“I know. I was there too,” Brennan said dryly. “We had to escape by air, and it was a close call. The rebel skimmers controlled the skies. I had to free fly the city to evade them.”
William whistled.
Free flying was a common enough maneuver, of course; it simply meant operating without a sail. Civilian skimmers were designed to be able to glide safely to the ground in case of a failure, but they weren’t intended to navigate the artificial canyons of the capital.
“As touching as the reunion is,” Mira broke in, “I believe we have business to discuss?”
“Right, of course.” William nodded. “Do you have a manifest?”
Mira handed him a portable interface, and he linked to it automatically as his hand closed on the device. William only took a few moments to skim the list, then he whistled again, this time even more appreciatively.
“I knew you’d raided a depot, and I guessed that there was a Cadre stash there,” he admitted, “but it must have been one of the newer ones. You’ve some choice materials.”
“I do.”
“We’ll take them,” he said, “all of them.”
“I have a crew to pay,” she said cautiously.
William chuckled softly. “Yes. I heard about those idiots you turned to fertilizer. Don’t worry, Delsol, I’m not here to rob you. We can’t pay full value, but then I doubt you expected that?”
Mira shook her head.
While full value would be nice, of course, she was offloading hot and illegal materials. She’d be more than satisfied with a significant cut over market value, and that was before any loyalist discount she might offer.
“I think you’ll find our offer fair,” William said. “I’ll have the list itemized and an offer transmitted. Acceptable?”
“Eminently.”
“Good.” He turned his focus back to Brennan. “I need to speak with Lydia.”
Brennan glanced at Mira before answering, an action not lost on William, but he didn’t comment.
“She’ll be at the delivery.”
William nodded slowly, wondering if he should push for more, but Brennan had always been protective of his sister and distrustful of authority … particularly Cadre. William supposed that he couldn’t really blame him, all things considered, but for the moment it was problematic at best.
He sighed. “All right. Then I think we’re finished here.”
Mira nodded. “The Andros will be ready to offload wherever you need us as soon as you confirm payment.”
“We may want a little more than just supplies,” William said, looking at Brennan. “With the heirs found, we can finally move against Corian with a chance of success.”
Mira glanced at the young man. “That’s between you and them. You’ll have your chance to pitch your proposal.”
Brennan only nodded in agreement.
“That’s all I ask,” William said calmly, though he was masking a certain level of disappointment that he hadn’t secured a little more enthusiasm from them.
“Excellent,” Mira said as the gunner seat rotated back into place and she dropped into it. “We’ll see you at the transship site.”
“Looking forward to it,” William said as the canopy closed.
He stepped back, clearing the area as the sail projectors launched. The aquamarine sails bloomed above them, hooking the deep whirlwinds that existed around the God Wall, and the aging fighter was lifted into the air as he watched.
Godspeed, Brennan. We need you and Lydia now, more than we’ve ever needed anyone in generations.
Flying out from the unpredictable winds around the God Wall took all Brennan’s focus, and he didn’t have time to speak any of the thoughts swirling in his mind until they were well clear and on their way back to the Andros.
“You knew he was going to want to bring Lydia into this,” he said quietly, his voice accusing.
“Yes, and you should have known it too,” Mira said calmly from in front of him.
Brennan didn’t have much to say to that. It was blatantly obvious in hindsight. He’d been blinded by the chance to fly his lovely little toy, but that was a foolish mistake; in the end it was only a toy. His sister was all he had left right now, and he didn’t much like the way things were going.
“What do you think we should do?”
Mira smiled slightly, careful not to let Brennan see it. He’d take it the wrong way, of that she had no doubt, but she couldn’t help it. She knew that just asking that question must have hurt him, almost physically, but it was a good sign that he was seeking someone else’s thoughts.
“Corian is a threat to you and Lydia as long as he lives,” she answered honestly, “so you’ll need to weigh that long-term risk against the risk of attempting to retake the throne.”
“Blast the throne to plasma,” Brennan spat. “It’s done nothing for us but bring pain.”
“You barely can even conceive pain,” she snapped back. “You lived in the palace your whole life, with every need cared for. The worst thing you ever experienced wasn’t even your own pain.”
Brennan’s breath sharply hissed through his teeth as he sucked it in.
“Oh yes, I know all about that little mess you and your sister stumbled into,” she said. “Bad business that. Should never have happened, but don’t count that as your pain. You were a witness to someone else’s pain, which can be bad enough, I’ll admit, but it was still theirs to claim.”
“What that monster did—”
“Was enough to get him assigned to one of the worst posts in the empire,” Mira finished for him. “I understand he froze to death less than a year later. Do you have any idea how long it takes a Cadreman to freeze to death?”
Brennan stilled, the Naga shuddering a little as he lost his focus.
“Oh, you didn’t know that bit, did you?” she asked, darkly amused. “Thought he got off, did you?”
Brennan’s silence confirmed her guess.
“Your father and your brother did you no favors, babying you the way they did,” Mira said. “As emperor, your father had a responsibility to protect the reputation of the Cadre. That’s why that scene was covered up. That doesn’t mean he let the guilty escape their justice.”
They flew on in silence for a time before she spoke again.
“You’re not wrong, you know. Corruption is caustic, and it seeps into every crack imaginable. If you don’t clean it out, eventually there’s just nothing left to save,” she said, “and the spirit of the Cadre corps can corrupt just as easily as it can empower. That’s why the empress has one of the hardest positions in the Cadre. She has to act to preserve that spirit, yet also keep it in check.”
Brennan didn’t miss how she’d said “empress” instead of “emperor.”
He didn’t know what to think now, so he remained silent. He needed more information, information he didn’t have access to.
For her part, Mira was happy to sit in silence as they returned to the Andros.
She only hoped that she’d given him enough to think about, because she knew and understood where his distrust of authority came from, and he was both right and wrong. He would need to balance his sense of justice with the needs of the empire if Everett had his way, something that was incredibly hard to do without compromising one or the other.
Hard. Not impossible.
She just hoped that he understood the difference. Too many people didn’t. They saw the hard decisions in front of them and pretended they were impossible, inevitably compromising their moral foundation on the altar of what was easy over what was just.