Page 33 of Tears of Tungsten
“Oh, and be discreet. The king trusts your judgment, but some of your recent choices have made The Grand Judiciary leery. We hope recent developments will mean you’ll stop your reckless actions.”
“I’m never reckless, Lord Welton,” I replied. “Everything I do is carefully planned. It’s exactly why I knew your daughter and I would be a bad match. And with respect, Lady Welton is far more reckless than I’ll ever be.”
Lord Welton’s eyes flashed, and I could’ve sworn I saw hatred on his face. “Penelope is enthusiastic, it’s true. But she’s a woman, so you shouldn’t judge her too harshly. In any case, it doesn’t matter anymore, since you’ve already made your choice.”
“Yes, I have. And my father approves of it, as evidenced by his support of the Terran Sociology classes.”
“I wouldn’t rely too much on that, Your Highness. The fairytales propagated by one woman don’t change the behavior of the countless others on Tartarus Base. Everyone here knows the real reason why you picked Selene Renard over my daughter.”
“Yes, and that’s because she’s superior in every way,” August replied in my stead.
It was surprising that he’d even stayed silent until now, but he did try to respect my authority as a prince when he absolutely had to. Welton had just crossed the line, though, and none of us took it well when Selene was targeted in any way.
The chimeras landed behind us, Pollux and Knox having lost interest in flight practice. A part of me wanted to team up with them and feed Welton to Typhon and the others. Surely, nobody would figure out what had happened if they weren’t aware that he’d come here.
But I had other, bigger problems. For the first time since Lord Welton had arrived, I realized that he’d approached us in the worst possible area. Sphinx wasn’t functional right now, but she wasn’t dormant either, and she could undoubtedly hear every word we were saying. We’d avoided problems so far by talking to our chimeras through our respective bonds, but our efforts had just been rendered useless.
“If there’s an issue, I’m pretty sure we can get Sphinx to lie for us,”Typhon murmured in my mind.
“You think so?”I asked. Tartarus help me, I hoped he was right, because I really didn’t want Selene to find out about this.
“Sphinx is a very practical chimera and she understands the necessity of bloodshed. She’s been my friend for millennia, since those days when we were still flesh and bone. She might not be thrilled with keeping secrets from Selene, but she’ll do it if we convince her it’s for Selene’s own good.”
That was a big ‘if’. Sphinx wouldn’t be easy to fool, and truth be told, I wasn’t convinced the lie was for Selene’s sake. We were the ones benefitting most from it, since we wouldn’t have to face her anger and disdain.
Lord Welton was oblivious to the exchange between me and Typhon. He stole a look over my shoulder, having obviously noticed the others arrive.
I decided it was high time I got rid of him. “Thank you for giving us this message, Lord Welton,” I said. “We’ll handle the matter today, as you recommended and I’ll report to my father as soon as we’ve returned. Have a nice day.”
The dismissal was rude, but we didn’t particularly care. He hadn’t been all that nice to us either, today, or any other day and there was no point in pretending we liked each other. He’d always despise me for rejecting his daughter and hate the others for their influence over that.
Even so, I was still a prince, and he was still bound to respect me, at least to a certain point. “Of course, Your Highness. May Tartarus watch over you in the coming battle.”
He bowed, pivoted on his heel, and stalked out of the hangars. His departure was probably opportune, because by the time he’d disappeared into the depths of the academy, Knox and Pollux had joined us.
“Unpleasant news, I take it?” Knox asked.
“Unpleasant and unavoidable,” I replied.
It didn’t sit well with me that our future mission would involve massacring innocent people. But for good or ill, this was our lot in life, and some things were just more important than others.
“I still agree with Typhon,” Cerberus offered from behind Knox. “We could just consume The Grand Judiciary or some students here at the academy.”
“We’ll do that soon, once Charybdis is back and Typhon and Scylla are better. With the way things are right now, we’re running the risk of any one of you shutting down mid-battle. This small community will likely not be an issue, but The Grand Judiciary is an entirely different matter.”
Cerberus reluctantly agreed, although I knew his displeasure was more or less for Knox’s sake. He didn’t care all that much about who he ate. Knox wasn’t that discerning in his kills either, but he still had some scruples, and Cerberus respected that.
Besides, he—just like me and the rest of our unit—feared how Selene would react to all this. She’d been upset after that whole business with the terrorists, and we hadn’t even had a direct hand in the deaths of those people. What would she say if she found out we’d left for such a mission? Would Sphinx agree to hide this for us, like Typhon had said?
As if overhearing my thoughts, Sphinx emerged from the shadows, joining the rest of us. “There’s no reason to hesitate any longer, Prince Brendan. Young Selene has a good heart, it’s true, and she’d be against something like this. But I know small sacrifices are necessary for the greater good. And I’ve never been afraid of shedding blood and making sacrifices.”
“Thank you,” I told her. “I know it won’t be easy for you to keep this a secret from her, but I think she shouldn’t have to carry this burden.”
“I don’t know about that. She needs to learn these things eventually. But… Yes, perhaps it is a little too soon. I want to shape her soul, but not crush it.”
Since we were in agreement on that, we could direct our attention to more practical matters. Charybdis was still dormant, and with the recent changes to the Harpy Squad, the Zephyrus wasn’t accessible to us. That meant August didn’t have a chimera he could use for the imminent mission.
For a few seconds, all of us froze. Since we’d come together as a unit, we’d always dealt with our missions together, as a team. It seemed so wrong to leave him behind.
