CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
They hadn’t even bothered to take Ren’s sword before they locked him in his room. That was how little they considered him a threat.
Sent to his room — well, it was rooms plural, with a large sitting room, bath and bedroom — like a child. He wasn’t even denied supper; a tray had been brought up by an embarrassed servant who stammered apologies while laying it out. Being back home brought him no comfort. The rooms were familiar but almost stifling in their quiet blandness.
He paced a bit, but that reminded him of Sebastian. He could only imagine what the other man would do in his situation. Call for a bottle of wine or stage a daring escape — probably both. Ren couldn’t climb out a window — the ones he had were small portholes that he doubted he could wriggle through, even if he was somehow able to break the clear alloy that had been designed to withstand space travel. And he wasn’t sure how one went about overpowering guards — the two stationed outside his door were large and, even worse, familiar. Ren had seen them almost daily for the past several years and usually asked after their families. He couldn’t exactly try to smash their heads together in good conscience. All Ren could do was wait — to talk to the regent and either enlist her help or confirm that she was plotting against him. If it was the latter, then, well, Ren still had allies in the palace. Even if he couldn’t quite think of any at the moment.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in.” Though Ren didn’t think he had much choice in the matter. He turned to face whatever was coming through the door.
His grandfather stepped inside. He looked at Ren for a long moment, and Ren stiffened, bracing himself for anger or reproach. Blame from his aunt was one thing, but this, this was going to hurt. When his grandfather opened his arms, Ren couldn’t stop himself from rushing into them, almost sagging with relief.
“When did you get taller than me?” his grandfather asked gruffly. “You’re supposed to have stopped growing by twenty-five.”
“I think it’s more a matter of you shrinking, Papa,” Ren said, using the nickname reserved for him. His parents had always been a formal “mother” and “father,” but his grandfather was Papa, a source of games and sweets when Ren had been a child, and, then later, seemingly his only support against constant disapproval.
He pulled back to take him in. His grandfather was a solid man, with a straight back and broad shoulders. The hair on his head and in his thick beard had been mostly white for years now, but Ren was surprised to see that the normally carefully trimmed curls had grown a bit ragged and that his grandfather’s skin looked sallow and sagging. Ren had been gone months trying to track down the jewel and Sebastian, but it seemed like his grandfather had aged years in that time.
“Papa, are you well?”
He waved Ren’s concern away, walking to an easy chair near a window and sitting down heavily. “No one in the palace has been getting much sleep of late,” he said. “Especially since Zaria returned with that woman.”
Ren sat down in another chair, facing him. “She’s lying, Papa. Ebba, I mean. I don’t know about Zaria.”
His grandfather’s eyes were sharp on Ren’s. “Do you really have the Heart of Arcadia?”
“Yes, but it’s hidden until we can discover who stole it. I was given information claiming it was taken with help from inside the palace.”
“You believe that?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Ren sighed. “But palace security spent months trying to understand how it was taken. Someone with Ebba’s abilities could have disabled the alarms, but then to get the jewel out of the palace and off-planet? Much less even knowing where it was kept in the first place. It all speaks to a plot by someone with inside knowledge.”
His grandfather closed his eyes wearily. “Yes, it does at that.”
“I need to talk to the regent,” Ren said, leaning forward. “Alone. Ebba is dangerous. She may not know what the Heart is, but she understands its value.”
“Ebba has been filling everyone’s ears with poison over the last few days. You may not get a welcome reception.”
“Do you think…” Ren wasn’t sure how to suggest to his grandfather that his own daughter might be part of the plot. “Could the regent have known Ebba? From before?”
His grandfather looked at him, many thoughts passing quickly over his face. “I don’t believe your aunt wanted to get rid of the Heart. Just the opposite in fact. That jewel is a great temptation.”
“She’s never tried to use it even once over the years,” Ren protested, but then he hesitated again. “If I were found to be a traitor or some other kind of criminal, it would settle the question of succession.”
His grandfather’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “You think that your aunt had the jewel stolen and then sent you to retrieve it so that you could be framed for the crime? That is diabolical.”
Ren felt his face heat. “Is it so impossible? You said yourself the throne is a temptation—”
“The jewel is a temptation—”
“And something I can never use,” Ren snapped. “I will never be able to access the knowledge inside it. I don’t know why this farce of me becoming monarch has been going on for so long, when we all know it can’t happen.”
He bit his lip, turning his face away, but his grandfather reached out and caught his hand. “Ren,” he said gently, “I’ve thought for a long time that we were foolish to lean so heavily on the memories of a long-dead queen. It’s… not been entirely good for this world. Do you know I was glad that you never had the gift?” Ren looked at him in surprise, but his grandfather’s eyes had grown haunted. “I watched first my wife, then my daughter — your mother — lose themselves to the past. It was inevitable. At first they would only consult the Heart on important matters, crises, then over time they wore it more and more frequently. Until nothing could be done without it. That knowledge, those memories — it changes a person.”
Ren stayed silent thinking back to how his mother, in the last year before she died, was never without the necklace that contained the Heart, her eyes always far away, her manner distant.
“Maybe it’s better this way,” his grandfather said almost to himself. “Let the Heart stay lost.”
Ren shook himself. “Papa, no. The regent has me locked in here; Sebastian and the crew have been arrested. She’ll never let them out unless I can produce the jewel.”
His grandfather’s melancholy fell away, and he was once again sharply focused on Ren. “That ship captain, yes, I’ve been hearing a great deal about him.”
Ren smiled bitterly. “From Zaria, I expect. How can you believe anything she says when she brought Ebba here?”
“Apparently Ebba contacted Zaria while you were on Fortuna. She offered information in exchange for a ride off the planet. Since you had already left, with that captain, Zaria agreed.”
“And then Ebba conveniently made me into the villain.” Ren realized he was twisting his hands and made himself stop. “Do you think Zaria is working with her?”
“I believe Zaria only wants to protect you. She’d be glad to put all the blame on that man.”
“Sebastian,” Ren said. “His name is Sebastian, and none of this is his fault.”
His grandfather sat back in the chair, regarding Ren. “He’s a scapegoat. One who could be very convenient for you. You can put all of this on him and clear your name with the regent. He’s hurt you in the past, Ren, and I’m sure he’s done worse crimes than this. Let this be the one he finally answers for.”
Ren shook his head, pressing his lips together tightly.
“How well do you know him?” his grandfather persisted. “You’ve spent a few wild weeks with him, with years in between. You don’t know what kind of a man he really is.”
“You’re wrong. I do know him and who he is.” Ren stood up, not caring if it cost him his grandfather’s approval. “In the ways that matter, he is a good man. I’m not leaving him.”
His grandfather smiled. “Then we’ll find another way.”
Ren blinked. He’d been expecting more of a fight. “Oh, good. Thank you. So you’ll help me speak to the regent?”
His grandfather pursed his lips, considering. “She’s very angry right now, and the talk has been about letting you sit here until you come to your senses and turn over the jewel. You need to approach her from a position of strength. She doesn’t even entirely believe that you found the Heart.” He looked at Ren more keenly. “Where is it?”
“Outside the city,” Ren said. “Far enough away that it won’t be found easily.”
“You can’t give her time to put together search parties or convince your friends to tell her where it is.”
“They won’t.”
“Perhaps, but it’s best that you get them and yourself out of the palace. Get the jewel and then talk to her, from someplace where she can’t easily arrest you.”
Ren wanted to make a face. “That was Sebastian’s original suggestion.”
“Perhaps he’s wiser than his reputation would lead me to believe.”
“How am I to get him and the crew out of the palace? I can’t even leave my room.”
His grandfather reached his hand up, and Ren pulled him out of the chair to his feet. He patted Ren on the shoulder. “Leave it to me.”
Ren wasn’t sure what to expect as his grandfather marched to the door. He swung it open, and the two guards in the hallway turned to face him.
“Thank you, but you are both dismissed,” he said to them.
The guards glanced at each other. “Uh, sir, we have orders.”
“I’ve given you a new one. Dismissed.”
“Our orders are from the regent.”
His grandfather drew himself up; he may have shrunken a little in height, but he had lost none of his authority, and his voice boomed out. “And I was husband to one monarch and father to another. If my daughter wishes to contradict me then she may do so to my face and not through the pair of you. Now leave.” His voice dropped to a menacing rumble on the last word.
One audibly gulped, and the other guard shifted nervously. “Maybe we’ll just confirm the orders with our supervisor…”
Ren’s grandfather simply waited until the two men carefully backed away and hurried down the corridor. Ren stuck his head out of the doorway to watch them go.
“I can’t believe that worked,” he marveled.
His grandfather shrugged. “No one here is used to treachery from within. It makes certain things easier. We won’t have long though. Your friends are down in the holding cells.”
* * *
All in all, it was one of Sebastian’s more pleasant arrests.
No one had pushed or shoved them as they were handcuffed and led away from the rooftop landing pad to an elevator. It sped them down enough levels to make his ears pop.
The palace jail didn’t seem especially dank or menacing. It was more like a brightly lit office, with an old desk at one end of a long steel-gray room. The only clue to its purpose was the row of floor-to-ceiling windows in the wall, which showed rooms on the other side of the glass. Two of the cells seemed to be occupied.
At the desk was a thickset woman wearing one of the uniforms similar to the guards around them. The dark blue uniforms weren’t very militaristic — they looked more like work coveralls with lots of pockets and various straps. The woman was also wearing a harried expression on her face, looking up in irritation from the stack of paperwork on her desk when they were brought in.
“What’s this?” she demanded. “They’re not all drunk, are they?”
“I wish,” Sebastian said brightly and finally got a shove from the nearest guard.
“Special prisoners,” his guard replied.
“Where’s the paperwork on them?” the jailer asked, her mouth tightening.
“No paperwork, this is direct from the regent.”
She huffed out a noisy breath. “Is the regent going to fill out the processing forms for me? Not to mention the meal reqs for ’em. What are they even charged with?”
“I don’t know,” the first guard said. “They’re just to be arrested.”
“You need a crime to be arrested. That’s how it works.”
“Sedition maybe?” one of the younger guards suggested.
“What is that?” the jailer said. “Is that even illegal?”
“Do they have the death penalty here?” Kaz muttered, “Because I’d like to be shot right now.”
“Just put them in a cell,” the first guard said. “They’re being held for questioning.”
She got up, muttering to herself but loud enough that everyone could hear, “Just got the drunk and disorderlies cleared out from the harvest festival last night, and now I have to find room for special prisoners…” She walked over to one of the windows and pressed a red button on the wall next to it. The window chimed lightly and then slid soundlessly into the wall, the button turning green.
Sebastian caught Jaime’s eye, both of them raising eyebrows. It was unusual for a jail door to be anything other than purely mechanical, but clearly they didn’t expect anyone to be imprisoned here who had the ability to manipulate electronics.
The cuffs were taken off before they were ushered into the room. They weren’t even searched, which made Sebastian regret not bringing a weapon. The cell they’d been put in was clean, with padded benches and a privacy shield for the toilet.
“Do you want them all in the one cell?” the younger guard asked.
“The other ones still have to cleaned from last night,” the jailer replied sourly. “And if I put our other two inmates together they’ll fight. They may not be drunk anymore but they’re still disorderly.”
“Fine.”
With that, the window chimed sweetly and slid closed. Through the slightly dimmed glass they could see the jailer continuing to argue with the guards, but they couldn’t hear anything from them.
“It’s not bad,” Simi said. “I was expecting jail to smell.”
“I’ve been in worse hotels,” Bo agreed, sitting down on a bench.
“Open the window,” Mags said to Jaime. “Then give me three minutes to take care of all of them.”
“Shh,” Jaime hissed. He blinked swiftly and then nodded as he consulted the invisible signals only he could hear. “Okay. The rooms are wired for sound, but she’s got it turned way down anyway.”
Mags looked at Sebastian. “These people will not be hard to deal with.”
Sebastian put a hand on her shoulder. “Before you start massacring, can we give Ren some time to talk to his people? Remember, we’re trying diplomacy.”
“But they’re so annoying,” Kaz said, leaning against the window to glare outward.
“We can’t wait too long,” Rylan said grimly, rubbing his arm. “Ebba’s out there. Who knows what she’s doing.”
The doctor dusted off a bench before sitting down. “Clearly enough to get us locked up.”
Jaime raked a hand through his already messy hair. “This is my fault. I actually thought I was helping Ebba. I believed all her stories about being the victim.”
“Probably a lot of it was true,” Sebastian said. “Her being sold, used by Graven, but she was able to turn the tables on him somehow. It’s admirable in a way.”
“If you want to talk blame,” Mags said, sitting down cross-legged next to Bo, her back to the wall and her eyes on the window, “go even further back to eight years ago, when I told Graven I wasn’t going to take his contract on a fourteen-year-old kid no matter how dangerous he said she was.” She shrugged at their looks of surprise. “I didn’t put it together until I saw her on the roof today.”
Sebastian sighed and leaned against a wall. “We gave Ebba a choice, but once people have been hurt, more often than not they decide the best way to avoid it is to hurt everyone else first.”
“Okay,” Simi said, “but she’s still the bad guy, right?”
“Oh, she’s a lying piece of shit who’s probably figuring out the most profitable way to murder us right now,” Sebastian said. “It doesn’t mean she can’t have layers, Simi.”
Bo had put a deck of cards in his pocket before leaving the ship, and they sprawled out on the benches playing a mishmash of games that no one could quite remember all the rules for.
Sebastian tried not to worry about Ren. Being stuck down here felt a lot like he was breaking his promise not to leave Ren’s side, but Sebastian hadn’t had much choice unless he’d wanted to start a fight on the palace roof. He had to hope that Ren was getting a chance to speak his piece. Sebastian had absolute faith in Ren’s determination, it was just that he wished Ren didn’t have to fight this battle alone.
His fears didn’t stop him from doing well at cards, and Sebastian was just about to win a week’s worth of getting his choice of dinner aboard the ship — “if we ever get back to her,” Kaz said gloomily — when Jaime twitched.
“The cameras on this level just got shut off,” he said.
“Maybe they’re sending in someone to torture us for information and don’t want it recorded,” Kaz suggested.
“Thanks, Kaz,” Simi said, “for giving me something else to freak out about.”
“Someone’s coming,” Mags said, getting up and moving closer to the window.
They all gathered near the glass and watched as Ren walked up to the jailer’s desk. She didn’t look up from her work, and Ren raised a hand to his mouth and made what must have been a polite cough. She saw him and jumped to her feet.
“Jaime,” Sebastian said, “can you make it so that we can hear what they’re saying?”
There was a sudden crackle from the hidden monitors in the room and then they heard the jailer say, “—this is such a surprise, I mean an honor, sir, Prince Ren.”
Ren responded warmly. “The fault is mine that I haven’t been down to this part of the palace before.” He tilted his head to look at her more closely. “You used to work security at the palace entrance, didn’t you?”
“It’s good of you to remember, sir. I got promoted here. I’m, well, a supervisor,” she said, sounding a bit bashful.
“Of course you did,” Ren said glancing around the empty space. Sebastian tried to catch his eye through the glass and figure out what the hell he was doing, but Ren looked back at the jailer and smiled. “Well deserved.” He leaned a little over the desk, angling toward her. “Forgive me, I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your name.”
“Nisha, sir.” She practically beamed under Ren’s attention.
Ren somehow made his smile wider. It looked painful. “That’s a lovely name.”
Lydia nudged Sebastian. “Oh dear, is he… trying to flirt?”
“Give him a chance,” Sebastian said, “but let’s be ready to end this if it gets any more awkward.”
“But Nisha, I don’t want to take up more of your valuable time,” Ren was saying. “I’m actually here to relieve you of your prisoners.”
Nisha’s smile faltered. “Which ones?”
“Those.” Ren gestured casually at the window where Sebastian and the crew stood watching. Sebastian resisted the urge to wave.
“Do you have the forms for their transfer?”
Kaz groaned.
“This is a matter of utmost importance,” Ren said, smile unflagging.
“It’s just, they got brought in here with no paperwork, supposedly on the regent’s orders, and now I’m supposed to release ’em on the prince’s orders? I’m sorry, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be done, sir.”
“Whatever assurances you need, I can provide them.” Ren looked like he was faltering a bit. “The regent wishes to speak to them herself. Urgently.”
“I need signed forms—”
Ren straightened his spine, chin tilting up as his face took on a regal coldness. “I order you to release them right now.”
Nisha shifted uneasily. “Maybe I could make a quick call upstairs to check—”
“Okay,” Sebastian said, nodding to Jaime, “enough.”
The window chimed and then slid open, Mags and Rylan immediately advancing toward the desk.
“Oh, crap,” Nisha said, stumbling back.
“Hands where can we see ’em, Nisha,” Rylan said, crossing over to her. Mags quickly patted her down.
Ren gave Sebastian an apologetic look. “That all went better in my head.”
“You came up against an immovable object,” Sebastian said, grinning at the sight of him. “It happens to the best of us.”
Mags jerked a thumb at Nisha. “In the cell.”
“Dammit,” the jailer groaned. “You couldn’t have waited two more hours until the shift change? We’ve never had a jailbreak before. Ever. I’m gonna lose my job.”
“I promise once this is over to pardon you,” Ren said.
“Pardons are for criminals,” Nisha said. “This isn’t right, sir.”
“I am sorry.”
“We live in strange times,” Sebastian said. He bent over Nisha’s desk, pulling out a blank piece of paper and a pen. He scrawled a few lines on it. “You need the paperwork, right? How about this? I, Prince Ren, am totally and extremely responsible for taking the prisoners and any ensuing mayhem. Nisha, the jail supervisor, resisted heroically and should be commended.” He pushed the paper to Ren. “Now sign.”
Ren raised an eyebrow. “‘Mayhem’?”
“Better to be safe.”
Ren signed the paper with a flourish, and Sebastian carried it over to Nisha, handing it to her inside the cell. “Happy?”
“It’s better than nothing, I guess.” She clutched it to her chest as the window slid closed.
Ren led them quickly out of the room and around the corner to a small metal door marked MAINTENANCE. He opened it and waved them in, shutting the door behind him once they were inside.
The room was a reminder that this had once been a spaceship — it seemed to be a maintenance tunnel with a hexagonal shape and walls of metal alloy. It also had a ladder bolted to one wall that went up and up and up.
“What’s the plan?” Sebastian said to Ren and got a quick smile in return.
It faded quickly. “I spoke to my grandfather, and he doesn’t believe the regent is prepared to listen to me. That, along with Ebba’s presence, makes me think we have to leave. Recover the Heart and then find a neutral place to talk to the regent.”
“If you go now it’s going to make you look guilty,” Sebastian said.
Ren took a breath, the strain showing on his face. “I can’t have all of you sitting in a cell. It’s not right, and what’s more, it’s not safe when Ebba has the regent’s ear.” He squared his shoulders. “My grandfather is helping us. He was able to turn off the monitoring of the holding cells, and he’s going to have a false alarm sound on the other side of the palace that will hopefully draw people away from the ship.”
“Is he a cousin too?” Lydia asked. “With abilities like Jaime’s?”
Ren shook his head. “He was a computer engineer who helped run the security systems in the palace. That’s how he met my grandmother.”
“Okay,” Kaz said impatiently. “Let’s get to the ship.”
They all looked at Ren, and Ren looked at the ladder.
“Oh.”
Simi peered upward. “That’s really far.”
“You know, I can handle any sort of security with the elevator,” Jaime said.
“The elevator’s heavily used,” Ren said. “The chance of being discovered is too great.”
“Maybe I could—”
“Oh, c’mon,” Rylan said. “It’s not that bad a climb.” He received dubious looks and crossed his arms over his broad chest and glared disapprovingly. “Lots of times I suggested everyone join me to lift weights, run up and down the decks. Maybe if you had this wouldn’t seem like such a big deal.”
“Couldn’t we just all hang onto Rylan while he carries us up?” Simi suggested hopefully.
Jaime looked like he was considering it.
Bo shrugged and a grabbed a rung. “Might as well get started.”
“Wait,” Sebastian said. He ran a hand through his hair. “Ren, is there any other transportation we can use to get out of the palace? Something smaller than the ship but fast.”
Kaz’s tattoos began to speed up. “We are not leaving Dub—”
“No, but we should split up. A couple of us go in something less noticeable to get the jewel, while The Wayward Prince leads any pursuit in the wrong direction. Ren? Is that doable?”
“We’re on the ground level now,” Ren said. “There’s a transport depot not too far from where we are.”
Sebastian nodded to Kaz. “Make the chase a good one, then ditch your pursuit and meet up with Ren and me.”
Mags raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t want to climb that ladder.”
Sebastian pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Save your breath, you’re going to need it.” He looked at each of his crew. “All right? Be safe, and don’t take any stupid chances.”
Ren took his arm and pulled him aside. “Sebastian, there may be guards around the ship. These are innocent people; I can’t have them killed over this.”
Sebastian looked at Ren’s sweet and worried face. He called back over his shoulder. “Rylan, you’re in charge until the ship is airborne.”
Mags said, “Hmm.”
He turned with a flourish. “This is a nonlethal breakout, he’ll see to that.”
“What if Rylan gets killed?” she asked dryly.
“Then you’re back in charge. As long as you’re not the one who kills him.”
“This is not a reassuring talk,” Jaime said, but Rylan grinned.
“You haven’t killed me yet.”
“Start climbing,” Mags said, “and we’ll see how the day goes.”