Chapter 6 #2
“Quit testing her,” Finn muttered in an undertone to Talon. “You’re just making her worse.”
Kira rolled up her sleeve and pressed the injector into the inside of her forearm. There was a small sting and then a slight burning sensation that vanished quickly. She rolled her sleeve down and glanced at Finn. “I resent that.”
“Then you’re not being difficult simply for the sake of being difficult?”
“You know—one of the few perks of not having Jin around is that I no longer have to deal with people calling me on my bullshit.”
“Who do you think told me to keep you on your toes until he could return to do it himself?” Finn asked.
That sounded exactly like something her best friend would say.
Any lingering doubts as to Finn’s identity vanished. Not that there had been many to begin with.
The other two were still a question mark.
But Finn—she knew Finn.
He didn’t even have to open his mouth. It was in the way he moved. The way he stood. His quiet self-assurance and his devotion to duty despite Kira’s best efforts to drive him away.
And because she trusted him, she trusted his judgment regarding Talon and Quillon. If he thought they were the real ones, that was good enough for her.
“One last thing—I need to conduct an internal exam to ensure the inquisitors didn’t plant any nasty surprises,” Quillon said.
Kira frowned. “Is that something we’re actually worried about?”
“Normally, I’d say no, but these are strange times.”
Unable to argue with that, Kira held up her wrist. “Will this affect your exam?”
Quillon curled his lip at the sight of the inhibitor. “What a barbaric thing. I’m surprised the emperor’s Face allowed it.”
“It was this or remain in my cell,” Kira explained.
She couldn’t have allowed that. One—because Roake needed her out here. Two—it wouldn’t have been safe for her to remain in there. Anyone wishing to get revenge against Roake would have easy access.
They would have paid the price later, but by then, it would have been too late for Kira.
“I can work around it,” Quillon said with a determined expression.
Kira held still as for the second time since stepping foot in the ship Quillon’s ki swept over her. Tiny pinpricks of pain dove deep inside. Quillon’s forehead furrowed as he concentrated.
She shifted as the sensation grew uncomfortable.
Mea’Ave take her. She hated this feeling. This sense of intrusion. Like tiny ants marching through her veins.
To distract herself, Kira looked at Finn. “Brief me about the situation.”
Although Graydon had given her some idea, she wanted to hear it from Finn. Graydon may have grown up Roake, but he wasn’t Roake now. He was an outsider. There were certain things Harlow may not have shared with him that he would have with Finn.
“It’s bad,” Finn said.
“How many dead?”
“Eight. Four were the guards who were supposed to be on duty in the Nexus. We think the Caius impersonator took them out.”
Kira inhaled, holding the breath for a moment before slowly releasing it as she mentally whispered a prayer for their safe passage to whatever afterlife they believed in.
Mea’Ave or God or whatever higher power was out there, protect them.
Kira wasn’t sure how many of the deceased were people she knew but that didn’t matter. They were Roake; that made them hers.
“I’m sorry,” Kira told Finn.
“The cost of war,” Talon responded. At Kira’s glance, he gave her a bitter twist of the lips. “There will be more casualties before this is over.”
The truth stung.
War brought death. Sometimes the enemy’s. More often your nearest and dearest.
“I found something,” Quillon announced in a tense voice.
Finn and Talon’s expressions darkened.
No one had actually thought the inquisitors would be so bold.
“Those bastards,” Quillon spat a second later “They implanted an etav.”
“What is that?” Kira asked.
“It’s a device meant for spying,” Finn answered. “In addition to tracking your movements, it will also broadcast any conversations you have.”
“Tell her the rest,” Talon ordered.
Finn’s features showed reluctance as he met Kira’s gaze. “Some are programmed with a self-destruct.”
Kira looked around the ship as if it might hold the answers she needed. “Let me get this straight—they implanted me with a kill switch.”
“That about sums it up,” Talon said.
“This is a nightmare.”
An actual, honest-to-God nightmare.
“I’m isolating it now,” Quillon warned her. “This is going to hurt.”
Before Kira could brace, Quillon’s ki grew razor sharp teeth that clamped down on the veins responsible for circulating her soul’s breath. A whimper escaped her as that invisible force started to squeeze.
Pain throbbed at the back of her skull. Ringing filled her ears as whatever he’d found inside her was forced to the surface.
“Almost there,” Quillon crooned.
Agony burned through the veins along her neck. Up to a spot right beneath her ear.
“There.”
Quillon nicked the skin under her right ear with a laser scalpel. With the other hand, he caught the skin on either side of the wound he’d made and squeezed.
A tiny item that looked disturbingly like a tick was forced out with her blood.
“Got it,” Quillon reassured her, catching the tick in a clear container before handing it over to Talon. The oshota shook it before holding it up to the light to see better.
Then Quillon was back, brushing aside the hand Kira had cupped over her neck to staunch the flow of blood from the wound. Using his ki, he knit together her flesh.
Within hours, there would be no sign that she was ever wounded.
Talon shook the cylinder again, watching the tick scrabble at the insides. “Do you suppose the emperor or his people know about this?”
Kira held still as Quillon finished tending to her wound. “Graydon didn’t.”
She’d bet her life on that.
The emperor though—he was a little harder to see through.
“I’m planning to lodge a formal complaint after informing Harlow,” Quillon said. “You’re Roake’s heir. That still counts for something.”
“We’re minutes from landing,” the pilot called from the front of the aircraft.
“Don’t worry about the inhibitor. I’m already working on a way to remove it,” Quillon assured her.
“Is that wise? The inquisitors might object,” Kira asked.
“I hope that they do,” Quillon said, looking like he relished the idea.
“I didn’t think you’d be this upset about me wearing an inhibitor. It’s not like I haven’t worn one before.”
“The two aren’t the same. The one I gave you is meant for healing.
It works with your system to safely regrow your ki paths.
That one—” Quillon nodded at her wrist. “Is meant for use on our worst criminals. In my opinion, it should have been outlawed long ago for its side effects. Long-term use will destroy your ki pathways. I’m sure that’s what they’re hoping for. ”
Quillon visibly tried to calm himself before continuing.
“But even if the inhibitor was harmless, I’d still advocate for its removal.
They lost any high ground when they inserted the etav without your consent.
It is a gross violation of not only your autonomy but your House’s.
That alone buys them our enmity. The inhibitor is just a bonus. ”
In other words, hurt Kira and you hurt Roake.
“We’re here,” the pilot called.
Kira looked out the window, noticing the view had changed. The forest was replaced by the city and its buildings.
The ship touched down on Roake’s avenue, just outside the palace’s barrier. The landing was so gentle that those inside might not have noticed if not for the pilot’s warning.
“Did my uncle give any other instructions to relay?” Kira asked Finn as the ship’s hatch opened.
“Just to be on your guard.”
“As if I’m ever not.”
“If there ever was a time for paranoia, it’s now,” Finn agreed.
They faced the opening, bracing for what was to come.
“Alright,” Kira said with a weary sigh. “Let’s get this over with.”
Finn and Talon followed her out, leaving Quillon inside the ship with the pilot. The hatch sealed after them, the ship taking off a second later.
Ocean wind buffeted Kira as she stared up at the palace and the transparent dome protecting it. A patina of gold painted everything inside.
For the first time that Kira could remember, the emperor’s oshota were out in force. Easily visible as they patrolled the palace’s perimeter. Others were stationed at strategic points on the walls.
In Kira’s opinion, it was an unnecessary show of force. But probably reassuring to the city’s populace.
“Did we ever get an answer as to why there were no oshota on patrol earlier?” Kira asked quietly.
“No,” Finn answered.
Talon stared down a nearby oshota who was being a little too obvious in his dislike. “We should get going before our hosts forget themselves.”
Kira stalked toward the palace, her back straight and unwavering, pretending not to feel the heat from the glares of those watching.
For once, the palace doors didn’t open automatically upon her approach. She was forced to stop and wait for an oshota to allow her entrance. No animosity showed on their faces, but she could feel it by how slowly they moved.
She kept her face perfectly blank. Her oshota were equally stoic as the door opened.
Finn took the lead, guiding Kira and Talon down several hallways to an audience room large enough to house half the city.
A commotion outside its doors caused Kira to quicken her pace.
“Move,” Jin ordered the oshota standing guard.
He hadn’t seen her yet. His attention on the oshota and chamber beyond.
“I’m sorry, lordling. That’s not possible.”
Jin squared off with the Tuann. “Either you move; or I move you.”
Oh crap.
Kira was nearly running by then.
She knew that tone. Jin was one second away from mayhem.
As usual, the Tuann had underestimated her best friend. The glance the pair of oshota shared said they saw Jin’s threat as cute but of no actual relevance.
Jin wasn’t cute.
Okay—maybe his current body contained a bit of adorableness but that was beside the point.