Zenith

by Sasha Alsberg

  Andi’s skin prickled at the thought of being here. She didn’t belong on this planet, and never could.

  She felt as if she was tainting the ground of this beautiful planet with every step she took.

  This would be the first time Valen had really seen her in four years. The day he was rescued didn’t count—she doubted he’d truly registered who she was before blacking out, much like earlier today.

  It wasn’t just Valen seeing her that unsettled Andi, but her seeing him. This time around, he wouldn’t be bloody with scraps of clothing falling off his thin frame. He would be coherent, cleaned up so that he resembled the boy she’d shared an estate with, and she had no idea what to expect. A man who had been driven mad by his years of imprisonment? Or the brother of Kalee, finally facing his sister’s killer?

  She’d seen many Arcardians since her escape, but none who personally knew her past. Not only was Valen the first person she had seen who truly knew the old Andi—excluding General Cortas, of course—but he was also one of the people she’d hurt the most.

  This was not going to be a happy reunion. Of that she was sure.

  The guilt she felt toward the general wasn’t the same as it was toward Valen. It was hard to explain; a feeling she couldn’t quite pinpoint, almost as if she were a ship without a mapping system. Barreling endlessly toward some place she didn’t truly know the route to. Perhaps it was because Valen had always been so pure and good, while General Cortas had a way of manipulating her guilt for his own gain.

  She focused instead on the fact that tonight was supposed to be a celebration. Revalia would soon begin. It had been fifteen years since The Cataclysm came to an end, and today was a time for the Unified Systems to celebrate their victory.

  Each individual planet celebrated in their own way. Adhira’s Revalia Festival was full of dancing and drinking, blissful oblivion and starry skies. Something Andi would have loved and longed for once. The Arcardian festivities weren’t as lively—the militant planet chose to celebrate with banquets and strictly orchestrated parades rather than with a carefree nature.

  Celebrating on Adhira should’ve excited her, but today, the idea of celebrating seemed false. To add to that, a few days from now, when they landed on Arcardius, the Intergalactic Summit would take place. The leaders from each of the four systems would be present to symbolize that peace still existed in the galaxy, and would continue to exist between the planets that made up the Unified Systems.

  Andi hadn’t taken part in the celebrations in years. If they hadn’t landed here at such a time, she imagined she probably would have let another year go by unnoticed.

  “Hey, Cap,” Gilly said, drawing Andi back to the present.

  She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with a fuzzy orange ball. At first Andi thought it was some sort of strange fruit she’d picked up outside, but as she slowed her pacing, Andi saw that it had two large eyes and what seemed to be three horns protruding from its head.

  “Gilly, what the hell is that?” Andi yelped.

  “Not sure. I found it upstairs and thought it was cute,” Gilly mused, eyes never leaving the thing in front of her. It batted at her with a paw nearly as large as its smushed face. Gilly giggled and scratched it on the head behind its protruding horns. “I like him.”

  “What if it’s poisonous?”

  “It’s not.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because the little bastard bit me,” Breck interjected from her seat. She held up a finger wrapped in gauze. “And I’m not dead yet. I am, however, planning tens of thousands of ways to kill it.”

  “Don’t listen to her, Havoc.” Gilly scooped the fuzzball up and held it close.

  “For the love of the stars, she’s named the beast!” Breck howled.

  “I find the name quite fitting, Breck,” Lira added. “Every beast deserves a strong name.”

  “Allow me to assist,” Alfie added, walking over on silent feet. “Havoc is defined, in the Great Universal Dictionary, as ‘great destruction or devastation. Ruinous damage.’”

  Breck held up her bandaged finger again as further evidence. “See?”

  The furry beast snarled and pounced from Gilly’s arms toward Breck’s feet. Breck leaped across the table onto Lira, who turned on her with an array of curses, her scales flashing bright purple.

  “Oh, dear,” Alfie said, with a whirr of his gears that sounded like a sigh.

  This was something Andi could deal with.

  It was familiar, the soothing sound of their argument like music to her ears. She’d never been more thankful for a distraction.

  Her relief didn’t last long. A moment later, the door opened and in walked Dex and Valen. Two men from completely different parts of her life, neither of the relationships ending in the way she’d envisioned.

  They were polar opposites—one from a life of privilege, strange but pure at heart, and the other from a world that demanded a warrior’s determination. Seeing them side by side seemed so wrong.

  Andi couldn’t look Valen in the eyes. It was too personal. She worried that if she did, he would see the rot she harbored within. He had seen her at her best and watched her fall. She couldn’t possibly fathom what he would think of her now.

  The two men went to the plush chairs across from the couch.

  Mustering up her courage, she followed them to the sitting area.

  She allowed herself a glance at Valen. Beneath his green tunic she could see he was frail; a mere shell of what he’d once been. Instead of paint-stained fingers, she saw bruises. Instead of eyes alight with curiosity, she saw dark circles that swallowed them whole. He looked as if he wanted to curl into himself the way he had when she and Dex had found him in his cell in Lunamere.

  What horrors had he lived through?

  “Valen Cortas.” Alfie shuffled over, stopping before Valen to bow deeply. “I am Alfie, personal Artificial Lifeform Intelligence Emissary to General Cyprian Cortas. It is my command to assist your father in returning his son home.”

  Valen inclined his head at Alfie. “My deepest apologies that you’re programmed to work for my father.”

  Alfie’s unblinking eyes stared at Valen. “I am detecting strong levels of distaste toward...”

  “That’ll be enough, Alfie,” Dex interjected. “Why don’t you go check on the ship repairs? Memory could probably use some company.”

  At the sound of Memory’s name, Alfie’s posture straightened. “I find my gears are warming at an alarming rate. Excuse me.” He turned, seeming all too eager to spend some time alone with the ruined ship. His footsteps hastened as he left the living quarters. Andi wondered briefly if all AIs could feel emotion like Alfie did, or if it was purely some quirk of his programming.

  “Alfie helped stabilize you when we got you out of Lunamere,” Dex said, breaking the silence as he propped his boots up on the table. “Now that he’s gone...how about we have a completely calm, completely adult conversation?”

  He raised his dark brows at Andi.

  It was an effort to force herself to speak.

  Andi knew she didn’t have a choice. Whether she liked it or not, she was the captain of this hellish mission. She’d allowed her pilot to fly her ship to the Olen System. And even if they weren’t on the Marauder, it was still her game to play. Her move to make.

  Valen had always been a gentle soul, but things could have changed. He’d been a prisoner to Lunamere, on enemy ground, tortured to the point of death. Now that he was awake, she had to make sure her crew was safe in his presence.

  She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. But they had to get him to talk.

  She took a deep breath. “Hello, Valen.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  * * *

  VALEN

  AT THE SOUND of her voice, Valen froze.

  Ever
yone did, as if they were watching the single moment in time before an explosion rocked the world. He could feel more than hear the sound get sucked from the room, and suddenly the silence was more than he could bear.

  Her eyes were locked on him. Burning a hole into his skin.

  She was just as he remembered...and yet somehow different, all at once, and it wasn’t just the metallic plates that shone from her cheekbones. It was something deeper. Her pale hair was braided back from her face, instead of the loose way she used to wear it. She’d added streaks of purple, a color that somehow brought out her eyes. Her skin was covered in cuts and bruises, but beneath it all, there was still that horrible, destructive beauty she’d always had.

  She had been lethal then, and was something entirely more dangerous now.

  While everyone else lounged on the plush seats, Androma stood. They all wore colorful, loose clothing, but she remained in a fitted bodysuit, reinforced in places with what looked like hardened armor.

  She was the ice to her crew’s warm demeanor.

  And she was staring right at him, unafraid.

  He stared back.

  “Ten seconds,” Dex said suddenly from Valen’s left.

  Every head swung to look at the bounty hounter.

  “It gives me hope,” Dex said, smiling sideways in a way that Valen took to be his trademark grin, “that Valen may not try to murder Androma as I had previously expected.” He held a hand out to the giantess sitting across from him. “Pay up.”

  Andi’s jaw dropped, and she swiveled to glare at the New Vedan. “You made a bet on this, Breck?”

  The young woman, who Valen assumed was Breck, looked down at her toes and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, Andi. You know I can’t resist a good wager.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a few golden Krevs and slapped them into Dex’s waiting hand.

  “I’m beginning to think you two are becoming friends,” Andi said.

  Breck’s cheeks reddened.

  Dex chuckled as he pocketed his new Krevs.

  A moment passed in awkward silence before Dex turned back to Valen.

  He guessed it was his turn to be the show now.

  “So, my newly freed friend,” Dex said, “it’s time for you to talk. What did they do to you in there?”

  “Dex!” Andi hissed. She turned to Valen, her jaw working slightly back and forth. “What Dextro means is...”

  “Why are you here?” Valen blurted out.

  She paused midsentence, her mouth half open, her gray eyes suddenly wide.

  For a strange moment, Valen almost thought she’d turn and run.

  But that didn’t seem like the Androma he once knew, a Spectre who’d guarded his sister without fear, and certainly not like the young woman who’d rescued him from Lunamere. He still didn’t know how many guards she and Dex had dispatched in order to set him free or how they’d even made it inside in the first place.

  “Your father hired me and my crew,” Andi explained matter-of-factly.

  “I know that. Dex told me on the way over here,” Valen said, closing his eyes and shaking his head, still shocked that he’d opened up a line of communication with this...murderess. “What I want to know, Androma, is why you?”

  She stared at him.

  Her crew stared at them both.

  The little girl’s strange creature purred from her lap, the only rescue from the world’s most uncomfortable silence. But Valen refused to break it until Andi answered him.

  She owed him this much, even if she had already saved his life.

  “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other,” Andi finally said. She spoke to him gently, as if he were a child who might burst into an angry fit. It made his insides roil. “Things have changed since then.” She took another deep breath. “I have changed.”

  Back when Valen had known her, she hadn’t just been a trained shadow who was meant to protect Kalee and failed. She’d also been a dancer who moved like the music was part of her soul. She’d laughed so hard her voice could be heard throughout the halls of Averia. She’d been alive. Now she was a young woman with scars on her arms and fire burning in her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t stopped running since she’d escaped Arcardius.

  “You’re a killer, Andi,” Valen said. He had to say it. For himself. For Kalee. “As far as I can tell, you haven’t changed a bit.”

  He expected her to cringe, but she took it like someone who was used to taking hits.

  “What happened was a mistake,” Andi said. This time her voice was raw. “What happened was...”

  “Why did my father choose you to rescue me? With all the decorated soldiers in the galaxy...” Valen inclined his head toward Dex, who bore the marks of a Tenebran Guardian. “He picked a traitor. A runaway. With all the other options he has available to him on Arcardius, why would he choose his daughter’s murderer to be his son’s savior?”

  There it was. Out in the open like a bleeding wound.

  “Because,” Andi said, her voice bordering on cold, calculating fury, “I’m the best one for the job. And because your father, as I fully expected him to do, threatened to throw me and my crew into prison if I didn’t agree to the mission. We are the expendable ones in this galaxy—a part of it, but not. He could risk us getting caught.”

  That was the truth, Valen knew without question.

  “As you should have been in the first place,” he snapped. “And worse.”

  Dex’s jaw tensed. The young Adhiran woman placed a hand on the Tenebran’s arm, as if holding him back. Or maybe, judging by the expression on her face, she was holding herself back, too.

  Valen glanced away in disbelief.

  He remembered the results of Andi’s trial. Death. She’d been in holding for several days, ready for her sentence to be delivered. And then somehow, against all odds, she’d escaped, fading into the night like smoke on the wind.

  “It was a mistake,” Andi said again. “If I could take it back—”

  Valen gritted his teeth. “Murder isn’t a mistake.”

  “If I recall, you were the one who allowed your little sister and her friend to sneak out for a joyride on your father’s brand-new transport,” Andi replied. Her words were soft and casual, but her eyes were on fire.

  “Spectre,” Valen said. “Spectre first, and always. You failed her as that.”

  “Again,” Andi said, “it was a mistake. I’ve had to live with the cost of it.”

  “Kalee didn’t!” Valen screamed. “She didn’t get to live, Androma!”

  The world spun around him. He sucked in a breath, intent on staying in control. He would not lose this fight.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. Her face was impassive. Infuriating. “What I want to know, Valen, is how the hell you were taken from Arcardius in the first place. The boundary is well protected. Your father’s Spectres work around the clock, and then some. Yet he said you disappeared without a trace.”

  “Are you accusing me of something, Androma?”

  She simply stared at him, fierce as a lioness.

  “I was out walking in the gardens. After Kalee was killed, things were a little tense at the estate, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

  She flinched at his words.

  “What happened next?” Dex asked, leaning forward, hands resting on his knees. Drawing Valen’s attention away from Andi. “It’s important for us to know, Valen, so we can prevent it from happening again. So we can keep the families of the other system leaders safe.”

  Valen swallowed hard, recalling the events of that night.

  “A group of masked men came from the trees. I tried to run, but they surrounded me. I called out for help, but nobody was around to listen. And then they shot me with something,” he said, pulling down his tunic to reveal a circular scar just above his collarbone. “The next thing I knew,
I was lying in a transport ship, bound in chains.”

  He could still remember the fear that had spiked through him in that waking moment. The questions that had no answers until far later.

  “We landed on Lunamere sometime later. I got one glimpse of the outside before they took us in. Then I was knocked out again. I woke up with my head shaved, my clothes gone and my cheek pressed to the stones in my cell.”

  Frozen to the stones, he thought to himself, by tears I didn’t remember crying.

  “I was no longer a name,” Valen continued. The anger had suddenly left his voice, replaced instead by a solemn whisper that made his throat ache. “I was a number. Cell 306. I don’t know if minutes or hours or days passed before they came into my cell. And...then it all started.”

  He realized he’d sunk back down onto the couch beside Dex. That he was shivering, despite the warmth of the room. That he was feeling the threat of darkness looming over him, despite the bright beam of moonlight pouring in through the open curtains.

  “What started?” Dex asked. “You’re safe here, Valen. You can talk to us.”

  But he wasn’t. Not with Andi here.

  She was looking at him like she used to. Like he was a question she couldn’t answer.

  He looked down at his hands as they clutched his knees. He’d grown so thin. He hadn’t fully realized it until he looked at himself in the mirror today. He’d barely recognized the ghost staring back.

  “The beatings,” Valen said. The wounds on his back seemed to squirm in response to his words. “They started slow at first. For every question I didn’t answer, I got a single lash of the whip across my back.”

  “What kind of questions?” Dex asked.

  Valen sighed. “About my father, mostly. What he did each day, what his schedule was like. Who he spoke to, who came and went from our estate. At first I didn’t answer. I was afraid what they’d do if I did.”

  “But eventually...” Dex helped guide him along.

  “You have to understand,” Valen said, now looking up. “They knew when I was lying. Maybe they had some sort of system, or perhaps it was just from years of torturing people for answers. They’ve turned pain into an art form. I had to tell them.”