Mutable: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

Notes: Aaand the battle begins! We're off to a rocky start, so strap in, darlins.

Title: Mutable: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

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Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

There was an uncomfortable edge to everything that Cas observed over the next few hours, a restless sense of urgency that he knew better than to ignore but couldn’t understand. It all seemed normal, standard for this family—they shared a meal together, Tiyana alternately fussing over her children and her husband, Amiru tolerating it while he talked business with Rone, and Freyne sitting on the outskirts like a chaperone who’d been disabused of his influence, but who couldn’t resist throwing in the occasional verbal jab.

When Amiru got around to explaining that they were going to share the hovercraft that was prepped to take Rone and his family home, because Freyne had appointments with more representatives of the Lords of Mind in the city, no one was happy.

“Do you want to project an image of royal poverty to your people?” Freyne asked acidly. “Is that why you’re shuffling me onto their hovercraft like some sort of castoff?”

“I wouldn’t mind projecting an image of fiscal responsibility,” Amiru replied calmly, “but given that you’re headed in the same direction and the only stop you’ll make on the way is at Rone’s home, this just makes sense. Besides, two of the palace hovercrafts are down for maintenance right now, and I’m not letting you take mine.”

“Why not?” Freyne demanded just as Rone said, “Because who’d want to be seen in that gaudy monstrosity?”

Amiru held up his hands. “Hey, blame the decorating choices on our father, not on me.”

“If it really bothers you, you could take mine,” Tiyana offered, just a hint of heat in her voice. “But all the entertainment equipment is programmed to play children’s songs as soon as the craft is under impulse.”

“No. Thank you.”

“Mmm.”

There was nothing amiss as they took their leave, other than grumbling from Freyne and a few complaints from Lilah that it was too early to leave, and she wanted to play some more.

“I’ll play with you both at home,” Cas promised, and Freyne looked at him disdainfully.

“So you’ve settled into a nursemaid role, then? That seems sustainable, for the time being.”

“Much more sustainable than jockeying for a sliver of power more than the meager share I already have, yes,” Cas said. He’d had it with this man, and his nerves were making him sharp.

“Don’t you dare presume to talk to me like—” Freyne cut himself off, closing his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again, the anger had vanished from his face. He smiled, and it looked like it didn’t even hurt him. “Let’s be on our way, then.”

Strange. Cas shared a look with Rone, who turned and stared after his cousin as he stepped toward the waiting hovercraft at a brisk pace. They all boarded, took their seats, and the four-man honor guard took their places around them as the craft got underway. Commander Darven looked as restless as Cas felt, and fumbled the carafe of pomegranate liquer as he offered it around.

“Just give it to me, idiot,” Freyne snapped, standing up to snatch it from Darven’s hands. The commander opened his mouth, perhaps to apologize—

--but there was no time to say anything. Freyne cast the contents of the carafe into Darven’s face, then whirled and threw it straight as Cas even as he pulled a weapon from beneath his bright red robe and shot Darven in the center of the chest. The commander fell back, his mouth red-rimmed and gaping, just conscious enough for a few last seconds to choke on the remnants of liquer before the charred hole in his chest made choking to death irrelevant.

Cas batted the carafe out of the way and lunged for Freyne, but the older man was already firing at the rest of the honor guard, getting the shocked other three out of the way as he swept toward the hovercraft’s controls. By the time Case reached him and ripped his hands away from the board, the craft was already veering into a roll. He heard Lilah scream as the hovercraft suddenly flipped onto its side.

“You came to me,” Freyne hissed, his lips pulled away from his teeth in a mocking grin. Cas looked into his eyes—the pupils were uneven, one blacker than the other, larger, and crisped around the edges like a burnt pancake. Thrall. “Fool.” The impact of the hovercraft onto the manicured lawn at the edge of the palace grounds sent both Freyne and Cas careening into the viewport at the front. Cas twisted Freyne’s collar so that the man landed between him and the glass, which crunched under his back.

The hovercraft rolled once, twice, then finally came to rest back on its belly. The smell of burnt plastic and blood filled the air. Cas could hear people breathing, though—two of them small, in quick, panting gasps. Lilah and Shar were alive.

The same could barely be said for Freyne. Cas had used him as a mattress for the entire crash, and if the way his legs had gone limp was any indication, something in his back was broken. He stared up at Cas, still smiling.

“It’s already over. Terrible fire. No witnesses. All dead. You lose, Cas.” Too late, Cas noticed his hand fumbling with the energy weapon he’d used on the honor guard. He cocked the trigger mechanism back the other way, and—

Cas snatched it up and hurtled it through the broken viewport. Less than ten feet away it exploded, bursting into a flame so hot that he had to shield his face against the flare-up.

“Beren!” he heard Rone scream. “Are you all right? Beren!”

“Beren…Beren…” Freyne whispered in his ear, and it was her voice speaking to him, full of false pity. “What a sad lie. What a sad little boy. You’re all alone, Cas. If Freyne doesn’t finish you, the others will. You have too…many…weaknesses…”

“I’m not weak,” Cas snapped, pulling Freyne’s head up by the hair so he could see more clearly. There was too much of her phage in him—Cas wouldn’t be able to burn it out. Freyne was as good as dead. “And I’m not alone, either.” He reached out and, in one quick motion, snapped Freyne’s neck before turning back to his family. “I’m here, I’m all right!” He crawled over to them and found Rone with both of his children in his arms, tucked under his enormous body like baby birds. Rone had blood dripping down his forehead, and his eyes glowed bright purple. Lilah and Shar looked to have some bumps and bruises, but weren’t too bad otherwise.

“Christala got to Freyne,” Cas said quickly. “She’s making her move, now!”

“How many people can she enthrall at once?”

“Fuck.” Cas wracked his brain. “No more than ten? At the outside? If she gives up too much of her phage, she won’t keep her own shifting ability.”

Rone nodded grimly. “Then there are going to be nine more people we need to stop between here and the palace. We have to go back.”

Cas felt sick. This wasn’t supposed to happen—the kids weren’t supposed to be here for this. This should have been his fight, just his. “One of those people will be your brother,” he said quietly. “You can’t kill him. That’s what she wants, one of you killing the other. It’ll be a civil war.”

“You can fix him?”

“I…can try.” If he killed Christala, then the damage would at least be mitigated.

“Then I’ll make sure that he lives.” The fire raged outside, the edges of the hovercraft beginning to burn as well.

Cas glanced out the broken door. “There are five people coming toward us,” he said. “They’re armed.”

“I know.” Rone handed the children over to Cas. “Get something, anything you can, to use as a shield for you and the kids. I’ll handle the incoming, then we’ll get back to the palace together.”

Cas shook his head frantically. “No, they’re phage-enhanced, they’ll work as a team, almost as one! You won’t be able to beat them.”

Rone’s eyes flashed brighter. “They’re not the only ones who are enhanced.” He reached over and grabbed Darven’s unfired gun from his hip holster, his eyes closing in a moment of painful acknowledgement of his friend. “Don’t move until you get the signal from me.”

“Rone, wait, let me—Rone!” He slipped out of the hovercraft before Cas could stop him. He longed to run after him, but Lilah and Shar had a death grip on each of his arms. They were in shock—Shar was trembling, Lilah barely breathing. Cas pulled them in tight as the sound of weapon-fire began to echo across the palace garden. Flames engulfed the nose of the hovercraft.

They had to get out of here.

  

Mutable: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

Notes: I finally know how I'm going to end this story! Things will proceed very briskly from here, so hold onto your hats. I figure right now, half of you are going "Yay, she knows how to end it" and the other half are going, "Wait, she's only just now figuring that out?"

Yeaaaaah...

Title: Mutable: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

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Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

Expected or not, there was still a lot of pomp involved in visiting the king. Cas got back into his stiff ceremonial outfit, fitting the sash over his shoulder and fastening it in place with the enormous pin that had to be tradition—Imperians had much better methods of fastening their clothes. Rone dressed up too, and their honor guard fell into step behind them as soon as they left the suite. Commander Darven was one of them, and Cas knew he wasn’t imagining the man’s careful looks as they headed out toward the hovercraft. Look all you want, you won’t see anything I don’t want you to see.

Cas kept his demure Beren-mask in place, holding onto Rone’s arm like a proper spouse would. He sat neatly across from him, took pomegranate liquor when it was offered, and kept his eyes mostly on his hands. Honestly, it was more of a show than the situation merited, but there was no telling who might be watching them, or how. If Cas had learned one thing over the past day, it was not to underestimate Christala. He hoped he’d be able to put and end to this soon. The longer it dragged on, well…the more people were going to get hurt.

He remembered one of their training assignments, to infiltrate a Leelinger nightclub and come back with at least five more potential identities. Cas had ended up mimicking one of the bartenders, and stayed long enough to copy data from over seventeen IDs and make some truly horrible drinks. When Christala went in, though…she set the place on fire.

She’d run out with the tail end of the crowd, blending into their midst perfectly, but her pockets had been filled with pilfered data cards. Ten people had suffered from smoke inhalation. One had almost died.

Their instructor had failed her. She hadn’t cared.

“You look pensive, sweetheart.”

Cas glanced up at Rone. “Just nervous,” he said for the sake of their company. Just like that sweetheart had definitely been. “I’ve only met your brother one time before this, after all. I think a few nerves are in order.”

“Are you kidding? He loves you. He thinks you’re a good influence on me.”

Wait, was this…real, or part of the act. “Really? Me?”

“I’m serious. He says you’re sweet, and I need more sweetness in my life that isn’t going to grow up and go through puberty on me. Someone who’ll stick around.”

Cas tried to smile. “The kids aren’t going to grow up all that quickly, Rone.”

“But they’ll still grow up.” He glanced out the window, watching the buildings go by. “And I won’t be around to see a lot of it, so I’m especially grateful that you’ll be there for them when I can’t be.”

What was this all about? Cas felt his heartbeat pick up speed, and the phage pulled inside of him like an ocean responding to the tide. “I’ll always be there for them,” he said, his mouth feeling inexplicably dry. “And you.”

“I know you will.” Rone reached out and took Cas’s hand just as the hovercraft began to slow. They stood up together, and Rone bent forward for a kiss before Cas could pull away. He didn’t want to pull away either, the confusion he felt a distant second to the sheer satisfaction that came from kissing this man. Still his man, still his husband. For now, and that was all that mattered.

“Let’s go inside,” Rone murmured against his lips. Cas nodded.

“Lead the way.”

The were stopped at the door by a “welcoming party” consisting of three over-excited children hopping around, Tiyana with the baby on her hip, and Lord Freyne with a look as sweet as a sulfur spring.

“Daddy!” Lilah threw herself at Rone, who picked her up and swung her into an embrace. Shar stopped in front of Cas and motioned him down with his hand.

“What is it?” Cas asked. Shar looked at him slyly and held up a bright yellow spoon. A second later the spoon “vanished” down his sleeve. He shook his hand and caught it expertly between his index finger and thumb.

It was a good start to the trick. Cas laughed and squeezed his shoulder. “Very nice.”

“He won’t show me how to do it!” Gale—the older prince, Cas remembered—howled. “Make him show me how!”

“Gale!” Tiyana looked like she was coming up on the end of her rope. “What did I tell you about yelling?” The baby, clearly inspired by all the commotion, began to yell too. “Oh my stars, just wonderful.”

“I can take him, since Riina’s not here,” Lord Freyne offered, but Tiyana waved him away.

“I can manage just fine, thank you.” She turned away from him and rolled her eyes slightly at Cas, who suppressed a smile. “Beren, will you help me direct this horde back into the playroom?”

“Of course.” Cas stood up and took Shar’s hand, and was surprised when Lilah insinuated herself onto his other side. They followed Tiyana—not without a backward glance from Cas, who relaxed a little when he saw Rone nod minutely at him. All right then, they’d divide and conquer today.

The playroom was immense, built on the lines of a castle, with every toy a child could want and some Cas couldn’t even identify. “All right, hooligans,” Tiyana said, pointing at a section of floor in the middle of the room that seemed oddly liquid. “There are five crystal coins hidden in the mush pit. Once you find them all, we’ll have a snack.”

“Cupcakes?” Lilah asked sweetly, like the little bargainer she was.

“If cook has some on hand. Ready, set…go!” The three older kids ran for the—mush pit, Cas supposed, and he didn’t really get it until he saw how the floor flexed and folded around their legs once they reached it, sinking them up to their waists.

“That should hold them for a while,” Tiyana announced, sitting down on a soft, moldable chair with a sigh. “They’ve been up since before the sun waiting for you and Rone to arrive.”

“I didn’t think we’d be such an event,” Cas said, joining her in a chair. It felt like being cradled in an immense hand.

“Don’t undersell yourself, you’re still the biggest news we’ve had for weeks around here.” She caught her breath, one hand going to her stomach as the baby patted her shoulder.

“Are you all right?” Cas asked hesitantly. Oh please, don’t let her be the one. It would be a masterful stroke on Christala’s part, to remove and impersonate Amiru’s wife, but—

“No, I’m fine, just…pregnant, that’s all. I’m ten weeks along. It’s my third baby, you’d think the nausea would get the hint after a while.”

Every muscle in Cas relaxed for a moment, leaving him weak with relief. She was safe, then. The phage was an aggressive creature, one that took advantage of a host’s every weakness, but there was something protective about pregnancy for a woman, something in their immune system that made them a distasteful host. It was the same for children, actually—that was why you couldn’t train to take a phage until after puberty, because otherwise your body would just eat them.

“That’s happy news, congratulations.”

“Thank you!” She rubbed her belly speculatively as she glanced down at the baby boy who’d descended to her feet. He couldn’t be more than a year old. “Maybe I’ll get a girl this time. My new doctor believes in keeping things a surprise and won’t tell me unless I make him tell me, which I was going to, but then Amiru got wind of keeping it a surprise and thought that was a fantastic idea, so…” She shrugged.

“New doctor?” This was a good start. “When did you start seeing him? Why give up your old one?”

Tiyana looked a little puzzled. “Are you looking for a doctor, then?”

“I…might be. I’m seeing the military doctor now, but he doesn’t have the greatest bedside manner.”

“Oh, Beren. Are you sick?”

“No, not at all,” he assured her. “I just get extra tests and precautions since I’m from a different planet.”

“Ah.” He saw her shoulders relax, and she began to tell him all about her new doctor. Their conversation lasted through the snack, where he managed to turn the topic to cooking staff, and through taking the children outside into the garden to play, where they delved into the garden workers.

By the time they went back inside, Cas had several suspects for Christala in mind. They finally met back with Rone and Amiru—and Freyne, did that fucker never leave the premises—and from the look in Rone’s eyes, Cas could tell that he had gleaned his own fair share of information in the time they’d been apart.

This was the proper way of gathering intelligence—low-key, unsuspicious, productive. So why did it feel like an enormous hammer was hanging over Cas’s head, ready to fall and crush everything he held dear?