Zodiac (27 page)

WHEN I WAKE UP THE
NEXT
MORNING
, I immediately feel different. For starters, I’ve never slept naked before.

I’ve also never woken up expecting to see a guy in my bed. But when I look over to Hysan’s side, I’m alone.

I stay under the covers as the air grows brighter, my emotions a jumbled mass of confusion. I don’t know how to feel. Dad is a wound that will never heal, and the devastation of his death weighs on me like a cloak that will stay fastened forever.

And yet when I think of Hysan, my body feels sensitive and light, producing echoes of new sensations he introduced me to last night. My curves feel new to me today. Experiencing my body through Hysan’s hands and lips gave new meaning to every part, and I feel more connected to myself than ever before.

Maybe I should regret last night, but I don’t. My old self wouldn’t have done this, but that girl is gone. So is that life, the one where I consulted an Ephemeris daily, the one where the stars and I shared our secrets.

Ochus has cut me off from that life. From my future. My
family
. And last night, Hysan gave me a good memory, one that’s all mine, one I can take with me when I meet my fate. When I set off to find Ochus.

For now, I can’t think beyond that. So I change into the unused sleeping outfit Hysan brought me and pad into the living room.

“Morning,” says Mathias.

As soon as I see him, needles of guilt stab my insides.

“Did you sleep well?”

His scrutiny makes me turn to hide my face. “I did, thanks. Any news?”

“I saved you some breakfast,” he says, still watching me. Does he suspect anything, or is he just being Mathias?

He’s cleaning his silver Taser, and he looks like he hasn’t slept yet. There’s a small nick in the cleft of his chin from shaving.

“Where’s Hysan?”

Mathias pours me a cup of tea, and I feel like a traitor. “Just picking out which dress to wear. He’s going to visit his android this morning.”

“I’m going, too.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

I grab a roll from the bread basket beside him to avoid answering, just as Mathias pulls something from his pocket and places it on the table in front of me. “Happy birthday, Rho.”

The sight of the small green package fills me with nostalgia.
Sugared seaweed.
“Dad and I ate this all the time at home,” I whisper, choking back a wave of sadness so Mathias won’t know the pain his gift caused.

“It’s almost impossible to find off-planet,” he says. “I thought it’d be a welcome reminder of Cancer.”

“Thanks,” I say, pulling him into a hug, mostly to hide my face. But guilt twists my gut, and I pull away quickly. I didn’t even realize it was my birthday—that I was seventeen—when I woke up this morning.

We split the box of seaweed between us silently, and then he turns on the news. When Hysan comes in, I’m glad to see he’s wearing the gray coveralls again. We give each other shy nods, and I hope Mathias is too distracted to notice my awkward blush.

“Morning, my lady.” Before Hysan can say more, we hear the door to the suite clicking open.

Mathias grabs his weapon and slips through to the workspace, returning instantly with Lord Neith, whose stern eyes soften with affection when he sees Hysan. “Father,” he says, opening his arms.

I watch, entranced, as Hysan embraces the towering android. Neith pulls out a smart screen from his pocket and calls up some data to share with Hysan. The hologram’s reflected light glimmers across his perfect Kartex face and makes his white hair glisten.

While they work, I step onto the balcony and look over the railing. Far below, armored cars rove the streets like tiny beach beetles. Drab sunlight filters through the planet’s fabric sky, and the black wall ringing the village casts gray shadows.

Mathias joins me. “Bleak, isn’t it? I’ll be glad to leave this place.”

“Are you still planning to go to Gemini to live in an underground mine?”

“Our people are there.” His handsome features catch the sun’s dim rays, and I’m struck by his quiet poise, the way I was five years ago when I first saw him doing Yarrot. “I still believe in my heart that Cancer will recover.”

Then I admit something I didn’t expect to share: “I’ve known this whole time you’d make a better Guardian.”

Mathias looks at me long and hard before speaking. “At first, I couldn’t understand why they chose someone so young and . . . untrained.” He leans his broad chest against the railing, still absorbing me in his indigo gaze. “But those were the wrong things to focus on. Your talent is raw, but you have more discipline and determination than anyone I know.” His musical voice dips, like he’s embarrassed to be speaking so openly. “You’re an everlasting flame that can’t be put out.”

I used to wonder what he saw when he looked at me—a little girl or a grown woman. For too long, he made me feel like the former. And at best, something in between the two. But for the first time, Mathias’s words make me feel big instead of small.

“You’re also the bravest, kindest, and most selfless person I know,” he says, his expression lightening. When the lines fade from his face, he looks like he’s shed off years. “You’re pure Cancrian, through and through.”

Even as his words make my heart soar, the guilt eats away at my stomach. Just when I get Mathias’s respect, I’m no longer worthy of it. Hysan isn’t alone in keeping secrets anymore.

“Thank you, Mathias.” Guilt makes my gaze too heavy to meet his. “I hope that means you’re not going to fight me on going to find Ochus, or proof of his existence.”

When I sneak a glance, the lines on his face have resurfaced. “No one has ever come back from the Sufianic Clouds, Rho. The person behind all this—Ochus, as you call him—manipulates Psynergy in ways no Zodai ever has, or can even fathom. You’ve had less practice than most and don’t know your full strength yet.”

It’s the first time he’s said the name Ochus aloud, and even though it wasn’t an endorsement, at least he’s accepting the
possibility
. He’s showing me he’s trying. He wants me to meet him halfway.

Only I can’t. I’ve committed to this mission, and I have to see it through. “I’m going, Mathias. I’m just asking you not to try to stop me.”

“Then let’s at least consult Psy experts and learn as much as we can about how whoever’s doing this is doing this—how we can fight him before we act—”

“That’s a good idea,” I say, the pieces coming together in my mind to form a plan. “While Hysan and I get proof that Ochus is real, you and Sirna and the others can start gathering information on how we can use the Psy to defeat him. Then we can appeal to the other Guardians again, only this time we’ll have
proof
and a
plan
.”

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes, like I’m a hyperactive toddler who’s testing his patience. Like I’m once again small. “Rho, I don’t think you should travel there without more information. If you insist on going, we’ll need to consult the rest of your Advisors first.”

“If I’m an everlasting flame, why do you keep underestimating me?”

Hysan snickers behind us.
“Classic.”

“What is?” growls Mathias.

“Prejudice of the old against the young.”

Mathias looks torn between expressing his anger verbally and using his fists. He takes an unsteady breath, then walks back inside without another word.

Alone with Hysan, I suddenly feel new to the Zodiac. We smile at each other as he edges closer, and side by side we look out at the city, our fingers lacing together on the railing.

Police sirens echo from far off, and in the distance we hear artillery fire. Thin gray light leaks through the fabric sky. “Happy birthday, my lady,” he says, handing me a small box. I open it to find a Crab-shaped pin made of turquoise cristobalite beads. The color of the Cancer Sea.

It’s my very own Psy shield.

“Thank you,” I say, clipping it on my sleeping shirt. The Crab shines like a reminder of home. “How’d you know it was today?”

“Saw it as the soldiers scanned our thumbprints when we got here.” He admires the pin on me, then says, “Neith convinced the ambassadors to extend their session so he can speak. He’s very persuasive. He learned from a master, you know.”

“A humble one.”

“And that’s just one of my
many
sterling qualities.” Hysan slides his thumb up and down my little finger.

“How long is the trip to the Sufianic Clouds?” I ask.

“Four days, maybe. We’ll need to stay invisible the whole time, since Ophiuchus could have eyes everywhere.”

I peer at the many windows overlooking our balcony and shiver. “Let’s go inside.”

In the living room, Mathias is standing rigid and white-faced, staring at the wallscreen. He turns to me, his expression blank.

For a moment, I think he overheard Hysan and me, or he saw us holding hands. Then I catch a glimpse of the bloodshed on the news.

“Gemini’s capital has just been obliterated.”

THE PLANET ARGYR HAS BEEN
RAZED
.
Images on the wallscreen show devastation beyond understanding. The rainbow buildings flattened. The Imaginarium smashed. Small Geminin bodies burned to cinders.

Caasy didn’t come to the Plenum. Was he at the royal court where we first saw him? Did he survive?

I’m sitting on the sofa, between Mathias and Hysan, biting my nails as the newscast unfolds. The images are so grisly that I want to cover my face, but I force myself to keep watching. Behind us, Neith stands like a monument.

The total destruction of the city has been confirmed. A passing cruiser recorded an immense mushroom cloud rising over Gemini’s capital, and the authorities are blaming an accident at the nuclear plant. But that doesn’t explain why the entire planet is wobbling on its axis.

Will it crash into its neighbor, Hydragyr, where so many of my own people have settled?

“Ochus,” I hiss.

“Rho,” says Mathias, the word insignificant compared to the way it’s delivered—with the voice of one who’s been blind.

There’s a pounding on the door, and Lord Neith briefly looks toward it. “An agent of the Cancrian Secret Service wishes to join us,” he tells Hysan. “Shall I allow it?”

Hysan nods, and when the door clicks open, the person who enters the living room is Amanta Thais. “Mom,” says Mathias, pulling her in for a hug. “You’ve seen the news?”

“Yes. Sirna sent me,” she says, panning her gaze across us and pausing in surprise on the Libran Guardian’s face.

“Charon will claim more cosmic rays.” I feel myself shaking in the Zodiac’s instability. Any planet could be next. “We have to move our people again. Is someone arranging that?”

“Advisor Agatha has taken charge,” says Amanta, speaking with quiet urgency and looking from Lord Neith to me. “Two Guardians dead in one month. Another comatose. People are beginning to panic.”

“The Plenum session has been extended,” announces Neith. “I shall address them in an hour.”

“Sirna wants Rho there, too,” says Amanta. “This time, she thinks the ambassadors may listen.”

“Can I tell them about the secret army?” I ask.

“Not yet,” says Amanta, “not until we learn who’s recruiting them.”

Amanta is needed back at the hippodrome immediately, so we agree to meet her there. The four of us leave as soon as Hysan and I are dressed. On the street, he turns and speaks a soft word to Neith. Abruptly, the golden android sets off toward the Plenum, running faster than I expected, given his refined manners and regal composure.

Hysan smiles with pride. “It’s quicker to travel alone than in a group. He knows what to say once he gets to the Plenum.”

In case my protestors are waiting for me, we use the veil collars and sprint down the street, trailing far behind Neith. As always, the area around the hippodrome is jammed with visitors from every House, including the rowdy students with banners. This time, their numbers have swollen.

We sneak past the soldiers, and when we enter the arenasphere, the ambassadors and visiting Guardians have already taken their places in their gilded seats. Except today, the makeup has changed.

Overhead, holograms of every color jam the upper half of the sphere, blinking pixilated flashes where they overlap. Micro-cameras hover as thick as smoke. Down below, tawny Geminin have taken over one full section of seats, and I also see many more Virgos than before, plus Taurians, Leos, Sagittarians, even Cancrians. In fact, all the Houses are represented in this crowd.

Many of them are young, student-aged. Surely that’s Nishi’s doing. Lord Neith stands at center stage, holding the speaker’s staff and scrolling Sirna’s data on four large holographic screens that float through the sphere, proving beyond a doubt that the cosmic ray story was a deliberate lie. Cameras alight on his arms, and he ignores them.

We haven’t unveiled yet, but Neith sees us at once and motions us forward. Hysan gestures for me to go first, and this time, instead of hanging back and guarding the door, Mathias comes with me.

The three of us mount the stage, but Hysan whispers that we shouldn’t unveil. “Wait till they beg for you, Rho.”

“Beg for me?”

With a mischievous look, he nods toward the audience, then leans to whisper in my ear. “Someone sent Ambassador Sirna’s data to news stations across the galaxy. I can’t imagine who. And by the way, that’s your
second
birthday gift, my lady.”

I stare at him with wide eyes, not believing what I’m hearing. “Are you still going to tell the other Houses about Psy shields?”

He flashes his crooked smile. “Patience. That’s number three.”

I’m about to hug him when Charon shoots to his feet and tries to take the staff from Neith. We watch him struggle, but Neith wins easily. “I will not yield the floor to you, sir.”

The students pelt Charon with wadded scraps of food and trash until he’s forced to take a seat. Members of the Scorpio Royal Guard remove him from the proceedings, and cheers break out among the audience.

“I think you’ll yield to me, Lord Neith.” Solemn little Rubidum rises to her feet. “My brother’s been vaporized. That gives me all the grounds I need to address this gathering.”

Under our veils, the three of us trade somber looks. Caasy’s gone.

I think back to his warning that I’m being deceived. Was he seeing Charon’s actions? Or was he foreshadowing his own theft of my black opal just to mess with me?

“Rubi, Rubi, Rubi!”

Rubidum smiles, though tears streak her opalescent face paint. “Let her speak,” I whisper, and Hysan nods at Neith.

Neith bows and gestures for her to take the floor. She climbs onstage, passing close by us without noticing. The speaker’s staff is too long for her to hold upright, so she grips its head and lets the tail end rest at an angle on the floor.

“Fellow Guardians, you know me. For three hundred years, my brother and I have seen plagues, floods, famines, disasters of every kind. The Taurian mudslides, the Piscene drought, the Leonine fires—we watched them with troubled hearts. Yet until today, we assumed these events were normal, cyclical, beyond anyone’s control.”

She pauses to dab a tear, and the audience murmurs.

“But now, friends, we’ve seen atrocities without equal. Three Houses laid to waste in one month. Three Guardians struck down. Origene’s dead, Moira’s a vegetable, and my brother . . .” She sniffles and wipes another tear.

Then she aims her staff at the audience with a look of blood thirst. “We have to stop denying the truth. Someone’s orchestrating this. Whose House will be next? Yours? Yours?”

People shrink back in their seats as she points. “Not one of us is safe while the monster lives. We know his name. What is it?”

“Ophiuchus!” the Geminin group yells. And just like that, the people of Gemini are believers.

“Yes,
Ophiuchus
!” Rubidum moves across the stage like a tragic actor, dragging the end of the staff. “Behold his work.”

Near the front of the crowd, a Geminin stands and beams images from the Tattoo on his palm to the virtual screens: gruesome videos from Argyr’s burn wards of the injured and the dying. Their agony silences everyone.

Rubidum lifts her head. “Mother Rhoma Grace warned my brother and me about Ophiuchus. I was a fool not to listen then, but now I say this butcher must die.”

“Kill the butcher! Kill the butcher!”

The chant echoes through the Geminin group. Then, to my amazement, it spreads like fire through the entire crowd.

I can’t believe how fast terror can turn the tide of public opinion. Suddenly everyone believes in the boogeyman.

“He can strike anywhere, anytime!” Rubidum shouts above the noise. “He’ll destroy us all unless we act. We cannot sit still.”

When the frenzy reaches a crescendo, Rubidum drops the staff with a clatter and raises both hands to the sky. “Friends, we were wrong to ban Rho Grace from this Plenum. She was the only one who foresaw this foe. We need her on our side.”

The students begin to chant my name, and to my shock, over half the audience joins in. Overhead, the holograms echo the chant like crashing cymbals.

“Rho! Rho! Rho!”

I was willing to sacrifice my life just to convince the Zodiac of Ophiuchus’s existence. Now that they believe, I should be thrilled . . . only I’m not. Something about this feels wrong.

Reason hasn’t converted them—the fervor of the room has.

Albor Echus begs for order, swinging his robes of fur, and Neith pounds the lectern with his fist. “Shall we call back Mother Rho?”

“Yes!” the people thunder. “Call her back! Bring back Mother Rho!”

“Now,” whispers Hysan. “Unveil.”

All three of us switch off our collars, and when we pop into view, the audience’s reaction makes me lightheaded.

Our magic trick has them on their feet, giving us a rousing standing ovation, and from all over the arenasphere micro-cameras zoom toward me. The colors and lights and flashes and shouts and sounds—it’s all overwhelming.

Small arms embrace me. I look down and see Rubidum. “We’re placing our faith in you, Rho. Bring this monster to justice.”

Now
I realize what a grave mistake I’ve made.

I let these people believe I’m more than a whistleblower—that I actually have a plan for defeating someone who can turn our own particles of air against us.

I’m not in the military. I’m not a qualified Zodai. I can’t lead an army. As the cheers rise louder, Neith hands me the speaker’s staff. But for the first time, I have no idea what to say.

My speeches never went beyond pleas to unify the Houses . . . and now it’s done. I’ve accomplished what I set out to do—I’ve sounded the alarm, the very thing Ochus threatened to kill me for attempting. The whole point of joining forces with the other Houses was so I could share the quest for justice—not
lead
it.

At my silence, Rubidum raises her voice. “House Gemini will outfit forty war ships to crush the butcher. Who’ll join me?”

Ear-splitting cheers erupt from the audience.

“We will!” shouts the amber-eyed Guardian of Sagittarius. I remember her face from the newsfeeds two years ago, when she was named Guardian at just twenty-one years old. “We’ll send tankers.”

“Capricorn will send arks,” their ambassador announces.

The Taurian Guardian shouts, “We’ll supply weapons!”

War ships? Ammunition?
Is that what we need?

There’s no stopping the spread of battle frenzy now. Leo’s Leader—who was once the most famous leading man in Zodiac cinema until the stars chose him to lead—pumps his fist in the air. “Our House will send a cruiser!”

When Lord Neith takes up the staff again, he says, “House Libra will provide Psy shields for every ship. The enemy will never see us coming.”

With a broad sweep of his hand, he tosses hundreds of cristobalite beads into the air. People in the audience fight each other to catch them. He tosses more and more, making sure to shower the Guardians and ambassadors. “Personal shields. Contact the Libran embassy for more,” he booms, tossing another handful.

So this is how Hysan kept his promise. A bead bounces off my shoulder, and I scoop it up. “Brilliant,” I tell him. Hysan’s lips hitch up in a subdued smile.

Neith empties his pouch and flings the last handful of beads into the air. “We’re manufacturing more, enough for every House.”

Now all the Guardians, ambassadors, and aides-de-camp are moving their lips furiously, speaking through the Psy. If Ochus hasn’t noticed us yet, he must surely hear this buzz now. He’ll know we’re coming. We’ll have to be stealthy in our planning.

Before I know what I’m doing, I’m addressing the crowd. “Fellow Guardians, every House is a target.” The whole arenasphere goes silent.

“Please take these shields and hurry home to defend your planets. Charge your Zodai to watch the stars. Go over emergency procedures with your people. And above all, open the lines of communication with the other Houses.”

Everyone looks around, like they’re just noticing their neighbors. The audience looks like a color-coded population map: Most wear their House colors and sit only with their own.

“We are each other’s best chance against Ophiuchus. He’s worked hard to keep hidden and has gone to great lengths to keep you from believing my words. He wants us divided. It’s worked for him before. I want to read you something, a Cancrian children’s classic. It’s called ‘Beware Ochus’.”

The Cancrians in the crowd cheer as from memory, I recite:

Once upon a Guardian Star,

When the Zodiac was new,

A Serpent stole in from afar,

And trouble began to brew.

Twelve Houses fell in disarray,

Until the Snake drew their focus.

Their discord he promised to allay,

He told them his true name was Ochus.

Trust in him the Houses did,

But cross them he would in the end.

Their greatest magic Ochus hid,

A wound even time could not mend.

Now we guard against his return,

For before setting off he did warn us,

To one day see our Zodiac burn,

So now we must all
Beware Ochus

By the second verse, holographic versions of the poem fill the arenasphere, and everyone is reading out loud with me. When we’ve reached the end, I say, “Making us turn against each other worked for him in the past, but it won’t anymore.”

Voices shout in approval. “Each of us excels at a different skill that ensures our universe’s survival. We were meant to use our abilities together, as a unit, not to distrust each other and keep secrets. Ophiuchus knows how strong we are when we work together. That’s why he’d do anything to keep us apart. Let’s show him he’s right to fear a united Zodiac.”

A slow storm of applause begins to build. “Let’s show him that together, we’re undefeatable.”

The crowd is on their feet, and there’s no calming them now. I don’t know where the strength came from. It was like my nurturing instinct, my impulse to protect my home and loved ones, just extended to the entire Zodiac.