“Yes, yes!” I shouted. “I confirm.”
Suvis and Eton met, arms a blur, feet dancing. Eton would deflect, trap a limb, and attempt to engage, only to have Suvis pummel him from another direction. But unlike Suvis’s fight with me, Eton didn’t seem to get worn down. Instead, he absorbed each hit, and his smile only grew. For once, he was exactly where he wanted to be, where he needed to be. Every strike, every punishing blow, fed him. He was the shield, the last line. And he was willing, happy, to pay the price.
“Your Royal Majesty King Makar Treznor-Nirmana, please confirm to complete this transaction.”
“Confirmed,” Makar said, then looked at me. “There. All done.” He keyed open the door.
I hurtled through even as Suvis somersaulted backward, retrieving his sword. He twisted to meet both my blades with his one, their lights intermingling and flickering between us.
“I will kill you,” I snarled, my face almost touching his.
He headbutted me and whirled to meet Eton.
And for the next few seconds, Suvis held both of us off. I had expected him to crumple under our attack, not become even faster than before. His sword flickered between us so quickly that it felt impossible that he was responding to our moves, seemingly anticipating them instead. My blades sparked against his, Eton ducked and danced, and neither of us could connect.
Until I trapped his blade with both of mine, and Eton snap-kicked him in the chest.
Suvis twisted uncannily in midair as he fell, his hands grasping the edge of the catwalk by his fingertips. He swung underneath it, caught the other side, and heaved himself back up to our level.
Eton and I both stared. “All right,” I said. “That’s simply ridiculous.”
Suvis didn’t stay to argue. He turned and ran, legs and arms pumping, straight for a shuttle launch bay. Eton and I gave chase, only to have the launch door close in our faces.
As we watched the shuttle depart, engines flaring in the darkness of space, I remembered Makar and turned, only to see him at another shuttle bay. He waved cheerfully. “The fleet is yours, my future nephew-in-law. I will be watching with total attention. Best of luck.” And then he, too, was gone.
“Well, wonderful,” I said, for a moment overwhelmed with simple irritation. I looked to Eton, to see he had silently slid to the ground, clutching his ribs, eyes shut. Of course. He had seemed incapable of pain, but the amount of damage he’d just absorbed would have leveled most men several times over. Instinct took over and I kneeled by his side, fumbling for the medi-kit pouch on my suit.
Telu sounded in my ear, her voice almost panicked. “Nev, for the love of the ancestors, respond.” I’d been hearing her before now only vaguely, the volume down so I could concentrate. “Eton has gone offline. Are you all right?”
I wiped the sweat from my brow with a shaky hand, prepping a stim for Eton. “Affirmative, Telu. The fleet is in our possession. Eton is okay. We had some, uh, excitement.”
“I’ve about had my fill of excitement, so keep it down a notch,” she snapped. “Solara is pulling back her shuttles. She knows you have the fleet. Makar’s confirmation sent out a detectable signal.”
At least that was something. Without her here on the docks, we’d have more time to mobilize. It was going to take a little while to get pilots into the ships, boot them up, and warm up the engines. “Right. Keep me informed. Give me two, I need to take care of something.”
I pushed the stim against Eton’s thigh, and it injected with a hiss. He gasped with relief. I moved to his face next, placing a plastiskin patch on his gashed cheek.
He cracked an eyelid and looked at me. “Thanks.”
He was bruised, bloody, but alive. And I was alive thanks to him. “The least I could do,” I said shortly.
He chuckled. “We make a pretty good team, I guess.” Then he opened both eyes, his expression serious, and dragged himself into a seated position. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner.” He held out a hand. “I have a lot to make up for, if you’ll let me.”
I stared. Eton had tried to kill me not once, but twice. Maybe three times, depending on how one counted. From the day I had met him, he’d been hostile and rude. He had betrayed me at one of my lowest points, while pretending to be, if not a friend, then at least a partner-in-crime.
“You never give up,” I said slowly, not taking his hand. “At every turn, you keep trying again.”
Eton kept it extended. “Like I said, I have a lot to make up for. I just do what I can.”
I’d said the same words to the Priestess of Truth. Eton had been struggling for the same thing as I. To somehow, in some small way, make things better. To keep those he loved safe. And in the process, he had hurt me very badly.
If I couldn’t forgive him for that, if I couldn’t see his struggle to redeem himself, how could I expect anyone to tolerate my mistakes? How could I hope for someone like Arjan to ever forgive me, no matter how hard I tried?
If any of us were to stand a chance in what came next, we all needed to act as a team.
I took his hand. “New start,” I said firmly.
Eton blinked, surprise on his craggy face. Then he smiled, a genuine, happy smile. “Deal.”
“Nev! Eton!” Qole called out from behind us, and I turned to see her exiting the elevator. Relief washed over me to see her unharmed. Basra and Arjan were with her as well, Arjan missing several of the knives he had been carrying before. They looked between Eton and me, their faces questioning.
“No, I didn’t do this to him,” I said with a sigh, standing from my kneeling position.
“As if,” Eton rumbled. “When you get as good as that guy, I’ll ask you for lessons.”
“Hey,” I protested, but then held out my hand, this time to help him up. He clasped it, and I pulled him to his feet with a grunt.
I was unable to contain a grin at the mystified expressions on the others’ faces. I looked at them, these extraordinary people arrayed to either side of me, and for the first time, I felt a glimmer of hope. I’d thought I had to push everyone away in order to do what my position demanded of me. But perhaps we could do this. Together.
Telu’s voice sounded on the comm again. “Nev, Devrak needs to talk to you. I can transfer him to you when you’re ready.”
I went still. Even though we had set up a way for him to contact the Kaitan, I knew he wouldn’t be contacting me so soon if something weren’t wrong. “Put him through.”
Devrak’s voice was quiet. “Nev, there isn’t much time. Listen carefully. I’ve been accepted on the ship, with no security restrictions.”
I glanced at Qole, frowning. “That’s good, right?”
Devrak ignored my comment. “Solara gave the order to an advance team of destroyers to enter Valtai’s orbital airspace. She’s going to destroy the ships in their docks, Nevarian.”
I broke out in a sweat. “She can’t. Treznor-Nirmana will consider that an act of war; they’ll attack her fleet.”
“That’s what I told her. She said now that you own it, they will treat it as a civil war and stay neutral. It helps that she’s only sending a few ships. She’s right, Nevarian—no one is going to stop her.”
There was no time to power up the ships before she made her move, especially not the Belarius Drives. Defense was impossible. Escape was impossible. Even if we boarded the shuttles our forces had come in on, she’d blow us out of the sky before we could get far enough away. The realization settled over all of us in the command center with the same quiet, heavy chill of a mausoleum.
“What about Talia and Gavros?” I asked desperately. “Their twenty destroyers could make the difference in our fleet getting operational here.” They’d been holding back for diplomacy with the Treznor-Nirmanas, but now, apparently, that wasn’t an issue.
“If they can get there in time. The chances a
re slim.” Devrak’s voice cut into the silence. “Unless I ensure things on this end.”
I couldn’t respond. I knew what he wanted.
He was asking for approval to assassinate Solara.
“Nev, she will kill you all without a second thought.” The voice in my ear was gentle, despite the words. I couldn’t remember him calling me by my nickname ever before. “She’s a monster.”
She was. I knew it was true. But she was also my sister, my own blood, and a person who could have been my close friend. Now I was going to order her assassination because we were both struggling for the same thing. Grasping for power, for the crown.
Besides…
“Devrak, killing Solara is a suicide mission,” I said. Qole’s eyed widened, and I held them, something steady.
“Not necessarily. I have options, and Suvis isn’t here. But…Nevarian, I’m a soldier. We can all die at any time. And we have little time to act.”
I bit my lip, looking down. In the end, this wasn’t about power. It was about survival—Solara or thousands of people.
I couldn’t think of it as Qole or Devrak.
Unable to look at the others, I walked to the edge of the walkway and gazed through the glass beyond. I could see our boarding shuttles at the construction docks nearest to us, the power flickering on in the battle carriers and destroyers. Each light felt like life—lives—behind which a team of people worked frantically, who believed in my leadership, who believed that Solara’s rule was wrong.
Something cold and hard settled around my heart. “Please make it quick.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. You’re doing the right thing.” Not giving me a chance to argue, he added, “It will be best if you comm your sister when I give a signal, keep her focus on you. I’ll click open an encrypted line to Telu when I’m ready.”
“Devrak…” I worked hard to keep my voice steady, as calm as his. “I need to you to know that you’re my friend.”
“I dislike good-byes.” I couldn’t see his face, but the smile in his voice brought it to mind vividly—that brilliant, rare grin, the laugh lines in his brown skin, and the eyes that seemed too gentle for what the hands were capable of. “But, my king…my friend…we will speak when this is over, I promise you.”
I nodded, feeling foolish, knowing he couldn’t see me. “I believe you.”
There was the faint tone of his disconnect, and that was it.
The control center was quiet as Nev waited for the signal from Devrak. Telu was nearby, infopads in hand, keeping Devrak’s comm channel secure. She also helped Eton bind a few final bandages with a tenderness I hadn’t noticed in her before, nearly like how Arjan and Basra were fussing over each other. Telu must have missed him. I had too, but the moment my feet tried to lift in his direction, my body froze, like I was about to step over an edge.
I stood, effectively alone, trying not to feel the empty space around me like a chill. They all had someone to comfort them, except for me. And Nev. We both stared at the still-black vid feed, ready and waiting to come alive with Solara’s image.
I jumped when I felt an arm around my waist. Telu stood at my side and gave me a squeeze, along with a tentative smile. “How you holding up?”
“Fine,” I lied, my voice tight. I didn’t want her to know how much I appreciated her presence. If I didn’t need self-pity, I didn’t need her pity, either.
Another arm came across my shoulders from the other side…Arjan. “If anyone can do this, Devrak can,” he muttered. “We’ll make it.”
Together, my brother and Telu made a sandwich with me between them. My family, surrounding me. Hadn’t it been just us in the beginning? I’d felt so stable and self-sufficient before, but now, being responsible for them sometimes made my loneliness feel like it was enough to crush me.
“I am here,” Nev’s voice said.
I glanced at him, trying to stifle my urge to gasp. It had sounded like him, but I knew it was impossible.
I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, willing myself to calm down, my heartbeat to slow. That was another reason I couldn’t get close to anyone. When insanity finally enveloped me in its long-promised embrace, it would be better if no one else was nearby.
And it was already happening.
Maybe Shadow, in my blood and bones from the very beginning, had been my closest companion.
“Yes. You are learning. We are learning.” Nev’s disembodied voice, speaking those words, made me shiver.
“You sure you’re all right?” Telu murmured softly.
“I said I was fine.” I slipped away from both her and Arjan in case I shuddered again and they felt it. They both glanced at each other. Telu looked hurt—but not for long. Her fingers went to the comm at her ear.
“Devrak clicked his channel open!” she said, hurrying to her array of infopads, laid out over the top of a control panel. “Two clicks, which means Solara’s in her office on the Volassa. I’m requesting an open line now.”
It took only thirty seconds. We all stared, barely breathing, at the vid feed until it blinked into life.
Solara stood on the other end. She shone like a star, as usual, and wore a small smile on her face. Every muscle in my body flexed. Nev faced her, seemingly calm, his eyes tired, his hair mussed, but his shoulders squared in his armor, the control center transparent behind him. The rest of us were even more haggard. Solara was no doubt taking us all in with pleasure. If I could have leapt through the feed to strangle her, I would have.
A private office looked to be in the background of Solara’s feed, paneled in dark wood. Only the edge of a holodesk was visible in front of her. There was no sign of Devrak yet.
“I must say, I’m surprised,” she said, her voice smooth and almost pleasant, if not for the brittleness, like ice ready to crack. “I didn’t think you were one for begging.”
“I don’t want to beg,” Nev said, his expression still, his voice as level and taut as a tightrope.
“You wish to hurl more false accusations at me before you face justice?” she added, probably for the benefit of anyone else who might be listening, in case we were trying to set her up. “Now, that would be more like you.”
“I just want to talk, Solara.”
“Do you wish to discuss the weather? The latest fashion in Dracorva? I’m all ears, at least for the amount of time it takes my destroyers to reach you.”
“I want you to rethink what you’re doing. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
I remembered him saying the same thing to me on Aaltos—the same hopeful, futile words. They were futile in Solara’s case even more than mine, because more impossible than a future with Nev and me together was a compromise from a power-hungry sociopath.
“Oh?” she asked breezily. “What can it be? I’m sure you’ll tell me anyway.”
“We’re Dracortes, Solara. This is beneath us. The systems are watching, and—”
She scoffed and folded her arms. “Do not preach to me about family honor, brother, when you were willing to throw it all away for an infatuation. And please spare me a further lesson about the supposed morality of what you did. We’re both just fighting for what we want.”
Nev pressed on. “Well then, hear me as your brother if you won’t as a Dracorte. We are blood, Solara. We grew up together. We’ve dined and laughed and danced together more times than I can count. Can you really do this to me, destroy me, while looking me in the face?”
He looked so sincere, even to me. I hoped this was part of the distraction and he wasn’t actually trying to convince her. His naïveté had hurt him too many times.
Solara stared at Nev. I could see nothing in her steely, silver-gray eyes. No hint of remorse or glimmer of feeling.
A knock sounded through the feed, rapping on the door to Solara’s office. Her face lit up, then. “Ah, yes. I wanted you to see him. To
realize where he truly stands, which is not with you.” She tipped her head. “Come in, Devrak.”
Devrak appeared in the background, looking entirely at ease.
Her voice went plaintive. “Devrak, Nev is on the feed, trying to talk me into pulling back. Do you think I should listen?”
Devrak arched an eyebrow. “Strategically unwise, unless he plans to admit his guilt in your parents’ murder and abdicate his false claim to the throne, so we can put him through proper channels for justice.”
He was obviously acting, but he was putting on a good show. Almost too good. He had to be, for Solara.
Her smile was predatory. “See, Nev? No one believes your lies. Not your sister, not your old mentor. You’re a traitor to your name, your blood, and your subjects, and this is justice.” She nodded in Devrak’s direction without taking her eyes from the feed. “It must hurt your sanctimonious sense of moral superiority to know that someone like Devrak is loyal to me.”
Nev didn’t have to pretend to glower.
This was the time for Devrak to strike. But he didn’t move. I started to feel nervous.
“You need more convincing, I think, brother dear,” Solara said, her eyes narrowed at Nev. “Devrak?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?” he said levelly, clasping his hands behind his back.
“Are Talia and Gavros coming to Nev’s aid?”
Devrak’s brow furrowed. “Your Majesty…”
“It’s okay, Devrak. We can tell him now. It’s too late for him to do anything about it. Did you or did you not bring Talia and Gavros my terms and convince them to stay out of this fight?”
Devrak’s face smoothed—resigned. That was when I knew we were in trouble. “Yes.”
“No,” Nev said immediately after.
Solara grinned like a girl with the winning hand at a card game. “Check your feeds. Are the twenty Aaltos destroyers rushing to your aid?”
No, I thought, echoing Nev. Not only Devrak, but Talia would never…
Telu cursed. “Great Collapse, she’s right. They said they were coming, but…”
Shadow Call Page 29