Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga 4)

From my side, Liam gasps. “The Kavax who slew Tiberius au Bellona? And flew with the Reaper to Luna? And cut off Atalantia au Grimmus’s leg?”

The Gold hadn’t noticed Liam, so low is my nephew to the ground, but now he puffs up his chest like a regular Helldiver, delighted to have his reputation precede him. “I can see this child is very wise.” He spares a look at me. “Though I was not alone against the Ash Lady. My daughter was with me.” Looking down at my little nephew, Kavax slowly realizes that Liam, with his unfocused, foggy eyes, is blind. The change in the Gold startles me. His voice softens and he kneels so that he is not so far away from my nephew. “And what is your name, young knight?”

“Liam, of Lagalos, dominus. But…but I’m not a knight….”

“That is a good name, Liam. It is an Old Earth name from the Irish Isles and means warrior, protector.”

“Does it?” Liam asks.

“It does indeed. Your people, the first Pioneers, brought more than flesh and blood with them from Earth.” He smiles. “I knew a man with such a name and he was very brave; but I fear you are wrong. You are a knight.” He puts a hand on Liam’s head, startling my nephew. “See…yes, you have a hard head. A fighter’s head. Just like mine. Do you want to feel my head? I’ve been told it is the hardest this side of Romulus au Raa.” With care, Kavax lowers his head and places Liam’s hand upon his great dome.

“You’re a bloody plant!” Liam exclaims in shock. His hands reach along Kavax’s head to find the end of its dimensions.

“Liam! Mind your tongue.” I pray this massive man doesn’t take offense. But he just chuckles.

“I am big enough for most things,” Kavax says with a grin. “But when I’m not, I call on my friends like your sister here. And we are friends now, little one.” He pulls a small silver fox pin from a pouch. He sets it in my palm and closes my hand around it. “If ever you want for anything, show this to any Republic soldier or employee and they will find me, and I and any of my family will do what is in our power to help you. You have my word.”

“My family…” I say.

“What of them?” He looks around. “Do you want me to fetch them? We need family when we are wounded. It is important. Tell me where they are, and I shall bring them to you.”

“They’re gone,” I manage in a small voice, not having any other words to describe what happened. Their absence does not feel real. But it creeps on me, a dark loneliness.

“Oh.” Kavax knows what I mean. His shoulders sag. “Oh, child.” I let him take my hand between his own. He leans close enough so I can smell the smoke in his beard and the oil he uses to shape it to a fine point. “I am sorry.”

“She said she would protect us…” I whisper.

“Who?”

“The Sovereign…”

He’s silent for a long moment. “I know it may be impossible to believe now, when everything is dark and broken, but you will survive this pain, little one. Pain is a memory. You will live and you will struggle and you will find joy. And you will remember your family from this breath to your dying days, because love does not fade. Love is the stars, and its light carries on long after death.”

I can think of nothing to say, so the Gold, called away by an assistant, leaves me there in the bed under the crinkled sheets in the small tent in the middle of a place that never felt like my home. Leaves me there as if his words were a gift. But what the hell use are words? How will they protect us? Feed us? Give us a future?

I will go where the Republic tells me to go. Likely another camp. But without my family this one will be empty of its soul. I don’t want that life. I hate this planet. There’s nothing holding me here. I suffer enormous guilt for thinking of it like that, but I can’t stay here. I’d rather die.

I need more. For Liam. For me.

“Liam, stay here,” I say, lunging up out of my bed.

“Where are you going?” he asks in fear. His hands reach for me.

“Just stay. I’ll be back.”

“Lyria, no…”

“Liam!” I snap. He reels back from me. I sigh out the anger and kneel, taking his face in my hands. “I promise I will never abandon you. You’re my heart. Be brave, and I’ll be back.”

I pull my pants from the plastic bag and jump into them. My shirt is bloody and in ruins, so I leave the medical smock on. I can’t find my shoes, but there’s no time. The nurses are moving toward me. I duck out the mosquito netting before they can block my way. The mud is warm between my toes as I race from the tent without shoes. I sprint fast as I can past soldiers and medics and mourning Reds till I reach the muddy landing strip where traffic controllers wave orange batons at landing shuttles. They look at me like I’m stark mad. I clip past.

No one stops me till I reach the Telemanus shuttle. A brooding black vessel shiny as the belly of a pitviper, with a dancing red fox on its upright wings. It’s as tall as any six trees stacked end over end. At the top of a ramp, Kavax speaks with another Gold and a Yellow. Two Gray soldiers with the same strange canines on their chestplates block my way to the ship. Each a head taller than me. One grabs my wrist, easily pulling me against his chest.

“Lord Kavax!” I shout. “Lord Kavax.”

He cannot hear me. My voice is too small. The roar of the engines too loud. The soldiers are pulling me away without effort. I call out till my throat is hoarse. But it’s not Lord Telemanus who hears me; it’s the animal that sits at his side. It looks like a dog with glossy red fur, but it’s nearly as large as Liam and has pointed ears and a narrow snout streaked with white. At the sound of my futile shouts, the animal quirks its head, turns to look my way, and then lopes back down the ramp toward me. Only then does Lord Telemanus turn. He follows his pet down the ramp, confused knights and attendants trailing in his wake. Finally he sees me.

“Off,” he barks to the soldiers. “Hands off the girl.”