Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Jacaranda

F acing off with Volatile Bateen was not something I wanted to do, but there was no other choice in order to get the information I needed from him about any of his potential offspring, other than Sarah, being a conduit between the living and the dead.

He was taller than me—though I was used to that at my height—and more heavily muscled. His tan skin had a blue sheen, not unlike how his own daughter, Sarah, had looked when she mogged into a Ladrian. But unlike her, his eyes were honey-colored, almost matching his skin, and his hair was gray. He had a reputation as a fighter, and I was not in the mood for a violent confrontation. Thankfully, his smile and his casual wardrobe indicated he didn’t want to brawl, either.

“Jacaranda Cozz, I must say I was surprised to receive your message to visit,” he said, and although his tone was congenial, his tense posture gave away his distrust. “Would you take refreshment?”

He gestured to his maid who delivered a tray topped with a variety of foods and beverages. I surreptitiously eyed the offerings. None of the items were grapes, which were used to detect if someone meant to do harm to another. Strange . I couldn’t pass a royal offer of refreshment—to do so would be considered rude to the elder royal. But I didn’t want to be poisoned, either.

So, I took the neneed and sipped it.

Neneed was always served as a shot and had a distinct taste and texture, all of which made poisoning neneed difficult. Either he would have had to spring for a pricy poison, or it wasn’t poisoned at all. I didn’t think a grunt like me would be worth the price of the good stuff. The familiar burn was accompanied by the typical taste of the sweet alcohol. Since I hadn’t dropped dead, I assumed it was not poisoned—good poisons worked fast.

“I’ve not had a quality neneed in a while,” I said, acknowledging the tasty drink. “I thank you for that, Volatile. Might we speak in private?” There were too many of his servants around for my peace of mind.

“You do not want a tour of my island?” he asked. “Most visitors find it entertaining.”

I noticed he tried hard to sound at ease. Too hard.

What’s got him so nervous? If I admit something that makes me anxious, perhaps he will relax.

I smiled and sighed. “If I can be honest with you, I’m not a big fan of artificial islands like this. It’s a childhood thing, I think. I always had a fear of them sinking beneath the waves with no warning.”

He chuckled. “You know that doesn’t happen to artificial islands, yes?”

“Years ago, an old girlfriend of mine tried to convince me to take a vacation on one of these artificial islands. She assured me they don’t sink. But childhood fears run deep and since I can’t swim, that relationship ended fast. But I prefer solid ground or a solid ship under my feet. Always have.”

“I see.” He nodded, still eyeing my crew who loitered nearby. “Will your compatriots be joining us for our meeting?”

“I prefer we speak alone, if I may be so bold.”

There was worry in his eyes again. He took in a breath and exhaled it out his nose, while he thought. “Very well. Follow me to my office.”

When we had landed on his island, I noted how similar it was to Halla. Full of greenery, every kind of flower and vine in all directions. I had expected the island of a royal to be one massive palace, but Volatile’s home was only a large house, like the mansions on Earth. The floors were smoothed pale gray stones, as were the walls, save for wherever the enormous windows cut through. Glass ceilings let in all the light of Orhon’s two suns. It was cool inside his home, unlike the patio where we had left my crew. The hall to his office led far from the entryway. I liked his home—large, yes, but simple. Nothing like the royal palace where his brother, Justice Bateen, resided.

When we reached his office, he allowed me to enter first. The room was decorated much like the rest of his home. Sparse and tidy. There were books on the shelved walls and plenty of light to read by. Two padded benches, both overstuffed and black. A low dark wooden table sat between them.

As I glanced around, I heard the threatening whir of a Doxunon hand cannon buzz behind me, setting me on edge. “Volatile—”

“Why are you here, Cozz?” he demanded, stopping me before I could turn around and face him.

I exhaled a breath and kept my tone even. “To visit an old friend of the Ladrangs.”

He scoffed. “You mean to murder me?” he asked.

An involuntary laugh escaped me. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I know Deacon Ladrang is looking for payback over his father’s execution—”

“I’m going to turn around now, if you don’t mind.”

“Know that I have a Doxunon aimed right at your heart when you do. Do not move too fast. These things have a hair trigger.”

Slowly, I turned around. His hand cannon was a model I had never seen, but that didn’t surprise me. Volatile had a known taste for the finer things.

I kept a smile plastered on my face to look less threatening. “Do you think I’m here to attack you or something?”

“You’re Deacon’s pet, his second-in-command. You murdered my niece, Silence Bateen. I assume I am next on Deacon’s Bateen hit list, only I won’t go so easily as a pregnant woman in a prison cell." He cocked his hand cannon. "You mangy bastard. Did you get off on it? Was it fun for—”

“Okay, I’m gonna need you to stop right there, Volatile,” I said, cutting him off. “You are misinformed about a lot of things, and what you’re saying about Silence is just the start of it.”

He growled, “I’m not misinformed about anything. I am Volatile Bateen. I may not live in the palace anymore with my brother, but I know about everything important to my family, and my niece’s murder.”

I braced my hands on my hips and arched a brow. “If Silence was so important to your family, then why was I the one who rescued her?”

He smacked me across the face with the cannon, making me see spots. But I had seen it coming, flinched right so it didn’t hit as hard, and stayed on my feet. But fuck, it hurt.

He snarled, “Is that what you call slitting her throat? A rescue ?”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “They clearly don’t keep you that informed, Volatile. The body they found wasn’t Silence’s. It was a fake we left behind when we rescued her from the prison her own father locked her up in—”

“You lie!”

“I’m not lying,” I insisted. “And if you didn’t trust me before I got here, then why didn’t you feed me a grape when I arrived? I would have expected a royal like you to follow the custom.”

He rolled his eyes. “Anyone worth their stones knows you can imitate the grape greeting with the right elixirs. Now, what fake body?”

“You know I’m a smuggler, right? That I used to help people escape from the royal prisons?”

“I have heard as much.”

“How do you think I do it?”

He frowned. “I have never thought about such things. I am not a criminal.”

“I have a friend who makes high-quality fake bodies,” I told him. “ That was what was left behind at the prison after I helped Silence escape.”

He didn’t lower the cannon, but his mind was elsewhere for a moment. “You just admitted to treason,” he said, though his voice had lost most of its ire.

“I just admitted to helping your niece escape from the royal prison,” I countered. “Whether or not that is treason depends on where your allegiance lies, Volatile, and I am betting you don’t think she should have been locked up, either, by her own father, and your brother.”

Something in his eyes softened. “If she is alive, where is she hiding?”

I shook my head. “I’ll take that to my grave, so if you’re going to shoot me for that information, don’t waste our time and do it now.”

“I imagine I would get the same response from the rest of your crew, wouldn’t I?” he grumbled.

“My people are the best and most trustworthy, so yes.”

A flicker of a smile pinched at the corner of his mouth. “Let us say that I believe you, that you did not murder my niece. Why are you here then, if not to assassinate me on Deacon’s behalf as revenge against my brother, Justice, for killing his father?”

The trickier part . “Your sister, Constance Bateen, was a conduit—”

“She would have been the new Mother, had she not been murdered,” he snapped, anger vibrating in his voice.

I nodded once. Instead, the evil Mother Portend had taken her place and had nearly murdered Sarah during their attempt to take over Halla. “Constance was a gifted conduit, and that ability travels in bloodlines.” Time to lie. “Since your brother murdered all of the other conduits, there is a rumor that he’s hunting down the bloodlines of the deceased conduits—”

“That is preposterous!” Volatile said with a laugh. “Justice would have to murder hundreds, if not thousands of Ladrians to eliminate all of the bloodlines associated with the conduits.”

I merely stared at him to give him the space to think about what he had just said.

His hand cannon faltered before he tucked it back into its holster. “Is he really doing that?”

I relaxed a fraction now that the weapon was no longer aimed at me. “I can’t say for sure. If he manages to kill them all, then who do we turn to in order to speak to our dead? I know it’s treason to follow the faith any longer, but—”

“People should have a choice.”

I was surprised he said that so soon, but I was also glad he was following the trail of breadcrumbs I had left him in the conversation. My lie was working.

I asked, “You believe the people should have a choice to commit treason?”

“True loyalty requires the ability to make a choice.” Carefully, he added, “If they want to choose treason, and Justice takes that choice from them, then he will never know who his real allies are. If he can no longer know who his allies are, his distrust of those around himself will grow. A paranoid ruler is a dangerous ruler.”

“Justice is already dangerous. This would make him worse.” I nodded to confirm his suspicions and plant that seed in his mind. Manipulation cannot be done in an instant. To give him time to think on that, I changed the topic. “Your days as a star merchant are well-known, Volatile. You were a great traveler, all over the universe.”

He frowned and chuckled at the same time. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Your bloodline has spread across the universe, has it not?” Sarah was proof of that, along with her sisters.

“You want to track down my children?” he asked incredulously. “You think there are conduits among them?”

I know there are. “There could be a new Mother of conduits among them, as well as other conduits.”

He took a breath and blew it out, before he sat on the padded bench near the window. “Of all the things you could have asked me about, Jacaranda Cozz, that is not one I would have considered in a hundred lifetimes.”

I sat on the bench opposite him. “How old do you think your eldest child is?”

He thought for a moment. “It has been many years since I was last gallivanting…my youngest is likely almost an adult. My eldest, I’m not sure. They could be well into old age by now—some of my off-world paramours do not age like we do.”

Now the big question. “Do you know if any of your children are conduits?”

He warned me with his eyes. “I will not be a party to treason.”

“Some would say you already have been.” I had to push him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You let Justice throw his daughter into prison. You left Orhon when he murdered your sister—”

“He did not murder Constance!” he roared as he stood over me. “It was General Liebach!”

“You have to believe that, don’t you?” I asked calmly. “Otherwise, you could never look your brother in the eye again. Tell me, Volatile, why did you have this island erected? It’s pretty fancy for a coward’s hideout.”

He all but vibrated with anger. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. You’re still the same unclassed scout Valor bought years ago. You come into my home and accuse me of looking the other way during such a terrible time in my family’s history…do you not understand that I could have you thrown into the royal prisons for the things you have said to me? You are a damned fool, just like Valor was to consort with Silence.”

“I may be damned, but I am not a fool,” I replied, not backing down at his outrage. “You haven’t called the royal guard on me because you know what Justice has done. Your brother needs to answer for his crimes—all of them. If you didn’t want that, then you would have had me arrested by now.”

Volatile glared at me. “You think you know everything, don’t you?”

“Definitely not, but I remember meeting you when I was a boy, and I knew then what I know now. You are a good man. Valor Ladrang always said that about you, and so does everyone else.”

His gaze narrowed. “We met before?”

“Yes, at the Ladrang house. You came to do business with Valor, and he wanted me and Deacon to sit in on the meeting. I remember it distinctly, because you were the only person I had ever seen Valor deal with who he didn’t mind getting screwed by.”

He laughed heartily. “Valor always tried to lowball his merchants on the price of our silks. Cheap bastard.” His smile gradually fell. “I miss him and our friendship.”

“Were you angry with him for his affair with Silence?”

“No.” He sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. “I mean, it was not right of course, but if a man like Valor was willing to break the law for someone, then there was a good reason for it. He was trustworthy to a fault.”

I nodded in agreement. “That’s why I respect him. Deacon takes after his father in a lot of ways.”

“So,” he sat back down across from me and looked into my eyes. “You think my brother is murdering the families of the dead conduits, and you want to track down my children to see if they themselves are conduits, so you can communicate with the dead, maintaining our faith system. I would be aiding in treason, if this worked. He could have my head.”

I smirked. “He could have your head for not calling the royal guard as soon as I admitted to treason, though I’m not sure it matters anymore.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Time to sell it. “Justice could use any reason to take anyone’s head. That’s what he does to anyone who is disloyal to his whims, and you cannot tell me that he would not have done that to his own daughter, had she not been pregnant.”

“The people would have rioted, had he executed Silence.” He sounded so tired as he spoke. “As it stands now, the people are in mourning for their murdered princess.”

“From what I’ve heard, he’s already executed the guilty culprits who allegedly killed Silence.” Which meant Justice had murdered innocent men.

Volatile closed his eyes and huffed. “He held public executions for all to see, yes.”

“But if you had already heard from the palace I was involved in Silence’s murder, then you knew he executed the wrong men knowingly. Why would Justice do such a thing?” I had to make him say it out loud.

“To keep order,” he said reluctantly. “Make the citizens believe he had taken care of the issue, so they wouldn’t riot, trying to find her murderer.”

I nodded once. “Justice will do anything to maintain the people’s compliance and placidity, even if it means murdering the wrong and innocent people. Their lives don’t matter to him. Only their worship matters to him. That’s the real reason he murdered the conduits and declared the faith as treason in the first place. He wants to be worshiped like a god. He is not a proper ruler. He is a tyrant, he’s—”

“Do you not feel guilty for those he executed in your stead?” he interrupted me.

“Why should I?” I countered. “I didn’t murder them.”

“But, had you not rescued Silence—”

“She likely would have been dead by now,” I said in a flat tone. “She wasn’t doing well in that dark, dank cell. The babies weren’t—”

“Babies?” he asked, his eyes widening. “There are more than one?”

Shit. Let that slip. I blew out a breath and gave him the truth. “Yeah. Twins. A boy and a girl.”

He smiled and his eyes welled up, before he wiped them. “They are healthy? Safe?”

I nodded. “Mother and babies. All doing well.”

“That is very good to hear. Thank you, Cozz.” He swallowed hard, regaining control of his emotions. “I want to believe that is true. But I do not trust you and you do not trust me, and that is fine for now. Trust takes time to build.”

“I am willing to build that with you, Volatile.”

He was pensive for a moment. “I miss Silence,” he said, sadness in his tone. “My niece was always such a kind person.”

“She is . She’s alive, I swear to you. Help me do this, Volatile, and I will make sure you see her again. And with any luck, you may also see your brother fall out of power.”

He chuckled. “The smuggler who dethroned a god?”

I shrugged. “Something like that.”

“That is something I would like to see,” he admitted. “I will get you a list of my children’s whereabouts.”

Mission almost accomplished. “Thank you, Volatile. You will not regret it.”

His face became serious again. “If you were to do them any harm, I will hold you down for qualshaw myself.”

“No need for that.” I gulped, then tried to smile and make light of the threat. “Isn’t the prisoner supposed to be buried in the sand up to his neck for that?”

He grinned. “Yes. But I would make an exception for the man who hurt my children. Holding him under waves as the tide rolls in, so I could hear the sounds he made as the water tried to drown him over and over with each wave as they built up…now that would be something to savor.”

Just thinking about such a thing, I couldn’t breathe. Not that I planned to harm his children but hearing qualshaw described sucked all the air out of the room. “Good thing I mean them no harm, then.”

“Indeed.” He smiled, the threat still hanging in the air between us. “You and your crew will stay the night here. Return to your master in the morning. By the looks of them, they could use the rest. In the morning, you will have your list.”

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

I couldn’t refuse a royal offer without cause. But I wasn’t leaving without that list. I was grateful Deacon had given me a new assignment after Sarah had left. I needed a mission to take my mind off of her, even if I was spending time with her biological alien father to do it.