CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I follow Rickard to the king’s parlor at a run. I’ve seen what Titania can do. I’ve seen her turn three warships to ash in a single flash of white fire. What if we’re too late? What if Bear’s ship has already met the same fate?
Instead, we find Elvar in a state of such anxiety that he can scarcely speak. Guinne is tense and silent in a seat by the window. And Lord Selwyn prowls the room with a vicious smile that neither the king nor the queen can see.
“Why have they attacked us?” Elvar cries as we enter. “Their army cannot yet be big enough to take on our entire fleet!”
“Even if it is,” says Lord Selwyn, “we could always persuade your niece to let us use Titania.”
“They must think they can win. That’s the only reason they would come. What do they know? What terrible plan have they conceived of?”
“They may not be thinking clearly, my king,” says Lord Selwyn. “Whatever their state of mind, however, their aggression is unquestionable, and I would advise responding in kind—”
“Stop working him into a panic!” Rickard barks.
Lord Selwyn spins around, and his smile withers. “I was just—”
“I’ve been very patient with you, Selwyn, but I will not allow you to fill the king’s head with such nonsense. Aggression, indeed! What exactly is aggressive about one boy in a solitary ship?”
“Rickard!” the king spins around and grasps the warrior’s hand with both of his own. “Rickard, you must defend us—”
The door clatters open. Max gives his uncle a stony look, then turns to his father. “We are not under attack.”
Elvar jerks his head in Max’s direction. “We can’t be certain of that. Selwyn has rightly pointed out that one ship could herald more. I must get my armor. I must prepare myself—”
Max gently eases him back into his seat. “You don’t need your armor, Father. There is no attack.”
“But Bear knows he is not to set foot on Kali!” Elvar bursts out, either unable or unwilling to let his son reassure him. “Why is he here if not to cause trouble? What does he want from me? Rickard, do something!”
“No,” says Rickard flatly. “You’re being absurd, Elvar, and I’ll thank you to stop it immediately.”
There’s a ringing silence. Lord Selwyn opens his mouth as though to protest, but Rickard’s glare stops him.
Elvar blinks a few times. “There’s no threat?”
“None,” says Rickard. His voice is deep and utterly confident. It’s the voice that must have comforted me a thousand times.
Elvar calms down immediately. He may be a king today, but he never stopped being the boy who clung to his teacher’s every word. It’s unnervingly familiar.
“Max?” Rickard turns to him, puts a hand on his shoulder. “What do you think?”
I’m surprised by the trust and confidence implied in the question, by the easy affection that seems to exist between them.
Max frowns. His eyes are fixed on something beyond the window. I follow his gaze and see it for the first time: a lone, red ship in the distance, little more than a dot on the star-flecked horizon. Bear is in that ship.
“I suggest we ask him why he’s here.”
Lord Selwyn sighs. “Dearest nephew, I fear you are too tolerant. Surely your cousin has broken the terms of his exile, and the only option is to destroy his ship.”
I can’t stay quiet any longer. “He’s just a boy!”
“He hasn’t broken any terms, either,” Max adds. “Kyra, Alexi, and Bear are not to enter Kali. Bear has abided by that command. He’s not on Kali. He’s outside the inner shield.”
Max walks across the parlor to the tech screen above the artificial fireplace. He flicks it on, taps the communications icon at the bottom of the screen, and says, “Does he want to speak to us?”
A voice—a sentry’s I assume—comes through crisp and clear from the speaker. “Yes. He says he won’t budge until he’s spoken to Master Rickard.”
“Father?” Max says.
Elvar’s jaw juts out. “Very well. Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Max keys in a few numbers and the speakers crackle faintly as they connect to Bear’s ship. “Why are you here, Bear?”
“Oh.” It’s Bear’s voice. He sounds almost sulky. “I don’t want to speak to you.”
“Don’t be so foolish, you horrible boy,” Rickard says in exasperation, “You have no idea how close you’ve come to a very unpleasant death, so I advise you to start spitting out useful words.”
Bear’s voice is noticeably happier. “Hello, Rickard! I know I shouldn’t have come.” There’s a crackle, and then, “Is she there?”
“Is who here?”
“The girl who won Titania.” All heads turn in my direction. “Esmae.” He hesitates. “My sister.”
I stare at the speakers, struck by pain and something else, something softer and more tender. My sister.
“She’s here,” says Rickard.
“I came because I wanted to see her. May I?”
Max cuts the connection. He looks at me, a question in his eyes.
“I don’t like it,” says Elvar.
“They must be furious that Esmae won Titania for us,” Guinne adds. “And Bear always had a temper.”
They all debate the point until I interrupt: “I’ll meet him. I’ll talk to him.”
“But—”
“With all due respect, Uncle,” I say gently, “I’m not going to be persuaded otherwise.”
Elvar grimaces. He mutters something under his breath that sounds remarkably like, Just like Cassel.
“It’s her decision, not ours,” says Max. “If it’ll make everyone feel better, I’ll go with her. I imagine Esmae will want to take Titania. What could be safer than that?”
“And what, pray tell,” says Lord Selwyn, “are we to do if the princess knocks you unconscious and makes off with her brother and the world’s greatest warship?”
“However did you guess my plot?” I ask. “And here I assumed I was being so crafty. After all, why let Alexi win Titania in the first place? How much simpler and more straightforward to compete against him, win her myself, fly her to Kali, get word to Bear to come and knock at your door, and then make off with the ship!”
Lord Selwyn steps so close that I can see all the way into his cold, angry eyes, and the hatred there makes my skin crawl.
“Take care, dear princess,” he says softly, “or someone may cut that clever tongue out one day.”
Rickard’s voice is low but thunderous. “Carry on, Selwyn, and it will be your tongue at the end of the blade.” Lord Selwyn goes red. My old teacher turns away from him and to me. “And you will apologize, Esmae. You are a princess of Kali, and princesses of Kali treat others with courtesy.”
“I’m sorry, Lord Selwyn,” I say with icy politeness.
The expression in his eyes is anything but forgiving.
Max flicks the speakers back on. “Esmae says she’ll see you, Bear. We’re coming.”
We don’t speak as we climb aboard Titania and set off for the shields. I dig my fingernails into my palms, anxiety dialing higher and higher. I have no idea what Bear wants or what to say to him.
Titania glides to a halt and hovers. The two ships are nose to nose, with only the fine, faintly twinkling barrier of the inner shield between them.
I watch Bear climb out onto the ship’s wing and approach the shield. A fierce pride fills me. Rickard once told me that battles typically take place between the inner and outer shields of spaceship kingdoms, and that’s exactly where Bear is now. He knows Titania is deadly. He must know there are a dozen armed sentries ready to attack him if he makes a single mistake. He must know some of them are probably waiting for any excuse to cut him down. And yet here he is in enemy territory, high above safe ground, bold and exposed and alone, every bit as brave as everyone says his brother is.
“What did my uncle say to you?” Max asks me. “What made Rickard so angry?”
“He told me I’m too cheeky for my own good.”
He doesn’t believe me. “Did he threaten you?”
I don’t answer, telling him all he needs to know.
Max’s jaw locks. He doesn’t speak for a moment. “My uncle likes to feel respected. He likes to be in control. He helped my parents get where they are. I think it’s made him feel like he has to protect the throne on Father’s behalf.”
“And I’m a thorn in his side.”
“It’s more like you’re a variable he didn’t account for. It makes you a threat in his eyes.”
“Why is he so interested in keeping your father on the throne?”
“He’s loyal to him.”
I bare my teeth in a smile. “I hope you’re right about that. Betrayal has been quite the epidemic on Kali lately, and it would be a shame if it infected anyone else.”
I turn away, but Max catches my elbow. “Don’t say that in front of my parents or uncle,” he says. “Not ever, Esmae. The only person they’ll suspect of betrayal is you.”
He releases me, but I’m rooted to the spot, too surprised by his warning to move. I want to ask him why he bothered, why it matters to him whether his parents suspect me of treachery. Why he doesn’t just stand back and let me stumble right into the fire.
Instead, I turn and climb out onto the right wing. I walk down to the end of Titania, to the very point of the arrowhead, where Bear waits.
My heart misses a beat. I can’t speak.
Bear doesn’t have Alexi’s confidence. His posture is more like mine: stiff, arms tucked close to his body like he’s trying to protect himself from the cold. The wind buffets us, and my hair whips against my cheek. I brush it out of my eyes.
“You look like him, you know,” Bear says at last. “Like Alex. I didn’t notice the resemblance before, but it was so obvious the moment I found out you were my sister. I replayed the broadcast of the competition about six times and you looked more and more like him each time.”
“You’re upset,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
He brushes my words away. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask to be thrown into space. I can’t believe she did that. I can’t believe she never told us. She remembers, you know. You were wrong about that part. No one’s memories were ever erased.”
“I know. I found that out last night.” My voice wobbles.
“I don’t want to be angry with you,” Bear says. “I don’t hate you for taking Titania from us. I just want to know why. Why did you come here to the uncle who betrayed us?”
“I couldn’t keep living in Alexi’s shadow.” Bear nods like he understands that. “I’m not sorry I competed, Bear, but I never wished any ill on you or Alexi. I have no intention of letting Titania destroy any of you.”
He kicks at the wing of his ship. “That doesn’t help me decide what to do, though.”
“Do?” His childlike frustration makes me smile. “What do you mean?”
“You’re my sister. You’re as much my family as Alex. I owe you both my loyalty. How am I supposed to fight you?”
I can’t believe he’s even contemplating such a question. I can’t believe he believes so deeply in the idea of family that he feels conflicted about me, the girl he thinks stole his way home. Our mother’s curse made flesh and blood. He’s more generous and selfless than I will ever be.
And it almost got him shot out of the sky today.
My heart breaks a little, but I can’t let him come back here while Elvar’s on the throne. I can’t let him risk his life again out of some idea of loyalty to me. “You’ll fight me if you have to, Bear, because Alexi needs you. Now you need to leave. You can’t be here.”
He frowns. “Don’t you want to know me?”
“Of course I do. But you can’t be on Kali, and it’s where I need to be.” I want him to know I’m on his side, but I don’t dare with Max just a few yards away.
Bear nods like he’s ready to leave. He steps closer, puts one hand up against the invisible wall between us, and says quietly, “One act of brotherly loyalty, then, before I go.”
“What?”
“We won’t give up on Kali. This is our home. We’ll get her back one way or another. There are ways around Titania.”
Of course there are. She’s an unbeatable battleship, but there are means outside of battle. She can’t save a prince from an assassination in the dark. She can’t guard the perimeter of an entire kingdom alone. She can’t take the throne from a king herself. That’s why I’m here. I knew Elvar would have found ways around her if I’d taken her to Alexi.
But what Elvar would have done is not the point. Bear is talking about what they have done.
He winces, staring at me with worried eyes like he’s wrestling with himself. Then, leaning so close to me that we can both hear the crackle of the shield, he whispers, “Don’t drink the wine.”
I freeze. “What’s wrong with the wine?”
“Just don’t drink it.”
“Poison?”
I think of all the people who eat and drink at the palace. Anyone could drink poisoned wine by mistake. Including me. That’s why Bear’s here, after all. Why he really risked his life and rushed to danger as soon as he found out about my arrival. He knows I could tell everyone and ruin their trap, but he came anyway. He came to keep me from becoming one of the poison’s victims.
My throat closes with emotion, but I still manage to summon a protest. “Alexi would never use poison. He’d never smash his honor to pieces like that, and he would never risk harming innocent people. He would never risk poisoning Rickard!”
Bear shakes his head, backing away. The last thing I hear on the wind is “Not Alex.”
And I realize what he’s really telling me but won’t say out loud. Alexi wouldn’t poison anyone.
But our mother would.
I watch my brother vanish into the dark, my ears buzzing with more than just the crackle of the shield.