Rora stood and extended her cyborg hand toward Gwen. The very same hand that Gwen had made for her; the hand that started this mess in the first place.
Against all odds and common sense, she took it.
Rora guided Gwen back into the ballroom. “Let’s see what we can learn about your man tonight.”
Looking around, Gwen couldn’t see Bastian or Celeste anywhere.
They hurried over to where Marzanna and Akio had seated themselves at a table with several other cyborgs.
“Have you seen Bastian?” Gwen asked.
Brows furrowed, Marzanna pointed toward the main door. “He just left with Celeste.”
With a murmured thanks, Gwen and Rora hurried out of the ballroom. To the right, she saw a flash of red disappearing around a corner.
“That way!” Gwen grabbed Rora’s arm, speed-hobbling down the halls.
“Where are they going?” Rora asked as they turned down hall after hall in the opposite direction of the bedrooms in the east wing.
“They must be heading to the courtyard,” Gwen said.
Turning down several more hallways, they eventually entered the main foyer. Celeste and Bastian exited the entrance to the palace, which several guards held open. Rora grabbed Gwen’s arm, and they crouched behind a column. Leaning forward, they peered around it, trying to listen.
“Don’t stay out after dark,” one of the guards said. “Even the palace grounds aren’t safe for your kind at night.”
Celeste nodded, smiling. “We won’t be long. We want to check on our beasts, make sure they’re settling in.”
They disappeared beyond the main palace door, which was bolted behind them.
Gwen frowned. “They’re going to the stables? Now?”
Shrugging, Rora pulled her toward the door. “Come on!”
They strode forward, hands clasped. Rora leaned into Gwen, a bright, random smile on her face as though Gwen had just said something hilarious.
“Flirt with me.”
Gwen blinked, not understanding, but then she looked at the guards and realization dawned.
Slinging her free arm over Rora’s shoulders, she leaned close and nibbled Rora’s earlobe before whispering sweet nothings into her ear. Laughing, Rora swatted at her playfully, a sway to her step. Gwen followed her lead.
When they came up to the guards, one said, “What’s your business?”
“I want to show my darling the town,” Gwen said. “We’ve never been to Allegiant before.”
Although she couldn’t see the man’s face beneath his helmet, she could have sworn she saw him lifting an eyebrow.
He doesn’t believe us.
Without pausing to think about the stupidity of her actions, she leaned in and pressed her lips to Rora’s. Just as she had all those weeks ago, Rora yielded easily to Gwen. The acrobat smelled of her usual rose and peach blossom perfume, which plumed into Gwen’s nose as Rora’s breasts press against her abdomen.
Parting Rora’s lips, she slipped her tongue into the shorter woman’s mouth, kissing her for a moment longer before letting go. When she did, Rora breathed heavily, her lips reddened and eyes glazed.
The soldier harrumphed. “I’ll tell you the same as I’ve told every cyborg who’s approached this door. Be back before dark. Otherwise, things will end badly for your kind.”
Gwen winked at him with her human eye. “You’re a doll.”
Unbolting the door, he opened it, and they strode out.
On the other side of the door, several guards stood with long guns tipped with spearpoints. Gwen paused to smile at them before staggering down the street with Rora, the two of them laughing at nothing at all.
When they were out of sight of the main door, Gwen removed her arm from Rora’s neck. “Where are the stables?”
Rora ran a finger over her lips absently. Clearing her throat, she lowered her hand and pointed down an immaculate cobblestone street. “I think I saw it this way when we were walking in.”
A few minutes later, they were met with the smell of manure.
As they turned down the end of a street, she spotted the entrance to the stables, where a stable boy stood guard.
“That’s it?” Gwen gestured to the lack of guards. “Are they not afraid of thieves?”
Rora shrugged. “I guess the emperor is confident within his own walls. Maybe the punishment for crimes here is much steeper than it is on other planets.”
The stables consisted of a massive stone building two stories tall, nestled between stone buildings on either side and separated by narrow alleys. From where they stood in the shadows across the street, Gwen thought she could see windows on the side of the stables. She pointed at them.
“Think you can get up there?”
Pulling up her skirt, Rora revealed a rope and small grappling hook.
“How the hell did you hide that in there?” Gwen asked. “I would have stabbed myself in the crotch.”
“Eloquent, as always, Gwen.” She gestured to the stable boy. “Distract him, would you?”
Gwen scratched her head. How the hell was she supposed to do that? But it was now or never.
Striding from the shadows, she ambled toward the stable’s front entrance. The boy looked up from where he sat on a wooden stool behind a counter. When he saw Gwen’s cyborg eye, his face went from polite attention to obvious disgust.
Nostrils flaring, he said, “Can I help you?”
“I hope so.” Moving slowly on her crutch, she stopped and leaned on the counter. She ran her tongue over her teeth, blinking slowly. “Can you tell me where the nearest tavern is? It seems I’ve lost my way.”
From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of movement as Rora crossed the street and disappeared down the alley beside the stable.
“There are no taverns in the palace proper,” the boy said. “You’ll have to return to the main city.” In a softer voice, he added, “Or whatever dark hell you came from.”
There was a sudden clank of what must be the grappling hook against the stone before a louder clattering on the cobblestones.
The boy stood. “What was—”
“When I was your age, I thought cyborgs were abominations, too,” Gwen lied, slurring her speech. The boy hesitated, uncertain whether to leave this deranged cyborg alone—to possibly enter the stables and eat the animals—or check on the sound. “Unnatural, with the technology. No one should have that kind of power.” She tapped her cyborg eye. “That was, until I got this. I’d always been good at figuring out what a person really wants when I was human. But it wasn’t until they installed this eye that I went from discerning men’s desires to seeing into their minds.”
The boy’s eyes widened.
Stars, he couldn’t be older than fourteen.
Gwen shrugged. “I never thought such a thing was possible. Now that I have this ability, I realize it isn’t a gift but a curse. I’d always thought people had pure intentions overall. Only the few vile ones locked up were the dark of heart. But do you know the nasty, vile thoughts men have? It isn’t the machine that makes cyborgs monsters. It’s us, our human nature. The machine only amplifies what’s already there.”
“Th-that’s not true,” the boy stammered, looking around. “The machine makes you evil.”
She allowed her eyes to flicker to the desk, where she spotted oils behind the counter and grease stains around the crotch of his pants.
Thank the stars I’m not a teenager anymore.
Cyborg eye whirring, she looked hard at the boy, pretending to read his thoughts. “Ah, I see. You’re one of them.”
“One of who?”
“You’re one of the folks driven by lust. Shouldn’t you be keeping guard? It seems you’ve been quite distracted by other activities this evening.”
His eyes widened in horror. “How could you know that?”
“I told you already.” She pointed at her eye. “Cyborg powers.”
She hadn’t heard the sound of the grappling hook in a few minutes, but she wasn’t sure if Rora had gotten into the upper-story window yet. Racking her brain, she tried to think of something else to keep the boy occupied.
“You saw someone not long ago.” She pretended to look deeply into him. “A tall fellow with olive skin and a woman with bright red hair.”
The boy’s eyes widened further, if that was possible. Slowly, he nodded, glancing over his shoulder. But there was only a massive wood wall, behind which horses whinnied. At the side of the wall was a doorway with a half-gate.
“They came around here a few minutes before you.” He paused, looking her up and down. “I thought you said you were looking for a tavern.”
There was a loud crashing outside.
Flinching, she glanced backward. The boy was on his feet at once, pausing long enough to give her a look that said, “Don’t touch anything!” before he disappeared around the corner of the building.
“Fuck.” Turning, she started to shuffle after him.
“Gwen!”
It was Rora. She was in the alley on the opposite side of the building the boy had run off to. Gwen hurried over and hid beside her. Even in the shadows, Rora seemed pale, her dark features having lost some of their usual warmth.
“What did you find?” Gwen demanded, surprised to find her hands gripping Rora’s shoulders.
“You should probably see this for yourself.” She gestured to the rope and grappling hook, which dangled from the window one story above them.
“I’m in no shape to climb. That’s why you’re here. Just tell me what you saw.”
Rora shook her head. “You really should see this. Now.”
There was an edge of urgency to Rora’s voice that froze the words she’d been about to speak.
“There’s a stack of crates around back,” Rora said. “You should be able to climb up to see through another window. Come on.”
Nodding, she followed Rora behind the building. Hiking up her dress and tucking her skirts into the belt at her waist, she dropped her crutch on the ground before climbing up the crate. With Rora’s help, she eventually made it.
She peered down through the glassless window, which overlooked dozens of stalls two stories below. Nearly fifty watchmen were stationed throughout the stable. One stood at each animal stall, as well as two at every entrance and exit, and more walked the length of the building. The cyborg animals, including the red dragon, were within their cages. At the stall in the back corner was no animal at all, but a man.
Bastian kneeled at the center of the stall, utterly motionless. A table had been set up next to a wall beside him where Celeste had an open tool kit and several portable mainframes with screens where green text flowed upward. She held something small in her hand that Gwen couldn’t see. Looking back at Bastian, she realized what she’d missed before.
His port was open on the back of his neck.
She turned to Rora, eyes wide. Recognition filled both of their eyes.
Celeste was tinkering with his chip. Had that been why Bastian hadn’t seemed to remember Gwen or their conversations? Could Celeste have changed his memories?
Or deleted them?
Standing, Celeste went over to Bastian, running a nail along the side of his cheek. “I appreciate your assistance, my pet.” She walked behind him, placing a chip into his head. “Can’t be too careful with everything so close to unfolding. I want to be certain you understand your orders for tomorrow, and what to do if things don’t go according to the plan.”
She held something between her fingers, which she slipped into a hidden pocket of her scarlet gown.
“I doubt you’ll ever need this chip again. Once you kill the emperor tomorrow, you’ll likely be tried and executed. There will be no point in returning your memories or personality to you. As charming as you once were, I don’t need the old Bastian Kabir. I need my little soldier.”
As she spoke, Bastian didn’t move. He simply stared ahead at the wall.
“I didn’t bother to seek out most of my performers. I didn’t care what their background was. But Carlisle? I sent him to find you. I needed someone with combat experience who was forgettable. And you, my darling, are most certainly forgettable.”
She waved her hand dismissively in the air as though Bastian had spoken.
“Sure, Abrecan knows his way around a bow, but a gun is far more subtle and far harder to detect. Besides, the man is as wide as a mountain. The minute he walks into the room, everyone will be watching him, wondering just what violence he’s capable of. No one will be looking at the thin, dark ringleader.
“But my, were you resistant in becoming my apprentice again. I needed a way to get you away from the others and test my new coding. I suppose I should be thanking the little tinkerer for being so predictable. Though, she has been quite the nuisance.”
She patted his cheek. “Rise, darling. Go back to your rooms, speak to no one, and prepare yourself for tomorrow. We won’t meet again until the show.”
Rising from where he kneeled in the stall, he brushed his knees off and left without a word. Even from here, Gwen could see the vacant look in his eyes.
Rage coursed through her, as powerful and engulfing as a black hole in deep space.
Turning, she slid down on her ass, moving clumsily from one crate to the next, ignoring the screaming pain in her leg. When her feet touched the ground, she scooped up her crutch, already moving toward the front of the stable. She was going to kill Celeste.
Before she cleared the end of the alley, a wrist caught her. She slowed to a stop, trying to pull her arm free.
“Gwen! Don’t!” Rora hissed.
“Let go! Didn’t you see what happened? Celeste messed with his chip. She’s going to force Bastian to kill the emperor!”
And for what?
Gwen’s mind raced, her heart along with it. “We have to help him.”
“We will!” Rora hauled Gwen back into the shadows of the alley. “But not like this. Didn’t you see all the watchmen in there? We’ll become mindless zombies just like Bastian if we go charging in there.”
Stopping, she turned toward Rora. Her face was flushed, and anger still coursed through her, but she knew Rora was right.
“We’ll help him, but not like this,” Rora said. “We have to be smart.”
Damn you. Why do you have to be so levelheaded right now?
Gwen wanted to shoot something—or someone.
“Fine,” she bit out. “Let me go.”
As Rora released her wrist, she heard footsteps outside and watched as Bastian walked up the street, back toward the castle.
You are anything but forgettable.
Tears filled her eyes.
“What has she done to you?”
Rora grabbed Gwen’s hands and turned her to face her. “I’ll bet you my new hand that Celeste has Bastian’s chip with his memories. That’s what she slipped into her dress.”
Gwen nodded, remembering. “We have to get it back from her tomorrow somehow. During the performance, maybe. And stop Bastian from…”
Killing the emperor.
Exhaling heavily, Rora looped her arm through Gwen’s and pulled her back toward the palace. “What I want to know is, why does she want to kill the emperor in the first place? He’s trying to help change the law. He’s on our side!”
Gwen’s fists clenched as the palace came into view. “And why not do it herself?”
“Should we tell him?”
For a moment, Gwen considered whether or not they should reveal Celeste’s plans to the emperor, but she eventually shook her head. “He won’t believe us. At best, he would turn us over to Celeste. At worst, we would be tossed into the dungeon. Either way, we wouldn’t be able to help anyone.”
As they passed back through the palace’s main gates and into the castle, Rora said, “Time to make one of your master plans.”
Indeed, it was. But how the hell was she supposed to get close enough to Celeste tomorrow to swipe Bastian’s chip while still keeping an eye on the man programmed to assassinate the emperor?
Somehow, she’d have to manage it. Otherwise, none of them would make it off the planet alive. With the emperor and all order gone, the humans would slaughter the cyborgs. Celeste didn’t know it yet, but she was about to spark civil unrest—and with the cyborgs at the center. She was about to make them into the very monsters people believed them to be.
Monsters that everyone wanted dead.