Evan Currie - Heirs of Empire

“I’ll pay someone.” Brennan sneered. “There’re flyers out there who need cash.”

“None with reputations worth a damn,” Kayle countered. “Until you get a grip on your ego, Bren, you’re going to stay skimming the bottom layer.”

“As if,” Brennan snorted, waving dismissively.

Kayle sighed deeply, but there wasn’t much more he could say. Brennan hadn’t listened to him the first dozen times he’d made that speech, and the kid wasn’t about to start now. While Kayle loved both his siblings, his sister came across as a darling, while his brother was an egotistical little child. If it weren’t for the family name and his bloodline, Bren would either be out on the streets or dead after some daredevil stunt on his flyer.

“Hey, William,” Kayle said, glancing over his shoulder, “leave us for a bit, will you?”

William looked evenly at him for a long moment, then out across the open skyline beyond the palace.

“I know, William.” Kayle smiled chidingly. “But we’re on top of the palace. There’s no sharpshooter alive who can hit me up here, and you know it.”

William hesitated for a moment but then nodded. “I’ll be inside.”

The Cadreman went back inside, leaving Kayle and his brother standing out in the open. Kayle looked around. From where he was standing there wasn’t much to see really. The other city buildings were nowhere near as high as the palace, which was already sitting atop a hill in the center of the island. He could see the surrounding countryside, but it was all fifty miles away if it was a foot.

As he’d told William, not even a Cadre sharpshooter could make that shot.

So Kayle turned his attention to his little brother, eyeing the fourteen-year-old for a long moment of silence.

Brennan shifted uncomfortably under the steady gaze of his brother. “What?”

“I want you to watch out for yourself, and Lydia, Bren.”

“What are you talking about?” Brennan asked, clearly confused.

“Just stay close to Lydia for a few days,” Kayle said. “Maybe it’s nothing …”

Brennan shook his head. “Kayle, you’re a dick, and a pain in my ass … but you don’t try to scare the hell out of people for no reason. What’s going on?”

“There’s just some things happening,” Kayle said. “I can’t talk about them. I just want you to stay close to Lydia for a few days. Do that for me, all right?”

Brennan reached out as Kayle started to turn away, roughly pulling his brother back around. Kayle didn’t resist, though he could have easily.

“No. You don’t get to drop something like that and then just walk away from me, damn it. What the hell is going on?”

Kayle shook his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t, Bren. Just do what I ask, all right? For once in your life, just do what I ask.”

He turned again, and this time Brennan let him walk.

“You know what, screw you, Kayle. Go drop that turd on someone else!”

Kayle sighed, stopping in his tracks. He turned his head, seeing his brother’s turned back. “Do what I ask, Bren, and I’ll qualify you for a strato-skimmer.”

Brennan spun around to stare at his brother, but Kayle was already stepping through the door to the interior of the palace.

Kayle and William made their way down the halls of the palace, heading back toward the Imperial Family’s residential wing.

“Has there been anything new from the team the general dispatched to the Redoubt?”

“Not since we lost contact with the reaction craft,” William answered. “I think we have to assume we lost them.”

Kayle swore, shaking his head. “A Cadre team just got dusted so clean we didn’t even get a call for help. Tell me why the whole empire isn’t on alert, William? Why is my father sitting on this?”

“I haven’t been informed,” William said simply.

“Get me an audience ,” Kayle growled. “Father knows something, or every unit for five hundred miles would be standing at alert by now.”

“I’ll put in the request, but you know how the emperor is,” William warned.

“Yes, I know my father all too well. Just do it. He’ll pay more attention to a request from you than from me.”

His father would, likely as not, ignore a request from his children during a crisis. Family was there to be seen, not heard.

Even a family member who wore a Cadre emblem.

Brennan Scourwind made his way toward his residence, still thinking about his brother’s rather insistent request. It wasn’t like Kayle to ask anyone else to watch over Lydia, as their sister was the real princess of the family. A real overachiever, everyone’s favorite, even if she was as spoiled as everyone thought Brennan was. Few people knew just how much trouble she could get into, mostly because Lydia was more than capable of getting right back out of it on her own. Kayle knew that.

So why is he worried?

He made a choice on a whim, turning toward his sister’s rooms.

“Lyd, you in?” Brennan asked, tapping on the side of a door as he leaned into the room and looked around.

“What do you want, Bren?” Lydia appeared from her private rooms, stepping into the common area.

“Just checking on you,” Brennan said, hesitating a bit. “Look, did you see Kayle earlier?”

Lydia nodded. “Sure. He visited me in class.”

Brennan blinked. “In class? Really?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“You don’t think that was odd?”

“Kayle always visits when he’s home.”

“He interrupts classes?”

Lydia pouted a little, causing Brennan to roll his eyes. She might be everyone’s favorite princess, but she was such a drama queen.

“No,” she admitted, “usually he drops by here.”

“Yeah.” Brennan nodded. “OK. Thanks, Lyd.”

Brennan stepped back and started to leave, but Lydia called out after him. “What’s going on, Bren?”

“I don’t know,” Brennan admitted, three words he didn’t often utter, whether they were true or not. “Just … don’t go anywhere too far for a couple days, OK? Kayle’s acting weird, and you know what it takes to get one of those soldier boy types up in arms.”

Lydia smiled, giggling a bit. “Yeah. OK, I’m not going anywhere anyway.”

“Good. I’ll be around, sis.”

“Bren,” Lydia called, smirking in his direction. “What did Kayle promise you to get you interested in what I’m doing?”

Brennan sighed. “He said he’d qualify me if I watched out for you for the next couple days.”

Lydia giggled at him. “You’re so easy to buy off, Bren.”

Brennan rolled his eyes as he left. “Just remember what I said, OK? I’ll be in my rooms.”

“Speak with you soon, brother … ,” she called after him, her voice taunting him slightly in singsong fashion.

Brennan frowned as he got out of there, wondering how it was possible that almost everyone else saw his sister as the perfect princess but somehow saw him as the brat.

Life sucked.

“Course and speed update.”

The words were delivered quietly, but with no chance of being missed by those standing their stations on the Caleb ’s enclosed quarterdeck.

“We just crossed eighteen times sound, groundspeed, captain,” a man answered. “Course holding en route to capital.”

Corian nodded, absently scratching the patch that covered his damaged eye. This itch is driving me insane. Damn that woman.

“Arrival time?”

“Within the quarter hour, captain.”

“Good. Sound combat alarms and bring everyone to their stations,” Corian ordered, taking a seat at the large chair that backed the room. His armor projector instantly connected to the ship’s systems, linking him into all available information, but for now he ignored it all.