He did, luckily, so I didn’t have to make him. If Nev had gotten me out, he’d also helped leave Arjan. He was the reason we’d come to Luvos, after all. For a split second, I felt like tearing him apart with my bare hands, but the devastation on his face stopped me.
I straightened my spine, wiping my tears on the back of my hand. “Telu, get everyone on deck,” I said. “And please get me some real blasted clothes.”
Telu shot Nev a glance, and he nodded. He moved back over to the console to keep track of the data feeds while she slipped away from the bridge. She soon returned with a folded stack of leathers and thermals.
“I’ll be back with Eton and Basra,” she said, and ducked back out.
I looked at the clothes on the bench and then at Nev’s back. There was nothing else for it, and I was beyond caring. He stayed facing away while I clawed off the remnants of the ragged dress. Afterward, I yanked on a pair of leather leggings and a tank top, followed by a fur-lined jacket and boots. It wasn’t cold enough for more, though I almost wished it were. I craved the protective layers.
Nev seemed to know when I was done changing, because he glanced back at me. “Qole, I didn’t know about Arjan until—”
“Save it,” I snapped.
We were spared from having to say anything else by the arrival of the rest of the crew. Maybe Nev wanted to speak more, but I didn’t, not to him. Telu, followed by Eton and Basra, filed onto the bridge.
They all looked at me with an intensity I’d never seen, each in their own way. Telu seemed like she wanted to both cry and scream along with me. Eton stared as if I were bleeding out in front of him, and he didn’t know how to save me. Basra…on the surface, Basra seemed indifferent, back to a more neutral appearance with his usual androgynous attire. But in his eyes, I caught a flash of the same depthless rage that burned in my own core.
In that instant, I knew none of them would disagree with what I was about to say. “We have to go back for Arjan.”
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Telu said.
“I’ll tell you something I don’t know.” I sat down harder on the bench than I meant to. Whatever way my anger empowered me, my body was still exhausted. “And that’s how we’re supposed to go about it.”
“I know how,” Eton said, as blunt as a boot. “We ransom the little prince to get him back.”
Everyone looked up at that, even me.
Nev sighed. “That won’t work. I wish it would, but it won’t.”
Eton rounded on him like a gun ready to fire. “Of course you would say that.”
“No,” Nev snarled, suddenly angrier than he’d ever been at any of us. “I would have gone back to try to find Arjan and get him out no matter what, but instead—”
“And you expect me just to believe that?” Eton shouted back.
Nev got right in his face, his words blistering. “I just betrayed my family, fought my own men at your side and watched them die for you, for Qole, for this crew. You damned well should believe it.”
Eton opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Not even he could argue with that.
“Which is why”—Nev scrubbed his hands through his hair and took a step back, as if restraining himself—“my father would likely not make the trade. I’m a traitor, so now Arjan is probably worth more to him than I am. With Qole’s escape, Arjan is the key to my family’s survival.”
“No,” I said, and he blinked at me. “Arjan is the key to their triumph, not survival. Your uncle told me he already has the formula to make Shadow into a widely usable fuel. He wants us for the same reason as the Treznor-Nirmanas, as far as I could gather. Our abilities.”
“I can’t believe this.” Nev’s hands turned to fists in his hair, which he dragged over his face, covering his eyes. Almost like he couldn’t look at us. “I trusted them….”
“Regret your family and your idiotic gullibility on your own time,” Basra said. He didn’t spit the words, but somehow his flat tone was worse. “For now, this is about how you can repay us, repay Arjan.”
I thought Nev might get angry at that, but instead he took a deep breath and dropped his hands. “As I was saying, my father would likely refuse to deal with you, simply to teach me a lesson if nothing else. He’s fond of those, and I’ve just failed him more thoroughly than he probably thought possible. Even if he agreed”—he swallowed, as if whatever he was about to say was less pleasant than admitting his father was a ruthless piece of scat who wouldn’t bargain for his own son’s life—“then I’m guessing he wouldn’t play fair. He views the family’s success to be nearly as crucial as the family’s survival. He wouldn’t give up Arjan, and at the same time, he would try to get Qole back or kill as many of you as possible, even at risk to me. If we try a trade like that, we lose all element of surprise. We walk right into a trap of his own design, and my father is very, very good at such things.”
“Is he?” Basra sounded unconcerned. Then, surprisingly, he said, “Nev is right.”
“Next plan,” I said. A mostly numb part of me didn’t mind leaving that one behind.
“Full-scale assault?” Eton suggested without missing a beat. Oddly, he didn’t sound too disappointed, either. Maybe Nev had made an impression on him in a way that his fists hadn’t.
Telu cracked her knuckles, then flexed them as if to type over an infopad. “In more ways than one. I have other ways of hacking them to pieces.”
Basra smiled coldly. “We have three ways, actually.”
“Right, all this sounds lovely, but perhaps we should take a moment to consider.” Nev didn’t quail when everyone shot him glares as powerful as energy blasts. “First of all, our full-scale assault will be nothing against the armies of an entire planet. We need to plan. This area is covered in drones that have blaring signals to hide us, and that would respond to a direct threat. We’d be difficult to attack here. The Air Guard didn’t shoot us down in the first place only because my father likely commanded them not to—”
“Are thanks in order, then?” Basra asked, his tone like a slap to the face.
“No,” Nev said, as patient as could be. “I mean to say they might be more inclined to shoot us down now that my father’s had time to mull my betrayal. And since we’re no doubt being hunted by every ship in planetary security, it might be wise to lay low while we can.”
To be fair, I did take a moment to consider his words. I met his eyes. “I’m sorry, but I can’t wait. I saw him, Nev. It was worse than…It was the worst. Who knows what they could be doing to him, even since we left? I just…can’t.” I shook my head, trying to dispel the memory of Arjan’s pain so I could focus, and then I cleared my throat. “So, I have to say this. If any of you want to debark, I will let you off without question, with as many provisions as you might need. Not that it would be completely safe here, but—”
Telu snorted loud enough for everyone. “Whatever. Like any of us would give up on Arjan like that. He’s as good as our brother too, and he’d return for any of us. Now let’s stop wasting time and come up with a plan.”