced princess, a mechanic, a soldier, an engineer, a courtesan, a pilot, a leader of the resistance. Yet they were all so much more than that. “Seven devils.”
She looked out at the stars and planned her next game.
Queens kill king.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Seven Devils came about somewhat flippantly: Elizabeth had a dream that she and Laura wrote Mad Max: Fury Road in space. Laura said: “let’s do it!” That was in 2015. It was a long road from idea to book, with bits of drafts written while we worked on respective solo projects. But we believed in this group of rebellious women desperate to topple an empire, and we are so grateful you get to read about them.
A huge team assembled to help us make the book you’re holding:
First, it was our agents, Russ Galen, Juliet Mushens, and Heather Baror, who supported our furious ladies in space and put them in front of publishers around the world. Two of those publishers included the magnificent teams at DAW Books in the US and Gollancz in the UK. Rachel Winterbottom, Betsy Wollheim, and Leah Spann formed the tremendous editorial team for this book, pushing and inspiring both of us into making this story bigger, better, and more badass. Shoutout to Richard Shealy, our eagle-eyed copyeditor, who saved us from a few embarrassing passages. We’re so grateful for the marketing and publicity teams at both DAW and Gollancz for getting this book out to our readers! Especially Will O’Mullane at Gollancz, and Alexis Nixon and Jessica Plummer at DAW.
Moral support is so important while drafting, so we’d like to give a massive thanks to our mutual friends Hannah Kaner and Julia Ember for reading and cheering us on at every stage.
Laura would additionally like to thank her mother, Sally Baxter, and her husband, Craig Lam, as ever, for their support. To the Ladies of Literary License and the Asshole Writing Club, and all her friends who deal with her whinging about writing with relative good grace. To the Edinburgh Napier Creative Writing MA, both colleagues and students.
Elizabeth would first like to thank her husband, Mr. May: come give me a hug when you read this! And as always, to Tess Sharpe, who is the most inspiring, brilliant friend and one of the best writers she knows.
She also has a lot of people she’d like to thank for supporting her back in 2018 during a really rough health scare, but especially: Todd DeDecker, Raoul Borges, Clara Lee, Matt Miller, William Mauritzen, Michael Grunert, Morgan Folsom, Kendra Floyd, Michael Weatherford, James Holland, James White, Maja Baek, Alek Dembowski, Kendra Hoffman, Michael Gates, Rob Meijer, Enrique Robles, Aneli Aguillon, Susan Davis, Tracy Robinson, Sean Carroll, Jo Henn, John Scalzi, Larissa O’Brien, Kaitlin McCaw, Noah Richards, Allen Clark, D Franklin, Paul Kremer, Rebecca Zanzig, Alexandra Bracken, Parris P McBride-Martin, the wonderful people on the SFWA EMF Committee, and especially Cat Rambo. Thank you, every last one of you—including those not listed here—for your immense kindness. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Lastly, we would both like to thank you, readers, for stepping into our universe and following the Seven Devils Smash the Patriarchy In Space.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Elizabeth May is the author of the YA fantasy trilogy The Falconer and short fiction published in the anthology Toil & Trouble. She was born and raised in California before moving to Scotland, where she earned her PhD at the University of St Andrews.
Laura Lam is the author of feminist space opera Seven Devils (co-written with Elizabeth May), BBC Radio 2 Book Club section False Hearts
, the companion novel Shattered Minds, and the award-winning Micah Grey series. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in anthologies such as Nasty Women, Solaris Rising 3, Cranky Ladies of History, Scotland in Space, and more.
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