Zodiac (19 page)

Our car dodges through heavy traffic, and its onboard cooling system can’t keep up with the rising heat. Hysan’s head lolls from side to side.

“Then we better watch our backs.”

Mathias lowers his head. “We have to assume this enemy will try to assassinate you again. We’ll need to take better safety precautions on Aries—physically and metaphysically.”

The traffic grows thicker, and we chug to a halt, hovering over coal-black embers that were once stalks of grain. It feels like we’re slow-poaching.

I can’t look at Hysan. I’m worried he’s lost too much blood. Every passing second seems to steal more things from him. One less breath, one less heartbeat, one less smile.

Mathias keeps checking the wound, releasing the tourniquet a bit, then retightening it. Ahead, more ships are launching. “We should help these people,” I say.

“We will.” He wipes sweat from his face. “
Equinox
has enough air for about ten more passengers.”

When we reach the spaceport and find Hysan’s ship, the smell outside is nauseating. Nobody’s in sight at this end of the field, so we’ll have to go to the main terminal to find our ten passengers. The question neither of us asks is how we’re supposed to only help ten when there are so many who won’t make it.

The bodies floating on Elara flash before my eyes. Only this time, it’s Virgo’s children who’ve been attacked.

Ophiuchus is a plague, and he won’t stop spreading. Our only chance of survival is for the Houses of the Zodiac to come together. I have to plead my case to the Plenum. After what’s happened here, the other Guardians have to believe me.

The launch pad radiates heat like a griddle as we carry Hysan’s unconscious body from the car to the ship. At least the air in
Equinox
is cooler.

“Caasy!” I call out as we enter, but he doesn’t reply.

“I’ll try to locate him on his Tattoo once we have control of the ship,” says Mathias.

We lay Hysan on the deck, and Mathias races to the galley to get the ship’s healing kit. I keep checking the tourniquet. Hysan’s skin is losing its golden color. I cushion his head on my lap and stroke his cheek. “Please hang on, Hysan. . . .”

When Mathias comes back, I ask, “Where’s the life-support pod?”

“We’ll find it later,” he says, digging through the kit. “First, we have to wake up your Libran and get him to unlock his ship.”

Mathias snaps an ampoule of wake-up gas under Hysan’s nostrils, but he doesn’t rouse. Outside, we hear another thundering explosion, and I readjust Hysan’s head and run to the glass nose to see what’s happening. “Our car just caught fire!” I yell. “The whole launch pad is melting!”

Mathias snaps a second ampoule, and Hysan opens his eyes with a groan. “Unlock your ship,” says Mathias.

Hysan squints and blinks. He seems to be in a fog, so I kneel beside him and take his hand. “Please, Hysan. Please unlock
Equinox
’s controls.”

“Look alive, ’
Nox.
”

The ship’s navigation screens flash on. “He’s yours,” breathes Hysan. “Take care of him . . . Rho.” His eyes roll up and close.

“Hysan!”
I shake him while Mathias bounds to the helm and activates the enhanced optics so he can see through the smoke.

I lower my head and press my ear to Hysan’s chest to listen for a heartbeat. In my sideways vision, I see a small figure fly out from the far end of the ship.

I jerk my head up. Caasy is opening one of the ship’s escape capsules.

“Caasy!” I call out.

He turns, but there’s something strange about his expression. He doesn’t run over to help me with Hysan. Instead, he shouts, “Fly safe, Dear Mother! I am returning to Gemini!”

We’re escaping a House that’s just been attacked, Hysan’s limp body is sprawled on the floor, and still most surreal of all is this moment. Caasy’s abandoning us.

“Please! Help me move him!” I call.

Caasy clicks a few buttons on the screen beside the capsule, and as the door is opening, he ducks in. And that’s when I notice his hands. He’s clutching something dark and oblong in his fingers.

“Caasy, don’t!”

The door shuts behind him. There’s a noise of hissing gears, and the capsule detaches from the ship, shooting up into Space.

Mother Origene’s stone is gone.

MATHIAS CALLS OUT TO ME
from the front of the ship. “I see people on the terminal roof! As soon as we land, open the hatch and help ten of them board.”

I have to put Caasy and the stone out of my mind if I’m going to help.

Hysan, too.

The ship lifts off in a banking turn toward the terminal building. “Ready!” I call out, gripping the hatch release, poised for quick action.

There’s a loud rolling crash, followed by a cannonade of smaller explosions. Instead of slowing, Mathias pulls up and goes faster.

“What are you doing?” I shout.

He turns to me slowly, a look of disbelief on his face. “A burning freighter just hit the terminal building.” His voice shakes. “We won’t find any passengers now.”

I shut my eyes, unable to take it in.

I never should have come here.

• • •

We abandon Virgo.

We leave without saving anyone.

Equinox
’s scans show a world on fire. Thick black clouds boil over the Western Hemisphere, blocking the landscape below, and orange flames geyser upward. The planet Tethys shines like brimstone.

Our ship’s hull has proved impervious to the burning atmosphere, but I can’t say that about the others. We’ve seen at least twenty ships explode and plummet. Twice, Mathias tried to dock with a burning ship to rescue the passengers, but our attempts failed. The blazing oxygen is too hot.

First Cancer. Now Virgo. Ophiuchus is exterminating the Zodiac, one House at a time. The horror is beyond understanding, but what’s worse is the guilt, gnawing through my insides like hungry Maws. He was following
me
—that’s how he found her. I must have brought Moira with me, somehow, to the plane where Ophiuchus can communicate.

How long before he attacks Gemini? Will Caasy take me seriously after what he witnessed on Virgo? Is that why he ran?

But why take my black opal? This whole time, I knew there was something else he wanted, an ulterior motive for tagging along with us. I should have been more protective of the stone.

I want to ask Hysan what he thinks—after all, he didn’t let me jettison it from the ship the first time Ochus attacked us. But it’ll have to wait until he awakens. He’s still resting inside his life-support pod, having his leg repaired.

When we searched his quarters to find the pod, we discovered a number of other interesting items: a weapons cache, body armor, a case of tiny micro-cameras, tracking chips and scramblers, and, of course, the Psy-hardened strongbox that’s been holding our devices, its door gaping open. From the scratch marks, it’s clear Caasy jimmied the strongbox lock. That we can tell, only my black opal was missing.

For now, we’re flying straight to the Planetary Plenum, despite Mathias’s concerns. We’re traveling at hyperspeed, hoping our fuel won’t run out before we get there. Mathias has calculated the space-time relativity effect, and he says if all goes well, we’ll arrive two days before this year’s Plenum session winds down.

The Plenum rotates from House to House each year, and now it’s at Aries, the first and oldest House. The Ariean civilization has risen and fallen many times, and these days, the newsfeeds show its main planet, Phaetonis, as a wild and rowdy place ruled by a junta of warlords. While the Plenum’s there, the ambassadors have to be protected by the Ariean army, which is made up of soldiers, not Zodai.

The black market flourishes there, and local militias wrangle for territory. The universal corruption and high crime rate may explain why Aries is the most militarized House in the Zodiac—and the most impoverished.

Aries is a Cardinal House, and it represents Fire. The Ram constellation has a small sun and three settled planets, but only the planet Phaetonis has breathable atmosphere, and it’s thin. Phaetonians live under domes, although walking on the surface is possible with the aid of an air mask. The planet’s porous, so its gravity’s weak, but at least we’ll have weight again.

Mathias and I are working on my speech for the Plenum when
Equinox
informs us that the life-support pod has finished healing Hysan’s leg. “I’m going to check on him,” I say, rising.

Mathias stands, too. “We’ll both go.”

Hysan’s cabin is larger and more comfortable than our spartan guest quarters. The lid of his coffin-shaped pod has already popped open, and he’s inside in his boxers, apparently still asleep. His golden hair fans over his forehead, and his skin nearly glows, his leg completely healed.

Mathias throws a blanket over Hysan, covering him to his chin. “The Libran’s out of danger. You should use this pod to heal your arm.”

“Yeah, maybe later.” I’ve cleaned the glass cuts, but they still sting. Even the plush yellow uniform I’m wearing feels like sandpaper against them.

But I don’t want to cheat the pain. I want to feel it. I need to.

Mathias has laid out Hysan’s weapons across his dressing table to ask him about them. Four plexine laser guns, a particle-beam pistol, a half dozen Tasers, a twelve-pack of nuclear grenades. Quite an arsenal for a traveling Guardian. Along with the mini-cameras and tracking bugs, I can no longer doubt our friendly Libran likes to play spy.

Hysan opens his eyes, and when they find me, I watch recognition settle on his features, curving the ends of his mouth. He sits up and throws off the blanket. Mathias impatiently hands him the pair of gray coveralls that are lying on a nearby chair.

As Hysan steps out and pulls on his clothes, he sees the weapons. He looks straight at Mathias. “I see you have no respect for private property. Not even a Guardian’s.”

Mathias glares right back. “At least I saved your life.”

“Thanks,” says Hysan, like he’s forcing a word that won’t roll off his tongue. “But you should have done what I asked and gone to look for Rho. She’s hurt her arm, it could have been worse—”

“Shut up, both of you.” I look at Hysan. “Caasy ejected himself in an escape capsule.” His eyebrow shoots up, like he finds this amusing. “Right after breaking into your strongbox and taking my black opal.”

Now he grows alert. He looks around eagerly for the box, and when he sees that it’s been forced open, his whole demeanor changes. He becomes kind of . . . professional.

“Rho. We need to talk. Alone.”

“You’re dreaming,” says Mathias.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“It’s a . . . Guardian thing.” He looks at Mathias. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. Since Rho was unable to meet her predecessor, she was never told some things that a Guardian needs to know. That’s all this is about.”

Mathias is unmoved. “I was in Mother Origene’s Royal Guard. I’ve told Rho everything I know.”

“Yes, but there are things even Advisors are not aware of.” A gleam crosses Hysan’s eyes, like a new thought just swam by. “The greatest secret of the Houses is passed on from Guardian to Guardian. No one else can know. This is a truth entrusted to only one person in each House.”

“That’s ridiculous. Cancrian Guardians are only named after the current Guardian passes,” argues Mathias.

“That’s what everyone in every House
thinks
, but it’s not true.” Hysan sighs in frustration. “Guardians are so attuned to the Psy that they can sense when their death is near, and they prepare their successor before anything is made public. If Mother Origene had seen the Dark Matter, she would have sensed her passing. As a backup, we also leave hidden messages in our chambers that only the new Guardian can find. If Rho had been able to access Origene’s residence on planet Cancer, she would have found this information.”

I look from one guy to the other. I can see why Mathias is having trouble believing Hysan—this sounds strange enough to be a sneaky excuse for us to be alone.

The problem is, I don’t think I’d mind being alone with Hysan. And that’s why I have to insist that Mathias stay.

“Hysan, I get it. And I believe you, but at this point we don’t know whom we can trust—including Guardians, since one just stole my stone. The only people we can be sure of are the three of us. We’ve already been trusting each other with our lives, now let’s live them in the open.”

When I’m finished speaking, Hysan gives me a look that expresses the opposite of Mathias’s one of approval. Then he eyes Mathias warily. “You can never speak a word of this to anyone.
Anyone
.”

“I know my duty to my Guardian, Libran,” snarls Mathias.

Hysan sighs. He sits on the edge of his bed, and for the first time I notice his golden complexion hasn’t fully returned. He’s not altogether better. He lost a lot of blood and still seems a little weak. I perch next to him so he doesn’t have to keep looking up. Mathias hangs back against the wall.

“When the original Guardians fell to mortality, they all brought one thing with them: A Talisman, each of which holds the knowledge of an aspect of humanity, giving each House a different strength.”

“Cancrians are natural nurturers,” I supply. “Librans are just. Aquarians, philosophers. Capricorns, wise. . . .”

He nods. “Each House excels in a different field because each Guardian guards the knowledge of a particular universal truth. This ensures we’ll always be equals, and we’ll always depend on each other for survival. That way no House can seize more power.”

“Only the Talisman is symbolic,” I say, speeding things up. Every House has its own theory for why we each evolved with different values, but the idea of a magical object is pretty popular, especially on Gemini and Sagittarius, whose people are more inclined to believe the unbelievable if the evidence fits. “It’s just a way of explaining our differences.”

Hysan shakes his head. “It’s real.”

He looks too tired and distraught to be making this up.

“
How?
” asks Mathias. “How could a
thing
contain a concept like nurturing or curiosity?”

“The secret stored in the Talisman is accessed the way you access the Psy. It doesn’t simply contain words or diagrams or films—it’s knowledge of the thing itself. Similar to how the communal mind creates meaning when it answers a query.”

Hysan looks at me and speaks slowly now, like he’s approaching our first speed bump. “Since they’re made up of Psynergy, the Talismans usually double as a different device.”

I know what comes next. He doesn’t say it, but it’s written all over his face.

I rise and walk to the other end of the room, where the strongbox is lying open and defeated. I stare hopelessly into its emptiness.

I just let the Geminin Guardian steal House Cancer’s Talisman.