“So—”
“I’m not done,” he says, cold, and waits, then: “My favorite part was when she said Red was the blood in all our veins. Unnoticed, unseen beneath our skin, filling us with strength. She could hear Red beating the Obsidian war drums. Fading, like the dirge. Calling them home before light is lost forever. She closed her eyes. Said she could feel the sun on her face. She said she was going home to find her honor, to fight with Red, to fight for Mars. Then she asked who is coming with her. Pandemonium. Bloody great day.”
“So, it went well.”
“It was fine. Gotta go. Athena and I are helping them unload all the captives. She’s being a hard-ass. Won’t take me to her ships until all the people are free. There’s relics and stuff too. Want me to steal you anything?”
“No.”
“That was a test,” he lies. “Don’t die, bye.”
I look at Diomedes sitting hunched over the breakfast table. He only trusts Aurae to send him updates. “Volga is keeping her word,” I say.
Diomedes nods and goes back to making sure she keeps doing that. I set down a caf for him. “I don’t drink caffeine,” he says.
“Of course you don’t.”
I take Cassius a cup in the cockpit. He thanks me as I slide into the co-pilot seat of the Archimedes with a sigh. Jupiter rolls beneath. We are so close to the Gas Giant that it feels like we are riding a sea made of marbled storms. Our destination is still hidden by the planet’s horizon.
“How’s the laconic one, talking your ear off and spreading rubbish about?”
“Rest easy. Diomedes swore the same oath of cleanliness you did.” I wince and recline in the chair. Feels good to relax. Even caught a few hours’ sleep. “He’s in the lounge hunched over his datapad.”
“Reading love letters from Aurae?” he asks with only a hint of annoyance and sips his coffee.
“Been meaning to say…sorry about all that.”
“It’s fine,” he says. I know it’s not fine, because I swivel the chair and put my feet up on the wall and he doesn’t say a thing. “I know that it wasn’t meant to be. With Aurae. She’s a dream, that one. But it’s all right.”
I swivel back. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I project.”
He seems more at peace than usual. I feel that way too. I stifle a yawn.
“How long to Io?” I ask.
“Two hours, going tight over Jupiter’s pole this time. More magnetic interference.”
“Scared of Ascomanni seeing us?” I ask with a small smile.
“Obviously. Even Sevro will be shitting his bed when he’s old thinking about those things.”
“Still no sign of any?” I ask.
“No. Probably all packing their wagons full of Garter beans to feed their evil little broods of children back home. A souvenir from the Gas Giants,” Cassius says. “Really makes you wonder. What type of nightmares do Ascomanni children have? Do they have monsters? Or do they just dream of daddy coming home with gas beans?” He shivers.
The Ascomanni had no interest sticking around Europa after Fá died. Cassius is probably right. Most will be busy stuffing their ships full as they can for the journey home. But quite a few will probably dig in and try to stay. With Diomedes terrified they’ll destroy the place and take as much of the population as they can with them, Cassius and I agreed to go with the man to contact the Ionian fighters he thinks are in bunkers hidden across Io.
“You really think this is a good idea?” he asks.
“What? Popping open the bunkers of a bunch of pissed-off Moonies who hate me to try and stop the people whose god king I killed?” I ask.
“Yes. That. Amongst other things.”
“I dunno.” I swivel my chair around and pat the box containing Fá’s head. It sits strapped into one of the fold-down seats. Cassius has drawn a face on the box with fangs. “Hey, Dominus Portobello has a friend.”
“Dominus Stinkhorn. It was the ugliest mushroom I could think of. Honestly, Darrow, atomics, warlord heads. I thought our honeymoon would be more romantic.”
“Honeymoon.”
“Yes. Apparently we’re a couple till Virginia fights me for you.”
I laugh, and think about helping Dustwalkers out of their cubbyholes. Honestly, the path just seems to be guiding me on detour after detour. But I’m alive. So are my friends. I have a fleet, and will have another soon. I have an army of brutes, and an army of specialists. And I have a Raa in the boot. All in all, not a bad trip. I touch Pax’s key and shoot a prayer out to Mars for him, for Virginia, for all my friends and loved ones there.
“We need Diomedes,” I say when I’m done with my prayer. “That’s why we’ll help him get the Garter back. But this is for Athena and the Daughters too. The Garter feeds everyone out here. Anyway, it was best that I wasn’t on Europa during the coronation.”
“You heard from Sevro then? It shook out?”
“It shook out.”
“Do we blame it on the Red?” he asks.
“I think she might’ve contributed,” I reply. “Certainly paid us back for those hams. Thanks for making her feel welcome. Honestly I think it made all the difference.”
“Like sees like, I think. She just wanted people.” He chews his lip, pondering something. “You think she’ll go with Volga then? On the trip back.”
“Probably. But Volga will likely take the Rage of the Valkyrie as her flagship. It is big enough to park the Archimedes, and Volk queens lead from the front.” He frowns, not understanding. “Volga will need a razormaster. She should have the best. To be honest, it’d really make my day seeing Ragnar’s daughter learn it from you.”
He seems fond of that idea, and touched. His eyes go a bit distant.
“Julian.” I sit a little straighter. He never mentions Julian. “He’d say I judged my own worth too much by the people I kept around me. I was poor in those days. I’m quite rich now, I think.” He means it even if he knows it sounds silly. He looks me right in the eyes. “Really, Darrow. I don’t know many people as long as I’ve known you. I just want to say that I really appreciate you. As a person. We’ve had our spots. We really have. We brought out a lot of the bad in each other, but a lot more good. I think it’s like that because we speak a common language, you know? We’ve always understood each other deep down.”
I nod. He looks out the window.
“I’m not really blessed at keeping friends. But you are. I truly respect that. I know how special your friends are to you, how protective you are of them. And it means…quite a bit to me that you’ve invited me into your pack and made me feel welcome. No…it means everything, really. Without this, without your friends, I’m very much alone. You’ve put a lot of faith in me. Faith that I don’t think I’ve always deserved. I just want to say…thank you, Darrow.”
He looks over after I don’t say anything.
“Hey, why you crying?” he asks with a laugh.
I wave for him to give me a minute. I wipe my eyes and with tears on the back of my hand, then clap his shoulder and just squeeze. My composure doesn’t return very quickly, but when it does I say, “Without you on this journey I would have fallen apart. You’re my brother, Cassius.”