Fae (9 page)

I clamped my lips shut and
prayed I wouldn't laugh. It all seemed so ridiculous; his reaction,
the way he thought it might actually scare me. But I didn't laugh
because I knew that no matter what I might think or what he might
think, laughing right then would have been very stupid. I wanted to
be his ally, not his enemy.

"I was sleepwalking," I finally said.
"I wasn't looking for anything."

"How does one simply sleepwalk into
the most secret, the most guarded, sector of The Block?"

I shrugged my shoulders as
the question sank in. Had Cailen known what I’d transported into,
or was this new information? But then I remembered him saying he’d
wanted to come in here for weeks. The most secret section of The
Block. What kind of things could be learned in here?

Lastrini's jaw jumped as
he waited for my answer. Apparently he thought he'd get more than a
shrug. Maybe he even thought he'd
deserved
more than a shrug. I got
the feeling this was the first time he'd ever been
ignored.

His fists pushed down on
my bed for one moment before he straightened and smiled. "Take
her."

I looked past him and saw
the two soldiers step forward. The redhead had something in her
hands. Chains. Glowing chains. A faint dullness grew in my blood,
dulling my vision, my instincts. I blinked and the world seemed to
spin. Blue and green molecules slowly grew into existence before my
eyes, as if they struggled to hear my call. With dread, I had a
feeling these chains were a lot like what the Mamood had used to
subdue me on Kalhandthar.

So much for getting
information out of them. I scooted up in my bed and struggled out
of the sheets. I still had my dress and cloak on. If I was going to
do anything, I needed to do it now. Lastrini stepped out of the way
and the red-haired beast reached for my wrist. Red lights finally
popped into my vision, filling the air around me.

Please, not red.
I'd sworn I'd never use fire again. But there it
was, dancing in my vision like a little puppy wanting to play, the
only element not deadened by the chains. But I couldn't. If I
smelled burning flesh one more time, I'd lose my mind
completely.

So instead, I kicked my
foot out and brought it up against her knee. She stumbled back a
step, but the other soldier with her--a guy easily her equal with
thick forearms that strained his uniform to its limits--grabbed me
by the waist and dragged me off the bed. I waved my arms around and
smacked him in the face. He didn't even flinch.

I took a moment to make a
brief note to myself: when not using element-manipulating
abilities, stick to kicking. The confidence I'd had a moment ago
had long since fled. Still, the red points of light taunted me,
begging to be used.

Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw the chains draw nearer. They were a sickly yellow, like
a wound that's been allowed to fester and puss up.

My wings ached and my blood started to
burn. My body didn't care about any vow I might've made. It only
cared about protecting itself.

Molecules collided and a flame bloomed
next to Red's face.

And then someone cleared
his throat. It was so soft and unassuming, but everyone
froze--including Lastrini--and turned around.

The boy I'd met yesterday,
the one in the golden tunic and pants, the one with the watery blue
eyes and soft voice, stood just inside the doorway.

"Please forgive the intrusion," he
said with his gaze on the floor. "The Emperor has sent me for the
girl.

No one said anything as a
hush settled on the room. Ripped guy still had me in his arm,
dangling at his side. The chain's glow weakened and then went
out.

"What does he want with her?" Lastrini
finally asked, his voice pinched with frustration.

"It is not my place to question the
Emperor." The boy lifted his head to stare directly at the Base
Commander. "Nor is it yours."

There was another tense
pause as his words sunk in. This boy spoke for the Emperor and no
one better think twice about obeying him.

I watched as every muscle
in Lastrini's body tensed, as his fists clenched. Ripped guy's arm
tightened around me and I knew he was preparing to fight for me if
that's what his leader decided.

But Lastrini took an
audible breath, and his whole body relaxed. "No, we wouldn't want
to do that. Never question our dear,
wonderful
emperor." And then he
pushed past the boy and glided out of the little room. Red followed
close behind while Ripped Guy dropped me on the floor and went
after them. I landed hard on my hands and knees and winced as pain
shot up my legs. The dress may protect from energy weapons, but it
didn't do much for blunt force.

I waited for the spike of
pain to subside and their footsteps to have long since faded before
I picked myself up off the floor and smoothed out my dress and
cloak. The flame that had bloomed by Red's face bounced next to me,
waiting. I snuffed it out with a thought.

The boy watched me
silently, looking up through his lashes. He had such a breakable
quality to him with his shoulders all rounded forward and his face
down like he thought if he stood up straight, someone might yell at
him, or worse.

"Thanks," I
said.

"For what?" His voice was
all innocence and curiosity, his head tilted to the side, like a
little pet in front of its master.

I leaned against the bed
and sighed. "It seems like I always need someone to step in to save
me from becoming a monster."

"I hardly think you need
to be saved from that."

I rubbed my knees, feeling
the tender skin where bruises waited to surface, and chuckled.
"Don't I?"

His eyes stayed on me in
their tentative way, and I grew uncomfortable. I looked away and
pushed myself off the bed. "Well, thanks again. I guess you
probably know how to get out of here?"

He nodded, his eyes still
on me. Bright blue and piercing. So much more focused--intent--than
his passive movements and stature suggested. Instead of looking
away again, I matched his stare. My blood pressure rose and I felt
my heart beating in my eardrums, pounding away at my skull. I don't
know why, but I felt like I shouldn't blink first. That if I did,
I'd fail some test and the boy in front of me would leave, never to
be seen again.

A smile spread across his
face. "Would you like me to show you the way out?"

I blinked, unsure if I'd
just won a small victory or imagined the confrontation
altogether.

"Sure," I said.

He turned around without a
word and limped through the doorway and into the empty corridor. I
followed at his side, wondering what had happened to make him so
broken. And how did such a young, passive introvert end up with the
authority to speak for the Emperor?

"Do you have a name?" I
looked him straight in the eye and smiled to realize he was the
first person I'd met who I could actually do that with. Everyone
either towered above me, or in the case of Ranen, only came up to
my shoulder.

"First," he
replied.

I waited, thinking he
wanted to tell me something more important before he told me his
name. When he didn't continue, I laughed. "First? Your name is
First?"

He looked at me out of the
corner of his eye, and humiliation pooled like fire beneath my
cheeks. I became keenly aware that this boy did not get laughed at.
His gaze was so sharp and cunning, like the person he was didn't
belong in the body he'd been given.

"It's my title." He paused
and returned his gaze straight ahead to the wide open corridor. I
looked ahead too, seeing only the same old silver walls, floor, and
ceiling and the same screens every few feet with the Emperor saying
the same thing he'd been saying since the war started, running on a
never ending loop. I wanted to run up and kiss one of the screens
right then and there. For some reason, the Emperor was on my side
and I knew that as long as that remained true, Lastrini couldn't do
anything to me.

"I'm the Emperor's First,"
he continued. "The first to wait on him, the first to bring him his
meals, the first to stand by him at council, and when he's old and
decrepit, I'll be the first to wipe his butt."

"That...uh...sounds
pleasant."

He didn't say anything as
we came up to a set of closed doors. He waved a bright blue pass
beneath the door's sensor and the screen glowed green. The doors
slid to the side and we walked into a corridor I recognized
immediately. It was especially easy to recognize since one of the
many doors on either side of the hall had bright red lettering on
it.

I took a step forward and
then turned around. I'd lived in this place, memorizing everything
about this corridor in particular, for weeks. I had never seen a
door there before.

First paused at my side.
"They're not meant to be seen from this side," he said, no doubt
guessing my thoughts from the very confused look I knew I had on my
face. As if to prove his point, the doors slid closed with a hiss.
The seam melted away and all that stood before me was bare
wall.

"Why?"

"Because it's the Secret
Place before the Most Secret Place."

I remembered then what
Lastrini had said about me sleepwalking into the most secret, the
most guarded, of all the places in The Block. How could I have done
that? I didn't even know it was there.

And how had Cailen known
it was there?

My stomach twisted at the
thought of Cailen. What was going on with Auru and when would he
get back to tell me? I’d failed in my mission to get answers, but I
don’t think either of us had considered how emotional Lastrini had
become since the start of this war.

First escorted me back to
my door and it hit me then as I stood with my hand hovering just
out of reach of the scanner’s sensors that I had the perfect person
to question about the Emperor. I wouldn’t get the finer details of
Lastrini’s goals, but I didn’t think I’d have gotten those
anyway.

“First,” I said, turning
to him and dropping my hand, “As the Emperor’s servant, you must
spend a lot of time in the Royal Wing, right?”

“Of course. I live
there.”

“And I’m assuming you see
the Emperor himself quite a bit.”

He nodded.

“What’s going on in there?
Why haven’t his people heard anything from him?”

First gestured to the
nearest screen with the Emperor in all his royal robes and
benevolent smile offering the same encouragement I’d seen a million
times already.

I shook my head and
sighed. “You know that’s not the same.”

“It’s enough.”

I turned my gaze back on
him then. His blue piercing eyes cut through me with the same
intensity as before, another hint that this boy had inherited the
wrong body, and perhaps the wrong employment. And I knew for
certain that I’d be getting nothing out of him. Interrogation
skills I had not, and it seemed as if I was destined for
failure.

“Okay,” I said, turning
back to my door. “Thanks.”

First stayed behind me,
his stare practically burning a hole in my back, waiting for me to
walk through the door and into my room. A momentary chill passed up
my spine, leaving as soon as it came. The effect of it, though,
lasted long after I stepped into my room and let the door slide
closed behind me.

***

An entire day passed and I
saw nothing of Cailen. Apparently whatever had happened took much
more of his attention than he’d assumed. I never once left my room
though I knew he’d be able to find me wherever I was. A dull ache
had settled in my very empty stomach, but a deeper sense of
foreboding kept me from leaving my bed.

Ranen had asked for help,
but First had indicated no sense of alarm when I’d asked him about
the Emperor or the Royal Wing. Maybe Ranen wasn’t even there, but
wouldn’t the guards have said something?

Pain bloomed beneath my
eyes, the start of a very painful headache.

This whole place was a
festering pool of secrets. Deception lurked behind each door, it
settled on the air like a presence. I could almost taste the
tension, even as I hid in my room.

My thoughts went back to
Cailen. Something had to be very wrong.

“Or he’s deceiving you,
too,”
Malik’s voice purred behind the ache
in my head.
“Perhaps Anna is distracting
him.”

Pain ripped through me
like a punch in the gut. The one topic I’d been desperately trying
to avoid until I could talk to Cailen himself, and now the
voice--evidence of my growing insanity--had to bring it to the
front of my mind.

What about Anna? I
couldn’t avoid it anymore. Cailen had left so suddenly, we hadn’t
had a chance to get the truth out. And now with this unbidden
thought came a dozen others.

He’d never denied her
existence, and now I wondered if he’d really been called away on an
emergency, or if he’d been fleeing from me and my questions. For
weeks, he’d been desperate for me to leave this place and right
when I wanted to, he said I had to stay. For what? To get
information out of Lastrini? The more I thought about it, the more
impossible I realized what a venture like that was. Yes, everyone
underestimated me, but Lastrini was the leader of the entire
Soltakian military. A person didn’t get to that position by being
capable of being manipulated by a person who had no training in
anything.