Wandering Star: A Zodiac Novel (10 page)

I feel weightless and tingly and
alive
.

When we pull apart, Hysan whispers, “I understand this changes nothing for you, my lady.” Our hearts hammer in unison against our chests. “But I can’t apologize, because I’m not sorry. All I can do is promise not to kiss you again.”

With a flicker of his centaur smile, he adds, “Unless you ask me to.”

I’M STILL LIGHTHEADED FROM OUR
kiss when the moving pathway comes to an end at the Capital’s government square, four starscrapers that look like they’re facing off against each other. Each represents one of the Sagittarian planets: Interron, Millium, Gryphon, and Centaurion. The Sagittarian Guardian acts as an advisor to the government—same as on Cancer—and her offices are in the Centaurion building.

When we walk inside the structure, I feel like I’ve returned to the Academy on Elara—only instead of deans and instructors, the students are in charge.

Dozens of young professionals in official Stargazer uniforms bustle across the lobby, their faces buried in red holographic screens. Everyone is so distracted that nobody notices us. Unlike the Lodestar suits on Cancer, these lavender uniforms are covered in pockets packed with basic essentials so that Sagittarians are ready to travel at all times.

Sagittarius’s leaders are the youngest in the Zodiac. After Stargazers complete their Zodai training, mostly in foreign Houses, they usually turn a
curious eye toward home. Since they’ve already traveled extensively during school, they’re ready to test themselves other ways, primarily politically. Even though anyone can run for office, it’s rare for those over thirty to do so, since by that age a Sagittarian’s interest in home begins to wane again, and she starts itching to explore the corners of the universe she has yet to see.

Wallscreens and framed holograms of celebrities who’ve visited the Centaurion building decorate the lobby, and prepackaged foods cover every surface—snacks for on-the-go Sagittarians. Hysan taps me on the shoulder, and we step into an elevator crammed with more Stargazers. The lift stops on what feels like every floor, but by the time we get to the higher stories, the crowd surrounding us begins to thin. Eventually, it’s just Hysan and me left.

As always, he knows where he’s leading us. “Is there any world you
haven’t
visited?”

He grins. “The Thirteenth.”

Once we reach the top floor, we walk down a long hallway filled with doors, each one featuring a digital message tablet like the ones we had in our dorm-pods at the Academy. When we get to the last room, it’s already open.

Guardian Brynda sits at a round table with a dozen young diplomats arguing about strategy. I’m immediately reminded of my meetings with my Advisors on Oceon 6.

“Hysan!” Brynda springs to her feet, silencing the diplomats, who all at once turn to look at us. “’Gazers, our Knight has arrived!” she squeals, leaping up to hug him. Hysan twirls Brynda around, and when they pull away they’re both radiating so much happiness that suddenly I feel sullen and self-conscious.

My handful of reunions with Hysan have all been heavy-hearted and laden with mixed signals, but somehow Brynda is able to bring out his sunlight.

“I come bearing shields,” says Hysan, brandishing a stack of thin metal plates from his pocket. One of her Advisors accepts the devices while Brynda reaches up to squeeze Hysan’s dimples.

“
That centaur smile
 . . . I keep telling you, there’s a Sagittarian somewhere in your bloodline.” Then she turns to survey me. “And, of course, Rho.”

“Hi,” I say as she comes closer, examining me like I’m an item up for sale. “Nice to see you again.”

“I’m sorry for the way things went down at the Plenum. It was wrong. I may think you’re crazy to resist Dimples here”—she winks at Hysan—“but I think you’re right about the Zodiac having to unite to defeat Ophiuchus. And whoever else is out there.”

“Thanks,” I say, liking her more with every frank word she speaks.

“Why don’t you two hang out for a while? You can listen in and take an update back to your troop.” She settles back into her seat at the head of the table, and Hysan pulls over two extra chairs. Looking at him, she says, “Your fleet of bullet-ships and these Psy shields are the best resources we’ve gotten from the Houses. We’ll activate the shields later tonight. First we need our Stargazers to finish consulting the Psy.”

“Tomorrow we’re cutting off all transportation in and out of Sagittarius,” says a spiky-haired Advisor, jumping in the moment Brynda pauses for breath. “Stargazers are orbiting the planet already, to alert us at the first sign of the Marad.”

“Why aren’t the other Houses doing more to help you?” I ask, unable to repress the question. I guess curiosity is contagious.

“No one’s seeing an oncoming attack,” says Brynda, shrugging. “Zodai on every House have been searching the stars. I spent all yesterday consulting the Psy myself, and I didn’t see any signs of trouble either.”

“They think the Marad may be faking,” says the spiky-haired Advisor. “No one wants to send their own Zodai away when their House might be the true target.”

A distant drumming grows louder, drowning out the sounds of voices, and I realize it’s my heartbeat. Ophiuchus was right—we won’t see the attack until the master decides on a target. We won’t have any way of knowing which House is getting hit.

What if he’s also right that it’ll be Capricorn?

“Maybe no one can see the attack because it will be perpetrated with Dark Matter,” suggests Hysan. “No one could foresee what happened to Cancer, Argyr, or Tethys either.” He looks at me and adds, “
Almost
no one.”

Every face at the table turns toward me, and I feel my cheeks heating with nerves. Hysan has a point. So either Ophiuchus is a turncoat—or he’s the one leading the charge.

And I’m the only one who can see him.

The only one who can judge.

“Still, we don’t know for certain that those were actual targeted strikes,” says the spiky-haired Advisor, her voice lower this time, as if she’s embarrassed to be so blunt before me. “Charon’s character may be questionable, but scientists haven’t ruled out his theory that those three disasters could have been triggered by cosmic rays from the Sufianic Clouds. Even Lord Neith’s proof of a Psynergy attack on his ship can’t be verified because it’s the first proof of its kind anyone has seen—there’s nothing to compare it to. Ambassador Sirna’s claims of a Psynergy attack on Thebe were equally nebulous—the influx of Psynergy that coincided with the explosion could’ve been a correlation and not the source. There’s simply no reliable evidence to prove Dark Matter did any of this.”

Hysan’s chest expands, but Brynda intervenes before he unleashes his outburst. “Whatever the stars are saying, we can’t risk the attack, so we’re taking it seriously. As Hysan just reminded us, human Sight isn’t star-proof. We’re stationing our Stargazers all over the Capital. We’ve already evacuated most of downtown, but we left your friends alone since they’re staying to fight.”

From her Tracker, she beams a diagram of the city, like the one Deke showed us earlier, only this one is blanketed with so many extra layers that it would take weeks to review them all. Brynda’s Advisors run us through their lead theories on how the Marad might strike, but they have such a surplus of schematics and projections that it takes hours to get through them all.

Their overwhelming curiosity makes it easy for Sagittarians to brainstorm possibilities and look at situations from multiple perspectives, so they seem to have thought through every single potential outcome. What they’re missing are the Arieans’ military grasp, and the Scorps’ advanced weaponry, and the Capricorns’ patience for planning, and the Taurians’ diligent teamwork, and so on. The Marad have those strengths because the army is made up of all the Houses. They’ll have the advantage.

“Rho, have you consulted the Psy since the armada?” asks Brynda. Her spiky-haired Advisor turns to me as though this is the point she’d been hoping Brynda would press. It reminds me that the last time the universe heard from me, I was too afraid of the boogeyman to open an Ephemeris or wear my Ring.

“I have.”

I watch the effect of these two short words ripple down the table, and to my bewilderment, everyone is suddenly alert and focused on me again.

“Have you seen anything in the stars about the Marad’s attack?” asks Brynda.

“I’ve seen a steep imbalance in our galaxy, and that a war is coming”—their downcast eyes tell me they’ve seen that, too—“but nothing clear on Sagittarius.”

I don’t bring up Ophiuchus because I have nothing real to offer her about him. Every time I interfere with governance, people pay with their lives. I won’t make that mistake again.

“I can look again tonight,” I offer.

“Thank you, Rho.”

When I attended these kinds of meetings before, my participation was met with condescension, impatience, and disinterest. I was more symbol than person. But in this room, I can feel the curious eyes watching me with wonder, as if they’re genuinely interested in my insights. And for a moment I catch a glimpse of what it would feel like to be vindicated in the eyes of the Zodiac—and I realize how much I want it.

“Lady Brynda, Rho and I should go before it gets darker out,” says Hysan, rising to his feet. “Do you need any assistance with the shields before we leave?”

A lanky male Advisor turns to him with questions, and Brynda walks me out. “Hysan does have exquisite taste,” she says when we get to the hallway. She wraps me in a hug and says into my ear, “You know he’s in love with you, right? That’s the only reason I haven’t hit on you myself.”

My chin drops, and my cheeks flare red. Thank Helios she can’t see my face.

“But in the future,” she says before pulling away, “if you should ever develop any curiosities you’d like to satisfy . . .”

She doesn’t finish her thought; she merely winks as she walks over to Hysan, who’s just stepped out of her office. As he and I head into the elevator, my face is still afire with flattered flames.

By the time we make it to Nishi’s, it’s already curfew. The Sagittarians have been training all day, and Nishi and Deke gather them in the sitting area with its circle of creamy couches so Hysan and I can report what we learned from Brynda. Afterward, Deke brings out trays of the mushroom sushi he invented on Gemini, and a pleasant atmosphere falls over the house as we eat and chat and wonder.

Nishi and I are sharing a love seat in a corner of the room, catching each other up on our days. “How was being alone with Hysan?” she asks.

My eyes automatically find him at the other end of the room, flirting with a group of Sagittarian girls, Ezra and Gyzer glued to his sides. They glommed onto him during dinner and haven’t stopped peppering him with questions all night. Gyzer’s are mainly philosophical, and Ezra’s all practical—apparently, like Hysan, she likes to invent things.

“Hard,” I admit. “My guilt over Mathias had been a strong enough barrier until now. It’s kept me from having to dig too deep into my feelings for Hysan. But today . . . we . . .”

Nishi’s eyes gleam with impatient curiosity. “You
did
say he was an incredible kisser. . . .”

A smile breaks through my expression, pulled to the surface by the memory of that kiss. “But I still don’t know what I want, Nish,” I say, pushing back down on my feelings. “I mean, even if . . . we’re just so
different
. Before, we could have died at any moment—every aspect of life, every emotion, was so heightened that we grew close really,
really
fast—but we still know so little about each other.”

I look to him again, noticing how comfortable he seems, engaging and entertaining new people. Unlike Mathias, who would be sitting beside me all night, Hysan likes to work his way around a room.

Dating Hysan wouldn’t be like having a Cancrian boyfriend, who would be quiet, committed, devoted. Hysan likes his freedom. He even told me so himself the day we discovered he was Libra’s true Guardian. He said he uses Neith because he doesn’t like to be
tied down
.

“Rho . . . you love him. You’re just afraid of giving in to something so big. I’m sorry, but it’s true,” she says, reacting to my glare. “It’s like you’re here, but you’re not
here
here. You’ve had this wall up since last month . . . and it makes you unreachable.”

Even as I flinch from her words, I know she’s right. Stanton broke
through his shell, but I’ve yet to puncture mine. Dad’s and Mathias’s deaths are too fresh, and I still can’t forgive myself for the part I played in them.

If I’d refused the Guardianship and gone straight to find Stanton and Dad, Mathias might be alive. Dad, too. Along with everyone from the armada.

“I’m not a leader, Nish. I know what you want me to do here, but I can’t. I only came to look out for you and Deke. Your faith in me during Ophiuchus’s attacks got me through my worst defeats—I owe you too much gold for this friendship to be a fair trade, and I’m here to start repaying my debt.”

“I love you, Rho,” says Nishi, resting a hand on my shoulder. “But you’re wrong.”

My Wave buzzes in my pocket, and Nishi goes to check on Deke while I head into the quiet foyer to talk. When I snap the golden clamshell open, Stanton’s hologram beams out. “Hey, hero. How’s the war effort?”

“Unclear.” I nestle into a window seat overlooking the front garden. “How’s the rescue effort?”

His hologram hovers beside me. “Bunch of Sagittarians arrived seeking refuge. Ferez put them up in rooms at our hotel.”