Dark Age (Red Rising Saga 5)

“I’m surprised you enjoyed me solving these,” I say.

“What do you mean?”

“It used to anger you so.”

He stares at me. “Did it?”

“Don’t you remember? Sometimes you would hit yourself and call yourself stupid for failing to fool me.”

“Did I ever?”

“No.”

He puzzles over that for a moment, then looks at Lilath. Is it possible that she redacted some of the information Adrius passed down to his clone? By the look on his face, it isn’t the first time he’s wondered it.

“She’s lying,” Lilath says, seeing the wedge but not knowing how to blunt it. Killing is more her game. “You are the brightest mind in this Solar System.” Ah, so there’s the difference. This clone has been raised to believe he is a god. My brother was kicked and beaten and left on a rock to die more than once. One earned his victories. The other feels entitled to them.

“Are you doing this for Lilath?” I ask the clone. “Or is it for Adrius?”

“I am Adrius,” he says.

“Do you want to be?”

He tilts his head to examine me as the Martian fleet withdraws to reassess their strategy after losing two more corvettes.

“Don’t let her pour poison in your ear, my Emperor. She always thought you were a monster,” Lilath says to him. Turning to me, she says, “You betrayed him to slaves. You abandoned your own brother. You hung him from the gallows yourself. He should have been worshipped by the world. But you just stepped all over him. You hated him. You called him a monster.”

“If I hated him, why did I pull his feet?” I ask. “If I didn’t love him, why would I keep those puzzles?”

Lilath goes still. Eat that, bitch. The clone activates, leaning forward. I suspected artifacts from Adrius’s life would be of almost religious importance to him. Practically feeling the evil vibrations from the clone, the Boneriders stop their play and watch in silence.

Gods, they could just snap him in half, but they’re afraid of him. Not just that. They respect him, worship him. It really runs that deep. I had no idea. I thought it was just Lilath. Did my brother tell them if they lost, he would free them in ten years’ time? Is he a leader? Or a prophet?

“Where are those puzzles?” the clone asks.

“My private office.”

“On Mars?”

“Here.”

He remains perfectly still. “Lilath.” She swallows. “Did I not tell you to leave my sister’s quarters as they were?” He waits. And waits. The Boneriders watch with smiles as the ten-year-old spanks maybe the hardest woman on all of Luna, and she just takes it. They all want to be number two. So there’s this pack’s dynamic. “Answer, Lilath.”

“You did.”

“So why did you disobey me?” He leans forward. “Did you plan the Day of Red Doves? Did you use the White Guilds to start a war?” What does he mean by that? “You are a blunt instrument, Lilath. You know this. I treat you with respect. And you dare meddle with my designs?”

“I thought they would prove a distraction, sir.”

“I pray for your sake they have not been destroyed.”

“No!” she says. “You made them.”

“Where are they?” I ask, hoping I’m right.

The clone stands up. “You heard my sister, Lilath. She may not be our ally, but she is of better blood than you. Answer her with due respect.”

Lilath looks at me with abject hatred. “In my quarters.”