Page 9 of Only Hard Problems

“But you’re right about one thing,” Beatrice continued in a silky-smooth voice. “Vesper Quill’s father is probably some servant or guard Nerezza dallied with once upon a time. No one important. Just like Vesper herself is no one important.”

She sniffed. “It was so very gauche of Callus Holloway to elevate Vesper Quill toourstatus in the first place. I don’t knowwhathe was thinking, making a lowly lab rat a Regal lady.”

Several ladies murmured their agreement, but anger and disgust shot through my stomach, curdling the sweet lemonade I’d drunk earlier.

A lab rat was a common nickname for a worker who toiled away in a corporate facility, building blasters and spaceships for their Regal owners. But Vesper was so much more than that, something I’d discovered the hard way. A couple of months ago, I’d mockingly referred to Vesper as Kyrion’s conquest when he and I had been sparring at Castle Caldaren as part of our Arrow training, and she had retaliated by rigging together a couple of blasters and burning my clothes. Then, a few days later, Vesper had killed Julieta Delano, an Arrow traitor who had been secretly working with Rowena Kent.

But Vesper had saved my life—and the lives of countless other Arrows and Imperium soldiers—by exposing Rowena Kent’s scheme to sabotage and crash Imperium ships for the Techwave. She had bloodyearnedher Regal title, but to my grandmother, Vesper Quill was a living, breathing scandal that would only bring mockery, scorn, and derision down on House Zimmer.

Now that she had put Livia in her place, Beatrice turned to another lady and asked about her grandchildren. More anger and disgust shot through me. Once again, my grandmother was acting as if it was Regal business as usual, and this momentous revelation hadn’t happened and changed the very foundation of our family.

Vesper being my sister was a startling development, to be sure, but ignoring this tough truth wasn’t going to be an option for much longer. Sooner or later, someone besides Livia Invidus was going to remember seeing my father with Nerezza in his younger years, start digging, and piece together the scandal. I’d already been scouring the Regal and gossipcast archives for footage of the two of them at a ball, a garden party, or some other event, just like Lady Livia had insinuated. I hadn’t found any damning evidence so far, but it was only a matter of time before it surfaced.

The sand was rapidly trickling through the hourglass of this secret, and I had no idea what to do about any of it, especially my father’s seething anger and my grandmother’s stubborn silence. Like it or not, Vesper was part of our family, and I wanted to bloodytalkto someone about it. Talking, even if it was only to myself, helped me process things and decide on which actions to take next. And in this case, I had a whole lot to process.

My eavesdropping ruse forgotten, I stalked away from the refreshment tables and went over to the edge of the lawn. A guard standing in front of one of the towering honeysuckle bushes snapped to attention and nodded respectfully. I returned the gesture and prowled past him.

The House Rojillo guards were all dressed in pink polyplastic armor, and they all had silver blasters and shock batons hooked to their belts, but their postures were lazy and relaxed, much like the Imperium soldiers stationed outside Castle Caldaren. The biggest threat these guards would face tonight would be Regals high on chembonds who didn’t want to take no for an answer from the pretty young servants.

I circled the lawn, scanning the guards lined up in front of the bushes and making sure there were no gaps in their formation. The gossipcasters and everyone else might think I was an arrogant idiot, but I took my duties as an Arrow very seriously, and a few days ago, I had reviewed House Rojillo’s security protocols for the solstice celebration.

I had sent Lord Jorge several suggestions, including doubling the number of guards, moving the security perimeter to the opposite side of the lake, and cutting down some of the bushes on the lawn to provide better sight lines and escape routes in case something went wrong. But Lady Halecia had been downright aghast at the mere thought of thinning out her prize honeysuckles, so Jorge hadn’t implemented any of my proposed changes.

Sometimes I thought Regal vanity was going to be the death of us all.

The Rojillos had every right to decide how to protect their own castle, but I knew—I bloody knew—they would have made the security changes if Kyrion had suggested them instead of me. The other Regals simply respected—and feared—Kyrion Caldaren far more than they ever had me, thanks in large part to my Zane Zimmer persona. I had no one to blame for that but myself, but frustration still churned in my gut like acid.

Especially since the summer solstice celebration was a prime spot for a Techwave attack.

Dozens of powerful Regals in attendance. A remote location. Scaled-down security that was a far cry from the squads of Imperium soldiers that surrounded Crownpoint and patrolled the Boulevard and Promenade Park. The solstice celebration was the perfect soft target, something I’d mentioned to Callus Holloway, although he too had ignored me, just as the Rojillos had.

They all thought I was paranoid, but they had never been in a Techwave battle like the one on Magma 7. A few months ago, Holloway had sent me, Kyrion, and Julieta Delano to drive the Techwavers out of a metal refinery, but nothing had gone according to plan. Scores of Imperium soldiers and conscripts had been killed, and Julieta had secretly triggered a lava eruption that had almost ended us all. I’d always known the Techwavers were dangerous, but that was the first time I’d realized just how far they were willing to go—and just how many of their own troops they were willing to sacrifice—to topple the Imperium.

So far, the Techwave hadn’t dared to launch an attack anywhere on Corios, but that was something else that was only a matter of time. According to Holloway’s spies, the Techwavers were working on a new weapon capable of cutting through a variety of defensive energy shields, from the large ones around ships and buildings to the smaller ones that powerful psions like myself could mentally create to absorb and protect ourselves from blaster fire and the like.

A few weeks ago, Harkin Ocnus, one of the Techwave’s top scientists, had kidnapped Vesper from the Quill Corp campus on Temperate 42 and tried to force her to fix the terrorist group’s new weapon. Vesper had quickly escaped from Harkin’s clutches, but according to Holloway’s spies, the Techwave still needed her expertise. They too were hunting her, which was yet another reason I needed to find her before anyone else did. I had no desire to be killed by a weapon engineered by my own sister.

A glimmer of gray caught my eye, and a woman moved out of the shadows surrounding the castle. She stopped underneath a string of bulbs, and the pink glow gilded her long wavy black hair in a soft sheen. A pale gray gown clung to her strong, curvy body like a gauzy cloud, and tiny bits of colored ore glinted on her long skirt. Larger pieces of ore covered her chest, packed tightly together as though she was wearing a jagged, jeweled breastplate.

A thin silver chain gleamed around her neck, with a single bit of ore resting in the hollow of her throat like a tiny shimmering opal. Sparkling silver powder had been dusted over her pale skin, and she looked like a moon goddess who had stepped out of the night sky and down into the garden. Light and dark, and hard and soft, like an artist’s study in contrasts.

Wariness coursed through me, as though a pebble had been dropped into the still pool of my mind and was sending ripples of suspicion through my entire body.

Lady Asterin Armas, the woman I was supposed to marry.

CHAPTER THREE

ZANE

Asterinstoodstiffly,herhands fisted in her skirt, as if she would rather be anywhere else but here. A sentiment I could well appreciate.

A fifty-something man stepped up beside Asterin. Rigel, her handler, for lack of a better word. His light brown hair was brushed back from his forehead, revealing dark brown eyes and skin that was more ruddy than tan, as if he’d spent just a few minutes too long in the scorching summer sun. His short, muscled body was poured into a dark brown tailcoat that made him look like a mushroom desperately straining to catch a ray of Asterin’s radiance.

For the last several weeks, Rigel had been negotiating with my grandmother about which events Asterin and I would attend, if we would sit at the same table, how many times we would dance together, and the like. All our interactions were planned and preapproved, right down to our favorite refreshments. Fun fact: Asterin hated coconut and rhubarb, as did I.

It was all common practice among Imperium Regals looking to officially tie their offspring together, but these negotiations had been much slower and far more delicate and detailed than most, since Asterin was a member of Erzton society.

Marriages and other alliances were not all that common between the two groups, and if Beatrice and Rigel managed to force Asterin and me together, we would be a blueprint, of sorts, for other Regals and Erztonians to follow. Something else that soured my stomach. Regal marriages were often little more than business transactions between Houses, but a small part of me had always hoped that I would at leastcareabout whatever woman I eventually married.

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