Lucan showed more emotion than he had since he’d first appeared: pure astonishment. “Meia?”
Meia didn’t meet his eyes, for reasons Calder couldn’t quite figure out. “I was careless,” she said.
She’s embarrassed, Calder realized. He forced back a budding smile. That was…cute, really, was the only word for it, but Meia wouldn’t appreciate the observation. Even weakened, she could probably tear his arms out of their sockets, so he should probably—
Even his thoughts were interrupted by the surge of frozen hostility radiating from Lucan. On the outside, he didn’t look any different, but his eyes were fixed on Calder and his Intent said that he was three seconds away from a bloody murder.
Calder put a hand to his sword, taking a healthy step back. “Meia, please convince your friend. Hurry.” If anything, the hostile Intent sharpened. “Hurry, please.”
Lucan pulled his wrists apart, passing through the ropes binding his arms together as though they’d rotted off. Calder couldn’t believe his eyes. He wouldn’t have been able to tear ropes like that without days of Intent and focus, while Lucan had seemingly done so in minutes.
The Imperial Guards reacted appropriately, seizing Lucan by the shoulders and slamming him to his knees even as they leveled weapons. Two grabbed Calder and pulled him back.
Then Meia limped up to her Guild-mate, shouldering aside the Guards, and smacked Lucan on the back of the head. “Calm down. If I wanted to escape, I could have done it anytime.”
Calder took a deep breath as Lucan’s Intent dissipated. Escape? She’s not a prisoner. He might have said something indignant if he wasn’t still worried about Lucan killing everyone in the room.
“He’s not keeping you captive?” Lucan asked Meia.
Meia shook her head. “He couldn’t. And I’m not a member of his crew, either.”
“Provisional member,” Calder put in. If he could recruit Meia fully to his side, that would be a coup for his authority as Emperor. Imperial Steward. Whatever they called it.
“I already have a Guild, thank you,” Meia said, but her attention was still fixed on Lucan.
A Guard pushed Lucan farther toward the ground, but he didn’t seem inconvenienced. “So what’s wrong with you?”
“More carelessness,” Meia said, which was better than saying she’d gotten on the bad side of Jarelys Teach. “When we get back, I’ll have to report myself to the Architects.”
When Calder saw Lucan’s answering smile, he realized that Meia had done exactly what he’d wanted: defused the man’s hostility. It had taken a little longer than he’d hoped, but had worked in the end. That was what counted. “You can let him up now.”
The Guards looked to the captain, but Calder outranked her. “Release him,” he repeated.
They did, taking a step back from Lucan but keeping hands on their weapons. That was probably wise, he had to admit. Lucan remained on his knees out of his own will. “What’s the assignment, Meia?” he asked.
“Stop the Elders. They’re the highest priority for all of us. The Imperialists can’t keep an Emperor on the throne if he’s constantly under threat of Elder possession, and the Independents can’t successfully establish a new world order if they’re only serving the world up to the Elders piece by piece. We should be working together, not against each other.”
Not precisely how Calder would have said it, but it was a good answer. If she believed it, and he thought she did, then she should keep working with him. He just had to phrase it the right way…
“Did the Architects order you to do this?” Lucan asked.
Meia’s answering pause didn’t make her following words sound very persuasive. “They would.”
Nonetheless, Lucan seemed pleased. “Maybe they would.” He turned to Calder. “Captain, I’m still here because I agree with Meia. Whatever else we do, the Guilds can’t dance to an Elder’s tune.”
You’ve been dancing to an Elder tune for half your life. Jerri’s words. Now suddenly, disturbingly, echoed. He had some soul-searching to do later, but for now, he needed Lucan and Meia both on his side. “That’s well said, and your loyalty to the Empire is why I kept you here, Consultant Lucan. Anyone who can look past our current Guild rivalry is someone I can work with. And your personal knowledge of the Optasia will come in handy for our next guest.”
Calder waved to the Guard captain, indicating that she should bring Jerri forward.
There was a moment of awkward silence.
Calder cleared his throat and made his intentions more obvious. “Could you bring the next guest in, please?”
Her orange eyes moved around, like she was looking for the next guest somewhere in the room. “I wasn’t aware we had another guest, sir.”
She was excellent at her job, Calder was sure, but she wasn’t a member of his crew. They hadn’t worked together long enough to read each other’s minds. “My wife, Captain.”
She looked as though he’d asked her to haul in the garbage, but she did bow and leave.
Calder turned back to Lucan, who looked somewhat amused. “That would have worked better if I hadn’t been forced to explain. More dramatic.”
“Are you still in frequent contact with the Sleepless, Captain Marten?”
More than I want to be. He turned to face the door, prepared for his wife’s arrival. “Too frequent, Consultant Lucan.”
When the door opened, the captain brought Jerri into the room.
She looked much as Calder had last seen her, messy and unkempt in her secondhand prisoner’s uniform, though she seemed angrier. She probably hadn’t appreciated it when he’d walked out on her, even though the sky was literally cracking apart. She was shackled with enough chains to restrain an Imperial Guard, and Calder almost had them removed before he reconsidered the anger in her eyes. No. Let her wear them.
“You just drag me out of my hole whenever you wish, now?” she asked.
Calder gave a flippant response, knowing it would annoy her. “That’s one of the perks of being Emperor. I get to drag whomever I like wherever I like.”
Jerri barked out a sound too ugly to be a laugh. “You’re not the Emperor, but you could be, if you would just listen to me!”
The same argument as before, but more heated. Well, so be it. He had temper enough to match both of them today, after knowing she’d tried to trick him into killing himself on the Optasia. “In point of fact, that’s exactly why I’ve brought you here. I’m going to ask you a question, and I’d be very interested in listening to the answer.”
He gestured to the Optasia, which sat alone and almost forgotten in the corner of the room. “What exactly should I do with this, Jerri?”
“It’s a relic of the Emperor,” Jerri answered, in a tone that suggested he was an idiot. “You sit in it.”
“And then what will happen to me?”
“Calder, I’m not a Reader.”
“No, you’re a Soulbound.” Something else you lied to me about. “But I have every faith in your ability to answer the question.”
She sighed, as though giving into a child’s demands. “As I understand it, the device will expand your awareness. Thanks to a network of relays, you’ll be able to Read practically anything on the planet from this spot.”