The first thing Scout noticed was that Shi Jian had two arms. She was still dressed in black, tunic over leggings complete with billowing cape and soft shoes, all except for the sleeve over her right arm. That was a deep red, like drying blood.
Scout thought at first that she must be a holographic projection. She had seen projections she hadn’t realized weren’t real people until someone tried to touch them.
Then she saw the perspiration just starting to gleam on the woman’s forehead and knew that she had to be here, under the sun in that not remotely climate-appropriate outfit.
Only, how?
“Shi Jian,” Mai said with a welcoming smile. “We were just finishing up here.”
“We haven’t even started,” Malcolm said, but she ignored him.
Joelle looked at Scout and then at Daisy. Something in their expressions made that little wrinkle of worry crease between her brows. She took another step back from her father and began furiously tapping at the communicator on her wrist.
Calling for reinforcements? If there were anyone on the planet or in orbit capable of standing up to Shi Jian, they’d never get here in time enough to matter.
“I’m just here for those two,” Shi Jian said, pointing at Daisy and Scout. “Then I’ll be on my way, and the rest of you can continue with . . . whatever.”
“We’re not going with you,” Daisy said.
Scout wished she felt as confident as Daisy sounded. She looked up into the sky, but whatever ship Shi Jian had arrived on was nowhere to be seen. Was it hiding in the glare of the midday sun?
Oh, to have her glasses back.
“I wasn’t asking,” Shi Jian said. She raised her red arm, but whatever gesture she had been about to do, whether merely marking the two of them for removal or initiating some sort of attack, neither Scout nor Daisy wanted to just stand there and watch it happen. Scout dove to hide behind the front landing gear of the rebels’ shuttle, hugging her dogs close to her side.
But Daisy charged straight at Shi Jian. She crossed the clearing with inhuman speed and the scream of someone who’s already taken one of your arms and is fully prepared to take the other.
Shi Jian watched Daisy charge at her with an unbothered expression. At the last possible moment, she finished raising her arm, palm out as if asking Daisy to stop.
Daisy didn’t. Scout saw the muscles in her enhanced legs bulge as she launched off from the last steps of her run, throwing herself at Shi Jian.
There was another bright flash of light, this time not from the sky but from Shi Jian’s open palm, and a crackle of energy that built to a boom of thunder.
Scout peeked around the landing gear to see Daisy lying on the ground, arms wrapped around herself as blue lightning shot all over her body, again and again. Her scream of rage had become one of agony that ended in breathless sobs.
“Yes, it hurts,” Shi Jian said. “Especially you. Your body enhances the energy I gave you. It’s going to take a bit of time before your internal systems stop boosting it out to all of your nerve endings and then back again.” She had bent over as she spoke to look Daisy in the eye, but she straightened now and looked at each one of them in turn. “Anyone else?” She flexed the hand at the end of that red sleeve, forming a tight fist and then splaying the fingers wide.
As if she were reloading.
No one said a word.
“Come out now, Scout,” Shi Jian said. “Leave your dogs with these nice people. You won’t be needing them where you’re going.”
“Where’s that?” Scout asked to buy for time. Time she could put to no good use; she didn’t have a weapon or any means of escape.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Shi Jian said. “No need for me to speak its name aloud for all to hear. Although even if I did, no one could follow us there. The name means nothing to any of you people.”
“Not even the Tajaki sisters?” Scout asked.
“Not even,” Shi Jian said.
Daisy’s sobs were quieting, but she was making no move to get up. The sight of her lying there at Shi Jian’s feet, broken, made Scout’s chest hurt.
“My patience runs dry,” Shi Jian said sourly.
“Jun,” Scout called, still not coming out from what cover the landing gear gave her. “I want Jun to take my dogs.” She pulled the leashes out of her pocket and clipped them to the dogs’ collars. “I need her to come and get them from me. They’re very frightened.”
Shi Jian waved a hand dismissively and turned to squat down beside Daisy. She didn’t speak, but Scout just knew that her eyes were taunting the still-unmoving Daisy.
Jun glanced at her sister, and at Mai’s slight nod she crossed the clearing to where Scout hid.
“Jun,” Scout said when she was close enough to hear a whisper. “Help me.”
Jun gave her a puzzled look but held her hand out to take the leashes. Scout got to her feet but pretended to fumble with the leashes, as if they were tangled. She tipped her head so her hat would block her mouth from view and spoke less in a whisper than in a subvocalization.
“I know you can hear me,” Scout said. “You’re not like your sister. You’re more. Like Daisy. Aren’t you?”
Jun looked at her, her face a careful blank. She extended her hand again for the leashes.
“Your sister has always lorded it over you,” Scout said. “Your younger sister. Because she’s always been a talker. And you have a big family, never a moment alone as a kid, never now. But look around, Jun. This is where I grew up. Just me and my dogs, riding over the prairie, only seeing people when we wanted to. Paradise, right?”
Jun blinked. It didn’t seem to carry any meaning; Scout pressed on.
“You want that for yourself, I know you do,” Scout said. “And you can have it. You just have to stop doing what your sister says. The pirate court, the destruction of societies for fun, that’s not your thing. You’re about the open prairie, living free and alone, being your own boss of your time and your work.”
“What’s the holdup?” Shi Jian asked, looking back over her shoulder from where she was still kneeling over Daisy.
“Mai hates dogs, doesn’t she?” Scout said as she reluctantly separated the two leashes from each other. “She’ll never let you have one. She wanted to kill mine, didn’t she? But you wouldn’t let her. You chose to give them back to me instead.”
A muscle in Jun’s jaw stood out as she clenched her jaw.
“Thank you for that,” Scout said. “But you know and I know that Shi Jian isn’t just going to take Daisy and me and leave. She’s going to have more demands for you and your sister. She’s going to tell you to kill everyone here because they’re witnesses. And she’s going to ask you to kill the dogs. And Mai is going to make you do it. All of it.
“Jun, please don’t let Shi Jian make you hurt my dogs.”
Scout gave the leashes a small tug, and the two dogs stepped up closer, looking with something between curiosity and confusion from Scout to Jun and back. Gert thumped her tail against the ground as Jun looked down at them.
“Please, Jun,” Scout said.
There was nothing left to say. She held out the leashes draped over her open palm.
Jun looked at them as if she wasn’t sure what they were. She hovered a hand over them.
“Does this really need to take all day?” Mai said. “Honestly, Jun—”
But her words were cut off abruptly. Scout felt a rush of wind stirring her hair, and the moment she turned to look towards Mai, Jun was already there, her hand closing around her sister’s throat.
She waited until her sister’s face went from red to purple before throwing her to the ground.
Then she turned to face Shi Jian.