Fifty-Six
To anyone who would have seen her, Levana was a vision of serenity in her ethereal red wedding gown and the sheer gold veil that fell to her wrists. She sat on the settee in her guest quarters, posture perfect, her hands folded in her lap.
Except they were not folded at all, but rather balled into angry fists.
Each one held a wedding band. One that she had worn for far too many years, that she had once believed would bring her love and happiness, but had only ever brought her pain.
The other was supposed to bring her, not the love of a blind, selfish husband, but the love of an entire planet. She should have been wearing it now.
Everything had been going so well. She had been moments away from walking down that aisle. Moments away.
She should have been married. She should have been reciting the vows that would make her empress.
When she found out who was responsible for this delay, she would torment their fragile mind until they were a drooling, pathetic idiot, terrified of the sight of their own hands.
A knock cut through the fantasy. Levana shifted her eyes toward the door.
“Enter.”
One of her guards entered first, escorting Konn Torin, the young emperor’s annoying, perpetually present adviser. She glared at him through her gold veil, though she knew he couldn’t see it.
“Your Illustrious Majesty,” he said, bowing deeply. The addition of a new adjective combined with the bow slightly lower than usual made the hair prickle on the back of her neck. “I must apologize most severely for the delay, and for the news I have to impart to you. We have been forced, I’m afraid, to postpone the marriage ceremony.”
“I do beg your pardon.”
He straightened, but kept his gaze respectfully on the floor.
“His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Kaito, has been kidnapped. He was taken from his personal quarters and smuggled onto an untraceable spaceship.”
Her fingers curled around the wedding bands. “By whom?”
“Linh Cinder, Your Majesty. The cyborg fugitive from the ball. Along with multiple accomplices, it would appear.”
Linh Cinder.
Every time she heard the name she wanted to spit.
“I see,” she said, finding it too wearisome to soften the hardness of her anger. “Am I to believe that you did not have any security measures in place for the attempt of such an assault?”
“Our security was compromised.”
“Compromised.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She rose to her feet. The gown swished like a breeze around her hips. The adviser didn’t flinch, although he should have.
“You’re telling me that this teenage girl has not only escaped from your prison and evaded capture by your highly trained military, but has now invaded your palace and the private quarters of the emperor himself, kidnapped him, and again gotten away with it?”
“Precisely correct, Your Majesty.”
“And what are you doing now to retrieve my groom?”
“We have employed every police and military unit at our dispo—”
“NOT GOOD ENOUGH.”
This time, he did flinch.
Levana steadied her breathing. “The Commonwealth has failed too many times with regards to Linh Cinder. Beginning now, I will employ my own resources and tactics in finding her. My guards will need to review all your security footage from the past forty-eight hours.”
The adviser clasped his hands behind his back. “We are happy to give you access to the security footage we have available. However, we are missing approximately two hours of footage that was compromised this afternoon by the security breach.”
She sneered. “Fine. Bring me what you do have.”
Thaumaturge Aimery Park appeared in the doorway. “Your Majesty. If I may request a word with you, in private.”
“With pleasure.” She waved a hand at Konn Torin. “You’re dismissed, but note that the incompetence of your security team will not be ignored.”
With no argument, and another low bow, the adviser left.
As soon as he was gone, Levana whipped the veil off her head and threw it onto the settee. “The young emperor has been kidnapped, and from his own palace. Earthens are pathetic. It’s amazing they haven’t already become extinct.”
“I do not disagree, Your Majesty. I trust Mr. Konn did not inform you of this evening’s other interesting development?”
“What development?”
Aimery’s eyes danced. “It appears that Dr. Sage Darnel is in this palace, trapped in a quarantine room in the research wing.”
“Sage Darnel?” She paused. “Daring to return after he assisted the escape of that wretched girl?”
“No doubt they’ve been working together, although I’ve been led to believe that Dr. Darnel won’t be around for much longer. It appears he’s contracted an unusual strain of letumosis, one that seems to be much faster acting than the common strain. And, of course, he is Lunar.”
Her pulse skipped. This did open up some interesting possibilities.
“Take me to him,” she said, sliding her true wedding ring back onto her finger. The other, that would cement her to Emperor Kaito, she left behind.
“I must warn you,” Aimery said as she followed him into the corridor, “that the elevators throughout the palace are malfunctioning. We’ll be forced to take the stairs.”
“Earthens,” she growled, lifting the hem of her skirt.
It was like traversing an endless labyrinth, but finally they reached the research wing. A crowd of officials had gathered outside the lab and Levana sneered to think that they’d intended to keep this from her when Sage Darnel, like Linh Cinder, was her problem to deal with, however it pleased her.
As she entered the lab room, she slipped into the minds of the men and women around her and impressed a strong need to be elsewhere.
The room was cleared within seconds, but for her and Aimery.
It was a crisp, chemical-smelling room. All bright lights and hard edges. And on the other side of a tinted window, Dr. Sage Darnel was laid out on a lab table, holding a gray cap against his stomach.
With the exception of the security footage that showed him helping Linh Cinder escape from prison, Levana hadn’t seen him since he disappeared over a decade ago. Once, he had been one of her most promising scientists, making grand advances in the development of her lupine soldiers on an almost monthly basis.
But time had not been kind to him. His face had become worn and wrinkled. He was balding, and what was left of his hair was tufted and gray. And then there was the disease. His reptilian skin was covered in bruise-like blotches and a rash that was bubbling up like blisters, piling on top of each other. His fingertips had already begun to turn blue. No, he would not be around much longer.
Levana floated toward the window. A light was on beside a microphone, indicating that communication was open between the two rooms.
“My good Dr. Darnel. I did not think I would ever again have the pleasure.”
His eyes opened, still fervently blue behind his spectacles. His attention was locked on the ceiling, and though it occurred to Levana that this was no doubt a one-way window, it annoyed her that he wouldn’t bother to face her.
“Your Majesty,” he said, his tone brittle. “I thought I might hear your voice one more time.”
Beside her, Aimery checked a portscreen at his belt, and excused himself with a low bow.
“I must say, I’m delighted with this irony. You left an honorable position on Luna to come to Earth and devote your last withering years to finding a cure for this disease. A disease that I already have the antidote for. In fact … come to think of it, I might have some samples with me in the palace. I like to keep them on hand in the event something tragic should happen to my betrothed, or someone else necessary to my objectives. I could have the antidote brought to you, but I don’t suppose I will.”
“Worry not, My Queen. I would not take it from you even if you did, now that I know what lengths you’ve gone to obtain it.”
“The lengths I’ve gone to? In order to cure a disease that, until this day, did not affect my own people? I do believe that’s rather charitable of me, wouldn’t you say?”
He slowly, slowly sat up. His head fell to his chest as he tried to recapture his breath, winded from that small exertion. “I’ve figured it out, My Queen. I truly believed that all shells were killed when you took them from us, but that’s not true. Are any of them killed, or is it all just a show? A means of putting them into seclusion and harvesting their blood without anyone coming to look for them?”
Her lashes fluttered. “You had a shell child once, didn’t you? Remind me—was it a little boy or a little girl? Perhaps when I return home I can find them and tell them how small and pathetic their father was when he died right before my eyes.”
“What’s most interesting to me,” the doctor said, scratching his ear and acting as if he hadn’t heard her, “is that the first documented case of letumosis occurred twelve years ago. And yet, you’ve been collecting antibodies for much longer than that. In fact, it would have been your sister who began the experiments, if my math is correct.”
Levana splayed her fingers on the counter. “You have reminded me why you were such a terrible loss for our team, doctor.”
He swiped his arm across his damp forehead. His skin seemed translucent beneath the bright lights. “This disease is all your doing. You’ve manufactured death to bring Earth to its knees, so that when the time was right, you would be there to save them with your miraculous antidote. One that you’d had stashed away all along.”
“You give me too much credit. It was the team working beneath my parents that created the disease, and those beneath my sister who perfected the antidote. I simply implemented their research by determining a means of getting the disease down to Earth.”
“By exposing Lunars to it and then sending them here, having no idea what they were carrying.”
“Sending them to Earth? Absolutely not. I simply made sure that my security personnel looked the other way when they … escaped.” The last word held a bite. She wasn’t fond of the idea that some of her people chose to run away from the paradise she’d given them.
“It’s biological warfare.” Dr. Darnel coughed into his elbow, leaving spots of dark red. “And Earth has no idea.”
“And they will continue to have no idea. Because I’m going to stand here and watch you die.”
He laughed shrilly. “You honestly think I would carry this secret to my grave?”
A twinge of annoyance traipsed down her spine.
The doctor’s eyes were glazing over, but his smile was enormous as he studied the window. “This is a very large mirror I’m looking into. So impossible to hide from what I am … what I’ve become. My Queen, you would not like to die in this room. I suspect you would tear off your own flesh if forced to stare at it for so long.”
She squeezed her hands into fists, digging her nails into the palms of her hands.
“Your Majesty.”
Exhaling, she forced her hands to open. Her palms stung.
Aimery had returned with Jerrico, her captain of the guard, looking as though he’d been in an impressive scuffle.
“Finally. Where have you and Sybil been? Report.”
Jerrico bowed. “My Queen, Thaumaturge Mira and I, along with five of my top marksmen, managed to surround Linh Cinder and her companions on the emergency landing pad on this tower’s rooftop.”
Hope warmed her chest. “And you got them? They haven’t escaped after all?”
“No, Your Majesty. We failed in our objective. Two of my men are dead, the other three severely injured. I, myself, was unconscious when the spacecraft escaped with the traitors and Emperor Kaito aboard.”
Her fury began to claw at her spine again, desperate to be unleashed. “And where is Thaumaturge Mira?”
He respectfully lowered his gaze. “Dead, Your Majesty. Linh Cinder used her gift to torture her mind—I heard her screams myself. Those who were conscious have reported that, after the spacecraft departed, Thaumaturge Mira threw herself from the rooftop. Her body was found in the gardens.”
A mad giggling echoed through the room. Levana spun back as the doctor doubled over his knees, kicking his heels against the table. “She deserved it, the snake. After keeping my little golden bird locked up in her cage for so long.”
“Your Majesty.”
Levana faced Jerrico again. “What?”
“We found one of Linh Cinder’s accomplices aboard their ship prior to the confrontation. Her new pilot, it would seem.” Jerrico gestured toward the hall. Footsteps clicked, and a moment later, two men entered. Another guard escorting—
Her smile was quick. “Dearest Sir Clay.”
Though his wrists were bound behind his back, he stood straight and proper and seemed as healthy as ever. He clearly hadn’t been treated like a prisoner aboard Linh Cinder’s ship.
“My Queen.” He dipped his head.
She scraped her Lunar gift over him, testing for signs of derision or rebellion, but there were none. He was as blank and malleable as ever. “My understanding is that you abandoned your thaumaturge in a pivotal battle in order to side with Linh Cinder against the Lunar crown. Your being here leads me to understand that you are also involved with the kidnapping of my betrothed. You are a traitor to myself and to my throne. How do you plead?”
“Innocent, My Queen.”
She laughed. “Of course you are. How can you plead thus?”
He held her gaze without remorse. “During the battle aboard the spaceship, Thaumaturge Mira was consumed with the effort to control a Lunar special operative who has joined the side of the rebels. With my own faculties open, Linh Cinder forced me to comply with her will and fight against my thaumaturge, ultimately leading to her abandoning the ship and leaving me aboard. Realizing this was an opportunity to ingratiate myself to the rebels, I have spent these past weeks acting as a spy with the intention of reporting weaknesses and strategies when I was finally able to return to my queen, who I am most honored to serve.”
She smirked. “No doubt your eagerness to return encompassed a desire to see your beloved princess as well.”
There—finally. The tiniest ripple of emotion, before the lake was once again still as glass. “I live to serve all members of the Lunar royal family, My Queen.”
She smoothed her fingers down her skirt. “How can I believe that you remain loyal to me when you are standing before me in chains, having been dragged from the enemy’s own ship?”
“I would hope my actions prove my loyalties. Had I wanted Linh Cinder to succeed in her objectives, I would not have sent Thaumaturge Mira a comm informing her where and when I would be arriving with that ship.”
Levana raked her gaze over Jacin before glancing at Jerrico. “Is this true?”
“I can’t say. Thaumaturge Mira did seem confident of the location when we went to intercept the traitors, but she didn’t say anything about a comm. And she seemed furious when we found Jacin in the cockpit. It was under her order that we took him into custody.”
“All due respect,” said Jacin. “I did shoot her during our last engagement. And the comm was sent anonymously—she may not have realized I was the one who had sent the tip in the first place.”
Levana waved away the statement. “We will investigate further, Sir Clay. But as you claim to have been gathering information for weeks, tell me, what useful things have you learned about our enemies?”
“I’ve learned that Linh Cinder has the ability to control a Lunar special operative,” he said, reciting the information with as much emotion as an Earthen android. “However, she is untrained and lacks focus. She shows no talent for simultaneously engaging in both mental and physical battles.”
“Interesting speculation,” Levana mused. “In your estimation, would she have the mental focus required to torture an enemy, driving them to the brink of insanity?”
“Absolutely not, Your Majesty.”
“Absolutely not. Well then. You are either much stupider than I ever suspected, or you are lying, as that is precisely what Linh Cinder did today, against my head thaumaturge herself.”
Another spike of emotion announced a sudden bout of nerves, but it was overshadowed by loud thumping from the quarantine.
“Of course he’s lying!” the doctor screeched, his voice breaking. He had managed to haul himself off the lab table and was now pounding on the glass with his palms, leaving smears of bloodied spittle. “She’s capable of killing your head thaumaturge and all your guards and your entire court. She’s Princess Selene, the true heir to the throne. She can kill you all, and she will kill you all. She’s coming for you, My Queen, and she will destroy you!”
Levana snarled. “Shut up! Shut up, you old man! Why won’t you die already?”
He was too busy gasping for breath to hear her. He collapsed to the ground, hands on his chest, his wheezing punctuated with hacking coughs.
Jacin Clay, when she turned back to him, was staring skeptically at the window. But within moments his eyes began to fill with comprehension. His lips twitched, like he was ready to laugh at a joke he just now understood. It was a rare show of emotion that only angered her more. “Take him away. He will undergo a full investigation on Luna.”
As Jacin was marched back into the corridor, she faced Thaumaturge Park again, her hands fisted at her sides. “You are hereby promoted. Begin planning our departure immediately, and alert our research team to this new strain of letumosis. Also, initiate mobilizing procedures for our soldiers. Linh Cinder is too afraid to face me herself. The people of Earth will suffer for her cowardice.”
“You understand that with the loss of Thaumaturge Mira’s programmer, we are not able to transport our ships to Earth without notice?”
“What do I care if Earth sees them coming? I hope it gives them time to beg for mercy before we destroy them.”
Aimery bowed. “I will see it done, Your Majesty.”
Levana glanced back to see that Dr. Sage Darnel was sprawled out on the floor, his body seizing between his coughs. She watched him writhe and jerk, her blood still boiling at his words.
As far as the people of Luna and Earth knew, Selene had died thirteen years ago.
Levana was going to make sure it stayed that way.
She was the rightful queen of Luna. Of Earth. Of the entire galaxy. No one would take that from her.
Seething, she stepped closer, close enough that she could see the trail of tears left on the doctor’s scourged face.
“Sweet Crescent Moon…,” he whispered, his lips barely able to form the words. He began to shiver. “Up in the sky…” He hummed a few bars of a song, a lullaby that seemed barely familiar. “You sing your song … so sweetly … after sunshine passes.…”
The last word hovered unspoken as he stopped shuddering and lay still, his blue eyes staring upward like empty marbles.