returned to the Stellar Dragon, his armor dented and his ears still ringing from the grenades that Rache’s men had detonated in the other ship’s cargo hold. He’d fired at Rache as the mercenary had been leading his troops back to his ship, and he’d contemplated going after him, but to what end? Jorg’s dead body had been floating in the air for all to see, and Asger couldn’t manage any rage or indignation. The prince’s death had seemed inevitable ever since they’d learned that Dubashi’s ships were after him.
He was glad his father had been too busy battling a crusher to see Rache leaving. He, Asger was certain, would have felt differently and might have gotten himself killed trying to chase Rache back onto his own ship.
“Is everybody aboard?” came Bonita’s voice over a speaker. “The Osprey is about to be breathing down Viggo’s neck, and I want to get us out of here.”
Qin shut the airlock hatches and retracted the tube. “We’re ready, Captain.”
“It’s only a matter of time before Ishii or Romano comms.” Asger’s father grimaced and headed up to navigation.
Asger stood near a wall, staying out of the way of what seemed like an army of crushers—there were more than twenty now. He had no desire to speak with Ishii or Romano. Let his father handle that.
After the Dragon pulled away from the Chivalrous, Qin leaned back, her helmet thunking against the hatch.
“Are you all right?” Asger shifted over to stand next to her.
She removed her helmet, her dark hair damp with sweat, her pointed ears peeking through it. He had the urge to stroke the side of her head but felt self-conscious with so many witnesses in the cargo hold. Even if most of them were crushers and not paying attention to him. They had formed a circle around Casmir, who was chatting amiably about their mission and their goals, as if the menacing crushers didn’t faze him at all. Asger supposed they didn’t. He’d made them, after all.
“I’m okay,” Qin said. “That was a weird experience.”
“Being captured or seeing crushers fighting crushers?”
“Watching Jorg with Rache.”
Kim and Tristan were nearby—they didn’t seem to want to get close to Casmir’s legions—and Kim looked over at the comment.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Qin said. “He was basically making sure Jorg knew who he was. I’d always assumed he was from the Kingdom, since he has that accent, but his true identity has always been part of the mystery of his persona, so it was strange that he was openly talking about it in front of us and all his men—unless they’ve always known.”
Kim shook her head. “They know—knew—very little about him. Not many of them have seen him without his mask.”
“Have you?” Qin asked.
Kim hesitated and glanced at Asger. “Casmir and I have, yes. He showed Casmir the day they met.”
“Why?” Qin asked.
“Hm. Whatever he revealed in that cargo bay, I guess it wasn’t everything.”
Qin looked at Asger, but he could only shake his head. He didn’t know who Rache had been before he’d become Rache, and he didn’t care.
“The Osprey is attaching to the Chivalrous,” Bonita said over the comm. “I hope none of you left anything condemning over there.”
Asger shook his head. His time on board had been brief, ineffective, and too late to matter. He was surprised Bonita hadn’t said the Osprey was comming them and demanding they surrender the freighter and wait to be boarded.
“He’s always been secretive about his identity though,” Kim went on, studying the deck, not reacting to Bonita’s comment. “It sounds out-of-character for him to have blurted out clues in front of everyone.”
“Maybe it was important to him that Jorg know who was killing him before he did it,” Qin said.
Kim flinched at the word kill. But all she said was, “Maybe he doesn’t care anymore because…”
“Because he’s been hired to kill Jager?” Asger guessed. “And he thinks that once that’s done—Kim, I know you don’t think he’s your enemy, but we can’t let him kill our king—it won’t matter because nobody will be left who cares about hunting him down? That’s not true, you know. Every soldier and every knight out there loathes him with good reason.”
“I know. Maybe he doesn’t care anymore,” Kim repeated, her expression grim, “because he doesn’t expect to survive that mission.”
Asger hoped he didn’t. If the Osprey let the Dragon get away, if they could make it to Stardust Palace, and if Casmir could get that slydar detector, maybe they could find