Barron's Last Stand (The Black Wing Chronicles Book 3)

by JC Cassels

  Chase tapped the palm of his hand and the implant flashed underneath his skin.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  Blade canted his head. “Well, apparently you’re Daavin Marin and I’m a decoy.”

  “He said you were his son, but not Daavin,” Bo said. “So that means you’re a bastard?”

  Chase grinned. “Well we knew that.”

  Blade’s lips twitched. “She’s not talking about my temperament.”

  “Enough!” Marin said. “I am still the Sovran.”

  Looking ancient and exhausted, the Overlord lowered himself into one of Ballanshi’s deep, comfortable chairs. He fixed his gaze on the oversized portrait hanging beside the fireplace, a faraway look in his eyes.

  Lord Marin sighed. His shoulders sagged. “I had forgotten how much you look like him.”

  Blade looked from the old man to the painting and back again. His eyes narrowed in concern.

  “Cantrell?”

  Cantrell, the hero of the Battle of Kah Lahtrec, stared proudly out from the canvas, looking like a leaner, younger, softer version of Blade. Both bore the same high cheekbones, the same, long jawline, the same hint of a cleft chin.

  “I suppose that’s how he got cast in the role to play him,” Chase said.

  Marin’s lips twitched. “Partly, yes,” he said. “And partly because the principle financial backer of the production presented you as the favored candidate.”

  “That was you?” Chase said.

  Lord Marin nodded.

  Shaking his head, Blade leaned a hip on the table beside his father’s chair. “If I’d known about your involvement at the time, I would have turned it down.”

  Andre looked up at him with a wry smile. “Why do you think the backers remained anonymous?” He sighed. “We’ve wasted a lot of time, you and I. Perhaps if I hadn’t been so determined to pummel you into submission, you wouldn’t have fought me at every turn. Then this mess could have been avoided.”

  “We are who we are,” Blade said. “It’s your nature to push and it’s my nature to resist.”

  The Overlord nodded, accepting the unspoken truce.

  Shadows filled Andre’s eyes, and he turned his attention to the portrait once more.

  “He was a good man. I let him down.” His lips twisted. “We all let him down.”

  “You knew him?”

  Marin nodded toward the portrait. “He was my brother.”

  Chase’s eyes widened in surprise. “You mean Cantrell was a Marin?”

  “He was my father’s darkest secret,” Andre said.

  Blade studied the portrait. No wonder he resembled the man so closely. “A bastard?”

  The overlord shook his head. “No.” His eyes grew distant. “My twin.”

  Twin?

  Chase and Blade exchanged a look of surprise.

  “Our family has done things – unethical things – to ensure the continuation of the House of Marin,” Andre said. “Our forebears struggled with infertility, incompatible reproductivity in chosen mates, and the solutions they chose manifested certain mutations with repercussions felt to this day. Multiple offspring is far too common in our line, and it has caused no end of problems; power grabs, assassinations, anti-Sovran factions have made war on the children of the Sovran Houses for millennia. Multiple Heirs that weren’t killed outright were pitted against one another. One of the worst civil wars in history was when the twin sons of Agama Marin each tried to ascend.”

  “That’s when succession laws were amended.” Blade interjected.

  At Bo’s look of surprise, he shrugged.

  “Believe it or not, I do know Commonwealth History,” Blade said. “Andre saw to it that my early education covered our constitutional laws. Whenever a Sovran Lady conceives multiple children, only one is allowed to term. Infants were murdered at birth or removed from the womb. I have always thought the practice barbaric, even by Marin standards.”

  The overlord nodded. “My father kept Cantrell’s existence a closely guarded secret. He was exiled to the Outland for his own safety. My father never expected him to start a war…none of us did. I am told he was quite scholarly and far less hell-bent on destruction than you.”

  “I’m not sure, but I think I’ve been insulted.” Blade grinned. He eyed the portrait with a new respect.

  “Oh, I’m sure,” Chase said.

  “My wife was pregnant with twins,” he said.

  “Twins?” Bo echoed.

  “Identical.”

  Blade glanced up at the portrait of Cantrell. “I see.”

  “One was chosen and removed from the womb, in accordance with the succession laws. The other was allowed to come to term. Your brother Daavin.” He sighed. “The Trade Wars were escalating. There were increasing attacks on me, then on my wife and son. I ordered Daavin cloned. It was rushed. Only a few survived, but they had genetic inconsistencies. That happens when you work with late term subjects.” His eyes hardened. “And then the bomb changed everything.”

  Bo nodded. “Your wife was killed and you had to protect your son.”

  Marin’s lips twitched. “My wife and my son were killed.”

  Blade’s world shifted on its axis. “What?”

  “It’s nice to see I can still manage to surprise you,” Marin said.

  “But…Chase is older than me,” Blade said. “He’s Daavin Marin, isn’t he?”

  “Only in as much as he is Daavin’s decoy.” Marin shook his head. “I am truly sorry, Mister Fossey. The flaw with late term cloning is the mutation. Over time, the original genetic codes reassert themselves to a degree.”

  Color fled Chase’s face. His jaw tightened. “So you’re saying I’m a clone?”

  Andre nodded and looked to Blade. “And you, boy, were the one in stasis.”

  Chase stared unseeing at the portrait. His face was dangerously pale as he processed the turn of events. He swallowed hard.

  Blade shook his head, struggling to understand his own conflicted feelings. “Do you have any idea the mortality rate of genetically-manipulated fetal clones? Cloning zygotes is one thing, but the process you approved completely rewrote the genetic codes – essentially of infants.”

  “The subjects used were discarded by their parents before they ever drew their first breath. That made them the property of the Commonwealth – my property. Rather than destroy them, I gave them a purpose, a way to serve the whole of society. How is giving those poor bastards a second chance at life unethical? That was more than they were going to get.”

  Chase cleared his throat. His quiet voice broke with emotion. “All my life, I’ve believed that I was born to parents who wanted me, but died. Now I find out that if I had any parents at all, they never thought of me as anything more than something to be thrown away.”

  Bo moved to his side and wrapped her arms around him. “Chase, this doesn’t change who you are,” she said. “You are the finest man I have ever known, and you will always have my love, respect, and admiration.”

  Blade ran a hand through his hair. “It does change things, Bo. Chase isn’t even legally considered a person. As a clone, he has no rights under the law. He’s little more than chattel.”

  “But slavery has been outlawed in the Commonwealth,” she said.

  Blade looked at her meaningfully. “So has cloning.”

  Chase lifted his head. “You spend a lifetime thinking that you’re a human being with dignity. All of a sudden you find out you’re nothing more than a disposable lump of tissue – sold to a lab and stripped of any individuality – just so you can be a pale shadow of someone else… For what? Just to be thrown away again?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Marin said.

  “What the hell does that say about a race that not only figures out how to do something like that, but will go ahead and do it?” Chase lifted his chin, silently defying him to defend it.

  “It says a man with too much power is afraid for his family,” Marin said softly. “I
have often justified my actions by telling myself that had you not been genetically manipulated into being my son’s decoy, you would never have had a chance to live at all. Small comfort to a young boy, alone.”

  “Some chance Niall had.” Unable to contain his fury, Blade clenched his fists and turned away. “Cloning a child to serve as a Sovran decoy is unethical, not to mention highly illegal!”

  “Ethics?” Marin snorted. “You want to debate ethics with me? My boy, the only concern you’ve ever had for the law was how to circumvent it!”

  “I am not the Sovran.”

  “Aren’t you?” Marin’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve been eager enough to tie yourself to the House of Marin when it suits your purposes.”

  “How…how do you choose which child deserves to be born?” Blade asked. “Do you flip a coin? Spin a wheel? I’d like to know.”

  “Do you know how many succession laws I broke by placing you into stasis rather than terminating you? If that fact had come out, it would have been grounds for stripping me of my title and executing us.” He looked to Chase. “All three of us.”

  “That’s extreme,” Chase said.

  “It was a time of war,” Marin said. “It was arguably treasonous.” He laughed. “As it is, we should all be thankful. If it were to ever come to light that my illegal second son is the one responsible for the current crisis, it would be the end of the Commonwealth. Imagine what it was like for me to wake up here and be told that the son who hates me and hasn’t spoken with me for five years has kidnapped me, started a war, and surrendered Trisdos to the enemy!”

  “Would you rather I let them kill you, me, and my family and let them take it by force?” Blade arched an eyebrow at him.

  “It was foolish to abandon our power base without so much as a fight!”

  “They were entrenched,” Blade said. “Rameus has the loyalty of the Guard. What was I supposed to do? Make a bunch of useless speeches and wait around until Chase or I had a convenient accident? I did what I had to do to keep my family safe!”

  “Shut up, the both of you!” Chase shouted, drawing surprised looks from both men. He shrugged off Bo’s embrace and stepped between them. “No wonder you two never got along. You’re too much alike.”

  “Hey!”

  Chase shrugged. “It’s the truth. Both of you are angry with each other for doing the same thing – whatever it takes to keep your family safe.”

  Blade opened his mouth to protest, but Chase cut him off.

  “Don’t you dare stand there and try to tell me that you wouldn’t break every law and sell your soul if necessary to protect Dash.” He looked to Bo. “I’ve seen how far you’ll go.”

  Bo held up a hand in surrender.

  “We can’t change the past and the past doesn’t change who we are today,” Chase went on. “You two are going on about bad laws and trying to get around them. The only way around bad laws isn’t breaking them. It’s changing them. And if the Overlord can’t effect change, who can?” He tapped the chip in his hand again, holding up the flashing light for all to see. “This thing right here says that not only am I a person, I’m a Sovran. And I’m not gonna hide the fact that I’m not a natural-born person. I’m not going quietly, either. All my life, I’ve had to scratch and claw for everything I’ve achieved. I don’t give up easily. I know I’m a person. Just because you say I’m not doesn’t make it so, and I’m not giving up my rights. In fact, I’m going to fight to make sure nobody else does either.”

  “Let’s take things one at a time.” Blade slowly lifted his head and looked at his father. “Royce said something about you gathering your bastard children together at the start of the Trade Wars.”

  Chase glared at him. “What does that have to do with anything? I’m a clone, not a bastard.”

  “I don’t have any bastards. That was the official line we used to explain some of the clones,” Marin said. “Madame Misou believed you were one of them.”

  “You have at least one bastard now.” Blade nodded to his brother.

  Chase looked from one to the other. “Who? Me?”

  Marin tapped a finger thoughtfully against his jaw as he contemplated the idea. “It would certainly give him more legal standing than he’d have as a clone.”

  “Don’t talk around me,” Chase said. “I’m right here.”

  “Mister Fossey does have a bastard chip…” The Overlord went on.

  “How come I don’t get to be legitimate?”

  Blade arched an eyebrow. “Do you want to be Overlord?”

  Understanding dawned across Chase’s face. “Point taken.” His brow furrowed. “But I’m still a clone…”

  “It’s going to take time to change laws and bring about that kind of social reform, Chase.” Bo placed her hand on his arm. “There are pockets in the Outer Commonwealth where clones can hold property and conduct business as full citizens.”

  “In the Inner Commonwealth, it could take years – decades even – to implement equal rights for clones,” Blade said. “You stand a better chance of getting it done from inside the system rather than outside. Nobody will give credence to a clone demanding equal protection under the law. A bastard Marin will be seen as sympathetic to the cause, and he’ll still have the influence to effect change.”

  “But I’d be living a lie.”

  Blade grinned. “Welcome to my life.”

  “Seeing the two of you together…” Marin shook his head. Emotion filled his eyes as he looked to Blade. “The one greatest regret of my life has been that you couldn’t grow up with your brother. I have second-guessed my decisions and the choices I made more times than I care to count. How different would things have been if I’d stood against the law and let nature take its course with my sons? I have wondered whether Daavin would have been able to curb your wild streak if he’d lived. Seeing you both together has made me realize that you did grow up with your brother.”

  He sighed. “I’m afraid I’ve done you a disservice, Mister Fossey. I should have done many things differently where you are concerned. I let your origins color my opinion of you. I can see I was wrong to consider you anything less than my son.”

  “Can I have kids?” Chase interrupted. “I mean, I’m a clone. Is it, you know, possible? I’m gonna be married and…”

  “You’re already married, remember?” Blade said.

  “Oh yeah… that’s right,” Chase nodded. “In all the excitement, I forgot. What if she wants to have kids?”

  Marin looked confused. “Who…?”

  “Late term clone subjects aren’t necessarily sterile,” Blade said.

  Chase looked to Marin. “Can I call you ‘Dad?’”

  “I don’t…”

  Chase winced. “Too soon?” Without waiting for an answer, he nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. Can we discuss my allowance?” He looked to Blade. “What do you do with a father, anyway?”

  Blade grinned. “Introduce him to your wife before he pops a head gasket, maybe?”

  “Oh, right! I’ll go get her.”

  Chase ran from the room, as excited as a child.

  Blade looked to his father. “She’s a Kiara,” he warned, “and if you’ve ever contracted with her, I’d advise you to keep it to yourself.”

  “Did her interest in him begin before or after she learned he was a Marin?”

  “Before,” Bo said. “They met at the Kiara D’or Choh after Chase and I took an escape pod through the hyperspace wake of a starliner. Aunt Misou matched them as a thank-you for saving my life.”

  Marin’s expression softened. “Misou is a lovely woman.”

  “And Tese is my cousin,” Bo said, lifting her chin. “Joy Babes may have to develop a thick skin, My Lord, but I trust you’ll be kind and gracious to her?”

  “Young woman, do you presume to tell me how to conduct myself?”

  She met his level stare. “Yes. I do,” she said. “And if you upset her, you’ll answer to me for it.”

  “And that’s our cue to
leave,” Blade said.

  “Wait, boy…” He grimaced, a look of regret shadowed his face. “I am not going to address you by that ridiculous alias. Blade isn’t a name. It’s cutlery.”

  Blade shook his head, chuckling. “When you sent me to the Fasi Home, you told them my name was Dev.”

  “I did.”

  “The people I love call me Dev,” he said. “I like it better than ‘boy’.”

  A small smile curved Lord Marin’s lips. “You should have said something sooner…Dev.”

  Unprepared for the warm tide of affection that came with his father calling him by name for the first time after all these years, Blade swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, sir. I should have.”

  The Overlord pushed himself out of the chair and cleared his throat. “I will make the official announcement naming you my Heir after dinner.” He lifted one eyebrow. “I trust I won’t have to say my Heir is to be called after cutlery.”

  Blade grinned and shook his head. “You can say whatever you like, Andre, as I’m sure you will. I’ll be happy to tell them I prefer to be addressed as ‘Lord Cutlery’ if you’d rather not.”

  To soften the impudence of his words, Blade bowed to his father in a rare show of respect.

  Following his lead, Bo dipped in obeisance at his side.

  “For Peace sake,” Marin said. “Don’t walk behind her anymore. You’re a damned Sovran. Act like one.”

  Straightening, Blade winked at his father. “But I like the view from back there.”

  Much to his surprise, Andre threw back his head and laughed. “Well, then, go and enjoy it while you can.”

  His wife’s hand tucked in the crook of his arm, they took their leave of his father. In the hallway just outside Ballanshi’s study, Chase and Tese nearly ran into them.

  Chase grinned at him. “I come to Kah Lahtrec and I get a wife…and a father. Best trip ever!”

  Blade patted him on the shoulder. “Call him Dad. He likes that.”

  “Dad.” Chase nodded. “Right. Thanks.”

  As the door to the study closed behind them, Bo looked up at him, her eyes glittered with amusement. “Dad? Really?”

  Blade sighed. “Yeah. Andre’s gonna hate that.”