Shadow of the Colossus

by Nicole Grotepas

  Le Tissier’s wasn’t too far from Analogue Alley if Holly crossed a few miles on the Spireway, which she did, piling into a gondola with a small crowd of people. She kept to herself, absorbed in her thoughts, but alert enough to potential dangers. So far, no where but her own condo was safe. It wasn’t long ago that she’d nearly been taken out on the Spireway.

  She watched some high school aged humans rough-housing on the gondola, showing off, trying to outdo each other in dirty jokes and dares like throwing articles of clothing out the windows. Holly allowed herself a small smile, though it was really the most annoying behavior to watch.

  Soon she was walking into Sveldt Encounters, exiting the grimy street, and ducking in out of the cold and slush. A sigh of relief escaped her lips. These days arriving anywhere without nearly being killed was a major accomplishment. Inside the lights weren’t quite as dim, though there were still dancers on the stage. At the moment, they were human and Yasoan males in next to nothing. Holly felt her heart quicken in interest, and then Odeon was suddenly at her side, hurrying her into the passageway that led to the sub-basement where Le Tissier kept her wares.

  “Sorry I’m late, Odeon,” Holly apologized. “The Spireway was crowded. But good news, Iain Grant is coming.”

  “I heard your conversation over the comm with Darius. I’m very glad. At least it won’t be Aimee Voss.”

  They continued through the stairways and small passageways, beneath sconce-lighting. “I don’t understand why Shiro is still interested in her. She’s proven herself untrustworthy.”

  “Because he’s not thinking with his large brain.” Odeon said, simply.

  Holly laughed. “That much is obvious.”

  “Then why did you ask?”

  “It was really just a rhetorical question. Because I don’t understand having been burned by someone like that only to return to wanting their company and trusting them again.”

  Their conversation ceased as they entered the room with Le Tissier’s wares. The madame was there, seated in a chair, reclining like a queen. “Ah, Holly Drake. Odeon Starlight. Welcome.”

  “Sorry we’re late,” Holly said.

  “Thank you. I have another appointment coming soon. So you will want to hurry with your decisions.”

  “Right.”

  They selected aether gun cartridges, a series of better throwing knives than the ones that Aeolionaias had loaned her, and an aether whip. Odeon showed the wares to Holly, having been there the day before to see if Le Tissier knew anything about the Shadow Coalition.

  “You’ll want these, Ms. Drake, if you plan to use those throwing knives correctly, by hiding them up your sleeves,” Le Tissier said, gesturing to a set of wrist sheaths on another shelf.

  Holly found a size that would adjust to her wrists.

  “Any word on the movements of the Shadow Coalition, Beatrice?” Holly asked as she took off her coat, rolled up her sleeves, and tried on the sheaths.

  “Just what I mentioned to Odeon. The word is any sleeper or scattered agents should head to Paradise, dock #413.”

  “That’s oddly specific,” Holly said with a laugh.

  “That part came through today. I hadn’t told Odeon yet.”

  “So it’s some kind of broadcast?”

  “That is what my agents who keep track of such things say,” she answered with a soft gesture of her hand. “I never care for these things, unless the involve money and my goods.”

  “Thanks for the meeting and the goods,” Holly said, as they paid the novas. She didn’t even try to talk Beatrice to a lower price. That was generally a fruitless task, haggling with her. The point was, now Holly had an aether whip, despite what Aeolionaias wanted.

  EIGHTEEN

  Elan looked good in Holly’s condo. His lavender skin accentuated the soft hues of her furnishings. Like Odeon, he was a calming presence.

  She’d invited him over for dinner. The first course was a soup from lentils with a flat bread. The main dish was a stir fry of vegetables in a hot sauce.

  As they finished off the main dish, Holly poured them both glasses of a deep blue Centau wine and mentioned that she had to leave for Paradise again.

  “Again?” Elan asked. “I was unaware of the first time, I believe.”

  “I’m not sure if I mentioned it to you or not, but that was when we first learned about the crimes of the Shadow Coalition. My crew and I stumbled upon a shipping container full of children.”

  He looked disturbed at the thought of this. He blinked and sat back, leaning away from Holly. Then he fixed her with that bright gaze of his. “The children are free. Why are you going back?”

  She sighed, knowing he wouldn’t like what she was going to explain. “I’m not sure I’ve been clear with how many times I’ve nearly been killed by the Shadow Coalition. The last time was on the zeppelin ride back from Itzcap. It’s disturbing, and I don’t like to dwell on it. But I take care of myself pretty well. And my crew has my back, as do you. I’m not in this alone, I mean. I keep good company.”

  “Is the school and this work with the children anything that interests you, Holly? Or am I waiting for something that will never occur?”

  She smiled, attempting to keep a good face on it. “Well, it’s on my list. Someday, I think, after I’ve cleaned up this mess.”

  “So, then, what is the reason for the new journey?”

  “The Shadow Coalition. The leader is still somewhere, hiding, pulling strings, orchestrating attempts to kill me. Stealing massive supplies of hydrantium. I don’t think they’ll leave me alone until he’s dead or behind bars.”

  Elan was quiet for moment. He sipped his wine.

  “And you know where he is? It is a he, then? Human? What do you know of this figure?

  “Not very much. No one ever got near him except the Hands, and I didn’t have a chance to question them before I had to leave the Ixion base. But yes, it’s a he. One of the Hands told me as much. Beyond that I don’t know. It could be something completely surprising like a Centau. One of the Hands was Yasoan, which was crazy.”

  “No one is beyond corruptibility. That’s the lesson,” he said.

  “Whoever he is, he knows who I am. And I’ve pissed him off.” She yawned and stretched. “We leave tomorrow on the Cold Blossom.”

  “A luxury liner.”

  “Not quite, but I don’t mind. All the flying has been helping me get over my fears of inter-moon space flight.”

  “I remember that you struggled a little when we went after the children on the Ixion base.”

  “I’m getting less nervous about it.” The wine was beginning to hit her.

  “You’re very brave, Holly. I always knew that.”

  She laughed. “Right. SO brave that I stayed in a terrible marriage for years.”

  “The strongest stay the longest,” he said.

  She remembered that she hadn’t informed him of the good news. “My contact will help fund the school in the north. He’s even talking about setting up a trust so that both schools stay funded without new donors.”

  Elan smiled. “That’s good news. He? Your contact is male. Is he the Heart?”

  It was a joke, she could tell that much, but the question startled her and caught her off guard. She blinked. She’d never considered that the Heart could be someone she knew. There were millions of people in the system. The idea that she may know this powerful figure at the center of the web was preposterous.

  “There’s no chance that I know the Heart. There are billions of people living in the 6-Moons. What sort of weird twist would it be to find out the Heart is someone I know?”

  Elan chuckled. “Yes, you are most likely right, Holly.”

  They moved to the couches and continued to drink their wine, and converse. There was almost a moment where Holly forgot the pressures of bearing down on her and she nearly felt like what she imagined normal might be. They had nowhere to go for the rest of the night. Outside a new front pushed snow into the city. The wind
s beat against the windows at the top of her spire. They lit an aether fire in the grate and turned the lights down low. Music played softly over her home system and they discussed life and dreams in soft hushed voices. It was, nearly perfect.

  And yet, niggling at the back of her head was the worry set in motion by Elan’s offhand remark that the Heart was someone who knew her, or who she knew. She hadn’t even considered it, and now that the door was open, she ran through her roster of people that it could be. Xadrian. Dave. Macav Onini. And perhaps the pronoun he was a cover, and it was someone like Beatrice Le Tissier or Aimee Voss.

  The possibilities were seemingly endless, and Holly felt more inclined to never trust anyone than ever before.

  Eventually Elan’s arms were around her and she was dissolving into his warm embrace. It was a night like she needed, however, another thought tugged at her mind—Elan wanted her to give up her ways. He had his sights on the schools. And he was somehow working her into what he envisioned for the future of those endeavors. They were noble and good, just like him, and she wanted to find it in her to join him, to give up where she wanted to end up for herself.

  But now that she’d started down this path, how could she relinquish the reins? Could she? Maybe it was worth it—the comforts, the familiarity of knowing quite nearly what every day carried for her.

  Once Elan was asleep, she rose and paced around her condo. She opened the shades and stared out into the blinding white flurries of snow pummeling her windows. Beyond the veil of snow, across the gap that separated the jade spires she could just make out the glow of a nearby tower. There was so much to think about—so many people she didn’t want to let down. People who wanted her in their plans and who she wanted to find a way to be with as well. But the pieces of Holly Drake that it required her to give up—were they worth it?

  NINETEEN

  “We’ve ridden this one before, haven’t we, chaps,” Shiro observed as the three of them climbed the spiral staircase to the top level of cabin where the more expensive cabins were located. He gestured at the worn red carpets covering the metal flooring. “I recognize that carpet.”

  “I think so, yes,” Odeon answered.

  “Seems like ages since we’ve been on this mistress,” Shiro said. “But Paradise doesn’t have the same draw as the other moons.”

  “They’re lucky they have the business and shipping draw, I guess. Otherwise there’d be no reason to travel to Paradise.” Holly sighed and shrugged, thinking about the economic disadvantages of those who were born on Paradise, and the futility of even being aware of them. The Cold Blossom was definitely not as posh as some of the other zeppelins she had taken. Now that she was a seasoned traveler, she knew what to expect.

  They passed a few other passengers on their way through the narrow corridor. Often the types of travelers who engaged in zeppelin travel dressed up in long forgotten styles just for the experience of it. But Paradise drew a different sort. These were often either workers who had gone to visit family or business owners that had properties and businesses on several moons, Paradise being one of them.

  Holly tapped her earpiece as Odeon took the lead on walking them down the passage. Her mic was already switched on because they’d been exchanging banter with Darius and Charly. “Trip, when will you be back in commission? This zeppelin leaves a lot to be desired.”

  “Well hello, Holly. The Olavia Apollo is on the mend. She’ll be space-worthy soon.”

  “Ah, thank Ixion. Keep me apprised, oh and please do let Darius know when you need the novas to cover the work. We’re planning on that.”

  “Got it.”

  Holly muted her mic again. Shiro glanced back at her, almost as though he’d forgotten that he was avoiding eye contact with her, and caught her gaze. He’d been smiling, but that vanished as though he realized his error, and he looked away quickly.

  Holly cleared her throat. “Breakfast as soon as we’ve stowed our luggage?”

  “There’s little else to do, Holly, so I’m in.”

  “I can always do with a morning cocktail,” Shiro agreed.

  Iain hadn’t shown up yet. The departure would happen soon—she hoped he made it.

  They found their cabins, which Darius had managed to get close together, despite the late hour of the purchase. Surprisingly, not many people wanted to travel to Paradise.

  As Holly fluffed her cabin into a nest, she checked the luggage bins beneath the bed, then decided to look in any nook or cranny for anything that would indicate someone had been planting contraband in her room. The memory of a large knife thrusting toward her neck wasn’t too far away. She slid her room door closed and latched it with the extra lock, then pulled the Equalizer from her luggage and put it in her waistband beneath her traveling blazer. Then she removed her blazer and rolled up her shirt sleeves. She’d left her condo in a hurry that morning and didn’t have time as she said goodbye to Elan to put on the sheaths. So she strapped them on now and then inserted the throwing knives she’d purchased from Le Tissier’s. They were weighted differently from those she’d used at the Lion’s Training Center, and seemed to be designed for smaller hands.

  She rolled her sleeves back down and then took off her boot and strapped on the sheath for the boot knife. She was beginning to feel a bit paranoid about danger and the need to be outfitted to defend herself. However, she wasn’t big like Charly, and danger had fallen into her path enough that it seemed wise to be ready for anything. “Still haven’t outfitted myself with the aether whip yet,” she muttered, justifying that she wasn’t completely decked out in weaponry. Besides, all of her self-defense tools were sequestered away on her body. For all the average bystander could see, she was merely a woman wearing a white collared shirt beneath a black travel jacket, and tight gray trousers tucked into black boots.

  “Drake, just checking in,” Darius said, cutting into Holly’s thoughts. “Your flight’s about to leave. I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter on the nets that something major is about to go down on Paradise. It’s increased by one hundred fifty percent over the baseline, which I established over the past few days.”

  She paused and sat down on the edge of her bed.

  “Does it seem more likely that whatever we’re heading toward is real?” She asked, thinking.

  “Can’t tell. We won’t know till you get there and we have eyes on this thing.”

  She stood and went to the small window of her cabin. Her side of the ship faced Kota. “Has anyone seen or heard from Iain yet? Let’s hope our fourth didn’t bail on us. We have no idea what we’re heading toward. If it’s real, we don’t want to be massively outnumbered.”

  Darius laughed. “To be honest, if you’re outnumbered, it will be by numbers that we could never have matched anyway, even if we wanted to.”

  “Point taken. Thanks for manning the comms, Darius. Keep us informed.”

  “Will do, Drake.”

  She muted her mic again. She was nearly ready to head to the dining hall, though now that she had so much weaponry attached to her body, she felt weighed down and strange. The Equalizer had once brought her comfort and security. It was still a valuable asset. But it felt like too much. She had the throwing knives and her boot knife. Plus a crew that carried weapons. Shooting an aether weapon on the zeppelin was a terrible idea.

  She removed the gun and stowed it in the drawer under her bed, next to her luggage.

  Now she was ready. She left her cabin, locking the door behind her, and strolled through the corridor to the spiral staircase located closest to the dining galley. She passed a Constellation family on her way and smiled and nodded at them. The corridor was lined with cabins on either side and a strip of light above her. When she had gone down two levels, the sound of dishes clinking drew her in the direction of the dining galley, which took up a large portion of the zeppelin. Holly ordered a Frozen Pearl at the bar and then picked a table not too far from it and sat down to wait for her crew.

  She could feel the windows lookin
g out at Kota behind her and glanced over her shoulder, confronting what she saw. A familiar swirling sensation filled her gut, and she breathed deep to calm it. Her gaze caught on something as she turned back to her table. She glanced back at what caught her eye. It was Iain, standing just beyond the hatch that opened into the dining galley. The large door was just closing behind him.

  He approached her, wearing a black utilitarian coat over a plain navy shirt and dark gray trousers tucked into black calf-high boots. “Holly,” he said, giving her a nod as he sat down.

  “I was beginning to worry that you’d changed your mind.”

  “Once I commit, I don’t back out.”

  “Good to know. Odeon has an ear-piece for you and a communicator. Be sure to grab that when he shows up.”

  “Planning for trouble?”

  She laughed. “I’m not, not-planning for it. Expect the worst, hope for the best.”

  Iain looked around the dining galley. Tables were filling up as more passengers settled in for the journey between moons, traversing the aether highway that stretched from Kota to Paradise. “Very wise. These luxury vessels always make me nervous.”

  “You? An ex-military man? I thought you were impervious to fear.”

  He looked at her. “Fear is what makes a human ready to fight. Men like me, we ride the edge of fear, alert and prepared for any imaginable situation. I’m not afraid. But these ships aren’t made for anything other than traveling. They’re not capable of fighting back, so if something happens, we only have our wits to save us.”

  Holly listened, her own nervousness increasing as she listened to him talk about the dangers. “There are emergency pods. I have firsthand experience with them.”

  He dipped his chin and toyed with the cuff of his coat. “That’s right. It’s smart to have an escape plan. You won’t be caught off guard. Someday, if you ever want to tell me about it, I’d like to hear that story.”