"Two seasons ago, Ryzek Noavek didn't kill a chancellor's sister," the Assembly Leader replies, all smooth and level. "Shotet was not in a state of total upheaval. The situation has changed."
The opaque panels on the left side of the chamber are starting to lighten up again, turning from wall to window.
"Do you know how long they've been attacking us?" Isae says. "Since before I was born. Over twenty seasons."
"I am aware of the history of conflict between Thuvhe and Shotet."
"So what was your thought process, then?" Isae says. "That we're just a bunch of thickheaded iceflower farmers, so who cares if we get attacked, as long as the product is safe?" She laughs, harshly. "The town of Hessa is decimated by guerilla warfare, and you call it a civil dispute. My face gets carved up and my parents get killed, and no one budges an inch except to send condolences. One of my oracles dies, and another is kidnapped, and it's my job to handle it. So why are you all hopping with excitement to help me now? What has everyone scared?"
His eye twitches a little.
"You must understand that to the rest of the galaxy, the Shotet were little more than an annoyance until the Noaveks came into power," he says. "When you came to us two seasons ago, describing vicious warriors, we thought of the sad wrecks who once came begging at another planet's doorstep, every season, to dig through our trash."
"They've been looting hospitals and attacking fueling outposts for longer than two seasons, on their sojourns," she replies. "This escaped the attention of every single planet's leadership until now?"
"Not precisely," the Assembly Leader says. "But we received information from a credible source that Lazmet Noavek is still alive, and will soon move to reclaim his place at Shotet's helm. You have not been alive long enough to truly grasp this, but Ryzek was remarkably civil compared to his father. He inherited his mother's desire for diplomacy, if not her ease with it. It was under Lazmet that Shotet became fearsome. It was still under his guidance--from beyond the grave, apparently--that Ryzek pursued oracles and, indeed, your sister, at all."
"So you're all afraid of him. This one man." Ast frowns. "What can he do, shoot fire out of his ass?"
"Lazmet controls people--quite literally--using his currentgift," the Assembly Leader says. "His abilities, combined with the new strength of the Shotet fighting force, are not to be underestimated. We must treat the Shotet as an infestation, a blight on land that could otherwise be used for iceflower farming--for something useful and valuable."
His eyes glitter. I may not have grown up fancy, but I know how to speak Subtext. He wants the Shotet gone. At one point they were a husk of a people, clanking around the galaxy in their big, outdated ship, starved and sick and sagging. He wants that back. He wants more iceflowers, more valuable Thuvhesit land. More for him, and nothing for them, and he wants to use Isae to get it.
Mom used to tell me that all the galaxy once mocked the Shotet. "Dirty scavengers," they called them, and "fleshworms." They flew in circles around the solar system, chasing their own tails. Half the time they didn't even sound like they were saying words. I knew all this. I'd heard it, even said some of it myself.
But the Assembly Leader isn't just mocking the Shotet now.
"Then tell me," Isae says, "what disciplinary action the Assembly has planned for the Pithar, given that the Pithar leadership suggested it might be amenable to a trade agreement with Shotet not long ago?"
"Don't play the fool with me, Chancellor," the Assembly Leader says, but not like he's mad, more like he's tired. "You know that we can't act against Pitha. The galaxy cannot function without the materials Pitha provides."
I'd never given Pitha much thought before. I'd actually never thought about politics, period, until I fell back in with the Benesit sisters after my dad died. But the Assembly Leader is right--durable materials from Pitha make up almost all the good tech in the galaxy, including ships. And in Thuvhe, especially, with our frozen air, we rely on insulated Pithar glass for our windows. We can't afford to lose them any more than the rest of the Assembly of Nine Planets can.
"Pitha has retracted their willingness to engage with Shotet, and that will have to be enough. As for the rest of the nation-planets, they still believe the war effort should be headed up by Thuvhe, given that it is an intraplanetary matter. They are open to discussions about aid and support, however."
"So in other words," Ast says, "you'll throw money at her, but she still has to give you a wall of flesh between Shotet and the rest of you."
"My, you certainly do enjoy dramatic language, don't you, Mr. . . ." The Assembly Leader tilts his head. "Do you have a surname?"
"I don't need any kind of honorific," Ast says. "Call me Ast or don't call me anything."
"Ast," the Assembly Leader says, and he softens his voice like he's talking to a child. "Money is not the only form of aid the Assembly can offer. And if war is what confronts you, Miss Benesit, you are in no position to refuse our help."
"Maybe I don't want to fight a war," she says, sitting back in her chair. "Maybe I want to broker a peace."
"That is, of course, your prerogative," the Assembly Leader replies. "However, I will be forced to pursue an investigation I had hoped I would be able to avoid."
"An investigation into what?" Isae scowls.
"It would be quite simple for a person to consult the heat signatures in the Voa amphitheater at the time of Ryzek's alleged death. And if a person did, they might see that Ryzek was alive when he was taken aboard that transport ship," the Assembly Leader says. "Which means that if his body is adrift in space, as you say, someone else must have killed him. Not Cyra Noavek."
"Interesting theory," Isae says.
"I can't think of why you would lie to me, and tell me Cyra Noavek committed the crime in the arena, unless you needed to protect yourself, Miss Benesit," the Assembly Leader says. "And if you were to be investigated for murder--particularly premeditated murder against a self-declared sovereign--then you would not be permitted to rule Thuvhe until you were acquitted."
"So, just to clarify," Ast says, glowering, "you're threatening to tie Isae up in bureaucratic nonsense if she doesn't do as you say."
The Assembly Leader only smiles.
"If you would like me to proofread your declaration of war before you send it to the Shotet, I will happily take a look at it," he says. "I must now take my leave. Good day, Miss Benesit, Miss Kereseth . . . Ast."
His head bobs three times, once for each of us, and then he's gone. I glance at Isae.
"Would he really do that?" I say. "Charge you with murder?"
"I don't doubt it." Her mouth puckers. "Let's go."
CHAPTER 9: CYRA
"CYRA." TEKA RAISED AN eyebrow at me outside the ship's little bathroom when I got up for my shift. I was dressed only in underwear and my sweater from the day before. I avoided her eyes as I searched the ship's storage room for a spare mechanic's uniform. We were all running out of clothes. Hopefully they would provide for us on Ogra.
Teka cleared her throat. She was leaning against the wall, arms folded, a plain black eye patch covering her missing eye.
"I don't have to worry about little Kereseth-Noavek spawn running around someday, do I?" She yawned. "Because I really don't want to."
"No," I said with a snort. "Like I'd take that risk."
"Never?" She frowned a little. "There's this thing called 'contraception,' you know."
I shook my head. "Nothing is certain."
The little mocking expression she always wore when she was looking at me faded, leaving her serious.
"My currentgift," I explained, holding up a hand to show her the shadows that curled around my knuckles, stinging me, "is an instrument of torture. You think I would risk inflicting that torture on something growing inside me? Even if it's a very limited risk?" I shook my head. "No."
She nodded. "That's very decent of you."
I added, "It's not like . . . that is the only thing you can do with someone, anyway."
She brought her hands up to her face, groaning.
"I did not want any information that specific!" she said, voice muffled.
"Then don't ask probing questions, genius."
I found a mechanic's jumpsuit buried under a stack of towels, and stood to hold it up to my body. The legs were too long, so I would have to roll them, but it would have to do. I dove back into the pile to look for underwear.
"How long until we get to Ogra?" I said. "Because we're going to run out of food pretty soon, you know."
"Food and toilet paper. The recycled water is starting to smell weird, too," Teka agreed. "I think we'll make it, without too much snacking. A few days."
"This ship's upgrades are pretty brilliant," I said. I found a pair of too-big underwear wedged into a corner of one of the shelves, and clutched the ball of clothes to my chest as pain burned across my back. "You did them all?"
"Jorek helped," she said. Her face fell a little. "Not sure where he is right now. He was supposed to send a message from Voa once he made sure his mother was safe."
I didn't know Jorek well, just that he was a more virtuous soul than his father had been and was, apparently, a renegade. So I didn't try to reassure her. My words would have been empty.
"We'll find out about a lot of things when we get to Ogra," I said. "Jorek's status, among them."
"Yeah." Teka shrugged. "Get to the nav deck, Noavek, your break is over."
The next few days passed in a haze. I spent most of the time sleeping, tucked in the galley near the sink, or sitting up in the first officer's chair while Akos took his shift. Our surroundings seemed designed to drive us all mad, they yielded so little of interest. The sky was dark and, without stars, planets, or drifting ships to break it up, completely flat. I often had to check the nav map to make sure we hadn't stalled.
I shared most of my waking time--when not in the captain's chair--with Teka, trying to distract myself from my currentgift. She taught me a game she usually played with multicolored stones, though we used handfuls of beans from the galley and drew dots on them, to tell them apart. We spent most of the time arguing over which beans were which, but I came to see that bickering was a sign of friendship with Teka, and mostly didn't mind it, as long as no one stormed out. Akos sometimes joined us before going to sleep, sitting too close to me and tucking his nose into my hair when he thought Teka wouldn't notice. She always did.
My nights I spent huddled together with Akos, when I could, and finding new places to kiss. Our first fumbles at intimacy had been full of awkward laughter and uncomfortable squirming--I was learning to touch another person, as well as to touch him, in particular, and it was difficult to learn everything at once. But we were both happy to practice. Despite his constant nightmares--he didn't wake screaming, but he often woke with a start, a sheen of sweat on his brow--and my lingering grief for the brother who had been twisted into a monster, we found snatches of happiness together, built largely on ignoring everything around us. It worked well.
It worked well, that was, until Ogra came into view.
"Why," Teka said, staring at the black hole of a planet we were headed toward, "would anyone ever settle here?"
Akos laughed. "You could say the same about Thuvhe."
"Don't call it that when we land," I said, cocking an eyebrow. "It's 'Urek' or nothing."
"Right."
Urek meant "empty," but said with reverence, not like an insult. Empty, to us, meant possibility; it meant freedom.
Ogra had come into sight as a small, dark gap in the stars ahead, and then the gap had turned into a hole, like a stray ember burned through fabric. And now it loomed darkly above the nav deck, devouring every fragment of light in its vicinity. I wondered how the first settlers had even known it was a planet. It looked more like a yawn.
"I take it it's not an easy landing," Akos said.
"No." Teka laughed. "No, it's not. The only way to get through it without getting ripped to shreds is to completely disable the ship's power and free-fall. Then I have to reactivate the ship's power before we all liquify on impact." She brought her hands together with a smack. "So we all need to strap in and say a prayer, or whatever makes you feel lucky."
Akos looked paler than usual. I laughed.
Sifa came up behind us, clutching a book to her stomach. There were few books aboard the ship--what use would they have had?--but those she had been able to rummage, she had brought to Eijeh one by one, along with his food. Akos didn't ask about him, and neither did I. I assumed his status was unchanged, and that the worst parts of my brother lived on in him. I needed no further updates.
"Luck," Sifa said, "is simply a construct to make people believe they are in control of some aspect of their destinies."
Teka appeared to consider this, but Akos just rolled his eyes.
"Or maybe it's just a word for what fate looks like to the rest of us," I said to her. I was the only one willing to argue with Sifa--Teka was too reverent, and Akos, too dismissive. "You've forgotten what it's like to stare at the future from this angle instead of your own."
Sifa smirked at me. She smirked at me often. "Perhaps you are correct."
"Everybody strap in," Teka said. "Oracle, I need you in the first officer's chair. You know the most about flying."
"Hey," I said.
"Currentgifts go haywire on Ogra," Teka said to me. "We're not sure how yours will do, so you sit in the back. Keep the Kereseth boys in line."
Sifa had escorted Eijeh to a landing seat already. He was strapped in and staring at the floor. I sighed, and made my way down to the main deck. Akos and I sat across from Eijeh, and I pulled the straps across my chest and lap. Akos fumbled with his own, but I didn't help him--he knew how to do it, he just needed to practice.
I watched Teka and Sifa as they prepared for landing, poking buttons and flicking switches. It seemed routine for Teka. That was reassuring, at least. I didn't want to free-fall through a hostile atmosphere with a captain who was panicking.
"Here we go!" Teka shouted, and with only that warning, all the lights in the ship switched off. The engine stopped its whirring and humming. Dark atmosphere struck the nav window like a wave of Pithar rain, and for a few long moments I couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything. I wanted to scream.
Ogra's gravity caught us, and it was worse, much worse than feeling nothing. My stomach and my body felt suddenly separate, one floating up and the other pulling hard to the ground. The craft shuddered, metal plates squeaking against their screws, the steps to the nav deck rattling. My teeth clacked together. It was still too dark to see anything, even the currentshadows that twisted around my arms.
Next to me, Akos let out a litany of curses under his breath, in three languages. I couldn't speak. My flesh weighed too heavily on my bones.
A slamming sound, then, and the engine whirred again. Before the lights turned on, though, the planet lit up beneath us. It was still dark--neither sun nor currentstream could possibly penetrate Ogra's atmosphere--but it was dotted with light, veined with it. The ship's control panel glowed, and the horrible, heavy falling sensation disappeared as the ship moved forward instead of down, down, down.
And then, hot and sharp and strong: pain.
CHAPTER 10: AKOS
CYRA WAS SCREAMING.
Akos's hands were shaking from the landing, but still undoing the straps that held him in place, almost without his permission. Right when Akos was free he launched himself from his seat and slid to his knees in front of Cyra. The shadows had pulled away from her body in a dark cloud, the same way they had when Vas forced her to touch him, down in the amphitheater's prison where she had almost lost her life. Her hands were buried in her hair, clenched. She looked up at him, and a strange smile twisted her face.
He put his hands on hers. The shadows looked like smoke, in the air, but they pulled back into Cyra's body like dozens of strings yanked at once.
Cyra's odd smile was gone, and she was staring at their joined h
ands.
"What will happen when you let go?" she said quietly.
"You'll be just fine," he said. "You'll learn to control it. You can do that now, remember?"
She let out an airy laugh.
"I can hang on as long as you like," he said.
Her eyes hardened. When she spoke, it was with gritted teeth. "Let go."
Akos couldn't help but think back to something he'd read in one of the books Cyra had put in his room on the sojourn ship. He'd had to read it through a translator, because it was written in Shotet, and it had been called Tenets of Shotet Culture and Belief.
It said: The most marked characteristic of the Shotet people is directly translated as "armored," but outsiders might call it "mettle." It refers not to courageous acts in difficult situations--though the Shotet certainly hold valor in high regard--but to an inherent quality that cannot be learned or imitated; it is in the blood as surely as their revelatory language. Mettle is bearing up again and again under assaults. It is perseverance, acceptance of risk, and the unwillingness to surrender.
That paragraph had never made more sense to him than it did right now.
Akos obeyed. At first, when the currentshadows reappeared, they formed the smoky cloud around her body again, but Cyra set her jaw.
"Can't meet the Ograns with a death cloud around me," she said.
Her eyes held his as she breathed deeply. The shadows began to worm their way beneath her skin, traveling down her fingers, wriggling up her throat. She screamed again, right into her teeth, half a dozen izits from his face. But then the breath hissed out, same as it had come in, and she straightened. The cloud was gone.
"They're back to how they were before," he said to her. "Like they were when I met you."
"Yeah," she said. "It's this planet. My gift is stronger here."
"You've been here before?"
She shook her head. "No. But I can feel it."
"Do you need a painkiller?" he said.
Another headshake. "Not yet. I have to readjust sometime. May as well be now."
Teka was talking on the nav deck, in Othyrian. "Ship ID Renegade Transport, Captain Surukta requesting permission to land."
"Captain Surukta, permission granted to landing area thirty-two. Congratulations on your safe arrival," a voice responded over the intercom.