Darling followed after Thraix as he left them behind to fend for themselves. "Hey, Thraix, isn't it?"
He slowed down to scowl at him. And before Darling could speak, he answered the unspoken question. "Jules doesn't want anything from The Sentella or Nykyrian, Majesty. Nor does he want to be reinstated to the royal families that kicked him out. Once we return you to his brother, he will go back to being a forgotten ghost in your collective memories."
Thraix glanced over Darling's shoulder to glare at Jullien's parents. "He has long since stopped using any semblance of the names he was born with. As far as he's concerned, his one true mother is Unira Samari, and he belongs to the Altaan family. He even carries the Samari Warsword. He's neither Andarion nor Triosan. He is Tavali. And unlike you, we love and respect him."
As they came to the end of the underground shaft, Jullien motioned them to silence. There were sirens and media all around. Soldiers were patrolling in thick numbers.
When his mother started forward, Jullien grabbed her arm and pointed to the site where the palace had stood. Flying over its remains was a League flag.
Eyes wide with fury, he shook his head no at her.
And as they crept forward, they overheard the reports of Eriadne proclaiming herself tadara and retaking the throne. Of her denouncing anyone who stood against her.
Just as Jullien had predicted, no one had risen to put her down. The Andarions had followed along with dutiful submission. Andarion caste order ruled all. Since Eriadne held the Anatole family Warsword, she was deemed the rightful heir.
For now.
If they were to try and stop her, it wouldn't go well for them.
When they finally reached the bay where they'd left their ships, Jullien pulled them to a stop and projected his thoughts to his men. Thraix, come with me. Dimitri, keep everyone else hidden.
His heart pounding with the hope that no one would recognize him and tear their plan apart, Jullien crossed to the Pet Hate.
"Halt!"
Arching his brow in regal irritation, he turned an arrogant grimace at the technician. "There a problem?"
"This your ship?"
"Yeah. Captain Samari. I was supposed to pick up some cargo, but with everything that's happened, I was told to forget it. No one wants to flash paperwork bearing the seal of the former ... well, you know."
The technician nodded. "Tell me about it." He looked at Thraix. "What about you?"
"I own the other piece of shit docked beside it. We really needed this shipment."
"You got your former clearance codes?"
Jullien held them out.
He ran them, then nodded. "All right. I'll let the comptroller know to give you clearance."
"Grateful, brother." But as they lowered the ramp on the Pet Hate, Jullien went cold. Thraix, to your right. That's Kyr Zemin's ship. If he's screening this bay ...
"We're going to have to blast our way out."
Jullien nodded. This was all about to get really bloody.
CHAPTER 39
Once they had the cargo bay doors open and ready, Jullien and Thraix returned to the group. "All right, we stick to the plan. We're one ship short, so we get the most important ones out on the two we have. I'll stay behind and commandeer a ship once you leave and head out with the guards and nurses."
Thraix choked on his grief as he saw the same future Jullien did. "We can make room for one more."
"You won't achieve escape velocity with my additional weight, and you know it. On either ship. Andarions weigh too much. And my huge, fat ass has always been a problem."
"Jules--"
"Don't. I got all of you into this. I should be the one who stays behind. Besides, it has to be. They'll need my clearance codes to get them through Tavali-held space." He hugged Thraix. "Tell my girls and Vas that I love them. And Ushara that I won't break her heart. She shouldn't worry about me."
Thraix fisted his hand in Jullien's hair. "Unus ex meis intimis. Animae plusquam dimidium meae." Friend whom I dearly love. My second self.
"Et tu--" And you. "I'll distract anyone who comes after you and make sure you get out safely."
Darling paused in front of Jullien and handed him his holster. As Jullien took it, Darling's gaze dropped down to the blood that had started dripping again from Jullien's earlier wounds, and saturating his clothes. The emperor didn't comment on that as he explained his gift. "The blasters are custom, with a larger-than-expected blast range and longer charges. The grenades have a better range, too. I designed them for maximum damage."
"Thanks."
"No," Darling said earnestly. "Thank you. I won't forget what you've done. Sorry for being an ass earlier."
"It's okay. Asshole's my natural state of being."
Smiling and clapping him on the shoulder, Darling headed up the ramp with his wife and infant son.
As Kiara started to leave with her children, Taryn ran to Jullien and grabbed his leg. "I want to stay with Basha Dagger! I can help fight off the bad guys!"
Jullien reached down and picked him up to hug him. "Nothing would please me more, Terry. But you have to go with your matarra and little sister to protect them. It's what Tavalian do. We protect our families at all costs. Even when they annoy us." Kissing his head, he set him down and taught him a Tavali salute.
Thraix picked Taryn up and carried him inside the Pet Hate while Jullien stayed outside with the Andarion guards to cover them. "This is your uncle's prized ship that belonged to his mother."
"My yaya?"
"No. A different mother. But you'll like the ship. She's an antique." Once inside, Thraix set Taryn down in a chair next to his twin and belted him in.
"How does this ship work?" Darling asked as Thraix joined him on the flight deck. "I haven't touched anything yet, but it's already started doing preflight checks."
Thraix ignored the question to speak to the ship. "Jules, let go of your baby. We've got it."
"She's a little buggy on the initial sequence. Don't set her down and try to restart her without contacting my matarra first. She's the only other pilot who can start her. I'll take you out as far as I can."
Darling gaped. "Is that Jullien?"
Thraix nodded as he strapped himself in and assumed the captain's chair. "Anything else I need to know to pilot her, Yaya?"
"Don't scratch my paint or you will piss me off. Remember, this will one day go to my younger son."
"Don't you think Vidar deserves something better than this old piece of scytel?"
"Ah, you're just jealous Sphinx isn't going to listen to you."
"Now you're just being mean."
"Contentious to the end."
Thraix fell silent as he heard Jullien's parents talking to him before they came on board, and he felt the pain in his friend's broken heart.
*
Jullien steeled himself as he faced his mother, father, and aunt. "You need to get on board. They're waiting to launch. You're endangering everyone by delaying."
"Thank you for coming." His mother moved to touch his face.
Unwilling to forgive them and not wanting to feel her touch now, Jullien stepped back, out of her reach. He watched as Dimitri and Davel secured the ramp on Davel's ship.
Meanwhile, his father stayed planted in front of him. "You never planned for us to know it was you who came here to warn us, did you?"
"No. Now, can you please get on board?" He glanced past them to see if anyone was noticing that they had yet to lock down their ramp. The delay was nerve-racking. Especially since Davel was now launching.
"Jullien..."
He glared at his mother. "What is there left to say? Really? We had decades together, and all we did was shit all over each other. There's nothing left between us. I wish you well, but our destinies were never that of a single path."
"Jules!"
Flinching at the sound of Thraix's sharp warning in his head, he looked past them to see the security guards headed their way. "We've got company. Get on board. Now!" He
practically shoved them up the ramp and used his powers to seal them in.
Sirens rang out.
"They're locking the bay down." Thraix cursed. "Closing blast shields even as I speak."
Jullien snorted. "No, they're not." Using his powers, he bypassed the hangar's security codes and pulled his blaster out. He opened fire on their pursuers and drew the guards after him, away from their ship.
With a deep breath, Jullien ran and concentrated on launching the ship, and getting his family through the League patrols and out of Andarion airspace as quickly as possible.
It worked.
It also gave him a throbbing migraine that doubled as a brain tumor level of hell, complete with nosebleed and double vision. The pain left him nauseated. Only sheer determination kept him on his feet and mobile.
He held it together admirably and kept The League and the Andarions off them without much of a problem.
Just as the ship made the upper atmosphere and he surrendered control of the Pet Hate over to Thraix to pilot home, he turned to face his mother's guards and Kiara's nurse, who'd all somehow managed to keep up with his mad dash through the hangar and out to the streets and alley, off to the side of the south bay, where he'd gone to hide from their pursuers.
He dodged a group of League soldiers who were outside, looking for them, and hid in a ventilation tube. "Okay, there are two more Tavali ships docked here. We can--"
"I have a better idea," his mother's head guard said with a slight smile. "The others made it safely out of here, correct?"
"Yeah. They've hit hyperspace and aren't being tracked."
"Good." He pulled a blaster out and shot Jullien at point-blank range, then fired two more rounds. One into Jullien's thigh and the other into his hip. "We turn you in. Get the reward. Then meet up with Yara Marastrada and tell her you didn't make it out."
Switching from kill to stun, he unloaded his full charge into Jullien's body.
*
Thraix let out a vicious battle cry of rage as he felt the betrayal against Jullien. The worst part about being Trisani? Seeing a future you couldn't alter. Knowing how sorry certain individuals were and not being able to stop them. He hated every effing minute of it. He always had.
"What the hell?" Dimitri shouted over their intercom. "What's going on over there?"
It took Thraix a moment to bite back his temper so that he could answer in a reasonable tone. Telling them wouldn't stop anything. Damage was already done. If they turned back, they'd all be taken and Jullien would kill him for getting the others captured. "Nothing."
The lie was bitter on his tongue. But he refused to shit on his brother's sacrifice. They'd learn the truth soon enough.
And it took everything he had not to rise up and slap both of Jullien's parents. How he was going to face Ushara again, he had no idea.
"Excuse me?"
He glanced over to the tall, blond, eldest daughter of Nykyrian's. Like Kiara, she was extremely thin and absolutely beautiful. Delicately featured. "Yeah?"
"I don't mean to bug you, but..." She screwed her face up. "something's bothering me, and I feel like I need to tell someone 'cause I think it might be important."
"Okay..."
She let out an elongated breath. "My uncle gave me something right before we left."
That got his full attention. Thraix turned toward Thia. "Gave you what?"
Thia pulled out an antique ruby signet ring from her pocket and held it up for him to see. "He said that this belonged to the eldest child of each generation of the ruling Andarion family, and that he wanted me to have it." She glanced over her shoulder at her grandmother. "He told me to keep it away from you, though, Yaya."
Cairistiona paled. "Is that the royal signet ring? I didn't even know he had it."
Tylie turned green. "I thought Matarra had buried it with Eadvard."
Thraix cursed under his breath. "Well, that explains why he keeps handing it off."
The tadara scowled. "What do you mean?"
He gave her a droll stare. "You two have spent his whole life accusing him of being Eadvard reborn or the Korilon incarnate--as if he had any choice in his looks. He knew you'd freak out to see it on him, and that your mother would cut his finger off to get it back if she found it on his body."
Thraix rubbed his head. "Do me a favor, Thia. Don't let his wife see it. Jules sold it to buy parts for her sister's ship. You don't want me to tell you how he got it back or why. Suffice it to say, not something Ushara needs to be reminded about right now, and that memory will not be of benefit to any of you. I swear, that damned ring is cursed. And so's Jules."
Cairistiona scowled at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Thraix turned to Darling. "Handing the ship to you for a minute." He rose and went to Jullien's birth parents. "Our mission was strictly to protect Nykyrian's innocent wife and children. We didn't know anyone else would be in that minsid palace. Other than you, Tadara, and your sister. But you weren't the priority. Jules figured you had an army, you could fend for yourselves. Fight it out with your mother as you'd left him to do when he was just a kid. Imagine our surprise when we got there and realized we didn't have enough space to evacuate you all."
She at least had the decency to slink down in her seat.
His father wasn't so smart. "Had he stayed apprised of the news, he'd have known. Not like it was a secret."
"Be that as it may, he knew something neither the fucking news nor all your intel agencies combined had ever discovered, didn't he? For that matter, had you listened to him about the Bromese base when he tried to warn you months ago, over thirteen hundred families would have been spared that fun-filled nightmare. And we could have just made a call to you about tonight's impending doom, instead of coming here ourselves. And rather than saying thank you for leaving your families who love you and for risking your lives, you shot at him and dragged your asses like anchors that slowed down our escape, every step of the way. Ever occur to you that had you all cooperated, we might have all gotten out before the palace went down?" Disgusted, Thraix retook his seat and checked their settings.
Darling cleared his throat. "This really Jullien's ship?"
"Yes. He's owned her for years."
"Then I take it the soundtracks are for his kids?" He pressed a link on the panel, and a childish voice began singing a goofy Andarion alphabet song.
In spite of his fury, Thraix burst out laughing. "Yeah, Mira made him add that one so that he and Vas wouldn't miss her while they were out on missions. Whenever she calls, she makes them sing it with her over the link. Drives her brother crazy."
Darling snorted. "And Jullien actually sings it with her?"
"Oh yeah." Thraix pulled up a link to show a log feed of Jullien doing it. He was even clapping in sync to it, and dancing with the puppets.
Darling gaped, then laughed so hard, he almost fell out of his chair.
"Hey now," Thraix chided. "The boy loves his girls. There's nothing he won't do to make them happy."
Kiara moved to stand by his side so that she could watch the feed. "Is that his son with him?"
"Yeah."
Darling continued to scowl as he went through the playlists. "And the extremely religious stuff in here?"
"Unira's. She's a high priestess."
"And she's part of his crew?"
"Yes."
"I've never heard any of these." Darling cued one of the songs.
Cairistiona bristled as soon as it played. "She's a Demurrist?"
Thraix glanced at her over his shoulder. "You might want to take that snotty tone down a notch. We're all Demurrists, and you're headed into a base that's predominately filled with them. Not to mention, Jules is one, too."
"Since when?"
"Since he married Ushara."
Cairistiona scowled. "And that was when?"
Shaking his head, Thraix gave Darling a droll, gaping stare. "Am I the only one who thinks it's pathetic that the female who gave the child life has no ide
a of the most basic information about him?"
Cairistiona growled at him. "It's not my fault he cut us out."
"Not your fault? Ah, I see. I guess that was someone other than your very own sister, who ran him off when he came to see you and apologize, and told him that he would never be welcomed in your home again. And that he wasn't entitled to anything, including his own clothes and link, which she confiscated from him so that he couldn't even call any of you?"
Cairistiona turned to Tylie, who paled. "You did what?"
"I'm sorry. I was so angry at him after what he did to Nyk and Kiara. And I didn't want you hurt any worse. I was only trying to protect you."
"You threw my son out and didn't tell me?"
Tylie swallowed. "You were upset and staying with Nykyrian. We'd just gotten him home, and you were barely finding your stride as tadara. I didn't want to do anything to upset you."
Thraix gave her no reprieve from her own culpability. "Don't blame Tylie. Didn't you ever find it odd that your son never bothered to pack a bag? Make a withdrawal? Grab his toothbrush?"
"Jullien was always petulant. I just assumed it was another way to strike out at me and make me worry about him."
Fury darkened his gaze as he turned to stare at both of Jullien's parents. Unable to comprehend her selfish stupidity, he gaped for a full minute before he could speak again. "Oh, okay. He was punishing you. 'Cause it's all about you, Majesty, I see. Tell you what ... this is what Jules looked like when he met Ushara." Thraix turned on the main monitor to show the images of Jullien rescuing Vasili on Steradore. "Yeah. He was definitely punishing you. Wish my enemies were that fucking considerate.... And let me give you a little advice. Tread easy around his wife. She's not Kiara. Ushara is trained to kill. Has a hair-trigger on her temper, even more so while she's pregnant, and unlike you, is highly protective of Jules. She loves him more than her life. When she finds out that he's been captured because of you, there's no telling what she's going to do. In fact, Nyk might be inheriting that throne a lot sooner than he thought."