Rise of Renegades, page 18
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it wouldn’t have mattered.” She hurled the words at him. “I was stupid enough to think you were a friend. That you—a krey from a noble house—actually cared about a human.”
“I do.”
“Then why ally yourself with the one that gave me this?” She pointed to her throat, where the rebel brand scarred her flesh.
Ero’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know it was her.”
“But you knew what she was.” Siena advanced on him, and Ero retreated a few steps, unable to endure the condemnation in her features. “You know she is spiteful, angry, vindictive, and cruel to humans. But you still allied with her.”
Ero came to a stop. Why was he the one retreating? He was a krey, a noble from a rising House, no less. And yet Siena was undaunted. She stopped just inches from him, her eyes holding him fast.
“We need the glint,” he said. “Without her we don’t have a world.”
“It will never be enough,” she said. “More glint, more allies, more intrigue and betrayal and killing. Don’t you see? You’ll never be satisfied.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Ero shot back. “Let them destroy my House?”
“You think your House matters?” she challenged. “It’s nothing but a fat meal, waiting to be eaten by those more powerful.”
“Do not presume to lecture me on the purpose of life,” Ero retorted. “You’ve lived for seventeen years, a paltry time compared to my seventeen thousand. Your entire life is like a few minutes to me, yet you tell me how I should live?”
“I know what gives life meaning,” she said. “And it’s certainly not glint and power.”
“Oh?” he said. “Then enlighten me, oh intelligent one. I would love to hear the meaning of existence from a ferox.”
Her glare did not waver. “What gives life purpose is not what we get, it’s what we give.”
“Krey do not give. We own everything—and everyone—in the galaxy.”
“You live in your seracrete towers and sleek starships, endlessly plotting and conniving for more. But are you ever happy? Do you ever enjoy anything you possess? Or do you only find pleasure in the punishment of others?”
Stung, Ero stabbed a finger at her. “Maybe Laurik was right, and you are just a slave.”
She looked at him with pity. “And you are just like your brother.”
Turning on her heel, she departed, leaving Ero to stare at her retreating back. To be spoken to in such a manner—by a slave—should have elicited righteous indignation. But instead he felt a different emotion.
Shame.
Siena walked to the next boulder and struck it with a fist, cracking the rock with her bare hand. Then she dug her hand into the crack and began to lift. Purple light flowed from her fingers and wrapped around the boulder, the gravity augment lessening the burden, but not enough to lift it clear. Ero doubted a PEGG could have lifted the rock, and yet Siena proved greater. Just like the previous boulder, it began to rise.
Ero, confused and angry, left the beach and took a different way back to the Nova, avoiding the group of slaves. Who did she think she was? The girl was just a young slave, and didn’t know the first thing about what it meant to be krey. She was destined to be forgotten, a slave with an augment who would be sold as a novelty, and probably killed because she could not restrain her tongue.
And yet even as Ero seethed, he could not help but recognize that it was him that had fled. The girl was still down on the beach, muscling boulders out of sand. While he slunk back to his comfortable quarters on the Nova.
Why was he ashamed? What had he done to merit her condemnation? He’d given her more freedom than anyone—even though she was a ferox—so he could not fathom his own guilt. He tried to scorch it with anger, but the image of her standing on the beach, dressed in rags, bloodied, dirty, and disheveled, could not be so easily dismissed.
As the anger gradually waned, Ero sighed and leaned against the bulkhead, unable to deny the truth any longer. Against all reason, the girl was his friend, and he’d left her under Laurik’s heavy hand. Would she have done the same in his position? The answer was hard and fast. No. She may have been born a slave, but she had the caliber of a queen.
Chapter Nineteen
Siena eased herself onto the sand and put her back to the escarpment abutting the beach. After Ero had left, she’d spent the rest of the day moving just two boulders. Every muscle in her body was sore, and the fatigue went to her bones. Using augments was more exhausting than actual labor.
The deep crimson of the setting sun reflected on the pristine waters of the sea. Waves glided up the beach, washing over her footprints and extending almost to where she sat. They retreated back to the sea before reaching again, the high tide rising to claim the whole of the beach only to fail with every wave.
Her anger over Ero’s appearance had not entirely dissipated. It remained in her chest like a rock, harder to remove than those on the beach. She tried to blame him for the damage, but much of the emotion was directed at herself. She hated that she lowered her eyes to Laurik. She hated that she had nightmares of the woman. She hated that Ero was no longer her friend.
The last thought was the most bitter, because she’d truly thought of the krey noble as a kindred spirit. Ero had treated her like an equal, let her train with weapons, even given her access to the holoview. He’d extended kindness, and had never burned her. How stupid she was to think a krey noble would actually befriend a rebellious slave.
A pair of faint footfalls came from the west, the patter of boots on sand. Too weary to care, Siena continued to watch the sun set. She expected Laurik or maybe Telik, but instead it was Kensen that came around the cliff.
“Siena?” he called.
“Here,” she said, too exhausted to move.
He flopped down next to her and set the bag he’d brought to the side. “What have you been doing down here for the last few weeks?”
“Moving rocks,” she said.
“The ones in the water?” His eyes widened. “You moved them? How?”
“With my augments.”
“Alone?”
“The ocean helped.”
He leaned back on the rock. “She has us clearing trees while you move rocks? She must really hate you.”
“I did dump roak guts on her face.”
Kensen sighed wistfully. “I wish I could have seen that.”
“What do you want, Kensen?”
“Can’t a friend visit his friend on the beach?”
It hurt to turn her head, so she raised an eyebrow. “Does Laurik know you’re here?”
“I snuck out while she was talking to one of the dakorians and Telik. You never came to eat, so I figured you were hungry.”
He opened the bag and pulled out roasted meat, a container of water, and steamed vegetables. There was also a flank of some type of fish. The smells wafted across her nose, inspiring instant hunger.
“Alina went fishing this afternoon, and when the dakorians had their fill, they gave the rest to the slaves. I kept some for you. Trust me, it’s delicious.”
Siena wanted to refuse, but the meal made her mouth water. She winced as she leaned away from the rock and began to eat. The meal tasted heavenly on her tongue, and she was grateful he’d brought water instead of horg.
“Laurik will punish you if she catches you doing this for me,” she said, speaking through a mouthful of food. “She’s only given me horg for the last six days.”
“She can burn me if she wants,” Kensen said, a smug smile on his features. “But it won’t hurt much.”
Siena paused. “What does that mean?”
His smile widened. “I used my augment to alter the coding on her burning rod. It still causes pain, but not to the same degree.”
“You did?” She thought of the woman trying to burn the slaves and them laughing in her face. “How? You don’t know how to code.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it. I can see the coding like it’s a holo. It’s just a language, you know. I can see it on the Nova, at the World Gate, even on the krey’s personal holoviews. Did you know the dakorians have a jawbone cortex? It’s how they communicate to each other.”
“You can see all that?”
“I’m still learning the coding language,” he said. “But Laurik’s burning rod is rather simplistic, so it was easier than disengaging the shield generators at the Imperial Archive.”
“I still can’t believe you got an augment because I healed you.” She paused to drink the water. “Does Laurik know you have one?”
“No,” he said. “And a few days ago, Ero claimed to have put me through the experiment on Telik’s biosphere when he was planetside. He was furious.”
“Why would he do that?” Siena asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Kensen raised an eyebrow. “He doesn’t want the others knowing that you can augment other people.”
Siena didn’t know what to think of that, so she just continued to eat. Kensen picked up a piece of fruit and began to peel it. The outer layers fell away and added a citrus scent to the salty breeze.
“I’m just glad I didn’t have to endure the experiment you did,” Kensen said.
She shuddered at the memory of a glass cube, and light sinking into her flesh, carving into her bones. The experiment had been like the sun itself being shoved into her soul. She realized that she was helping House Bright’Lor put others through the same agony. Previously she would have hated that idea, but now she wondered why she’d ever thought that augments could rebel against the krey.
“Maybe you should tell them you’re already augmented,” she said.
“Are you serious?” He jerked his head in dismissal. “If I do that, I’ll have to tell everyone you can augment others. We can’t let them understand your true power.”
“Why not?” she said, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. “We’re just slaves.”
He rotated in place so he could hold her gaze, and a faint smile spread across his face. “Weren’t you the one that told me we should never call ourselves slaves?”
She looked down and picked up another vegetable. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“You’re not wrong.”
She didn’t want to argue, so she didn’t respond. The silence stretched between them as the sun sank into the ocean, its light turning deeper and deeper red. The waves continued to roll, curling white before smoothing into froth that climbed up the sand.
“I always wanted to see an ocean,” Kensen said. “But I never thought it would be this beautiful.”
“It’s the only thing I enjoy about Laurik’s punishment,” she admitted. “She may want to crush me, but she can’t do anything about the beauty of this planet.”
“If it wasn’t for Laurik,” Kensen agreed, “this would be paradise.”
“How are the others?” she asked, suddenly eager for news.
“Lyn is hurting,” he said. “She won’t admit it, but she’s too old for this kind of work. Begle and Bort are as sullen as ever. Thren broke his hand when the gravity generator fizzled and a limb landed on his arm. He’s lucky it didn’t damage it worse.”
“I can heal him when I get up there.”
“He’s fine for now,” Kensen said. “Ero insisted he be given a bone-enhancer and allowed to rest.”
“I’m surprised he went through the trouble. Bone-enhancers are expensive.”
Kensen grinned. “That’s what Laurik said. Watching Laurik be put in her place is almost worth all the punishment she dishes out in retaliation for his kindness.”
“And the trees?” she asked.
She ate as he talked about the other slaves. Kensen had always been easy to talk to, and his quick smile was a salve to her soul. He shared how Rahnora had finally manifested an augment with plants, and used her ability to coax a bush to uproot itself and walk to the pile.
“Its roots were like little legs,” Kensen said. “You should have seen Telik. He was so excited I thought his head would burst.”
“I can’t believe Rahnora has an augment.”
“Telik believes that any human has the potential for an augment.” Kensen ate a piece of fruit. “Quis misses you. So do Lyn and Rahnora. Begle and Bort are getting better with their fire augment, and have even managed to cut a few limbs. Arigail is using her wind augment to push branches down the hill to the pile.”
Siena drank in the news as readily as the meal. She’d spent most of her life avoiding other slaves, but now she missed the other augments. Now she craved the connection, and the more Kensen talked, the more she realized she’d withdrawn from everyone, not just Ero.
“We miss you,” Kensen finally said. “And we need you.”
“Why would you say that?” she asked, savoring the last bite.
“Because you’re the leader.”
She shook her head, and regretted the motion. Her muscles had gotten stiff as she’d been sitting. Drinking the last of the water, she set it aside and reached up to massage her sore shoulders.
“I’m just a ferox with a few augments,” she said. “And if anyone follows me, they’re bound for a world of punishment.”
“Maybe,” Kensen said. “But after seeing you stand up to the krey, the others are beginning to see themselves as more than just slaves.”
“They said that?”
“Not in words,” he said, and then lowered his voice. “But I think they all sense a coming change. If you fight, they will follow.”
It was a treasonous thought, but one she’d had before. And if she could convince them to fight, could she convince others? She shivered, as much from the plummeting temperatures as the prospect of freedom. But the next thought was of Laurik.
Her face as she activated the burning rod. Her smile as Siena cried out and fell. Laurik was her nightmare, her tormenter, and whatever Ero had given, Laurik had taken. The very thought of trying to fight Laurik made her shrink, and she lowered her eyes to the sand.
“I’m not who you think I am.”
He caught her chin and lifted it. “I know exactly who you are,” he said softly.
She met his gaze, and saw the regret and worry creasing his features. The sun had set and the moon was bright, bathing him in silver light. His black hair was as unruly as ever, his lean frame stretched out on the sand. Overcome by a surge of emotion, she leaned in and brushed her lips across his.
The contact was sweet and tender, a yearning to connect tinged with the salt that covered her body. It lasted longer than she expected. When she pulled back, he gave the rakish smile she’d come to appreciate.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“I’m glad you’re here. I don’t think I could survive without you.”
“I’d still be in House Kel’Ray if you hadn’t shown up with Ero,” he said. “And trust me when I say, smelting seracrete is a horrible job.”
“Do you ever miss hunting roaks on Verdigris?” She scooted down and lay on the sand to watch the stars.
“Of course,” he said, joining her. “It was the highlight of my life until now.”
“You like Lumineia?”
“It’s hard work,” he said. “But that’s what life is like for a human. At least I’m not stuck cleaning Laurik’s house, or working over a giant vat of molten seracrete.”
His arm was warm against her shoulder, a contrast to the cooling sand. The food and the fatigue was getting to her, as was the soft sound of the sea. It really was a beautiful planet. It would probably stay that way until a krey decided to strip it for ore and metals. At least she would be dead by then and not have to witness the destruction of such beauty.
“Do you think Ero is like the other krey?” she asked.
“I’ve never known a krey to not burn his slaves,” Kensen said.
“He doesn’t burn you? I thought I was the only one he spared.”
“He doesn’t burn any of us,” Kensen said. “At first I thought it was because he just didn’t care. But now I think it’s because he doesn’t enjoy inflicting pain.”
“Laurik makes up for it,” Siena said sourly.
“True,” Kensen said, “but Ero is different, especially with you.”
“I thought he was my friend,” she said, bitterness creeping into her voice. “It was a foolish idea.”
“I don’t think so.” Kensen shook his head slowly, his eyes distant. “I remember when I stepped into Olana’s office and he was there with you. I knew he didn’t care about me, but when you were hurt, he was disturbed.”
“Maybe then,” she said, “but if he truly cared about me, he never would have let his brother ally himself with Laurik.”
She gathered the dishes and put them back in the bag. Then she stood and dusted the sand off her pants before walking away. Kensen picked up the bag and joined her, kicking up sand as he walked.
“That was Skorn,” he said. “And although Ero and Skorn are clearly united, I don’t think they are always in agreement. Skorn is just like other krey, and he’ll do anything to rebuild his House. But Ero is just following his lead. I doubt he could have dissuaded Skorn of his allies, even if he wanted to.”
“Now you’re defending a krey?”
“I’ll defend anyone who fights for me. And Ero—whether he realizes it or not—is fighting for us.”
“One day he’s going to have to make a choice,” Siena said. “And the Empire does not like it when krey side with their slaves.”
“You think he’ll betray us?”
“He already has.”
The air had grown cold, and she shivered as the breeze wiped at her skin. Her clothes were thin, which were better for the hot sun, but not at night. She picked her way up the path of the beach, but paused at the trees for one final look at the ocean. To her surprise, there was something in the water.
“What’s that?” She pointed to the line of pointed spikes protruding from the water.
He followed her arm and shook his head. “I don’t know. Was it there before?”
“Not today.”
“They don’t look like stones.” Kensen squinted into the gloom.
