by Brenda Hiatt
“Ooh, that looked a bit intense, Kira. You and Brady, eh?”
“Nah, just talking game strategy.” I can’t claim I’m not attracted to him. But so is every other girl on the team, along with half the female population of Nuath, drooling over him on the feeds.
Leitis sighs, looking over her shoulder after Brady. “He can talk strategy to me any time he wants, whether it’s to do with caidpel or not,” she says with a wink.
If I’m honest with myself, I feel the same way. But handsome as Brady is, at the moment I’m more interested in hearing whatever he’s going to tell me tomorrow than in starting a romance.
“C’mon,” I say to Leitis. “We’d better get our orders in before they run out of fresh chips.”
Riding the zipper home to Hollydoon an hour later, I puzzle over Brady’s cryptic words: make a difference. How?
Sure, there are things I’d change if I could. Because, no matter what my mother says, Nuath is nothing like I thought it would be once Faxon was gone.
Okay, maybe things aren’t as bad as when people got hauled from their homes in the dead of night never to be seen again. And Faxon’s bullochts are no longer roaming around taking whatever—or whoever—they want while supposedly “protecting” our villages. But while everything might have improved for those in the upper fines, not a whole lot has changed for the rest of us, other than feeling a little safer.
For instance, there’s still no direct zipper from Newlyn to Hollydoon, which means I have to change in Thiaraway. Slinging my school bag over my shoulder, I get off my tapacarr and head across the main terminal to catch the next one home. As I swing by the big screen to check departure times, slightly raised voices off to my left catch my attention.
“How do we know you don’t have anything good in there if you don’t let us look?” I hear a male voice saying in a hectoring tone.
“Yeah,” says another. “Open it up. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Frowning, I glance over and see two guys about my age picking on someone much smaller than they are—with short, blond hair.
“Adina?” Outraged and furious, I barrel toward the group but realize halfway there that the blond kid is a boy, not my sister. Even so, I don’t slacken my pace.
“What’s the problem here?” I yell in the same voice I use to shout out plays on the caidpel pitch.
The two bigger boys whip around to glare at me. “None of your business, Ag,” the taller one sneers, eyeing the green uniform I’m still wearing. “Just move along.”
“I don’t think so.” I keep moving forward. “Not until you tell me why you’re hassling this kid.”
“He’s got something we want,” says the stockier boy. “Don’t you, kid?”
“No!” The younger boy sounds scared. “I told you, all I have in here is my school stuff. Those omnis you saw earlier weren’t mine, they were ones my dad repaired for their owners. I already delivered them.”
“Then you won’t mind if we take a look.” The tall boy reaches for the kid’s pack.
I push right up between them. “Let me guess, your dads used to work for Faxon and you think it’s still okay to bully people? It’s not. Knock it off unless you want everyone to know your families are still sympathizers.”
There were penalties in place for that now, though I wasn’t sure how strictly they were enforced.
“Shows what you know.” The shorter, heavier set boy smirks at me. “My dad happens to be the Acting Under-Minister of Culture, not some filthy Faxon holdover.”
“That’s right,” the skinny dark-haired one affirms. “So an Ag like you can’t touch us. Playing on some stupid sports team doesn’t make you that special.”
Royals. I should have guessed. If anything, my opinion of them sinks lower.
“How do you think your parents will feel if word gets out their sons are shaking kids down right here in Thiaraway? That’ll play great on the feeds. They love scandals like that.”
I’m totally ready to get physical if that threat doesn’t work…but it does.
“C’mon, Zach.” The stocky one puts an urgent hand on his friend’s shoulder.
The taller one glares at me for a second, then shrugs. “Yeah. This kid’s not worth our time anyway. You both better watch your step, though. We’ll be watching.”
“So will the media,” I call after them as they hurry off. Then I turn to the blond boy. “You okay?”
He nods. “Thanks. Those two are the biggest bullies in school. Dunno what they’d have done if you—” Breaking off, he stares at me, apparently taking in my uniform, my face, for the first time. “Whoa! You’re…are you Kira Morain?”
“Um, yeah. Why?”
“I caught the last half of tonight’s game on the feeds,” he says excitedly, his eyes shining now. “That last goal was brilliant! My family’s Maintenance fine, Mechanics. No caidpel team, so we’ve always supported the Ags. Wait till I tell them I met you in person! Boy, will my brother be jealous.”
I have to stifle a laugh. At least he seems to be over his fright. “You want me to autograph something so you can prove it?” I ask, half teasing.
“Oh, wow, would you? Yeah! Just a sec.” He rummages in his pack, then pulls out a tablet that looks even older than mine. Grinning ear to ear now, he pulls up a blank screen and hands me a stylus.
“What’s your name?”
“Jareth.”
Smiling to myself, I write, “To Jareth, a cool kid. Nice meeting you! -Kira Morain #19.”
“Awesome,” he breathes, reading it. “Thanks! Again!”
“You’re welcome. Can you get home all right?”
His head bobs up and down. “Sure, no prob—in fact, that’s my zipper now. See ya!” With a last, adoring grin, he sprints for his platform.
I head for my own, still smiling—until I notice my zipper just left and the next one’s not for twenty-five minutes. “Flach,” I mutter, glad Mum can’t hear me. With a sigh, I pull my own tablet out of my pack. Might as well get a start on tonight’s homework while I wait.
When I finally reach Hollydoon’s tapacarr station, I have to walk nearly a mile to our house, since our supposedly amazing new Sovereign still hasn’t gotten around to turning on the antigrav grids outside the village center. Faxon turned them off a few years back to make it easier to monitor people’s movements, sidelining the little local zips and rendering my old hovercycle useless.
Now, with the Sovereign’s calls to conserve power, I wonder if that’ll ever change. I cut through the village center at a brisk pace, trying to make up for lost time.
“Hey, Kira! Great job tonight!”
I turn to see a family of four waving to me from their front porch. Grinning, I wave back. “Thanks!”
“We watched the game, too,” a woman calls out of a window of the house next door. “That last goal was amazing!”
Hollydoon is nearly three-quarters Agricultural fine so it’s not surprising most of the village follows our matches. Still, it’s cool to be cheered by my own neighbors.
“We have a great team this year,” I call back as more people start waving from windows and doorways. “Be sure to watch our first playoff game in two weeks!”
There are a few cheers and shouts of, “We will!”
I continue on my way, no longer bummed about being so late. The houses get smaller as I move out of Hollydoon’s center toward the narrow track that leads across the fields to our farmhouse.
Low stone walls loom past as I leave the village proper, my path lit only by the thick tapestry of stars overhead. I love walking at night now that it’s so much safer. Slowing, I gaze up at the constellations. Holographic, of course, but they supposedly look exactly as they would from the surface of Mars. Fake or not, they’re pretty.
By the time I reach our farm I’m hoping there’s something left from dinner since I’m already hungry again. My post-game fish and chips were more than two hours ago—and nowhere near as filling as a meal at Sheelah’s would have
been. My parents are watching something on our little living room vidscreen when I come in.
“Oh, Kira, you’re home!” Mum greets me with a smile. “We were just discussing the wonderful news.”
Pleased and a little surprised, I grin back. They rarely pay attention to my games but this was an important one. “Yeah, it was a great match, got us into the playoffs. I guess you saw it on the feeds?”
Mum gives me that vague look she wears way too often these days. “What? Oh, yes, Adina did mention earlier that your team won. I was so excited about Sovereign Emileia’s visit to Hollydoon tomorrow, I’m afraid I barely heard her.”
“I understand you scored the winning goal?” Dad gets up and gives me a quick hug. “Well done. We’ll have to watch the highlights before bed.”
“Um, sure.” I turn away, hiding my hurt. The villagers and kids at school treat me like a minor celebrity but my own parents can’t even be bothered to watch me live on the feeds. “Is there anything left over from dinner? I’m starving.”
“I believe so.” Mum’s gaze has already drifted back to the vidscreen and some other story about the Sovereign. “Why don’t you check the recombinator?”
I go into the kitchen to see what my options are. Looks like it was broccoli and synth salmon for dinner again, not exactly my favorites. Probably means that’s what there was most of when Mum went to the marketplace this morning, meaning it was cheapest. Ags, especially less prominent ones like us, never get first pick but there’s usually synth salmon and broccoli left over—which means we have it a lot. I quickly scroll through the recombinator menu to see if anything better is stocked. There’s not.
Figuring I might as well grab a shower first, I head back through the living room where Mum has reverted to the previous topic.
“I can hardly wait to see her in person,” she’s saying to Dad. “Consort Galena, her mother, was always so very kind to me when I worked in the Palace gardens…” She trails off, gazing dreamily into space, like she does whenever anything reminds her of the “good old days” before Faxon. Shaking my head, I enter the bedroom I share with my sister.
Adina looks up from her homework when I come in. “Hey. You’re home sooner than I thought you’d be. I figured you guys would be partying for hours.”
“We couldn’t get the party room at Sheelah’s after all—had to settle for fish and chips from the place next door.” I shrug, my earlier ebullient mood souring further at the memory. “We’ll manage a better celebration if we win our first playoff game, though.”
Heading into the bathroom, I strip off my caidpel uniform, hang it in the ionic cylinder in the corner, then step in myself. In less than two minutes, the dirt and sweat from the game is gone from both my body and the uniform. Pulling on a faded blue tunic and black pants, I go back to the kitchen, where the rest of the family is now gathered.
“—all of us,” Mum is saying cheerfully as my sister fills a glass with milk from the chiller that supplies the recombinator. “Won’t that be nice?”
“What will be nice?” I ask, crossing to the recombinator myself.
“For us to go as a family to see the Sovereign tomorrow. I’d love for you and Adina to actually meet her,” Mum replies. “Especially as she’s just about your age.”
I try to hide my involuntary grimace. “Younger than me. By at least six months. Anyway, I can’t go. I have practice in Monaru tomorrow.”
As a member of one of the top caidpel teams in Nuath, I have practice six days a week and I never skip, unlike some of the others on my team. The coaches are actually fairly flexible if we let them know about conflicts ahead of time, but I’ve never told my parents that.
“Can’t you leave early?” Dad asks with a glance at Mum. “The Sovereign isn’t scheduled to start speaking in the square until six.”
“Sorry, I really can’t. Now that the Ags have made the playoffs, the coaches will be doubling down on us.” Which my parents would know if they bothered to follow our schedule.
Clearly disappointed, Mum frowns at me. “There are more important things than sports, you know, Kira.” Not the first time she’s said that.
“Your mother is right.” At least Dad sounds apologetic. “It was different last season, when you were doing your part for the Resistance, but now that our goals have been achieved, caidpel is simply a game, no matter how obsessed some of our citizens may be with it.”
“The way some are obsessed with the new Sovereign?” The words are out before I can stop them. “Anyway, what about the crowds? I’ll bet most of Hollydoon will be crammed into the village square tomorrow evening.”
At that, Mum presses her lips together stubbornly. “I’ve been doing much better at the Evening Sing the past few weeks. I’m…I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Oh, sure, she’ll make the effort for those archaic Group Sings most villages resumed once Faxon was out. Or for her beloved Sovereign. But not for my games.
“You know it’ll be the same speech as always,” I grumble. “The one we’ve seen on the feeds at least a dozen times.” Those my parents always remember to watch. “I don’t see much point missing practice to hear the same thing again in person. It’s not like she writes her own material anyway.”
“Kira!” Mum exclaims. “You don’t know that.”
I roll my eyes. “Seriously? She’s only sixteen—and didn’t even know Nuath existed until last year. It’s not like she’s spent her life training for this, like all the previous Sovereigns did.”
Mum shakes her head at me sadly. “I don’t understand why you’re so antagonistic toward Sovereign Emileia, Kira. Most Nuathans understand that she’s exactly what we need after the horrors Faxon put us through. Governor Nels did his best, but he was too indecisive to be an effective leader. I truly believe Emileia will become just that. Already, she’s beginning to grow into her new role. I think she’s shown a great deal of maturity so far, under very trying circumstances.”
A laugh escapes me. “Maturity? Like getting caught on camera making out with her Bodyguard, then letting him into her bedroom on their way to Mars? Oh, yeah, that’s exactly the mature judgment a Sovereign needs.”
Dad shoots a concerned glance Mum’s way. “Since her Acclamation she’s been working closely with Regent Shim to get a properly elected legislature in place, among other things,” he points out to me. “Isn’t that one of the things you feel strongly about?”
I barely restrain a snort. “I’ve heard their promises to open up elections to all the fines, but who’s going to hold them to that? You watch, we’ll still end up with nothing but Royals and Scientists in the legislature. They’ll never let somebody from Mining or Agriculture bump a Royal out of the Eodain, not without a fight.”
A fight I fully intend to be a part of, even if all I can use is words.
“They’ll have to,” Dad insists. “There are barely enough Royals left in Nuath to fill even the Riogain these days.”
I’ve heard that on the feeds, too, but I’m not convinced. “The first general election is still a month away,” I remind him. “A lot can change by then. Every week more cowardly Royals are coming back from Earth, where they stayed nice and safe while the rest of us had to—”
At Dad’s warning glance I break off. He’s been more protective of Mum than ever since she got home from that Mind Healing facility in Pryderi a few weeks ago. Even if he’s not as big a fan of the Sovereign as Mum, he always shuts me down when I argue politics for fear I’ll upset her.
“I’ll admit Sovereign Emileia made a few missteps early on, but she’s still young,” he says. “Give her time.”
Shaking my head in frustration, I turn back to the recombinator and punch up a plate of macaroni and cheese. “At least Shim isn’t a Royal. If the Sovereign goes back to Earth like she says she will, maybe he’ll do a decent job. Though we’d be better off with someone who’s actually lived here recently, like Crevan Erc. He was planning to—”
“That’s enough, Kira,” Dad sna
ps. My parents have never been fans of Crevan or his Populist Party, but I thought he had the right idea.
Mum looks worriedly from Dad to me. “Why don’t you bring your plate into the living room, Kira, and we can watch your game highlights together?”
By now, my earlier triumphant mood has been totally ruined. “I don’t need to see the highlights, I was there. Besides, it’s just a game, right?”
I hate watching myself on the feeds anyway. My hair always looks more red than auburn on the vid. And though I wear it in a messy knot on top of my head when I play, to keep it out of my eyes, it’s not a particularly attractive look. Pulling out a fork, I thunk my plate onto the kitchen table and sit down.
Throwing Dad’s words back at him only reminded me how much less rewarding my life is these days, without the Resistance. Another reason I have no intention of missing tomorrow’s practice. If Brady knows a way I can still make a difference, I absolutely want to hear it.
2
Sean O’Gara
Sean O’Gara (shawn oh-GAYR-uh): Son of Quinn and Lily O’Gara; destined Cheile Rioga (Royal Consort) to Princess Emileia
* * *
Sean
* * *
“Hurry up, Sean,” Dad calls to me as I finish dressing. “I don’t want to keep the Sovereign waiting.”
She only recently asked Dad to resume handling her schedule—even officially appointed him Royal Secretary—so he’s more determined than ever to work his way back into her good graces. Somehow, I doubt being on time for breakfast is likely to make her forget it was his idea to erase Rigel’s memory several weeks back. Still, I try to be quick as I slip on my shoes and fasten my tunic belt.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Dad and I leave the quarters we share in the Royal Palace and walk the short distance down a corridor and around the corner to the Sovereign’s suite of rooms. Cormac, her personal Bodyguard, conducts us to the dining chamber, where my sister Molly is busy setting out food and plates on the big dining table.