Down Among the Dead

by K. B. Wagers

  I kept my mouth shut and picked at my food, my nerves and curiosity keeping my appetite at bay. The rest of dinner passed without incident and soon we were back in the room.

  “I’m feeling a whole lot more like a prisoner and less like an honored guest,” I muttered at the closed door, thumping it with a fist out of sheer frustration before I turned away.

  “Don’t worry about it, we’ll sneak out of here in a bit.” Johar patted my shoulder on her way by.

  “You two are going to have to stay here.”

  “I know.” Aiz sighed. “I don’t like it but the last thing we need is to get caught out there.” He shook his head before Mia could protest. “No, Mia. I won’t risk it. I’d only end up locked in a jar for all eternity. You’d be dead.”

  “The safest place for you is right here,” I said, and managed not to flinch when she turned that sharp gray gaze on me.

  “It’s not safe for you out there, Hail. You’re not immortal.” She flopped down into a chair, wincing as she caught her elbow on a sharp edge. “What is wrong with these people?”

  “No design sense?”

  She didn’t laugh at my murmured reply, and I took a few steps toward her. “I know it’s not safe. But I’ll be with Fasé and that’s close enough. Something tells me that going to meet with her people is one of the things that needs to happen before we can meet with the gods.” I leaned down and brushed my lips over hers even though I could feel Aiz’s gaze boring into my back. “Emmory and Jo will be with us and I promise I’ll be careful.”

  “You’d better.”

  “There are other people in the room,” Aiz said.

  Mia grinned against my mouth. “Close your eyes, then, brother,” she replied, and kissed me.

  “You’ll want to stop daydreaming about your girlfriend, Hail,” Johar whispered in my ear, catching the elbow I threw back into her gut before it connected.

  “I hope you all get the fun out of your systems,” I replied, my voice low as the four of us crept down the shadowed alley. Fasé was in front with me behind her, Johar and Emmory bringing up the rear. The Farian knew where she was going, or at least she acted like it, so all my focus was on watching for anyone who could potentially rat us out to the Pedalion.

  Emmory hadn’t been the least bit concerned about the potential for some kind of surveillance, and I found out halfway there it was because Johar had the same masking program Rai had used on Canafey.

  “Speaking of girlfriends, are you going to let Rai apologize?” I whispered.

  “Leave me out of your matchmaking, Your Majesty.”

  “I’m just curious.”

  “I thought you were gonna kill him?”

  I shrugged, staying silent as I followed Fasé across a patch of light-filled street and up the stairs into the building. “He seemed sorry, and everything worked out in the end, I guess.”

  “We’re not even close to the end of this,” Johar replied.

  “I mean, if you want me to kill him, I will.”

  “No.” Johar muttered something under her breath after her denial that I was sure was physically impossible. “I’m still mad at him, but I might let him apologize before I punch him a few times.”

  I chuckled, stopping at the top of the stairs. Fasé waited with a raised eyebrow. “Are you two quite finished?”

  I winked at her and she sighed, rapping a pattern onto the door next to her. The door cracked, then swung open, and the man lowered his weapon to the floor, following it into a bow that almost put his forehead on his knees. “Mardis.”

  I watched as Fasé reached out, cupping the man’s face with a smile. “Not for our good, for the good of all. What’s your name?”

  “Poius, Mardis.” He looked past her, silver eyes widening. “Star of Indrana.”

  “No, no,” I said, holding up my hand. “No bowing. It’s good to meet you, Poius.”

  “Hail,” Hao said, coming out of a doorway off to one side. “We were just going over the network. Come see.”

  I embraced Hao briefly before following him, Emmory and Jo trailing behind.

  “This place might combust with you and Fasé in here at the same time,” Hao murmured with a half smile as people turned to watch me cross through the open room.

  “I think I want to take a long vacation after this where no one knows me.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  I snorted and reached a hand out to Talos as we passed. The Shen stood out among the shorter, paler Farians as much as Hao and Gita did, but something about my greeting seemed to release the last vestiges of tension among the rebels in the room.

  “Gita.” I hugged her and then smiled at Sybil. “Your sisters said to tell you they miss you.”

  All the sound in the room dropped into nothingness. Sybil smiled. “You spoke with the council?”

  “They came to see us while we were meeting with the Pedalion.”

  “Did the Pedalion see?” Sybil stood from her spot in the corner.

  “They saw them come in, not the conversation,” I replied. “Kasio said you would know where to meet. We have secured three days while the Pedalion discusses resuming the negotiations.” I smiled and gestured around. “There are apparently a few things I need to see before I speak with the gods.”

  “Really?”

  “She seemed very certain, but beyond mentioning we needed to meet them tomorrow I didn’t get specifics. What do you think they want to talk about?”

  Sybil shrugged, but her glance around the room at all the people watching told me that was a conversation for a more private venue, so I leaned against Hao to study the console in front of him.

  “Well, what have we got here?”

  “One of the better underground networks I’ve seen.” He nodded to Fasé. “I’m impressed not only that you set this up so well but you did it while you were basically in prison.”

  She smiled. “Sybil was a great help setting everything up. I am grateful you didn’t betray us.”

  Sybil nodded her head in acknowledgment. “The seers told you the gods wished to speak with you, Hail?”

  “They did. What is going on?”

  “A theocracy gone mad,” Fasé answered before Sybil could, and I was shocked by the venom in her voice. “I thought the council was in lockstep with the Pedalion, Sybil, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

  “You know the delicate balance we are walking, Fasé.” Sybil took a deep breath in the face of the other Farian’s sudden anger. “Your people are a spike in the wheel that has been turning. A welcome one, but one that will cause heartache and destruction.”

  “We will not be bound by the Pedalion any longer,” a Farian in the corner said, and her sentiment was echoed by her companions. “Many of us here were not around for the early days, but that doesn’t mean we don’t honor the gods. We are simply tired of being trapped here. One endless life after another. What is the point of a life with a knee bent in servitude?”

  This was the first chance I’d had to talk to other Farians about their lives and what they wanted. I’d had the whole layout of Fasé’s demands during the negotiations on Earth, from the disbanding of the Pedalion to their support for the Shen to have a piece of Faria as their own, but now it was right in my face.

  The woman speaking didn’t look much older than Fasé, but there was no way to know how old she truly was without asking, and that felt extremely rude.

  “Hail, this is Iode.” Fasé introduced us with a smile.

  “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “You also, Star of Indrana.” Iode’s nod was perfunctory and she didn’t seem nearly as awestruck by me as her companions. “I hope that your arrival means we’re almost done with all of this and will be able to move out of this bubble the Pedalion have us trapped in.”

  “Bubble?”

  “Yes, the gods, our supposed missions out into the galaxy, the way we are forced to come home instead of stay out there and make a life. It is a farce and a fraud. They keep
us locked away here when we could be out there living.”

  Others spoke up, a wave of voices adding their own protests and painting a picture of a Pedalion far more controlling than I had imagined. The people of Faria, at least a section of them, were ready to burn the whole thing to the ground.

  “Iode’s got some opinions,” Hao murmured with a grin.

  “You like her.”

  “Reminds me of someone I know.”

  45

  The knock at the door the next morning was unexpected, and I shared a look with Emmory before I pushed out of the uncomfortable chair. Emmory gestured to Zin, and they both reached for their weapons. There’d been no discussion from the Farians about us carrying, which had surprised me, but I didn’t test our good luck.

  “Open it,” I said to Emmory, my own hands resting on my Glocks.

  He tapped the control panel by the door and it slid away to reveal Delphine and another Farian.

  “Star of Indrana.” They laid their hands one on top of the other at their waists and bowed.

  I had the oddest flash of memory—Stasia’s golden curls swinging forward with her bow the very first time I’d met her—and for a moment was glad my maid was safe back on the ship with Alba and the others.

  The Farians came up, Delphine’s red curls settling about her shoulders. The other woman’s hair was bound up in a heavy braid and they both made a curious gesture in the air with the thumb and index finger of their right hands.

  “What can I do for you, Delphine?”

  She smiled. “Sou and I didn’t feel it was right for you to be trapped in your room during our deliberations. Adora and Rotem, of course, do not trust you to be roaming our lovely city alone.” Her smile grew. “I suspect there is a bit of something else in there, but it was unnecessary to pursue. Anyway, Yadira sided with us on the vote, so I am here to introduce you to Prosa, who will be your guide around Sicenae for the next few days.”

  “Star of Indrana.” Prosa wasn’t much taller than her companion and she had Fasé’s golden eyes. There were nerves in the set of her shoulders, and I wondered if it was excitement or concern.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” I glanced back at Emmory. Iza, Indula, and Kisah had been up all night on watch while the rest of us slept. “You and Zin with me. Johar doesn’t mind staying here.”

  “Nope.” Jo leaned back in her chair. “I’ll catch up on my sleep.”

  Prosa pressed a hand to the panel at the end of the corridor and we passed through the door out into the open air.

  I took a deep breath; the morning air was clean with a tang of ozone that felt a bit like electricity when it hit my bloodstream.

  “I’ll leave you here with Prosa; I must get back to the Pedalion,” Delphine said.

  I watched her retreating back until Prosa cleared her throat. “We’ll want to go this way, Star of Indrana. The view is good here, but much better over there.”

  “Call me Hail, please. That title is beyond cumbersome.”

  “I should not.”

  “I promise not to tell.” That and the accompanying wink pulled a smile from her.

  “You are everything my mother said and more,” Prosa replied. “I will honor your request while we are still up here, but I must maintain some propriety in public.”

  “That works for me.” I slipped my arm through hers, felt her jolt of surprise, and grinned. “Two questions for you: Who’s your mother? And just what has she said about me?”

  Prosa gestured at the stairs looming in front of us. “We’re going up here. I was referring to Sybil.”

  “Sybil’s your mother?” I reached for the railing with my free hand as we started up a long stairway. But it was as sharp-edged as everything here and I pulled back my hand with a muttered curse.

  “Of a sort,” she replied with a smile and a shrug, reminding me of Fasé introducing her cousins—Veeha and Volen—with the same sort of vague association. We hit the top of the stairs and I looked around the tiny cupola; it was windowless, a door on the far side of the empty room. Emmory and Zin took up easy positions behind us.

  “You’re free to tell me to mind my own business, of course, but why the vague answer?”

  Prosa smiled again. “It is not deliberate. Families are complicated on Faria, Hail.”

  “Aiz and Adora are siblings,” I replied. “They share a mother. Though I noticed the names they’ve chosen are different.”

  “Well, that was Javez’s doing. He abandoned his Farian name when his wife was—” Prosa stopped and swallowed. “Sent to live with the gods. And he chose a new one. Aiz and Adora are not a good example, though. They were born already when the gods came to us. Their parents were used later for batches, but I don’t know that either of them ever really acknowledged anyone beyond their original family. I was born in one of the last batches the gods allowed new souls in. There are over a hundred siblings in my batch.”

  “Batch?”

  “I am certain that is the right Indranan word,” Prosa said with a frown. “Those who share genetic material and are all grown at the same time.”

  “Yes, that would work.” A chill settled itself in my gut, and I pulled away from the Farian standing next to me. Several things collided in my head at once, and I shoved my hand in my pocket instead of resting it on my gun like I wanted to.

  “You don’t have children.” I’d never seen a Farian child, and I thought of the objections I’d heard last night at the underground headquarters. We’d always assumed that was just because of the laws about procreation being forbidden outside Faria and with any non-Farians.

  But it was so much more than that. The Pedalion actively prevented any Farians from having children. Ever.

  “You mean do we bear children?” Prosa shook her head. “No, it is dangerous and inefficient. And well—” She broke off in a laugh. “When you have souls who need to be reborn, our gods decided the best way was for us to create the bodies we need as the old ones wear out.”

  “You’re not cloning, are you?” It was illegal in every human government, accords that were signed back in the days when humanity had found her feet in the stars.

  “No, of course not. Genetic material is taken from several parents to make a batch. Those who were here before the gods—like Aiz and Adora—are not batch born. However, you can see how quickly family associations get a little confusing with rebirths. Some choose to remember all those connected through all their lives, but others focus only on the most recent incarnation.” Prosa wiggled a hand as she continued to the door. “There was some experimentation in the early days to figure out what would work best. We’ve found that it is better to skip those formative years you humans find so necessary. Having to be a child when you are thousands of years old is far too frustrating.”

  The door opened and Prosa held out a hand with a smile. “I’ll answer your other questions in a moment; I don’t want to talk over the top of this.”

  We passed through the doorway and I understood why she was reticent to continue our talk. I wouldn’t have heard her anyway. The balcony wrapped itself around the tower and from what I could tell we were in the center of Sicenae.

  The city shone in the early-morning light. Not much different from Krishan, though where my home was all flowing lines and gentle curves the Farian city was filled with angled white spikes jutting up into the air like knife blades.

  It was gorgeous, but still unsettling.

  Even more so because of the statues and reminders of me all over the damn place. I was more and more uneasy about the way the Farians had warped their entire society around the idea of the Shiva-damned Star of Indrana.

  “Prosa, what’s with the right-angle fetish?” I asked.

  There was no reply and I turned to see her back in the cupola having an argument with thin air. As tempting as it was to listen in, she was speaking Farian and I knew I couldn’t pick enough meaning from her rapidly moving conversation to make it worthwhile. So I left her to her discussion and instead wa
ndered farther down the balcony to stand next to Emmory.

  I wasn’t terribly shocked by her admission that the Farians used tube-tech for their children, but it was a little surprising they just grew their people as adults. That would be frowned on in the human parts of the galaxy, but as Prosa had pointed out, we needed those childhood years. The Farians obviously didn’t.

  I could make out people walking the streets below. The red-haired Farians were a splash of color on the white canvas.

  The Farians out in the world dressed in the same style as their surroundings, yet another indication of how well they were taught to assimilate into a culture and meld themselves into the fabric of a place.

  Here, though, the choice appeared to be white or off-white, though the cut of the clothing varied some. It was eerie in its sameness.

  “My apologies for that, Hail. I had been told I would be relieved of my duties, but someone is still protesting over Delphine’s decision.”

  It was oddly soothing to know that some things never changed and even on Faria people forgot to pass things along.

  “What are your duties?” I asked as Prosa joined us at the balcony.

  “I am what you would call a clerk for Delphine, I suppose. I help her with the daily aspects of her role in the Pedalion.”

  “Wouldn’t there be things you are needed for during the discussion of the negotiations?”

  “Normally, yes.” She nodded. “However, Delphine meant for one of the others to take over my duties. There was a bit of a protest.”

  I laughed. “Why?”

  “I am the youngest of her staff. Another felt they should get the honor of escorting the Star of Indrana around.” A smile slipped through. “Delphine suspected you would not have gotten along with them very well.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, I get along pretty well with most people.”

  “They are a supporter of Adora’s policies and staunchly anti-Shen.”