Chapter 18 #3
“Now, that’s a problem,” Pallas remarked, pushing to his feet and shouldering the two handed broad sword responsible for so many human deaths. “Things that aren’t useful should be discarded, don’t you think?”
The man’s pupils blew wide with terror. “What are you going to do to me?”
“That depends on you, doesn’t it?” Pallas crooned. “Answer the mountain’s questions.”
The man’s heavy breathing was loud in the sudden silence. His fear pulsating like a wild thing.
Graydon forced a modicum of patience. “Why were they here?”
“I don’t know.”
Pallas stabbed his sword into the ground, making the human flinch. The expression on the other Tuann’s face was something that would have haunted the human. If he was going to live past the next few minutes.
“I really don’t,” the human sobbed. “All I know is that the higher ups were being secretive. They didn’t want anyone near that landing bay. If we disobeyed, they would have made an example of us. We never saw who it was and I definitely don’t know where they went afterward.”
“Might have been wise to leave some of those higher ups alive,” Pallas observed.
Alexander shot him an impatient look “To do that, you would have had to not kill them.”
“I seem to remember you claiming a few lives of your own, brother dearest.”
“Enough!” Graydon barked.
Alexander and Pallas quieted. They refused to look at each other.
When Graydon was sure that there would be no further interruptions, he glanced back at the human. “He’s right though. If you don’t give us something, I have no reason to keep you alive. Work with me.”
The human reeked of desperation as he sunk into thought.
Moments passed, one after another as the rest of them waited.
Finally, Pallas lost patience. He tightened his grip on the broad sword, the tendons in his wrist bulging.
“The command center! It should have some kind of record of where they went.”
“But it won’t reveal why they were here in the first place,” Alexander observed.
Pallas rolled his eyes. “Also, do you really think we wouldn’t have checked that first?”
Graydon twisted to look at the two. “You’re really not good at listening, are you?”
Pallas shrugged. “They tried to make us obedient. It didn’t take.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for the future,” Graydon murmured.
He had a feeling that these two were going to test his patience over and over again. Much like his coli had. For all that the forty-three weren’t true siblings, they were remarkably alike in some ways.
“What about the ship they took?” the human burst out.
“What about it?”
“That’s why you’re here, right?” The human looked at them excitedly. “Because you lost their trail. I can tell you the ship they’re in. It’s one of ours. The higher ups always underestimate our observational skills.”
“No Tuann ship was visible in the landing bay. Just the clunkers these humans consider space worthy,” Rhett observed.
“That’s because they removed the transponder before sending those ships elsewhere.”
“Doubtful.” Rhett looked at Graydon. “They would have needed a working knowledge of Tuann tech to recognize what we use to track our ships.”
“Not necessarily,” Kashori’s heir interjected. “If they were working with a Tuann, that person could have shown them what they needed to remove.”
Pallas and Alexander stared at the girl like they had just realized she was in the room.
“How open minded of you. Most are like him.” Pallas nodded at Rhett. “Of course, no one could ever hope to hinder the mighty Tuann. Perish the thought. They’re too smart and superior for that.”
“Is that how you see the major Houses?” Rhett asked, failing to react to Pallas’s mocking tone.
Alexander answered in place of his brother. “It’s how we know you think.”
Rhett’s face was thoughtful as he glanced at Alexander.
Pallas regarded Tinsley with interest. “What made you come up with that theory?”
“It’s something I heard Roake’s heir say once. That the Sorrowing happened because of our own blindness. We failed to see what was right in front of us, simply because we couldn’t conceive of the seemingly impossible. I’d rather something like that didn’t happen again.”
Rhett shot her a sharp glance. “When did she say that?”
“Why should I tell you? If you’re interested in what Roake’s heir has to say, I suggest you have a proper conversation with her. You might learn something of interest.”
Kashori’s future was bright. Graydon had been there the one and only time she and Kira spoke face-to-face.
The things his coli had shared were ground shaking, but she’d been very careful not to insinuate anything like this.
The fact Tinsley had picked up on it anyways showed how astute and intelligent she was.
A slow smile spread over Pallas’s face as he scrutinized Tinsley. “I like you, little sprite. You’ve got gumption.”
Tinsley’s eyebrows twitched, her expression somewhere between pleased confusion.
“Quit teasing her,” Alexander ordered.
“Sometimes, brother, you act like an old man. Loosen up. Get laid. It’ll do wonders for your personality.”
The air froze.
For one moment, Alexander did nothing.
Slowly, methodically, he twisted to look at his brother. His shoulders bunched until the cords in his neck and arms stood out in stark relief. He seemed to grow, taking up more space than should have been possible.
Pallas watched all this play out, his tongue playing with his lip ring as a cruel little smile twisted his lips. “Ah, there he is. The berserker.”
“One more word, brother,” Alexander threatened.
“Or what? What will you do?”
Alexander’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath that did nothing to calm him. “I guess you’ll find out.”
One of Tinsley’s guards tugged her backward as the other inserted himself between her and the other two, using his body as a shield in case of violence.
Rhett was calmer, his gaze considering as he studied the other two.
“Should we stop this?” Solal asked.
Graydon waved him off. “Sometimes it’s better to just let them get it out of their system.”
They might fight, but it was unlikely they’d do permanent damage.
Seeing their distraction, the human chose that moment to make his move.
Graydon sighed.
This idiot’s timing couldn’t be worse.
Graydon’s people hadn’t searched him for a reason. They knew he’d try something eventually, giving them a reason to kill him.
Of course, Graydon could have ordered the human’s death as soon as he’d exhausted his use, but this way their conscience stayed clean.
Ish.
The human didn’t even get his weapon fully raised before Solal severed his arm at the elbow. Amila, as usual, went for the kill, removing the human’s head with one clean swing.
Pallas nudged the hand that landed next to him, the weapon still clenched tight in its fingers. “A pip. That wouldn’t have been my choice for a last stand. I wonder what exactly he was expecting to accomplish.”
“Desperate humans do dumb things,” Alexander observed with an indifference that said he’d seen too much death to be affected by it anymore.
Solal bent and picked up the severed arm. “Do you recognize this mark? All of the humans had something similar on their body.”
He showed the arm to Pallas and Alexander, making sure they got a good look.
A plant delicately twined around a skull, growing through the eye socket and mouth. The flowers on its stem were small and in the shape of bells. The color a dull purple. Small, shiny black berries sprouted amid pointed leaves.
It was surprisingly pretty to be on the arm of the sort of man Graydon suspected the human was.
Pallas’s face was almost admiring as he brushed a finger along the patches of green and purple. “Delicate work. Quite well done.”
Solal and Graydon failed to glean anything from Pallas as he dropped his hand and shook his head.
“But nope. I don’t recognize it. Then again, humans aren’t my area of expertise.” He glanced at his brother. “How about you? Do you recognize it?”
Alexander’s expression was stony. “No.”
Pallas shot them a brilliant and false smile. “There you have it. We are flummoxed.”
He was lying. Alexander had barely glanced at the arm before denying any knowledge of it.
Why?
Graydon suspected it had something to do with the forty-three. He couldn’t expose that fact, however. Not in this company.
“Since there’s no one left alive to question, shall we head back to the ship?” Pallas asked brightly.
Alexander grunted, already turning toward the corridor.
“Before you go, there’s something I’d like to ask.” Tinsley slid out from behind her guards, resisting their efforts to stop her as she blocked Alexander’s way. “Roake’s heir couldn’t help me, but she said maybe you could.”
“Kira did?” Pallas looked startled for a moment before he covered it with a sly expression. “That minx. She knows better. What did she say? Be exact. We don’t want any misunderstandings.”
“She told me not to give up my quest. No matter what it took. That if I found my sibling I should drag them kicking and screaming into the light.”
For the first time, Graydon thought he glimpsed a piece of the real Pallas as he lost that mocking edge, the playfulness he hid behind fading to leave someone somber and serious.
“Show me then,” Pallas ordered in a soft voice. “I’d like to see this sibling who is so loved.”
“Pallas,” Alexander warned.
“Hush, brother dearest. I want to see.”
Pallas nodded at Tinsley, telling her to go ahead.
Tinsley took a deep breath, steeling herself. She drew a memory stone from her pocket and pressed the top.
“This is the only image I have. I’m not sure you would recognize it.”
Pallas stared at the toddler, his face blank. He lifted a hand to touch the toddler’s chubby cheeks, the wide smile the girl had was infectious. “You look like her.”
Tinsley’s smile was wide and hopeful. “You think?”
Pallas withdrew.
Graydon watched it happen. His expression shuttering as his emotions snapped off. The light in his eyes extinguished.
Pallas didn’t say anything as a void opened at his back. Tinsley tried to hold onto her smile. Her lips trembled as tears gathered in her eyes.
“I’ll meet you there,” Pallas threw at Alexander before disappearing.
Alexander sighed and shook his head. “This is why I told you not to look.”
His features weren’t entirely without sympathy as he gazed down at Tinsley’s bent head.
She swiped at one of the tears that had fallen. “She didn’t make it, did she?”
“No.”
Tinsley nodded, not looking up.
“Is there anyone else you want to ask about? Now is the time, while I’m feeling relatively magnanimous.”
“Edris.”
The oshota stepped forward hurriedly, holding out the memory stone he already had in hand.
Alexander’s gaze flicked down to the image of a child with the same blue black hair as Edris. “Yes.”
Emotion overwhelmed the oshota, a raw sound escaping his throat.
Tinsley wrapped an arm around him, burying her face in his chest. “He’s alive. I’m so glad.”
Her other oshota hugged both of them, looking at Alexander over their heads. “Thank you.”
Alexander nodded.
“What did Pallas mean? Where’s ‘there’?” Graydon asked.
Alexander started to answer before pausing as Isla arrived at a run. “I suspect you’ll know soon enough.”
Isla caught her breath, nodding as Graydon signaled her to wait.
“Solal, Amila, finish cleaning up here. See if there’s anything else you can find and then meet me back at the ship.” Graydon glanced at Rhett as he moved toward Isla. “Did you have something to say?”
It was obvious that he did. Asanth’s interim lord played the role of spectator well, but Graydon had learned to read body language and micro expressions from the best.
Rhett wanted something.
“Certain promises were made at the beginning of this journey. I’m just wondering when those promises will be met,” he said with a pointed look at Alexander.
Graydon and the others glanced at him in expectation.
“Soon,” Alexander answered.
Graydon gestured for Isla to follow. As soon as they were away from the rest, he looked at her. “What is it?”
“Baran found something.”