Dragon Pearl(41)

“. . . don’t like it.” The female voice belonged to Lieutenant Commander Ji-Eun, the executive officer. “The engineers can’t figure out what’s causing the damage here.”

The male voice had a hint of a growl in it: Captain Hwan. “I know what’s going on,” he said. “The ship has a ghost.”

My stomach pain flared. He was onto me and Jang.





“I was hoping it was something else,” Lieutenant Commander Ji-Eun said wearily. “Don’t tell me we’re being haunted by some of those accursed mercenaries. . . .”

The mercenaries’ ghosts?

I’d assumed the captain was talking about Jang, but I supposed I couldn’t rule out the possibility of additional spirits on board. Just because I’d only seen Jang’s ghost didn’t mean there weren’t more around. Could apparitions detect each other? I’d have to ask Jang the next time we spoke.

I leaned closer to the door to hear better, flinching when one of the suits creaked. My thoughts were racing. If ghosts were causing ill fortune, how much of it could a battle cruiser endure? Sure, the Pale Lightning had a lot of firepower, but all the weapons in the world can’t save you if your luck is bad.

Drat. I’d missed some of their conversation. I needed to focus.

“None of the pirates died on this ship,” the XO said. “Besides, even if they came to the Pale Lightning, the shamans’ chants should have laid them to rest. What I’m more worried about is the fact that we can’t seem to fix this meridian.”

“You’re sure no one tampered with it as a prank?” There was just a hint of tension in Hwan’s voice. I wondered if the XO could detect it.

“Of course not!” she said, indignant. “I’ve had guards on watch twenty-four-seven. If they’d seen anything, I would have notified you immediately. Besides, even the unruliest of the cadets wouldn’t dare.”

I almost squawked in surprise at the captain’s laugh. “I don’t know about that. Cadets are notorious for playing pranks.”

“Not when it comes to something this serious,” the XO said. “They’re terrified of you, anyway. Convinced you’d court-martial them if they sneezed in your presence.”

Captain Hwan huffed. “I’m not that unreasonable. Cadet silliness is one thing. The deserters, on the other hand . . .” I held my breath, silently begging him to drop a clue as to where my brother had gone. “Too bad we haven’t been able to retrieve them. It would be the galaxy’s fastest court-martial if we did.”

I gulped. An entire section of the code of conduct was devoted to courts-martial. The most severe penalty for a military infraction was execution. Jun would have known this even better than I did. Whatever had caused him and his comrades to leave the ship had been serious enough for them to risk death.

The two lapsed into silence for a while. I had an itch between my shoulder blades, but I couldn’t try to scratch it, because I might make too much noise.

“All right,” Hwan said at last, “you’d best go check on the bridge. I want to examine this meridian a little longer. Who knows, maybe one of the pirates’ ghosts will come by and say boo.”

“As you wish, sir,” the XO said in a subdued voice.

I held my breath, partly because the emergency suits’ reek was still making me gag, partly so I could hear the retreating footsteps more clearly. Only one pair. I wished the captain would leave, too, so I could. . . .

“All right, Cadet,” Hwan said. “You can come out now.”

Oh no. He’d known I was here all along! I couldn’t shape-shift to escape his notice, because, as a predator, he would sniff out any surge in my magic. And my cowering in the closet wouldn’t impress him, so I shoved the door open. I tumbled out and offered a clumsy salute.

The captain looked even taller and more imposing than before as he loomed over me. “At ease,” he said. “What are you doing here? You must know this area is off-limits. The meridian has been compromised. Hasn’t Lieutenant Hyosu told you its ‘bad luck’ can hurt you?”

Bad luck was right. It couldn’t be mere coincidence that I’d stopped there just when the captain and his executive officer had decided to inspect the damage.

I bowed my head and blurted, “I was just curious about it, sir.”

Maybe it was a mistake to say anything at all. The captain’s amber eyes darkened, and I flinched at the smell of his sudden anger.

“Tell me, Cadet Jang, how did you manage to get by the guards?”

Yikes. I couldn’t tell him about using Charm, and I couldn’t try it on him, either. I had to tell the truth.

“I . . . I distracted one of them, sir, and then snuck past. I hid in the closet when I heard someone coming.” It wasn’t a lie, just not the complete truth.

He regarded me coolly, testing, waiting. I started to sweat.

“I don’t sense that you’re lying,” he said finally.

“I’m not, sir. I’m sorry, sir,” I mumbled, “I won’t do it again.”

“You’re how old, Cadet?”

I knew the correct answer, thanks to my research. “Sixteen years old, sir, from Clover System.” Also not entirely a lie. Jang’s body was that old.

He growled in the back of his throat, and I tensed. “Did you come up with this idea on your own?”