Chapter 48 #2
While Father was no doubt trying to make sense of the truth, I was sure Mother thought only of her reputation. She jerked her head at the shaa’ith. “You can’t do this.”
“We already have,” Tokki said. “Everything is in place.”
“What do you want?” Mother said, expression and voice taut.
I stepped forwards and stared her down. “I want my brother and my freedom.”
Her headspines surged, unravelling from their knot, spilling jewels across the floor. “Impossible,” she said over the sound of scattering gems. “That is my son, and my ship.”
“Are you going to try to stop me, Mother?”
“I’ve called the enforcers. They’ll be here any minute.”
Not if everything carried on in our favour, they wouldn’t.
Refusing to show an ounce of concern, I cast my gaze through the near window, through which we could see the path leading from the road. Three figures crossed the perfectly mown bluesward, heading directly for us, and I let my smile grow. “Will they?”
I could almost see Mother’s bones withering as realisation dawned.
“The enforcers shan’t be attending you, Marsyi,” Inupa dai Yakri said as she swept into the room, a serene smugness painted on her haggard features.
“They have been called away on other matters. A most terrible thing; my son had the misfortune of getting into a shocking fight at number four, and the enforcers had to break it up. And my wife seems to have crashed her speeder into the recreation building.” She and her two retainers drew blasters from behind their backs.
“Most unfortunate, I am sure you will agree. And it would be a most enjoyable ending to a stressful day if we found a reason to shoot you. So, please, by all means cause another disturbance before you let your daughter go.”
Mother stared wildly, headspines jerking in all directions.
“I have more guards than you. Maybe I would love a reason to shoot you.” Her eyes lost focus.
“You came here, threatened me, I killed you in self defence. I had to kill the aliens, too. No aliens, no problem.” Her voice dropped to a mutter. “I never had a son.”
“Nobody is killing anyone.” Kimivha stepped in front of Airida, growling. “I won’t let you do that, Madame.”
A vein bulged in her forehead. “I can kill you, too.”
Our beloved old steward showed no fear, just met Mother’s frantic gaze with calm acceptance and a defiant tilt to his jaw.
To my surprise, Father bared his teeth. “Get a grip, Marsyi. I won’t let you kill our son. Or Kimivha.”
I locked eyes with him and inclined my head. Getting a backbone at the last minute was better late than never.
“If it is true, who knows how many kri’ith carry shaa genes?” Father rested a hand on his tusks. “It could be you, Marsyi. It could be me. It could be both of us.”
Thank you, Father, for bringing things back on topic.
“Mother.” I gestured back to the holodisplay.
“This is a personalised exposé on shaa’ith genetics.
Tokki’s broadcast sows seeds of chaos. How widespread the shaa’ith are.
But when Shohari mai Tasra tells everyone locally that her very own brother is shaa’ith, and therefore at least two of us are?
” I let the words hang for just a second.
“Your reputation is about to be in tatters. You don’t have a choice. ”
All the hatred she’d kept from me over the years simmered in her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I pushed down anything I could have felt. “You’ll find I have learned much from you about being ruthless, Mother.”
Muzati had stayed uncharacteristically quiet throughout this exchange, but she sauntered forwards.
“I’ve programmed the Dorimisa to broadcast it on all public channels in an hour.
The only way she won’t broadcast is if we’re in deep space by then, because there are no public channels to pick it up. ”
Mother was incandescent. “I will destroy the ship before I let you do that.”
My engineer caught the twist wrench that fell out of her writhing headspines, her grin splitting all the way to her ear ridges. “You’re going to smoke a perfectly good ship? What will the neighbours say? The only trading ship your family has?”
I risked a glance to Madame dai Yakri, who barely concealed her dark look at Muzati.
“I’ll send an engineer to remove it,” Mother said.
Muzati laughed. “You won’t even find it.”
“It’s my ship. I commissioned it.”
“Yes, you did. With Orith-standard equipment from two decades ago. I modernised it. And modified it.” Smugness danced across Muzati’s features. “Even if you disintegrate it with phasers, that broadcast will happen.”
“Impossible.”
“Do you want to take the chance, Mother?” My voice was cold. “Do you want to take the chance that we don’t have a contingency plan? Say, a friend on the nearest Orkri pod who has instructions to broadcast it if they don’t hear from us, from orbit, within an hour?”
She spluttered, her face turning an impossible magenta.
Savage satisfaction purred in my gut, and I grinned viciously at Muzati, who gave a ludicrous thumb-upwards gesture she must have learned from Garrison.
“We’re leaving now.” My eyes fell on Airida, and I ran to him. “I’ve got you, little brother. Come away with us.”
Though he looked lost and confused, he pulled himself up and shrugged off the hands holding him.
I locked my gaze with Kimivha, wanting to thank him but not able to put him in trouble or danger with my mother. He gave me a quick flash of teeth and clasped my arm. “Be well, Mistress Shohari, Master Airida.”
“And you.”
The guards lowered their weapons at my father’s command, and I inclined my head to Garrison and the shaa’ith, who covered us as we walked backwards, their weapons ready.
Our boots rang out on the stone, the only sound other than birdsong and people breathing until Madame dai Yakri’s shrill voice cut through it. “You have shaa genes, Marsyi? By all the spines. You’ll be the talk of the recreation club, I dare say. I scarce cannot wait to—”
I shoved my face close to hers. “You won’t breathe a word, Madame dai Yakri.”
Her glare could only be described as petulant. “You told me I could have the information.”
“I did. I didn’t say you could share it.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Scrunching my toes inside my boots, I imagined they touched the stone beneath, that I drew it up through my body, infusing my voice. “Enjoy your gloating as much as it pleases you, but you will keep it to yourself if you know what’s good for you.”
“You would dare?”
I didn’t want to give Mother the satisfaction of her rival’s discomfort, but Kimivha and the other staff didn’t deserve to reap the harvest of Mother’s downfall.
I forced a smile. “Thank you for your assistance, Inupa. So very sorry to hear about your speeder. I have a bolt of ydouiran silk which I hope you’ll accept in compensation.”
“That silk belongs to me!” Mother shrieked.
“No, Mother. It’s mine. And now it’s hers.”
“You would deal with with our enemy?”
Gods, but I was tired of this. “No, Mother. She’s your enemy. Now will you release the docking clamps?” I clung to Garrison’s arm. So close now.
“I will not. I shall have the Dorimisa’s systems disabled. You forget this ship is mine. I will have you all back in that cell—” She tailed off at Muzati’s hysterical laughter.
Eventually, my beloved engineer regained enough control to say, “Disable the systems?” She choked out words between laughs.
“Do you mean the control module hidden under the communications matrix? It was suspicious, so I chucked it years ago. You’ve got as much control over the Dorimisa as that pile of cushions. ”
Father shook Mother’s shoulder and tugged her away. “Just let her go, Marsyi.”
She fought against his grip. “No. The department will never approve it.”
Madame dai Yakri gave a single, stiff tilt of her head. Who’d have thought some good would come out of their feud after all?
“Department approval has already cleared, Mother,” I said.
“Oh, by Kri’s bones, I shall do it.” Father took the comm-tablet in unpracticed hands, frowning and muttering.
Muzati sidled up to him. “Do you need assistance?”
“Uh, yes please, young lady.” His face was pink, and if I knew Father, all he wanted was for this to go away. “I never was over fond of this technology. Definitely not my forte.”
“No problem, Mister mai Tasra. Good job you’ve got me on the crew. Look, there’s the docking menu, that’s the bit where you approve. No, you have to swipe to the end. Here.”
“Thank you, but… you are stealing our ship. And my son.”
Father sounded so confused, I almost felt sad for him, except when had he ever stood up for us? No, he’d allowed Mother to control everything. He could allow a different female to railroad him this time—he excelled at it, after all.
Muzati patted his arm. “We are. But don’t you want a bit of quiet?
Can’t put the moon back how it was, you know, no matter how much you want to.
It’s best we leave you in peace, let your mate calm down.
Make her a nice cup of tea. Here.” She deftly manoeuvred the tablet from his hands and tapped a few times before returning it.
He realised he’d approved the retinal scan the same time I did, and the docking clamps gave a beautiful hiss, releasing the Dorimisa for the last time.
I turned to Rokharu, who stood near us, rifle in hand as if we might cause trouble. “I owe you a favour, Rokharu. I doubt I shall return to Orith, but if there is anything I can do for you from out there, please let me know.”
Rokharu straightened his shoulders and sighed. “You are formidable, Mistress Shohari. I hope some day Kri sees fit to bless me with a female who looks at me the way your alien looks at you.”
I wanted that for him.
“They will. I don’t doubt it,” I said, offering him a small smile. “She will be a fortunate female indeed.”
Once I’d transmitted my comm ID, I clasped his arm and turned to my ship.
“I shall have your spines for this,” Mother spat, still fighting Father’s grip. “I have never been thus spoken to in all my years.”
Muzati patted her on the shoulder. “That’s because I’ve never really spoken to you before, thank skyk.
So, Lady Ulthshit, you’re going to watch us fly our lovely ship off this backwards shithole of a planet, with our shaa’ith friends and your marvellous shaa’ith son, and with your skykking badass daughter’s human lover. ”
Mother sputtered, her face turning bright magenta as her world collapsed around her. Exactly as Muzati had said, she watched us fly away, her control bleeding out as the sun set.
“LET’S PICK UP Coerril, then set a course for Vadias via Anandri,” I said.
“Aye, Captain.”
Only when the Dorimisa made the shift from sublight transit to voidspace did I let reality wash over me.
We’d won.
I pushed out of my chair and rushed into the corridor. The wall was cool under my palms, and I sagged against it.
Inhale. Exhale.
Footsteps came up behind me, and Garrison’s firm hand rubbed comforting circles on my back. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
A howl rose in my throat and I fought it back. “I will be.”
I hope.
“Come here.” With gentle hands, he spun me into his embrace, and I slumped against him, uncaring of the plated armour he still wore.
One by one, he took the jewels from my headspines with utmost care, freeing each stalk, combing his fingers through them until they fell free once more. They writhed and shook, and I didn’t even attempt to stop them.
Gently, he kissed me, a chaste brushing of lips, and that casual, comfortable gesture seemed to hold more emotion than all the passion we’d shared. He ran a hand down an ear ridge, resting his fingers on the chain at the tip.
A flutter ran through me. “Take the damn thing off.”
I watched as he did, seeing the care, the desire, the wonder on his expressive face, as though he was uncovering me for the first time.
He brushed a kiss over my cleavage. “Beautiful.”
The tenderness of it all bloomed in my chest, swelled so large I couldn’t breathe, so strangely similar to the anxiety I was used to, I choked.
Garrison drew me back into his arms, stroking my back. “It’s okay, Sho.”
When he saw the mating marks on my arms, he pulled away. “What are these?”
My heart beat too fast. Telling him should have been so simple, but the sheer magnitude of it stopped my mouth.
I touched my lips to his, the call of my bones—of him—so potent I trembled. But I had one more call of duty. “I’ll tell you later, mitsha. I need to see Airida first.”
Hurt flashed through his dark eyes, and I cupped his face in my hands.
“I know I’ve been asking you to wait all this time,” I gritted out. “This isn’t that.”
I love you.
The words hovered on my lips, but I couldn’t set them free yet, not when there was one more thing I had to do.
“I get it.” He stroked my face, thumbing the corner of my lips. “Go see your brother. You two have been waiting longer than I have.”
The air vents stuttered, hissing out a blast of cold air, and I turned away from my mate—determined it would be the last time.