The Complete Razia Series, page 21
"I know you don't believe in the Great Creator, but—" Vel started.
"I believe in Him."
"You—you do?"
"I've been inside, Vel," she said, looking out over the pond. "Inside-inside. As in through the white fields of Lethe to the Arch of Eron."
Vel was silent, his eyes wide as he mouthed words he couldn't form.
"Sostas was doing experiments there," Lyssa continued, staring firmly ahead. "Trying to figure out what it all meant, where it all came from."
"Hang on. Hang. On. You've been inside Leveman's Vortex?"
She nodded solemnly.
"How?"
"Sostas figured out a mathematical equation for entry," Lyssa said. "And, obviously, exit. It's this complex thing—weight of the ship, proximity to other celestial bodies, all that junk. There’s a very specific calculation that—"
"I'm sorry," Vel said, looking at her as if she had three heads. "You have been inside Leveman's Vortex?"
"About once a month since I was four years old. Until Sostas left, of course…"
"So…it's all real?" Vel whispered.
"Look at you, Mr. Non-believer," Lyssa chided him gently.
"I mean, it's one thing to go on pure faith." Vel swallowed, sitting back against the tree with a shocked look still on his face. "But quite another…you're sure you've been there?"
She nodded, unable to wipe the image of the world crumbling from her mind.
"What's it like?"
"It's weird," Lyssa said, eager to talk about anything other than what she was imagining. "There's a fluctuating magnetic field that scrambles your brain a bit, if I remember correctly. But it's this big white place that you just wander around for a while until you come across the arch."
"The Arch of Eron is real?"
She nodded. "Sostas would make me sit in front of it while he puttered on his experiments."
"That's... It seems kind of wrong to be experimenting there." Vel shook his head. "That place is holy—"
"It was damned boring is what it was."
"Do you think...do you think that's where he is?"
"Why in Leveman's Vortex do you want to meet him so badly?" Lyssa asked, rather than answering his question. "Why do all this? Why this internship? Why work with Pymus, of all people?"
"Lyssa, I'm sixteen years old, and I've never met my father."
"Why is it so important to meet him?"
"He's my father." Vel shrugged, now looking out into the pond as Lyssa had done before. "I mean, sure, I had older brothers. But none of them are my actual father. He's always been a ghost in this house—never seen, but still there. Everyone always talked about how he doted on you—so I thought, well…maybe if he was still alive…" he trailed off.
"And what if he was alive?"
"Maybe we could've had the relationship I've always dreamed about?" Vel said hopefully. "Maybe he'd pat me on the shoulder and say, 'Atta boy, Vel, you're doing great.' Maybe he'd…I don't know." He blushed.
Lyssa stared at him for a minute. It had never occurred to her in the absence of knowing the real man, Vel might've fabricated this romantic notion of Sostas. She knew in her heart that, given the chance, Sostas wouldn't give Vel the time of day. Sostas couldn't even make time for his eldest son, no matter how hard he tried or how much he did to impress him.
But as she watched Vel, so young and innocent, she found herself feeling the need to lie to him.
"I think he would've really liked you," she said.
***
"So, how long do I have to stay here?" Lyssa grumbled, angrily crossing her hands over her chest.
"I really wish you'd worn a dress," Vel said, adjusting his white tie and long black suit coat. "You look like a heathen."
"I don't wear dresses," Lyssa said, smoothing out the wrinkles on her nicest DSE-appropriate pants. "You didn't answer my question—how long do I have to stay here?"
"You have to have one conversation with Mother," Vel said, looping his arm through hers. "Lasting at least five minutes. And it has to be civil."
"Define civil."
"You know what I mean," Vel said, leading her out into the ballroom—now filled with people. Ladies wearing full dresses of silk and lace, curled hair and painted faces. Men wore long black waistcoats and high socks—some even sporting white wigs, although it was considered woefully out of fashion. They were swirling about the floor much like Lyssa remembered them to be when she used to sit in the corner with Sostas.
"Let's get this over with," Lyssa muttered, spotting the guest of honor. Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate was dressed in her most beautiful green silk dress, complete with a petticoat nearly large enough to offset her already large frame. She was surrounded by her sisters, each as rotund as her, and Sera, who looked much like a twig next to them. It was obvious that the three elder women had been drinking, but Sera was watching Lyssa with sober precision.
"Well, look who we have here!" Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate said, her glass filled with her signature drink—brandy.
"Be nice," Vel hissed before turning to smile. "Mother, you look beautiful."
"Yes, son," she said dismissively, turning to look Lyssa up and down. "Great Creator in Leveman's Vortex, do you even own a dress, or are you perfectly fine with walking around looking like you were raised by wolves?"
"Mother, please be nice," Vel said.
"Well, I supposed she practically was," said one of the sisters, wearing a rather odd shade of pink for a dress, swirled her brandy. "After all, Eleonora, you barely had a hand in her rearing."
One of the other sisters giggled like a woman half her age. "Tell me, dear Lyssandra, how is your father?"
"Mother," Vel interrupted, feeling Lyssa stiffen next to him. "May we have a private chat?"
"Lyssandra continues to maintain that she has no idea where her father has run off to." Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate laughed, ignoring Vel completely.
Her sisters twittered amusedly as they daintily sipped their drinks.
"Lyssandra, you honestly expect us to believe Sostas would leave behind his darling little ragamuffin assistant? Why, he doted on you so!" one of the women cooed poisonously. "Ignored all his other children just to spend time with you."
"Don't bother," Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate said. "Lyssandra doesn't care for her siblings—didn't even lift a finger when her own intern was kidnapped by a pirate underneath her very nose."
"Oh, my!"
"Oh, my goodness!"
"Mother, I was fine," Vel said, looking between Lyssa and Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate. "Lyssa—"
"Well, Mother, I guess I learned from the best, didn't I?"
The twittering stopped, and Vel turned to look to Lyssa sharply.
"Excuse me?" Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate said, her glass refilled with brandy by a passing servant.
"Please don't," Vel whispered. "Just let it go. We can get out of here—deal is done."
"Yes, Mother, why don't you tell everyone what happened when I was kidnapped?" Lyssa seethed, angrily tearing her arm from Vel's and facing her mother full on. "And what you said when I had a gun to my head?"
"I'm sure I don't remember what you're talking about." She laughed, but Lyssa could see the nerves behind her jovial eyes.
"Then let me help you remember, you stupid bitch," Lyssa said, blood pulsing in her ears. Everyone and everything in the room suddenly stopped—or maybe it was all in her head.
"Lyssa," Vel said, placing his hand on her arm again.
She angrily tossed it away. "You said, 'Why don't you call your father, Lyssandra.'"
"I'm sure that—" Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate laughed nervously.
"I had a gun against my head!" Lyssa screamed, her words echoing in the hall. "I begged you to save me, and you just…left me to die."
"Obviously not," Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate said, taking a sip of her brandy. "As you're still here."
"You…you actually…" She stammered for a moment, almost not believing her own ears. "Is that why you let Sostas take me? Is that why you let him leave me on planets for days at a time and drag me to the damn near end of the universe? Why you let him put me in unimaginable danger? Because you…you'd rather....?"
Mrs. Dr. Sostas Peate didn't respond, but a small blush was finally visible beneath her caked make up.
"What did I do to you?" Lyssa asked, her voice high. "What could I possibly have done to have—"
"You were born," her mother replied, before taking another gulp of brandy.
A gasp arose from the collective audience.
"Mother!" Vel hissed.
Lyssa was stunned silent. Her ears rang dully, but her mind was numb—repeating over and over what she'd just heard. More voices joined in the chorus, a symphony of screaming in her head. They were chanting the same thing:
She'd been born evil, damaged. Nothing she did would ever change that. The Great Creator had given her a preview of what was to come, and kept haunting her dreams with reminders. Her fate was sealed, and there was nothing she could do about it.
But she wasn't dead yet.
She wouldn't give these people the satisfaction of defeating her.
Scraping together the last bit of dignity she had, Lyssa raised her chin and stared squarely at her mother.
"Fine," she said, her voice no higher than a whisper, but audible to everyone in the room. "You wish I was dead? That I had never been born? That's fine. You're gonna get your wish. Because this is the last time you will ever see Lyssa Peate."
And with that, she turned around and walked out of the silent ballroom.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!"
Razia kicked him once more in the side for good measure. Methodically, she bound his hands and feet, and kicked him onto her floating canvas. She actually wasn't sure what he was worth—maybe a couple thousand credits. What she did know was he'd looked at her funny at the bar, and that meant he needed to get his ass kicked.
This was her fifth bounty in half as many days, and she was starting to feel it as she walked out of the bounty office into the dying sunlight. Her arms and legs ached and her head was throbbing from too little sleep and too much thinking.
She had everything she wanted now. She was free of Lyssa Peate—free from hateful mothers, disappearing fathers, jealous siblings. Free of Pymus and his obnoxious questions. Free from having to excavate planets, free from having to bite her tongue when she was weaseled out of thousands of credits. Free from stupid interns and their stupid questions and their stupid ideas to drag her to the Manor.
Not completely free, she thought moodily, ignoring the buzz from her mini-computer. Vel'd been calling her non-stop for days now, undoubtably to have a chat about what had happened. She was uninterested in hashing it out—what was done was done, and all she needed to know was she'd been right all along. Lyssa Peate was better off disappearing forever. Nobody cared about her anyway.
It would be better for him if he just interned with Dorst. Their older brother could teach him all about how to be a good scientist, the proper way to excavate a planet, without all the machines and dangerous rock creatures. They would probably have a great time bonding—Peate to Peate. Vel would be happier not having to worry about pirates, hunting bounties, or sisters whose souls were damned to...
She sighed audibly before becoming cross with herself for moping. She just hadn't been sleeping well was all. Every time she closed her eyes, she was back at the Manor standing in the middle of the ballroom, and it usually ended in the world disintegrating under her feet.
After a few minutes of rambling down the street, she found herself walking into Harms' bar, quite unsure of how she'd got there, but quietly relieved to see him.
"You look rough. Want a coffee?" he said.
"Yes, please," she mumbled, placing her head on her hands.
"You okay?"
"'m fine," she mumbled, as a coffee appeared in front of her. "Just haven't been sleeping well."
"Probably because you've been capturing pirates left and right lately. You can take a break, you know."
"Nah," she said, cupping the coffee in her hands. "This is what I've been waiting for, finally able to focus on work."
"And what have you been doing since you got off probation? Not working?"
"I've been distracted by other stuff," she said, placing the coffee cup down.
"What kind of stuff?"
She shrugged noncommittally.
"I'm going to tell you something, and I don't want you to get mad at me," Harms began.
Immediately, she skewered him with an icy glare. "Why does everyone think I just get mad at—" Harms gave her a knowing look and she deflated. "I haven't slept," she mumbled.
"I know, and that's why I'm going to tell you to take a break," Harms finished. "Seriously, you've been working non-stop for the past two weeks. You've turned in five top bounties and at least ten mid-to-low level bounties."
"So?" Lyssa snapped, before blinking at him. "Wait...it's been two weeks?"
"See, you don't even know what day it is. Take a breather. Go hang out on a beach for a week, or wherever it is you disappear to."
"I'm not disappearing anymore," she growled, feeling irrationally angry at the thought of having to slink back to the Academy, or that she in any way needed Lyssa Peate. Didn't he know? Lyssa Peate was damaged goods—the farther away she got from her the better. Even her own mother thought…
"I'm telling you that you should. And you need to—"
"The only thing I need to do is find another bounty. Quit telling me how to live my life."
"Wow," Harms said, sitting back and looking at her. "Really?"
"Yes, really. I'm fine."
"Okay, then." He shook his head, sounding as if she was going to regret it. "What do you want to know?"
"Linro Lee," she said, pulling out the first name that came to mind. She'd been looking at his profile last night, or maybe it was a few days ago. He was in Contestant's web, and since Relleck was still the most wanted in the universe, he would be a fair consolation prize. "Does he have a crew?"
"No," Harms said simply, without expanding.
She blinked at him, feeling his animosity from across the table. To be perfectly honest, she hadn't really come there to talk about Lee (she wasn't really sure why she was there in the first place), so she didn't have a list of questions. And her mind, slowed by exhaustion and non-stop activity, was coming up blank.
The only thing she really wanted to talk about was why she kept dreaming about Leveman's Vortex, and how much she wanted to knock her mother into next week. But, as usual, she couldn't with Harms. And from the way he was looking at her, she wasn't sure he'd be receptive even if she could.
"Anything else, Razia?" he asked, superiorly. "I have a busy day telling other people how to live their lives."
"Oh don't be an ass." Razia rolled her eyes. "I was just—"
"Payment, please?" Harms said, holding out his hand.
"What, for that?" Razia blinked. "You barely gave me anything."
"You didn't ask anything, and I’m on the clock the moment you sit down," Harms said, looking at his tablet. "Not to mention all the freebies over the years."
"Fine then," she said, slamming her C-card down on the table, angrily watching him swipe it. "Take your damned money."
"Pleasure doing business with you, Razia," Harms said, pulling his tablet up in front of his face and ignoring her.
"Well...well, screw you too!" she snapped, standing up and snatching her C-card away from him. "Maybe I'll just go find another informant."
"Good luck finding someone who'll work with a woman."
Her eyes widened slightly and her mouth fell open. "Excuse me?"
"It's the truth," he responded, dragging his finger along the tablet as he continued to work. "Now run along and find this bounty you're so eager to capture."
"Fine, I will," she said, but with much less gumption than before, his words stinging more than she cared to admit.
***
She sat on the bridge of her ship, several windows open across her dashboard with Linro Lee's information. To be honest, she should've asked Harms a little bit more, but she couldn't call him now.
The nerve of him, saying that other informants wouldn't talk to her because she was a woman. She was in the top twenty! She'd turned in major pirates—Santos Journot, even. She had to have made some kind of impression.
Instinctively, she turned to look behind her to whine, but again, she was reminded that she was completely alone on her ship. She couldn't believe she was so wrapped up in not having Vel there—she'd done perfectly fine alone for two years. Why did she need anyone to talk to, when she could be bounty hunting?
She looked up at Lee's info in the pirate intraweb.
4) Lee, Linro
Wanted For
Engagement in piracy, bounty hunting, hijacking, grand larceny
Reward
41,054,500C
Known Aliases
Ed Maxwell, Libertad Lark, Mika Castro, Joseph Cavanaugh
Known
Accomplices
Royden Relleck, Enzo Rossi, James Rock
Pirate Web
Affiliation
Contestant
The three aliases that she'd discovered earlier had been used recently, although sparingly. Between the three, there were gaps in parking, in food, and other—
Her gaze traveled over to her mini-computer, as it lit up again. She reached over and ignored the call.
Other, she corrected herself, incidentals. She might be able to find him based only on the three, but it would be easier if she could figure out if he had a fourth alias. It was, of course, entirely possible he'd just not spent any money in the times when—
Her eyes darted to her mini-computer again, as he was calling her once more.
When there was a gap.
"God in Leveman's Vortex," she said, rubbing her face to wake up. She was on her second cup of coffee, but her scattered mind couldn't focus on the task at hand. What she really could've used was a good, long run on a planet.
