I open my mouth, but Mathias interrupts. “Ambassador, there’s no place our Holy Mother would rather be than home. She’s come here with an urgent message for all the Houses.”
“The same message your classmate has been spreading?” Sirna’s eyes sharpen. “We’ve seen the video she’s sent to all the news outlets. We know your band is touring school campuses and using their performances as a cover to spread rumors about the childhood monster Ochus and win you more followers. Do you intend to incite hysteria? With all the suffering in our House, would you use our tragedy to promote your personal cult?”
I’m so astounded by the accusation that I can barely take my next breath, much less compose an answer. Hysan cuts in, deepening his voice with authority, “Ambassador, your Guardian will address the Plenum. Please arrange this now.”
“Yes, please,” I say, my voice wispy. “It’s vital.”
As much as Sirna might like to, an ambassador can’t refuse a direct order from her Guardian. Sirna talks to the clerks, and somehow they manage to squeeze me into today’s schedule. I’ll speak in less than two hours. Even though we just won a small victory, it doesn’t feel that way.
Once the arrangements are made, Hysan says, “I have to meet the Libran representative. I will see you at the Plenum, my lady.” He bows and takes off, and I can’t tell if his lack of eye contact is intentional, or if he’s just preoccupied.
Sirna escorts us to her office on a lower level beneath the giant sphere. “You can wait here,” she says. “I have other duties.”
“What’s the latest news from Cancer?” I ask.
“Worse every day.” With a curt goodbye, Sirna takes off to a committee meeting, leaving me standing there, gaping at her words and easy cruelty.
Her basement office is chilly and sterile, with scarce furniture. There are two benches, a desk, and a saltwater aquarium. Two soldiers stand guard outside the door. Mathias sweeps the place for surveillance tech. “It’s not secure,” he whispers. “There’s at least a dozen brands of spy devices in this room alone.”
“So we won’t talk.” I watch the miniature seahorses in the aquarium, then sit down on one of Sirna’s hard steel benches. “I’m going to think of what to tell the Plenum. You should find your parents and let them know where we are.”
He frowns. He never smiles anymore. “I’d rather not leave you alone.”
“Go,” I say. “We said we’d check in with them. I’ll wait until you’re back to get into trouble.”
With a reluctant grunt, he leaves, promising to be back right away. A little later, and with barely a sound, the door eases open, and Sirna returns, signaling silence before I can speak.
She touches a blue, clam-shaped brooch pinned on her collar, just at the base of her throat, and when it flashes, I realize it’s her Wave. Next, she takes a silver ball from her sleeve and tosses it up in the air. The ball sprouts wings and flies around the room, whining like a sand flea.
“My office is always being watched,” she whispers. “But this scrambler can blind prying eyes for a few minutes.”
She watches the little scrambler buzz around the room. Then her quick blue eyes roll back to me. “Why did you desert our House, Guardian?”
Her question feels like a slap, and her ferocious expression makes me feel like a little girl again. “You’d better have an answer ready,” she says, “because many here will ask.”
I try to infuse my voice with authority, the way Hysan did when he spoke to her earlier. “You know why I’ve come.”
“I know the ring of moon rubble has changed our ocean tides,” says Sirna, almost hissing the words at me. “We’re seeing massive dislocations. The marine food chain is breaking down at every level. There were further shifts to the planet’s core. More tsunamis. We’ve had to start evacuations . . . planet-wide.”
Her last word stands out in the sea of blankness of my mind.
Planet-wide.
I left Cancer to save the Zodiac . . . and now my home is dying.
“Only our largest cities are still above water. Our islands and low-lying communities have been drowned.”
“W-what about my family?”
“Your family? I hope you’re referring to the entire population, Holy Mother. As Guardian, you’re Mother to all Cancrians, or did you forget?” She exhales loudly and stares at the scrambler, pursing her lips.
My heartbeat is suspended in her silence.
In a milder voice, she says, “Your father and brother are missing. I’m sorry, Guardian.”
27
MISSING?
I’d just recovered them. I didn’t even get to see them when they were found—how can they be lost again?
My heart feels like it’s doubled in size, and my ribs can barely contain it. I squeeze my eyes shut to keep the tears back because I don’t want to give Sirna more reasons to look down on me. But the biggest thing fueling my journey was the fact that Dad and Stanton were alive. I couldn’t have found the strength to leave Cancer, to draw Ochus away, if I hadn’t seen with my own eyes that my family was safe.