CHAPTER TWELVE
“An inside job,” Sebastian repeated.
Ren had blurted out Graven’s parting shot almost as soon as he and Jaime had been hauled aboard. Sebastian wished he could pull Ren in for a long hug, the way Rylan did with Jaime. Just some kind of touch to reassure himself that leaving Ren behind, surrounded by bad guys with guns, wasn’t the worst mistake in a day filled with wrong steps.
It had been an agonizing wait hovering high above the mansion, watching the police arrive, until Jaime had finally contacted the ship mentally to say that they were free to go. The whole time Sebastian had been planning what to say to Ren. He’d originally been thinking something charming, but, as the time stretched out, Sebastian found his thoughts venturing into unfamiliarly sincere territory. Sebastian wanted to tell Ren he’d been desperately worried even though he had absolute faith in him. He wanted to touch him.
But Ren had been wound tight — perhaps a little extra stressed from the trip up over the canyon in the open basket. He stared at Sebastian but looked away whenever Sebastian tried to meet his eyes. He hadn’t even accepted Sebastian’s hand to help him onto the deck, stepping out on his own. For some reason he’d brought the broken sword with him, but he looked at it as though he’d almost forgotten what it was and set it on a crate.
“Graven could just be messing with you,” Bo suggested as he helped Simi secure the cargo bay doors. “The guy always was a bit of a dick. Really murderous too when you get down to it.”
“Regardless,” Ren said, his movements jerky as he tried to straighten his windblown clothes, “the theft occurred inside the palace in our most secure area. Someone must have helped them.”
“You have an actual palace? No, of course you do.” Sebastian rubbed his eyes. It had been a long day. “Jaime, get Rylan to sick bay and get his hand seen to.” Jaime nodded, swaying wearily. “Get yourself looked at too while you’re there.”
“I’m just tired. Turns out fighting a robot is a lot of work.” He turned to Ren and smiled. “That was pretty cool down there the way you handled the police.”
Ren gave him a half bow. “I did very little compared to you. And Rylan. Thank you both.”
Rylan slipped an arm around Jaime’s shoulders. “We all did our part and got the job done.”
“The job’s not over yet,” Sebastian said. “Go. Simi, my dear, make sure we’re ready to travel.”
The three of them headed out one of the doors, Simi’s voice carrying back into the hold, “Did you say robot fight?”
Ren was still bristling with barely contained energy and still not meeting his eyes. “Sebastian, what am I supposed to do with this information?”
“Think, Ren. Who would benefit the most from the Heart being gone from Arcadia?”
Ren frowned and then let out a short humorless laugh. “Me, I suppose. My inability to connect to the Heart is what’s keeping me from being Monarch.”
Bo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Could be a frame-up job. Make it look like you stole the jewel.”
“But I was the one sent to get it back!”
“Whoever set you up could make it look like you came along to see that the job fails, or to turn yourself into some kind of hero,” Bo said. “Then when you get back, all this information gets conveniently uncovered and you take the fall.”
“That’s diabolical.”
Bo shrugged. “It’s politics.”
Mags came over the comm. “Sebastian, the other ship is here. We’ve got a very insistent Zaria Khan looking to talk to Ren.”
Ren finally looked at him, but it was in disbelief. “You called Zaria?”
Sebastian spread his hands helplessly. “I thought you were going to be arrested! There weren’t a lot of options.”
Ren’s eyes grew wide. “What if she’s the traitor?”
“Fuck. Mags, we’re on our way up to the bridge. Bo—”
Bo patted Sebastian on the shoulder. “I’ll get ready in case we have a boarding party.”
Sebastian and Ren hurried along the ship’s corridors.
“Zaria. Who assigned her to you?”
“She works mainly for my grandfather. I’ve known her my whole life, Sebastian. I know I said she might be a traitor, but it’s hard to believe—”
“Was it your grandfather who put her on this mission?”
“It was the regent herself.”
“The same regent who’s been running things for years and might have gotten used to the power?”
“She’s my aunt. My mother’s sister.”
“Do you have any history books on Arcadia? My education is spotty, but from what I understand there’s a long tradition of royal families betraying each other for power.”
Ren’s face was grim. “Believe me, we have nothing but history on Arcadia.”
They reached the bridge. Kaz was seated at her pilot’s chair, and she swung around to face them as they entered. Mags stayed unmoving in her own seat, studying various monitors on the control panels in front of her. There was another chair for Sebastian but not much else in terms of space, the bridge being more functional than comfortable.
From the view ports, they could see the much larger shape of the Jemisin hulking above them.
“They’ve been calling,” Mags said. “A lot.”
Sebastian leaned over Mags, making sure the comm link to the other ship was closed. “For the moment, let’s assume they don’t have our best interests at heart.”
Kaz shook her dark hair back from her eyes so that her exasperation could be seen more clearly. “That ship’s been on the other side of the planet’s moon this whole time — how did you manage to piss them off from that distance, Sebastian?”
“It’s not me,” he said affronted. “For once. No, they’re after Ren.”
“We don’t know that,” Ren said. “Not for sure. But… I don’t know who to trust.”
“Trust me for a little longer.” He tried and failed to get Ren to meet his eyes. “Please.”
Ren kept his face expressionless, but he nodded once.
Sebastian spun back around. “Mags, open up a line to the ship and let’s hear what they have to say.”
An affronted squawk announced the connection with Zaria’s voice immediately booming out. “Where is the prince? What has happened?”
“It’s good news,” Sebastian said. “Everything turned out. Prince is safe, jewel is safe, villains apprehended — well, except for the one who got away. Also, there was a considerable amount of property damage. But overall, we did it. Teamwork, valiant efforts, all that.”
There was a long silence, and then Zaria replied. “If I don’t hear from Ren immediately I will open fire on you.”
Sebastian nudged him, and Ren cleared his throat. “Zaria, I’m fine.”
Her exhale was noisy. “Thank goodness. Prince Ren, I was so worried.”
“That was unnecessary. As Sebastian — the captain — said, we have succeeded. I have the Heart of Arcadia.”
Again there was a silence. They were too close for there to be any sort of lag in communications between the ships, so Sebastian had to assume she was gathering her thoughts. “That is… wonderful news. The regent — everyone — will be so relieved.” Her voice grew brisk. “We can send a shuttle to the ship. Or coordinates to land on the planet.”
Sebastian bent closer to the comm panel. “There’s no need for that. We’re going to be taking Ren home. The prince on the Prince, rather fitting, don’t you think?”
Everyone on the bridge was looking at him now, but he waited for Zaria’s reaction.
“That wasn’t the original plan,” she said coldly. “We were supposed to part ways once the Heart had been recovered.”
“Flexibility is the hallmark of all my plans.” He acknowledged Mags’ raised eyebrow. “That, and unexpected disasters.”
“This is unacceptable. I cannot allow—”
Ren spoke over Zaria, his voice louder and colder than Sebastian had ever heard it. “You will follow my orders, Zaria. I am traveling back to Arcadia on this ship.”
“This is exactly what I warned you about,” she said bitterly. “That man is making you forget your duty—”
“My only duty is to safely return this jewel, and this is the best way to do it.”
“Ren, he’s playing you for a fool. Again. And this time he’s not just taking you for a ship; he’s got the Heart of Arcadia.”
“Mags,” Sebastian said and made a cutting motion across his throat. She pressed a button on her control panel, and an uncomfortable silence filled the bridge.
“So,” he said, eyeing Ren’s stiff posture, “that went about as well as could be expected. How did she sound to you? Do you think she was hiding anything?”
“She sounded like herself. She’s always said she had my best interests at heart.”
“Ren,” Sebastian said quietly, “if you don’t think she’s involved in any kind of plot then we’ll set down somewhere and fill her in on everything. But you have to be sure.”
He closed his eyes. “I don’t know,” Ren said in a lost voice. “I can’t be certain.”
“Then you’re with us.” He dared to put his hand on Ren’s arm and squeeze it through the cloth, just for a second before turning to Kaz, all business. “If they follow, can we outrun them?”
“That ship? No way.” She spun around to her controls, her tattoos beginning to speed up their movements along her bare arms. “But I can outmaneuver ’em.”
“Do it.”
Kaz grinned. “Dub, we’re heading back toward the planet’s surface. That spot we were checking out the other day.”
Calculations and unfamiliar coordinates flashed across Kaz’s screens. Sebastian had to trust Kaz — and Dub — knew what they were doing.
He swung a leg over his own chair, eyes on the monitors as he sat down, while Kaz descended toward the planet’s surface. Dawn was approaching, lightening the skies and revealing the dark rocks below.
“They’re close,” Mags warned. “But they can’t use magnetic grapples on us now without risking us crashing.”
“Zaria’s not going to take that chance with Ren and the jewel,” Sebastian said, then paused. “Unless the plan was to get rid of both permanently.” He glanced over at a stricken-looking Ren. “I’m sure it’s not, but maybe strap yourself in?” He pointed to the back wall of the bridge where emergency straps and buckles hung.
“They’re gaining,” Mags said.
“Can’t follow where we’re going,” Kaz assured her.
Kaz sent the ship sweeping down low and fast and then dropped them sharply down into a canyon.
Sebastian bit back a yelp of alarm. The canyons around the settlement had all been narrow, but this was wide enough — barely — to fit The Wayward Prince. It was still all too easy to picture them slamming into the jagged rocks on either side though.
Kaz had one hand on the stick, the other on the controls for the speed of the thrusters that propelled them along. The ship’s stabilizers prevented them from feeling every zig and zag she took, but the view out the windows, along with the proximity alerts flashing on the monitors were enough to make Sebastian’s stomach lurch.
“The other ship’s above us,” Mags said. “They’re too big to follow us in, but they’re matching our course.”
“So they get a great view of your flying, Kaz, until you slip and smear us against a cliff,” Sebastian snapped. “What’s your exit strategy?”
“That,” she said.
Up ahead the gorge widened into a vast lake, shimmering gray-blue in the morning light. Feeding the water at the opposite end of the lake was one of the storied waterfalls of Fortuna. Sebastian had to wonder at the jaded people who had called it touristy and not worth visiting. Maybe they were talking about a different waterfall than this one, because, whatever this was, it was nothing less than spectacular.
White water, wider than several spaceships, cascaded over the side of a tall mountain, falling an incredible distance until it was lost in the billowing white mist that enveloped the lower half of the falls and the lake around it.
Kaz was headed straight for that white fog, the ship all but skimming across the rippling surface of the lake.
“Sebastian?” Ren asked nervously.
“She’ll pull up,” he said with more certainty than he felt. “Kaz — Kaz!
“Kaz?” An actual shade of worry touched Mags’ voice, and Sebastian knew they were going to die.
Sebastian braced himself as the wall of water filled every view and alerts flashed their doom. Kaz kept going, the ship plunging into and through the waterfall.
Sebastian had seconds to register the black walls of an enormous cavern behind it — not just a cavern but a tunnel, because then there was light and sky on the other side as Kaz took the ship out and up, soaring into the morning sky.
“Where’s the other ship?” Kaz demanded, her hand tight on the stick and her tattoos swirling with adrenaline.
“On the other side of the mountain,” Mags said. “They’re hovering over the lake, probably trying to figure out if we crashed.”
Sebastian clapped his hands. “Take us up, Kaz, let’s get off this planet for good.” He looked back, and Ren met his eyes, teeth showing in a wild and happy grin. Sebastian returned it gladly, but then Ren’s eyes dropped, and his smile faltered.
“We’ve got black sky, Sebastian,” Kaz said as they cleared the planet’s atmosphere. “Where to?”
Sebastian tried to keep the heartiness in his voice. “Fire up the FTL drive and find us the quickest way to Arcadia.”
“We won’t have much of a head start,” Kaz said.
Mags swung around in her chair. “No matter what route, we’re still a long way out. It’ll probably take a couple of weeks to get to Arcadia.”
Sebastian wanted to stand up and take hold of Ren, to assure him that everything would be okay, but instead he leaned back in his chair with a lazy confidence that he faked as best he could. “Time enough to come up with a plan.”