THE REFORGED TRILOGY: BOOK 3 — HAMMER OF TIME
Chapter 30: Known
“A new name can’t change a man’s stripes.”
– Mirran saying
At first, the riots couldn’t gain much momentum. It was hard to kindle anger with Queen Maeve in the very place she gave away food. For those first hours, there were only a few minor injuries.
Until the prince consort arrived. When Anthem heard Logan’s news, he immediately took wing with all nearby knights and made his way to the scene. But he was even less welcome than Logan had been and Anthem swiftly retreated, chased by screams of whore and traitor.
With Logan’s help — riots were commonplace on Prianus and he had some experience with them — Anthem directed his forces from a distance. Within the hour, they had dispersed the crowd and sent everyone home. Logan didn’t like working alongside Anthem, but if he could give up being with Maeve in the name of Kaellisem, Logan would force himself to be professional with his replacement.
The sullen peace did not last long. Word of Maeve’s role in the White Kingdom’s fall spread quickly. The next morning, there were three fights in the food lines between Maeve’s supporters and those shouting for her blood. Knights stepped in each time, but by noon, there were screaming matches and worse breaking out all across Kaellisem. The sky was full of angry, self-righteous and frightened fairies.
“This is even worse than the theater bombing!” Duaal said as he paced across the Blue Phoenix’s mess.
They had relocated the queen and her tiny royal court back to the ship for her safety. At the last report, there were over a thousand Arcadians in the street and sky surrounding her red and gold tower.
“Arcadian lives were lost during the enassui,” Anthem pointed out. “There have been injuries today, but none have died.”
“So far,” Duaal said. “But that will change. There’s a mob of over a thousand fairies out there, all screaming for revenge.”
“Duaal!” Xia gasped. She gestured subtly to Maeve, who sat at the table with her face in her hands.
“It is not as if I do not know,” the queen said.
She wasn’t wearing the glass circlet that Duaal had designed for her and several strands of white stood out in Maeve’s midnight hair that had not been there a month ago.
“And for what we’re trying to do here, for keeping the Arcadians away from Xartasia, this is worse!” Duaal said. “How can we keep Kaellisem together now? And how the hells did they find out about Tamlin?”
“We’re the only ones who know, right?” Gripper asked. “I mean originally.”
“Panna does, as well,” Duke Ferris said. The old fairy nobleman glared suspiciously around at the coreworlders.
“Sprite’s out on Hadra!” Gripper objected. “She couldn’t have done this!”
“Then perhaps Panna told someone before she left,” Ferris said. “Who then told another…?”
“That could be true of anyone in this room,” Logan said.
“Did any of you speak of this?” Anthem asked.
Duaal shook his head. So did Xia. Gripper did so more slowly.
“Just to Glass,” he said. “And she sort of um… knows.”
Logan looked at the two Arcadian men. “What about you?”
Duke Ferris’ lined face was a mask of indignation.
“I would never,” he said. “It was I who advised Queen Maeve to keep the secret of the Tamlin Waygate! If I wished it known, all I had to do was remain silent.”
That made sense, but Logan wasn’t done. “Building Kaellisem on Stray meant leaving your injured daughter back on Sunjarrah. That would be difficult for any father.”
Ferris’ cheeks turned red. “How dare you? Ella esu cerri vae!”
I am loyal to the queen, Logan translated the angry shout. He was inclined to believe the old nobleman. Ferris was stubbornly honorable and Logan doubted that he would risk putting Maeve or Kaellisem in danger.
Anthem had been quiet. Logan studied him. There was a purple bruise on his temple where one of the rioting fairies had thrown a rock at the prince consort. He still wore his glass armor and carried his spear. Anthem was Xartasia’s lover… or had been a century before. What if his heart and loyalty still belonged to her?
“No,” Sir Anthem said at last. “I do not think I have spoken to anyone on the matter. I have not thought much about it, in truth.”
Maeve raised her face. Her eyes were rimmed in red.
“Not thought much about it?” she asked in a loud, raw voice. “I killed our people, Anthem! And you just forget…?”
“I did not say that.”
Maeve jumped up to her feet, wings and arms wrapped around herself.
“Who first told Kaellisem about Tamlin is not to blame in this,” she said. “The fault is mine. The deed is my own and even now, I am not done destroying Arcadia! Is it not enough that entire worlds are left shattered? Now the knowledge will break apart Kaellisem, too. And without Kaellisem, Xartasia wins.”
“We’ve got to get the information under control,” Xia said. “Gossip has vectors, just like any other pathogen. We can probably project–”
“Too many people already know,” Duaal interrupted. “We could contain the borders of Kaellisem, couldn’t we? No one here has any real weapons except the knights. We could keep the Arcadians from leaving.”
“No, absolutely not!” Duke Ferris said. “We are not turning the knights on their own people!”
“And it would not work, anyway,” Anthem agreed. “We lack the numbers to enforce such a border, even if we left the queen entirely unprotected–”
“Which we are not doing,” Logan said.
Anthem nodded. “Agreed.”
“Um, can’t we just tell everyone that it’s not true?” Gripper asked plaintively.
“No. No more lies. I refuse to deceive–” Maeve began in a hard voice. One of her young handmaidens, Dain, came scampering into the mess and whispered to the queen. Maeve frowned. “Now? Dain, the people of Kaellisem are rioting.”
“I told her that you were too busy,” Dain said. “But Panna swears that her news is important.”
With a sigh, Maeve rose, took the com that Dain held out and stepped out into the corridor. Logan caught just a glimpse of the queen’s furrowed brow before she turned away and her wings hid her face from view. Anthem came to stand beside Logan.
“Do you think that you can find the one who betrayed Maeve’s secret?” asked the prince consort.
Logan found himself glaring at the too-handsome fairy knight and reminding himself to be professional.
“The queen said that’s not important,” Logan said.
“But it may be the one who created the bombs,” Anthem said. “Someone is trying to destroy Maeve and her kingdom. With this, they might have finally succeeded.”
A sudden fury blazed inside Logan and he grabbed the front of Anthem’s armor. Glass screeched against glass until Logan’s fingers caught the edge of Anthem’s breastplate and he yanked the smaller man up to eye level. Duke Ferris yelped indignantly and demanded that Logan put the prince down this minute. Gripper’s hands flew to his mouth.
“No one will destroy Maeve,” Logan said. “No one! And if you ever say something like that to her, I’ll break your wings. You’re her prince, Anthem. Act like it!”
“Logan!” Duaal shouted. “For the love of God, let him go!”
“Why?” Logan asked, not looking at Duaal. His eyes remained fixed on Anthem’s deep blue-black ones. The knight stared back, unflinching. For all his tiny size and light, fragile anatomy, Anthem had guts. The servos inside Logan’s glass hand strained visibly as his grip tightened.
“Look, I don’t like it, either,” Duaal said. “But Anthem’s right. That knight on Sunjarrah and his pet Devourer, the police interference there and here on Stray, the bombs… Somehow this has managed to be so much worse. I didn’t think there was anything in the worlds that could get the Arcadians to stand up and fight. Now we have it and… and it’s horrible. They’re fighting each other. They’re fighting us. Anthem just said what we’re all thinking.”
“And what is that?” Logan asked.
“That we may have just lost this whole thing,” Xia answered softly. “The only ground we held over Xartasia was being able to tell the Arcadians that Maeve had a more legitimate claim to the throne than someone who allied with the Devourers. But now they know Maeve’s just as bad.”
“Maeve made a mistake,” Logan snarled. “Xartasia knows what she’s doing!”
“That is small comfort to the people of Kaellisem,” Anthem told the Prian. “The White Kingdom is fallen, they have grieved for a hundred years and now they finally have someone to blame.”
“It’s not–”
Maeve strode back into the room and everyone fell silent. She glanced at Logan and he replaced Anthem on the fibersteel floor. A bit sheepishly, the Prian had to admit. But Maeve no longer hugged her wings around herself. She raised her sharp chin and Logan knew he would be proud of whatever she did next. Maeve handed her com back to Dain, who accepted it with a bob of her head.
“Panna and Ballad have news,” Maeve said. “Their recruitment efforts on Hadra have not been very successful, but they encountered one of Xartasia’s knights.”
She raised her hand to forestall any questions.
“He is dead. Ballad protected Panna admirably… She was most emphatic on that matter. But before he died, Xartasia’s knight told them something. My cousin has the Arcadians she needs, it seems. Her work there is done. Panna believes that her recruiters are now killing any of those who did not join Xartasia.”
“But why?” Gripper asked in a tiny voice. “Why would she ever do that?”
“Perhaps out of bloody and petty vengeance. Perhaps to keep them away from us,” Maeve said. “From me.”
“So that’s it?” Duaal kicked the couch and then slumped down onto it. “We’ve lost and Xartasia wins?”
Logan glanced back at Anthem, but it was impossible to read the knight’s expression. Not because it was stony, but because there were too many obvious feelings warring for control. Anger and despair, hope and joy all rippling across Anthem’s fine features like waves across the sand.
“No,” Maeve said. “We are not finished just yet! That knight told Panna that in order for Xartasia to execute her unknown plan, she has taken her people and Devourers to the Tower.”
“Tower?” Xia repeated. “What tower?”
“You mean the Nnyth Tower?” Gripper asked. “The star wasps? Where you got the phenno?”
Maeve nodded once. “That was Panna’s conclusion, as well.”
“The Nnyth…” Ferris said. The duke had sat down again, rather pointedly with his back to Logan. The old fairy never liked Logan and he had just proved himself to be the brutish, dangerous animal Ferris always thought him. “You served at the Waygates, Majesty. That is known to all now. Then you know the Nnyth’s wisdom in those mysteries.”
“The Nnyth taught the first Spire Adepts,” Maeve said. “And it was from them that the Arcadians learned to use the Waygates.”
“Yes, a’shae,” Ferris agreed, nodding. “None know the Waygates better. And Xartasia used a Waygate on Prianus to summon those Devourers that fly with her now, you told us. Perhaps she intends to bring more into the galaxy.”
“But why go to the Nnyth for that?” Gripper asked. “Aren’t there a bunch of Waygates left in the White Kingdom? She could use any of them.”
“And that doesn’t explain what she needs all the Arcadians for,” Xia said. “You told us no one understands the Waygates better, but that’s not true. As far as we know, the Devourers built them in the first place. So they would know the most about the gates, right? What could Xartasia ask the Nnyth that the Devourers wouldn’t know more about?”
“I do not know,” Ferris admitted.
“It’s a long flight all the way out to the galactic rim,” Logan said. “That’s not a journey anyone would want to make unless absolutely necessary. Whatever Xartasia’s up to next, she’s got to be very sure that it’s going to work. Everything she’s done up until now has been to make this move.”
“How can you know that?” Ferris asked, finally looking at Logan again.
“Logan is right,” Anthem said. “Titania… Xartasia… is a clever and careful woman. She will not cast a hundred stones and just hope that one strikes her target. The Nnyth are the most ancient and powerful race of the galaxy — perhaps excepting the Devourers, but I know little of them — but even the Jinn cannot claim them as friends. Even in the days of the White Kingdom, we did not simply arrive unannounced at the Nnyth Tower.”
Maeve nodded. “Now we must go to the Nnyth and warn them. We must ask them if they understand Xartasia’s plan and stop it, if we can. Space is vast and dark on the edge of the galaxy. The Blue Phoenix has reached the Nnyth Tower once before.”
“When we first brought back the phenno for Xyn,” Duaal said. He smiled sadly at Maeve. “That was your first time on the Phoenix. Tiberius hired you as a guide.”
Maeve smiled, too. It was a raw, painful thing and tears filled her eyes at the memory. Logan felt it, too. Tiberius Myles had been a good man. He deserved better than to be killed by Gavriel… but he had fallen fighting Duaal’s tormentor, fighting for the boy who had been Tiberius’ son in all but name. That, at least, was right.
“We’ll need to pick up a few things from Unbreakers to make the flight,” Duaal said. “The Tower is a long way, even from Stray. But we can refuel in Gharib and be in the black inside a day. From there, it should take about a month to get out to the Rynn system on the rim.”
“I can probably shave off a few days if we push the engines a little,” Gripper added. “We just need enough food to make the trip.”
Everyone looked at Maeve.
“There may be words traded with the Nnyth,” Duke Ferris said. “Who shall serve as your emissary? Who will be your voice, a’shae?”
Maeve paused and Logan recognized the calculating look in her gray eyes. After a moment, she inclined her head to the duke.
“If you will agree, Your Grace,” Maeve said, “then I would like you to stand for me.”
Ferris’ wings rustled and he beamed with pride. “Of course, my queen. It would be my greatest honor.”
“Wait, why aren’t you coming out to the Tower with us, Glass?” Gripper asked.
“Our queen has responsibilities in Kaellisem,” Anthem said. He turned toward her. “What of the riots rising in the city? There has already been blood and it is only a matter of time until lives are lost. What do you want us to do, Maeve?”
“They are already surrounding my tower, demanding answers,” Maeve said. “Gather the rest of Kaellisem there. The theater is in ruins, but I must speak to my people.”
“What’s the point?” Duaal asked. He shook his head. “What do you think you can tell them now that will make the slightest bit of difference?”
“It will be done,” Anthem said, saluting Maeve with a long wing and ignoring Duaal’s objections. He took out his com and began relaying orders to his knights.
“Maeve, you’re just torturing yourself,” Duaal told her. “Let this simmer down.”
“Have you not always told me how much appearances matter?” Maeve asked with another small, sad smile that made Logan’s heart ache. “A queen is more than the crown she wears or even the blood in her veins. I am no queen without my kingdom. I cannot ignore what they need, Duaal.”
“No, I guess not.”
Maeve returned her attention to Ferris. “I have recalled Ballad and Panna from Hadra. Their work on that world is done, such as it has been. I will assign the pair to you. Ballad has proved himself a more than capable knight. He will protect you. Panna is intelligent, insightful and organized. She will be an excellent administrator. They should be back on Stray soon.”
Duke Ferris’ eyebrows crept fractionally up his weathered face — he didn’t like Ballad much more than he did Logan — but he simply inclined his head. “Yes, Your Majesty. As you wish. I will prepare myself for the journey.”
Ferris turned and left. Duaal, Gripper and Xia scattered to begin preparations to get the Blue Phoenix into the black, leaving Logan alone with Maeve. And Dain and Anthem. The little handmaiden was helping Sir Anthem count out how many Arcadians each of his knights needed to collect. Neither one paid much attention to the queen and the bounty hunter for now.
“Logan?” Maeve asked.
“Yes, a’shae?” Logan answered.
Maeve winced. “I would like you to go with the Blue Phoenix.”
Logan’s mechanical heart felt like it was made of lead, but he made himself bow. He had no wings to give the proper obeisance.
“If that’s what you want,” Logan answered.
“You are not going to ask me why?” Maeve asked.
“Does it matter?” Logan asked her with a shrug. “I’ll do whatever you need me to. Always.”
“What happens here in Kaellisem will be for the Arcadians, to help and serve them,” Maeve said. “But flying out to the Tower, that may save or damn many more lives than that. I need you there. No one in the worlds is stronger than you.”
“You are,” Logan said before he could stop himself.
Maeve’s cheeks burned with color and Logan turned away and left the mess before the urge to hold her overwhelmed him. He felt Maeve’s eyes on him as he went.
“Yes, Sir Anthem,” Syle said into his com. “Of course. I will bring them at once.”
The yellow-eyed knight keyed off the device and slid it back into the sash tied around the waist of his armor. He returned his attention to the scene below.
A dozen or so Arcadians stood together, back to back and their wings overlapping in fragile feathered shields. They were loyalists, those who either didn’t believe what the rest of Kaellisem said about the queen or — for reasons that eluded Syle — did not loathe her for it.
But a larger group of Arcadians surrounded them, shouting and closing slowly in. Most of the aggressors were unarmed, but a few had taken up stones or shards of blackened glass — pieces of the ruined theater. The disastrous enassui had become a symbol across Kaellisem of Queen Maeve’s failure, a sign that the gods themselves decried her reign.
A pair of Gharib police cars circled high over the crowd of Arcadians and then raced off back toward their city without landing. Who had called them? Syle suspected the Dailon man, Vyron, or maybe his wife. They insisted on taking an interest in things that had nothing to do with them.
But it didn’t matter anymore. Things were moving too fast. The Gharib police wouldn’t risk involvement unless things spilled out of Kaellisem. Syle doubted that would happen… the fairies were leaving, abandoning Queen Maeve in droves. Kaellisem would cannibalize itself within a week, leaving Maeve Cavainna alone and helpless to make any move against Xartasia.
Syle smiled. It had been almost too easy. A single piece of information whispered into a few pointed ears had done a far better job than weeks of bombs. For all of the work that Syle had put into a variety of interesting devices, those had failed to topple Kaellisem.
Sir Anthem Calloren and Logan Coldhand had proved entirely too clever for Syle’s taste. He assumed that the two men’s rivalry for Maeve’s affection would distract them more than enough for Syle to finish his work, but both proved more dedicated to their duties — or maybe to the queen herself — than that.
Syle considered ignoring Anthem’s orders. It was a good time to leave Kaellisem. His work was done, after all. The other knights would notice his absence, of course, but Syle would be long gone by then. He had money enough for a fast ship off Stray and with so many Arcadians on the planet these days. No one would notice the comings and goings of one more.
But Syle was a professional. There was no name for his profession, but he took pride in his work. Surely the White Queen herself would have delicately applauded Syle’s success.
It was a pity that she would never know the intricate details. By necessity, Syle operated in absolute silence, never once calling back to Xartasia to report his progress. Such long-range communications were logged and recorded at any terminal. Messy. And by the time Syle could tell his queen of his deeds in person, it would be far too late. The story would mean nothing.
The regret tasted bitter in Syle’s mouth, but perhaps it was for the best that Xartasia would never know what had passed in Kaellisem. The White Queen’s heart broke the day her kingdom fell, and she didn’t know that Anthem Calloren had survived the destruction. But it was best that Xartasia never discovered how he had betrayed her.
Syle loved his queen. He would spare her any pain.
Below, one of the frightened loyalists finally broke from the ring and darted into the air, trying to escape, but three others leapt and tackled the woman swiftly back to the sandy ground. A low moan went up from the loyalists and then a louder, high-pitched note from the rest of the Arcadians. One of them brandished his sharp, crooked spike of black glass and Syle’s smile became a wolfish grin.
Let Maeve bring her failing people together for more lies. Let her make her empty promises. Let her drive the final spear through her own kingdom.
Syle whistled a sharp note and spread his wings. He dove down into the center of the crowd. Red Stray sunlight shone blindingly off his glass armor. Syle raised his spear and sang in a loud voice.
“Queen Maeve calls you to her! She has something to say.”
