Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2)(86)

I feel the anger flare inside my head.

You know, you talk about knowing your enemy, I tell her. Doesn’t anything about this situation strike you as suspicious? The Terran government has spent the last two years keeping its nose as far out of Syldrathi affairs as humanly possible. And now we just open fire on an Unbroken flagship for the fun of it?

The Unbroken never agreed to the Jericho Accord, boy. The war between our people never truly ended. It was only a matter of time before Syldrathi hands once more gleamed with Terran blood. This is a matter of honor.

Can’t you see when you’re being played?

She looks at me and sneers.

You are afraid of the coming storm.

Of course I’m afraid! Billions of people could die!

You are unworthy of the blood in your veins.

I shake my head and turn away. I know I should be trying to get her on my side. I know the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But I feel like there’s no point in even talking to this girl. I understand what it is to be a soldier, to fight for something you truly believe in. But Kal’s sister seems like nothing but rage and scorn.

Still, she presses on, looking at me with those black-rimmed eyes.

Jericho Jones had the courage to fight when his world needed him. When the call was sounded at Orion, he at least was honorable enough to answer it.

I glare at her, jaw clenching at the mention of my dad.

You think there’s honor in another massacre? We both lost our fathers in that battle, Saedii—isn’t that enough?

Saedii’s eyes narrow.

Is that what Ka—

The door slides open with a soft whisper. I look up and see half a dozen Terran marines in full tac armor, disruptors cradled in their arms. My heart sinks, my throat constricts, as I remember that pain collar slipping around my neck. The thought of another round of torture fills my stomach with slippery ice.

“Oh Maker,” I croak.

The marines file into the room, boots ringing on the floor. But instead of grabbing me, they march over to Saedii’s bio-cot, surround her in a small ring.

“Hands, pixiebitch,” their lieutenant commands, holding out a set of mag-restraints.

“… What do you want with her?” I demand, my throat aching.

“Hands,” the LT repeats, his comrades punctuating the command by raising their rifles. “Now.”

“She doesn’t know anything,” I protest. “You don’t—”

“Shut your mouth, traitor,” one of the marines snarls at me.

Saedii’s voice rings in my head, that small smile growing a little wider.

This is courage, little Terran. Watch and learn.

She stands slow, languid, extending her arms and offering her slender wrists. She’s outnumbered six to one, and already wounded. But as the LT moves to slap on the restraints, Saedii brings up her hand and drives her knuckles into his throat.

The man gasps, flies back three meters into the wall. Despite her injuries, Saedii kicks another’s legs out from under him, slaps the third’s rifle aside, blindingly quick. But the rest are ready for her, blasting her full in the chest with pointblank disruptor shots. Stun blasts ring out in the cell and Saedii crashes backward, braids flying. I’m half out of my cot before I realize it, face to face with another marine’s rifle. He peers down the barrel at me, his laser sight lighting up my bruised and bare chest.

“Give me a reason, traitor,” the private says. “I’m begging you.”

“This isn’t the way we do things,” I say, despite the agony in my throat.

“We?” he scoffs, looking at the tattoo on my arm. “Who’s ‘we,’ Legion boy?”

“I’m Terran just like you. I don—”

“Those pixies killed a few thousand Terrans during the Andarael attack,” the lieutenant growls, picking himself up off the deck. “And she was calling their shots. This is exactly how we do it. So shut your mouth before we do you, too.”

“You’re getting played!” I hiss. “The GIA is using the TDF to start a—”

The private steps up and clocks me in the face with the butt of his disruptor. I’m rocked backward, tumbling down onto the cot.

“One more word, traitor,” he growls, “and you’re gonna be picking up your teeth with broken fingers.”

I raise my hands, pressed back onto the bed. I watch as one of the marines slings the semiconscious Saedii onto his shoulders, as the lieutenant shoots me a poison glance and, with a barked order, sends the whole squad marching out of the cell without another word.

I lick the split in my lip, tasting blood, my skull still ringing from the blow.

I have no idea what they want with her, but it can’t be good. And then I think of the Ra’haam, wearing those GIA colonists like second skins. I think of Cat with her new blue eyes. All the things I should have said and done.

And I shake my head and sigh.

Maker’s breath, none of this is good.





24

THE ECHO


Kal

She has come so far in these last months.

I watch Aurora from our camp, my breath taken clean away by the power she wields. The clearing we sleep in has been transformed. The simple fire she summoned so long ago has been replaced with an ornate stone firepit. The grass we slept on has been crowned with the grandest bed I have ever seen in my life—four-poster, carved wood, silken sheets. My be’shmai even crafted me a siif so I could play during the day while she is about her training.