I feel myself growing pale. “You’re a sick psychopath, Excelsior. I’m going to make it my mission to mess you up in ways you can’t even imagine!” I’m bluffing. Inside, my blood turns cold with dread.
“I hope you prove to be more of an adversary than your mother. She was so trusting until it was almost too late.”
“She was a child.”
“You’re a child.”
“You’re wrong. I haven’t been a child for a long time.”
“When I come for you, I’ll divide you up into so many pieces that you—”
“Oscil, end transmission,” Kyon interrupts. The image of Excelsior evaporates, leaving me face-to-face with Kyon instead. I don’t say anything. My mind is buzzing with the knowledge that my plight just went from completely awful to extremely wretched in a matter of a few moments. I don’t know how long I stare at Kyon, unseeing, but I flinch when he speaks. “You scare him, Kricket. He isn’t one to verbally threaten his enemies. He usually never lets them know they’re his enemies until after he strikes them with a death blow.”
“I don’t know if I like that distinction.”
“I don’t mind it. It gives us something in common.”
“How long until Excelsior gets through your defenses, Kyon?”
“You’ll have to let me know the answer to that question.”
His response scares me. “I’d like to be alone.”
Kyon shrugs. “The airships will be kept at bay—that makes the island open to you.” He indicates the aircraft on the bank of screens that surround the office. They’re moving away. “We’re safe while they formulate another strategy. If you’d like, you can take a walk through the gardens and paths behind the house.”
I rise to my feet, desperate to get away from here. I move around the edge of the desk. When I near him, he reaches out and grasps my wrist gently. “Stay off the beach until I say otherwise,” he orders. I nod numbly. “And don’t go too far. It’s easy to get lost.”
“Fine.” I shake off his hand.
“I expect you back before it grows dark.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I murmur. It takes everything I have not to run from the room. When I reach the doorway, I pause. Without looking at Kyon, I ask, “Why is Excelsior afraid of me?”
“He knows you’re here to kill him.”
It’s not voluntary, the way I react to what Kyon says. I don’t remember crossing the threshold of the room or getting to the staircase, but somewhere on the second floor, I realize I’m running. Retracing my steps back to the main floor, I rush around until I find a foyer made of thousands of panes of glass. It leads outside. The glare of the sun meets me, blinding me for a moment as I stumble around, looking for a direction to run. Finding a stone-covered path, I follow it away from the house.
Passing garden-bots, whose metallic bodies glimmer in the harsh sunshine, I shield my eyes from the glare. The path leads through manicured hedgerows. As I dart around them, I scrape my arms on their sharp angles. I glance over my shoulder to make sure Kyon isn’t following me, but all I see is the house. It’s a fairy boat of timber and glass.
I hurry farther away from it toward the high sea grass and a forest of palm trees in the distance. Moss-covered stones mark the path I travel. When I make it to the trees, I instantly feel relief from the sun within their shade. A gentle breeze drifts against my face. Panting, I slow my pace a bit, following the grassy path that winds ahead of me.
Unable to think clearly, I’m capable only of putting one foot in front of the other at the moment. The impulse to hide is so strong. I don’t know how far I am from the house, but I pause when I spy a slate roofline deep in the woods. It’s a small, stone gazebo built on a knoll to overlook the sea in the distance. Beside it, a small brook babbles and flows over smooth stones on its way to the side of the hill in a trickling waterfall. I go to the ledge of the shelter, sitting on it. In the distance, the Sea of Stars sparkles like the glimmers of a thousand searchlights. Watching it, I try to get my head together, but I can’t brush off the events of my nightmarish morning.
Excelsior Ensin is insane. People like me don’t win against people like Excelsior.