Winter

Fifty

Cinder found herself before a pair of ominous, ebony-black doors. They stood twice her height, and in a palace made almost entirely of glass and white stone, standing before them felt like standing at the edge of a black hole. They were minimally accented with two thick, black iron handles that arched halfway to the floor. The Lunar insignia had been carved into the wood in pristine detail, depicting the capital city of Artemisia and, in the distance, Earth.

Two guards pulled open the doors, and Cinder was facing a gauntlet of yet more thaumaturges and guards and now wolf-mutant soldiers as well. The sight of them made Cinder shudder. These were not special operatives like Wolf. These men had been transformed into something beastly and grotesque. The bones of their jaws were misshapen and reinforced to fit enormous canine teeth; their arms hung awkwardly at their sides, as if their spines were unaccustomed to the weight of their new muscles and extended limbs.

It occurred to her that they weren’t unlike cyborgs. They were both made to be better than what they’d been born as. They were both unnatural. Only, instead of being pieced together with wires and steel, these creatures were a jigsaw of muscle tissue and cartilage.

The guard yanked on Cinder’s elbow and she stumbled forward. The soldiers watched her with keen, hungry eyes.

Wolf had told her these soldiers would be different. Erratic and feral, craving nothing but violence and blood. A powerful Lunar, like the queen, could trick them into perceiving a glamour, but that was it. Even the thaumaturges couldn’t control their minds or bodies, but instead had to train the soldiers like dogs. Misbehave, and they were punished with pain. Do well, and they were rewarded. Only, the rewards Wolf had talked about didn’t strike Cinder as all that appetizing.

Evidently, on Earth, each bloody kill made for its own reward. They were eager to go to war.

Cinder opened her mind to them, trying to sense their bioelectric pulses. Their energy burned white-hot and violent. Hunger and temptation writhed beneath their skin. She was dizzy with the mere thought of trying to control this much raw energy.

But she had to try.

Taking in a measured breath, Cinder reached for the mind of the last soldier. His energy was scalding and ravenous. She imagined it cooling, calming. She imagined the soldier looking at her and seeing not an enemy but a girl who needed rescuing. A girl who deserved his loyalty.

She caught the soldier’s eye, and his mouth curled into a sickening grin around his jagged teeth.

Disheartened, Cinder pulled her attention away.

Nearing the end of the gauntlet, she tried to take in the rest of her surroundings. Lively chatter and laughter and the chaotic clinking of glasses. The aroma of food struck her like a cloud of steam released from a covered pot. Her mouth filled with saliva. Onions and garlic and braised meat and something peppery that stung her eyes—

Her stomach howled at her. Light-headedness crept over her brain like a fog. She hadn’t eaten in over a day, and even that meal had been unsatisfying.

She gulped hard and tried to focus, surveying the room. To her right, enormous windows looked over a lake, bordered on each side by the curved wings of the white palace, like an enormous protective swan. The lake continued as far as she could see. The floor of the room jutted out like a balcony over the water. Although it made for an uninterrupted view, Cinder couldn’t deny a feeling of dread curdling in her stomach. There was no rail to keep a person from falling off the edge.

The swell of conversation started to die out, but it was not until Cinder had breached the line of soldiers that she saw the audience to her left.

The orange light flickered in Cinder’s vision and didn’t go off, no matter where she looked. There were a lot of glamours here.

At the center was Levana, seated upon a massive white throne, the back of which was ornamented with the phases of the moon. She was wearing an elaborate red wedding gown.

Cinder’s retina display began to pick up the queen’s underlying features. It was like being at the ball again, the first time she’d laid eyes on the queen and had realized it might be possible for her optobionics to see beneath the glamour. But it wasn’t an easy task. Her cyborg eyes were in conflict with her own brain and the queen’s manipulation, and her mind couldn’t figure out what it was seeing. The result was a stream of confused data, blurred colors, fragmented lines trying to piece together what was real and what was an illusion.

It was distracting, and already giving her a headache. Cinder blinked the data away.

Five tiers of seats arced around the throne, a crescent of onlookers surrounding Cinder on every side except the one that dropped off to the lake. The Lunar court. Women wore large hats shaped like peacocks and one man had a purring snow leopard draped over his shoulders; dresses were made of gold chains and rubies, platform shoes had beta fish swimming in their heels, skin had been painted metallic silver, eyelashes dotted with rhinestones and fish scales …

Cinder had to squint against the dazzle of it all. Glamour, glamour, glamour.

A chair was pushed back. Cinder’s heart jumped.

The bridegroom stood beside Levana’s throne, wearing a white silk shirt with a red sash. Kai.

“What is this?” he said, his tone somewhere between horrified and relieved.

“This,” said Queen Levana, her eyes full of mirth, “is our entertainment for the evening. Consider it my wedding gift to you.” Beaming, she traced a knuckle down the side of Kai’s face. “Husband.”

Kai ducked away from her touch, redness climbing into his cheeks. Cinder knew it wasn’t embarrassment or bashfulness, though. That was all fury. She could feel it in how the air crackled around him.

Levana twirled a fingernail through the air. “Tonight’s proceedings will be broadcast live, so my people can witness and join in the celebrations of this most glorious day. And also so they may know the fate of the impostor who dares to call herself queen.”

Ignoring her, Cinder examined the ceiling. There were no cameras that she could see, but she knew Levana had a way of creating surveillance devices that were practically invisible.

Given that the queen wasn’t wearing a veil, it was safe to assume any video footage would be focused on their “entertainment.” Levana wanted the people to see Cinder’s execution. She wanted them to lose hope for their revolution.

Levana raised her arms. “Let us begin the feast.”

A line of uniformed servants traipsed single file from behind a curtain. The first knelt at the queen’s feet and whisked a dome off a tray, holding it above his head. The queen’s smirk grew as she selected a large, pink prawn and pulled the flesh between her teeth.

Another servant knelt before Kai, while the others surrounded the room and dropped to their knees before the audience, revealing trays of orange fish eggs and steamed oyster shells, braised tenderloin strips and stuffed peppers. Cinder realized that Kai was not the only Earthen in the room after all. She recognized his adviser, Konn Torin, seated in the second row, and the American president and the African prime minister and the Australian governor-general and … She stopped looking. They were all there, just as Levana had wanted.

Heart pounding, she scanned the servants, guards, and soldiers again, hoping that maybe Wolf, too, had been brought before the queen. But he wasn’t here. Cinder, Adri, and Pearl were the only prisoners.

Worry gnawed at her. Where had they taken him? Was he already dead?

She swept her gaze back to Kai. If he had noticed the food, he ignored it. She could see his jaw working, wanting to question her presence, wanting to know what the queen was planning. She could see him trying to reason his way out of this, to come up with some diplomatic angle he could use to keep the inevitable from happening.

“Sit down, my love,” said Levana, “or you’ll be disrupting the view for our other guests.”

Kai sat down too quickly for it to have been his own doing. He turned his smoldering glare on the queen. “Why is she here?”

“You sound angry, my pet. Are you displeased with our hospitality?”

Without waiting for a response, Levana tilted her chin up and swooped her gaze from Cinder to Adri and Pearl. “Aimery, you may proceed.”

He paced to the front of the room, smirking at Cinder as he walked past her. Though his coat had been washed of blood, he was still walking stiffly to conceal his injured leg.

Aimery offered his elbow to Adri, who made a half-strangled, terrified sound. It took her a long time to accept it. She looked like she was going to be sick as Aimery led her to the center of the throne room floor.

All around them, the sounds of chewing and the licking of fingers persisted, as if the delicacies were every bit as interesting as the prisoners. The servants were still on their knees, holding the trays above their heads. Cinder grimaced. How heavy must those trays be?

“I present to the court Linh Adri of the Eastern Commonwealth, Earthen Union,” said Aimery, releasing Adri’s arm so she stood alone on her own trembling legs. “She is charged with conspiracy against the crown. The punishment for this crime is immediate death by her own hand, and that her child and dependent, Linh Pearl, be given as a servant to one of Artemisia’s families.”

Cinder’s eyebrows shot upward. Until now she’d been concerned with her own fate, and it hadn’t occurred to her that Adri may have been brought there for any reason other than to annoy her.

She wanted to not care. She wanted to feel nothing but disinterest toward her stepmother’s fate.

But she knew that, for all her many faults, Adri had not done anything to warrant a Lunar execution. This was a power play on Levana’s part, nothing more, and it was impossible not to feel a tinge of pity for the woman.

Adri fell to her knees. “I swear to you I haven’t done anything. I—”

Levana raised a hand and Adri fell silent. An agonizing moment followed in which Levana’s expression was unreadable. Finally, she clucked her tongue, like chastising a small child. “Aimery, continue.”

The thaumaturge nodded. “An investigation has shown that the two invitations with which Linh Cinder’s accomplices were able to invade New Beijing Palace and kidnap Emperor Kaito had been given them by none other than this woman. The invitations were meant for herself and her teenage daughter.”

“No! She stole them! Stole them! I would never give them to her. I would never help her. I hate her—hate her!” She sobbed again, her shoulders hunched so far now she was practically a ball on the floor. “Why is this happening to me? What have I done? I didn’t … She isn’t mine…”

Cinder was finding it easier not to care.

“You must calm yourself, Mrs. Linh,” said Levana. “We will see the truth of your loyalties soon enough.”

Adri whimpered, and made some attempt to compose herself.

“That is better. You have been the legal guardian of Linh Cinder for almost six years, is that correct?”

Adri’s whole body was shaking. “It—it’s true. But I didn’t know what she was, I swear. My husband was the one who wanted her, not me. She is the traitor! Cinder is a criminal, and a dangerous, deceitful girl—but I thought she was just a cyborg. I had no idea what she was planning, or I would have turned her in myself.”

Levana ran a fingernail over the arm of her throne. “Were you with Linh Cinder when she underwent her cyborg surgeries?”

Adri’s lip curled in disgust. “Stars, no. Her operation was completed in Europe. I did not meet her until she was brought to New Beijing.”

“Was your husband present for the operation?”

Adri blinked, flustered. “I … I don’t think so. We never spoke of it. Although he was gone for a couple of weeks when he went to … to claim her. I knew he was going to see about a child who had been in a hovercar accident. Although why he saw fit to go all the way to Europe to be charitable I never could understand, and his philanthropy was rewarded with nothing but heartache. He contracted letumosis on that trip, died within weeks of returning, leaving me to care for my two young girls and this thing he left in my custody—”

“Why did you never seek to capitalize on his inventions after his death?”

Adri gawked openmouthed at the queen. “Pardon, Your Majesty?”

“He was an inventor, was he not? Surely he must have left you something of value.”

Adri pondered this, maybe wondering why the Lunar queen would be interested in her deceased husband. Her gaze darted around the guards and Lunars. “N-no, Your Majesty. If there was anything of value, I never saw a single micro-univ from it.” A shadow fell over her face. “He left us with nothing but disgrace.”

Levana’s voice ran ice cold. “You are lying.”

Adri’s eyes widened. “No! I’m not. Garan didn’t leave us with anything.”

“I have evidence to the contrary, Earthen. Do you think I’m a fool?”

“What evidence?” Adri shrieked. “I haven’t—I swear to you—” But whatever she meant to swear was drowned out by a flood of sobs.

Cinder clenched her jaw. She didn’t know what game Levana was playing, but she knew Adri’s hysteria wouldn’t make one bit of difference. She considered using her Lunar gift to stop Adri’s uncontrolled sobbing so she could die with a bit of dignity, but she hardened her heart and did nothing. She might need her strength when it came time for her own trial. When it was her turn, she vowed to not dissolve into a trembling mess.

“Aimery?” said Levana, her words cutting over Adri’s sobs.

“One of our regiments uncovered a box of paperwork in the storage space leased to Linh Adri in her apartment building.”

Levana smirked. “Do you still wish to maintain your defense that there was nothing of value left from your husband? No important paperwork still kept in storage?”

Adri hesitated. Started to shake her head, but stopped. “I don’t … I don’t know…”

“The paperwork,” said Aimery, “indicated a pending design patent for a weapon with the intended purpose of neutralizing the Lunar gift. We suspect this weapon was intended to be used against you, Your Majesty, and our people.”

Cinder was struggling to keep up with Aimery’s accusations. A weapon with the intended purpose of neutralizing the Lunar gift. She barely refrained from rubbing the back of her neck, where Linh Garan’s invention—a bioelectrical security device—had been installed into her wiring. Was that what they were talking about?

“Hold on,” said Kai, his voice thundering. “Do you have this paperwork that allegedly proves her guilt?”

Aimery cocked his head. “It has already been destroyed, as a matter of royal security.”

Kai’s knuckles whitened on the arms of his chair. “You can’t destroy evidence and then try to use it to condemn somebody. You can’t expect us to believe you found this box of paperwork, during an illegal search, mind you, and it held the patents for a Lunar-targeted weapon, and that Linh Adri had some working knowledge of it. That is a lot of speculation. On top of that, you violated a number of articles in the Interplanetary Agreement when you apprehended an Earthen citizen without due cause and invaded private property.”

Levana cupped her chin with one hand. “Why don’t we argue about this later, darling?”

“Oh, you want to argue later? Would that be before or after you’ve killed an innocent Earthen?”

Levana shrugged. “That remains to be seen.”

Kai sneered. “You can’t—” He abruptly cut off, forced to hold his tongue.

“You will soon learn, dear, that I do not like to be told that I can’t.” Levana shifted her attention on Adri again. “Linh Adri, you have heard the charges against you. How do you plead?”

Adri stammered, “I-I’m innocent. I swear I would never … I didn’t know … I…”

Levana sighed. “I want to believe you.”

“Please,” Adri begged.

Levana ate another prawn. Swallowed. Licked her bloodred lips. “I am prepared to offer you clemency.”

A rustle of curiosity spread through the crowd.

“This decision is contingent on your disowning all legal interest to the orphan child, Linh Cinder, and swearing fealty to me, the rightful queen of Luna and the future empress of the Eastern Commonwealth.”

Adri’s head was already bobbing. “Yes. Yes, I do. Gladly, Your Grace. Your Majesty.”

Cinder glared at the back of Adri’s head. Not because her decision was any big surprise, but because she couldn’t imagine it was going to be this easy. Levana was planning something and Adri was falling right into her hands.

“Good. All charges are absolved. You may pay your respects to your sovereign.” Levana held out a hand, and Adri, after a moment’s hesitation, scurried forward on her knees and placed a grateful kiss on the queen’s fingers. She started sobbing again.

“Does the child not show any gratitude?” said Levana.

Pearl squeaked, but slowly shuffled forward and kissed Levana’s hands.

A woman in the front row, her mouth full, clapped politely.

Levana nodded and two guards stepped forward to drag Adri and Pearl to the side of the room.

Cinder had already put thoughts of her stepmother aside, bracing herself, when Levana’s attention landed on her. She made no attempts to withhold her delight as she said, “Let us continue with our second trial.”