Andi knew she should be more concerned about Lira’s issues. Her pilot’s past with Adhira was muddled and painful, a constant struggle for Lira to overcome. But Andi’s mind was ragged, stripped free of the pieces that made her mortal. In this moment, she felt as if the veil of the Bloody Baroness was still stuck to her eyes.
“General Cortas will fix the ship, as he should have before,” Andi said with a heated growl. The eyes of her crew went wide at the sudden rage in her voice. “If he doesn’t, I’m going to tear the sagging skin from his face.”
This whole mission was the general’s fault. If he hadn’t allowed Xen Pterran spies to come in and steal his son, the old man would never have sent Dex after Andi and her crew. Then they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, and the Marauder would still be up there in the sky, doing what it did best.
Smuggling. Thieving.
Not rescuing a privileged, somehow-still-unconscious general’s son with a mysterious, unknown pathogen in his blood, nor with Dex, sharing all his terrible truths about the past.
Andi couldn’t help remembering that smile they’d shared just before the Marauder crashed... What did it mean, that she was still able to share such a moment with him?
What is happening to my life? she wondered. It was out of control. She was out of control.
There were a million questions in Andi’s mind, none of which could be answered.
“There’s nothing we can do right now,” Lira said. She reached out, and Andi felt the warm flutter of Lira’s fingertips on her shoulder. She stiffened at the touch, and Lira pulled away. “A calm mind is a decent one.”
“Not now, Lira,” Andi growled. “Save your Adhiran proverbs for another time.”
Lira sighed and turned to look at the others. “Your home may be the ship, Androma. It’s all of ours, too. But Adhira is the planet that gave me life. I just lost control of myself before I could stop our ship from crashing into one of its most profitable crop fields. When Queen Alara finds out...”
Andi didn’t answer.
Lira’s eyes narrowed. “You are not the only one suffering today, Captain.” She scooted over to sit with Breck and Gilly.
Andi slumped back into her seat, hating the action as soon as she’d done it.
She was tired. She was also hungry, and—for some hellish reason unbeknownst to her or her crew or that ridiculous AI the general had sent with them on this death mission—she may have just lost her damned ship.
She needed to be a leader. She needed to talk to her crew and devise a plan. She needed to apologize to Lira. She needed to sort out how she felt about her conversation with Dex.
But right now, she simply wanted to sit and not be bothered.
So she did.
With her mind reeling, her hands balled into fists at her side, Androma Racella, the Bloody Baroness of Mirabel, stared out the back of the wagon as her ship slid over another pile of fresh green dung and allowed herself to pout like a child.
Chapter Forty-Five
* * *
NOR
LEAVING HER TOWER for the city was like entering a completely different world. The one she came from was that of privilege and wealth, while the one she walked into was born from death and chaos, left to rot under the clouded sun.
Queen Nor Solis lifted the train of her burgundy gown as she, Darai and Zahn mounted the steps to the waiting hover carriage that would carry them to the former palace grounds just outside the city. Today her people would answer her call to action. Today was the day her plan would be set in motion, all the pieces finally sliding into place.
“Where to, Majesty?” a servant asked from the driver’s seat just beyond the curtained barrier.
“The palace ruins,” Nor said with a casual wave of her prosthetic hand. Her scars ached today, as they did every day. But something about returning to the place where it all happened made the throbbing worse. A constant tick in the back of her mind that whispered, Death, death, death. “Make it slow. I want every eye to see us pass.”
“Just be sure they don’t get too close,” Zahn added to the driver. “Hover just above their reach.”
The moment Nor settled into the plush cushions, the hover started moving. Darai sat on the seat across from her and inclined his head toward her. His scars and the bits of metal holding his flesh in place practically squirmed as he smiled.
“You are a vision today, my queen. Your people will be blessed to look upon you.”
She slid the curtains open, the better to see her city and its citizens below. The better to remind herself of what she was striving so hard to save.
So close to her tower, the only residents around were the few remaining wealthy citizens of Nivia, the last habitable city on Xen Ptera. Old crumbling buildings stood like skeletons, stretching their ragged arms into the sky. The hover carriage glided through a plume of smoke, bathing the windows in sooty gray.
“I trust you are prepared?” Darai asked. “I haven’t heard your speech yet. Are you sure you’ve...”
“Be silent, Uncle.” Nor did not bother to even glance his way as she continued her admonishment. “If you really trust me as you say you do, you would not have to ask.”
His silence was a welcome gift as the smoke cleared and the carriage continued on, its engine wheezing in the background.
“Nor,” Zahn whispered, leaning close enough that his breath tickled her ear. “You’re too tense. The people will see it, and it may cause them to doubt.” His hand grazed her thigh. “I know it was a late night. Perhaps we should try this tomorrow.”
Warmth shot through her at his touch, quickly followed by a spike of frustration from his words.
“They will see what I wish them to see,” she said. She gently moved his hand away. “In this time of darkness, they will find a queen able to guide them into the light.”
Darai chuckled silently across from them. “Someday, boy, you will learn that she does what she pleases, when she pleases. And she does it with flair.” His smile stretched as he added, “A gift inherited from her late mother, no doubt.”
“I thought I asked for silence,” Nor snapped at him, her frustration barreling toward fury. “Your bravery lately is verging on foolery, Uncle. I’m growing tired of it.”
Darai’s eyes flitted to hers. “A wise queen does not speak down to others.”
Nor sighed. “But a niece, desperate for silence from her talkative uncle, does.”
Darai shook his head, a smirk on his face, but he remained mercifully silent.
Zahn’s hand found Nor’s thigh again. This time, she allowed it to stay.
Outside the carriage below, the streets transformed from sturdy, fortified houses made to withstand the unstable planet’s constant trembling to rickety pieces of rubble thrown together by shaky hands. For most people, having a roof over their heads to protect them from the poisonous fumes and acidic rain was a luxury. Others were not so blessed.
As they passed, beggars reached their dirty hands up in hopes of touching their queen, starvation and illness etched on their faces. Nor glanced down at them, the fissure in her heart widening.
The Unified Systems had done this. She would make sure that they paid for such a heinous crime.