No More Heroes: In the Wake of the Templars Book Three (7 page)

Maybe the bullies today had only intended to frighten him, or beat him up a little, but the ocean could have easily taken matters out of their hands, if Raena hadn’t been there.

She’d been sparring with him. She’d been teaching him what the
Veracity
’s stock of antique weapons could be used for. Whenever it came down to danger, though, Raena always stepped up and Mykah gratefully hung back, relieved to let her protect him.

The anger buried beneath his fear and shame bubbled to the surface. Mykah promised himself that from this moment on, he would do his share. Unless he started dating her—and not even then—Raena wouldn’t always be around to protect him. Until he could defend himself, he would always be afraid.

He hadn’t done anything wrong, anyway. The Templar plague spun out while he was a child. His attempts to atone for it seemed to make no difference whatsoever. Mykah was sick of apologizing.

Coni startled him by tapping on the glass wall of the shower. “Are you ever coming out of there?”

Mykah switched the water off. “Yeah,” he said, instead of “Sorry.”

“Good. I’ve been missing you.” She held out a towel. When he stepped toward her, she began to rub him dry with just enough friction. Mykah felt his anger slink back to its hiding place. Parts of his life really were stellar.

Coni surprised him by asking, “What’d you and Raena talk about at the restaurant?”

“She wanted to know about dating someone who wasn’t human.”

“Oh? Are they dating?”

“Apparently.”

While Coni hung up his towel, she wondered, “Are you jealous?”

Mykah laughed. “You’re just asking me now because you think I’ll be more honest when I’m drunk.”

Coni inclined her head in agreement, but her mouth quirked into a smile. “That’s not an answer.”

Mykah pulled her into his arms, luxuriating in the softness of Coni’s blue fur against his bare skin. “I am not jealous,” he said with all honesty. “I hope they can make each other happy. Both of them deserve some peace.”

Coni made the trill deep in her throat that meant he was doing something that she liked. Mykah smiled and kept doing it.

*   *   *

“What’s with the lockdown, Mom?” Gisela asked as Ariel and Eilif joined the breakfast table.

Ariel had been thinking over what to tell her family, how to make the situation seem serious without terrifying the kids. “You know that Eilif came from a really bad situation,” she began. None of the kids knew whom Eilif had been married to, only that he was murderously crazy. “We’ve had some news that implies that she may be in danger again. Even here.”

That was exactly the right tack to take, she realized. All her kids had come from varying levels of jeopardy. Without exception, they were grateful to be free of their pasts. They were solicitous and gentle with Eilif, seeing in her what might have happened if they hadn’t been rescued as children.

“What do you need us to do?” Gisela asked.

“Stay armed. Stay alert. I know some of you will need to get back to work, so use the protocols when you leave the compound and watch your backs. Once you’re out, stay out. I’ll give you the all-clear as soon as I’m sure the danger has been neutralized.”

Brendon asked, “Eilif, do you need anything?”

She was too shy to look up from the cup of tea she cradled in her hands.

Ariel spoke for her. “If any of you have time, it would be great if you could do some fight training or run through the range with Eilif. It will help her to feel safer if she has some skills with which to protect herself.”

The kids exploded in sound, shouting over each other with offers and plans.

Ariel whistled for silence. “One at a time,” she reminded. “I appreciate your willingness to help, but be respectful.”

Really, though, she couldn’t have been more proud. Thallian might have cloned his own bodyguards, but her private army was even more enthusiastic. And not insane. And far better armed.

*   *   *

Raena’s eyes came open in the unfamiliar hotel room. Haoun had curled around her again, his chin resting on the top of her head. His scales had drawn the warmth from her skin. She shivered.

She didn’t have any idea what time it was, but sleep had abandoned her for the night. When she flopped over to face Haoun, he didn’t even grumble at her to go back to sleep.

She went to fill the tub. Maybe Haoun would wake while she rattled around and be ready to go out after she got herself cleaned up.

This time she did indulge in a bubble bath. She couldn’t name the floral scent in the hotel’s soap, but it made her think of Ariel’s house. Being the wealthy girl’s companion had given Raena a taste for expensive things, which Thallian had not allowed her to indulge on the
Arbiter
. Maybe now she could treat herself. The
Veracity
didn’t have a tub, but surely Vezali could contrive one for her.

Raena lazed in the water until it grew cold. Still Haoun didn’t wake. She decided that it was time to hunt down some breakfast. After she climbed back into the tiny blue dress she’d bought yesterday, she commed Vezali. When she got no response, she tried Coni.

“You’re up early,” the blue girl noted.

“Hungry,” Raena said. “Are you?”

“Sure. Why don’t I meet you at the nabe place again and we can find something near there?”

“See you soon,” Raena said.

*   *   *

Eilif waited anxiously for Jimi to answer her call. When he did, he looked bleary-eyed. Sleep had tangled his long black hair.

“Mother,” he said, clearly relieved. “You got my message.”

“How did you find me?” she begged to know.

“I traced Raena Zacari’s connection to the Shaad Foundation. I was looking for Raena, but found you by accident.”

“Then it would be easy for him to find me as well.” She heard the quaver in her voice.

“Yes. You need to go back through all your correspondence and execute a global change of your name. There’s a way to scramble the change so there’s no record of it. That should help you disappear. I’ll send you the directions.”

Eilif swallowed. “Thank you.” She clutched her quivering hands in her lap, below the view of the monitor. “Are you hidden?”

“Yes. I have a couple of layers of mirrors between me and the cameras on Drusingyi. I’ve changed my name and I’m working on getting papers, so there’s no connection to the family.”

She nodded sharply. “You look well.”

“I have a perfect life, Mother. This has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

She understood that he meant the destruction of his home and the slaughter of his family. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me, too.”

*   *   *

Coni suggested skewers of unfamiliar vegetables for breakfast, so they bought some from a street vendor and proceeded to window-shop.

“Where’s Mykah today?” Raena wondered.

“Back at the ship. He was such a mess last night I saw no point in wasting money on a hotel room.”

Coni said it in flawlessly accented Standard, but without any sort of vocal cues that would let Raena decipher how she felt about it.

“I’m sorry,” seemed the safest response.

Coni shook her head. “He used to drink a lot more, after he’d been bullied on Kai. This thing yesterday churned up all those emotions again.”

Raena nodded. It didn’t surprise her to learn that he’d been bullied. She had wondered if Mykah learned free-running for a reason.

She changed the subject. “I think I broke Haoun.”

Coni didn’t answer, so Raena felt compelled to clarify. “I exaggerate. But he may sleep for the rest of the day.”

“I’m glad you two are having fun together,” Coni said.

Raena smiled to herself. In point of fact, she was quite fond of Coni’s deadpan delivery. Before this, she hadn’t considered Standard to be a tonal language.

Coni stopped in front of a window to admire the shoes inside, which puzzled Raena. While feline Coni wore paw covers, they were so simple and unadorned that she made them herself. “Need some new boots?” Coni asked.

Raena came nearer. The window held a forest of boots in every shade and material. One black leather pair had sharp silver heels to match the buckles that climbed their sides. “I may need those boots,” Raena agreed.

*   *   *

Mykah woke after Coni had gone out. His head felt stuffed with dampening filaments, but he forced himself to get up, drink two glasses of water straight down, and consider breakfast.

Not much food remained on the
Veracity
. Before they left Lautan, they’d need to restock. He started a shopping list as he reconstituted some eggs. If he could choke them down, the protein should settle his stomach.

Once he had the eggs scrambled and garnished with some garlic and mushrooms from his garden, he settled in the cockpit to listen to messages.

Coni left a message that she was off for breakfast with Raena. Vezali checked in to see how he was feeling. No word from Haoun, who was probably still asleep. The final message came from Ariel Shaad. She addressed it to Raena, but marked it extremely urgent.

Ms. Shaad had taken the
Veracity
in shortly after they left the Thallian homeworld. Raena had needed a doctor off the grid to look at her shoulder wound and Thallian’s wife Eilif needed someone to help her acclimate to the galaxy after her long enslavement. Ariel handled everything without questions.

Now that Raena passed as her own daughter, her relationship with Ariel had grown even more complicated. Ariel seemed to just roll with it. She didn’t care if she was Raena’s lover or sister or guardian, as long as Raena allowed Ariel to continue to be part of her life.

Mykah would have forwarded the message directly to Raena’s comm, but he was curious. And hungover. His impulse control felt extremely tenuous.

Whatever he had expected to see from Ariel Shaad, it wasn’t the image of a teenaged boy. The kid looked so much like Jain Thallian, former guest of the
Veracity
, that Mykah had to struggle to see the differences. It was spooky.

He set the message to play. It made him forget all about finishing his eggs.

*   *   *

Raena paid for her new boots and waited for the humanoid shop girl to hand her a bag with her old boots in it. The clerk’s eyes widened suddenly. Before Raena could react, a gun barrel jammed into the base of her skull.

She raised her hands slowly. Whoever stood behind her eased the Stinger from the holster on her thigh.

“Raena Zacari,” an unfamiliar voice said, “I am arresting you for charges filed on . . .”

She didn’t wait for him to get the rest of the speech out. She kicked back hard with her new sharp silver heel, felt it connect in the most satisfying way. At the same time, she ducked sideways, toward the pistol he was stealing from her.

The stranger’s gun put a nice round hole in the artwork behind the register.

Raena turned, raising one hand to catch his gun arm before he could re-aim. She slammed her other elbow hard up into his wizened monkey face.

She snatched her own Stinger back, tossed it to Coni, and said, “Out.” The blue-furred girl didn’t argue. The two salesgirls minced after her.

Raena got behind the bounty hunter, kicked him in the knee, then jumped onto his back to add her weight to his head as it struck the shoe counter. That took him out. She would have pounded his head down a second time, just to be certain, but the counter didn’t look very sturdy. No sense in getting arrested for vandalism.

She plucked his gun from his hand, ejected its charge pack and pocketed it. Then she snatched up her shopping bag with one hand and dragged the unconscious Saimiri bounty hunter out to the street. She dropped him beside the garbage incinerator on the curb. She banged the gun hard against the incinerator to disable it, then flung it down on his chest.

Coni handed Raena’s Stinger back. “Who is that?”

“Bounty hunter,” Raena said.

“But the charges were dropped on Capital City.”

“They never arrested me,” Raena pointed out, “only you, Mykah, and Vezali. This is something else.”

Raena scanned the street. Other than the people immediately nearby reacting to the unconscious bounty hunter, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“What do we do?”

“I need to get back to the ship and get myself armed up. Then we need to figure out who put a bounty on me and if there’s a way to settle it. I should’ve let him tell me what I was charged with, but his gun was too jittery against my head. I thought he’d shoot me before he spit it out.”

“What can I do?” Coni asked.

“Comm everyone. Keep them off the ship. If anyone’s looking for me on Lautan, they’ll loiter around the
Veracity
. I want you all to be safe. Why don’t you set us a meeting somewhere for a late lunch, so we can discuss whether we’re getting out of here all together or if I’m finding my own way forward.”

Raena stuck out her arm so suddenly that Coni jumped. A taxi pulled up in front of them.

Coni followed her into the car. “I’m coming back to the ship with you,” she said. “I’d feel better if I got armed up, too.”

Raena considered arguing, but Coni was mature enough to understand what she was getting into. She relented. “If I tell you to run, don’t look back.”

“I trust you,” Coni said. Raena hoped that would keep the blue girl safe.

*   *   *

Haoun wasn’t surprised to wake and find Raena gone. He knew she suffered from insomnia. Still, he felt disappointed to be alone. Already he had gotten used to having her warmth pressed up against him.

He crawled out of the nest of blankets and stretched. He had a little shopping left to do, some games he wanted to pick up for the
Veracity
, some snacks he wanted to stock up on. Who knew how long it might be before they made planetfall again? Wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.

As he looked for breakfast, he passed a shop that seemed to sell nothing but scarves. A hundred or so fluttered in the breeze blowing off the ocean. Must be a storm coming in, he thought.

He nearly passed the shop by before a scarf caught his eye. It mimicked the green of his scales, shot through with gold thread. The way the semi-sheer fabric flashed and floated on the breeze made him halt.