Embers of Esper: A Sci Fi Adventure (Warden's Legacy Book 1) Read online

  Kyra was waiting for his reply.

  “So… this Viktor bloke that Tarri mentioned… it’s the same one that chased you away back then?”

  Her eyes glittered. “He did not chase me away. It took me years to get close enough to kill him — and the last time I saw him, he was on board a ship that got pounded into atoms.”

  “But he survived?” Tris was on the edge of his seat now, trying to put the last few pieces together.

  “Apparently so. He put a price on my head, and sent so many people after me that I’ve lost count. The last one was Evie.”

  Tris glanced at his girlfriend, but she didn’t react to that. It was water under the bridge now, but she was unlikely to forget her twin sister’s fixation with Kyra. That affair had come close to tearing the whole crew apart.

  “So this Viktor guy, he’s obviously pretty pissed off with you.”

  “You could say that.” Kyra visibly relaxed. Dredging up the past was really affecting her.

  I guess she makes up stuff so she doesn’t have to deal with it. Hardly a leap of intuitive genius, but it was worth bearing in mind. For Viktor to have gotten so far under Kyra’s skin, he had to be a serious player. After all, she’d faced lethal aliens, indestructible robots, and more assassins than anyone had a right to. He’d seen her scared on a few occasions, but never quite so… unsettled. And that was truly worrying.

  “I’ve got a plan,” Lukas said, climbing to his feet.

  All eyes swivelled to look at him.

  “First,” he said, “we eat that food. I’m starving. Second, we fly to Kyra’s homeworld and kick the shit out of this Viktor character. And third… I haven’t really got that far, but I’m guessing this ‘palace’ has some kind of relaxation centre? It’s been ages since I had a good massage.”

  After a huge breakfast of fried bacon, eggs, waffles and croissants — most of which had quite blatantly come from a supermarket in Bristol — Tris summoned Askarra to help them set a course. Yet another benefit of having the AI run things; they didn’t need to leave the crew lounge to do it. Askarra accepted the co-ordinates as Kyra reeled them off, then replaced her own hologram with a projection of their route. “Approximately seven days total flight time,” she announced, “unless additional stops are required.”

  Tris whistled. “That is a long way. It didn’t take us that long to reach Siszar space.”

  “My ancestors settled as far away as they could,” Kyra said. “They wanted isolation. They found a system so remote that they thought no-one would ever bother them. And for a long time it worked.”

  “And then what? The galaxy just got settled around them?”

  “I suppose so. We didn’t have much contact with off-worlders, so it didn’t make a lot of difference.”

  Tris looked at the younger princess, who was slumped back in her chair in a most unladylike fashion. A light dusting of orange sand decorated the table in front of her, as though she hadn’t been able to get rid of it all in one go. “You came a long way to find us,” he said. “What on earth made you choose that god-awful planet?”

  She forced herself upright, groaning at the amount of food she’d just eaten. “I didn’t want to go anywhere they’d find me. The only planets I know are close to Esper, where I’ve been doing my training. I picked the Wild Orchid because…” she glanced down, suddenly shy. “It just… it sounded so nice. In Enchantment on Edur.”

  Kyra dropped her head into her hands. “Seriously? You picked a bar from a trashy novel?”

  “It’s my favourite book,” the girl murmured.

  “It’s two-thousand years old!”

  Tarri shrugged. “I like the classics.”

  TEN

  A week-long journey, in any other vessel, would have been a real drag. But the Folly was the size of a city block — one filled with skyscrapers and bursting with every technological marvel imaginable. It had gyms and firing ranges, holographic movie theatres and armouries, labs, workshops, kitchens and enough autonomous robots to make or do pretty much anything.

  Lukas spent most of his time watching cartoons on DVD.

  “It’s awesome,” he told Tris, giving him a tour of the quarters he’d claimed for himself aboard Nightshade. They were a few days into their trip, though with no consistently-defined night-time, the days kind of blended into one another. “Check it out — all the shows come on these little silver discs, and each box has pictures so you know what it’s about.”

  Tris shook his head in mock despair. A portable DVD player had been rigged up to the room’s console, and a long shelf held a collection of children’s shows from the 80’s right up to the modern day. Thundercats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sat beside South Park and Futurama… at least he’s got good taste. Except, Lukas hadn’t been responsible for choosing his entertainment. Ella had brought it for him, demonstrating that uncanny knack she had for figuring out the fastest way to every man’s heart. Every woman’s too; Kyra wasn’t exactly complaining about the new jeans she’d acquired, though she was concerned that the dust on Edur had permanently stained the hot pink pair.

  “You do realise that even owning this stuff is technically punishable by death, right?”

  Lukas winked at him. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  “That’s not the point! I’m about to become a Warden. I’m already getting my ass kicked for not following the rules, and my girlfriend is sneaking down to Earth behind my back just to go shopping!”

  Lukas frowned at him, then gently pushed him down onto a sofa. “Relax, mate. It’ll be fine. You know what you need? A beer.” He opened a hatch in the wall and produced two metallic cylinders — thankfully, at least his booze hadn’t come from Earth. He cracked one open by twisting it, which caused the cylinder to glow red and a drinking spout to appear from the top. Tris took it, and watched the animated spaceship drift around the can. No wonder Lukas liked this stuff — even his drinks had cartoons on them. ‘Red Rocket’, the label announced, rather garishly.

  That triggered a memory that Tris couldn’t quite place…

  Then it hit him, and he sprang up from the couch.

  “Woah, mate! Relaxing’s not really your thing, eh?

  “No! I mean, look, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. Can I take this beer with me?”

  “Of course. Pop back for another one if you get thirsty.”

  Tris left Nightshade in a hurry, and took the nearest elevator up to his own level. He didn’t know where Ella was right now, but he was prepared to wait for her. If he’d been looking for anyone else, he could simply use the Gift, or else get Askarra to locate them. But the White Priesthood trained its agents to hide their minds, making them immune to detection by psychics. And as for asking his mother… well, this was already going to be awkward enough.

  Fortunately, Ella was in their quarters, doing a few stretches. She didn’t train with any of the others, or use the Folly’s gymnasiums as far as he knew. The more he thought about it, the more he realised just how little he knew about her day-to-day activities. Even when they’d been living together, they’d spent most of their days apart. He was always getting slapped up and down some draughty cargo bay by Kyra, or sitting in on strategy sessions with Kreon. Whereas she was… doing what, exactly? He had no idea.

  And that was the problem.

  He waited patiently for her to finish her routine, not wanting to start this discussion on a sour note. Where it would lead was anyone’s guess… but actually, he had a pretty good guess. And it started with the beer, which he placed on the bedside table as exhibit A.

  “Hi sweetie! How’s your day going?”

  “Good thanks,” he said. “But we need to talk.”

  “Oh?” The tone of his voice alerted her, and she went wary as a cat. “What’s up?”

  “Where did you get this?” He held up the bottle. “Lukas is quite partial to it. But of course, you know that, don’t you?”

  “I… what? I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

>   “You know that he likes this brand of beer, because you heard him say it.”

  “Probably.” She gave him a coy smile. “You’re not feeling threatened are you? Really, sweetie, you don’t need to worry. He’s not my type.” She was coming closer, moving sinuously; the curve of her hips caught his attention, and she stretched, making a tiny noise of delight.

  “Please don’t do that.”

  “Do what?” She slipped her arms around him and eased her body up against his, nestling her face into his shoulder. Her hair smelled sweet, like some exotic flower, and the sensation of her pressing up against him was almost unbearable.

  “No.” He took her gently by the shoulders, and moved her away. “I know what you’re trying to do. And it usually works. But not this time. I have to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth.”

  Now she did look concerned. Her green eyes went huge, and he felt the sudden urge to forget all this crap and apologise to her. Damn it! She was impossible to argue with for precisely this reason. Because she drives me wild… and she knows it. Only this time, she’s driving me wild for a different reason.

  “I always tell you the truth.” Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

  Tris shook his head. “I don’t think you do. I think you lie to me constantly, all the time. Here’s an example: what did you do today?”

  “Apart from you, you mean?” The twinkle was back in her eyes, something else he found irresistible. Now that he was watching for them, her seduction techniques were easier to spot. Not much easier to avoid, though.

  “Humour me.”

  She ran her hands through her hair; another ploy he recognised, this one giving her time to think. “I ate breakfast with you. I worked out. I showered. I meditated. I stretched. I was about to go and get some lunch, if you’re interested…?”

  Tris chewed on his fingernails. He was horrible at this — horrible at being horrible. He’d caught Ella in the odd white lie over the time they’d been together, and he’d always looked the other way. He’d always suspected that she wasn’t being completely straight with him, but she was entitled to her privacy. Now though, he was starting to realise that there was another entire side to how she operated — an entire part of her that was still cloaked in secrecy and deception.

  Serves me right for dating an assassin.

  He screwed his courage to the sticking point. “I think you’ve left a few things out. Let’s go back to the day we rescued Tarri. You remember, I left you sleeping… left you a message… and when I came back, you’d just got up and taken a shower.”

  She nodded along with him. “And… you’re angry at me for sleeping late?”

  “I’m not angry with you. I just need you to tell me the truth. I can’t keep doing all this—” he waved a hand at the room around them, “—if you don’t trust me enough to be honest with me.”

  That finally broke through her defences. The thinly-veiled threat that their relationship could be over… it wasn’t a trick he’d wanted to employ, but she’d left him nowhere else to go. And it was heartening to see that her feelings for him were genuine — enough so that she was finally prepared to drop the act.

  Her head drooped in defeat, and she sank down to sit on the bed. He sat next to her, facing her, not wanting to make this any harder than it already was.

  “Tell me about the day we visited Edur. And the real version, this time.”

  She studied the floor. “I left just after you did, and went down to the planet.” Her voice had gone all flat and robotic, as though she was reciting a mission report.

  “And then?”

  “I went to the coordinates Kyra gave to Askarra. I scouted the location. I identified the target. I knew you could handle it, so I remained in play as back-up. That’s it.”

  “Why didn’t you just come with us? Kyra would have been happy to have you along.”

  “That’s not how I operate. You know that.”

  “So you’d rather do everything by yourself, and hide what you’re doing from the rest of us?”

  That brought out a smile. “Exactly! Wow, it’s like you know me.”

  “Come on! I’m being serious.”

  “So am I. I’m an assassin, Tris. I never stopped being one. I don’t take contracts anymore, but I can’t just forget everything and start from scratch. I’ve spent a lifetime acquiring and honing these skills, and I can’t afford to lose them. I know you’d love me to sit at home and knit while you rush around protecting me, but it can’t be like that for us. I can’t stop being what I am; the risk is too great. And besides, what else would I do? I’m lousy at jigsaws.”

  Tris stifled a snigger. He felt much better with all this out in the open, though he could already tell that he wasn’t going to get the full story. Not on everything. Just once would be nice, though. Just to prove that he wasn’t going mad.

  “On the way off that planet, something really weird happened. A ship that was chasing us just exploded, for no reason. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

  “Ahhh! I should have known you’d figure that one out. I usually try for a bit more subtlety, but sometimes there aren’t too many options.”

  “So how did you do it?”

  “Sorry, I left that part out.” She flashed him a rueful grin. “Force of habit. As soon as I arrived, I scouted the landing pad. There were only two ships on it, so it stood to reason that one of them belonged to Kyra’s contact. Which meant there was a possibility that the other one was hostile.”

  “And how did you tell them apart?”

  “I didn’t. I set explosives and detonators on both of them. You can’t be too careful in my line of work.”

  “Explosives and detonators,” he shook his head. “I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised by that. But we didn’t even see you on the scanners.”

  She wriggled closer so their knees were touching, and leaned in like she was sharing a secret. “My ship doesn’t show up on scanners. It has a few upgrades.”

  Tris did a double-take. “What? You have a ship? Where the hell did you get a ship?”

  Her eyes were sparkling now — she was enjoying her revenge. “Same as you. I inherited it.”

  “But… where is it?”

  “You know that docking bay that’s still broken? It isn’t broken.”

  “What? But… how? When?”

  She stroked his denim-clad thigh. “Sorry sweetie! That’s what I went to Earth for. To collect the ship, and a few extra supplies. The Priesthood has caches of equipment hidden all over England. You didn’t really think I dodged the entire Defence Force just to fetch you jeans, did you?”

  * * *

  With the revelations done for the day — or so he hoped — Tris fetched some lunch back to the room, and spent a bit of quality time with his mistress. He figured he owed her a pleasant afternoon, after bringing the inquisition down on her. She did make him promise never to reveal her secrets — backed up with the joke-threat that if he did, she’d have to kill him. Again, he was fairly sure she was joking… Sometimes, with assassins, it was hard to know.

  Later on, he found himself restless, and strolled the circumference of the Folly a few times to get some exercise. He couldn’t resist wandering past the supposedly-defunct docking bay, where Ella’s secret stealth ship was apparently docked. She’d already warned him not to try going in there; the doors were rigged, and both the bay and the ship itself were thoroughly booby-trapped.

  His mother’s hologram often appeared to him during these moments of solitude, but not this time; he had a feeling she was staying away for a good reason. There was no way Ella could have pulled off her covert missions without Askarra being in on it. They were co-conspirators in this; his own mother was keeping secrets from him. She’d probably justify it by referencing the bargain she’d made with Ella, whereby she gave her blessing to their relationship in exchange for the assassin promising to keep Tris alive by any means necessary. It was a neat deal, he’d th
ought at the time, as he kind of won on both scores. But he hadn’t considered the full implications; that the two of them, the living Priestess and the dead one, would be working together to protect him from every threat. Including himself…

  He wound up at the main gymnasium, where he knew Lukas worked out a lot. Kyra was there too, and both of them were dripping with sweat. They must have just taken a break, as they were sitting on a bench near the doorway, drinking some of Lukas’ Red Rocket stash.

  “Hi guys. You still training? I fancy a bit of exercise.”

  Kyra gave him the sardonic eyebrow. “I thought you’d done your exercise for the day. I could hear you halfway across the station.”

  He felt the heat rising in his cheeks. Oh, come on! I was having sex with the most incredible woman I’ve ever met. How on Earth can Kyra wind me up about that?

  She had a talent for it.

  “Oh, ha-ha. I just feel like I need to do a bit of sparring. I don’t want to get rusty.”

  Kyra eyed him critically. “You were a little slow back on the planet.”

  “I didn’t do anything on the planet!”

  She held her palms up. “Kind of making my point there, Tris. Not going soft on me, are you?”

  “Hell no! But I didn’t get a lot of practice on Atalia. They had a few bouts in my first week and I won every one of them. After that, no-one would fight me.”

  “Oh really?” Kyra swung herself free of the bench without a moment’s hesitation. “Lukas — hold my beer.”

  ELEVEN

  Esper was a tiny green speck, glittering in the reflected light of its star.

  Tris stared at the image on the viewscreen, and wondered what they’d find down there. Kyra was still being remarkably close-mouthed about her homeworld, so he knew very little about the place. He did have several fresh bruises for his curiosity; she’d dangled morsels of information about her past as rewards for him landing a blow on her in their twice-daily sparring sessions. In this vein he’d discovered that Esper contained only one city, that Kyra had been born there… and nothing else.