A metal hatch opened at the end of the hallway, revealing a smaller vestibule made of cheap materials. At the other end, faded fabric covered the exit, nothing more than a rectangular hole crudely cut from the cardboard wall.
“It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Master Assassin,” Vivaldi said as the hatch started closing. “Until next—” The metal door cut the last part of his sentence, leaving Jade all alone in the vestibule.
She looked ahead at the flimsy screen of the curtain and waited for yet another bout of nausea to lessen. A moment later, she pushed through the fabric and walked down the rickety steps that connected the structure to the rest of the Badlands.
From the outside, one would have never imagined that the cardboard shack housed a cutting-edge neuro facility. Jade remembered making the same consideration that one time when she had needed Vivaldi’s expertise for someone else. She had sworn to herself to never come back to the place. Oh, the irony.
What have you done?
And most importantly, did she really want to know what had happened to her to make her go back on her own word? Maybe ignorance was truly bliss.
Feeling slightly better, Jade stepped away from the shack and fought a lingering dizziness that prevented her from focusing. She reoriented herself in the direction of the city proper and started walking. At first, she maintained a slow pace to give her body time to adjust. It was fortunate that the dome was still under the nightlight cycle, and the lampposts were at one third of their brightness. Otherwise, the sensorial stimuli would have been too much for Jade. The stench of biological refuse itched her nose, triggering her nausea anew. She hurried, directing her tired body toward one of the gates that delimited the Badlands, dividing the scum of the galaxy from the rest of Belarus City.
As the medicus had prognosticated, walking helped. By the time Jade crossed the Eastern Gate, she felt physically better, and even her thoughts were clearer than before. She still had no money and no plan, but at least her brain worked again.
The first item on her agenda was finding a place to hide for a few days while she planned her next move.
10
“I’m coming with you,” Lauren said, piercing Dragon with her glare.
Gilda followed on Lauren’s heels but halted at the doorway.
“It’s not up for discussion.” Dragon had expected their visit since the morning and was surprised the princesses hadn’t come sooner to complain about his decision to leave Solaria.
“I have a proposal for you,” Lauren said as if she hadn’t heard him.
“There won’t be any negotiation.”
“Let me travel to Celestia—”
“It won’t happen.”
“If you don’t want to marry us, at least give us the chance to start a new life,” Lauren said.
“And that’s on Celestia?”
Lauren shrugged. “You won’t give us the protection and respectability of your name before leaving. Something that was due to us by birth. I can’t stay on Solaria any longer.”
This back and forth with Lauren would never go anywhere.
“There’s so much wrong with our society, but I’m trying to rectify things.” Once he had thought that Lupine’s archaic rules were backwards, but in truth, Solarian society wasn’t much more progressive.
“Then let me come with you,” Lauren said.
Inwardly, Dragon prayed to the Goddess for patience. Acknowledging that Lauren was right in feeling slighted and that he was the one who broke the betrothal contract didn’t help matters.
“You won’t sail with me tomorrow because it’s safer for you here. And that’s final,” he said, locking eyes with Lauren’s. “But I promise that when the rebel threat is over, I’ll make it right by you.” It seemed like lately he was making the same promise to all the women in his life. “And I’ll put at your disposal my fastest ship to take you wherever you want,” he added before turning toward the other princess. “And that includes you as well,” he said, looking at both Gilda and Valerian, who stood a few steps behind her—always guarding over the princess, but never standing too close to give the courtiers any fodder for gossip.
Valerian gave him one of his obsidian stares but imperceptibly lowered his head a moment later.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Dragon said, pointing his chin at the door.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Lauren started only to be interrupted by Lars, who burst into the room, looking like he had run the entire length of the manor.
“The floating gate to the princesses’ quarters has been breached. Two sentinels are dead, and a third is missing.” Lars said the words in one breath, already leaving.
Pointing at Lauren and Gilda, Dragon said to Valerian, “You stay with them,” and hurried after Lars.
11
“Told you we don’t want any trouble,” the bulky bartender said, pointing the glass he was drying toward the exit of the dive bar Jade had just entered.
On her way to the spaceport, she had found herself crossing the entire length of Belarus City, and for some reason she couldn’t understand, ended up walking in front of the repurposed container. Its broken sign advertised the establishment as a drinking hole, and she decided that a brief break wouldn’t ruin her tight schedule. She entered, hoping the place would talk to her.
“Did you see me before?” she asked the bartender, ignoring the suspicious looks from the other patrons.
She could feel their eyes following the white patterns from her arms to her face. The moment they understood what the extension of her marks meant, those distrustful gazes transformed into fearful ones and the customers averted their eyes, busying themselves with their cheap drinks once again.
A smile quirked her lips. It was good to be feared. It was what Jade had always liked about being an assassin, the respect that came with it. It made her feel untouchable.
As she walked to the rusty countertop, people moved out of her way.
The bartender glared, crossing his muscular arms over his large chest. “You came three days ago.”
Three days. Jade assumed she had sought Vivaldi the same day she had arrived on the planet. It made sense that she was in a hurry to have the procedure done, and nobody in their right mind would linger on this forsaken outpost longer than necessary.
She looked around and amended her previous thought. Almost nobody. The couple sitting at the wasn’t here on business. Their clothes and hairdos gave away their wealth. Rich people daring the Outer Belts for the thrill of it. Idiots.
The woman looked at Jade before lowering her gaze in fear. She grabbed her man’s hand like a lifeline as they scooted out of the booth and left the place in a hurry.
Jade couldn’t help but stare at their intertwined hands.
Something elusive, a fraction of an incomplete thought, knocked at her mind, evoking a sense of loss. It was too fleeting for her to grab its significance, but it left behind an unsettling emotion. Sadness.
“Blue Absinthe. Pure,” the bartender said.
Jade turned toward the bar, focusing on what the man had said. It took her a moment to put together his words with her previous question. “I ordered absinthe.”
“That’s what I said.” The man gave her his back—which elevated him in her opinion because very few would expose themselves in front of an assassin. “Care for some?” He turned with a bottle in his hand.
The turquoise beverage sloshed against the glass walls of the bottle, calling to Jade. She was thirsty, but when she opened her mouth to place the order, her stomach revolted. She gasped and hugged herself tight.
“We don’t want junkies here,” the bartender said. He leaned under the bar and resurfaced with an electric blunderbuss. Illegal on more than five hundred planets, the weapon was difficult to use because it caused much damage at close range; inside a limited space like the dive bar, it would destroy more than its intended target. Only a man who knew how to handle its power would dare go through the hassle of buying o
ne on the black market, much less use it in front of witnesses.
“I’m not a junkie,” Jade said, knowing that wouldn’t be any reasoning with a blunderbuss aimed at her head.
She could see how the man would think she was one of the many amaranthine addicts, flying to the Outer Belts to score their favorite choice of drug for less. After all, Blue Absinthe was the junkies’ favorite chaser. The liquor was a mild hallucinogenic, and it prolonged the effects of the amaranthine.
“You had me fooled with all that shaking.” He swayed the mouth of the short pistol, motioning for her to get out.
“I’m here for answers.” Jade straightened her back. “Not a junkie.” She placed her hands on the bar. The sensation of her palms against the warm surface was familiar. She willed her body to stop trembling, showing the man she was saying the truth. No amaranthine addict could do that. “I drank my drink and then what?”
“If I answer this one, will you leave?”
She nodded.
“You didn’t drink your absinthe but still paid for the entire bottle and left.” The bartender lowered the pistol to the counter. “Now go.”
Jade couldn’t help but be impressed by the man’s nerves of steel. In her presence, people became subservient. For a moment, she contemplated the idea of taking the bartender outside and slamming his hard body against the corrugated walls of the container. A quick release would do her a world of good, and the man looked like one who could deliver a few minutes of pleasure. She couldn’t remember the last time she had taken care of her physical needs.
Maybe it was the nausea still rocking her, but Jade discarded the notion right away and left.
Back on the street, she hurried toward the spaceport.
12
“What else can you tell me about the attack?” Dragon asked Lars as they ran across the hallway that connected his quarters to Gilda and Lauren’s.
Outside, the moons hadn’t risen yet, and the darkness of the night reflected on the windows like a black void, threatening to swallow him whole.
“Poisoned arrows,” Lars answered. “Like the ones used on Carellian.”
“It’s the same assassin then.” Dragon swore. “We must stop him tonight.” Otherwise, his plans would have to change. He couldn’t leave the princesses on Solaria. Even with Valerian keeping close guard on them, Dragon wouldn’t feel comfortable.
“I’ve already deployed the First Draglet Squadron,” Lars said. “And asked for Carellian and Corinna to be brought to the terrace.”
Dragon inwardly thanked the goddess for the best commanders he could have ever asked for. That Lars and Valerian were also family and friends at the same time only added to his sense of gratitude.
Sol Manor was as busy as usual, servants and mechanical helpers working hard at keeping the large house clean and dust free. As they crossed the long corridor, Dragon told everyone to leave at once and take refuge in the lower levels. By the time they reached the princesses’ quarters, word had spread, and people hurried toward the staircase at the other end of the corridor. Some of the guards were already directing the exodus.
Dragon and Lars burst into the quarters that were now empty but for the martial presence of Dragon’s Guard. His men stood in front of every door opening into the foyer.
“There’s nobody inside,” the Guard Captain said, stepping up to meet Dragon. “We secured the princesses’ apartments, and the aerial squad is watching the terrace.”
Loud whinnies and the sound of flapping wings drew their attention to the opposite side of the room where large French doors opened onto the balcony.
The mares and stallions forming the First Draglet Squadron broke formation to let Carellian and Corinna through.
“The princesses are in the dining hall with Sir Valerian. Send ten of your most trusted men to help him,” Dragon said to the captain before striding toward the terrace.
Carellian and Corinna landed at the edge and waited for Dragon and Lars to mount them. The animals felt the raw energy in the air and fed from it, their reactions jerky.
“Easy, boy.” Dragon patted Carellian between his shoulders, soothing his nerves.
Lars did the same with his she-draglet.
The squadron’s first aviator commanded his steed to glide lower until he could talk to Dragon. “High Lord.” He brought his fisted hand to his chest and pumped it twice. “What are your orders?”
“Let’s fly around the manor.” Dragon’s legs pressed against Carellian’s flanks, and the draglet responded to his command, stepping off the edge.
At first, gravity pulled them down, but Carellian deployed his wings and with a powerful stroke propelled his long body upward. To Dragon, it felt like they were swimming out of water, higher and higher, until his draglet towered over the rest of the squad.
Carellian turned his triangular head toward Corinna, and the she-draglet lowered hers, nodding at his mental command before they both dove toward the canyon. The rest of the draglets followed in close formation.
Taking full advantage of his formidable night vision, Dragon led them around the manor, circling the perimeter in a progressively larger path. When it was clear that the assassin was lying in wait somewhere safe, playing with them, Dragon split the squadron in three, sending them to scout the caves inside the Rocky Dome. The megalithic formation that housed Sol Manor was riddled with three tunneled caverns. One of them had been further excavated to build the animal bay. The other two had been left untouched and attracted wild draglets and all sorts of winged critters.
In the meantime, Dragon and Lars, followed by the remaining aviators, kept flying around the manor. Dragon commanded the men to circle in the opposite direction, so that nobody could approach the Rocky Dome without being caught.
After three hours of fruitless searching, Dragon commanded the squadron back to the manor. The draglets were starting to tire, and the men needed a break, too.
“We need to change our plans,” Dragon said to Lars once they landed on the terrace outside his quarters. “Sol Manor is compromised, and it isn’t safe for my guests here any longer.” He strolled directly to his studio.
Guards stood in the hallway, while Valerian paced in front of the door, his hand on the pommel of his scimitar.
“Lars stays. You’re coming to Celestia,” Dragon said to his lieutenant as he strode past him and entered his studio.
Gilda and Lauren sat in front of the fireplace. They raised their faces at the same time.
“Prepare your things. You are both coming to Celestia too. We leave in less than three hours,” he told them.
Gilda’s eyes went immediately over Dragon’s shoulder at the door, where Valerian stood.
Lauren’s face split in a satisfied grin. “Right away, High Lord.”
13
Sitting on top of an abandoned hangar, Jade looked ahead.
Belarus’s spaceport stretched at the northern edge of the city proper. Satellite settlements had filled the rocky terrain in between, creating a seamless landscape made of repurposed cargo containers, spaceship carcasses that now housed condominiums for the poor, and ridges and mountains of metal and plastic rubbish.
If Belarus City was alive with a transient population of ever-changing visitors, the Spaceport Outskirts thrived with stationary dwellers: people who landed on the planet with the intention of skipping to the next port and never left. Nobody planned to live on that rock at the edge of the Outer Belts.
The more Jade stared at the gray, uninviting scenery, the more she thought that it was the perfect place to hide in plain sight.
Jumping from the roof’s ledge, she landed on sure feet and took off on a slight jog toward the spaceport. The physical activity cleared her mind completely, and even her nausea subsided until it was but a memory, giving her legs more strength until she was running across the unkempt terrain. A nagging emotion kept her company, but she relegated the feeling to a small corner of her mind and pushed ahead, her boots flying over the dusty path.
/> A tank-like, tracked vehicle sped past her, and Jade sprinted to reach its tail. Hooking her hand on the metal ring dangling from the back, she vaulted onto its flat roof.
Her landing, although light, stirred the driver into opening the porthole.
A large man looked up at her and exclaimed, “Hoy!”
“Thank you for the lift.” Jade smiled, angling her arm so that the white on her tan skin showed to better advantage. She needed witnesses, people who would testify she had gone to the spaceport.
The man’s beady eyes widened, and he hurried to say, “It’s all right,” and closed the porthole.
Jade crossed her legs at the ankles and lowered herself to the roof. She wasn’t tired but wanted to take one last moment to make sure she had thought her plan through. Her survival depended on every single part of her scheme working exactly as she had imagined it. A simple variation would greatly hinder her chance to see another day.
From her note, Jade knew that the Academy had already deployed one or more assassins to terminate her, but she could have other enemies after her. What about the man she owed her life to? Was he looking for her as well?
Past-Jade had erased even the memory of her target’s face. That was peculiar. Why would she go to such an extreme? She would have to find an image of the High Lord of Solaria when she had time. Maybe a clue would unlock. It was worth trying.
As they came closer to the Spaceport Outskirts, the buildings ran together closer and closer, the corrugated metal changing from rusty green to rusty brown, and any shade in between, creating a riot of colors against the silvery-gray rocks. A multitude of people inundated the narrow streets opening between the seedy locales and the private dwellings. Hawkers peddled their wares from the shade of striped awnings. Children riding clockwork monocycles zigzagged among the crowd. Amid the stench of exhaust, the more inviting smells of baked goods and roasted meat wafted in the air. Jade’s stomach gurgled, but she didn’t have time to stop now. Eating would have to wait until she took care of her disappearance.
The Fifth Moon's Assassin (The Fifth Moon's Tales Book 5) Page 5