In Dawn and Darkness Read online

  I glanced down at her palm and saw sparkling glass shapes. I opened the door to the room I was staying in and stepped inside, motioning for Lyssia to follow. “I didn’t.”

  “Are you angry?” She searched my eyes.

  I might have been unhappy that she’d tampered with the toy from my childhood, but right now, my head was in too much of a jumble to care. She’d thought I was dead, and Lyssia dealt with grief by tinkering. “I hope you found it enjoyable to take apart,” I replied.

  “Oh, I did! It’s like a puzzle. A plaything meant to be assembled and disassembled.” She dropped the pieces in my hand. Several of them were long and knobbed, like strange, deformed keys, or pieces of misshapen coral. “And then your great clock... that was a pleasure to examine from the inside out. Your mother didn’t seem to think it was as clever as I did, though.”

  I almost laughed at the mental image that conjured up. “What did she say?”

  Lyssia screwed up her face as she remembered. “She stared coldly, the way you do sometimes when you’re especially furious and you want everyone else to know it. She spoke to the servant instead of me, and she told him to move my things to the other wing of the house.”

  I sighed. “She is a Graywater.”

  “People always say that when they are too polite to say someone is being monstrous or cruel,” Lyssia observed. She gazed around my chamber, taking in the glass wall that overlooked the kelp forest and the ornamental dolphins mounted on the walls. “Annah’s house is so grand. So full of clocks."

  “I think you should stay with me,” I said. “The house is so large, and I have too many nightmares. Perhaps, though, you should leave Annah’s clocks intact.”

  She beamed. “We can whisper secrets all night like sisters!”

  Whispering secrets sounded preferable to thinking about the nightmares I kept having thanks to the herbs Tallyn had given me.

  An Indentured appeared in the doorway behind me. He bowed. “Your presence has been requested in the training room, my lady.”

  “Training room?”

  Was Tallyn hoping to make nice?

  I dropped the glass things Lyssia had given me into my pocket and followed him.

  When I reached the room, I found Annah waiting with a personal servant beside her, speaking quietly into her ear. Nol stood in the center of the room. And... Kit.

  “Oh,” I said, remembering Annah’s words about Kit proving his abilities as a bodyguard.

  “We’re here to determine if this man will make a suitable bodyguard for you,” Annah said.

  Nol was shirtless, and the lean muscles of his back rippled as he stretched. I pretended not to notice. I was still angry with him though, a deep, painful kind of anger threaded with hurt and confusion. We didn’t speak, although I felt the weight of his gaze as I took my place at the wall to watch.

  Kit had traded his soldier uniform for a gray bodysuit. His curly hair had grown long, and stuck out everywhere. He smiled wide at the sight of me, and his cheerfulness was like a burst of sunshine in an otherwise tense room.

  “Aemi!” he said. “It’s good to see you.”

  Nol finished stretching and stepped to the center of the room. He faced Kit, who stood with his arms loose while Nol looked coiled, like a snake ready to strike.

  “I can’t believe we’ve all ended up here,” Kit said with a low laugh, looking from me to Nol. “You were the mayor’s son, and she was a thrall, and now the situation is reversed.”

  “I’m not a thrall,” Nol said harshly.

  Kit shrugged. “You’re not a mayor’s son either.”

  Despite the easy smile on his face, he was antagonizing Nol, each word a bit of bait to distract and anger.

  I frowned.

  “Perhaps—” I began, wanting to suggest a less emotionally charged opponent for Kit to demonstrate his skills on, but then they were at each other, Nol’s arms locking around Kit’s head, Kit slamming his elbow into Nol’s stomach. They both went down, and Nol pinned Kit, but the latter was too strong and wiry, and he wiggled out from Nol’s grasp and rolled away. They jumped up again, fists clenched, circling each other.

  Annah stood listening, a servant beside her telling her in detail what was transpiring. I thought perhaps she would intervene in what was obviously more than a simple demonstration of skill, but she said nothing.

  “You’re good at getting out of tight situations, are you?” Nol said.

  Kit’s face wrinkled with anger. “If you have something to say, then say it.”

  “I saw you,” Nol hissed. He swung at Kit, who dodged. “I saw you on Nautilus’s ship. You were not in chains. You were free to walk about. You’d betrayed us. How else would you have obtained your freedom?”

  Kit sidestepped another blow. “You want to fill her head with lies because of your own jealousy? I was a prisoner like the rest of you. I just didn’t need to have my head slammed against a wall to accept that fact.”

  Nol reddened with anger. He lunged again, but this time, Kit dropped to the floor and swept out a leg, tripping him. He was on Nol before the other could recover, an arm to his throat. Nol made a choking sound, his face reddening as the veins in his forehead bulged. Kit raised his head and looked at Annah, who nodded with a tiny jerk of her chin after the servant whispered in her ear. Kit released Nol.

  “I learned to fight,” he said. “It was the only way I knew to survive those brutal months.”

  Nol climbed to his feet.

  The servant murmured to Annah. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the door flew open and Tallyn strode into the room. He scanned us all and then pinned me with his gaze. “What is this?”

  “I thought you were a believer in etiquette,” I said. “Is that any way to greet a lady? To enter a room?”

  He ignored my snark. He pointed at Kit. “I’m being replaced? By the prisoner?”

  “I see you received my message,” Annah said.

  “Are you all mad?”

  “Aemiana has requested it, and I allowed it,” Annah said.

  Tallyn swung around to face me. “I’ll repeat myself. Are you utterly insane?”

  Kit looked defeated as he wiped sweat from his forehead.

  “Kit is someone I trust,” I said. “He’s a good fighter and he knows his way around Nautilus’s ships.”

  “Yes, because he served on them.” Tallyn stabbed a finger at him accusingly.

  “I was a prisoner,” Kit said.

  “Or a spy,” Nol argued.

  I threw up my hands in frustration. “Those blasted pamphlets that circulated in Primus said the same thing about me! Just because Kit was kidnapped by Nautilus and forced to be his soldier slave doesn’t make him our enemy!”

  “And just because you share a similar experience doesn’t mean he isn’t,” Nol said.

  “Am I to be barred from serving with the rest of the team in finding Perilous?” A vein pulsed in Tallyn’s throat.

  “You are free to continue working separately with your own organization,” Annah said. “Now please go, or I’ll have one of my men put you out.”

  With a muttered curse, Tallyn left the room.

  “Congratulations,” Annah said to Kit. “You’re now officially part of this mess.” She swept from the room with her servant.

  Nol grabbed his shirt and followed her after a final look my direction.

  Kit and I were alone.

  He opened his arms, and I hugged him. He was solid muscle, taller than I remembered, but his smile was exactly the same.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” I said into his shoulder, my voice muffled. “I need people I can trust.”

  Kit gave me a squeeze before stepping back and looking me in the eyes. “You can trust me,” he said. “I’ll do everything I can to protect you. I promise.”

  As I stared up at him, my vision focused on a line of puffy, ugly pink that started at his jaw and snaked down below his collar. I reached out and brushed it with my fingers. “Is that a scar
?”

  He flinched and didn’t answer.

  I looked at him—really looked at him—and felt ill. A scar on his upper lip, thin and still pink. A mark that might be a burn on the back of his hand. What else was hidden by his clothing?

  “Kit...” I hesitated, uncertain how to even phrase what I wanted to say. My words were hushed. “What did they do to you?”

  He drew back, his breath catching. He angled his body away from me. “I can’t talk about that. I’m sorry. I can’t.”

  “Of course,” I stammered. “You don’t have to.”

  He walked beside me as we left the room, changing the topic to things remembered—a game we’d played as children in the surf, a song he’d made up about Nealla that made her throw fish guts at him out of frustration, and the memories had me laughing. I let my questions go, and they drifted away like debris on the water. But my insides still ached.

  I wanted to see Nautilus defeated. The desire for his downfall pulsed through me, hot and angry.

  I’d been right to turn down Senator Jak’s offer. I wasn’t the only person who had become a prisoner thanks to this war. We were all suffering.

  I was going to do something about it.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I ACCOMPANIED ANNAH to the gathering of the senate, my face half-hidden by a black hood, my body cloaked in silken robes that identified me as an aide. She kept one hand resting lightly on my arm, as if I was leading her, but in truth she led me. I was amazed at her sense of direction.

  The remains of the senate convened in a room with a high, spiraling ceiling made of green glass and bronze supports that crisscrossed like a spider’s web. Men and women sat in a circle on a series of stone benches, speaking quietly. Despite the beauty of the architecture, the ranks of senators were thin, their garments ragged now, and the scene lacked the grandeur of the former senate. An air of importance still permeated the room, though, and everyone moved with dignity even though the faces of those present were haggard and worried and the whispers carried a note of despair.

  Annah tapped my arm. “First row,” she murmured, and I drew her forward through the aisles until we’d reached the center of the benches.

  The speaker for the senate, Grimulus, stood to greet Annah with a bow. “Senator,” he murmured. “We welcome your guidance and wisdom in this difficult time.”

  She pressed his hand in greeting, and they sat.

  A woman stood to address the assembly. I recognized her bronzed skin and golden eyes from when I’d accompanied Merelus to his talks for peace while we were still on Celestrus. Her name, I recalled, was Jade.

  “Members of the senate,” she said, her voice soft but powerful in the echoing room. “Thank you all for being here.”

  At the sound of her voice, the murmurs of the others dropped to silence. The whole room was listening.

  “The Remnant of Itlantis needs order,” she said. “We need direction. People are hungry, living quarters are overfull.” She began to outline plans for diverting resources from the outer colonies to Arctus and Verdus, as well as a proposal for housing the refugees who still poured into the city.

  “We need to fight back,” someone shouted, interrupting her in the middle of a point about food allocation.

  “Drive out Nautilus and his lackeys from Primus!”

  “Reclaim Itlantis!”

  Annah stood. “Fight back with what army?”

  The room was silent.

  Nautilus controlled almost all of the troops, and we all knew it.

  Jade cleared her throat. “As I was saying, the extra food from Arctus...”

  When the session was over, Annah and I stepped into a smaller room, followed by Grimulus and a few others. I recognized them all as having been part of the agreement struck between the Dron and the Remnant.

  “I wasn’t being pert. We need an army,” Annah said. “We cannot hope to take Primus back without one.”

  “We are in possession of two small warships,” Jak said. “Some of us, those with military experience who are with the Remnant, plan to look for recruits to form a new army.”

  Annah pressed her lips together. I knew what she must be thinking.

  We could not hope to have enough even with that effort.

  “What about the Dron?” I asked.

  The others looked at me, startled by my input.

  Grimulus’s face creased into a frown. “What about them?”

  “For reclaiming Primus. They have an army, do they not?”

  It was an obvious solution, but for some in the room, previously unthinkable. However, the shouts from the other senators earlier seemed to have softened even Jak’s opposition to our enemies-turned-allies. He didn’t protest.

  “We shall establish a communication,” Annah said.

  ~ ~ ~

  The answer came back from the Dron, and it was simple.

  “Find Trulliman’s city as promised and we shall help you reclaim yours.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE RIPTIDE HUMMED as it shot away from the lush green kelp forests of Verdus and into dark open water. I sat in the common area, my hand pressed to the round glass of the port that looked over the sea. Myo sat across the room with Kit, teaching him Hooks. Kit kept losing, but he played again and again with a dogged determination. Myo’s voice was a quiet murmur as he instructed Kit on method and strategy.

  My thoughts churned like waves breaking over a rocky shore, and my stomach roiled. I wasn’t sure if it was from apprehension of the mission ahead, or from memories of the previous night and Nol’s plan.

  From the control room, the sound of Garren and Valus arguing carried loudly.

  We’d barely left Verdus, and so far, there had not been much harmony.

  Nol stepped into the common room, and his eyes found mine. The air was suddenly full of invisible threads binding me, hemming me in. I didn’t know what to do, what to say, how to move. Hurt simmered in me, hurt bonded with anger, but I didn’t have the luxury of an outburst. We had no privacy here, and there were larger matters to focus on.

  Nol smiled at the sound of Garren and Valus’s voices, a hard and grim smile drummed up for appearances in front of Kit, I imagined, who was paying more attention to us than the game now that Nol was in the room.

  “As you may have noticed already, Garren isn’t a fan of pompousness,” he said. “Or smirking. Both seem to be Valus’s strong points.”

  “We’re a team. They need to be able to cooperate, at least.” I moved away from the window, restless.

  “Sometimes teams disagree on the best course of action. It doesn’t mean they can’t find a solution,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure we were still speaking about Garren and Valus.

  Myo glanced at us with too much interest, like a shark sensing blood.

  Olis had decided to stay in Verdus with Annah to serve as a point of communication between Dron and Itlanteans. Unfortunately, that meant I was surrounded by mostly male hotheads spoiling for a fight.

  There was a sudden silence from the control room, followed by a striking sound.

  “Out!” I heard Keli yell.

  Valus entered the common room, rubbing his cheekbone where he was sporting a reddish mark that looked as though it might bruise. He ducked into the hall toward the sleeping quarters.

  Nol crossed to the porthole and peered out. His movements bristled with energy. He spoke with his eyes still fixed on the darkness outside the glass. “When did you become such an expert on Nautilus’s son?” He spoke in a whisper, keeping his words for my ears alone.

  “He and I aren’t so different in some ways,” I replied, also speaking low.

  “You are nothing alike, Aemi. You grew up as a thrall. He was raised in luxury. You are loyal and fierce. He’s a lying coward.”

  “We’ve both been used as pawns, and are still being used as pawns. Even by those we should be able to trust.” My voice rose a little at the end. Kit stood.

  “Trouble?” he asked.

 
; Nol looked as though he had a reply to that, but then Garren entered the common room, rubbing the knuckles on his left hand, ending the conversation between us. He paced to the port beside Nol and peered at the black water, then dropped onto one of the benches and scrubbed both hands through his hair.

  “How much longer?” he growled at no one in particular. “This ship is too small and too full of obnoxious people.” His fingers drummed against the cushion of the bench. “Itlanteans are a whiny lot.”

  “Another half a day,” Myo said. He captured one of Kit’s pieces and rolled it between his fingers as he studied the board. “Try to contain yourself, Dron. Not everything is fixed by hitting something.”

  Garren looked at the other man, his fingers tightening into fists. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means your people like to try to deal with things by breaking them.”

  “If things are broken, it is because the Itlanteans have made it so!”

  Myo leaned back and looked at him with a frown. “My comments do not stem from nationalism, but rather detached observation. I’ve moved among your kind as well as the surfacers and Nautilus’s army. The Dron like to speak first with their fists.” He tapped the Hooks piece against Garren’s closed hand with a lifted brow.

  Garren pulled his hand away and flexed the fingers. “And the Itlanteans do nothing but talk of peace while they continue to perpetrate war.”

  “Perhaps we’d better focus on the mission,” I said. “Rather than rehash old prejudices for the thousandth time, we could be making plans for stealing into this facility.”

  Myo settled back against the wall of the ship, but Garren looked rebellious.

  The lights shut off abruptly, plunging us into darkness. Garren snarled in surprise, and Nol was at my side in two strides.

  “Keli?” I called out as the secondary lighting flicked on by our feet, dimly illuminating the room. “What’s happening?”