“I’m sure she’s doing fine,” Lira told Gilly reassuringly. “Especially knowing how capable her army is. We lessen her burden, and we’ll do whatever it takes to stop the rebels.”
“Right now, there are more important things for the queen to handle, like Phase Two. A few rebel sympathizers are nothing but pesky insects,” Breck added, giving Gilly’s shoulder a squeeze. The small girl smiled.
“What is Phase Two?” Gilly wondered.
Phase Two hadn’t been shared with the grunt soldiers like them yet—the queen needed to keep many of her plans under wraps for now, until the Unaffected threat was eliminated. But Lira knew it would be glorious, and she’d do whatever was asked of her when the time arrived.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” Lira said. “We’re blessed to be able to serve her together. That’s enough for me.”
Breck lifted her cup of water in agreement.
“I served beside you both for two years on Andi’s ship,” Gilly said, draining her water and tossing her metal cup into the bin beside the bleachers. “That traitor.”
The sound echoed like a tiny gunshot that Lira felt in her chest. Sometimes, she still thought about Androma and wondered where she was. But then guilt riddled her insides for spending even a moment thinking of the traitorous young captain of the Marauder. If Andi was on Nor’s side, she would have been here now, with the three of them. She would have put her skills to use serving the rightful queen.
Instead, she’d taken the Marauder and soared away, with Dex and Lira’s twin brother, Lon, in tow. A coward’s move, if ever there was one.
Lira could still see Lon’s face, so much like her own—the same smile, the same ocean-blue skin. But he’d chosen the wrong side. Andi, too. Lira had once considered Andi to be her family, every bit as much as Lon.
Now she felt ashamed to have ever been so closely connected to two Unaffecteds.
A bang came from Lira’s right, drawing her gaze as the double doors of the warehouse suddenly hissed open.
“Looks like it’s showtime,” Gilly said, eyeing the new arrival. She began to bob on her toes expectantly. “Aclisia’s here!”
As Queen Nor’s head scientist entered the range, every soldier snapped to attention.
And how could they not? Lira thought, watching Aclisia march across the oil-stained concrete floor. It was like being in the presence of a legend, albeit a strange one. Aclisia possessed two heads—one of the few left of her race in Mirabel. They both worked in tandem, yet had personalities of their own.
Lira gazed upon her in awe. This was the woman who’d taken a single drop of blood and transformed it into the cure for ignorance. A single shot from one of the silver bullets Aclisia had created, and the victim’s eyes would be opened. They’d see Queen Nor for who she truly was: a goddess, worthy of their worship.
Aclisia ordered the soldiers to gather in the bleachers. The sea of black uniforms obeyed, moving as one to find seats. Two soldiers in the bloodred uniforms of Queen Nor’s personal guard hauled in a pair of struggling, hooded prisoners, glowing magnacuffs binding their wrists, the molten metal swirling around them like a trapped snake.
“This is going to be wicked,” Gilly whispered. Breck shushed her with a wave of her hand. The other soldiers were a thick wall behind Lira, every one of them watching with bated breath.
“Today, we prove to you the power that Her Majesty’s weapon has over her enemies!” Aclisia’s right head addressed the soldiers, her voice ringing out across the warehouse. “The galaxy belongs to Queen Nor. And yet some still fight against her reign. Her Majesty thanks you for your service, and wishes to inspire you.”
The soldiers roared in response. Lira joined them, Breck and Gilly shouting, too.
When they’d quieted down, Aclisia removed the hoods from the captives. The first was a young woman, red-faced from screaming, sweat plastering her white hair to her forehead. For a moment, the woman’s pale locks reminded Lira of Androma Racella, seated behind the dash of the Marauder, scratching tallies into a sword.
If only she’d been here. If only she’d been brave enough to serve Nor, too.
The second captive was a man, round and well-fed, with powder-blue skin. An Adhiran, like Lira.
“We must ask each person we encounter a vital question, in order to determine who they truly serve,” Aclisia said. She nodded to the guards, and they removed the gags from each captive’s mouth. “Who is your queen?”
The prisoners gasped for air, gulping in weighty breaths. The woman sat still, her eyes wide and roving over the group, but the man began to curse in Adhiran.
“Nor’s a demon!” His voice was ragged, as if his vocal cords were tearing in two. “She’s turned you all against what’s right! That monster is not your queen, damn it! Why can’t you see that? Why can’t you see what she’s done to you?”
Beside him, the woman simply shook as silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
The word from soldiers already out on the front was that all the Unaffecteds said similar things, but Lira had not yet seen it with her own eyes. The audacity of the man’s words made Lira’s blood boil with rage.
“Who is your queen?” Aclisia asked again.
“She’s brainwashed you all!” the man howled, veins popping out from his neck. “SHE’S TURNED YOU INTO—”
A guard stuffed the gag back into the man’s mouth, and his cries were cut off short.
“Pathetic,” Aclisia’s left head said.
Her right head nodded. “This is what our enemies believe. That we are all beneath a spell, following a queen who has wrongfully stolen her throne.”
Behind Lira, the soldiers cursed and spit at the captives. She joined in with eager haste.
“We have peace in Mirabel for the first time in decades. We have a queen who wishes to treat us all equally, and all she asks in return is that we serve her. That we continue to spread her vision across the galaxy, so that everyone will believe. Time is of the essence now, in the building of Nexus. And when it is completed, Phase Two will begin.”
Murmurs of agreement sounded down the line. Lira felt the truth of it in her heart, felt it beside that ever-constant whisper that seemed to ring out in her soul, keeping her eyes open and her loyalty true.
Nor is your queen, your goddess, your savior.
“A gift from your queen,” Aclisia said, lifting the rifle handed to her by one of the guards in red. The crowd roared in anticipation, eager to see another join their ranks. “Let’s show him the true power of the woman he claims is not his queen.”
When Aclisia squeezed the trigger, the round was silent. It slammed against the man’s forehead, knocking him back with the intensity of it. His eyes closed, as if he were dead. But in the center of his forehead, instead of a hole, instead of blood and brains...
Silver liquid swam against the man’s pastel skin, like a gentle caress of liquid moonlight. Then it began to fade, sinking beneath the surface until the liquid disappeared entirely. Lira waited for the change to take effect. For the man to finally see and believe the truth, to fully understand what light Nor could bring to his life.
His eyes fluttered open, his head bobbing slightly on his shoulders, chin dipping before a guard helped to lift his gaze to Aclisia.
“Who is your queen?” Aclisia’s two heads asked softly, the words as delicate as a kiss.
The man’s blue eyes lost their fog.
“Queen...”