When the meeting finally ended, I was ready to burst out of my skin. I’d spent the whole day with people, and at the end of it all, I felt like at most, we decided the other ships would make haste toward us, and the rest was posturing and chest-thumping to see who would have the most power in this new world. Besides the Prem’yera, of course. I shook my head in disgust. I hadn’t realized my parents dealt with so much obsequiousness.
Finn. Father’s voice in my head stopped me in my tracks. A word.
I straightened my shoulders and returned to the table, doing my best to appear confident while my stomach began a slow churn. He rarely gave me his full attention; so when he did, my anxiety notched up to full red alert. We were alone in the room. This wouldn’t be good.
He faced me, standing as tall and straight as a statue, but with his bright blue eyes sparking with rage. You were an embarrassment today. Two inches taller than him, I shouldn’t have felt so small, but it seemed the more he stared at me, the smaller I got. With his lips pressed tight and his jaw clenched hard, I heard his teeth grating together. If you cannot pay attention, or offer any relevant opinions, do not attend.
His gaze traveled over me, his frown deepening. I knew there was nothing wrong with my appearance, yet whatever he saw seemed to disgust him. When his eyes met mine again, I fought not to let the hurt show.
If you are going to bond with that Shudra girl, you must be perfection. I will not tolerate anything less. He held my gaze for a long moment. The point is to give the appearance of unity so those blasted rebels will not ruin what we have worked so hard to obtain. See to it you are not the cause of our ruin, either.
In disbelief, I turned to watch him leave. Stars and space. What had just happened?
My father had always been a dominant man, but he’d been a good father. He tempered his firm hand with a kindness and love most people wouldn’t expect. But this—this cruelty—was new. I didn’t know what to do with it, how to respond, how to behave. I didn’t know if it was the stress of landfall and bringing in the other ships, but this new version of him was terrifying.
All I’d ever wanted was to be a man and a leader my father could be proud of. To lead our people according to my own mind, built upon the foundation of my parents’ leadership. Now, it was hard to believe in myself if my own father couldn’t.
In the hall, I checked my messages. The pale green light had appeared more than half an hour ago, and it had stretched my patience to wait to check it. The others were going to my parents’ suite for drinks, so I walked away from them. As soon as I did, I heard them speaking to my parents about Wylie and other stuff about their own importance.
I shook my head and began the message.
“Finn.” Wylie’s voice sounded strange, excited, but something else too. Sad or something, which was unlike her. Wylie had been through more than most people, yet she always kept a positive outlook. Even when I’d gone to see her in the Children’s Center the day after graduation, she’d fully embraced her new role and seemed at peace with it all. If that couldn’t shake her, what could?
A commotion behind me had me turning, but it seemed under control. Father held Mother a little tightly—perhaps she had stumbled. I returned my attention to the message.
“Can you come meet me? Like, now? There’s something you have to see. Let me know as soon as you get this.”
Just as Wylie’s message finished, my father’s voice interrupted my thoughts again. Bring Wylie to our suite tonight. The Kshatriya and their partners will be there, so Wylie should be too.
I tried to catch his eye, but he didn’t look back as he helped Mother into the lift. When I attempted to respond, he closed his mind to me. I felt like I’d been sucker-punched—I couldn’t reconcile the man who’d reprimanded me in the meeting room, with the one inviting me and Wylie to a meet and greet.
Before I could get my bearings, Natalya stepped in front of me.
She bowed low, but from her, the act of respect seemed somehow disrespectful. My gaze flicked to Dom, whose expression remained blank.
“Good evening, Dì èr. The Prem’yera requests your presence at their gathering, yet I understand your preferido is missing.”
“Oh, she is not—”
Natalya’s silvery gaze sharpened on mine. “You both must understand the importance of being seen and meeting the other leaders. Tonight is very important to your parents. Do you need me to retrieve your preferido?”
“Her name is Wylie. And no, I do not want you to retrieve her.”
She gave the barest of nods. “Be sure you are both there.” She turned and walked away before I could respond.
Was it this place? Was it messing with us, somehow? Because no one seemed to be acting the way they should.
Natalya stopped and looked back at me. “Perhaps she is incapable of becoming Dharma, and we should not fault her for that. Better we discover it now, rather than after the bonding is complete.”
I frowned, but she marched quickly away before I could question or, better yet, reprimand her. The most troubling thing, though, was that Servants did not act on their own. If this was the message she brought to me, then it was Father’s message. Father’s threat: Wylie needed to fit his mold for her, or she’d be cut loose. And I’d be cut off from her.
Anger boiled inside me as I stalked to the stairs that wrapped around the lift. That Natalya—Father—would threaten Wylie’s position and think I would, or could, allow it proved how little my father knew of me.
There was a time when we thought alike, desired the same things for the people. I didn’t know when it had changed, but I realized now that it had. He’d grown volatile over recent months, changeable. One moment he’d seem like his old self, and the next he’d be angry and irrational. A memory of him on the holodeck before we made landfall came to mind.
Did you get all that? I asked Dom when we reached my floor.
Indeed.
None of it makes sense. I threw myself onto the couch, an arm over my eyes. “This blasted sun. I wish it could just be dark for a while.”
I lifted my arm just enough to see Dom sit in the chair across from me. “What do you think we should do?”
He leaned back, taking great care to make it appear as if he were lounging. He wasn’t terribly successful. “I think you both need to go, as commanded.”
I sighed. “She just messaged me. She wants me to come meet her. Apparently, they’ve found something.”
“There should be time for that tomorrow. I will do my best to ensure you each have a clear spot in your schedule. But for now, you had best send for her.”
I hated bringing her home, especially when I knew how much she’d dislike the gathering, but at least I could get her away from Birch. It was beneath me, I knew, but as much as I tried to be okay with it, I hated it when she spent time with him. I wanted to be the one she went on adventures with, the one to discover this world with her.
With a thought, I reached for her. Wylie.
Finn! The joy in her voice at receiving my call, the way she said my name as if it was the single-most wonderful name in all the worlds, made my stomach clench and my heart beat faster.
Hey, you. I smiled as Dom stood and left the room. Since we shared symbionts, he was privy to everything unless I shut him out, which I rarely did. Yet I appreciated his effort to give me a semblance of privacy with the girl I loved. I hate to do this, but can you come home? We have a party to attend.
We?
Yup. You and me. An official appearance for the commanders, so they can say they knew us when.
Wylie snorted, a wonderful little backward laugh that made me want to kiss her. Then again, I always wanted to kiss her. You mean, they want to see how well a Shudra can clean up.
I grinned. Something like that. There was a long, heavy pause. Wy? I prompted.
She let out a long breath. I’m not sure I can tonight, Finn. I learned some things today, and I don’t think I can be what they all want me to be when I want to yell in their faces and demand answers.
I drew in a steadying breath, which I hoped Wylie didn’t sense. It sounds like you discovered more than cliffs.
Yes. Finn, they’re holding citizens suspected to be a part of the rebellion.
The rebellion that doesn’t exist. I wasn’t surprised, so much as disappointed. How could my parents be so different from who I thought they were?
There’s more.
I didn’t like the sound of that. Wylie approached everything with a positive attitude, but now, all I heard was weariness. Weariness and fear.
I met a little girl named Fallon. She was the cutest little thing, and she was so sick. Birch told me after that people are dying from that same sickness. Dying! Shouldn’t we know about that sort of thing?
The anger I’d felt earlier blossomed into white-hot fury.
Finn? Wylie’s gentle voice cooled my temper, but I still didn’t know how to respond.
I figured you didn’t know. She paused, but I still couldn’t respond. On a brighter note, you’ve got to see this place. It’s amazing. More than that, but I just can’t think of a word to do it justice. But I want to show it to you before we tell the Prem’yera. Can we do that?
Sure, I managed. Of course, but tonight is important. Will you come? My parents would be interested to learn of the discovery—how would they react when I confronted them with the other information Wylie gave me?
Um, Wylie said. I heard Birch talking in the background, no doubt telling her she didn’t have to drop everything every time I called. I’m kind of far away. It’s going to take me a while to get back, and I’ll definitely need time to clean up. I’m kind of a mess. She used her palm implant to send me an image of herself, her hair sticking out in every direction, and red grime smeared on her face.
Despite my roller coaster of emotions, I laughed. You’re adorable. But I see your problem. Send me your location. Once we began the symbiont exchange tomorrow, I’d be able to locate her anywhere, but until then, I was as blind as any average human where Wylie was concerned.
She sent her coordinates. Got them. I’ll send Dom with the shuttle.
You won’t be coming? I felt her disappointment like a punch to the gut.
I want to do some digging into what you told me before we go to the party.
We can’t do anything about it during a party, Wylie said.
I didn’t respond. The child in me wanted to believe the best of my parents, but the adult had seen too much cunning of late. I wasn’t sure what to believe of them anymore.
Okay, she said. See ya soon.
Dom appeared in the doorway as I sat up. “You could have told her about your father’s threat. If you are a team, she deserves to know.”
I smiled a little. Few people knew much about Wylie, but I’d grown up with her and knew she was good and kind and yes, a bit wild, but she was also the most responsible person I knew.
“I know,” I said. “But I don’t want to burden her with all that yet. It’s so unlike Father and so inconsistent with recent conversations—I don’t know what to make of it. Perhaps it is all a misunderstanding.”
Dom had the grace not to call me on that one.
“Shall I go retrieve her, then?” he asked.
“Yes, please. And will you inform Missy that she’ll need a gown and all that?”
Dom gave me a knowing smile and bowed. “Of course.”
He left, and I was alone in my rooms for the first time since arriving on Lux. Although Dom had been with me since the day of my birth, I’d grown used to some freedom from his constant presence. Since landfall, it seemed he’d been with me almost every minute. It felt rather decadent to be alone at last.
I rose from the couch and meandered out to the balcony. It faced east, toward the vast ocean—though from here, it appeared more like a horizon than a body of water. From my vantage point, I saw the small town and the tarps that stretched over the main street.
The demarcation between Sol Eterno and where the sun’s reach ended, fascinated me. I leaned my elbows on the stone balustrade and looked to the north. Lightning flashed at irregular intervals at the junction between light and dark. I had proposed we investigate harnessing the geothermal energy that must be present there, but so far, Father kept putting me off. Power would become an issue soon, though, and I’d be ready. Sol Eterno ran on hydropower with a psionic interface. Much of the city would remain inert until the population had access to the power of their minds.
Was that what Wylie wanted to show me? Anything she found that helped bring us knowledge about the Luxians would be of enormous benefit, but when I thought of her in dangerous situations without protection, frustration brewed within me. Missy should have been there with her.
Wylie had a strained relationship with her Servant. She’d grown up in the Children’s Center with a handful of different “mothers.” She’d told me her dream was to have a family of her own, but the reality of belonging to mine was a major adjustment. She went from being an unknown Shudra girl one day to preferido of all the people the next. On top of all that, she had Missy who had awakened the nanotech in her DNA and implanted a piece of herself so she could know Wylie’s needs. I thought I understood or could at least sympathize with what Wylie was going through, but until we shared our own symbionts, I could only guess.
Regardless, while Servants were the pinnacle of synthetic technology, we had created them. They had no spark of life within them but the one we put there. Synthetics would always serve humans—and Missy should serve Wylie without judgment.
A powerful lightning strike hit the sand out in the distance, drawing my attention. A second later, I could just make out the glossy surface of a giant fulgurite left behind in the strike’s wake. We hadn’t yet reached the end of the T-zone, but I expected the entire border to be littered with lightning glass.
I thought about Proctor Alán and his disappearance, the tampered database, the damaged dining room, and Mother’s stern warnings to leave it all alone. I thought of Natalya’s—Father’s—threat against Wylie and Missy’s uncommon behavior. Something was going on here. I just couldn’t figure out what.
Which was humbling, considering that as a neohuman, one would think I’d be good at solving puzzles. Heaving a sigh, I shook my head and tried to push it all from my mind. Maybe the engagement and landfall and everything else were messing with my brain. Servants were synthetic with advanced programming; they weren’t devious and conniving. The Dharma had been trusting them for a thousand years—it was improbable they’d suddenly go rogue.
Exactly, I told myself, and I felt marginally better. I did not know what had happened to Proctor Alán or Wylie’s assignment, but it might not have been foul play at all. Besides, Wylie’s caste hardly mattered now that she was my preferido.
She was the only one I’d ever wanted, and the one person I thought I could never have. Picturing her wide smile and wild curls, I grinned. Tomorrow, the bonding would begin, and then she’d really be mine. And I’d be hers.
We’re here, Dom reported. I’ll escort the preferido to her quarters before I return to you.
Good. Is Wylie okay?
The delay in Dom’s response had me gripping the stone so tightly, grit formed beneath my hands.
Yes, Dom said. But she and Birch have found something remarkable.
He filled my mind with what he had seen when he arrived to pick Wylie up not thirty minutes before. I saw the cliffs and the ledge that ran along it far above the shore. I saw the statues as Dom identified them, and the arched cave entrances scattered behind them.
Stars and space, I said. What is that?
Dom didn’t respond—he didn’t have to since we thought the same thing. The formation looked like hangars, such as we might use for a wartime flight response. I turned to face the other direction, toward the sub-stellar zone and the cliffs Wylie had explored. Just what had happened to the people who’d been here before us?