Hammer of Time (The Reforged Trilogy) (10 page)

"That was Gripper," Xia told the other Ixthian. "We had to leave before he could talk to you."

"We found an Arcadian body next to a scorch mark in that field there," Xal said. "Are you telling me you left a murder scene before the police arrived?"

"That knight was not the only one here!" said Maeve.

"There was a Devourer, as well, and another ship."

"A Devourer?" Xal's antennae arched up from her snow-white hair. "You're shining, surely."

"No," Logan told her. "Panna's right. It was working with the dead knight you found. We fought and killed the Devourer, too."

"We found only one body; the Arcadian male whose murder you just confessed to."

"That's not a burn mark in the corn; it's where the nanites consumed the body," said Logan. His cybernetic hand ground at his side, clenched into a tight silver-gray fist.

The CWAAF lieutenant was not impressed. "When we get verification of that, you're going to owe something colorful. It's a damned good thing for you that it wasn't an Alliance citizen who attacked you."

Rage boiled in Maeve's breast, painful and hot and erupting before she could stop herself. "He was just an Arcadian?" she cried. "That is what you are saying, yes? It is a good thing he was just a fairy!"

"They just don't count, do they?" Panna hissed.

Xia put a restraining hand on Maeve's shoulder and looked at Lieutenant Xal. "What about the Devourer? You have plenty of witnesses here of the attack on us and the alien."

"We've found no evidence of any monsters," Xal answered dismissively. "There have been some stories of another assailant from the three Arcadians here who speak Aver, but nothing conclusive. What happened to this other ship?"

Maeve opened her mouth to answer, but Logan was quicker. "We chased it, but the other ship was too fast," he said. "We lost it."

Xal sighed. "Did you catch its name? I'd like to speak with the pilot."

"No," Logan told her.

"What's going to happen now?" Xia asked. "Are you going to report this to CWAAF?"

"Yes," said Lieutenant Xal. "Don't leave New Hennor. I will have a lot more questions for you."

________

The Blue Phoenix was grounded on Sunjarrah for a week while the police questioned Logan, Xia, Gripper and Duaal about what happened. As a non-citizen, Maeve's testimony was not admissible in court and not deemed important in the investigation. Panna's presence and reactions raised questions and it was not long until a file sent from Tynerion revealed her Arcadian heritage. The fine for falsifying her identity was one thousand cenmarks.

Fines for their illegal squatting in the old colony were less, but the Arcadians of New Hennor had little money with which to pay them. So many fairies were incarcerated for their petty crimes, dropped into a prison populace of violent criminals that they did not know how to communicate with. The Arcadians would remain there for a month, but the numbers were not in their favor. Statistically, only fifty percent would survive their prison time. Those who made it out again had nowhere else to go. They would return to the same place they were fined for living.

It was not the police who told Maeve, but Panna. She ranted every afternoon, when she and the princess were alone on the Blue Phoenix, while the rest were gone answering a new round of the same questions. Maeve agreed, but what could they do? Only the Lyceum could change Alliance law. The Lyceum was far away on Axis and there were no Arcadians on that council. The conversation always ended the same way, with Maeve sitting in unhappy silence while a red-faced Panna fought for her composure and fled the room before she lost it.

Panna was not the only one revealed as a fraud during the investigation. Logan's identity, too, was the subject of many questions. For invoking the powers of his lapsed license, Logan Coldhand's fine was two thousand cenmarks.

As they had suspected, the Oslain'ii had not registered a flight plan or landing coordinates. Several companies had noted damage to their satellites in the autotraffic belt. The damages were split evenly between insurance companies and the captains of the two involved ships: Duaal Sinnay and the mysteriously absent pilot of the Oslain'ii. Even so, the reparations cost every chip of color that Maeve, Duaal and the rest could scrape together.

And then the investigation was over. Interest in the dead Devourer never made it past a few disregarded testimonies. Lieutenant Xal and CWAAF only involved themselves in the affair because the Arcadians did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Sunjarran police. Once the bird-backs were dealt with, Xal quickly and efficiently completed her datawork, then never appeared again. Four days later, the whole thing was over. Broke and frustrated, everyone was free to return to the Blue Phoenix.

Their first dinner together in eight days was noodles and canned sauce from the back of the cupboard. Xia served the limp dinner to Duaal and Logan, then a larger bowl to Gripper. The Arboran sniffed the sauce. His eyes were still rimmed in red. Xia offered some food to Panna, but the girl declined. Maeve accepted the bowl instead. They all ate in silence, every head down and shoulder slumped.

"Now what?" Duaal asked at long last, finally breaking the monotonously mechanical sounds of chewing.

Eyes rose slowly to his; faceted red, forest green, glacial blue and stormy gray. Duaal seemed to realize too late that he had asked his question aloud. He smoothed his glossy dark brown hair and cleared his throat.

"Look, Maeve, I really want to help," Duaal continued. "I do. But we've tried everything to get the Alliance involved. They don't believe us, even when we find a Devourer on one of our own planets. We know Xartasia is out there with them, but we don't know where and we don't know what the hells she's doing."

"I… I wish I could believe that all my cousin wants is to take our people home," said Maeve. "But if that was true, what need does she have for the Devourers?"

"I don't know. We could fly after her into the end of the universe, Maeve," Duaal told her unhappily, "and never find her or figure it out. We're out of money and ideas."

Logan pushed his bowl back and tapped illonium fingers on the stained tabletop. "We
do
know a few things," he corrected. "Xartasia is gathering Arcadians. Maeve's right. If all she wants is to take them home, she just needs ships. Not Devourers. Xartasia's got some sort of plan that involves the Arcadians she's summoning."

"But we don't know what that is," Duaal said again. "Or how to find out."

Logan held Duaal's gaze for a long moment, but it was the Prian who finally looked away. Gripper sniffled and Maeve wished she could tell him that all of his pain had all been
for
something, to save the entire galaxy. But it would be a lie. Maeve pushed her pasta around the bowl and could not convince herself to eat another bite.

"No. We're not out of the fight yet."

It was Panna who had spoken. The wingless Arcadian girl jumped to her feet and slammed her hands down on the table, making the dishes jump. "Coldhand is right. We
know
that Xartasia is after the Arcadians. That may be the only thing we know, but we can still do something about it."

"What?" Gripper asked. His voice was raw and hoarse. "What are we supposed to do, Sprite?"

"We have to get to them first! We win the Arcadians to our side before Xartasia can." Panna turned to Maeve. "You're a knight and a princess of the White Kingdom.
You
should be our queen, not Xartasia! Call to the Arcadians, Highness, and they will flock to your side."

"I am no queen!" Maeve objected. "We have discussed this–"

"But you
could
be," said Duaal. "Panna's right, Maeve. It's the only thing we can do against Xartasia. If we can make you into a queen, we might still be able to stop her. We don't know what she needs Arcadians for, but we might be able to stop her from getting them."

"No." Maeve's fingernails were biting into her palms. "I cannot lead my people. I am unfit to be queen!"

"Then make yourself fit," Duaal said. When Maeve looked up, there was a hardness in his eyes that she had never seen before. "If you really want to stop Xartasia and the Devourers, this is it. This is the only plan we have, Maeve."

Her mouth was dry and felt as though there was something thorny lodged inside. She turned to Logan. "Tell them… tell me that this plan is insanity," she begged. "That it will not work. We cannot do this!"

"I don't know if it'll work," Logan said. His eyes were cold and unforgiving. "But Duaal's right. We have nothing else."

Were she not already sitting, Maeve would have fallen. She felt stabbed in the heart, betrayed… but it was not Logan's fault. It was the only idea they had. Had she expected Logan to side with her just because they were lovers? No, her hunter was too smart and too practical. There was no other way. Maeve slumped in her seat.

"Very well," she said almost inaudibly. "I will do it. I… I will be queen."

Panna slapped her hand on the table again. Her expression was grim, but there was a tiny smile curling her lips. Xia shook her head, disbelieving but not disapproving. Even Gripper smirked just a little, as though he had always expected this outcome for Maeve. Duaal leaned back and arched one dark brow.

"Great," he said. "Now how do we do turn Maeve into a queen of Arcadia?"

"We can start now," Panna answered. "Here in New Hennor."

"Don't play if you're not willing to lose."

– Duaal Sinnay (233 PA)

"Go get dressed," said Duaal.

"I
am
dressed," Maeve told him.

"You can't seriously be thinking of wearing that!"

"What is wrong with it?"

Maeve was in the middle of reaching for the airlock handle, but stopped. She had showered, combed her hair and dressed in a fresh pair of black spacer's pants and a plain blue shirt. Duaal had changed clothes, too, donning a pair of his favorite leather pants and a red velvet vest with gold edging. He swept the hem back and inspected his polished boots.

"If you're going to be a queen, you better look the part. Right now you look like the galaxy's prettiest maintenance worker. Appearances matter. Come on, Maeve. I'll help you get dressed." Duaal took Maeve's arm and hauled her up the stairs.

"Do I have any say in this matter?" she asked.

"None," Duaal told her cheerfully. "You may have royal blood, Maeve, but you've got a soldier's sense of style."

"I was a knight. I can dress myself!"

Panna trotted up behind them. "Well, it can't hurt to let him try. If you're going to be queen, then you need to get used to letting other people help you."

Maeve scowled at the other Arcadian as Duaal shoved her into her room and to the closet. After forcing her try on everything in her closet, Duaal finally settled on a long skirt of golden cloth. One of the seams was frayed, but the intricately cross-tied crimson shirt he selected covered the poor repair. He found a pair of high-heeled sandals buried at the back of her closet.

"To make you a bit taller," he told Maeve. "You're not exactly of an impressive stature."

Panna chose a slender scarf woven with threads of gold and used it to tie back Maeve's thick black hair. "It looks like a crown. This will have to do until we can get the real thing."

"A crown?" Maeve asked. "But this is all just… just a ruse…"

But Duaal had already grabbed her wrist and was towing her across the small bunkroom. He pushed her down into the chair. "Now time for some makeup."

"I have none," Maeve told him truthfully. She had never seen much need for it. She tended to sweat it right off.

"I've got a little," Panna said.

Duaal waved a dark hand dismissively. "Go get the blue case from my room. Not the gray one, though."

Panna returned a moment later with a large blue box. The Blue Phoenix's captain flipped it open and applied powder and blush, eyeliner and shadow. Duaal held Maeve's chin firmly as he applied a glossy red layer to her lips.

"You need to stop chewing these," he told her. "Your nails, too."

"I do
not
chew my nails!"

"Then you must be using a hack saw to trim them. Stop it, princess."

"We should probably start calling her
a'shae
or
Queen Maeve
."

"Why not
Queen Cavainna
?" Duaal asked. "I wish we had some jewelry for you, Queen Cavainna."

"Every king or queen for ten thousand years has been a Cavainna," Panna reminded him. She sat on the edge of the desk, pinning up Maeve's black hair. "Xartasia is one, too, you know."

Maeve felt like a pet. "Maybe it would lend an air of legitimacy to this… endeavor," she suggested. "I would not be opposed to simply using the Cavainna name–"

"No!" Duaal and Panna answered together.

Maeve growled and stood. She shook out her wings and grabbed her spear from where it leaned in the doorway. "That is enough!" she said. "I do not need to paint my face in order to lead."