Broken Wings (30 page)

["Better safe than sorry?"]

His cheer returned. ["Exactly. I
suppose they have to come down at some point."] He tapped the light
again, as if it would make a difference in how fast it
changed.

So impatient. Cris was the opposite of
his brother. No surprise the two couldn't get along.

["What'll you do after I'm
gone?"]

He shrugged, his eyes on the lights.
["Return to Naviketan probably. We don't belong here. And Leks has
this notion that we can still destroy Heffin's Gate."]

He'd still stick by his brother,
despite expressing his doubts and nitpicks about him. He cared,
even if he would never admit it.

Cris studied her, or, rather, the grin
she couldn't erase. ["What?"]

["Nothing."] Nothing she wanted to
explain, because he wouldn't listen anyway. ["You'll be all right,
Cris."]

["I know."] The lights changed on the
column, and he stepped back. ["It's moving."]

Indeed it moved—the lights lit up and
dimmed in downward succession. They stopped on that
floor.

Cris stepped back, and the door
opened.

Her heart jumped into her throat.
["Corsa!"]

Bent and frayed feathers stuck out of
her wings and her face was red and purple in a couple places, Corsa
laid on a gurney floating in front of a guard. She wore a simple
gray flightsuit and shoes, torn in a few places. Blood left a line
from a cut on her cheek into her golden brown hair.

Raea rushed to her side with Cris
close behind. ["Corsa. What happened?"]

The guard pushed her quickly through
the corridor, so Raea had to walk fast to keep up. Cris strode
beside her on the other side of the gurney.

["Ra…Raea?"]

["Yes?"]

["It…was Leksel. He..."] Corsa passed
her tongue over a swollen bottom lip. ["He did this. He…sabotaged
defense grid."]

["What?"] She and Cris questioned
together, frozen while the guard shoved the floating gurney quickly
away. Raea must have heard wrong. One look at Cris confirmed they
both wanted to know more. After all Leksel had told her and done
for her, she couldn’t believe he would jeopardize the
Keepers.

They caught up as the guard pushed the
gurney through the infirmary glass door in Tower Two. Raea grabbed
the arm of one of the guards as a medic rushed up in her red
uniform. ["Where's Leksel?"]

["They're taking him to the detention
area,"] the woman behind the gurney said.

["What'll they do to him?"]

["Hold him."]

Cris frowned at the guard. ["Leks
wouldn't hurt anyone without a reason."]

Um, right. Raea cleared her throat.
Had he forgotten so soon?

["That was different. He's not like
that, Raea. He's a good man."]

That's what she wanted to
believe, but seeing Corsa beat up triggered doubts.
Could
Leksel have been
playing her all this time? If he did…No. He couldn't. How could she
have been so stupid?

Leksel was former Shirukan, or so he
claimed. But he showed real emotion about Korali. And
Cris…

What if Cris was in on it?

He couldn't be. Could he? She hated
this. Who could she trust?

["She's lying. She has to be,"] Cris
muttered.

["We'll find out the truth."] The
guard followed the medic, who directed them to a quiet corner among
the medical equipment.

Cris grabbed Raea's arm. ["Raea. You
know me. I know Leks. He can be harsh, but he's a traitor to the
Shirukan. He wants nothing to do with them, especially after they
killed Korali."]

How did she know? He'd say anything to
defend his brother. His brother, who he claimed pulled him from the
academy. A Shirukan training academy?

Raea pulled her arm away and backed
from him in the corridor. ["I want to hear Leksel's side first."]
This couldn't be happening, not after everything they'd been
through the last few days.

["She has to be lying."]

["Just take me. You read the map."] At
least she was surrounded by Keepers now. If Cris tried anything,
someone would help her.

Cris swallowed, his eyes moving as if
focusing on something only he saw. ["I barely noticed it, but I
think I know. Let's go."]

After a quick ride in the transport,
the lights next to the door lit up until the tenth light stayed on.
They followed the corridor to a skyway to Tower One. The three
towers with their short skyways at nearly every level formed a
triangle between them.

She followed Cris a few steps into the
hall of the tower and through a door on the inside of the
corridor.

There, they met a pair of guards.
Leksel gazed back from behind a clear wall of glass, the gray
flightsuit he wore a bit scuffed and torn in a couple places. He
took up the only occupied cell of the four in the room. Apparently
they didn't keep prisoners.

Cris passed the guards, who made no
move to stop him. Either they didn't see any threat or they didn't
usually play prison guards. Either way, they didn't show any alarm.
["Leks. We saw Corsa. She was barely conscious. What did you
do?"]

Leksel's jaw tightened. His eyes
passed Cris and focused on Raea. ["What did she tell you?"] His
words came over a speaker with a calm she didn't expect.

["She said you sabotaged the defense
grid."]

His shoulders rose and fell with a
deep breath. ["She was the one who caused the damage. I suspected
she was up to something when I saw her get in the tube and ride it
to the top. She attacked when I confronted her. After knocking her
down, I tried to repair it, but the guards arrived."] He fixed his
eyes on her, the hardness gone. Was he asking her to believe
him?

["I knew there was
something about her, but I didn't think she would betray us."]
Leksel shook his head. ["She lied about everything. She used me,
used
us
."] He
gritted his teeth on the last part, regaining some of that typical
repressed anger, but he wasn't holding back now. ["I should've seen
it long ago. She was too good at acting as a Shirukan, knew the
procedures and even lined up in the shuttle bay for the prime
commander's inspection, and then she disappeared and conveniently
showed up before we made it to Starfire Tower."]

["You're not perfect, Leks, contrary
to what you might believe. You can't know everything."]

But he had suspected
something when they met Corsa again. Unless that and this were all
an act to gain her confidence.
Stop
it!
Raea hated this. Who told the
truth?

Leksel's lips twitched, but rather
than snap at Cris, he let out a sigh. One good thing came of their
fight—Leksel was more patient with Cris. That fight couldn't have
been staged. She remembered how reluctant he had been to stop.
Those emotions had been real.

What truth could she
believe? Raea stepped back. One of them lied, but she didn't want
to believe either of them would betray her or the Keepers. ["I
would have noticed if she was
meistal.
"] She hadn't. Corsa couldn't
be Shirukan.

Leksel's dark eyes focused on her. His
wings shifted. ["Did you touch her—skin to skin?"]

Did she? Raea thought back. For once,
she didn't mind the perfect memory. She filed through her memories
to all the times she'd been close to Corsa. She'd awakened to Corsa
sitting next to her, but Corsa never touched her when she took the
tea. Corsa never touched her when she handed her the plate of food,
or when they changed clothes. Cris touched her while they were
under attack in the recycling plant. After she nearly fainted from
using the Starfire—

["Yes, I did. She and Cris both helped
me out of the recycling plant. But I already touched Cris then and
knew. I was too weak, I think, to notice when they were both
touching me."]

["Was that the only time?"]

["Yes."] Wait. There was something
else, but it wasn't her. ["Wouldn't you have noticed?"]

["No. We don't have enough Starfire to
feel it in others."]

So much for that theory. Now she
knew.

["You can visit her now and touch her.
You'll know."] Cris sounded far more confident in her abilities
than she felt in anyone right now. ["Raea. Please. We wouldn't have
come all this way just to betray you."]

["What about to capture two Crystal
Keepers?"]

Leksel straightened, his wings
tightening behind him. ["She knew we'd make it here. It's not just
about you."] He put a hand on the glass. ["Raea, listen. If Corsa
came to take down the defense grid, the Shirukan will be here soon.
She wouldn't do this if the plan wasn't already in
place."]

Oh, God. Raea's stomach twisted. This
wasn't how it was supposed to be. She should be home with Elis,
safe in his arms.

["You have to warn Saffir. She's the
one they're after. Once they have her, capturing you will be easy,
wherever you are."]

Great vote of confidence in her
abilities, but he was right. She hardly knew how to use the
Starfire to its full potential. ["What about you?"]

["I'll be fine. Once they scan my
memories, they'll know the truth."]

Scan his mind? Then it wasn't just
between Keepers? Elis had helped her retrieve the Starfire's memory
about Pallin raping her. He had seen the memory too, but she
thought only Keepers could share memories. If they could retrieve
memories from others, the truth would be known. Why didn't they do
so already? They could prove his innocence, or guilt.

["Go, Raea. You're the only one who
can convince them."]

She wanted to believe he only had the
best intentions for her, but she wanted to believe Corsa too. Why
couldn't this be easy?

["The Shirukan are coming."] Leksel
paused, and his voice lost its edge to add, ["If you can trust
anything, it's that they're on their way now."]

Yes. That she could believe. No matter
who caused the damage, it meant trouble. Raea ran from there to
find Saffir. Then, she would visit Corsa.

* * *

After asking a few unfamiliar faces,
she found someone to take her to Saffir.

Raea stepped into an empty room, or
empty except for the mat on which Saffir sat. Sunlight spilled in
from the windows on one side, casting the Crystal Keeper in an
ethereal glow. She could have been a real angel.

Blue eyes opened on her. ["I'm almost
ready."]

["I'm not."]

["You want to stay?"]

["No. I came to warn you."]

Saffir rose to her feet, and Raea
stepped closer. ["The Shirukan are coming."]

["So I've been told."]

What? She knew?

A gentle smile rose on Saffir's face.
["Nalissa notified me of the attack when they found your
friends."]

["She did?"] At least, Raea assumed
Nalissa was a she—the name fit.

["We expected something
might happen."] The smile slid from her face and her shoulders
dropped. ["The Shirukan practice deception as part of their
training. It's unfortunate that we have to worry about the
intentions of every person. We knew your friends were
meistal
and suspected they
may be real Shirukan."]

Okay, now she was confused. ["You did?
How?"]

["We scanned the shuttle. The Starfire
gives off a distinct radiation."]

Yes, Leksel had told her. What did
that have to do with them… The answer clicked. ["They have traces
of Starfire in them and you picked that up."]

["Yes. All of them."]

All of them. Then Corsa
too. She was
meistal
, and Raea hadn't noticed. Then maybe Leksel was
right.

["It's not the same as a Keeper, but
it can be detected. We saw you distinctly, but didn't know what to
make of your friends."] Saffir paused. ["I can't say this wasn't
unexpected, and we prepared for trouble. General Lolliren is
standing by with his ship in orbit."]

Now she felt stupid for even worrying.
["What about the defenses of this place? What about Corsa and
Leksel?"]

["Someone's working on the controls
they damaged. As for those two, we'll decide what to do with them
after the Shirukan are gone."]

That wasn't good enough. She couldn't
leave them wondering if Leksel had used her all along to get to
Saffir. ["I have to know who's telling the truth."]

["Do you? What if both are lying? The
Shirukan are masters of deception. They might all be hoping you'll
convince us to turn one of them free, so they can complete their
mission."]

["No. I don't believe it."] Not after
all she'd learned and experienced with them. That couldn't be
faked.

["Would you risk the Starfire and the
security of this world on that?"]

Saffir made a good case. ["No."] But
there was more. Leksel had mentioned scanning their minds. ["But
can't you read their minds to find the truth?"]