GATHERING STORM.

"How long till we reach the rendezvous?" I ask Orion on the command deck. Except for our attendants, we are alone in front of the viewports of the Pax, watching my ships cross through s.p.a.ce. The newest additions to our fledgling armada are painted white and carry Lorn's angry-faced purple griffin. With them fly the black and blue and silver warships captured from Kellan au Bellona above Europa. Oranges and Reds crawl over the exteriors of the metal monsters, mending the holes made by leechCraft and preparing them for the siege of Mars.

"Three days till Hildas Station. The other ships will have beaten us there, dominus."

Kavax and Daxo approach from behind. I turn to them and gesture out the repaired windows to the ten ships of Kellan au Bellona.

"Thank you for the presents," I say.

"Your plan, your spoils," Kavax declares.

"With us taking a percentage, naturally," Daxo adds, smooth as ever, raising his swirling golden eyebrows. "Fifty percent finder's fee." I glance at him with amus.e.m.e.nt. "Well, thirty percent, because Pax liked you."

"Ten percent!" Kavax booms.

I c.o.c.k my head. "You're a poor negotiator, Praetor."

He shrugs amiably and points in joy to jelly beans on the ground. He tosses Sophocles down, encouraging him to vanquish them all.

"Twenty." Daxo splays his hands, movements always seeming to belong to a thinner, more bookish man. "That is fair, no? We lost a hundred and sixty house Grays and thirteen Obsidians."

"Then thirty percent to compensate you. For friends."

"Three ships! What a haggle!" Kavax proclaims. "What a haggle. Sometimes a man needs a good haggle." He claps me on the back, making the joints crack again. "If only we had caught Aja. That'd be a spoil to divide!"

"She fled into the sea, unfortunately." I gesture to Ragnar, who stands at the edge of the bridge. "Heard he did well." Pale and tall, he continues looking at me from behind his beard and runic tattoos, appearing as devoid of emotions as Kavax and Daxo are full of them.

"The leader of his boarding party was killed. So were the lieutenants. Lots of heads smashed. They ran into some of Kellan's friends," Kavax says dourly as he rummages through his pockets for his impatient fox, who clawed at his leg for more jelly beans. "I don't have any more, my little prince." He smiles up at me hopefully. "Do you have any jelly beans?"

"No. Sorry."

"Ragnar there took command. Did himself well," Daxo says.

"Took command?" I ask.

Kavax explains. "There was a kill squad of Peerless. Half a dozen Bellona blade dancers, real n.o.ble boys, carved up all our Golds and most of the Obsidians. The Stained there collected the surviving Grays and a few Obsidians and managed to get the ship."

"Any of these blade dancers survive?"

"No."

Ragnar looks at the ground again, as if expecting a reprimand.

"Well done, my goodman," I say instead.

Both Kavax and Daxo squint at the familiarity.

Worth it to see Ragnar surprise me with a smile. A broad, yellowtoothed grin.

"Do you think he could do more?" I ask.

Daxo hesitates. "What do you mean?"

"Could he lead absent a Gold?"

Daxo and Kavax share a worried glance. "What would be the benefit in that?" Daxo asks.

"I could send him places I could not send Golds."

"There is no such place." Kavax crosses his arms. I go too far.

I smile to placate them. "Of course. Just a theory. The mind wanders from time to time." I clap Kavax on the shoulder and they depart together for their own ship.

"You overstepped," Orion says.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You have ears."

I look down, searching the pale blue tattoos on her dark skin as if the math there holds the key to understanding her mind. "You're observant for a Blue."

"Because I know how the world works outside my digital sync? Comes from working the docks, dominus. When you're at the bottom, you have to notice everything."

"Which docks?" I ask.

"Phobos. Father was a Docker, born outside the Sects. Died when I was small. A young girl has to be on her toes if she wants to grow big in the Hive dock cities. It's the only way to beat the monsters."

"It's not the only way," I say.

"No?" she asks, surprised.

"You can always become a monster too."

Orion turns from the viewport to look up at me. Fierce intelligence burns behind her arctic eyes. "And there's the beauty of s.p.a.ce. A billion paths to choose."

I'm spared from replying when the comBlue calls from the pit.

"Dominus, we've an a.s.sault shuttle inbound. It's Virginia au Augustus."

31.

COUP.

"Father is captured," she says to me as she storms down the ramp from her smoking ship. She's flanked by several Obsidian bodyguards in battle-scarred armor. A dozen Grays exit the shuttle behind them. Sun-hwa from Luna at their head. They're all lurcher mercenaries, plain and dangerous. The Jackal's hunters. Sevro eyes them warily.

Around us, hundreds of ripWings and a dozen storks sit parked in the bay-large enough a place to swallow all of Lykos's Common and her townships. Oranges clamor about the craft, preparing maintenance checks before the eventual invasion of Mars.

I greet Mustang with my own coterie-Lorn, Sevro, the Howlers, Victra, and Ragnar. Roque did not respond to my summons. I want to rush forward to embrace Mustang, but she's in a rage. Spittle flying out of her mouth. Dark circles ringing angry eyes. Exhaustion pulls at her face.

"Pliny has begun a coup. He arrested my brother. My aunt is dead, and her children murdered along with six of our Praetors. More than twenty of my father's bannermen have sworn new oaths of fealty. And we've lost control of the fleet."

I ask Mustang if she's injured.

"Injured?" She sneers the word. "As if that could matter. They killed my men. We came upon the Academy in stealth, and as soon as I launched my leechCraft toward the s.p.a.ce station and the training ships, a Bellona fleet emerged from behind an asteroid and destroyed every one of my leechCraft. Ten thousand men. Dead. They didn't have to do it. They had enough guns on us that we could do nothing but surrender. It was merciless."

"Sounds like Karnus," I guess.

She nods. "And Pliny. They didn't lead the Bellona on a goose chase. They led them straight into my operation."

"Why didn't Pliny just kill you?" Sevro asks.

"A man like Pliny craves legitimacy," Lorn says from my side, nodding in greeting to Mustang. If she thinks his presence here strange, she doesn't let on. "It's his nature. He came to you beforehand, didn't he?"

Mustang shares a disgusted look with my mentor.

"The Pixie had me put under guard in my quarters as he took my captured fleet to Hildas. During the journey, he came to me and showed me the holo footage of my father's failed raid on Ganymede." She shudders in anger. "And he said that though my house had fallen to ruin, he would not see my bloodline ended. The Sovereign and he had come to an arrangement. If he could provide her with peace, then she would provide him with position, legitimacy, and a prize of his choosing. So he batted his pretty lashes at me as my father's ships burned on the holo and said he would divorce his wife and allow me the honor of taking his hand in marriage."

I say nothing. The Howlers rumble discontentedly.

"And your response?" Victra asks.

Mustang ignores her. "He said he always had his eye on me." She reaches into her pocket, pulls something out, and drops it onto the floor. "So I took one of his."

Sevro cackles with Harpy. Lorn makes a sound of disapproval. Like he has any ground to stand on in matters of cruelty.

"It is good to see you again, Rage Knight," Mustang says. "I'm sorry you were drawn into this. But we need you now more than ever."

"I'm beginning to see that."

"Where's your brother?" I ask Mustang, looking up from the eye.

"Captured. There's more that should be said." She glances at the Oranges and the Grays in the hangar. "In private."

"Of course. We'll continue in the warroom-" I begin.

"In due time, Darrow." Grandfatherly concern spreads across Lorn's face as he turns to Mustang. "My lady, you've been through a trial. Perhaps you should find rest and we could-"

The Howlers and I back away from Lorn.

"Rest?" Mustang's voice rises. "Why would I need rest?"

"My mistake," Lorn says politely.

"Theodora," I call. She slips forward. "Coffee, stims, and food in the warroom. Enough for ten." I remember the two Telema.n.u.ses. "Make it twenty."

She laughs accidentally. "Yes, dominus." Theodora steps aside to call her staff.

Mustang jerks her head at her ship. "Just going to let it sit there?"

"Chief!" I call to the Orange in charge of the hangar deck. Grease stains his beard. He saunters up, wiping burly hands on his orange greasers. "Put that ship out the airlock."

"It can be salvaged," the Orange says.

I look to Mustang. "Did you escape, or did they let you escape?"

"I don't know. My brother was the one who saved me. His own ship was caught helping mine escape."

The Jackal is full of surprises.

"What if there is a bomb in it?" Sevro asks, staring at the ship uncomfortably.

"It won't be a bomb," I say.

"Pliny wants me still, and he wants Darrow for the Sovereign. But more so, he wants your fleet, Darrow. When it didn't show up at Hildas, he must have realized that you'd been warned or that you were waiting for a code confirmation that he didn't know."

"And he figured if anyone would know where I was, it'd be you."

"So tracking me is how he will find this fleet," Mustang says.

Lorn looks back and forth at us. "When did you two discuss this?"

"Just now," Mustang says, confused at the question.

Sevro claps Lorn on the shoulder. "Don't worry. You're not senile. They're just odd."

Lorn stares at Sevro's dirty hand. The fingerless glove is covered with mashed potatoes and brown gravy. Sevro's broad smile fades and he sheepishly withdraws his hand.

I turn back to the Orange. "Put it out the airlock. Fastlike." He seems hesitant. Keeps rolling onto the b.a.l.l.s of his feet. "Unless you've a better idea?"