Chapter 1: Blind

Agony. Life is agony. Everything is pain. My body. My mind. How long has it been now? Doesn’t matter. I have become nothing. Nobody. My only companion is the constant hum of the machine, the itch of the IV in my arm, the stink of the urine bag attached to my catheter.

I can’t see. Whatever they’ve done to me, I’ve lost my vision. That happened…I don’t know. I stopped counting the days after three months. Now I have the darkness, the sounds, the smells as my companions.

That is, my companions in this room. Those in my mind are much worse. My heart aches for Lindley. My last memory of her was the taste of her lips on mine, shoving the King’s Warrant into her hand, and rocketing off after Hale. I try so hard to think of the good things. Her soft skin. Her rose garden scent. But I have this terrible fear that Hale has found her. Gutted her. Taken her from me like he has everything else that I care about. It almost hurts too much to think of her.

So naturally, my mind drifts to Nash. My boy. The thought of him makes me so angry, fuels me with so much rage, that I pull with all my might against my plasma restraints, trying so hard to free myself. I’ll get out of here. I’ll find Hale. I’ll gut him. He took my boy from me. I’ll rip his balls off and feed them to him. If only I had the strength.

He took everything from me. My home is gone. My friends. My kingdom. My life. I’ve tried so hard since I took over rule from my father, since I learned from Martín, not to hate, to purge myself of that corrosive emotion. But how can I not hate Hale? He’s incorrigible. I hate myself for the feeling.

I hear footsteps now. My hearing has become astutely acute since I’ve lost my vision. Three sets. Two light, likely women. One heavy. I recognize those.

“His vitals are truly remarkable,” I hear a woman’s voice say. Maida is her name. She’s been the kindest to me. I suppose by kind, I mean that she’s treated me the most like a human here. “His heart rate is a robust and healthy fifty five beats per minute. Respirations at six. His lung capacity is, well, nearly inhuman.”

“And his hemoglobin levels?” Another female voice asks. There’s an apathy to this one. Allura. She treats me like cattle.

“Down to four, unfortunately.” Unfortunately. Pfah. Not for me. It’s only unfortunate for them. Delays their testing, their precious harvesting.

“Get it back up. We must keep up with production levels,” Allura says.

“Yes, doctor. My liege, you wanted a moment alone with the subject?” Maida asks the third person in the room. Subject. I wriggle in my restraints and try to unleash a roar, but my voice is too hoarse, mouth too dry.

“Yes, yes, thank you doctor. You may have him back when I’m finished.” The voice is too familiar. I hear footsteps coming towards me until the man is close enough that I can smell his woody cologne. I had this man at my mercy. He knelt before me, blade in my hand. I gave him life. He gave me this. Lesson learned. Hale has come.

He doesn’t visit often. When he does, it is only to boast about killing my friends, about destroying my home. He doesn’t ask for information. He looked the first day for the King’s Warrant on my finger, disappointed to not find it there. He’s let his machine, his doctors, and time do their work, take their toll. It’s an effective tactic.

“Lucian my boy!” He booms, voice too loud for the setting. “I’ve come to have a chat.”

I feel him close to my face. I spit at him. But my mouth is too dry. It doesn’t go anywhere, just dribbles down my chin. He laughs.

“Now, now. I came to acknowledge your accomplishments my boy,” Hale says. I don’t know what he’s prattling on about. “One and a half million. That’s how many have been, oh what’s the word? Inoculated, yes. One and a half million have been inoculated with the serum that we’ve derived from your DNA. Every one of those men and women are loyal to me. They’re my new military commanders. They’re my new advisors. They’re my new scientists. We’re curing illnesses my boy. The Closing Dawn marches on. No one dares stand against us. Not your wife, not your military. We are growing. The powerful become even more powerful, gifted like you. The common man walks the Road to Return or faces sterilization or…well, death.”

Lindley is alive! That’s all I hear from his words. Slag the rest. I’m flooded with relief. A new hope rushes into me. She’s a greater warrior, a greater leader than I’ve ever been. She’ll lead the people to victory. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. Hale can’t win. He keeps talking, but I stop listening.

“I just need one thing from you, Lucian. I need the allegiance of the Thornes, of the First Family. Tell me how you installed them into power. I need leverage over them. My current form doesn’t seem to be working.”

I don’t know what he’s talking about. This man killed their daughter. They’ll never ally with him. Ugh. That thought sends a pang of guilt running through me. I see it happen all over again. Curse this memory. No, I should remember. To honor her courage, her sacrifice. Three shots, right to Everly’s chest. I can hear the sound of her hitting the deck.

That gets me. I really try hard this time, workin up the saliva. When I deem that I have enough, I use all of my strength to spit at where I think Hale’s face is. I can’t see my work, but I hear it land. He reels back. He punches me in the gut, just above the tubes. Gods is he strong. Not just strong for a hundred years old. The force of the blow nearly makes me go unconscious from the pain. I retch all over myself. I go slack in the plasma restraints. The doctors come rushing in.

“My liege, you must be careful with him, he’s our only specimen left,” Maida says protectively.

I hear the tapping of buttons. “Calm down, he can take it,” Allura says.

“I’m done here,” I hear Hale growl. His footsteps take him out of the room. The two doctors do their work, but I’m lost in thought. Lindley is alive. We have a fleet. There is hope.

Chapter 2: Get Behind Me

That night, I dream of my wife. I don’t dream of her as a queen. I dream of what it would be like to live with her back in her homeland, along the lake and the dunes. I dream of what it would have been like to chase her up and down those infernal dunes that made my legs burn something fierce when I first met her. I dream of living in a small house, just a few rooms, like the one that she grew up in. I dream of being content with a small life, one without all of the weight that this one throws on us.

My dream is short lived. I never sleep very long at one time. I open my eyes to darkness, just like I always do. I’m told that as long as I’m attached to this machine, the blindness will remain.

I’m drowsy. Despite the good news that the day brought, my mind and my heart are still weary. I’m afraid to know how long I’ve actually been here, how much life I’ve missed. I think about Mendo. I might die never knowing whether or not he’s alive.

I’m just drifting off to sleep again when I hear it. It’s feint, but I don’t miss a sound, not anymore. Most people wouldn’t hear it over the hum of the machine. But there it was. The squeak of a door hinge. I tense. I’m not ready for more abuse from the doctors. How much tension does it take to sever these slagging plasma restraints?

“Hurry!” I hear a whispered male voice say. I don’t recognize the voice but now I make out three sets of footsteps. They tiptoe toward me. “How do I work this thing?” The male voice asks again. I hear one of his companions push him out of the way. Soon, the plasma restraints go dead and I’m falling to the ground. 

“Slagging—,” I start, trying to orient myself in all of the pain. My gut is screaming at me. I think I smashed my head on the way down. I can’t tell which way is up. The fall tugged something fierce on my catheter.

“Make him be quiet!” The male voice whispers.

Then a voice from my dreams reaches out of the grave and back into reality. “Come now, sweetheart, I know you’ve always been quite…vocal,” she whispers seductively, “but this is a rescue. We need silence.”

“Everly!” I try to orient myself and I throw my body at hers to slam her into a hug. I find her in the darkness. My hands paw at her body, where the blaster shots must have hit her.

“Whoa there, don’t forget that you have a wife before you go feeling me up again,” she laughs.

“How are you—?”

“Alive? I was wearing light armor. I threw on a vest when I put on my boots.” She must be able to see my face in the darkness. “What? I’m not an idiot. I love you, but I wasn’t going to run into danger unprotected,” she laughs.

I pull her close, wrapping my hand around her neck. I feel her blonde hair. Last time I saw her it was ear length. Now it falls to her shoulders. She smells like a fresh shower and shampoo. I must smell like acrid sweat and piss. She doesn’t care. Her hands rub my back and keep me close to her.

“They kept you prisoner?” I ask.

“Tried to barter me for my family’s allegiance. My family wanted nothing to do with it. He’s treated me like a guest, never giving up. It’s been a long year.”

A year. Could it really have been that long? Oh slag. I’m twenty eight. Nash would be ten. My little boy would be double digits. How the slag have I given up so badly that I let that man keep me here for an entire year. I feel the rage again. The hatred.

I stand up abruptly. I immediately totter there, nearly falling over if it weren’t for Everly’s stabilizing hand. I’m woozy. My blood count is low. I remember the doctors saying that now. But they also said that I’m strong, that parts of me are still remarkable. That breathes confidence into my weary bones.

“Be careful Lucian.” Another voice from my past.

“Kaelyn. How are you—,” I start.

“I’ve been here the whole time. I was here when you came the first time. Hale…kept me,” she says sheepishly. I reach for her. I’ve missed my brother’s wife. I pull her in close. She resists. “I’m so…sorry. Everything we’ve done. It’s my fault, what happened. Nash, all of it. If he hadn’t taken me, if I had been more careful. Lucian, I’m so sorry,” she says. She’s crying. I pull her in again. This time she relents and lets herself be drawn in to me. She feels slight in my arms, skinnier even than she was before the war. Three years she’s been here. More, even.

“This isn’t on you,” I say. “Let all of that go. I don’t blame you Kae. I don’t blame Greysen. Hale is behind all of this. The blood is on his hands.”

Everly stands with me. She won’t let go of me. “Lucian, you have to meet someone,” she says as if to quickly move us along. I assume she’s pointing at the man.

“Ev, I can’t see. I’m blind.”

“Slag it all, are you kidding me? How are you supposed to use this?” She asks, clearly upset.

“What?” I ask.

“Hold out your hands.” I do. What I feel grants me even more confidence. My scepter sword. I thought it was lost to me on that shuttle.

“Ahem,” the man coughs.

“Yes, Lucian Elwyne, King of all Spheres, meet Truman Trumane, Governor of Ganymede. He was here to visit and pay tribute to Hale, but he has chosen to defect to your side. He freed us, and now we’re freeing you,” Everly says.

I extend a hand into the darkness. I feel another take mine. “Truman. Well met,” I say. “And thank you. My family owes you a debt. You will have our protection.”

“Thank you my liege. But really, we must go!” He says, pulling on my raggedy shirt. He really is a jumpy man.

“Ev, lead the way. I’ll be behind with Kaelyn. Truman, you bring up the rear,” I say, holding on to Everly’s shirt, looping my other arm around Kaelyn for support.

“Sweetheart, you should—,” Everly starts.

“Just go,” I say.

We make our way out of the room. My vision starts to return. I think. I can see, shapes? I don’t know if I would even call them that. More like muddy splotches. That’s progress at least.

Everly pulls me through hallway after hallway. I quickly am gasping for breath. I’m beat. That machine took all my strength. I do my best to keep up, but it’s a struggle. I use the hand that isn’t holding her shirt, the one that wrapped around Kaelyn, and run a finger along the wall. Damp stone. What planet is this?

I’m still in shock that I’m holding on to Everly. I’ve lived the last year with the firm knowledge that she was dead, killed right in front of me. That scene has played over and over again in my mind. I can’t describe my elation at the moment. And to know that she risked herself for me. I’ll owe her forever. My elation is quickly turned into fear when I hear a voice, clearly a man speaking from behind a helmet. I can barely make out three fuzzy shapes ahead of us.

“Sun Guard!” Everly says.

“Slag!” Truman replies.

“Get behind me,” I say, taking a long step to present myself to the Sun Guard in front of Everly and Truman. I feel Kaelyn at my side. “Ev, tell me we’re jamming their coms.”

“We are. But Lucian, please let me do the fighting. You’re ragged. You can barely walk,” Everly says. There’s pleading in her voice.

I go to that place in my mind, the one where I feel no fear, the one where I am nothing but a warrior. I push Nash and Lindley out of my mind. I’m not fighting for them today. I let myself feel wrath. I let the hatred flow through me. I find the strength that I need.

I leap forward, faster than they expected a wraith like me ever could. I listen closely. I hear the man on the left shuffle his feet. I picture his form, angled against the wall. I hear the man swing his blade. He aims high. I crouch down instead of bending backward. When I come back up, it is with malice. I swing backhanded at the man’s midsection, bisecting him in two. I don’t see it happen. I hear the two pieces of the man flop to the damp floor.

These slagging people took me from my family. I will tear through heaven and Earth to get back to Lindley, to whatever is left of my home. I will get Everly back to Mendo. If he’s…

I hear another Guard now. He takes two steps toward me. I stand up quickly. I hear his blade. I bring mine up to block. Impact. The man is inexperienced. He tries to leverage me backwards. I go to use my strength on him, forgetting that I have none left. He pushes me backwards. No matter. I trained in the River’s Flow. My wife defeated its creator. I put a blade in Slade’s heart. I flow backwards with the pressure, allowing myself to hit the ground. I kick out my leg, intending to sweep his feet out from underneath him. I slam my unarmored leg into his very well armored leg. I bellow in pain.

“If only I could kill you,” the man says.

There’s the rage again. I use the voice to guide me. I hurl my sword at him. I hear the telltale sound of a helmet visor breaking. Got him.

I listen for the third Sun Guard. I hear the gurgling sound of him being choked out on the ground by Kaelyn, the small snap of his neck.

“Got him,” Kae says.

“Still got it sis,” I say. “Ev, could you do me the favor of retrieving my blade for me please? I’m going to just lay here on the ground until I die,” I say, feeling all the pain that my body just earned in that battle.

“That was, my liege, how did you—,” Truman tries.

“Don’t bother my dear. Lucian gets that way sometimes,” Everly says. “Time to get up little brother.”

“You’re older than me?” I rasp out.

“By six months sweetheart. So do what I say.” She pulls me up and we set off. “To the landing pad my dear.”

“Wait,” I say, trying to catch my breath. “Just wait.”

“Wait?” Truman whisper screams. “We must go!”

“Pennie,” I say succinctly.

“Oh sweetheart, there is still a heart behind all of that wrath. Fine. We find the girl,” Everly says.

We comb the rest of the base, quietly moving through room after room, avoiding Sun Guard. We come to a dead end.

“We’ve covered every single meter of this base,” Truman says. “There’s no girl here.”

“Wait,” I say. “What planet is this?” I ask. Truman looks at me like I’m crazy.

“This is a moon. We’re in the Galilean’s. This is Europa.” Of course it is! Everything comes full circle.

“Tell me, is there a fissure along this wall?”

“There is, sweetheart. How did you know?”

“This is how we got away from you last time we were on Europa,” I say. “Stick this into crack. Twist it like a key,” I say, handing my scepter to Everly. I feel her take it from my hand. My vision is maybe fifty percent better now. I see her form move toward the wall, hear the metallic sound of my sword against stone, then I hear the wall slowly move apart.

We move in. I finally make out that Everly has a blaster. Where did she find that? Truman has nothing. From what I can see, he’s a simpering doughy man, but his presence here speaks to a sterner spine. There’s a telltale blue light and a very familiar hum filling the room.

I see the massive round machine in the center of the room. There are two doctors in the room. Everly covers them with her blaster.

“In the corner!” She shouts. They obey.

I rush around the corner, ready to release Pennie from the misery that is the machine. I forget about all of my pain when I see the little girl. Her body is like that of my son, the night that I lost him: lifeless, grey. She’s dead. How could it be? Slag it all, how could it be? I let Hale go. I let him take her back. What would Lana think? Would she call me a failure? Would she carry this weight too? Pennie looks so peaceful in her eternal sleep. Eight years old. That’s all she got. Eight years. All of them spent as a lab rat. She was a sweet girl. She was my family. She deserved better, despite her father.

I stand there, stupefied. What could have happened in a year? Why did they still need her when they had me? What a waste. She could have grown up to be so much. It’s strange to see her like this. This…thing, this thing that was a body, that represented her life, now is nothing but carbon.

I feel the rage again. I spin on the doctors. “What did you do?” I scream at them. They cower in the corner, despite my thin, pallid, demeanor. I must look like some sort of ghoul raised from the depth of the seas of Europa. Neither of them answer my question. I level my blade at them. “She died, sir,” the one on the left says meekly.

“Explain,” I say through gritted teeth.

“It was all too much for her. Hale pushed her too far. Had to keep up with production.” She pauses for a long while. “We did care for her, sir. She meant something to us.” The other one, the nonspeaking one, has a tear streaming down her face. My vision is returning.

“Stay here,” I command. I walk back to the machine and deftly turn it off. I cradle Pennie in my arms, noting how light she is, how cold she is. “When?” I ask.

“Three hours ago,” the doctor says. Three hours. If we had just come sooner we could have saved her. But now I carry another dead child in my arms. How many will it take before the worlds can be at peace?

“Let’s go,” I say to my party.

“I’ll lead the way to the landing pad,” Everly says, taking off at a jog. I follow her back through the halls of the base. It’s quiet, until we get nearer the landing pad. The roof must be metal in this section, because the sound of the rain is deafening. “It’s just this way!” Everly nearly yells over the din, pointing to a set of sliding doors.

Everly is through first. Then, WHOOSH! the doors close. Slagging thing. I press the button. Doors open, then Kaelyn is through. Me next, carrying Pennie. Then, WHOOSH! the doors close again. I’m left standing in the pouring rain. It’s a stunning sight out here. Ships litter the ground. We’re at the edge of a cliff. I can see the waves roiling in the distance, even through the pouring rain.

Massive cliffs climb high above and behind us. Everly is running towards a ship with its lights on, glowing red in the dark of night.

“Ev, wait!” I shout. Then I realize that Truman hasn’t come through the door yet. I turn to call for him, when, through the doors I see a grizzly sight. An onyx blade, slick with red blood, comes bursting through steel.

“Run!” I shout to Everly  and Kaelyn as the doors hiss open behind me. I hear a booming laugh coming through the rain. I don’t turn to look at its source. I know the man well enough and I know that I am in no condition to fight him.

“Lucian! Don’t run off so fast! We have unfinished business. It is fitting that we finish it here in the rain. You have your favored blade. I have mine. Let us fight, man to, well, whatever you are now. Or are your hands still slick with the blood of my grandfather?” He bites out.

I wheel on him. “You haven’t done enough?” I cry out. Everly is back at my side. I see now what produced the blood on that blade. Truman lies on the ground, bleeding out at Aiken’s feet. This is the most dangerous man in the solar system. He is a better swordsman than me when I am at my best, let alone when I am a husk of a man. I hand Pennie to Everly.

“You’ve kept me here for a year!” I scream over the rain. “Look at me! Look at what you’ve made!” I rip off my shirt. I’m skin and bone. The scar from Ciaran’s blade is still there, but it’s been joined by new ones from the tubes in my gut. You can see all of my ribs. I was filthy, before the rain that is. Thankfully it’s washed off some of the stink. I still have a catheter in. Kaelyn took out my IV.

Aiken looks at me with no pity. He looks at my body as if it was my own fault that I’ve lost my physical prowess. “Exile, you have already done more than you know for the solar system. Your gift will make Hale supreme.”

“Has he given it to you?” I sneer. Aiken just broods at me, his dark face giving away the answer. “I thought not. That’s because to him, and to me, you’re just a dog. I take that back. Dogs have value, loyalty. You’re a slagging pig who rolls in its own slop. Slag off and go back inside. I’m leaving.”

“I will stop you,” he says, taking a step forward.

“Back up, sweetheart. I have this,” Everly says, hoisting up a plasma grenade. “I won’t drop it this time.” Aiken stops. Everly throws the grenade anyways. Aiken dives back into the base. No matter. There’s a great explosion, plumes of blue energy blossoming from the middle of the blast. The base crumbles in on itself.

“To the ship!” Everly cries, helping me along.

We board the ship together, Everly bearing most of my weight. “I’ll fly,” I say.

“No complaints here,” Everly says.

“Please tell me you picked a ship with a wave particle engine,” I say.

“Of course sweetheart.”

I take us up, into the pouring rain, and soon I’m out of the atmosphere. It’s a relief to see the stars again, the glow of Jupiter, its moons. But the ship feels heavy, carrying the weight of Pennie’s body.

Then I think of what Greysen’s face will look like when he sees his wife again. That buoys me. I look at Kaelyn now. I’ve always loved my sister in law. She’s brilliant. She’s a blade master, an architect, a designer. She’s one of our most brilliant minds. I notice Everly watching her too. There’s never been trust there.

Everly looks over to me. “Take us home.”