Heaven's Queen (33 page)

“They’re going to destroy us all,” I whispered. “Just like they did the xith’cal.”

“No, they’re not,” Caldswell snapped, marching toward the farthest of the bay’s sealed doors. “They
need
us. They’re just trying to scare us into handing you over, but I can bluff back. I just have to get the queen to talk before she burns half my fleet. Mabel!”

I almost yelped when Mabel stepped out from where she’d been leaning against one of the fighters. I would have sworn there was no one in the bay but Caldswell and myself, and yet there she was. Looking back, I don’t know why that surprised me. Even when she’d been playing engineer, Mabel Cobb was Caldswell’s shadow, but I hated that I hadn’t spotted her, especially since she hadn’t even been hiding. She’d been standing practically in plain sight, just very still. So still I’d looked right over her, and that made me angry. I despised feeling like an idiot.

But there was no time for that. Mabel was already walking toward me, a wry smile on her face, like she’d been just waiting for her chance to push me around. Caldswell was already at the door, barking orders into his com while he punched in the code to unlock the bay. I pressed my back against the wall, trying to think of some way out of this, but deep down, I knew there was no hope. I couldn’t escape Mabel, not without my suit, which was still back in the room where I’d woken up. And even if I’d had my Lady, there was nowhere to run.

Still, I couldn’t bring myself to surrender just yet, so while Mabel stalked toward me, I stalked backward, letting her push me toward the corner. It was pure pigheadedness. I didn’t have a plan and baiting her was only going to make it hurt more when she finally took me down. Even so, I didn’t mean to stop moving until I had to, and I would have made it all the way to the back of the bay if a small hand hadn’t landed on my shoulder.

I did yelp this time, jumping almost a foot in the air before whirling around, fists ready to punch whoever had the gall to be behind me, only to come up nose to nose with Maat.

No matter how many times she did it, I would never get used to seeing her appear like magic.
You have to leave.

I almost rolled my eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know!”

We will not let them have you
, Maat hissed in my head. Phantoms were swarming all around her now, their glow drowning out even the harsh white lights of the fighter bay.
They will
never
have you. You are ours.
She thrust out her hand at me.
Come. Help is on the way. Maat will guide you.

“Who are you talking to, Morris?” Mabel called behind me. “We already know you’re nuts. Proving it won’t change a thing.”

I decided to ignore that. “Guide me
where
?” I snapped, batting at the phantoms swarming above Maat’s head. “Would you please just speak like a normal person for two minutes and tell me—”

I never got to finish. I couldn’t even remember what I’d been about to say, because at that moment, a roar tore through my mind like shrapnel. I gasped in shock, looking out the window just in time to see the emperor phantom appear above the wall of lelgis ships.

For a beautiful second, I thought maybe I hadn’t killed that phantom, but then I saw this one was smaller than the emperor who’d spoken to me. Of course, this one was still forming, pulling itself together from the ambient glow all around us that I now realized was the phantoms. Millions and millions of tiny phantoms no bigger than the ones I always saw were coming together in a single, soundless cry of fury. They formed before my eyes, growing bigger and bigger into a huge, glowing mass that opened like a mouth. I had a fleeting impression of shining teeth and snaking tongues before the trap snapped down, consuming the lelgis cruiser that had been burning the other battleship in one fearsome gulp.

The first giant phantom had barely finished its attack before a new cry shot through me, and I lifted my eyes just in time to see a second emperor coalesce out of the still expanding sea of tiny phantoms right in front of the lelgis queen. As it formed, its light bloomed over the thing I’d only glimpsed in the dark, showing the queen in all her terrible glory until I thought I would be sick at the sight. But before the new-formed phantom could attack, the queen skittered back into the dark as the lelgis ships guarding her opened fire.

The white flame scorched over the phantom, lighting up its transparent body like a star going supernova. But even though it almost blinded me, I couldn’t turn away. I would have stood there watching the battle forever, or at least until Mabel grabbed me, but Maat had already gripped my head, snatching my jaw between her palms as she shoved a command into my head.

Run.

I blinked at her, feeling almost drunk from everything that had happened. “Run where?”

Maat smiled a beautiful, mad smile.
With me.

As she spoke, one of the emperor phantoms roared again, causing the battleship’s lights to flicker, and then go out altogether. I heard Mabel gasp and stumble behind me, but though the bay was now lightless, I could see just fine. Without the harsh lights to hide them, I could make out the haze of tiny phantoms floating all around us. Their collective glow filled the air like summer moonlight, making Maat’s hand shine like a beacon when she held it out.

It’s time to keep your promise
, she whispered in my mind, nodding to the emperor phantoms outside.
They tell Maat, ‘We save her so she may save us.’ They are doing their part, so now it’s your turn.
The cloud of phantoms edged closer, waving their tiny feelers at me like a plea as Maat shoved her hand at my face.
Come and end this.

I sucked in a long, deep breath and reached out, slapping my hand in hers. I hadn’t expected to actually feel anything, but Maat’s glowing skin was warm as Rupert’s when I touched it, and her grip was tight as a clamp when she grabbed me back.
This way
, she said, pulling me toward the door.

With our hands locked together, I didn’t have a choice. I ran, legs pumping as we left Mabel groping blindly in our dust and made for the door the emperor had used to drag me in here the first time. Behind us, the little phantoms gave chase, lighting our footsteps with their soft, ghostly glow.

I
didn’t even think about the problems this latest power outage presented until we reached the blast door. The gravity was still working, so I knew there had to be power somewhere on the ship, just not here, which really sucked when you were facing down a solid steel automatic door with no juice to run the automatic part and no suit to kick it down. I hit the button anyway, just to be sure. When nothing happened, I turned to Maat. “Now what?”

I was hoping she’d blast the thing open like she’d done to Caldswell’s window the first time she’d sprung me. Whatever she did, it had better be quick. Mabel had found her pace now, and though she couldn’t see us, I could see her closing the distance fast. But while I was working myself into fight or flight, Maat was looking at the locked door like a kid genius who’s just been presented with an interesting puzzle. Finally, when Mabel was only ten feet away, Maat reached out and plunged her fingers straight into the door’s control panel.

From where I stood, it looked like she’d just broken her hand, but real as she looked and felt to me, Maat wasn’t actually here. She passed through the electronics like air, and everywhere she touched, the lights came back on. For a moment, I thought she’d done real, honest to god magic, but then I remembered that one of the big reasons the daughters were used was because they negated the phantom’s disruptive field. And if her daughters could do it, of
course
Maat could. That made me grin wide, because if Maat could light up a door, maybe she could do the same for my suit, and if that was the case, then we were playing a whole new game.

I didn’t have much time to enjoy the idea, though. The glowing console had alerted Mabel to our location. By the time the little wheels spun up to lift the blast door’s weight, she was tearing toward us, her hands already reaching out to grab me.

I didn’t give her a chance. The second the blast door left the floor, I dropped, squeezing through the crack like a dog wiggling under a fence. As soon as I was through, Maat removed her hand, and the door dropped like a stone, slamming back to the floor just in time for me to hear Mabel collide with the other side.

“Don’t run, Morris!” she shouted, slamming her fist down so hard the door warped. “You’re only making things worse for yourself!”

I didn’t see how that was possible, and I didn’t hang around to find out. By the time Mabel pounded the door again, I was already running full tilt down the hallway, dodging the mess left from the recent loss of gravity and the emperor phantom’s search for me. There were soldiers here, too, whole crews that were far too busy clearing the out passage and moving the wounded to pay any attention to me. But when we reached the elevator and turned to head for the medical area, Maat grabbed my shoulder.

Not this way.

“Yes, this way,” I snapped, shrugging out of her hold. “I’m not going anywhere without my suit.”

The hallway where the emperor phantom had grabbed me looked even worse than it had when I’d left. The phantom hadn’t exactly been gentle in its ransacking, and the resulting chaos had left the military hallway looking like a war zone. The floor was strewn with broken furniture, glass, blood, and other things I couldn’t identify. But for all that, the emergency lights were back on, and soldiers were already working to clear the way for the wounded that were being brought into the medical bay from other parts of the ship.

Everyone was too busy to look at me, so I picked up the pace, vaulting over a toppled desk to get to the busted out door of the room I’d woken up in, which I could already see at the end of the hall. Unfortunately, I’d put my body through a lot recently, and what was supposed to be a graceful jump ended up more like a half tumble, half roll. I landed badly, too, grunting as I caught myself on the wall. I was about to haul up and keep going when someone touched my shoulder.

“Hey, are you okay?”

I didn’t recognize the voice, and I raised my head to see a Terran soldier standing over me. He looked like a kid, not more than twenty and wearing the simple uniform and short haircut of a first-year crewman. He also clearly had absolutely no idea who he was talking to.

“Thanks,” I said, concentrating very, very hard to keep my accent as neutral as possible as I let him help me to my feet. “And sorry.”

I had just enough time to catch the look of confusion that flashed over his face before my fist landed in his gut. The kid doubled over with a grunt, and I reached down, snatching his gun out of its holster. A few of the other workers looked up at the sound, but the emergency lights were far too poor for them to see what I’d done.

“Sorry, kiddo,” I said again, taking careful aim before I slammed the edge of my hand down on the back of his neck. He didn’t make a sound when I hit him this time, just fell to the ground like a dead weight. I tucked him up against the wall so he wouldn’t get trampled and started back down the hall, pistol ready.

In all the chaos earlier, I hadn’t realized that my little room was located on the main hall leading into the battleship’s medbay. Considering the medical bunk and all the equipment I’d woken up to, I probably should have guessed as much way before this. I hadn’t, though, and I was now at a disadvantage.

Medical bays on big ships were always hives of activity after emergencies, even relatively minor ones like a sudden loss of gravity, and my suit was right in the middle. Worse, I was losing my cover. The emperor phantoms must have moved farther away, because the ship lights were starting to flicker back on. It was only a matter of time before Caldswell put the word out about my escape, which meant I needed to move now. So, putting on my best I’m-working-don’t-bother-me scowl, I tucked my stolen gun into the waistband of my scrubs and marched into the fray, glaring at any medic who dared to get in my way as I made a beeline for the busted door of the quarantine room.

There’s a lot to be said for putting on a good front. Despite the fact that I clearly didn’t belong here, no one moved to stop me. They were all busy with their own work, and those who did glance at me glanced away just as fast, their faces afraid. That just made me smug. Terrans never did know how to handle a little old-fashioned animal aggression.

By the time I reached the quarantine room, I was starting to really believe we could make it. Maat was still tugging at me, glancing over her shoulder like Caldswell was going to appear and kill us both at any moment, but I refused to let her throw me off. I was committed to getting my damn suit, and I ducked through the door Caldswell had kicked open, bold as you please, only to come up face to snout with Hyrek.

He’d been squatting beside the destroyed lab equipment in dismay, trying to salvage some machine or other. Crouched down like that, his head was only slightly lower than mine, which meant when he looked up to see who’d just come in, we were eye to eye. We stayed that way for several seconds, both of us frozen, staring at each other, and then Hyrek dove for his handset.

Hyrek might be a xith’cal, but he was a noncombat one. I beat him by miles, grabbing his handset with my free hand while I shoved my stolen gun into the scales of his stomach with the other. He went perfectly still when the barrel touched him, his snake eyes darting from the gun to the people walking outside, just behind me. The way I’d come in meant my body hid the gun, but with the door torn down, anyone could see what was going on if they took the time to look. If I didn’t move quick, this was going to get very ugly very fast.

“Hyrek,” I said softly. “I’ve always liked you, so I’m not going to shoot unless you make me.”

Hyrek rolled his eyes, and I could practically see the lecture on xith’cal anatomy he was writing in his head on how a shot from a standard sidearm wouldn’t even make it through his armored belly. “I know it won’t kill you,” I said with a smile. “But you see, I’ve got Maat with me right now, and she will. So if you want to keep that brain you’re so proud of in working order, you’ll keep your trap shut.”