“She did not know yet what to do and so took our counsel as she did as a girl,” Kavax continues.
“We were on my ship, the Reynard, having roast mutton in ponzu sauce with Sophocles, though he did not like the sauce, when Agea Command called, saying the Sovereign’s loyalist forces had attacked
the Triumph in Agea. Virginia could not contact you or her father, and so feared a coup and sent Daxo and me from orbit with our knights.
“She stayed in orbit with the ships and finally contacted Roque when Daxo and I were already descending through atmosphere. Roque said the Sovereign had attacked the Triumph and wounded you and her father gravely. He urged her to come to one of his new ships , where he was taking you because the surface was no longer safe.” I remember Roque talking on the shuttle as the Jackal leaned over me, not being able to hear him. We landed on a ship. The Sovereign was there. She never left Mars. She was hiding in Roque’s fleet. Right under my nose. “But Virginia did not rush to your bedside.” He grins jovially. “A fool in love would do so. But Virginia is clever. She saw through Roque’s mendacity. She knew the Sovereign would not simply attack the Triumph. It would be a plan
within a plan. So she sent word to Orion and House Arcos that a coup was under way. That Roque was a conspirator. So when the assassins struck, attempting to kill Orion and the loyal commanders on their bridge, they were ready. There were firefights on bridges. In staterooms. Orion was badly shot in the arm, but she survived and then Roque’s ships opened fire on ours and the fleet fractured….”
All this while Sevro and Ragnar were discovering that Fitchner was dead and the Sons of Ares base
had been destroyed. And I lay paralyzed on the floor of Aja’s shuttle as everything came apart. No.
Not everything.
“She saved the crew’s lives,” I say.
“Yes,” Kavax says. “Your crew is alive. The one you liberated with Sevro. Even many of your Legion, who we organized and managed to evacuate from Mars before the Jackal and Sovereign’s forces took power.”
“Where are my friends imprisoned?” I ask. “On Ganymede? Io?”
“Imprisoned?” Kavax squints at me, then bursts into laughter. “No, lad. No. Not a man or woman
has left their station. The Pax is just as you left it. Orion commands, the rest follow.”
“I don’t understand. She’s letting a Blue command?”
“Do you think Virginia would have let you live in that tunnel when you and Ragnar were on your
knees if she did not believe in your new world?” I shake my head numbly, not knowing the answer.
“She would have killed you on the spot if she thought you were her enemy. But when she sat before
my hearth as a girl beside Pax and my children, what stories did I read them? Did I read them myths of the Greeks? Of strong men gaining glory for their own heads? No. I told them tales of Arthur, of the Nazarene, of Vishnu. Strong heroes who wished only to protect the weak.”
And Mustang has. More than that. She’s proven Eo right. And it wasn’t because of me. It wasn’t because of love. It was because it was the right thing to, and because mighty Kavax was more a father to her than her own ever was. I feel the tears in my eyes.
“You were right, Darrow,” Ragnar says. His hand falls on my shoulder. “The tide rises.”
“Then why are you here today, Kavax?”
“Because we are losing,” he says. “The Moon Lords will not last two months. Virginia knows what
is happening on Mars. The extermination. The savagery of her brother. The Sons are too weak to fight everywhere.” His large eyes show the pain of a man watching his home burn. Mars is as much
their heritage as it is mine. “The cost of war is too great for a certain defeat. So when Quicksilver proposed a peace, we listened.”
“And what are the terms?” I ask.
“Virginia and all her allies would be pardoned by the Sovereign. She would become
ArchGovernor of Mars and Adrius and his faction would be imprisoned for life. And certain reforms
would be made.”
“But the hierarchy would remain.”
“Yes.”
“If this is true, we must speak with her,” Ragnar says eagerly.
“It could be a trap,” I say, watching Kavax, knowing the mind at work behind his bluff face. I want to trust him. I want to believe his sense of justice is equal to my love for him, but these are deep waters, and I know friends can lie just as well as enemies. If Mustang isn’t on my side, then this would be the play to make. It would expose me, and there’s no doubt in my mind that however she got on this station, she’s got a nasty escort.
“One thing doesn’t make sense, Kavax. If this is true, why didn’t you make contact with Sevro?”
Kavax blinks up at me.
“We did. Months ago. Didn’t he tell you?”
—