Off Balance

by Aileen Erin

  Did they think killing unarmed innocents made them look powerful? Because it didn’t. It made them look evil.

  Trickles of information were getting out as survivors tried to reach their families, but my father hadn’t released the tragedy to the media outlets yet. That would be my job. It would be my job to find a way to explain it and find justice for our people. The responsibility of all their lives on my shoulders in a time of war wasn’t something easy to bear, but I knew that I had to do this. That I could do it.

  This would be the proof our allies needed to join the fight, but I’d rather have faced this war alone than have all these innocent lives slaughtered.

  SpaceTech wanted to hurt our morale. They wanted to make us feel weak. They wanted to make themselves look powerful. What they didn’t know was that Sa’shotaem would become our rallying cry.

  We would fight this war because of what they did.

  We would be united in the fight against them.

  We would make SpaceTech pay.

  My father’s penthouse was at the top of the tallest building in Ta’shena. By the time I landed on the roof, Rysden and Captain ni Eneko were waiting for me along with a group of my father’s guards. My guards were in another ship and would await my orders, but if I couldn’t stand on my own against my father and his few men, then I wasn’t worthy of the crown. That was the way it always was with kings and their heirs.

  We found my father in his office. The room was more for show than anything else. A lot of large and luxurious pieces of furniture and a hand-knitted, intricately patterned rug on the floor. He stood at the window, staring out at the city, and I wondered what he was thinking just then. My father and I never got along. My mother used to say that as soon as my fao’ana were recorded by the High Priestess my father changed.

  With Nori he could pretend that he’d hold on to his power. She didn’t have the right talents for ruling, and so it seemed unlikely she’d take over unless he was dead. But then I’d been born with all the fao’ana he lacked, and he knew that he’d lose everything he’d fought to gain as soon as I came of age.

  My father thought it was fate that led to my separating from Amihanna. He was glad I refused to take over until she got back because he thought she was dead. Which meant he’d kept his power.

  But then she came back.

  My father didn’t turn to look at me as we entered the room. “Leave us,” he said without looking at us or the guards. “You, too, ni Eneko.”

  Captain ni Eneko looked at me. I gave him a nod, and he left the room.

  It was just my father, Rysden—who had been more of a father to me than the man standing at the window—and me.

  My father was in a pair of loose black pants. His shirt was loose except around the middle, stretching taut over his stomach. Most Aunare were fit. It was our culture to use our fao’ana in our lives, and doing so burned calories at a higher rate than most other beings we’d met. But my father was a lazy man. A lazy father. A lazy ruler that treaded the line too close to negligent. Just the sight of him made me angry, but not enough to light my skin. This anger was old and familiar.

  “We have a big mess on our hands,” he said finally.

  “I would call this worse than a mess, Father. This is a disaster. Have you reached out to Jason Murtagh or heard anything from SpaceTech? What are our allies saying about the attack? What—”

  He turned to me then. “Enough!” His long, graying hair hung past his shoulders, but his lavish diadem sprinkled with jewels was enough to keep it from falling in his face. “We don’t know that it was an action from SpaceTech, and if it was them, then it was your fault. You’re the one who broke the treaty going after that girl. You’re the one who blew up one of their biggest fuel sources. If anyone is to blame for this war, then you should look at yourself.”

  That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. He knew the crown would be mine tomorrow. I’d thought he was going to hand it over now so that he didn’t have to deal with this, but no. He was going to try and use it to hold onto the crown.

  He was more stupid than I’d thought. I stepped toward him. “My fault? You’d blame me for everything that you’ve allowed to happen to us. To our people.”

  My father’s face reddened. “You’ve been after my crown for a long time. You—”

  “Me? Me!” Now I was more than angry. My skin lit brighter than I’d ever seen before. “You think that I would murder families—children, babies—on vacation! You think that I would commit such a depraved act for power? If you’re so eager to keep your crown, then I will take my betrothed and find a quiet planet in the far reaches and let you clean up this mess on your own. With exactly zero help from me.”

  My father’s skin was bright now, but his fao’ana were pathetically weak. He couldn’t take me when he was in his prime, and he certainly couldn’t take me today.

  “I don’t need your help.” My father picked up a glass from his desk and drank down a gulp of amber-colored liquor. “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d left SpaceTech alone. If you’d stayed out of their territory.”

  “I will never, ever apologize for saving Amihanna. If they found her, they were supposed to bring her to us. Immediately. That was part of our treaty! That they took her and tortured her—”

  “When you put in the notice for seizing the crown, you—”

  Just like my father. When one argument didn’t pan out, go straight to another, but he wasn’t putting the blame on me. Not for any reason. “The crown is mine, Father. It has been for years, and if you’re stupid enough to think that you’re strong enough to rule when we’re facing war, then—”

  “I have Rysden!” He threw a hand toward Rysden as he stomped toward me. “He’s my Hand! He’s the Leader of Aunare Military. He’ll do it! He’s been keeping the Aunare safe for—”

  “No.” Rysden’s icy calm voice froze my father in place. “You will not use me to keep from Lorne what is rightfully his.”

  I moved aside so that Rysden could talk some reason into my father. I didn’t have the patience for it. Not tonight. Not ever.

  “I have tried to direct you against any alliance with SpaceTech. You went against my wishes and formed this sham of a treaty which only led to two hundred thousand Aunare being slaughtered, countless atrocities committed on our people, and my own wife and daughter stranded on a hostile planet for thirteen years.”

  My father wasn’t looking at Rysden. Instead, he was turning the glass in his hand around and around, as if he weren’t even listening to Rysden’s words.

  Rysden’s skin lit as he stepped closer to my father. “You have turned the Aunare from one of the greatest powers in the universe into SpaceTech’s laughingstock. All because you should never have been king. I should’ve challenged you for the crown when we were boys, but I stupidly worried about civil war. I didn’t want that for the Aunare. I was too much of a patriot to see us ripped apart. But I didn’t fully understand how your cowardice would suck us all into a black pit of death and hate and war.”

  Rysden’s fao’ana flickered dangerously, and my father took a step back, hitting the window behind him.

  “This is your fault.” Rysden’s tone was sharp enough to draw blood. “I should kill you now. Put us all out of our misery. They can put me in jail for treason, kill me, but at least you would still be dead! The rot you’ve infected into our society would be gone and I could leave our children to cull the rest of it.”

  Rysden gripped the faksano at his waist and pulled it free.

  “You’re a coward of the lowest sort, and I despise your weakness. You’re unfit to rule. Especially now.”

  My father’s eyes stared at Rysden’s arm and I knew what he was seeing. Rysden’s fao’ana for frequency shifts wasn’t as strong as Amihanna’s or even mine, but it was enough to kill a man. One breath of release and my father would be dead.

  My father took one breath. Another. And a third. Before he met Rysden’s gaze. “I wanted the High Priestess to be wr
ong when she told me that I wasn’t supposed to be king. She said that during my rule our land would fatten and prosper but with great cost. I didn’t see how prospering would be a bad thing.”

  Rysden stepped away from my father.

  “That meant she was wrong. I would be a great king.” My father threw the glass, shattering it against the wall. “And I was a great king. You’ll not steal that from me.”

  He was insane if he thought that. He was the worst king in Aunare history.

  “I didn’t listen to the cost. Jesmesha said that when the time came, I would give my crown to my son. That I would want to refuse, but if I did, I would die.” He lifted a shaking hand to touch the front of his diadem. “I see your fao’ana, Rysden, and I see my death in them. I’m not ready to die.” He took his diadem off and stared at it.

  “I bet you’re happy about this.” My father looked at me. “You’ve been wanting the crown for so long.” He hurled the diadem at me.

  My fao’ana lit, I held up a hand, and turned his diadem to ash before it hit me.

  “You’re just as much of a traitor as your worthless mother.” He stormed from the room without another word.

  My father’s footsteps grew quieter as he left the room, but I stood there with his parting words echoing in my mind. I knew I should’ve been issuing orders or doing something, but all I could hear was him declaring my mother a traitor.

  Mother had died shortly after Liberation Week. Her heart suddenly gave out and even with all our tech, she couldn’t be saved. I’d lost my mother and Amihanna in one go, and I almost didn’t recover. I always thought that her heart had broken—just as mine had—and that maybe somewhere deep inside her soul, she knew she couldn’t stand by my father any longer.

  But now I wondered if she’d spoken out against him and if he’d had her killed.

  I closed my eyes and fought for control. The flashing of my fao’ana burned against my eyelids, but I couldn’t breathe.

  I hated him more than I hated anyone alive.

  “Lorne. You have to breathe.” Rysden’s hands gripped my shoulders and he gave me a shake. “Think of Amihanna. Did you have a nice evening with her?”

  I took a breath. “Yes.” I took another breath.

  “That’s good. How was Nori?”

  He was distracting me, and that was probably a good thing. “She made enchiladas for Amihanna.”

  “Ah.” Rysden sighed. “I’d forgotten.”

  “I had, too.”

  “Leave it to your sister to steal everyone’s heart.” Rysden gave me a nod and stepped back. “I’ll process the paperwork and have him sign it in front of the High Priestess.” His voice was calmer now. Barely more than a whisper.

  “Did he kill her?” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to.

  Rysden was quiet so long that I didn’t think he’d answer, but he finally did. “I honestly don’t know. It’s possible.”

  I went to stand where my father had been—at the window looking out at the city. The lights were beautiful, but I knew beyond them, in the inky darkness of the horizon, was the beach where I’d left Amihanna.

  “We need to make a plan,” Rysden said. “Once SpaceTech hears about you having the crown, they’ll act fast. We should—”

  “I know. I know, but I just need a moment. I knew this day would come—we’d been planning it for so long—but I didn’t think it would be like this. I didn’t expect to feel this bitter about it. I wanted to kill my father just now.”

  “You’re not alone in that.” Rysden came to stand beside me at the window. “We’d all hoped that it wouldn’t be like this, but we also knew better than to put any faith in those hopes.”

  I gave myself one more moment to wallow before putting it away.

  “All right. Let’s start with Sa’shotaem. We’ll need to make a statement, but I don’t want to wake anyone up. Let’s do that first thing in the morning.”

  “Done.”

  “You’ll handle the transfer of power. That will need to be done tonight. My father won’t want to deal with it, but—”

  “The High Priestess is already on her way. She will take care of him and make sure he does what’s needed.”

  “Good. We’ll need to speak to our allies now. Schedule a call for an hour’s time.”

  Rysden stuck his head into the hallway, calling in Captain ni Eneko.

  “Yes, sir,” he said as he entered the room.

  “Send out the call for a summit meeting. Try for an hour from now, but if not, coordinate the soonest time for all parties. Everyone will need to be present, and we’ll need security. Your best men—”

  “Leave it to me, sir.” Captain ni Eneko rushed from the room.

  I ran a hand down my face. I’d been waiting to take over for my father for so long, but suddenly everything was happening much faster than I thought possible. There were so many twists and turns until we—the Aunare, our allies, the innocent Earthers—would be safe again and there were countless ways that this could all go wrong.

  The pressure was a weight on my back—one so heavy that I wasn’t sure I could stay standing. I stumbled to one of the armchairs and collapsed.

  “Are you all right, Your Majesty?” Rysden squeezed my shoulder.

  Oh Goddess. The title. It felt so heavy and final. “There’s so much to be done. It seems impossible with no light at the end of the tunnel and I’m overwhelmed.”

  Rysden sat on the coffee table in front of me. “This is why you need Amihanna by your side. You need her.”

  “I know. I can’t do this alone. I should’ve brought her tonight.”

  “Do you want me to go get her?”

  I shook my head. “No. I’ll go to her, I just need a second.”

  Captain ni Eneko entered into the room. “Call is set for forty-five minutes from now. I’ve got Gitano drafting statements, and a site for the statement is being secured. I’ve got updates from Solan whenever you’re ready, and I’ve heard back from my men on the ground at Sa’shotaem, as well as information from Declan and—”

  Rysden quieted the Captain with a glance, and then rose to stand in front of me. “Time to rule this kingdom, Your Majesty.” He held a hand out to me.

  It took me a second, but I gripped his hand in mine and let him pull me up. “Okay. Let’s get back to the estate. We’ll work from there.”

  Rysden gave me a knowing grin.

  If we were done with this mess, then I needed Amihanna. Any decisions would go through her. Through us.

  I might be the king tonight, but soon, she’d be queen.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  AMIHANNA

  The estate was swarming with men in dark pants and light shirts when we landed. Their shirts had embroidered firedrakes, but not Lorne’s red one. It was his father’s sleeping green firedrake.

  I had a very bad feeling about this.

  Their faksano batons hung from their hips, along with some other weapon that I’d never seen before and all of them had their fao’ana on display. They weren’t smiling, just watching, scanning, guarding.

  I stood on the ramp of the ship frozen. I tightly gripped the bag from Nori in my hand.

  “Everything alright?” Eshrin asked.

  “Who are all these people?”

  “Security. This estate is home to four of the highest ranking Aunare and we’ve already had two attacks. I warned you on the way that there would be more men here. I swear that you’re safe.”

  “I know you warned me, but…” But seeing so many here scared me. I knew they were supposed to make me feel safer, but they did the opposite. I could fight if there were fewer of them, but if they turned on me, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get away.

  “How many are here?”

  “Two hundred from the Royal Armed Forces.”

  My skin lit and Eshrin put his hand on my shoulder.

  “I will stay by your side. We are sworn to keep you alive, against anyone. You can trust these men, but if you don’t, trust
me. I won’t leave you.”

  I looked at him then. His fao’ana were also on display, as were those of the fifteen guards—some in front of me, some behind—that served to keep me safe. But I’d had guards like them before and every single one of them died trying to keep me alive.

  If the king’s men turned on me, then at least I wouldn’t be fighting alone. But I didn’t want to go through that again. I didn’t want them to die fighting for me. “Thank you.” I forced the words, not because I didn’t mean them, but because I hoped that what I felt as I stepped off the ship was just echoes of the past growing louder, bringing fear with it.

  “Let’s get you to Lorne’s suite. They’re waiting for you.”

  I nodded. “Okay.

  I followed my guards and tried not to make eye contact with any of the other men. They might take that as me being snooty, but I’d rather them think I was a shitty person than see my fear.

  Lorne’s suite had a few rooms in it other than the bedroom and bathroom. The front door opened into his living room. There was a fireplace, with a massive vidscreen hanging over it. A large u-shaped couch was covered with pillows. A basket of blankets was piled beside the fireplace for added comfort. The bar along one wall was stocked with some snacks and drinks. Instead of a coffee table, he had a massive round leather ottoman with a cushioned top.

  I found Roan, Ahiga, and Declan waiting for me on the couch. My guards did a quick sweep of Lorne’s suite, and Roan looked at me.

  “It’s crazy here, babe.”

  I put the bag on the ottoman and sat on the couch beside Roan. “No shit. You should see how many people are outside.”

  “I saw. It’s making me nervous.”

  I let out a breath. At least I wasn’t the only one. “Me, too.”

  “They’re fine,” Declan said. “They’re here to make the estate safe.”

  “Sure.” But I’d feel better if they’d had Lorne’s emblem on their uniforms instead of his father’s.

  Eshrin came to stand in front of me. “The suite is cleared. I’ll be guarding the door. I won’t leave until Lorne gets back, and maybe not even then. Okay?”