“He would be with the right marriage,” I said, eying Emana warily.
“That’s right,” the ragged man said. “It is what the Changelings planned this whole time. To replace your brother with a puppet they control. Zes… and with you on his arm.”
Emana grimaced.
“Zes?” she said. “He’s like an uncle to me!”
“That didn’t stop him from falling in love with you,” I said.
Emana turned pale.
“In love?” she said.
She shook her head in disbelief.
“Impossible,” she said. “I’ve known him… known him my whole life… Since I was a little girl…”
“And you’ve ignored his affections the whole time,” I said.
“I didn’t know about them!” Emana said. “He always protected my brothers, my father…”
“And you,” I said.
That gave her pause for thought as she revisited a thousand memories from across the years. Small instances when she might have unknowingly turned him down or insulted him.
“What will they do with Kal?” I said. “After he does his ‘performance’?”
The ragged man fixed me with his blazing eyes.
“Think of the most terrible thing you can imagine,” he said. “Then double it. That is what the Changelings will do.”
The sand serpent. They were going to feed him to it.
It made my heartache at the thought of him having to go through something so torturous.
“Emana, you must light the beacon,” the ragged man said. “It must be a Taw. And you, Sirena, you must make him realize he cannot throw his life away on the wrong decision. His life, your lives, and the life of every Titan everywhere depend on it.”
No pressure.
We turned to leave but Emana paused and turned back. She struck at the corner of the cage with her heel once, twice, three times. The corner snapped off. The ragged man couldn’t fit through it but he could work some of the bars loose and get through.
“You don’t deserve to be locked away like this,” Emana said. “Escape and enjoy your freedom.”
“You always were the kind one,” the ragged man said.
He tapped his forehead with his fingertips. The gesture made Emana pause for a moment longer.
“Come on!” I said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her back down the tunnel.
Kal
The Changeling guards shoved me into the cell. I tripped on my own feet and hit the floor hard. The guards smirked as they slammed the door shut and turned the key in the lock.
I didn’t care. I barely even noticed. I was still in shock.
The girl of my dreams had slipped through my defenses and torn me apart from the inside.
And not just me.
By condemning me, she’d shot down the Titans’ chances of living in freedom. I hadn’t seen it coming. I trusted her wholly, completely, and she ripped my heart out.
I thought she would be mine forever.
But she had other plans.
When I felt the ground shake and saw the Changeling frigate was on its way, I knew a spy must have whispered in their ears. Never in my wildest dreams would I have suspected there were two in my midst.
My closest ally and the woman I loved.
If I couldn’t even depend on them, what sort of lord was I?
I dusted off my knees and ambled over to the cot. I took a seat. The memories of the past few hours came back to haunt me.
When S’lec-Quos motioned to his left at my betrayer, my attention came first to Emana. The shock that rang in her eyes was true. I knew immediately it wasn’t her. Oh, there were ways to convince someone to betray a sibling, but I didn’t think any of them would have worked on Emana.
My eyes shifted to the figure standing next to her. Sirena’s long neck bent over and stared at the floor. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at me.
And I knew right away.
She was the other spy.
She was how the Changelings learned about my plan to light the beacon. That was how they knew to ride here as fast as they could.
Because the woman I loved had told them everything.
And now my species’ future was over.
“My, my, don’t you look a sorry sight,” the prisoner in the next cell hissed.
It was the prisoner clothed in rags who Zes had wrestled in my room. The Titan who’d brought secret messages to my study.
The Titan that carried a secret I felt certain only the two of us knew.
My dour mood cracked for a moment. I was relieved to see him, even cut up and scarred as he was.
It was still a much sight better than I expected.
“I see you got my message,” he said.
I snorted.
“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks a lot.”
“What do you want?” he said. “I was busy wrestling Zes and, let’s face it, I never had the best handwriting to begin with.”
“That’s true enough,” I said.
It felt good to see him. I couldn’t believe it was him in the flesh right now.
The ragged prisoner reached through the bars. I took his hand and we braced each other’s forearm.
“Little brother,” the ragged man said. “You look older.”
“Anybody would, having to clean up your messes. You look like you’ve been to hell and back.”
“I didn’t like the location. Too hot.”
We shared a grin. It’d taken some time for me to recognize him through the scars and scraggly beard he’d always worn clean-shaven in the past. His clothes were torn with holes. I wasn’t sure if they were his real clothes or if he wore them only as a disguise. Neither would have surprised me.
The cells ran along either side of the room with a causeway splitting them in half. Guards could enter and exit at the door on either end. The other cells were empty.
“How can you still be alive?” I said. “You’re supposed to be dead!”
Qale motioned to the scars on his face and body.
“Almost,” he said.
“Why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you reveal you were still alive instead of leaving those cryptic messages?”
“Because you’re their lord now.”
“A warrior should always be the leader of the Titans,” I said. “I’m not a warrior.”
“During
