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“You tell her, if you can stomach it,” Victra says to the ArchGovernor.

The man looks tired, but his voice is almost soothing. “After Volsung Fá left Olympia with more than half its citizens in chains, he sent a deputation to us. He claims to be the father of Ragnar Volarus.” Pax flinches. The ArchGovernor looks Volga sadly in the eye. “And he pledged no further acts of violence toward the Republic, and offered to give us the survivors of his massacre and depart Mars….”

“Depart Mars? For what price?” I demand.

“His granddaughter,” Victra says. Volga does not move a muscle.

I look back and forth between them. “Slag off.”

Volga’s mouth moves up and down. “But…”

“You were born in a Grimmus slave kennel,” Victra says. “You are the product of a dead Terran gladiator named Wrothga and a man I fought beside. You are the daughter of Ragnar Volarus. And if this Fá is telling the truth, you are his only living heir. Just as you were Sefi’s.”

“What?” Electra whispers. Pax closes his eyes in thought. They open just as Volga whispers.

“No…” She looks at the shocked soldiers first, as if they will save her or something, and then to her own hands. “I am a freelancer.” She looks up. “Did Ephraim…”

“No,” Pax says. “He didn’t know.” I think he’s lying.

I step in front of her, wishing I had a pistol.

“Get on the shuttle, Volga.”

She doesn’t move. She looks at Victra for guidance. “Get on the shuttle. They won’t fire through me,” Victra says.

“You’re a freelancer, Volga,” the ArchGovernor calls. “So let me put a price on it. If you go to Fá, he leaves this planet and you save millions of lives. We may beat him if you refuse, but when Gold comes after that, Mars will fall in a day. Volga, my brother is gone. We need heroes.”

That does it.

Volga straightens to her full hei

ght. I try to push her toward the shuttle, but she settles me with one hand. “Lyria,” she says. “Lyria. Promise me you will take Ephraim to South Pacifica, and that you will find your family.”

“Don’t do this.”

“I am not a slave. It is my choice.”

“You can’t. You don’t—”

“Ephraim would,” she says. “He did not raise me to be a bad woman. But he did not raise me to be good, either. Fá will bring me close, and he will pay for his evil.” She smiles down at me. “Thank you for helping me. I have never had a friend so small be so big.” She kisses me on the forehead and steps forward.

* * *

—

I watch from a tower on Victra’s estate as the Obsidian ships disappear into the evening sky. They are said to be bound for the asteroid belt, but who can be certain? Pax joins me from below. I’m too disgusted with his Republic to look at him. Mars rose up for us against the Red Hand. Gamma rose up. At just the moment when I was beginning to believe in people, they sent Volga to hell.

“I remember the first time we met,” Pax says after a while. “I was presumptuous and wounded you. I would like to ask your forgiveness, because I’ve done it again.” He waits for me to turn. I don’t.

“What did you do?”

“Victra came to me and asked some rather peculiar questions. Innocently, of course. What she asked, however, led me to believe you may have a…parasite…So, I hacked and read the doctors’ reports on your physical.”

“Your father just died, and you’re going through my physical? What? Never seen a pair of tits before?”

He goes quiet. “I recently learned my mother has come back to life.”

I glance at him. “The Sovereign’s alive?”