Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

After a long, anxious few minutes, Ruxbane asked, “Do you remember the” — he chuckled — “raider princess ?” His tone was oddly mocking.

Iselglith nodded.

“I discovered something interesting this morning: she’s in the Aishan camp.”

“H-how, sir? How did you—?”

“Her blood sample came up.” He held out a tablet with limited information on the woman.

The raiders on Sinos evidently did not register with the systemic government. The only information provided was what was necessary to register as a refugee, but she didn’t take any precautions to conceal her true identity.

Iselglith frowned. “Does her father know?”

“I’m unsure. I doubt the king told her what’s been happening in the galaxy as of late.” His eyes pinched shut, and he pressed his thumb against his forehead. “She’s been here for a week. I sent a scout to tail her, but she’s not doing anything out of the ordinary — not in camp, anyway. What she has done — and I’m not sure why this wasn’t brought to my attention at once — is crash a Sinosian ship on the outskirts of camp.”

Iselglith swallowed with difficulty. Varg mouths were surprisingly dry. “I’m sure such a detail would have been reported to you at once, had a fellow Rokkir been in charge of the investigation. It’s likely one of the actual council guards got there first.”

“Hm.”

“Sir?”

“I need you to watch her, Iselglith. Scouts — every day.”

“Me, sir?”

Performing more than one function wasn’t an oddity in Rokkir culture. Everyone was encouraged to hone more than one skill, especially in the last fifty years leading up to the invasion, but managing scouting parties wasn’t a skill Iselglith had.

“Yes, you,” Ruxbane said. “Acting as Modnik’s councilmember is your primary directive, but devastated as the planet is and as reclusive as the Varg are, no one will question your occasional absence from council quarters. You’re the depressed leader of a doomed planet, after all.”

Iselglith resisted hanging his head at the squeeze of sympathy in his chest.

“I’m not asking you to lead scouting parties, Iselglith. Simply relay any pertinent information our scouts collect to me. I don’t have time to sift through the minutia myself.”

“Y-yes, sir. Did you need me for anything else?”

Ruxbane’s eyes had dark circles underneath, and his whole body sagged. It wouldn’t be appropriate to ask him if he’d gotten any sleep, but Iselglith wished he could.

“The test subject escaped from Sinos. Evidently.”

Iselglith gave a slow nod. “What was his name? Perhaps he made it to Elsha as the princess did.”

“We never got his name.”

Iselglith’s tail twitched. That test subject was a human man — a young human man. The experiments performed on him, the experiments to be performed in the future… All of that, and the Rokkir didn’t even know his name.

Iselglith spoke softly to cover the waver in his voice. “I’ll have the camp searched for anyone suspicious.”

“Good. On that note, make sure all volunteers for the military are properly scanned once they arrive at Castle Aishan.”

“B-before? Or after the…?”

“Before indoctrination, yes.” Ruxbane took a seat at a nearby lab station. His stare made Iselglith uneasy. “It’s possible another viable test subject will appear among them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Remember, Iselglith, we just need to keep Elsha and the refugee camps in line. Once we’ve done what we need with the Varg, we will move onto what our race is destined for. I know it isn’t always easy, but it is always for the best. Do you understand?”

Iselglith nodded.

“Good. I’ll call you when you’re needed again.”

Jace’s silence worried Tayel. He hadn’t said a word the entire walk to Shy’s tent, and he showed no sign of speaking any time soon. She’d never seen him like this. She sat down beside him once inside and tried to get his attention with a nudge. He buried his face in his legs. She’d just have to give him more time.

“Why the secrecy?” Fehn asked.

Shy pulled a lantern from somewhere in the darkness and lit it with a match. “I’m sure the answer will become evident soon.”

The tent glowed amber-orange as she set the old-fashioned thing in the center of their gathering. Outside, people’s chatter carried away toward the meal area. Savory scents made Tayel’s stomach growl. Hopefully Shy’s proposition would be worth skipping one of two small meals a day.

“We have an hour — tops — before the others return from dinner. I know you’re going to want to ask a lot of questions, but I’m asking for your patience. There’s a lot to explain,” Shy said.

Tayel exchanged a glance with Fehn, who took his place leaning against one of the rods keeping the tent upright.

“What do any of you know about the invasion?” Shy gave each of them a prompting stare.

“What kind of question is that?” Fehn asked. “It’s plain as day. The raiders are running the whole deal. They’re the ones attacking everyone, and theirs is the only planet not under attack.”

“Listen, this war is larger and more coordinated than a mere raider’s play for power. I have reason to believe another party — a complete unknown — is involved: a shapeshifting alien race.”

Tayel frowned. Fehn laughed out loud, though what the woman said wasn’t funny. Startling, sure, but there rang something true through the horrified sincerity in Shy’s voice.

“Yeah, okay,” Fehn said, “and I’m the Emperor.”

“The raiders aren’t leading this invasion,” Shy said.

“Yeah, and how do you know?”

“I know because in case you haven’t already guessed: I’m from Sinos.” She gestured to her clothes.

“What, so you’re a raider, then?”

“For Alhyt’s sake, just listen to me. I come from a wealthy family who runs one of the planet’s mining companies. And yes, we strike the occasional deal with raiders, but there isn’t a company on Sinos which doesn’t. In the past year—”

“Which company is it?” Jace asked.

Tayel swiveled to face him, but he focused straight ahead.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not say,” Shy said. “As I was starting to explain, huge numbers of our employees started to go missing in the last year — especially raiders. People kept turning to my father for answers, but he didn’t have any. He started to pull away from people, started delegating major operations to barely qualified field leads. Rumors spread that he was having secret meetings late into the night, but no one knew with whom. Not even his family.”

Shy’s eyes went from moving across everyone else’s faces to staring deeply into the lantern. They blinked slowly, dark, narrow, and in the soft orange light, beautiful. Tayel rapped her fingers on the tarp beneath her. Shy sucked her lips the way Mom did right before she cried. It might just have been a story to the rest of them, but to Shy, it mattered.

She continued, “A little over a week ago, I think I finally met who he’d been having secret meetings with. I was organizing files with my brother in the main office, where father worked. Two people I’d never seen before walked in. A guard didn’t announce them; they didn’t have an escort. Honestly, I thought they were there to attack us.

“There was a frail-looking Argel, and then a human man who appeared anything but frail. His name was Ruxbane, and he claimed to be there to meet with my father. He didn’t say what about, and father demanded my brother and I leave. We did, but my brother — Locke — was fed up with secrets. He went back to investigate without me.”