Page 34 of Only Hard Problems

Tivona and Leandra were waiting for Asterin at the front of the conservatory. The three women put their heads together and started whispering in low voices again. Their conspiratorial coven reminded me of how the three of them had worked together during the midnight ball, along with Daichi and Touma Hirano, to help Kyrion and Vesper escape from Crownpoint.

When I’d first arrived at Castle Rojillo, I’d quipped to the gossipcasters that none of the Regals would help Kyrion Caldaren. I was absolutely right about that. Kyrion didn’t have any real friends among the Regals. Even if he did, none of the lords and ladies would risk helping him for fear of incurring Holloway’s wrath. Neither would any of the Arrows. There was no place on any Imperium-controlled planet that Kyrion could hide where I wouldn’t find him within a matter of weeks.

But I had overlooked the other half of this fugitive equation or, in this case, the other half of Kyrion’s truebond: Vesper. Because my sisterdidhave friends—true friends who would do anything for her, even shelter her from the Imperium.

And chief among those friends was Asterin Armas.

Vesper and Kyrion had helped Asterin protect her people and property on Tropics 33 during the recent Techwave attack there. Given her earlier talk of honor, I had no doubt the Erzton lady thought she owed the couple a debt, and there was one obvious way she could repay it. Of course. I should have seen it sooner. Perhaps I would have seen it sooner if I hadn’t been so focused on my own issues with Asterin.

I didn’t need the Imperium’s generals or the Arrows’ information or even my own network of spies. I knewexactlywhere Kyrion and Vesper were going and where they planned to hide from Holloway while they figured out their next move—Sygnustern, the Erzton home planet.

But the knowledge didn’t fill me with the sense of triumph I’d expected. Instead, a surprising amount of worry gnawed at my heart, while a nagging question whispered through my mind.

What was I going to do with the information?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ZANE

Ilefttheconservatoryand did another lap through the castle, checking on everyone and making sure the structure was secured, along with the surrounding grounds. I also gave some final instructions to the House Rojillo guards, along with the Imperium soldiers, investigators, engineers, and scientists who had arrived to examine the Techwave ship. Finally, around three in the morning, I got into the House Zimmer carriage with my father and my grandmother, and we returned to the spaceport and took a private transport back to the city.

It was creeping up on sunrise when we stepped into my grandmother’s library in Castle Zimmer. Several servants were waiting to see if we needed anything, including Fergus. I asked one of the servants to take Silas’s tablet to my tower library, along with his hand cannon. I wanted to examine both devices before I turned them over to my father, and eventually, the Imperium investigators.

Once that was done, Beatrice told everyone to get some rest and dismissed the servants.

Fergus stopped beside me and eyed the scorched fabric on my chest. “Are you really okay, Zane?”

“Right as acid rain,” I chirped. “Although I am very sorry about the tailcoat. I know how long and hard you worked on it.”

Fergus waved his hand. “I never get attached to any of my designs. Clothes are made to be worn, enjoyed, and admired. And even destroyed on occasion.” A sly, teasing grin crept across the tailor’s face. “Although no one destroys clothes quite as spectacularly as you do, my lord.”

I snorted. “I’m glad one of us can joke about this.”

Fergus’s grin grew a little wider. He clapped me on the shoulder, then left the library, shutting the doors behind him.

“What a bloody night,” my grandmother muttered, pouring herself a hefty snifter of strawberry brandy.

She tossed the brandy back in one long gulp, then refilled her snifter. She offered some to my father and me, but we both declined. Beatrice went over and sat down in the chair behind her desk. Despite the long night and the trying events of the solstice celebration, her posture remained ramrod straight as always. I admired her stamina, even as I sprawled across one of the overstuffed settees, digging the toes of my boots into the floor to keep from sliding off the slick cushions.

My father let out a weary sigh and eased down into a chair across from me. “Have you learned anything more about the Techwave attack? Or what they might be plotting to do with Jorge’s temperature-shielding technology?”

“Not yet. Although Holloway sent me a message earlier that was short and sweet and practically dripping with fury.”

Beatrice snorted. “You mean Holloway is furious about how the attack is playing out on the gossipcasts. How many Regals are openly questioning his leadership and blaming him because the Techwavers haven’t been neutralized yet.”

I slumped a little deeper into the cushions, too tired to even agree with her. Holloway put on a good show for the gossipcasts, but we all knew that he only cared about himself.

After ordering me to spin the story, the Imperium leader hadn’t contacted me since then. No doubt he was too busy trying to reassure the more important, demanding Regals that everything was under control to bother with threatening me, although I was sure that would change soon enough. But for now, I would enjoy the relative quiet.

I looked at my father. “What could the Techwave do with Lord Jorge’s stolen tech? You saw the schematics. Is the design as promising as he seemed to think?”

Jorge’s temperature-shielding wristwatch was nestled in my pocket, right next to the jewelry box I was still carrying around like a lumpy, melted albatross. I didn’t mention the watch, though. My father would chastise me for taking it, and I had no desire to listen to a lecture right now. Besides, I had a strange feeling that Jorge’s watch was one of the keys to the Techwave’s ultimate plot, whatever it was, and I wanted to glean as much information from the device as possible.

My father spread his hands out wide. “It’s hard to say without studying the schematics in greater detail, but Jorge has been bragging about his climate-control technology for months to anyone who would listen. If he’s really come up with some sort of breakthrough, then the Techwave could use it in numerous ways. They might even be able to weaponize the technology in some way.”

More weariness crashed over me. The Techwave was already developing weapons to use against the Arrows and other powerful psions, and this theft was just another nail in what the terrorist group wanted to be the collective coffin of the Imperium.

My father fell silent, while my grandmother continued to drink her brandy. My gaze strayed up to the portrait of Miriol on the wall. Had it only been a few hours since my father and I had been looking at my mother’s picture? It seemed like a lifetime.

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