“No.”
He glared.
“No, sir,” she corrected, a venomous edge in her tone.
“Good. Did you kill any of them?”
Her talons closed tight enough her wings shook. “No, sir.”
At the very least, she succeeded in not killing Tayel.
“Sir, we traced their ship’s slipstream projection,” Iselglith said. “They’re headed to Modnik.”
Impeccable. The princess had not come to Elsha on a whim; Ruxbane should have known better. She knew about the Rokkir, obviously, but how she rallied his test subject, his hope for a cure, and the Argel boy who knew too much was beyond him. But she’d done it. And now the lot of them were going to Modnik, the heart of his operation. The princess’ intrusions had to end.
Iselglith shifted his footing. “Sir?”
“I heard.” Ruxbane squeezed his temples. “Adonna, go to Modnik. Someone else can take over refugee indoctrinations for now.”
“What are my orders on Modnik?” she asked.
“To patrol operations in Cryzoar, and ensure the safety of our kin.”
She cawed. “You’re going to waste a resource like me on babysitting scientists?”
Ruxbane leapt from the table. His fist became a comet in the air, leaking a trail of dark aether as it made impact. Adonna’s beak shattered against his knuckles, and his arm carried through until she was on the ground, gasping for air. He stepped back.
“You’re alive?” he asked. He wiped his fist on his pants.
She scrambled to stand, her breathing audible croaks through her broken maw.
“I guess I am tired,” he said. “I was trying to kill you. But it wouldn’t be hard now. Would it, Adonna?”
She transformed, her feathers and Argelian features evaporating into a cloud of dark aether, leaving her council robes in an unoccupied heap. He’d been close to killing her, then. Reverting to the aether meant she could no longer sustain a body. Purple whips of lightning cracked through her true, cloud-like form, revealing her pain.
“I don’t have time for your insubordination today,” Ruxbane said. “Go to Modnik.”
Adonna’s formless entity shivered, and a dark portal opened under her. She went through, and the portal closed.
Ruxbane stared at the space where the darkness swallowed her. He shook his head free of guilt and grabbed his undershirt from the table. She had to be disciplined. There was no better way with her.
Iselglith hugged his tablet to his chest. “N-now that Adonna has been dealt with, sir, maybe you could rest?”
“I’m going to Modnik, too,” Ruxbane said. He reached for Iselglith’s tablet and pulled the tracking receiver out of the input jack.
“B-but, you haven’t slept in days, and—”
“You really should stay put, Ruxbane.” The healer placed her hand on his shoulder once again.
The woman must have been a new asset from Aloma, to be so thick.
“And what authority are you making this recommendation under?” he demanded.
The healer pulled back her hood, and though in human form, he recognized her eyes. Purple irises — like Jin’s.
“Being the master healer of our forward forces gives me quite a bit of authority, actually,” Jin said.
Ruxbane hadn’t seen her since — oh spirits, no. And now she’d seen him attack Adonna. She knew without a doubt now that he was a monster — that there was nothing left of him from before.
“Jin?” Iselglith reeled. “What are you doing here? Why are you shaped differently?”
“Hi, Iselglith,” she said, smiling. “I’m here to help Ruxbane. Any operational medical reports involving him are flagged and sent to my station. I’m shaped differently than usual because, well.” She met Ruxbane’s eyes just before he was able to look away. “I knew he wouldn’t let me cater to his wounds if he knew who I was.”
Ruxbane pulled his black, form-fitting sweater over his shirt. “Who determined my medical incidents go to you?”
“Operational medical incidents,” she corrected. “I don’t have access to any self-filed reports, just ones that come in from operatives. In this case, it was Iselglith’s report—”
Iselglith bowed his head. “M-my apologies, s-sir. I d-didn’t realize it was going to—”
“No need to apologize,” Jin said. “It’s an automatic process once a report is filed.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Ruxbane said, donning his lab coat.
“An Exalted ordered that I have this access, if you must know.”
Of course. He had a good idea as to which Exalted, too, but it wasn’t something he could deal with now.
“So you should heed your master healer’s advice, and stay put,” Jin continued. “You’re injured.”
“I’m sorry, Jin, but your authority does not supersede mine. I must go where I’m needed most.” Ruxbane opened his palm, forming a portal before him.
“Wait!” She reached toward him.
He evaded her grasp and stepped through the portal, arriving in a hallway hundreds of thousands of light years away. He snapped the wavering darkness behind him shut, and stumbled against the wall, chest burning. Aether wound around his fingers, resisting his command to recede.
Despite leaving, Jin and Iselglith were right. It had been too long since Ruxbane rested, but he couldn’t stop now. He was so close. The girl had come here. His hope was here. He tried to swallow, but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. If he could just be free from this curse — if he could just complete his duty to the Rokkir… He thought of Jin’s eyes, and how they caught the glint of moonlight in that secluded Aloman cave a long time ago.
“Ruxbane, sir?”
A staff person stood frozen mid-walk, jaw agape in the middle of the walkway. Not a commanding official, but a bridge-hand, judging by the patch over his chest.
Ruxbane straightened. “A ship was tracked leaving Elsha,” he said. “It’s headed this way. Notify me immediately with coordinates when it lands.” He tossed the tracking receiver.
The boy caught it. “Yes, sir! Would you like to follow me to the command center? It’s down this hall.”
“I know where it is.” At the boy’s widened stare, Ruxbane said, “I will remain here for now.”
“Yes, sir.”
The boy departed, leaving Ruxbane alone. He slumped against the wall again, and rolled his head to the window. Modnik’s capital, Cryzoar, sat ten thousand feet below. Buildings crumbled. Fires blazed. Yet still thousands of Varg roamed the surface. He needed as many as he could get if his mission was to be a success.
It had been nearly fifty years since his first visit to Modnik. Fifty long years since he’d returned home, only to be put in chains by his own people. He caught his reflection in the window, and remembered.
He could almost see himself reflected in Jin’s wide-eyed stare. The guards pulled him from her, dragging him by aether-inhibiting chains. The material cut into his wrists as his captors tugged. A crowd of angry, spitting faces lined the way to the courtroom, but Jin still followed the procession, her access badge bouncing against her chest as she jogged.
Her fingers ensnared Ruxbane’s arm. “You didn’t really, did you?”
“I did.” His voice grated against his throat, still rough from months without practice. “And I found all the answers we’re looking for.”
“Leave him, Jin. He’s got a trial,” a guard said.
She only squeezed tighter. “Promise me you have something. If you don’t, they’ll—”
“Jin,” another guard warned.
“The birth rate is even worse now,” she said to Ruxbane. “Two percent.”
One of the guards tore her from him, and they pulled him through a pair of enormous doors. The six Exalted sat at a podium in the dark courtroom, looming above the chair where they forced Ruxbane to sit. The room smelled of must. Dust lined the armrests and hung like floating debris in the air.