He rubbed away a bead of sweat before it could drip down his temple. “The market at city center.”
The hover lifted off the street and glided away from the palace, taking the looping drive around the protective exterior wall before dipping down the hill toward New Beijing. Through the dark-paned glass, Kai could see his city shimmering with waves of heat, the windows and metal structures glinting beneath the afternoon sun.
He loved his city. He loved his country.
He would risk anything to protect it.
Inhaling sharply, he unclipped the portscreen from his belt and pulled up the net. The profile he’d looked up days ago greeted him on the main page.
LINH CINDER, LICENSED MECHANIC
LOCATION: NEW BEIJING WEEKLY MARKET, BOOTH #771
480 RATINGS; 98.7% CLIENT APPROVAL
There was no picture of the mechanic or the shop, but Linh Cinder had a reputation of being the best mechanic in the city, and the approval rating was higher than anyone else Kai had looked up. He’d first heard of Linh Cinder from one of the mechanics at the palace who was charged with keeping the royal androids well maintained. When they had failed to properly diagnose Nainsi after running the basic tests, Linh Cinder’s name had come up as the best chance for fixing the android.
Of course, they had all thought Kai was crazy for being so invested in an android.
We’ll order up a new one, they said. Run it through the palace budget. Standard procedure. She’s just a tutor android, after all, programmed with a few assistant apps. Easily replaced, Your Highness. Not for you to worry about.
But they were wrong. Nainsi was not easily replaced. The information she had—or that Kai hoped she had—was not easily replaced at all.
He returned the portscreen to his belt and pulled the android toward him, peering into the sensor light that had been black for days. Once again, he sought out the minuscule power button. Once again, nothing happened.
He sighed, though he’d long given up hope that Nainsi would just wake up and spill all her secrets. Her power cell was fully charged, and according to the diagnostics tests, everything was working properly. No one could figure out what was wrong, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.
“We’re so close,” he whispered to himself. Leaning back against the bench, he dragged a hand through his hair. Frustration had been growing behind his rib cage for weeks now, ever since that Lunar thaumaturge, Sybil Mira, had come to visit for her “ambassadorial mission.” She was a witch. A creepy, mind-controlling witch. Just knowing that she was in the palace set Kai’s teeth on edge. It was like he could feel her eyes following him, or sense her breathing down the back of his neck, even when she wasn’t in the same room. He didn’t know if it was his own paranoia or some Lunar trick, but he did know that he couldn’t wait for her to leave him and his family and his country alone.
Then his father had become ill.
No, not ill. His father had the plague. His father was dying, and there was absolutely nothing Kai could do to stop it.
And now this. Nainsi malfunctioning right when he was sure she’d found something useful, something priceless.
Something regarding the whereabouts of Princess Selene.
He knew it was a risk. If Sybil Mira, or any Lunar, learned that he was trying to find the lost princess, it could lead to a political catastrophe between Earth and Luna. He knew that Queen Levana wouldn’t be quick to forgive the fact that Kai was adamantly attempting to usurp her.
But it was a risk worth taking. Finding Selene and putting her back on the Lunar throne was his best chance—and possibly his only chance—of ridding himself of Queen Levana and her threats toward the Commonwealth. Threats of war. Threats of mass enslavement.
Almost worse—threats of a marriage alliance.
It could not be allowed. He had to find the true Lunar heir before it was too late.
He and Nainsi had been researching for months, and though there had been countless false claims and dead ends, lately he’d been sure they were getting somewhere. Nainsi had heard about a Lunar doctor who was suspected of having an involvement with the lost princess’s disappearance, and also a potential relationship with an Earthen woman years before.
It was a thin hope—the thinnest of hopes—but Kai’s instincts told him there was more to it. He’d ordered Nainsi to find out as much information as she could on the doctor and this Earthen woman and then, two days later—nothing.
Nainsi was dead to the world.
It was enough to make him want to put his head through the hover car’s control board.
“Approaching the city center,” lilted the robotic voice, snapping Kai from his thoughts. “Where would you like to deboard?”