I nodded, grimacing. “I’m afraid that’s true. That destroyer belonged to the Treznor-Nirmanas, they have a nearly infinite supply of them, and they want Qole—yes, yes, Eton, I’m getting to why they want her.”
I’d beaten Eton to the punch, at least, and he paused, his mouth open for a demanding roar. I felt a twinge of guilt at making Qole go through this, but it had to be done. It’ll be okay, I thought, I’ll be careful.
“Because of this.” I reached out and flipped off a light. The flickering Shadow lantern on the table now covered us in its purple glow. “Shadow is difficult to harvest, but an incredible source of energy. But to most everyone else, using it in simple appliances like that”—I gestured at the lamp—“is tantamount to suicide. You’ve all experienced, some of you firsthand, what Shadow poisoning can do.” I thought of the wasted man who had grabbed my arm at the harbor, and repressed a shudder. So different from Qole. “The rest of us use it in massive industrial power plants or space stations, or even in experimental starship prototypes, but not for mood lighting.”
“That’s crappy mood light,” Telu said flatly.
“Good for a crappy mood, then. It’s volatile, but Shadow wants to bind to organic matter, even as it tries to destroy it. If it achieves a binding, it stabilizes. My family has been pioneering such research, studying how to create an affinity between Shadow and algae in order to make it less dangerous and far more useful as a bio-energy source. If we succeed, this could change the systems. We’re talking untold energy potential here, infinitely widespread application, and immeasurable value.”
“The Treznors didn’t say they wanted me for that,” Qole said, eyes on her lap, now. Why wouldn’t she look at me?
I grimaced. “I know. I didn’t know what they were after until you did. Look, people like you, Qole, are the key to understanding how Shadow binds organically—for my family, we’re after it for the algae, but the fact is, more directly, you’re an example of it binding with humans. Interest in this has been a side effect of our research. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” I added quickly. “My family can use what they find to make Shadow safer—not just as a fuel source, but also to keep it from destroying people the way it does on Alaxak. To save you, Qole, and Arjan and Telu.”
“And what would you need from Qole to do this?” Arjan asked darkly.
“Our research is so close, missing only the final pieces. All we need is for her to undergo a few tests—and possibly even you, Arjan, and you, Telu—to achieve our goals.”
Qole’s face instantly grew hard. “Tests…like the Treznor-Nirmanas’?”
I held up my hands. “No! My family wouldn’t do that to you. I wouldn’t. The tests are nothing that would cause you any pain—tiny tissue and blood samples, reflex measurements, brain scans, that sort of thing. My uncle, Rubion Dracorte, is leading my family’s top-secret research into this, and he assured me that no harm would come to you.”
“Yeah, ‘top-secret,’?” Eton growled, “and ‘no harm,’ my ass. Did you notice the destroyer?”
A regretful sigh escaped me. “The Treznor-Nirmanas have been spying on us in an impressive capacity, which is one of several reasons why I came alone. My uncle and I couldn’t trust anyone else. And, yes, their involvement makes things a good deal less safe for you, now that they know of our interest in Qole. The wisest course of action would be to come with me to Luvos, my home planet, and take shelter in the capital, Dracorva.”
“So we just give the Dracortes everything they want, even though they already have everything?” Arjan sounded disgusted.
“If we can understand how this works, then no one will have any reason to go after Qole; they’ll come to us instead,” I said. “We can keep her safe, and she can help us understand the gift she has.”
Arjan and Qole glanced at one another. “This isn’t a gift,” he said. “Trust me.”
“But it can be. We can turn it into one.”
“Why?” Qole finally met my eyes, and I shivered in a way that wasn’t unpleasant in the slightest. Too bad her next question was of the less-pleasant sort. “Why does your family want this so badly?”
I took a deep breath. Only the truth from now on, I reminded myself. “To be honest, we are in serious need of something to counter the moves our enemies have been making.”
“You’re talking about the Treznor-Nirmana investment in Dracorte Industries,” Basra murmured. “Their money gives the Dracortes the capital to pursue new opportunities, but if you can’t repay them in time, they’ll gain even more control of your enterprises, won’t they?”
I looked at him in surprise. Most people had viewed the loan by Treznor-Nirmana as positive news and had no idea about any of the additional stipulations. Basra had a grasp on current events that belied his position. Something about him didn’t add up, which, in a way, also made complete sense. Even his face defied expectations, seeming like a man’s one minute, a woman’s the next, and often somewhere in between. I wondered if he made his living by confusing people senseless.
“Um…yes, and any missteps on our part will result in losing significant political power. Our family having nothing new to offer at the next Dracorte Conference and Report is something Treznor would dearly love to see. The conference is less than a week away. We’re in a precarious position.”
“Precarious?” Telu snorted. “Aren’t you, like, the kings of the universe?”
I suppressed most of a grim smile. “Not quite. My father, Thelarus Dracorte, is the king and steward of our family and this system, which includes both my home planet and yours, and dozens of smaller subsystems and habitable planets in between. But in the scope of the galaxy, he is only one member of the Kings’ Council. The Belarius family leads the council—so if you’re looking for kings of the universe, they’d be the closest.”
Telu, Arjan, and Qole all looked at me blankly, while both Eton’s and Basra’s flat looks told me not to treat them like idiots. Clearly, the offworlders were more up-to-date on galactic politics, but there wasn’t much I could do to spare them the boredom. The others needed to understand.
“My family has had a long-standing alliance with Belarius ever since they invented the faster-than-light drive a couple hundred years ago, which was in turn a couple hundred years after the portals imploded in the Great Collapse. With such a technological advance, Belarius launched an empire that no family could rival, only try to join or ally with. My family had remained in possession of the drone network after everything fell apart—albeit with significantly less control over the drones than we’d had previously—and so with our raw materials and Belarius’s new transport capabilities, we were a logical partnership. And it stayed logical…until recently.”