Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
Sarah
I stretched out on Rex’s big, soft bed. It was the most comfortable place I had been on all of Halla, so I relished my time there. “How do you even leave this bed every morning?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “I require fabulousness in all my endeavors, or had you not noticed?”
I rolled my eyes and got up for the morning. After a shower and some of the freshest fruit I had ever eaten, we sat down on the settee in his bedroom and perused the messages left under the door. He huffed as he read the last one, which mentioned the council’s disappointment.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The one about the council,” he said in a moody tone. “They are always so sensitive when it’s been a while since our last meeting. But I do not know if meeting me in my current condition would improve that situation.”
“Who are they?”
“The oldest ghosts on Halla. They had ruled over Faithless before I made her into a proper city. Each of them ran a district and worked together to try to keep the peace. When I came here, I decided working with them was simpler than working against them. They have good standing in the community, so it was the practical thing to do. However, because they have been here for so long, they like to treat me like a figurehead instead of the authority that I am.”
I smiled at his indignant tone. “Maybe it is time for them to see your current condition. We have stayed out of the public eye for two days now. But with the people acting up and the council’s concern, hiding isn’t going to squash any of that. It’s only going to make things worse.”
He sighed. “Perhaps you’re right.”
“Plus, if they’re a bunch of stodgy old dudes, won’t it be funny to see them freak out when they see the two of us?”
He chuckled in a very wicked, Rex-like way. “They have no idea what is in store for them, do they?”
“Nope.”
Rex’s house servants had grown accustomed to my face, though none of them seemed too pleased to see me about the manor. I had sent them to the city for clothes for me, since I hadn’t packed anything. When they returned, they suggested certain items that would please Rex. The trashier, sluttier items. Not that I minded showing some skin, but I wasn’t dressing to please him, and I needed to appear respectable enough that some old guy council wouldn’t give me too much grief.
So, I picked a purple tunic and robe set that made me feel royal in some way. “What do we think?” I asked, showing him my attire by looking into the mirror in his room.
“If you’re going to seduce them, revealing clothing is the way to go about it,” he said. “Not this outfit.”
“I’m not trying to seduce them, Rex,” I said, annoyed with his reply and him wanting to objectify me. “I want them to pay attention to us, not my body.”
“It’s just as well, I imagine,” he grumbled. “Some of them had human slaves on Orhon, and they won’t see you as fuckable anyway.”
“Oh. Super,” I replied sarcastically.
“Hence my apprehension.”
I nodded and braided my hair over my shoulder. “Think we’re ready?”
“As ever.” Rex’s tone faltered.
“We can do this,” I told him. “Buck up.”
“Be careful around Angeles, in particular,” Rex suddenly said. “He likes human women too much.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of doing this?”
“Just wanted to give you a warning, that’s all.”
Satisfied with how I looked, I left for the council meeting. We took Rex’s personal carriage, which was far nicer than any I had ridden in since coming to Faithless. The carriages hovered over the ground a few feet, while being pulled by either a skentha or a motorized device. Today, we had the motor, which I was grateful for. The skenthas smelled awful.
We drove through the slums of Faithless until we reached the nicer parts of the city. The building we parked at was tall, black, and foreboding. Like an enormous black rectangular rock with no windows and only one door. It looked like the place where fun died. Other carriages were lined up next to ours, and they were equally as fancy. I walked up the steps, lifting my dress from the ground as I did. As soon as I got to the door, it opened automatically.
The interior was not black like I had expected. It was gray and ivory bone, except for where the windows lined the walls. They had not been visible on the street, but I could see out in every direction. Sneaky .
Rex said, “The best way to be vigilant is to look like you’re not paying attention. I had this municipal building built with that in mind. Our meeting hall is to the right.”
I followed his directions to the hall. There were bone handles on all the doors, and some of the rooms were decorated with bone-framed furniture I had grown accustomed to in other places in Faithless. When I opened the doors, eight Ladrian men stopped their conversations to gawk at me.
The nearest one, Barthen, according to Rex, asked, “Are you lost?”
I gave him a confident smile. “No, I am here for the council meeting.”
He almost smirked. “The council meeting is a private affair. Who is your owner?”
“I have no owner.”
His eyes raked down the length of me, a lascivious light flickering in his eyes. “Then you are available for ownership? Good. I could always use another of you for my house staff.”
He came at me, like he was going to grab me, and I let Rex take over. He had Barthen’s face pressed against the wall and his arm hoisted over my head before I could blink.
Rex snarled in my throat, “You will not touch her, Barthen!”
A hand cannon fired, just grazing my robes. My head jerked toward the shooter, another council member. Xylic. Rex moved Barthen between my body and the shooter, like a shield.
“Gentlemen, relax,” Rex said in a cool tone. “I am wearing this body for now.”
They all stared at me in varying degrees of shock and incredulity. “How did you…Who… Rex ?” Xylic asked in confusion.
Rex’s ghost emerged from my neck, which made some of the council members chuckle. “Yes, Xylic, it’s me. You can put that away now.”
Xylic smiled in amusement and tucked his hand cannon away. “What is going on?”
I released Barthen, who rubbed his shoulder and glared at us while Rex said, “The woman I am inhabiting is the contra of conduits.”
A collective gasp went up among them. Xylic said, “Is that what happened to you? Are you stuck with her, from her magic?”
“Not stuck, per se,” Rex said delicately. “But we are experiencing technical difficulties in separation. The issue will be remedied soon, but until then, this is the situation. I expect you all to act as the professionals you are, and not attempt to lay claim to her, Barthen .”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” he grumbled.
“It was rude to assume she was available for your amusement, Barthen,” Rex snapped. “And Angeles, lose that perverse look in your eye. We are here for a meeting, not for your hobbies.” Rex straightened my neck and assumed control of my mouth. “Now, where were we?”
It was so strange to let him use my body, even now. I knew I could take control back at any time, but it was still peculiar.
Xylic came and politely pulled a bone-framed chair out for me. “My lady.”
Rex chuckled as we sat down. “You can still call me Rex when I’m running the show. Let’s get down to business, shall we?”
“Indeed,” Barthen said as the rest of the men took their seats. “Has Justice contacted you any time recently?”
“No, why?”
“He has been preoccupied by the—"
“Let me stop you right there,” Rex said abruptly. “Understand that whatever you say, the contra will know. So, if there is anything you do not wish for her to know, do not say it in front of me at this time.”
What is he hiding about Justice Bateen?
“I see.” Barthen looked me over with more suspicion. “Then I will say it this way. He has been preoccupied with his special project , so I doubt he has realized his account on Halla has dried up. He needs to renew the funds immediately. Can you see to that?”
In my head, I asked Rex, “Justice bankrolls things here on Halla?”
Justice is one of my benefactors. To the council, he said, “I will send the message. What else?”
“The special project ,” Angeles said, “is going smoothly and should be ready for the first test runs in the coming weeks.”
Rex’s relief inside of me was palpable. “That is very good to hear.”
And all the more reason to get us separated.
Huh?
Never you mind.
Over the course of the meeting, I learned that not only did Justice Bateen fund much of Faithless, but he was also an investor. The fighting arena was his and it was a fact that Rex did not appreciate, as most of the profits went to Justice.
After the meeting ended, Xylic came to us and said, “It is good to have you here in the flesh again, Rex, though perhaps it is best that Justice’s special project is near to completion.”
What does one have to do with the other?
Rex said, “Yes, well. Soon, all will be right again.”
“And your hostess …she is amenable to your occupation, it would seem?” he asked.
“She wants this over just like I do. But yes, this is a mutual arrangement of sorts.”
“Hmm,” he pondered. “Do you think it is because she is the contra that she is more reasonable than the rest of the conduits?”
In my mind, Rex asked, “Care to field this one?”
I took control of my body and addressed Xylic’s question. “The conduits are perfectly reasonable people, Xylic. But they were misled for centuries. And while Faithless is an affront to their beliefs and Rex is a scoundrel, they understand that sometimes, we must put grudges aside to be able to survive the challenges life throws at us.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “ You are the contra speaking, aren’t you? Rex went away?”
I nodded and smiled at him. “Rex is still here, but he thought I should speak for myself, regarding the conduits. I believe they should have been given choices, not orders. When people can choose for themselves, you see who they really are. I have given them choices, and do you know what they did?”
A few of the other members walked over and joined us. Xylic shook his head, wearing a bemused smile. “Do tell.”
“They made me a dress.”
They laughed, and Xylic asked, “This one?”
“No, one far prettier, actually.”
Barthen thought about what I said, how giving the conduits choices could produce positive effects. “So you believe our people can co-exist?”
“If we stop attacking each other, then we can push Halla forward and progress,” I told him. “A boat doesn’t go anywhere if its occupants are paddling in opposite directions.”
Xylic smiled again. “I like the idea of working together, though I do wonder if the conduits will keep their tempers.”
“As long as I am their queen, they will.”
“ Queen ?” he asked incredulously. “Not Contra or Mother?”
“Queen,” I insisted with a smile.
He bowed his head briefly. “Until we meet again, Queen.”
I giggled and followed the rest of the council out of the building. Once we were in the carriage, Rex said, “Well done. I believe they like you.”
“They don’t seem so bad when they’re not trying to enslave me.”
He laughed heartily. “Yes, I imagine that did put a damper on your opinion of them.”
We floated by the arena as we spoke. “I know things are done differently here, but…” A thought hit me. “Are your offices the only places you do business?”
“I do business wherever business needs doing. Why?”
“The viewing box you have in the arena…what about up there?”
“I don’t really care to do business there,” he said, almost defensively. “It’s Justice’s arena, if you recall."
I smirked. “And that seems to bug you. The fact that he funds your life here.”
He grumbled, “I don’t need it thrown in my face—"
“So, what if we turned your arena viewing box into a throne room of sorts?” I asked, tossing out the idea. “I imagine it would annoy Justice without crossing too many lines with him, right? If he asks, you can always tell him you thought you would need to take the reins, since he hadn’t renewed his accounts. Maybe then he would remember to pay his bills on time.”
“He does love that arena, and it would annoy him…” Rex laughed gleefully. “Let’s do it.”
We spent the rest of the day transforming his arena viewing box into a throne room, complete with a pair of regal thrones and some upgrades to the bar and kitchen area. From up there, we saw every detail of the arena, save for anything directly below us.
We watched some fights, and I enjoyed it far more since they would not end in deaths. As the evening progressed, I found myself cheering with the people and Rex. It was like when me and my sisters would go to a high school football game, but with slightly worse injuries.
“You’re enjoying yourself,” Rex noted inside my head.
“I am.”
“Good. You deserve to have some leisure time.”
I almost laughed. “I can’t think of the last time I had anything resembling leisure time since I left Earth.”
“Was it not in my bathtub?” His voice was low and seductive.
A hot flash burned through me. “That was not leisure time.”
“Then what was it?” he insisted smoothly.
“Something else.”
He chuckled. “As you say.”
After the fights, some of Rex’s people came for a night meeting, so I let him take over again. “Jason, Helios was a dolt, and you know it.”
“Yes, he was,” Jason quickly agreed out of fear.
“Your sister Atalanta will be my new gate greeter, but I want your cousin Tantalus as my valet,” Rex ordered. “Helios’ job should have been performed by two people in the first place. Maybe that’s why he was so bad at doing both jobs, who knows?”
Jason nodded. “He was never good at multitasking. I will alert Atalanta and Tantalus right away.” He scurried from the throne room.
Rex nibbled on a grape and told me. “You’ll like Tantalus. He looks like Deacon, but younger, and he is not half as boring.”
“Deacon is not boring,” I insisted.
“Maybe not, but he is a stickler for rules and protocols. You will find no such problems for Tantalus.”
I frowned. “It doesn’t matter what Tantalus looks like or does. I’m united to Deacon and Jac.”
Rex’s voice hitched up a notch. “Are you so sure about that?”
I didn’t like what he was insinuating. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just saying, your aura no longer reads like a united woman.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked cautiously.
“When we met, I told you that ghosts can tell a united person by their aura—"
“Yes, I remember that,” I said, trying to get to the root of his answer. “But how could my aura change?”
“When a union is dissolved for whatever reason, the auras can change and evolve,” he said, much too casually. “Perhaps your newfound freedom here has done it, or maybe they dissolved the union since they cannot control you anymore. I don’t know.”
“They would never do that,” I said, offended at the suggestion, and hating the niggle of doubt he’d planted. “And they didn’t control me in the first place.”
“It was just a thought, Sarah,” he said in a placating tone. “I don’t know why your aura does not read as united. I’m only telling you what I’ve observed.”
Annoyance slithered through me, and I hope he felt it, as well. “We should get back to the manor so we can concentrate on finding our remnants. It’s too noisy to think here and it’s been a long day.”
“Whatever you want.”