And then, the soldiers caught up with Navan, who seemed to be struggling up the mountainside. He looked like he was flagging, the endurance of the last few days catching up with him. He still bore the bruises of his fight with Aurelius, and he’d carried me for hours the day before, not to mention what we’d gotten up to last night. There was no energy left in him to make such an extensive climb.
Even so, he struggled onward, his grip firm on Lauren. I watched as he glanced over his shoulder, seeing the soldiers advancing behind him. He knew it, and I knew it: they would catch him, and there would be nothing he could do to stop them from taking Lauren. That was what worried me most. The soldiers didn’t seem bothered about capturing Bashrik and Navan. Their focus was solely on the human contingent—and that meant Brisha wanted our blood.
The soldiers tore Lauren out of Navan’s hands, smashing the end of a spear into his head. I gasped, my stomach sinking. I had to stop this before they could hurt him more or take my friends away.
Lunging forward, I snatched the explosives belt from the unconscious soldier’s waist and sprinted down the alleyway. I didn’t stop until I reached the front of the alchemy lab again. Hurtling through the doors, I skidded to a halt in the atrium, seeking out the emergency stairwell. Finding the signs that led in the right direction, I hurried through the halls of the alchemy lab, barreling through each door, seeking out the stairwell. With the siren already going, it did nothing to sound the alarm as I burst through the fire door and hurried up the floors until I reached the roof. The door to the outside was locked, but that didn’t matter. I had the makings of an explosive lockpick in my hands.
Sticking one of the orbs to the door, I turned the dial until it read twenty seconds, and pressed the button down twice. With that, I sprinted back down the stairs, taking shelter a few floors down, until the entire building trembled beneath me, a boom ricocheting through the walls.
Tentatively, I headed back up to the top floor. There was no longer a door standing in the way. Where it had been, there was a smoking hole. Spurred on by the explosion, and knowing the bombs wouldn’t let me down if I needed them, I stumbled out onto the slick roof, the roar of the blast still ringing in my ears, while I prayed I didn’t fall and break my neck.
At the top, just as I had remembered from Bashrik’s model, were the hexagonal greenhouses—and a row of enormous generators. Without these huge units, every single specimen they had within the alchemy labs would become useless.
“Let them go, or I will blow these generators to pieces!” I roared, my gaze fixed on Queen Brisha, who had come out to see how her soldiers had fared. Angie and Lauren were on their knees in front of her, with soldiers pushing their heads down, while the rest of the attackers raced through the skies, trying to grapple with Bashrik and Navan, who were managing to evade their clutches, despite their injuries.
The queen was already looking up at me, no doubt drawn by the blast of the door, her face horrified. In that moment, everyone froze. I plucked a bomb off the belt and held it aloft as I approached the first of the generators, seeking out the control panel. It was locked inside a glass case, but I knew that would be nothing against an explosive, not after I’d seen what it could do with the door. And, by the looks of it, so did Queen Brisha.
“If you so much as touch that generator, I will have your friends executed!” Brisha shouted back, her voice booming up through the still air, but I was past the point where threats could frighten me. She wouldn’t risk her lab being destroyed for a second time, not now.
“I will blow this generator sky high unless you release my friends. You won’t kill them—you need their blood to be fresh and living. Otherwise, your precious elixir won’t work!” I yelled, making it up as I went along.
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The second a Kryptonian dies, their blood begins to decay and fill with toxins! You need to take it from a live specimen if you want the elixir to work!” I shouted. I just hoped she took the bait.
“Don’t touch that generator! Come down here, and we can discuss this like adults!” Brisha replied, her voice echoing up.
I shook my head. “You need to let my friends go. They had nothing to do with this. I had nothing to do with this, other than the fact that you used my blood!” I bellowed, standing my ground. “I know you’re disappointed that the elixir didn’t work, and you lost some of your people today, but that isn’t our fault! You have to admit that!” I moved to stick the explosive on the control panel’s box.
Instantly, her hands shot up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay, you’ve made your point, Riley!” she shouted, her voice anxious. “I was upset that it didn’t go as planned, and I took it out on you. I can see that now. I overreacted, and I apologize for that! Please, step away from the generator, so we can talk about this properly!”
Navan landed on the ground beside the queen, with Bashrik following close after. The soldiers all landed a short distance away, the chase evidently over in the wake of Brisha’s unexpected apology. Even the soldiers holding my friends’ heads down desisted, taking a step back so Angie and Lauren could breathe, although it didn’t stop Angie from shooting her guard the dirtiest look I’d ever seen.
“Your Highness, if you would just listen to us, we might be able to explain what happened to the elixir,” Navan spoke up, loud enough so I could hear. “Threatening us like this will do no good when we might be the ones who can help you to move on from this failure and succeed the next time.”
What are you up to? I wondered, lowering the bomb.
“I’m listening now, Navan,” Queen Brisha remarked tersely, evidently disliking the way he was speaking to her in front of her soldiers.
“Of course, Your Highness. The thing is, from what I know about elixirs from my father, every single ingredient has to be correct, and in the precise quantity needed,” he went on, garnering an unimpressed look from the queen. “Bear with me, I’m getting to the point. It’s just, I think there might have been an ingredient missing. Something small, but very significant—that’s the way it always happens with these things. Jethro and Ianthan thought there was something special about Kryptonian blood. Now, Jethro knew blood better than anyone, and I would believe his word over a whole planet of alchemists, which is what makes me think there must be another issue. There has to be something else that we’re missing,” he reasoned, a tightness coming into his voice as he mentioned Ianthan.
The queen sighed. “Your thoughts reflect my own, Navan, but what might this ingredient be? If it’s not something we can seek out then we are back at square one,” she muttered.
“Then allow us to go in search of it for you,” Navan offered. “Send us on an official mission for you, and we will deliver the missing ingredient right into your hands. I already know where to start our search.”
Ah, so that was what he was up to.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Queen Brisha glanced at Navan. “Before I agree to anything, will you please remove your beloved from the roof of my alchemy lab?” she remarked, flashing a look in my direction.
A grin spread across Navan’s face as he launched himself upward, landing gracefully at my side. “Time to put down the bombs, Riley,” he teased, pulling me toward him and tossing the belt of explosives over his shoulder.
“But she might be bluffing. She might arrest us as soon as we touch solid ground,” I whispered, still feeling uncertain.
“If she does, she will have gone back on her word in front of her soldiers. That’s not a good look for a leader,” he reminded me. I peered over the lip of the rooftop, noting the frozen soldiers standing uniformly with their hands behind their backs. Like this, they didn’t look nearly as threatening.
I sighed. “Fine, but put me down elegantly. I don’t want to go stumbling around in front of the queen,” I replied with a small smile.
“Of course,” he murmured. The air rushed out of my lungs as he scooped me up and carried me down to ground level. He hande
d the belt of explosives to one of Brisha’s soldiers with a dramatic bow.
“So, you were about to make a suggestion, Navan,” Queen Brisha continued, barely offering me a glance. It seemed she was just relieved that I was weaponless and down from the roof, away from her precious generators.
“It’s a thought that occurred to me very recently, Your Highness. You see, my father always taught me that, where serums and elixirs are involved, there needs to be a baseline, a reactive, and a stabilizer. In your elixir, we have Vysanthean blood as the baseline, Kryptonian blood as the reactive, but we have no stabilizer. At least, I don’t think we do?” Navan enquired, raising an eyebrow.
To my surprise, it was Lauren who answered. “There is no stabilizer, Your Highness. In all the books I’ve read on the subject, there has never been a mention of a stabilizing blood added to the mix. There are stabilizing elements from elsewhere, but none are in blood form,” she explained, rubbing the back of her neck, where the guard had roughly shoved her.
Lauren’s words seemed to convince Brisha in a way nobody else’s could. There was trust between them, though I hadn’t understood the extent of it until now. I supposed it was inevitable, given the amount of time they had inadvertently spent in one another’s company during long evenings in the library. It was only natural that a bond would form, and now we could use it to our advantage to persuade Brisha of the need for this extra element.
“How did none of my alchemists see this missing part, if Navan’s father knew of it?” Brisha asked, her tone sharp as she glanced back at the lab.
“My father doesn’t know of it. It’s just a structure I’ve seen him use in other elixirs. Most of the time, a stabilizing element will do, such as a root or a compound, but considering that this elixir has to alter the genetic makeup of an individual, and seeing what it did to your test subjects, I figured it must need a third blood to stabilize the reactive and the baseline. Mere elements wouldn’t be enough,” Navan went on confidently. “I wouldn’t have known that unless I’d seen the test with my own eyes. A genetic element is missing.”
Queen Brisha turned to Lauren. “Is this true?”
She nodded. “I believe it’s why the body decayed instead of immortalizing, Your Highness. There was nothing to counteract the potency of our blood, mixed with the Vysanthean blood, and the other ingredients. To make it viable, you’d need a blood that could slow the reactive process, giving cells a chance to morph and adapt, instead of exploding and decaying the way they did today,” she ventured, her intellect shining through. I believed every word she said, and I knew everyone else did too.
“What kind of blood?” Queen Brisha pressed eagerly.
“Draconian blood is ancient—far more ancient than ours. It has natural combative qualities, which I think would slow the reactive process down, allowing the elixir particles to infiltrate and alter cells instead of destroying them. In fact, I believe it could be the link we’re missing,” Navan explained, a hopeful look on his face. “My father once said that Draconian blood is some of the hardest to synthesize in the entire universe, but with your facilities, it would be possible. It might take time, once we have it back to you, but it would be perfect for your needs. I am quite certain of it.”
I looked to Navan, wondering what he was playing at. I remembered him telling me about the plague on Zai that was deadly to coldbloods. It was the reason they no longer mined for opaleine there, given the virus that spread rapidly through Vysanthean systems. I still suspected the Draconians had implemented the virus themselves, since it was a reasonably pacifistic way of getting rid of their planet’s exploiters. Why would Navan want us to travel to a plague-ridden place?
The queen pulled a sour face. “I will not send soldiers on a death mission to that Rask-forsaken place. We lost an entire mining colony the last time we sent Vysantheans there. I won’t risk it again, and I won’t risk you bringing it back here,” she muttered bitterly, the hope fading from her face.
Navan smiled. “You wouldn’t be sending a team of Vysantheans, Your Highness. We have Kryptonians to help. The virus shouldn’t affect them in the way it affects us,” he said. “With Riley, Angie, and Lauren on our side, we will have a far better chance of infiltrating Zai, and obtaining the Draconian blood without bringing the plague back with us. Just to be sure, we can take a test kit with us, so Riley, or one of the others, can check us for any signs of the virus on the return trip. If we’re infected, they can leave us in the quarantine center between here and Zai.”
“Who will fly the ship?” Queen Brisha asked, though the light had come back into her eyes. I could see that Navan’s words were getting to her, filling her with a renewed sense of possibility.
“Riley has been excellent during flight training. If either Bashrik or myself is infected, she can fly us to the quarantine center and return the sample to you afterward,” he suggested, barely missing a beat. It seemed he had thought of everything, taking up the role of Explorer once more. My only concern was, what if Queen Brisha demanded we leave before we could ensure the continued secret of the new fleet’s deep-space tech?
For several minutes, Queen Brisha did not speak as she mulled over what Navan was suggesting. I tried to get his attention, but his gaze was fixed on her face. Besides, even if I had managed to get him to look at me, I wouldn’t have been able to ask him about the ship’s tech. Hopefully, he had a plan for that, too.
“I agree to your offer, Navan Idrax, and I will provide all the resources you require,” Queen Brisha spoke at last. “However, I have one proviso to ensure your loyalty. Pandora will accompany you to Zai and keep an eye on you throughout the mission. If you do not agree to these terms, then you will not go. It is as simple as that.”
At the mention of Pandora, I realized we might have an opportunity after all, to kill two birds with one stone. If we told Pandora that Gianne had managed to gain the deep-space technology, then, perhaps, Orion would be able to suggest something to prevent either sister from utilizing it. I hated involving Orion in any way, but I knew it might be the only choice we had.
“That seems reasonable to me, Your Highness,” Navan replied sincerely, making me wonder what his real plan of action was. He couldn’t seriously want to assist Brisha in completing the immortality elixir. He definitely had something else up his sleeve, though he was doing a stellar job of hiding it from the queen—and everyone else, for that matter.
Originally, we’d been hoping to pit the two queens against one another, to distract them from finding Earth, but now it felt like we were moving off on a tangential path. Somehow, we were turning away from Earth. If we left Vysanthe, heading toward a distant part of the universe, that meant we were leaving Earth vulnerable. It would take one discovery within the stolen ship tech, and Gianne or Brisha, or both, would know the location of my home planet. The weight of that knowledge rested heavily on my shoulders, but I prayed Navan had a solution.
“Then I suggest you return to your quarters, all five of you, and pack your things. Be ready to go at a moment’s notice. I will send word when preparations are complete, though you can expect it to be soon. After all, there is no time to waste,” Queen Brisha said. “I trust you will not let me down. Indeed, if you achieve this, and your hunch turns out to be correct, you can be assured that you will return to Vysanthe as national heroes,” she promised, a grin spreading across her face. I could see how delighted she was at the prospect of finding the missing piece in the puzzle, the piece nobody else had found yet. Without it, everyone was doomed to fail, where she would succeed.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Navan said politely, taking my hand and walking with me back toward the alchemy lab. Angie and Lauren stood up, brushing the dust and gravel from their clothes, before following after us, with Bashrik bringing up the rear, standing close to Angie. A strange look passed across Queen Brisha’s face as she saw him move toward Angie, but my time for feeling sorry for her was over. There was only a certain number of death threats one could take
before realizing that someone wasn’t a friendly presence. Brisha was a young woman at heart, but she was also a ruler with an enormous amount of power, and she wasn’t afraid to use it. Never again would my heart go out to her.
Upon returning to the palace, Navan ushered everyone upstairs to our apartment, sitting us all down in the living room. I cast a glance at the rumpled sheets as soon as I entered the quarters, feeling my cheeks flush as I rushed to make the bed. Angie raised a knowing eyebrow in my direction, but I ignored it as I took a seat on the sofa. I was impatient to hear what Navan had to say.
“I realize you probably all think I’ve lost my mind, helping Brisha with the elixir. And, honestly, I’m starting to think there’s some truth in what I said, especially when Lauren backed my theories up with real knowledge on the subject,” he said wryly, a half-amused smile on his lips. “But, even if there is some truth in it, I have no intention of bringing a sample back to Vysanthe. You see, I want to reach Zai so we can contact the Fed outpost there.”
“You want to alert them to Vysanthe’s quest for immortality?” I asked, things falling into place.
“Precisely,” Navan replied. “With their help, we’ll be able to protect Earth. Even if the sisters wanted to use the deep-space tech, the Fed would stop them. As soon as they know what’s going on, they’ll step in.”
“They didn’t do much on Earth,” I remarked, remembering the skeleton crew of lycans that had been placed on our planet. There had been no force or power in that Fed outpost. A rebel base had managed to set up beneath their noses, and they hadn’t had enough power or surveillance to notice.