The Black Stars (15 page)

Mason turned and walked toward the doorway, through the tunnel of blackness.

He did not look back.

*   *   *

Mason didn't feel safe until he was back in the hallways of the school. He pictured his room in his mind, and the implant in his skull communicated with the floor: a new glowing line appeared, guiding him back to where he belonged.

Everyone was waiting for him when he returned.

“Juneful said he kicked your butt in the hallway, that you attacked him out of nowhere and he had to defend himself and you got
beat down.
” That was Risperdel.

“Of course he said that” Mason replied. He still felt stunned, slow to move, like he was walking through water.

The Fangborn are coming.
That was all he could think now. It didn't matter what his mom said—the ESC
had
to be warned. Even if warning them only saved a handful of lives in the end, it was worth it. Grand Admiral Shahbazian would have to believe him.

“Where have you been?” Po came up to Mason but stopped short of clapping him on the shoulder.

“Yes. Where have you been?” Tom said just ahead of him, arms crossed. “I waited for you, but a teacher made me move on, said I was
loitering.
I tried to argue, but…”

“You saw,” Mason said, his voice sounding hollow and fake. “I was kept after class.”

“Yeah,” Lore said. “Juneful told us in the hallway. So, is it true you attacked him?”

“Juneful didn't seem like the chatting type at lunch,” Po said. “We can guess what happened.”

“But he seemed sure Mason—”

“Yes!” Mason said. Everyone stared at him. “Yes. Juneful and his three friends jumped me in the hallway. I took care of it. They promised to report me. They said the school recorded the energy discharge of my gloves, and that I would be sent home.” Mason had almost forgotten that last part: now there was no way he'd allow them to send him home, not with his mom inside the school and the Fangborn on their way. The stupid Tremist had brought Earth into the same solar system as Skars … which would make it so easy to wipe out both civilizations, or convert them into Fangborn, in just one battle. This was their fault. Yet the humans had created the gate in the first place.…

“They won't send you home…” Risperdel said, but she didn't sound so sure.

“But you beat them?” Po said. He was grinning. He had no idea what was happening. Mason had a mind to tell them all right then and there, to spread the word about their impending doom, but he didn't. His mother still had work to do. They both did.

*   *   *

He spent the next two days in a fog. He told Tom everything he'd learned, and Tom just stared at him wordlessly. At the end, he put his hand on Mason's shoulder and squeezed. “You're angry,” he said. “You have every right to be. But…” His eyes dropped. “She's still alive. That's what's important.”

Tom had lost his mother six months earlier. And she was not going to magically reappear. The knot in Mason's stomach unclenched a bit.

Mason cocked his head to the side. “You know what? You might be the smartest person I know.”

“No,” Tom said. “I
am
the smartest person you know. Now, about that Fangborn invasion. What do you think we should do?”

“Tell someone, obviously,” Mason said. “I just have to figure out who we can trust. My mom was right—if the news leaks, people will panic and start pointing fingers at each other. The treaty could crumble before they even get here. But we have to prepare.” Mason thought again of the Uniter's gloves, how supernaturally powerful they had seemed. The Tremist and ESC could prepare all they wanted, but if the Fangborn ship was still impervious to energy weapons, it wouldn't matter much. They needed an edge.

Mason reported to Grand Admiral Shahbazian just once in those two days and decided the news of the coming attack was too great to keep secret. But Mason didn't want to tell GAS himself, not trusting the crazy old man to react in a normal, calm manner. For all Mason knew, he'd think the Tremist had been keeping the news a secret.

So Mason asked to speak with his sister, Susan, the following night. He was sore from zero-gravity exercises in the gravity-free room above the Inner Chamber. Lore kept gunning for him, barreling into his body then pistoning off before they both hit the wall. She'd done it twice in a row before Mason decided to focus solely on her. Not that it mattered much; she flew through the air like a bird.

Susan was in GAS's office, alone, when he activated the communicator. Seeing her for the first time since starting Academy II was almost too much. Mason wanted to break down when she smiled at him, even though she was smiling from billions of miles away.

“Hey little brother,” she said. Her smile quickly disappeared. “What's the matter? Shahbazian was not too happy you asked to speak to me. How are you holding up?”

“I'm fine,” Mason began. He was anything but fine, but how else are you supposed to answer that question? “I'm here to tell you something. It has to stay quiet.”

She nodded slowly. “You've learned something? Why tell me?”

“Because you're in intelligence, and I don't trust GAS not to fly off the handle.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Gas…? Grand—Grand Admiral Shahbazian?” She snorted.

“Yeah, sorry, him. Are you alone? No one is listening?”

“Yes, I'm alone. Talk to me.”

Mason didn't know how to start, so he just said it: “The Fangborn are coming. I don't know when they'll be here, but they tracked the Tremist to this star system, and they're coming to finish us off.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Are you—”

“Yes, I'm sure. You have to tell the Reynolds or something. Get people prepared in a quiet way.”

“Great Mountain…” she breathed. “Where did you come across this intel? How can you be sure it's good?”

Our mother.
Mason almost transmitted the thought but held back. You had to will a thought, really focus, for it to go through the communicator.

Susan waited patiently. Mason had to tell her the truth. “Susan, I'm going to tell you something that's going to sound crazy. And insane. Insanely crazy.”

“That wouldn't be a first,” Susan said.

The words came out in a rush. “Mom is alive and she's working underneath the Rhadgast school on some kind of Fangborn antivenom because Fangborn have venom in their teeth that can turn humans and Tremist into other Fangborn.”

A long moment passed in which Susan didn't do or say anything. Mason thought the feed had frozen. But then she blinked. “Are you sure?” she said quietly, in almost a whisper.

“Yes I'm sure! I snuck into an area I wasn't supposed to be in—”

“Shocking—”

“—and found her working in a lab. She says she's close to a cure! Wait. Why don't you look surprised…?”

Susan put her hand over her mouth, then let it fall away. “There was a rumor I heard when I joined the intelligence sector. Something about humans and Tremist working together in secret, way before the treaty. I never thought…”

“It's real,” Mason said. “Mom and Dad left us to help them. They thought it was that important … and I guess it is.”

Mason couldn't help but remember the memorial for the victims of the First Attack, when he and his sister had stood side by side and mourned their parents. It had all been a lie. His feelings had been a lie.

“You only mentioned Mom before.…” Susan said. “What about Dad?”

The connection nearly broke, Mason's physical surroundings fuzzing into existence for a split second, replacing GAS's office. He'd rather be talking about anything else. He didn't want to see the look in Susan's eyes.

“They were researching on Nori-Blue eleven years ago,” Mason said tonelessly. “Dad was …
changed
. Mom hasn't seen him since.”

Susan's eyes were unfocused, distant. She began to nod absently. “Well…” She swallowed. “We have other things to worry about. Stay focused. And safe. You hear me? Eyes open, little brother.” Her voice was steel. Mason knew it was the brittle kind, though. Ready to break.

His throat tightened. “I will.”

“Tell me everything about the Fangborn one more time,” Susan said.

Mason did.

“I'll get this information to the right people,” Susan said when he finished. She paused.

“What is it?” Mason said.

She shook her head. “I don't know. I don't—we need something, Mason. We're not going to win like this. Without a miracle. Please stay out of trouble until I can see you.”

“Only if you do, too,” Mason said, though he knew neither of them would. Mason ended the link and was left with a hollow feeling in his chest. He missed the Academy. There he had a purpose. Here his mission was becoming lost in a haze of questions. Here he didn't know what he was doing, or what he was supposed to do.

 

Chapter Twenty-one

 

Mason woke forty minutes early—before the day had to start, but after curfew. He showered, brushed his teeth, donned his uniform, and was out the door while Tom and the others slept soundly in their bunks. The sleep of soldiers: completely unconscious, until they needed to be conscious. Though, as he was slipping out the door, he saw Risperdel watching him, one golden eye peeking around the covers.

The library was three levels down, in the middle of the sphere, where Blood met Stone. It was enormously tall, with pillars of what looked like creamy marble but probably weren't. A waste of space in Mason's opinion. The stacks rose fifty feet high around him. Hover platforms took you where you needed to go, but the highest books held a special risk, since the platforms had no railings.

The Tremist seemed to love paper books. This wasn't the reusable synth-paper the ESC used, which could display any book uploaded to its pages, but real paper that would tear if you weren't careful. The shelves were full of them, of all shapes and sizes. Tremist apparently didn't need or want all of their books to be rectangles of a similar size.

The library had a circular desk in the middle, usually staffed by several librarians, if the chairs were any indication. But today there was only one, a Tremist woman in her early twenties. She wore a long tunic of rich, velvety purple. Her hair was snow-white and piled around her shoulders. Her eyes were dazzling silver, catching and magnifying the dim light of the library. Mason was dumbstruck when he saw her.

She smiled, recognition in her bright eyes. “You're up early. Have a thirst for knowledge? You've come to the right place.”

Mason cleared his throat. “Yes, hi, I am.”

She folded her long, delicate fingers on the counter. “What can I assist you with?”

“I … was hoping I could find a book on Aramore the Uniter.”

Her cheek twitched at the name, but her smile didn't break. “Aramore, huh? That is a broad subject, Mason—”

“How do you know my name?”

She lifted one eyebrow—
Really?

“Right,” he said. “One of two humans in the school. What's your name?”

“I'm Calora. Would you say we're well met?”

“Uh, yes—”

“Now, several texts cover this history of the Uniter and the Divider. Some written by Bloods, some Stones, so you can imagine there may be a slight disparity in accounts.”

“What do you recommend?”

Her eyes lit up. “
The United,
by Sephaman. He remained neutral through everything. But what
specifically
are you looking for?”

Mason licked his lips. “Information on his gloves. Where they came from, what they can do, that kind of thing.”

“That kind of thing…” She quirked one side of her mouth. “You know what? I have just the
thing
.” She came out from behind the counter, moving as if she were walking on air, then stepped onto the nearest hover platform. It dipped slightly under her weight. “Be right back.” The platform rose up and away, cutting between stacks, disappearing from view. Mason stayed where he was, until Calora returned with a huge black book bound in leather. Gold and silver rivets adorned the front and back. She had to carry it with both hands. She placed it in Mason's arms, and he almost dropped it. She and Mason were of the same height.

“There you are,” she said. “There is a table in the back you can read at, if you like.” She went back behind the counter and bowed low over a sheaf of papers.

Mason went to the table and set the book down. He opened it and began to read. Two hours later, Mason knew what he needed to do.

Mason found Calora exactly how he'd left her. She tapped the counter without looking away from her papers.

“Can I ask you something?” he blurted.

She continued reading for another moment, then two, before looking up at him from behind her silvery eyelashes. “Hmm?”

“Are you a Stone, or…?” Her purple tunic said yes, but she had been nice to him.

“Does it matter?” she asked softly.

He thought about it. “I guess not.”

“Well, there you go. Take care, Mason Stark. Come see me again.” Her eyes fell back to her papers.

*   *   *

Mason got Po alone outside the refectory the next day. “Po, hold up,” he said.

Po stopped and let a group of students slip past. The refectory was quieter than last time, a kind of thickness in the air that dampened the click of utensils and the clatter of plates. Everyone was still thinking about Jiric.
And only I know where he is,
Mason thought.

“I'm going after the gloves of Aramore,” Mason said to Po. He waited for Po's reaction. Mason expected him to laugh, but instead Po smiled widely.

“My friend, join the club. That's
all
I've been doing for the last year, is looking for clues. I already invited you, if you remember.”