Venturers

  Kaido nodded. “Naturally, Queen Brisha denied any involvement in the explosion, though she did admit the recon soldiers were hers. Indeed, she pleaded that her remaining sentries, who had been waiting outside the hangar, be granted POW status.”

  I frowned. Nothing was making sense. “Why would that have caused a war?”

  “Our beloved queen saw through her sister’s bluff and had those traitorous soldiers executed for espionage,” he said simply. “It’s what any queen would have done in that position. However, it breached the treaty, and Brisha declared war.”

  So Queen Brisha really did bring war to her sister’s gates, in the end, I thought sadly. Part of me had hoped it would never come to this, but then, I knew how tempting war could be to two dissatisfied leaders. It happened on Earth, and I didn’t doubt it happened all across the universe.

  I glanced at Ronad, who was already looking in my direction. From the expression on his face, I could see he had come to the same conclusion as me: Orion was responsible for the hangar explosion. Then again, if it was Orion who had blown up the hangar, killing both Gianne and Brisha’s people, who had executed the mission? Pandora had been with us the whole time, which meant there had to be another rebel on Vysanthe, masquerading as an ordinary member of society. A flurry of thoughts raced through my brain. Whose side were they spying from? How many people did Orion really have on the ground?

  “So, if we’ve got nothing to do with Queen Gianne, where are you taking us?” I wondered. “What are you going to do with me and Ronad?”

  Kaido smiled. “I’m taking you to my parents.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  What? Why are we going there?” I asked.

  “I already told you. My mother is ill, and you are my leverage to bring Navan home to her,” Kaido said, moving back toward the cockpit hatch. “We will be arriving shortly.”

  With that, he disappeared again, leaving me and Ronad alone in the back of the ship. I could see the despair written on Ronad’s face. Undoubtedly, he’d never expected to be back on Vysanthe, heading for the Idrax house, where Jareth and Lorela would be waiting. After all, Jareth was the one who’d killed the love of his life, whether or not he’d intended to.

  “I bet you wish you were freezing your ass off in your Siberian shack right about now,” I said.

  Ronad grimaced. “I’d rather be anywhere else. I traveled across the universe to get away from people like Jareth and Lorela, and every terrible thing Vysanthe has to offer.”

  “Yeah, sorry for dragging you all the way back.” I couldn’t shake the guilt. He’d been forced to return because of us, even after everything he’d been through. Saying that, I was glad he’d turned up when he had. If he hadn’t, we’d be dead.

  He laughed tightly. “It was inevitable, really. I was kidding myself, to think I could live out a peaceful existence on Earth. Coldbloods always end up back on Vysanthean soil, whether they want to or not.”

  “How do you mean?”

  He shrugged. “People try to leave, but this place is like a black hole, sucking us all toward it.”

  “You’ll get back out again. We all will,” I insisted. “And when we do, you can live out the rest of your days in the Texan sun, without having to worry about a thing.”

  He flashed me a curious look. “Do you really believe that?”

  After a lengthy pause, I said, “I have to.”

  It was true, I did have to believe that, but with every day that passed, it was becoming harder and harder to force my mind into thinking optimistic thoughts. Already, Jean and Roger’s faces were blurry in my memory, and I had no clue if I’d ever be able to sharpen the images again.

  “What do you know about this particular Idrax, anyway?” I asked, pushing my gloomy thoughts aside.

  Ronad pulled a face. “He’s an oddball. I used to think he was pretty harmless, but after seeing what he can do on a battlefield, I’m starting to think he might have changed since the last time I saw him,” he said wryly.

  “Yeah, there’s something a little bit off about him, like things don’t always connect,” I agreed. “There was a boy like him in our high school—hyper-intelligent, with a lot to say, but missed a lot of social cues. He was a nice kid, but high schoolers can be cruel.”

  Ronad raised an eyebrow. “Are they the ones with the huge, padded shoulders and the little flouncy skirts?”

  “They don’t usually wear those together, but yeah, those sound like high-school kids.” I chuckled, before casting him a suspicious glance. “Where did you even see people like that? I thought you were supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

  “What can I say? I watched a lot of TV while I was in that shack.” Ronad grinned.

  “You should be careful. My dad always said that stuff will rot your brain,” I murmured, thinking of Roger and his endless sayings. From him, they were never cheesy—they always sounded like they were coming from a place of deep, resounding wisdom.

  I could do with a word or two of wisdom right now, I thought to myself sadly.

  Ronad looked horrified. “What, it’ll actually rot my brain? Does it have something to do with the radiation waves? How much do you need to watch to do that? I mean, I was watching it most days—could I be at risk? Is there a cure?”

  I smiled. “As long as you kept away from the reality TV, you should be okay.”

  “I don’t think I watched any of that,” he said, looking instantly relieved.

  We spent the next twenty minutes discussing the merits of daytime television and the soap operas he’d come to adore. It was nice to have an easy conversation, though I could tell it was a cover for the gathering anxiety that hung heavy in the air. My last meeting with the Idrax family hadn’t exactly been pleasant, but I felt deeply for Ronad. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how their last conversation had gone, considering it had been over the death of Naya.

  Looking at Ronad, I desperately wanted to bring it up, to ask how things had gone down during that dark time, but I couldn’t make the words tumble out of my mouth. It was still a private, personal, terrible thing that had happened to him, and I was a relative stranger. Perhaps, in time, I could get him to open up, but now didn’t seem appropriate, not when we were about to enter the lion’s den.

  I felt the judder of the engines as we began our descent, heading for the Idrax house. Would we be using the same entrance I’d happened upon last time, or a different one? I recalled the silver arch with the twisting vines and the Gothic wings stretching out behind elaborate metal carvings of coldbloods, frozen in scenes of war and peace. Either way, meeting Navan’s parents again was going to be an uncomfortable experience.

  As the stealth vessel landed with a gentle bump on the ground, Kaido reappeared from the cockpit and opened the front hatch, revealing the ominous, dark stone walls of the Idrax mansion. I stayed where I was, not wanting to set foot outside. Ronad seemed reluctant to move, too. The biting Vysanthean wind whipped through the ship, making me shiver. I hadn’t noticed it on the battlefield, with the adrenaline coursing through my veins, but I could feel it now. I tried to think of the Zaian tropics, using warm thoughts to take the edge off, but it only made me feel colder by comparison.

  “Of course, you must be freezing,” Kaido said, pulling a thick blanket from a storage space in the side of the ship. With surprising courtesy, he wrapped it around my shoulders and tied the front in a knot, leaving me with a silly kind of cape. “It is not fashionable, but it will keep you warm until we’re in the house,” he added.

  I glanced at Ronad, wondering how he was coping with the Vysanthean climate, now that he wasn’t a coldblood anymore. His mouth was set in a grim line, a muscle in his jaw twitching, as though he was trying very hard not to shiver. Kaido appeared to remember at the same moment, pulling out a second blanket and handing it to Ronad, who took it gratefully.

  “Thank you,” he mumbled.

  “I have no idea why you’ve done this to yourself, nor do I wish to know how you did it
, but you will catch your death if you don’t keep warm,” Kaido replied. “I suppose I should remove your device, too, now that I have you here. There will be repercussions if you run, though I’m certain you’re already aware of that.”

  “I know the score.” Ronad sighed, pulling the blanket tight around himself, while Kaido stepped up behind him and removed the device, pocketing it.

  “This way,” Kaido said.

  At his insistence, Ronad and I left the relative safety of the stealth vessel, stepping onto what looked like a driveway, the ground covered in the shimmer of crushed shells. Glancing back, I wondered if I had time to dart back into the ship and commandeer it back to the North.

  As if sensing my intentions, Kaido shook his head. “It will be regretful, but I will break your legs if I must, Riley.”

  I buried half my face in the thick blanket, pulling it tighter around me. “Not before I break your face.”

  “Sorry? Your words are muffled by your… blanket,” Kaido replied.

  I buried my face deeper. “I said, I won’t do anything.”

  “Very good, then we should hurry inside before you lose any more of your core temperature,” he insisted, ushering us toward the front door of an enormous mansion. Here, curving above the mantel, was another silver arch, bearing the Idrax name.

  I looked up at the building, gaping in admiration. If this was the house Bashrik had grown up in, I could see why he’d ended up in architecture. The place was phenomenal, with twisting spires reaching up through redwood-like trees, which towered above the house itself, creating a circular wall of canopy that let in just the right amount of sunshine. The house itself was built from a strange dark stone that had an almost metallic sheen. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the stone was threaded through with tiny veins of gold and silver. Dotted along the walls were curved bay windows made from single panels of glass, the view from them undisturbed by frames or latches, and the roof was built from pale gray slate, which contrasted stylishly with the dark stone below.

  Turning to look at the grounds, I realized we’d landed at the top end of the gardens, at the opposite side from where I’d found myself the last time I was here, when I’d barreled into the grumpy Sarrask. Allowing my eyes to drift across the stunning scenery, where elegant trees spiraled upward and flowers of unusual shades bloomed, I caught a glimpse of the silver arch, leading out onto the road.

  “Do you think Jareth is compensating for something?” I whispered to Ronad, prompting him to smirk.

  “It’s pretty impressive, right?”

  “Impressive is an understatement! I mean, who even needs a house this big?” I murmured, looking back at the mansion. “Then again, they do have a million children. This is probably teeny-tiny for them.”

  Ronad laughed. “I have to say, it was pretty weird growing up here, after having nothing,” he admitted, though there was some pain in his words. “Now, if you think the outside is good, you just wait until you see the inside!”

  “Yes, it has been a while for you, hasn’t it, Ronad?” Kaido chimed in, turning to me with his usual unreadable expression. “Can you imagine an adopted brother being treated far better than one of true blood?”

  I shook my head, feeling a very small twist of pity. “Is that what happened?”

  “I can see the charm in Ronad, but blood is where loyalty ought to lie,” Kaido said. “I suppose Ronad was one of the guys in a way that I never was—not then, anyway. Never mind. My skills as a warrior make me far superior to any of my brothers now, so I suppose I had the last laugh there.” He gave an odd bark, which I guessed was meant to be that last laugh. I couldn’t be sure if he even knew he was sharing all this information, or whether it just came to him and needed to be said, like he had no filter to sort through private and public thoughts.

  “I was never cruel to you, Kaido,” Ronad said softly, but Kaido shrugged.

  “Whether you were or you were not, you were part of the problem. You cannot be a bystander to bad behavior and claim innocence.”

  I hadn’t thought of it like that before, but there was definitely a sad truth in what Kaido said. If somebody had done nothing to help him, were they just as culpable? Given his expertise on the battlefield, and the impressive skillset he had at his disposal, it was hard to picture him as a weedy child, picked on by his siblings and, undoubtedly, other children, but I knew there were no lies in what he was saying. I doubted he even had the ability to lie.

  Before either of us could say another word, Kaido led us through the second silver archway and into the mansion, where Jareth Idrax was waiting. He was standing at the bottom of a curved staircase, tapping the banister impatiently, his dark blue eyes turned toward us. It was alarming how similar he looked to Navan, in the dim light of the entrance hall.

  “I do not see Navan and Bashrik,” he snapped, his anger sending a shiver up my spine.

  Kaido gave a funny little bow. “Navan evaded capture, and Bashrik was too far away, Father. It became unfeasible to go after them directly, but I had already planned for several possible outcomes. I had forgotten the true extent of Navan’s strength, and so I went with the easier target. It is no less effective in getting him here; it simply has a longer execution time.”

  “You think Navan will bother to come for his pet and this—” Jareth glowered in Ronad’s direction, looking as though he wanted to rip the ex-coldblood’s head off his shoulders. “Well, I don’t have a word for such filth. Not one I could say in front of a female, anyway, regardless of her species.”

  Kaido frowned. “Riley is not Navan’s pet, Father. She is his lover. They are in an affectionate relationship, far beyond that of an owner and a pleasure slave. They are partners, by my understanding,” he said in his blunt, emotionless fashion. My eyes went wide in horror, wondering what the hell the mighty Jareth Idrax was going to say about that! This was definitely not the way I wanted to meet the parents… again.

  Jareth shifted his angry glare to me. “She’s his what?”

  “His lover and partner, Father. It is why Navan will come for her, since I have kidnapped her from his side,” Kaido explained evenly. “He will not be able to help himself, especially if he fears some harm will come to her.”

  “I can understand a bit of youthful exuberance, but this is ludicrous,” Jareth growled. “I can’t believe you’ve brought these two to me, Kaido. I trusted you, and you have brought shame under my roof.”

  I wished the ground would swallow me up.

  “You misunderstand, Father,” Kaido assured him. “They are both useful to us.”

  “How can Ronad be useful to anyone?” Jareth sneered, venom dripping from his words. “Look at you, Ronad. You might as well be whatever she is. I can’t even sense your Vysanthean blood anymore. What happened to you? You look weak. Everything about you is off—your skin, your demeanor, your appearance.”

  Ronad narrowed his eyes. “Grief did this to me. A concept you know nothing of!”

  “How dare you?!” Jareth roared. “I will not have you under my roof!”

  Kaido hurried up to his father. “You must, Father. This is all part of a well-thought-out plan. Navan and Bashrik will return to our side of Vysanthe for good. They will not be able to leave Riley and Ronad to an unknown fate, so they will follow the trail I have left behind. You have to trust in my knowledge of the sentient mind, Father.”

  Kaido’s words seemed to calm Jareth down, his shoulders visibly relaxing. He still didn’t seem too happy about things, but there appeared to be a mutual trust between father and son. After taking a few deep breaths to steel himself, he glanced between me and Ronad, shaking his head.

  “You had better be right, Kaido.”

  “In matters of the mind, I am rarely wrong,” he said confidently. “Now, may I take them to visit Mother?”

  Jareth looked dubious. “You may, but don’t stay long. I don’t wish to have her riled up.”

  “Thank you, Father,” Kaido said, before turning to us. “This
way.”

  Without another word, we followed our guide, though it meant brushing past Jareth. I could feel his eyes boring into me as I passed, even with my head down and my gaze fixed firmly on the floor. I half expected him to lunge forward and throttle me for daring to fall in love with his son, but he never did. In fact, he didn’t even bother to follow us up the winding staircase, though I knew he was watching our every move.

  Around every corner, some new feat of architectural wonderment met our eyes, whether it was a glass atrium or an intricately carved wall of marble. The curved windows offered spectacular views out toward a misty horizon, and every ceiling looked like the Sistine Chapel. The mansion definitely had a Gothic air, but it was also weirdly modern. Nothing looked dusty, and there were no chairs I would’ve been scared to sit on—well, not if I’d been here under different circumstances, anyway.

  As we reached a room at the end of a long, brightly lit corridor, with a glass roof that revealed the canopy of those beautiful redwood-like trees, we came to a halt. Footsteps echoed behind us, and I turned to see that Jareth had followed us up. It seemed he’d had a change of heart, probably not wanting us to be alone with his wife.

  Inside, there was a large, airy bedroom with an elegant four-poster at the far side, silvery-gray gauze shrouding the figure within. The bed was flanked by beautiful pieces of furniture, all painted in a duck-egg blue, to suit the white marble floor and the pale blue walls. Another skylight stretched down the middle part of the ceiling, looking out at the forest scene, where birds were making their nest in one of the redwood boughs overhead.

  As Kaido tied back the gauzy drapes, he revealed Lorela, who was sitting up on a stack of pillows, eyeing our motley crew with curiosity. She looked as ill as Kaido had said, her skin a sallow gray, her eyes surrounded by deep circles of purple.

  She looked at me for a moment, a glimmer of recognition passing across her foggy eyes—so similar to Navan’s—before moving on to Ronad, who stood beside me. A weak smile broke across her face.