Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) (33 page)

"I have used these chems for a century to blunt the pain of my deeds," Maeve told her. "I am accustomed to them. What do you want of me? Do you wish vengeance for the cathedral's fall? For the death of the White Kingdom?"

Xartasia shook her head slowly, sadly. "No, Maeve. I have told you that you are not to blame for the death of our people. I doubt that you are the first to sing the Waygate songs improperly, not in a history as long as ours. The Devourers are to blame for the carnage, Maeve. They answered the Waygate's call and came to our worlds."

Maeve was not sure what she meant. "The Waygate's call?"

Xartasia ignored her question. "As to Gharib, I cannot afford to linger in anger. You did what you believed best, as I did. We can ask for nothing more. What needed to be done was done."

Maeve remembered tiny blue Baliend under the graveyard, crying for his mother. "Did you… kill another child, then?"

Xartasia flicked her hand in a small, dismissive circle. "Not a child, but a woman. Elsa was her name. She knew you. Her mind was so much like that of a child that it served our purposes. Gavriel's magic is strong now."

Xartasia flexed her wings. Her glowing light charm flared, making Maeve's eyes water, and then dimmed once more. When she could see again, Maeve found her cousin's black brows knit in apparent worry. Maeve did not trust herself to speak.

"Gavriel is driven by deep and dark passions, little cousin," Xartasia said emphatically. She was not just making idle conversation with her prisoner. "You have not been brought to answer for some obscure matter of honor or vengeance. Gavriel desires something from you and he will have it. Do not fight him."

"What could he want of me but revenge?" Maeve asked. She wanted to keep her voice strong, but Gavriel frightened her more than she could ever admit.

"None living know the Devourers as you do, Maeve. You were there when they came through the Tamlin gate. You battled them and you banished them from Arcadia when you closed the gate."

"What is that to your master?"

Xartasia pressed her full red lips together into a thin, unhappy line. Was she angry at the interruption, or that Maeve had called Gavriel her master?

"He wants what you have seen," she said. "Gavriel wants your memories of the Devourers and he will tear them from your mind if he must."

Maeve's mouth went dry as dust. "Why?"

"He will summon them forth from the Waygate, Maeve," Xartasia told her. "Using your memories, Gavriel will bring the Devourers back once more to destroy all life in this galaxy."

"Dying for your beliefs shows only that you believe in death."

- Kemmer Andus, Prian archeologist (233 PA)

"Everything is there," Panna said, exasperated. "What do you think they're going to do? Steal the Waygate?"

Kemmer tempered his irritated look with the flirtatious smile that he liked using on Panna. She barely resisted rolling her eyes. What did he think would happen? That his arrogant attempts at charm were going to seduce her into his tent one night?

He wouldn't even be trying if he really knew anything about me…

"Even if they can't steal the Waygate, it doesn't mean that they couldn't steal the
discovery
, my dear," said Kemmer, tapping a stylus on the datadex in front of him for emphasis. "A few scans and photos and we'd be falling out. So far, we've managed to keep everything nice and quiet."

"So quiet that the police don't even know what's going on up here!" Panna all but shouted. "Doctor Kemmer, if they knew the magnitude of your discovery, surely they would send someone up to help protect the Waygate!"

"Panna, please," said Xen. He put a long-fingered hand on her shoulder. "I know you're upset, but–"

"But what?" Panna turned on her teacher. "But we were discrete. We hired Captain Myles and his friends. Now Maeve Cavainna is gone!"

"For which we're all very sorry, but the world turns on," Kemmer said. Xen frowned at Panna, but she was not done.

"She has enemies! Like the Cult of Nihil. Do you know anything about them?" she asked, shaking a fist in the air. Her nails were biting into her palms. "Well, I do!"

"You know about that?"

The voice came from behind her. Panna had been so caught up in her anger that she failed to notice Tiberius and the others had returned. She turned to find the red-faced old Prian stepping through the flap of the tent. Duaal and Xia followed their captain inside, followed by another Prian man that Panna did not immediately recognize. He was young, with handsome – if tired and drawn – features and sharp, predatory eyes.

Her eyes dropped to his hands, one of cold-reddened flesh and the other all made of scarred illonium. Panna starred. She knew him… or of him, at least. Logan Coldhand. He stopped in the tent's door and looked at Panna with narrowed blue eyes. Behind him, Gripper poked his head through, noting the fullness of the tent with a small frown.

"I… I read about what happened on Stray," Panna told Tiberius. "I was curious."

"Really?" Duaal asked, surprised. "That was pretty small news to the rest of the galaxy."

Coldhand looked sharply at the mage, then back to Panna. An icy shiver crawled up her spine. She took a step back, away from the bounty hunter, but not fast enough. Coldhand was on Panna in a second, moving as quick as a lightning strike. He grabbed her by the arm, hooked her feet out from under her with one ankle and dropped her to the ground. She felt his gun pressed against the back of her head and whimpered.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kemmer shouted. "Release her this instant!"

Tiberius did not waste time with words. He tore his own gun free and leveled it at Coldhand. The bounty hunter looked up at him through damp blond hair.

"Put that away, Myles," Coldhand said.

"Let the girl go," Tiberius countered.

Panna was too terrified to breathe. Her pulse pounded through her body, beating like a drum in her ears. The pressure of the laser against her skull eased, but only a little.

"She's not a girl," Coldhand said. "Not a human one, at least."

"Don't!"

It was not Panna who had protested, but Xen. The Ixthian lunged at Coldhand, but Tiberius stepped in his way.

"One at a God-damn time," he ordered in a low, angry voice. "You'll get your piece in right time, Professor Xen. Now, what the hells do you mean
not human
, Coldhand?"

Panna pressed her face into the floor of the tent. Everything smelled like plastic. Could she die just by wishing to? A sob choked her and hot tears spilled out onto the ground.

"This girl is Arcadian," said Coldhand.

There was a moment of stunned silence. Xen was the first to break it.

"I know," he said. "Now will you please let her go?"

The Talon-9 was cold against Panna's skin. "The Nihilists use a lot of Arcadians," said Coldhand. "They've been using them to abduct other fairies. Is she one of theirs?"

"No," Xen told him. "She's not. Let her up."

And then the gun was gone. Coldhand stood, reholstering his weapon. Tiberius studied the bounty hunter for a moment and then did the same. Panna remained still in the cooling puddle of her tears. She wanted to die.

"Panna?" Xen was offering his hand.

He knew. How? Panna reluctantly let the archeogeneticist help her to her feet. She sniffled and wiped her cheeks on the back of her sleeve. It was hard to meet the eyes around the tent. How long until Gruth, Phillip and Enu-Io found out?

"She looks human," Kemmer said. He stood well back from Xen and Panna, she could not help noticing. "She can't really be a bird-back, can she?"

"She's had her wings removed and her ears reshaped," Coldhand told them. "But she is definitely Arcadian."

Duaal was squinting at her speculatively. "I can see it now, I guess, in the face and build. But how did you know, Logan?"

Panna sniffled and looked up at the bounty hunter. "It was a good job, the best my parents could afford."

"It's in the way you walk, in your balance. You were meant to fly." Was that sorrow in Coldhand's voice?

"You're Prian," Panna said quietly. "You people love birds. But you have no idea what it's like to grow up like one, like an animal. Nobody believes Arcadians are worth anything. We're not allowed to go to Alliance colleges and I wanted…" Her voice failed.

"I guess you don't see any Arcadians on Tynerion," Tiberius grunted. He scratched his chin as he thought. "That was your problem with Maeve, wasn't it? You were afraid she would notice that you were one of her own."

"Yes," Panna admitted. Her vision swam with a new flood of tears. "I didn't want to disrespect the princess, but… but I didn't know what else to do."

There was a gust of cold air as Gripper finally pushed his way through the flap of the tent. "That's why you were dropping stuff that first day! Smoke told me about it. She was really mad."

Panna flinched. She had never meant to insult the princess. She had never expected… "I was just so shocked. My mother always said that none of the royal family escaped the White Kingdom. And then I saw her on the news, after the encounter on Stray."

Xia looked at Xen with orange disbelief in her eyes. "You… you knew about this?" she asked.

"Does it matter, Xia?" Xen's fingers tightened on Panna's shoulder. She looked up at him. "She's a good student, one of the best I've ever had. What does her species matter?"

"What does her species matter?"
Xia repeated, aghast. "You can't be serious, Xen! She lied about her race!"

Panna stood up to her full height – which was not impressive in a tent full of humans, Ixthians and the looming Arboran – and glared at Xia. "What choice did I have?" she shouted. "I was born in the core. On a farm on Cyrus! But because I had wings, I wasn't an Alliance citizen."

"It's not about your wings, Panna," Xia started to say, but Panna was too furious to listen.

"What is it, then?" she challenged. "Even Gripper got to take the test and become a proper citizen of the CWA! But Arcadians are still considered refugees. It's been a century! My parents are little more than slaves on Cyrus. They cried when I told them I wanted the surgery, but they understood. I wanted to go to college. I wanted a better life!"

"You had some doctor cut off your wings just to go to school?" Tiberius asked, shaking his head. "I don't get you, dove."

"You wouldn't," Panna tried to say calmly. "You're Prian. You'd probably give just about anything to have wings."

Coldhand was listening closely. He did not nod, but Panna thought she saw understanding in his pale eyes. The hunter had lost a part of himself, too, an important part. It wounded him still. Panna looked back at Xen. He had kept her secret. An Ixthian ignoring her species… Panna realized she was blushing.

"All of this is why you're so upset about Smoke now," said Gripper, speaking up shyly but insistently. He wanted Maeve back, too. "She's not just some lady. She's your princess."

"Yes." Panna nodded and turned to Xen again. "Please, professor. Let me help look for her."

"Of course," he said with a sigh. "Since it looks like I can't keep the secret of your genetics anymore."

Everyone had almost forgotten about Kemmer until the archeologist threw his hands in the air. "Sure, fine! We're losing what little remains of our security force and now you're letting this… whatever-she-is fly off? Right, she can't fly because she cut off her wings!"

"Shut up, Kemmer," Xen snapped.

Panna smiled gratefully at her teacher, then looked between Tiberius and Coldhand. "So… what do we do now?" she asked.

Tiberius beetled his brow. "I want to go down into Pylos to see Cerro. We need to trade some information on what happened to Maeve. He's under the impression that it was the same men who grabbed the equipment and killed Dannos."

"But it's not," Duaal protested. "Logan pretty well told us it was the Nihilists who took her."

"Cerro doesn't even know the Cult of Nihil is on Prianus," Tiberius said grimly. "We need to tell him that they're here, in his city."

"The information isn't going to help anyone very much if we can't find the cult," Coldhand said. "If the police have anything on them, call me."

The bounty hunter turned toward the exit, making Gripper – who was standing just inside the tent door – slink awkwardly out of his way. Tiberius whistled at the bounty hunter and Coldhand stopped with his cybernetic hand clenching the weighted flap.

"What?" he asked coldly.

"Where do you think you're going?"

The bounty hunter took an empty hypodermic needle from his pocket. "They used this to drug Maeve," he said. "Vanora White. A local mix. Gavriel didn't bring this from the core."

The core. If she was not so shaken, Panna would have laughed. The Prians still barely considered themselves a part of the Central World Alliance.

"That means a Nihilist bought it or stole it," Coldhand went on. "There are going to be a lot of dealers in Pylos, but one of them should be able to point me – us – toward the cult. I'm going to track that dealer down."