“Not sure I’ll be the same without me eye, neither.”
“It will heal, Stone. I know it will,” Lauren soothed him.
He tried to grin, but the smile turned into a grimace of pain. “I like yer optimism, lass. Wish I could share it.”
“Can you make it outside? Do you need to rest in one of these rooms?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, Ri, ol’ Stone’s been in worse scrapes than this’un. Pirates lose bits o’ theirselves all the time. No need to worry ‘bout me. Set me down, point me in the right direction, and I’ll be after ye, right enough. Nought wrong with me legs, after all.” He was trying to be brave, but I could hear the tinge of fear in his voice. Listening to his words, Nisha set him down on the ground, though she kept a wary eye on him in case he stumbled.
“You’ll get your eye back, Stone. Stop talking like that,” Lauren chided gently, slipping an arm around his waist for support.
“Hey, sweet thing, no matter if I don’t. Ain’t nothin’ but a curse to me kind anyhow,” he assured her. “Ye remember that tale what I told ye, about the lad without the power, who saved the lass from dyin’ as she held back a cruel gang o’ blighters?”
She nodded, a tear running down her cheek.
“Well, that’ll be me if me eye don’t come back rightways,” he said, lifting her chin to kiss her tenderly on the lips. “No harm done. I’ll just be the lad who protects in other ways. Now, let’s get to steppin’! Don’t want to be wastin’ time on triflin’ burns that don’t mean nothin’.” Hurriedly, he tied his bandana back across his injured eye, hiding it from sight. I knew he was doing it for Lauren’s benefit, to stop her from worrying.
“Let’s start by getting out of here with the goods,” Bashrik suggested, quickening the pace. “We don’t want the guards coming before we’ve managed to escape the perimeter. Ronad, how are we looking?”
“Nobody coming as of yet,” he replied.
“All good?” Harko asked.
“We’re alive, the guards aren’t on their way yet, and your innocent bystander is breathing, if that’s what you mean,” I replied. “Now, let’s see if we can keep hold of all three, shall we?”
We moved stealthily through the endless passageways, following Nisha’s directions, diving into vacant rooms and storage facilities whenever danger came around the corner. Soon enough, twenty minutes later, we found ourselves on some steps leading down into the western gardens. I remembered them vaguely from the last time I’d stayed at the palace, but they’d never been favored by Gianne. They were beautiful and elegant, the blooms encrusted in frost, the water features frozen over.
“How does it look?” I asked Ronad.
“All clear,” he replied. Just as Ronad had said, there was nobody wandering around the vacant gardens, and the surrounding battlements were empty of guards.
“You know, you’re the reason I befriended the humans here in the first place,” Nisha told me as we paused on the steps, waiting for the others to catch up. Harko and Bashrik were a short distance behind, watching our backs.
“Oh?”
“I know you had that silly hood on, and were doing the whole cloak-and-dagger rigmarole, but I remembered what you looked like. When these guys arrived, I noticed they were the same species as you, and volunteered to watch over them,” she explained. “Navan seemed pretty fond of you that day. I know him well, and I’d never seen him like that before. I knew your kind had to be good sorts if you could win the Chief Grump over.”
I smiled. “Yeah, we’re not so bad.”
“Do you still see each other—you and Navan?” Nisha asked.
“You could say that… We’re married,” I admitted shyly.
I almost avoided the congratulatory slap on the back, worried the blood might slosh over the edge of the vat I carried, but I couldn’t get out of the way in time.
“Well, I have to say, I’m thrilled! I knew there was something going on between you two, but I didn’t want to say. It’s not exactly welcomed in these parts, though I’m sure you already know that,” she said apologetically. “I don’t mind it, and nobody I know minds it, but it’s the upper crust who frown on such things. Bigots and hypocrites, the bunch of them.”
“Well, we’ll soon change that, won’t we?” I murmured.
She laughed heartily. “I hope so, Riley. I really do. My contacts and I will do all we can to help you achieve a peaceful Vysanthe. You can count on that.”
“That’s very comforting to know,” I replied.
Just then, Bashrik and Harko burst out of the back doors, skidding to a halt on the top of the garden steps. Their eyes were wide in alarm.
“The queens and guards… they know!” Bashrik gasped, clutching his chest.
Harko nodded excitedly, barely out of breath. “We saw them running for the lower floors. One of those alchemists managed to get out and sound the alarm.”
“Did anyone see you?”
Bashrik shook his head. “No, we were careful. Nobody saw us.”
“Crap, crap, crap, crap,” I muttered, wanting to say a much ruder word. “The queens are going to send out search parties. We need to skedaddle before they do!”
“How are we getting out?” Harko asked.
“I can pick you up, if I can get close enough to the palace. You might have to wait five minutes,” Ronad replied.
Bashrik stepped forward. “No, we’ll fly out of this place and hope nobody notices us, then head back to Sarrask’s. Your ship will be too obvious, Ronad. We left no evidence behind, and we don’t want them discovering any now. Hopefully, the queens will continue to blame the rebels for the attack on the lab. They won’t be looking for a handful of escapees; they’ll be looking for ships. Ronad, you should get out of here.”
“I can’t just leave you,” he protested.
“Ronad, seriously, meet us back at the cottage,” I warned. “It’ll be too dangerous for you in the ship. Go before they start scanning the palace perimeter—they’ll be looking for vessels.”
He gave a reluctant sigh. “Copy that. I’ll end transmission in case they pick it up.”
“See you soon.”
“Be careful.”
With no time to wait around, we ran toward the high walls that surrounded the gardens. While Bashrik had used his suit to climb the wall on the way in, knowing flight would draw too much attention, he spread out his wings this time, the fabric of his suit tearing, and surged upward, lifting Stone with him. Nisha grasped Lauren as though she weighed nothing, while Harko snatched me up and lifted me into the sky.
As soon as we were over the battlements, we flew low to the ground, praying the guards would ignore us in favor of the chaos going on within the palace walls. I looked at the retreating palace over Nisha’s shoulder, scouring the parapets for any sign of coldbloods. By the looks of it, all the queens’ soldiers had disappeared inside, running to the call of “invader.” Bashrik had been right: with the threat of rebels bristling through the palace corridors, nobody cared to look closer at a small group of strangers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Three-quarters of the way back to the cluster of houses beside the glittering lake, where Sarrask’s house stood, Bashrik set Stone down on a patch of scorched earth. Nisha landed beside them, putting Lauren on solid ground. Harko swooped in after, setting me carefully on the burnt grass, so as not to spill the vat of blood.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“The wind from all this flyin’ is searin’ me eye mighty bad,” Stone replied, grimacing. “I need to walk on me own two feet awhile, if ye don’t mind the trek?”
Lauren looked like she was about to burst into tears. “We’ll do whatever you need, Stone. If you want to walk, then we’re going to walk.”
“Ye always know just what to say, lass.”
I turned to Bashrik. “Is it far?”
“An hour’s walk, maybe. To be honest, this is probably a good thing.” He paused, realizing what he’d said. Stumbling ove
r his words, he went on. “Not your eye, of course, Stone! I mean, if anyone did see us leave and chases us down, they won’t think to look to the ground, not if we keep to the tree-line here.” He gestured to the woodland that bordered the scorched ground.
“Then we better get going,” I urged, eager to be reunited with Navan and Jareth. We had the ingredients for the anti-elixir. The sooner we could get started on its creation, the better.
In the distance, I could make out the hazy fog of the sleeping mist being funneled across the barren tundra between North and South, keeping the rebels at bay.
I was interested to know what these sleeping chambers were, that the queens had been talking about. Had they formed some kind of prison to keep the rebels in, pumping this same mist into cells? Either way, if they were running out of resources to make the mist, we were on borrowed time. As soon as that barrier stopped functioning, the rebels would strike. They’d already made their move at high altitude, attacking the sky prison. It had been a personal mission, driven by Aurelius’s desire to see his wife again, but he’d still managed to infiltrate the queens’ territory without them realizing. Undoubtedly, the rebels had turned tail and fled once they’d realized neither Jareth nor Seraphina was inside anymore, but I imagined that was too close for the queens’ comfort.
“Hey, Stone, you want to hear a joke?” Bashrik chirped with forced cheer.
Stone glanced at him, amused. “Aye, go on. I could do with a lark.”
“What's the difference between a star crab with boobs and a derelict public transport depot?”
“Dunno?”
“One’s a busty crustacean, one’s a rusty bus station.”
Stone smirked.
“I have another one! How many coldbloods does it take to screw in a solar bulb?”
Stone shrugged. “I dunno, how ‘bout ye tell me?”
“One. They’re efficient and not very funny.”
“Ye got me there,” Stone replied, humoring Bashrik.
“Apparently, someone gets shot on the Junkyard every fifty-two seconds. Poor bastard.”
Stone snorted at that one. “Now, that’un tickled me.”
“Time for the greatest joke of all time,” Bashrik continued. “What did the pirate say when he turned eighty?”
“Dunno, Bash.”
“Aye matey!”
It was impossible not to laugh at Bashrik’s adorable attempt to make Stone smile, even if his jokes were terrible. Weirdly, it reminded me of Roger, far away on the other side of the universe. Jokes had always been his thing—terrible, terrible dad jokes that he used to wind me up with. With everything going on, they’d been pushed to the back of my mind. But now… man, I missed them.
“Hey, Stone, what’s the difference between snowmen and snowwomen?” Bashrik tried again.
Stone’s face brightened. “I know this’un. Snowballs!”
Meanwhile, Harko and Nisha were deep in discussion about the citizens’ task force. After the escape, it seemed like Harko was taking things a lot more seriously. It was hard to eavesdrop on them with Bashrik’s endless comedy routine going on beside me, but I managed to catch a few snippets of their conversation.
“There are a few dudes I know from my mountain-diving days who’d be down to help,” Harko said. “Blood, they were always moaning on and on about the queens messing things up, and I know they’d dig a real government. I’d be down for a real government. You think it would mean no more fighting? Rask, I’m sick of this war. It keeps going on and on. Hate to see violence and stuff—starting to feel kinda bad about making all the stuff they’re throwing at each other, you know what I mean?”
“You’re in weapons manufacturing?” Nisha replied.
He nodded. “Yeah, there’s a mad artistry in weapon-making, blood, but I got into it before all of this started, y’know? Never thought they’d get used or anything. I mean, folks weren’t dropping bombs on each other and killing other people, you know what I mean? Not sure I want to be in that game anymore, if I can help it. Might use this opportunity to make amends for all the weapons I’ve made.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Nisha encouraged him. “Do you have any acquaintances in weapons manufacturing who might join us?”
Harko grinned. “You know what, yeah, I think I might. We can get some deterrents made up for when we have to administer this anti-elixir! Your people know how to handle themselves?”
“They can handle anything,” she assured him, with a knowing smile.
Lauren was walking on her own at the back of the group, her eyes fixed on Stone. I hadn’t noticed her slipping back until I turned to the side and found her missing. I came to a halt and waited for her to catch up. Approaching me, she bit her trembling lip, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
“I can’t believe it… his poor eye,” she whispered.
Overhearing her misery, Stone stopped and came back for her, cutting Bashrik’s stand-up routine short. “Hey, we’ll not have no tears, sweet thing. Ye gotta leave the tears to me, ye hear?”
“I should’ve done more to stop him,” Lauren muttered bitterly.
“Ye couldn’t o’ stopped him even if ye’d tried,” Stone replied, taking Lauren’s hands in his. “All o’ this were supposed to happen.”
Lauren looked up at him in surprise. “What?”
“Well, I s’pose there ain’t no harm in tellin’ ye now, is there?” he said brightly, gazing into Lauren’s eyes. I felt like a third wheel, but I was too intrigued to walk away. “I knew this were goin’ to happen, sweetie. I knew I could stand to lose me eye. When that tosser reached fer that stuff, I knew Orfaio’s vision were comin’ true. So, I don’t want no tears in yer beauteous eyes, ye hear? I chose to come along with ye to the palace. I chose me path, and I’m grand to live with this here outcome if needs be.”
A tear fell from Lauren’s eye. “You knew?”
“Aye, I didn’t want to be selfish. I been tryin’ to live for somethin’ bigger than meself, ever since I fell fer this right dazzlin’ lass who showed me what it’s like to be selfless.” He grinned at Lauren, lifting her hand to his lips. “This lass… ah, man, she makes me want to be a better kind o’ bloke. I’d burn out all me eyes if she asked me to.”
Lauren chuckled softly. “Please don’t.”
“In honesty, I were hopin’ ye’d say that,” he teased. “Now, no more tears. I’m goin’ to hear the rest o’ Bash’s jokes before he starts askin’ if I hate him. Will ye be grand?”
She nodded. “I’ve got Riley. I’ll be fine.”
“Glad to hear it.” He dipped forward and kissed her on the lips. He made his way back to Bashrik, who looked forlorn in the distance. His face brightened immediately, realizing his man-crush had come back to him.
“Looks like you’ve still got competition,” I joked, wanting to cheer her up.
She remained staring at Stone. “I just wish there was more I could’ve done, you know?”
I put my arm around her shoulders. “Hey, vision or no vision, he’d be in a far worse state if it wasn’t for you. The way you flew at Yorrek like a madwoman—it was scary as hell to see you like that, but who knows what he might have done if you hadn’t. You stopped him from throwing more, and you stopped him from shooting any of us. We’ve all got a lot to thank you for.”
Lauren froze with a gasp, turning to grab me by the shoulders. “The sign! The freaking sign! That was it, and I almost missed it!”
“What sign? What are you talking about?” The others carried on without us, oblivious to Lauren’s excitement.
“Orfaio said that I would feel my heart break, and the crack of it would cause my rage to overtake me. When that happened, they told me it would be the time for us to call on the pacifists,” she rambled. “I thought it meant Stone was going to do something terrible, something that would hurt me. I’ve been expecting the worst ever since the Stargazer said that to me, but it wasn’t a betrayal at all. I mean, this is still really, really bad, don’t
get me wrong, but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. That is why my stupid brain almost missed it!”
I frowned. “The pacifists? You mean, Cambien and the Draconians?”
“I guess so.”
I slipped the chunk of opaleine out of the pocket of my rubber suit and turned it over in my hands. The sapphire veins sparkled in the harsh sunlight, reminiscent of Gianne’s palace. She had so much opaleine in that place, no doubt reminding her of the planets her kind had exploited and conquered. It made me shudder with anger, to think of what the coldbloods had done to the Draconians. Not only that, they’d been robbed of their revenge, too.
“But it’s too soon,” I said. I’d thought about calling on Cambien many times before, but something had always stopped me. I had that same sensation now—the feeling that it wasn’t quite time. The situation was only just scraping its way out of being entirely hopeless, thanks to the prospect of the anti-elixir, and we were hardly closer to the final blow that Cambien had suggested I wait for.
Lauren frowned. “Orfaio hasn’t let us down so far.”
“Why now, though?” I pondered aloud. “Asking for Cambien’s help to fight an immortal coldblood army seems completely unfair. I’d basically be asking this ally of his to die for us. Whoever they might be, they wouldn’t know the severity of the situation until they actually got here, and then what would they do? It’s not as if they could just turn around and go back to where they came from. Cambien promised this ally would fight—they’d have to get involved, regardless of us being way off the finish line.”
“Orfaio said they had to be called once the sign presented itself,” Lauren repeated, her tone uncertain. “These cryptic clues aren’t good for everyone. We know that already. But you said it yourself: it’s all about a bigger picture. A universal picture. It might not be fair, but if that’s what Orfaio says has to be done, that’s what has to be done.”
I sighed. “I know you’re right… but I don’t like it one bit.”
Hotbloods 8: Stargazers Page 28