The Rising Gold

by Ava Jae

  I can do this. I must.

  “Ora’denja,” I greet, my voice amplified over the crowd. “Thank you all for starting your set with me. Many of you have been wondering about the fate of the criminals Dima and Jarek, and what would become of them after Dima ran from his sentence. I understand many of you were concerned Dima would get away without atoning for his many crimes, and I want to assure you that is not the case.”

  I take a deep breath. And now to the part no one is going to like. “I’ve recently received word Dima and Jarek turned themselves in to the authorities in Invino. As you well know, Invino has outlawed executions as a sentence, which is likely precisely why Dima and Jarek chose to run there. I’ve demanded Invino return the men to us, as they are Eljans … but Avra Arik d’Invino has refused.”

  A low murmur washes through the crowd as people glance at each other. I keep speaking before anyone begins shouting. “I’ve spoken to our military leaders and they agree beginning a war with a nation, that at this very moment is providing vital food we need to make up for the nanite-induced famine, would be incredibly harmful both to Eljans at home and to the warriors we would lose trying to fight a war far from home.”

  The murmuring grows louder and I raise my voice to match them. “However, Dima and Jarek will not go unpunished, as I promised you at the beginning of this address. Avra Arik has offered a compromise to keep our nations at peace, keep Eljans fed, and still punish Dima. Rather than execution, Avra Arik has offered to enact their equivalent sentence: five cycles imprisonment and a lifetime of community service. If accepted, Dima would spend the rest of his life humbling himself and serving the people. And for my part, I will strip him of all titles and resources. He and Jarek will never be permitted to step foot in Elja again.” That last part scrapes its way out of my mouth. It was Uljen’s idea, because I have to do something to show I’m still in charge, and Dima will still suffer in a way related to Elja, given it was largely Eljans he wronged.

  I will likely never see my brother again. But it’s not the first time I’ve had to accept that as reality, and in the end, if it keeps him alive, I’ll do it without question.

  Better exiled than dead.

  To my relief, the murmurs settle some. They aren’t rioting over this possible reality, at least. “I’m going to accept Avra Arik’s proposal with the added conditions I’ve stated. I truly believe this is best for Elja—we can’t afford a war, especially not now, and especially not with Invino. It’s not what we originally imagined would be Dima’s atonement, but he will atone nevertheless, every set for the rest of his life, however long Kala wills it to be.”

  The people nearest me stand stiffly, their arms crossed over their chests and their lips pursed. But no one is protesting. They may not like this, but it seems most can agree war really wouldn’t be a good option for us.

  Maybe this will be okay after all. Maybe I worried over nothing.

  “Kora.”

  I startle at Uljen next to me. I didn’t hear him approach—and it’s not exactly customary for someone to approach me in the middle of an address. I frown at him, but I can’t speak without amplifying everything I say to thousands of people, so my frown is going to have to convey enough.

  “I apologize,” Uljen whispers. “This can’t wait. There’s been an attack in Asheron—a bomb, we think. You need to be briefed immediately.”

  My heart drops into my stomach. A bomb? In Asheron?

  Is Eros okay? Are Mal and Deimos okay?

  Kala, how many people were injured? How serious is this?

  I turn back to the people, fighting to keep my voice even. “I apologize for the interruption. Unfortunately, I’ve just been informed there’s a serious situation I must attend to immediately, so I have to end this address abruptly. Thank you for listening. All further updates will be released through the feed.”

  The crowd’s whispers thunder in my ears as I follow Uljen out of the city square and back to the palace complex with my regimen of guards. And with every slam of my heart of in my chest, every panicked beat of my pulse in my ears, I can only repeat a fleeting, desperate prayer: Kala, please let Eros be okay.

  Please.

  48

  Eros

  My ears are ringing and hot. Smoke bites my eyes and simmers in my lungs. My back stings and the pop and crackle of flame is too familiar—I dream about it with Day, and Nol, and Esta, and the blood, and the screaming and—

  “Kafra,” Deimos groans under me.

  Oh, shit.

  I roll off him, cringing as shards of stars-know-what stabs my back. Sit up, head pounding, squinting through the settling sand and thick gray smoke. Where are we? Not at camp—I know that, these sands are white, and gritty, and cool and not red, not—not like camp. I’m here. I have to stay here right now. I can’t lose myself again, not now.

  “Are you okay?” I ask Deimos.

  He grimaces as he sits up. “I think my back is torn up, but shae, I’m fine. Let’s get out of this smoke, sha?” He grabs my hand and we sortuv pull each other up. My eyes burn and I shudder with the urge to cough as we try to stumble out of the smoke, but the haze is everywhere.

  “Sira Eros!” The call comes from Lejdo, though it takes me a mo of stumbling in a circle before I catch his silhouette through the thick air.

  “We’re here!” Deimos calls with a cough. Lejdo and Fejn move quickly toward us as flames crackle around us and the world becomes a gray, watery blur.

  “Let’s go,” Fejn says as Lejdo gently nudges my shoulder. “It’s not safe for you two here.”

  We’re about halfway back to the palace when Lejdo abruptly stops and touches his ear.

  “What is it?” I ask, but if Lejdo hears me, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he looks at Fejn.

  “Do you hear that?”

  “The comms are coming back online.” Fejn grins at us. “We must be getting tech back.”

  “Thank Kala,” Deimos says with a sigh. “Do you think the explosion had something to do with it?”

  “Maybe …” Lejdo squints ahead of us, shielding his eyes from the suns with his hand. “Someone’s approaching.” He and Fejn shift in front of us, shoulders stiff as they stand prepared to intercept whoever is coming. The low hum of bikes fills the air moments before Lejdo and Fejn relax. As the bikes pull up, I get why; Kantos steps off the lead bike and bows to me.

  “I’m relieved you two are unharmed,” he says. “Let’s get you back to the complex. We have much to discuss.”

  The conference room is about as packed as I’ve ever seen it; not only are all of my Council members there, but a bunch of different people from the guard are there, too, all with different positions. And unlike most of the rooms in the palace, this one isn’t really all that big, so the room actually feels kinduv crowded. Which, weirdly, I like. It reminds me of camp, where ten to twenty people would cram into one tent, leaving barely enough room to move.

  Of course, that’s about the only similarity.

  “The explosion was our team finding the pulse device,” Kantos says. “Unfortunately, it was rigged so when the team entered the room with the device, it exploded. Three men were killed, four others injured. The survivors are in medical now—I’m not yet sure what their prognosis will be as we don’t have nanites for accelerated healing, but we do have tech so … all we can do is pray.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I say, and half the room looks at me weird. What? Do they not say that here? As Kantos squints at me like he’s trying to figure out what to say, Deimos clears his throat next to me.

  “Do we know what will happen with the cure now? Zarana told us they had just about figured something out when the tech went.”

  “I’ll check in with them and send word,” Tol says. “I imagine they should be able to test then distribute something soon, though.”

  “Good,” I say. “I also want to know how someone was able to get this thing hidden in Asheron. Did they bring it in from somewhere? Build it here? I want to ma
ke sure they can’t just do this again.”

  “My men will certainly be investigating that,” Kantos says. “We’ll make sure we bring those behind this into custody.”

  I hesitate. “Just make sure you don’t assume someone is involved just because they’re human. I don’t want anyone brought in unless you’re sure they were involved.”

  Kantos’s eyes widen. “I would never—”

  “Just—cut the shit, will you?” I shake my head. “I’m not putting you down for whatever biases you have—let’s be honest, everyone in this room, myself included, has some kind of biases we have to work through. I just want to make sure innocent humans aren’t targeted over this.”

  Kantos purses his lips, but nods.

  “Thank you.” And then another thought hits me. “What’s the status with Shaw?”

  “We’ll be speaking to him first, naturally,” Kantos says. “He hasn’t given us any information so far but breaking him is clearly our best chance at getting the information we need.”

  I try not to think about that—breaking Shaw. About how I’ve been there, trapped in a dungeon, tortured for information. About how blazed up it is—and now people are doing it someone else under my rule and I shouldn’t be allowing that, it’s so fucken wrong, but at the same time, if we’re not using Shaw to our advantage then why am I wasting resources keeping him, especially when Rani clearly isn’t open to negotiating?

  “That’s not actually what I meant,” I say. “Have you heard from the men guarding him recently? If we’re assuming this whole thing was the Remnant’s attempt to get Shaw back—and that’s what I’m assuming—then it doesn’t make sense for them to go through all of this and not try to free him. Unless there’s been an attempt I don’t know about?”

  “I—naï, el Sira, there hasn’t been an attempt, but my men guarding him checked in less than a segment ago.”

  I nod, but Deimos frowns. “Are you sure?”

  Kantos’s brow furrows. “How would I not be certain?”

  “How did they check in?”

  “Via the comm, as expected now that we have power again.”

  “So you haven’t actually seen them face-to-face.”

  A long pause. Kantos glances at me, then back to Deimos. “Naï … but protocol is to check in every segment through the comm. We see them during changeovers or when someone goes down there.”

  Deimos looks at Tol. “Can you bring up the monitoring feed on the glass, just to make sure?”

  “This is a waste of time we don’t have,” Kantos says. “My men checked in with me in Sephari—even if he somehow managed to escape his cell, which is incredibly unlikely, a human wouldn’t have been able to replicate that.”

  “You can’t seriously believe that,” I interrupt. “Military-trained humans speak fluent Sephari.”

  Kantos falters, just for a breath. “I-I would have heard his accent nevertheless.”

  “Really? Does my accent sound strange to you?” Kantos pauses and stares at me, like he isn’t sure if it’s a trick question. “Go ahead,” I say. “Answer honestly.”

  “Your accent sounds … slightly southern. Eljan, naturally.”

  “And how about now?” I ask, clipping my vowels and enunciating like they do. “Does my accent still sound strange to you?” The panicked widening of his eyes is all the answer I need. “Shae, that’s what I thought.”

  “El Sira?” Tol’s voice sounds small in the room. When I look at them, hands shaking as they hold their glass, everything else stutters to a stop.

  I know that look.

  “Show us.”

  Tol clears their throat. “I, um, had to send a new guide down there because I couldn’t access the ones ordinarily patrolling the area.” Tol transfers the feed to every glass in the room. And the silence sucks the heat from my bones.

  Open cell door. Six guards, throats and chests sliced open. Purple blood drenching their uniforms, shining on the smooth metal floors. Staring endlessly up at the guide chirping, “You require medical assistance. Help is on its way,” over and over.

  “Kafra,” Deimos curses and not a breath later the feed disappears, replaced with a blue screen and an eerie, prolonged, beep.

  “Is … this the tech rebooting?” I ask.

  Tol frowns and shakes their head. “I don’t think so. Unfortunately.” They stand. “I need to get to the tech team.”

  And then Rani’s face appears on every screen and it all makes sense. We’re getting fucken hacked. Again.

  “Congratulations,” she says. “You’ve tracked down the device and restored power to Asheron—I’m sure you’re very proud of yourselves. Now we’re done playing games. Humans have been denied representation again and again for generations. It’s time for that to end—now—and sending humans away is not the answer. We will speak to your Sira, Eros, and he will grant us representation in the government, as was promised us. If you refuse, that surprise we left with the device is a taste of what will come.

  “You have two sets before we make our next move. Think quickly.”

  49

  Eros

  Everyone talks at once. The military leaders, Council members, even Deimos all reacting over each other in a chorus of overlapping voices that becomes a blanket of noise. The edges of a brainblaze licks behind my eyes and I rub my temples. I haven’t had a serious brainblaze since I started taking that sleep stuff, but with Rani’s words echoing in my skull and everyone trying to get their perspective in—

  “Eros, are you all right?” Deimos touches my shoulder and frowns.

  “Fine,” I mutter. “Can you help me get everyone’s attention?”

  Deimos nods, takes a deep breath, and his voice booms across the room. “El Sira would like to speak.”

  The chatter slips into silence. My pulse drums in my ears as I clear my throat. “Thank you. Now if everyone could speak one at a time so we can actually understand each other, we might get something done.”

  “We need to track down this Remnant and annihilate them,” Kantos says. “They’ve been killing our people and ripping our city apart for too long. Something must be done.”

  That word—annihilate—hits me like a kick to the ribs. “Naï,” I say immediately. “We’re not—naï.”

  “Kantos is right, Eros.” Deimos touches my hand and frowns at me. “They unleashed biological warfare on the city. People have died—and now this explosion and threat of more? And we’ve lost our leverage with Shaw. This needs to end.”

  I shake my head. “I agree we need to stop them, but annihilation is never the answer. I won’t approve of wiping any group of people out, not even the Remnant.”

  Kantos scowls. “And I suppose you have a better plan?”

  “I want to talk to them and try to come to a peaceful compromise. There’s no reason to start an all-out war right now—things are unstable enough without adding a battle to the mix.”

  “We’re already at war,” Deimos says. “You said so yourself when you spoke to Rani—they declared war on us when they unleashed a virus in the city, and when they knocked out our power, and when they blew up our soldiers.”

  “That’s right,” Kantos says. “We’ve been at war the entire time—the only difference is thus far, except when your nephew was abducted, we’ve only sat back and taken the abuse while the other side went unpunished.”

  “I’m not sending a military unit to go into the desert and slaughter a bunch of humans. I want to end this just as badly as everyone else, but I’m not going to order any bloodshed unless I absolutely have to.”

  Deimos purses his lips and Kantos looks like he wants to reach across the table and strangle me, but too fucken bad. I’m Sira. They take orders from me.

  I turn to Tol. “Do you think you could get a message back to the Remnant?”

  Tol considers that for a moment then nods. “I’m sure I could get a team together to trace back the hack and send a message that way.”

  “Good.” I stand. “I’m going
to try negotiating with them again. And if that doesn’t work …” I look at Tol and take a deep breath. “Then we’ll talk.”

  Nol once told me a story about the first ones who came to Asheron and how they tried to bury their dead. He said there were so many killed that at first they tried to build a large room underground to put them in and leave them to … rot, I guess. Nol said it was called a tomb.

  Sitting in the techie’s giant underground room again kinduv feels the way I imagine it’d feel to sit in a tomb. Except with more tech, obviously. But with the pressure of a city’s worth of sand above us and surrounding us on all sides, it’s only forced focus on anything and everything else that keeps me from flipping sand.

  “We’re in,” one of the techies setting up the hack says. “Are you ready to go on feed, el Sira?”

  I look at the guide hovering in front of my face. Roll my shoulders back, smother the buzz in my chest, and nod. “I’m ready.”

  The orb guide spins in the air, stabilizes, then chirps, “Recording,” just as the glasses set up in front of me fill with the view of a familiar room. An underground bunker like this one, except a lot smaller, with slightly older tech, and full of humans.

  Humans staring at me with wide eyes and gaping mouths. I resist the urge to smirk. We finally caught them off guard.

  “My name is Eros, as I’m sure you know,” I say. “I need to talk to Rani.”

  For a mo, nothing happens—they stare at me, I guess shocked we managed to hack them back, and processing, I guess, that I’m interrupting whatever they were doing before the feed hack started. Then, finally, a few people get up and rush out of the room, hopefully to go get Rani.

  It takes a few awkward mos of us staring at each other while we wait, but finally Rani waltzes into the room with a frown. “Eros,” she says stiffly. “What a surprise.”

  “Is it, though? You threatened me first. And it sounded like you wanted me to respond—unless you just wanted an excuse to attack us again.”

  Rani purses her lips and crosses her arms over her chest. “This is good—I’m glad you’re reaching out. So let’s talk. What’s on your mind?”