Zodiac (Zodiac, #1)(64)

“Look alive, ’Nox.”

The ship’s navigation screens flash on. “He’s yours,” breathes Hysan. “Take care of him . . . Rho.” His eyes roll up and close.

“Hysan!” I shake him while Mathias bounds to the helm and activates the enhanced optics so he can see through the smoke.

I lower my head and press my ear to Hysan’s chest to listen for a heartbeat. In my sideways vision, I see a small figure fly out from the far end of the ship.

I jerk my head up. Caasy is opening one of the ship’s escape capsules.

“Caasy!” I call out.

He turns, but there’s something strange about his expression. He doesn’t run over to help me with Hysan. Instead, he shouts, “Fly safe, Dear Mother! I am returning to Gemini!”

We’re escaping a House that’s just been attacked, Hysan’s limp body is sprawled on the floor, and still most surreal of all is this moment. Caasy’s abandoning us.

“Please! Help me move him!” I call.

Caasy clicks a few buttons on the screen beside the capsule, and as the door is opening, he ducks in. And that’s when I notice his hands. He’s clutching something dark and oblong in his fingers.

“Caasy, don’t!”

The door shuts behind him. There’s a noise of hissing gears, and the capsule detaches from the ship, shooting up into Space.

Mother Origene’s stone is gone.





24


MATHIAS CALLS OUT TO ME from the front of the ship. “I see people on the terminal roof! As soon as we land, open the hatch and help ten of them board.”

I have to put Caasy and the stone out of my mind if I’m going to help.

Hysan, too.

The ship lifts off in a banking turn toward the terminal building. “Ready!” I call out, gripping the hatch release, poised for quick action.

There’s a loud rolling crash, followed by a cannonade of smaller explosions. Instead of slowing, Mathias pulls up and goes faster.

“What are you doing?” I shout.

He turns to me slowly, a look of disbelief on his face. “A burning freighter just hit the terminal building.” His voice shakes. “We won’t find any passengers now.”

I shut my eyes, unable to take it in.

I never should have come here.

? ? ?

We abandon Virgo.

We leave without saving anyone.

Equinox’s scans show a world on fire. Thick black clouds boil over the Western Hemisphere, blocking the landscape below, and orange flames geyser upward. The planet Tethys shines like brimstone.

Our ship’s hull has proved impervious to the burning atmosphere, but I can’t say that about the others. We’ve seen at least twenty ships explode and plummet. Twice, Mathias tried to dock with a burning ship to rescue the passengers, but our attempts failed. The blazing oxygen is too hot.

First Cancer. Now Virgo. Ophiuchus is exterminating the Zodiac, one House at a time. The horror is beyond understanding, but what’s worse is the guilt, gnawing through my insides like hungry Maws. He was following me—that’s how he found her. I must have brought Moira with me, somehow, to the plane where Ophiuchus can communicate.

How long before he attacks Gemini? Will Caasy take me seriously after what he witnessed on Virgo? Is that why he ran?

But why take my black opal? This whole time, I knew there was something else he wanted, an ulterior motive for tagging along with us. I should have been more protective of the stone.

I want to ask Hysan what he thinks—after all, he didn’t let me jettison it from the ship the first time Ochus attacked us. But it’ll have to wait until he awakens. He’s still resting inside his life-support pod, having his leg repaired.

When we searched his quarters to find the pod, we discovered a number of other interesting items: a weapons cache, body armor, a case of tiny micro-cameras, tracking chips and scramblers, and, of course, the Psy-hardened strongbox that’s been holding our devices, its door gaping open. From the scratch marks, it’s clear Caasy jimmied the strongbox lock. That we can tell, only my black opal was missing.

For now, we’re flying straight to the Planetary Plenum, despite Mathias’s concerns. We’re traveling at hyperspeed, hoping our fuel won’t run out before we get there. Mathias has calculated the space-time relativity effect, and he says if all goes well, we’ll arrive two days before this year’s Plenum session winds down.

The Plenum rotates from House to House each year, and now it’s at Aries, the first and oldest House. The Ariean civilization has risen and fallen many times, and these days, the newsfeeds show its main planet, Phaetonis, as a wild and rowdy place ruled by a junta of warlords. While the Plenum’s there, the ambassadors have to be protected by the Ariean army, which is made up of soldiers, not Zodai.

The black market flourishes there, and local militias wrangle for territory. The universal corruption and high crime rate may explain why Aries is the most militarized House in the Zodiac—and the most impoverished.

Aries is a Cardinal House, and it represents Fire. The Ram constellation has a small sun and three settled planets, but only the planet Phaetonis has breathable atmosphere, and it’s thin. Phaetonians live under domes, although walking on the surface is possible with the aid of an air mask. The planet’s porous, so its gravity’s weak, but at least we’ll have weight again.