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  “Is that so?” Alexis smiled. “How nice of Gatekeeper Clegg.”

  The master and the holy man locked eyes for a brief second before their attention was turned to a porter ringing a bell by one of the dome entrances.

  “We are approaching Thraen Prime,” the porter announced. “We will be docking shortly. Please prepare to depart on the hallowed grounds of Thraen Prime. Praise the Dear Parent.”

  “Praise the Dear Parent,” everyone present repeated.

  “Hallowed grounds,” Paul snorted as he stood and stretched. “My father would abandon the prime in a heartbeat if it stopped producing Vape and breen. He hates the planet that much. A station man through and through is Paul III. I, of course, love it here. No intrigue, no politics, no worthless society balls and banquets. Just Vape mining and breen harvesting. Jobs to be done and work to complete, that’s what matters on the prime.”

  “I’d almost agree with you there,” Alexis said, “if Station Aelon didn’t house my family which includes my wife, children, and unborn child.”

  “That’s right!” Paul exclaimed. “You’re about to have another heir! Congratulations!”

  “Thank you.”

  “Boy or girl? Do you know?”

  “A boy,” Alexis smiled.

  “Your first?”

  “Second,” Alexis replied.

  “Very good,” Paul nodded. “Get that succession lined up and secured straight off. I feel sorry for Master Franz of Station Ploerv. All daughters. His brothers are circling the crown like swamp sharks, hoping to put one of their sons into the mastership when the old man finally kicks the bucket.”

  “You forget yourself, Minor Paul!” Clegg snapped. “The Mistress Eliza is one of Ploerv’s daughters! You not only insult the Station Ploerv, but you insult the Station Aelon which she married into!”

  “Calm down, Clegg,” Alexis laughed. “Minor Paul didn’t mean offense. He was just stating what everyone thinks.”

  “It’s a talent of mine,” Paul smiled then stumbled as the cutter lurched to the side. “What was that?”

  “Felt like a rough docking,” Alexis said.

  The porter quickly returned to the dome, his face red with anxiety and embarrassment.

  “I must apologize, my lords and ladies, but there has been a mishap,” he gulped. “The dock appears to have been damaged by the latest Vape storm. We are not able to be pulled into the hangar properly. The pilot insists that we will need to don our environmental suits and walk the distance to the Thraen Prime castle.”

  The dignitaries protested and grumbled their dissatisfaction at the indignity of donning the polybreen environmental suits like common prime workers and being forced to risk exposure to the toxic air of the planet. Paul silenced the protests quickly with a wave of his hand.

  “Excellent,” he said. “I haven’t had a walk outside the castle in ages. It’ll do us all good to remember the power Helios has over us. Don’t you think, gatekeeper?”

  Clegg’s eyes were focused on the sight through the dome of the castle lights far off in the distance. Paul snapped his fingers, bringing the holy man’s attention to him immediately.

  “My apologies, my lord, you were saying?” Clegg responded.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Paul said. “Maybe you could broadcast a sermon in our helmets while we walk to the castle?”

  “I would be honored to—”

  “I was joking, of course,” Paul interrupted instantly. “No one wants to be preached at while they worry about whether or not their environmental suit was inspected properly and they could be seconds away from a gruesome death, now do they?”

  “No, I suppose not,” Clegg replied, his voice ice and barbed wire.

  “I think I have upset your gatekeeper,” Paul whispered as he walked to Alexis and took his elbow. “Now, help me fetch my sister from the bridge, will you? She has always been fascinated by ships and refuses to ride anywhere but up front.”

  “I’d be glad to,” Alexis smiled, looking over his shoulder at the fuming gatekeeper. “Lead the way.”

  * * *

  “I know how to fasten it properly!” Meredith scowled as the nurse fumbled at the clasp seals around her boots. “Get off!”

  “Here, let me help,” Alexis said as he knelt down before the minoress. “I have a daughter about your age and I do this for her all the time.”

  “I said I can do it!” Meredith snapped. “You’re as bad as my brother. Never letting me do things myself.”

  “That’s what my daughter tells me,” Alexis laughed and stood up. He nodded at her boots and smiled as he grabbed his gloves from his belt. “Go ahead. Show me you can do it.”

  Meredith scowled even harder and struggled with the clasps. Finally, after having to chastise the nurse again, she got the clasps sealed properly and an audible hiss of compression could be heard from her suit.

  “See?” she sneered. “Done.”

  “Not quite,” Alexis said, already dressed in his own suit. He grabbed a small helmet from a shelf and handed it to her. “You still have to get that settled.”

  Meredith looked at the bulky helmet then up at Alexis. The master tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help it as he watched realization dawn on the girl’s face.

  “Want help with that?” he asked.

  “No,” she said quickly.

  “Ready?” Paul asked as he came up to the two, his own helmet tucked under one arm. “Ahh, right. The helmet stage.”

  “You’re a jerk,” Meredith growled.

  “A jerk that can put his own helmet on,” Paul grinned. “Come on, Master Alexis; let us leave her care to the nurse. We need to chat about the lease holdings on the coast of Thraen prime.”

  “You mean the lease holdings that are now part of the treaty we just signed a couple hours ago?” Alexis asked.

  “Yes, those,” Paul said, stepping to the airlock that was surrounded by Thraenish guards. He pulled his helmet on and snapped it into place. A hiss was heard then a small internal light came on, signaling a full seal. “Ready?”

  “Yes, of course,” Alexis said as he situated his own helmet and spoke through the communications system.

  The two royals stood by the airlock as they waited for the guards to make sure the external chamber was clear of any danger. After a couple of seconds they were ushered into the secondary chamber, but not before a quarter of the delegation, along with Minoress Meredith, joined them. Paul rolled his eyes at Alexis and turned a dial on his wrist. He tapped at the dial and indicated for Alexis to follow.

  “Can you hear me?” Paul asked.

  “I can,” Alexis replied. “I assume this is your personal channel?”

  “It is,” Paul replied. “And if anyone dared to eavesdrop they would be stripped and left to the Vape without a moment’s hesitation.”

  Alexis looked about at the group, wondering if anyone was eavesdropping, but he saw no change in conversations, reactions, or body language. Yet he didn’t kid himself that their conversation was completely private. Nothing in royal life was completely private. Ever.

  Claxons rang out and the outer door slid aside. Guards moved out quickly and established a secure lane for the party to walk along as they made their way across the scrim grass and gas puddles that covered the barren shoreline. They’d gone several yards before Paul spoke again.

  “My father never wanted the treaty signed,” Paul admitted. “He thought we were conceding too much by leasing Station Aelon mining rights to the coast of our prime.”

  “And what do you think?” Alexis asked. “Are you in agreement with your father?”

  “Of course,” Paul nodded. “A dutiful son always agrees with his father. Especially when that father is master of station.”

  “I didn’t always agree with my father,” Alexis said.

  “And did you ever admit that while he was alive?” Paul asked then backtracked immediately. “My apologies. That was rude.”

  “But apt,” Alexis replied. “T
he answer is no. I never publicly disagreed with him.”

  “Then you know my answer,” Paul smiled behind his helmet’s mist coated visor.

  “So...why tell me this?”

  “Because I want you to be prepared when the Thraen Ambassador calls on you next month,” Paul responded. “He’s been dispatched to Station Aelon for your father’s funeral and is waiting for the official mourning period to end. I can bet he’s already on the top of the diplomatic audience list. Get used to it, the man is persistent.”

  “That still doesn’t answer why you are telling me this,” Alexis said. “What do you want?”

  “I want the income those leases will produce,” Paul said. “Your father nearly emptied the treasury with all of his remodeling of your station, while mine has spent it on bribes and liquor. Sometimes both at the same time. At least you have a remodeled station to show for it.”

  “And Thraen doesn’t have indebted connections with those bribes?”

  “Of course, of course, but for how long? The problem with using bribes as a tactic is that anyone you bribe is dishonest enough to be bought by your enemies as well,” Paul laughed. “You are buying deceit, not trust.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind once I am crowned,” Alexis said.

  “Is that all you talk about? Boring stuff?” Meredith asked from only a couple feet behind them.

  “Is she to be stripped and left to the Vape for eavesdropping?” Alexis smiled.

  “Unfortunately, no,” Paul responded. “That is out of my power.” He turned quickly and grabbed his sister by the arms. “When father hears you were listening in on official business, he is going to be more than just a little cross with you.”

  “Father’s always cross with me,” Meredith replied. “That’s why he sent me here with you. He didn’t want me on Station Thraen mucking it all up.”

  “You’re how old?” Alexis laughed. “What could you possibly muck up?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Paul snorted. “Now, get off this channel and leave us alone, little girl.”

  “Fine,” Meredith growled. “You two are boring anyway.”

  Paul and Alexis watched as the girl turned and stalked back to her nurse, her suit crinkling in the night air, sending sparks here and there from the static electricity the scrim grass and Vape created.

  “Where were we?” Paul asked.

  “The leases,” Alexis said. “I do have to bring up that Station Thraen benefits just as much from the trade agreement we have set with the Flaenish and their breen processing factories. The payments for those mine leases are not just in credits, but in tons of finished breen as well.”

  “Oh, I know, I know,” Paul said. “And that is the only reason my father didn’t outright balk at the deal.” He spread his hands. “Thraen Prime is rich with Vape mines, but unlike your prime, we do not have enough good soil to grow the breen we need. It’s a shame since if we could accomplish that we wouldn’t need any of the other stations at all.”

  “But then we couldn’t go on cutter rides together,” Alexis grinned.

  “Very true,” Paul nodded. “But, let’s move on from—”

  He stopped talking and grabbed Alexis by the arm as two of the guards in front of them collapsed to the ground. Alexis instantly went to draw his long sword, but realized it was back at The Way Prime in his quarters with his other weapons. He could have kicked himself for the mistake.

  “Down!” Alexis yelled as he tackled Paul to the ground.

  A slight tink sounded and he realized a flechette had hit his helmet’s visor. Someone was shooting a sling at them!

  “Are you hit?” Alexis asked.

  “No. You?” Paul replied.

  “No, I’m fine,” Alexis said.

  Then a scream filled their ears and Alexis looked over to see Meredith crumple to the dirt.

  “My lord, you have to come with us now!” a Thraen guard shouted at Paul as half a dozen men surrounded him.

  “My sister! The minoress!” Paul yelled, but he was swept away by his security detail.

  Others in the delegation began to panic and stampede towards the waiting airlock of Thraen Prime Castle, ignoring the collapsed royal at their feet.

  “I have her!” Alexis yelled and sprinted towards the fallen girl.

  He raced to Meredith, fighting against the flow of the frightened crowd. Alexis fell to his knees and tried to find where she had been hit. He quickly saw the oxygen flowing out of a hole in her suit near her shoulder. He could already see the small sparks of combustion from the mixture of oxygen and Vape and knew he didn’t have long to get her to safety before her environmental suit filled with flames.

  “Move!” Alexis yelled as he lifted the girl up in his arms. But the crowd was deaf, hearing only their own fear and self preservation.

  He was jostled from side to side, shoved this way and that, no one caring about the Aelish royal seal emblazoned on his suit. But the crowd’s disregard for his status was what saved him as he was knocked to one knee just as a long blade came towards the place his head had been a split second before.

  Alexis looked up in time to see the second strike come at him and he rolled to the side, his body protecting the young minoress, from the long blade that imbedded itself in the scrim grass by his head. The new master didn’t recognize the cut of the breen suit the attacker wore, but did recognize the style of the blade.

  The Burdened.

  The elite guard of The Way and only members of the religious order sanctified to kill without fear of eternal damnation at the center of the Helios sun.

  Alexis barely had time to register that revelation before the blade came at him again. He lashed out with a hard kick to the man’s knee and the blade missed its mark once more as the assassin fell to the grass. Very aware of the minoress’s distress, Alexis leapt onto the man and dug his fingers up under the clasps sealing the helmet to the suit. With one tremendous yank, Alexis ripped the helmet off, exposing the man to the atmosphere of Helios and the deadly Vape.

  The face he saw bubbling and blistering before him was not one he recognized and gave Alexis no clue as to who might have ordered the attack.

  “Who sent you?” Alexis yelled, but the dying man couldn’t hear him without the communication system in his helmet. “Tell me who ordered this!”

  The man struggled under Alexis’s grip and clawed at the master’s hands that held him to the scrim grass. Scrim grass that was quickly covered with the liquefied skin and muscle that sloughed off the assassin. Bright purple sparks flitted around the man’s eyes, mouth and nostrils as the oxygen in the blood that leaked out was ignited by Vape.

  Hands grabbed at Alexis as his personal contingent of guards were finally able to fight through the crowd to get to him. They pulled him to his feet as the assassin took his last breath and his chest cavity burst open, spewing tissue and blood across the ground. Alexis raised a boot and let it fall hard on the man’s skull, crushing the bone into the grass.

  “The minoress!” Alexis yelled at his men. “Take her and hurry!”

  “Your safety comes first, your highness!” a guard named Corbin Breach shouted.

  “To Helios with my safety!” Alexis yelled. “She’s dying!”

  Corbin nodded and quickly lifted the girl up. “Cover him the whole way!” he ordered the other guards then took off running towards the airlock.

  The Aelish Royal Guard looked at each other then at the master and closed ranks, making sure no one could get through to their monarch. They moved forward quickly, eyes cast about the area, ready for the next strike.

  The night was a haze of Vape fog and mist rising from the scrim grass at their feet, making it almost impossible to discern shapes smaller than the castle ahead of them. The guards pushed the master along, never letting him slow even as he stumbled over clumps of grass and dirt. They held him by his arms and kept him on his feet, but soon half of them were no longer on theirs.

  Guards fell left and right as their suits were ri
pped open by a flurry of flechettes. Alexis watched in horror as his men died horrible, Vape deaths. Flames filled suits as the Vape seeped in and mixed with the oxygen. The men’s screams were soon nothing but gurgles from charred and roasted throats.

  Two shapes came at Alexis from the fog and he reached down and picked up a dropped long blade and then a short blade. He raised the long blade just as one of the shapes rushed him, meeting his metal with more metal. The hollow clang of the blades colliding could be heard even through Alexis’s helmet. He felt the impact up his arm, but didn’t let the jarring pain slow him.

  With one fluid movement, Alexis ducked low and jammed the short blade into the attacker’s gut. The man shuddered as blood gushed and sparked from the wound. Alexis pulled the blade free then shoved the man to the side as he brought down his long blade. The helmet, with head still inside, flew from the man’s shoulders and tumbled through the air.

  The second attacker paused, seeing what had befallen his comrade. That was pause was his undoing as Alexis flipped his short blade in his hand, gripped it blade first, and threw. The weapon flew end over end at the second man and pierced the man’s visor before he could think of sidestepping.

  Alexis didn’t wait for the man to fall to the ground before he took off towards the castle. He could see Corbin’s shrouded back several yards ahead, but could also see shadows off to each side closing in on him. Long blade still in hand, Alexis dug deep and pushed himself as he sprinted towards his guard and the wounded minoress.

  “Down!” Alexis roared.

  Corbin hesitated, but then saw he was penned in and quickly skidded to a halt, dropping to both knees while keeping the minoress secure in his arms. Alexis reached the man just as the attackers from each side did. They turned to face the master, but neither was fast enough as Alexis lashed out, severing two heads with one swipe of his long blade.

  “Get up,” Alexis cried as he pulled at Corbin’s upper arm. “We’re almost there.”

  Corbin didn’t say a word, too stunned to have been rescued by the man he was sworn to protect. Alexis yanked him to his feet and shoved him towards the airlock.