“It is the Mechanics’ failure for having made them defective,” Leslie shouted.
“The Mechanics say your Houses provided them with improper spirit energy,” Jordi said, his words wrapped in acid. “His and Her Majesty don’t care who’s at fault. They only want you to fix the problem!”
The ambassador shouted the last three words. He looked at the lords and ladies in disgust. Then, without another word, he spun on the heel of his velvet shoe and began striding toward the throne room doors.
Remy, Sean, and I were already hurrying down the steep, narrow stairway. We slipped into the hallway and started a slow, decorous walk back toward the courtyard. Within moments a frantic footman ran up to us.
“The Sworn Assets are requested in the throne room, my lords and lady,” said a footman, so nervous he babbled the words.
“Let’s go then,” Remy said.
Naomi, Leslie, Sylvan, and Ramsey stood in a group by the thrones when we came in. All of them looked grim. For a long time they spoke to each other in low tones while we waited. Finally they took their seats. I tried to control my anxiety at being back in this room. My eyes kept migrating toward the place where the clawman had stood. I hoped my tunic covered the trembling of my knees. My queasy stomach was rebelling, making me swallow again and again.
“Don’t try to pretend that you didn’t hear everything Lord Jordi said,” Naomi began, her eyes glacial. “We could sense you on the balcony.” She pointed to the white crystal Jordi had left and looked into my eyes. “Lady Darcy, you will turn that crystal red.”
“Red? Fine.” I touched the crystal, relieved that was all she wanted. “You’ve got it.”
“It’s not that easy,” Sean said to me, his words so soft they were only for my ears.
“Why not?”
“That’s no ordinary crystal. Filling it will require you to drain human beings, and only a few missusans have ever learned how to drain humans without causing permanent damage or killing them,” Remy said hoarsely.
I looked at Naomi. “I just fill this crystal and no Original People or humans die?”
She nodded. “If you can manage to do it without killing any humans, my lady, that would be most opportune. Some may die while you learn, so choose your targets well. The high-status human boy you drained from your high school was an ill-advised target. He has no idea how lucky he is that you didn’t extinguish him.”
“You know about that?”
“We learned of it from your human social media, and we were quite impressed.” Sylvan didn’t smile. “The fact that you could do that will be a great comfort to the lowborn, because if you fail, their lives will be used to fill the crystal.”
“Then I will be really careful,” I said, well aware that my fear of the clawman was making me loathe to annoy Naomi and Sylvan.
Sean turned to me. “Don’t you see what’s happening here? They want you to prey on humans.”
Ramsey seemed unconcerned. “You’re right, Lord Sean. But how is this so different from what humans do to each other? And if she’s careful, no one will really be hurt. Think of it like a blood donation.” He looked at a footman, snapped his fingers, and pointed to the crystal. “Pick that up.”
A footman rushed forward, wrapped the crystal in something like a sheepskin, and held it in his arms. Sean scowled and might have argued if Remy hadn’t shaken his head at him. The three of us bowed our heads and followed the footman who carried the crystal out of the throne room into the big courtyard. The footman handed it to Circle. Remy and I sat down on the fountain. Sean stayed on his feet. I sensed his riotous emotions, the disappointment, resignation, and frustration.
“What’s up with you?” Sean snapped at Remy. “You know how this will cost Darcy.”
“Do you?” Remy shot back. He looked around us being going on. “Have you been paying attention to what’s going on around here? You two killed nearly all the Sworn Assets and the other Great Houses want payback. This affects all of us Sworn Assets. And if Darcy here doesn’t do as they ask, they will find a way to motivate her that will make what the clawman did seem like a mosquito bite.”
“What could be worse than that?” Sean asked.
Remy pointed at me. “She has people on Earth that she loves, doesn’t she?”
My blood ran cold. Remy found something I feared more than the clawman.
Sean wasn’t convinced. “My shaman said that they haven’t done anything to directly harm humans in thousands of years.”
“That was before the two of you killed off all the Sworn Assets, wasn’t it?”
I grabbed Sean’s arm with my gloved hand. “I’m going to fill the crystal.”
Sean looked furious, like he wanted to argue, but he bit back the words. We left the courtyard. For a long time, Remy, Sean, and I, followed by our entourage of Discards, walked through the palace silently. As we moved along, I found myself noticing the finery of the furnishing, the exquisite carvings, paintings, and tilework. I noticed the sameness of it all, the predictability. The only thing that constantly changed was the sky, and I wondered if the northern lights playing above was a program that would be repeating itself too. Remy stopped us in a courtyard.
“You know that they are a declining species.” He became grim. “They’re on borrowed time. If it weren’t for us Sworn Assets, they would have died out long ago. They’re like cowbirds or mistletoe and we’re part of their lifecycle. I called them parasites once and my shaman got kind of mad, but he couldn’t deny it.”
“Parasites?” Sean said the word as if he were trying it out. “Parasitic on other beings?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. From what I understand of their history, they go from planet to planet, looking for a species that can supply them with what they can’t get for themselves because they’ve genetically modified it away. The red energy is the sweetest to them because it makes them feel. It’s what they want the most from human beings. To feel. Only a missusan can give them that. They both value and resent Sworn Assets like you, Darcy.”
“So this is all some sort of drama meant to get me to gather them some soul energy from humans,” I said, getting angry.
“Oh no. Don’t doubt that their need for energy is genuine.” Remy gestured for Circle to give us some space. “And you’ll be able to fill that crystal partway with sunlight.”
“What happens if this crystal has a terrible accident?” I asked.
“No, don’t do that. It’s in our best interests for them to get what they want so they’ll stay. My shaman told me that when they leave they will likely do something that will set humanity back thousands of years, like sending down a plague or creating a worldwide catastrophe, like changing the weather by setting off volcanoes or getting a huge asteroid to crash into the Earth. What they’re most afraid of is leaving any genetic material for the Tarkwins to find and know they were here. If you can fill that crystal, they’ll be less likely to want to leave soon. The longer they stay, the better it is for humanity.”
“Aren’t we just paying the cannibal to eat us last?” I asked, using one of my dad’s favorite sayings.
Remy looked annoyed. “Probably, but you’ll buy humans some more time.”
“How much time?” Sean asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Remy said with a lift of his shoulder. “The process of leaving a planet starts when they get together and vote to begin what they call the Protocols. My shaman told me they have a ship hidden in the asteroid belt around our sun. The asteroid is on a long orbit, but it will be passing by Earth in the next ten years. They’ll time their departure with the asteroid’s orbit so the ship will draw less attention.”
A footman came up to us and waited to be acknowledged.
“What is it?” Remy asked.
The footman looked at Sean. “My lord, Lord Ramsey and Lady Leslie wish to speak with you.”
Sean held my eyes for a moment before he went away with the footman.
I stared at the wrapping that held the crystal. I wondered how many humans would have to pay with their lives for my learning how to buy humans some time. I felt like a surgeon experimenting on patients and hoping my treatment wouldn’t kill them. And what was happening with Sean?
Remy eyed me closely. “You can’t have him, you know. He’s not Romeo and you’re not Juliet.”
I thought how I could add all that to the list of what I could and couldn’t have and do in this world. Above me the red sun had moved to the far side of the sky and I wondered if that meant a lot of time had passed. Either way, I needed a nap. I called Circle to my side and told Remy that I was going back to my apartment.
“Send me a message if you need me,” he said, and he watched me until I was out of his sight.
The maid stared at the courtyard floor. “The Lord Sean is with Lady Leonie, my lady.”
“And Lady Arlee?”
“She is with them, as is Lord Judah and Lord Tardik. The Lord Remy had requested their presence.”
But not mine. That’s just great. My brow lowered as I thought of the six of them out having fun and none of them thinking to invite me, the girl who was supposed to fill a crystal, the girl who took the pain away from the clawman, the girl who was supposed to drain humans for the benefit of this world. Fine. I would find my own diversion.
“Bring me the crystal.”
Circle set it, still alabaster white, on the table at my elbow. I slouched in my chair and watched the ringed planet in the sky overhead. Eventually I had to change the crystal, but I was scared to now, scared that once the Original People no longer needed me, that they would cast me aside like a used tissue and the Earth along with it. I sat alone in the courtyard, having sent my maids back to the apartment. Even though they no longer feared me as terribly as they did before, they were still anxious enough that their nervousness infected my peace of mind.
I put my feet up on an ottoman and caressed the white crystal. Everywhere I touched it turned green. Like a toddler with finger paints, I drew swirls of different sizes all over it. As I played with the crystal, I felt myself descending into a foul mood. Feeling rebellious, I pushed my foul mood into the crystal and watched it turn red. Then I was startled out of my mood by the appearance of a tiny woman.
She bowed her head. “This one is called Gemmee, my lady.”
And she was tiny. While most everyone here seemed to be the same height, whether male or female, Gemmee would only have come up to my waist if I stood up. Her clothing was black, a sort of gown that covered her from her neck to her toes. The cuffs of her sleeves and the hem of her robe were trimmed in silver and red threads. Her hair was combed back off her face and banded in three colors, a white one surrounding her face, then a stripe of rusty brown, and then another of white. Her eyebrows were long and curled up toward her hairline.
I stared at her. “Are you lowborn?”
“I am, my lady.”
“Why do you come into my sight?”
Gemmee paused, as if waiting for me to shout at her. When I didn’t, she went on. “Much has happened since your ladyship touched the Sworn Enemy and extinguished nearly all the Sworn Assets and drained a Second Mechanic. The First Mechanic took that as an omen of the future. His lordship was most distressed, my lady. Your actions are portents of the beginning of the end for life on Earth.”
I sat up a little higher in my chair. Remy had said something similar. “Explain that.”
Gemmee glanced at me through her eyelashes. “It has distressed this one to know how much criticism the First Mechanic has taken about the poor outcome of your ladyship in your role as Sworn Asset. His lordship is a good man.”
Hearing about my deficiencies seemed to be a fact of life for me here. “Make your point.”
“My lady, the humans’ technology is advancing rapidly. They’ve begun sending probes out into the galaxy. They have become more adept in their study of Earth. The Mechanics worry that humans will soon be able to detect Geminay or do something that will attract the attention of the Tarkwins. Some are saying we’ve stayed here too long as it is. If humans are allowed to continue their technological advances, they will be able to detect us here on Earth. If they can find us, so can the Tarkwins.”
“Seriously?” I snapped. “From where I’m sitting, the Original People are the threat to humans, not the Tarkwins.”
“This one has explained it poorly, my lady,” Gemmee said, growing agitated.
“You can’t spin this to make it so that it’s okay to kill humans on their own planet.” I could feel my brow lower as my anger increased. “There must be another way that doesn’t involve genocide for humans and Earth. There must be some alternative.”
“The Supreme Rulers could send a rescue, but that would risk exposing their world as well as ours, and they almost never do it.”
“Better to cause mass extinction of the indigenous population of Earth?” I asked.
Gemmee gave me a quizzical look. “My lady, extinction is part of the natural order. A society rises up, flourishes, and dies. We were here on this planet when a great plague wiped out much of the continent the humans call Europe. We saw how humans came back stronger. They are a resilient species. When they replenish their numbers, we will return. Our society rises up, flourishes, and dies. That is the way of the known universe.”
“Will you be on the ship when it leaves Earth?” I asked bluntly.
“This one thinks not, my lady. In times of scarcity, precious resources are only bestowed on the best. It is known.”
“So it’s okay that you and the other lowborn will be murdered along with the humans?” I asked, thinking she had no idea how disturbing I found her ideas.
“Such is the way our world lives and succeeds, my lady. It is how our world works. It is how the known universe works.”
“And how will it happen this time? An asteroid? A virus? Earthquakes? Which do you see as the best outcome here?” I asked because I was suspicious. I had seen enough students at Duncan High School spreading false information to manipulate others to do their bidding. I couldn’t figure out what might be motivating Gemmee right now. When I tried, I couldn’t feel her emotions. What aura she had wasn’t familiar, but then she was the first lowborn that I had ever seen.