Stars of Blood and Glory (8 page)

The sound of approaching footsteps snapped
her back to the present, and she slipped behind one of the olive
trees.

As she crouched in the shadows, images came
to her—memories of tight, dark spaces and long waits mixed with
sweat and adrenaline. Her fingers itched for the feel of a trigger,
or the weight of a knife in her hand. The smell of fresh blood came
back readily to her, as if she had just made another kill.

She bit her lip and shook her head, trying to
drive the deadly thoughts from her mind. She couldn’t afford the
distraction—not if she was going to find what she came for. Any
second now—

“
Hold on, Asa! Stay close to
mommy!”

The familiarity of the woman’s voice pierced
Rina’s heart like a knife. The language was not Gaian, Tajji, or
Rigelan, but a dialect much more familiar—one that she hadn’t heard
since she was a little girl. Her heart skipped a beat, and all
other thoughts immediately cleared from her mind.

The footsteps grew louder, until a small boy
came stumbling into the courtyard. He was followed by a girl, about
six or seven standard years old by the look of it, and a
middle-aged couple walking hand in hand. A lump of barely
suppressed emotion rose in Rina’s throat.

Mira and Jalil.

Her adult sister wore a long, blue dress and
a colorful headscarf, but her face was uncovered so that Rina could
see her features clearly. She’d aged over the past several years,
but with her bright, honest smile and gorgeous hazel eyes, she
still seemed full of life. She smiled at her husband Jalil, and he
responded by leaning over and spontaneously kissing her cheek. The
gesture filled Rina with a bittersweet longing, and she gripped the
knotted bark of the tree that was her hiding place.

“
How is Mother doing?” Mira asked
as she and Jalil sat down on a bench beneath the ripening grape
vines.

“
Getting older, I’m afraid,” said
Jalil. He sighed. “She misses Tiera something terrible, you know.
I’m afraid it will put her in her grave a few years
early.”

“
Still no word from Tiera,
then?”

“
No. Though God-willing, that
will soon change.”

“
God-willing.”

Rina’s lower lip trembled, and her arms began
to shake. Out in the courtyard, the boy and girl squatted over the
pool, staring with childlike fascination at the goldfish that swam
below the surface.

“
Issa seems to be doing well, at
least,” said Mira. “I heard from his teachers that he loves his art
classes, and can’t stop drawing. I wonder if he got that from your
side or mine?”

Jalil shrugged. “That reminds me—Aliyah asked
for permission to start working on her pilot’s license. She seemed
afraid to ask, but I could tell she’s determined. I told her I’d
have to talk with you first.”

Mira laughed. “That girl—she’s just like her
aunt! I remember how Rina used to stick her head out the caravaneer
window and lean into the wind when we were both little girls. She
never could get enough of the wide open air on those long rides.
It’s a pity she was never old enough to drive.”

A somber silence fell on them both, made all
the worse by the darkness of the storm overhead. Rina took a long,
sharp breath, and the edges of her vision blurred as if she were
staring through a darkened tunnel.

“
I wonder where she is right
now,” said Mira, her voice subdued. “The way she ran away—I just
wish—”

“
You did all you could,” said
Jalil, putting his arm around her. “There was nothing we could have
done to stop her.”

Mira smiled sadly and nodded. “She always did
take it hard, the way we lost the others. I think it hurt her a lot
worse than it hurt me.”

“
It hurt all of us. We did our
best to make a new home for her—it’s a wonder she stayed with us
for as long as she did.”

“
Perhaps,” said Mira, looking off
in the distance. “But I still miss her.”

Jalil leaned over and wiped a tear from her
eye. “So do I,” he said softly. “So do I.”

Rina’s lip quivered, and her eyes burned
until she could no longer hold back the tears. Her shoulders shook,
but she swallowed her sobs, not wanting to betray herself. Someday,
perhaps, she would be able to step out of the shadows and return to
her family—but today was not that day.

As if in confirmation, the datalink implants
flashed a message across the bottom of her vision, telling her that
she needed to report. She bit her lip and pressed a finger to her
temple, putting the message on standby. She was too deep in the
field to safely contact her superiors, but getting out wouldn’t be
too hard.

Keeping to the shadows, she crept backward
into the cloistered patio where the others couldn’t see her. Before
leaving, she risked one quick glance back over her shoulder. Mira
and Jalil talked in hushed tones on the bench, still holding hands
in a picture of love and closeness. Their children shrieked, and
Rina hastily slipped through the doorway into the darkened
corridor.

Chapter 5

Katsuichi closed his eyes and took a deep,
controlled breath. He sat back on his ankles and focused on an
image of a water-lily, like those that skirted the edge of the
reflecting pool at the Imperial palace. At first, his troubled
thoughts rebelled, pulling him away to the worries and cares that
had troubled him ever since his father had named him emperor. By
controlling his breath and relaxing his muscles, though, he purged
his body of stress and cleared his mind from troubled thoughts. In
his mind, there was only the lily, with its many-petaled flowers
and broad round leaves, floating on water as smooth and clear as
glass.

The hiss of a door entered his
awareness, as if from a distant memory. Though he could have let it
go and continued in his meditative state, his new duties would not
allow that. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and saw Kenta,
kneeling
seiza
-style across from him with his hands in his
lap.

Katsuichi did not greet him, but turned to
the image of his late father, bowed with his forehead pressed to
the floor, and rose to prepare some tea. That was one of the things
about starship command that he relished: no room for servants or
other extraneous luxuries. Here, unlike in the palace, he shared a
degree of equality with his men that was impossible to replicate
elsewhere. He set the tray on the table and poured a cup for Kenta
from the decorative thermos before taking his seat. When he was
finished, Kenta bowed courteously and poured a cup for him.

“
Katsuichi-sama,” said Kenta,
gently returning the thermos to the tray. “I trust that your
adjustment to the
Divine Wind
has gone well?”

“
Very well,” said Katsu, taking a
sip of his tea. “Our rendezvous with Commander Hideyoshi has put
everyone in good spirits. Morale is high, and our officers are
eager to see action. I observed their exercises just this morning
shift.”

Kenta nodded, the edges of his mouth turning
upward in the barest hint of a smile. “You seem to be doing quite
well.”

“
I hope so, Kenta. Our men are
strong and brave, but without the right kind of leader, I fear we
will break apart like an ice floe in a springtime eddy.”

“
Indeed. That is why I wish to
speak with you.”

Katsuichi raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“
None of us questions your
leadership, Your Imperial Highness. If you ordered us to charge
into Hell itself, we would do so and do so gladly. However, not all
wars are fought on the battlefield alone. I have reason to believe
that the highest ranks of the Federation have been infiltrated by
our enemies.”

“
And what makes you say that?”
Katsuichi asked, frowning.

“
The commander of the battle
group at the head of the rift,” said Kenta, “is a New Velan colonel
by the name of Carl Webb. Before the Hameji wars, he was involved
in a smuggling ring that trafficked in drugs and black market goods
between New Vela and Shinihon.”

“
And you have proof of
this?”

“
Your Highness,” said Kenta,
bowing slightly, “the snake was very adept at evading our legal
team. Your father, however, used his authority to confiscate all of
the Webb family’s assets within our territory.”

Katsuichi nodded. “So there is some bad blood
between us.”

“
More than that, Katsuichi-sama.
Many of Colonel Webb’s subordinate officers are pardoned convicts,
and we have reason to believe that he still has extensive ties in
the criminal underworld that now permeates the Federation. Some of
us even believe he may be the one behind the recent assassination
of Admiral Genjiro.”

“
Admiral Genjiro?” said
Katsuichi, looking up at once. “What makes you believe
that?”

“
The colonel is an extremely
ambitious man, young master. Time and again, he has proven himself
a brilliant strategist—not only on the field of battle, but in
removing all potential rivals who stand in his path. Those who have
not been demoted have been sent to battlefront systems, where many
of them have never been heard from again. Even the colonel’s own
brother had his rank stripped from him.”

Katsuichi clenched his fists and nodded
slowly, staring at the floor. “These are serious accusations,” he
said after several moments of thoughtful silence. “It would be
difficult for our forces to fight alongside his, if they believed I
distrusted him.”

“
That is true.”

“
Are there any other Federation
fleets at the head of the rift? Or has this man assumed command
across the entire front?”

Kenta gave him a short bow. “Your question
strikes at the heart of the matter, Katsuichi-sama. Colonel Webb is
the highest ranking field officer, and his fleet is the only one in
a position to strike the Hameji. If we join forces with another
fleet, we will most likely fall into the reserve.”

Katsuichi took a deep breath and
nodded.
You
must repay this debt of honor, Katsu,
his father’s words came to him.
You must not let it
overshadow us any longer.

“
Then I suppose I have no choice
but to invite him onto my ship and meet him.”

Kenta frowned. “Invite this
criminal on board the
Divine Wind?
Your Highness, in all humility, I must advise
against it.”

“
Thank you, Kenta, but when
fighting a snake, the surest way to defeat it is to seize it by the
head.”

“
Indeed, Katsuichi-sama,” said
Kenta, bowing again. “Though remember, this is not just a garden
snake you are playing with—it is a fully grown viper, with the
power to kill.”

“
Thank you, Kenta. I’ll keep that
in mind.”

* * * * *

Hikaru could barely contain her excitement as
the ferry shuttle blasted off into the upper atmosphere. Her knees
quivered with excitement, but she stared at the seat in front of
her and made sure not to make eye contact with any of the other
passengers in the cabin. They were packed shoulder to shoulder in
the tightest seating arrangements she’d ever seen, with barely
enough room in the aisle to turn around. It was fascinating—was
this the way ordinary people lived and traveled? A baby screamed in
the distance, and someone behind her muttered a rude word under his
breath that would have earned a scolding back in the palace. She
giggled a little, unable to hold it in.

Behind her, the roar of the engines died down
to a low whine, and the invisible hand that had pressed her against
her seat slowly released her from its hold. She risked a glance
across her neighbor’s lap out the porthole, and saw, to her
astonishment, a sky as black as night, even though she knew it was
day.

“
Ladies and gentlemen,” came the
pilot’s voice over the intercom. “We have just left the planet’s
atmosphere and are preparing to enter orbit. Please remain in your
seats as our local gravitics equalize.”

Hikaru’s stomach fluttered, and a brief wave
of nausea washed over her. She noticed her bangs drift upward as if
they were as light as air, and realized that she was weightless. It
didn’t last long, however. A new hum sounded in the bulkheads, and
the comforting sensation of gravity returned.

I wonder what Katsuichi is
going to think once he hears that I’m gone,
she thought to herself. That was her
one regret—that he would probably worry himself sick about her. But
surely he had to see that she couldn’t spend her whole life in the
palace. And besides, it wasn’t like she was going to be gone
forever.

She didn’t have much time, though—she wanted
to experience as much as she could before she went back. And if she
was going to get the most of her time away, she had to seek out the
things that her tutors and nurses would never let her see—dirty
things, vulgar things. Things that a princess would never get to
do.

One thing was certain: She had to go
somewhere where no one would recognize her. Would the New Vela
system do? Probably. She reached into her apron pocket and fingered
the passport datachips she’d taken from her maidservants—at most,
she only had a couple of days before the palace guard caught on to
her ruse. She’d have to take an interstellar transport before then,
or perhaps hire a smuggler to take her in secret. A smuggler—the
thought of meeting such a shady person made her hands quiver even
more.