“We seek the truth,” agent Perkins said. “But peace is a close second priority. The truth has come out at last, so now we root for peace. We do not think a war with the Brions is a smart idea. Especially with your gerion leading their armies.”
Isolde felt herself smiling.
“Ah,” the Palian said. “So you are his gesha. Forgive me for having to see for sure. You never know with the Brions.”
“They’re not so bad,” Isolde said defensively.#p#分页标题#e#
“I know,” the agent replied to her surprise. “I have studied a lot of the GU’s species in my time. Humans were particularly interesting to me. Much less straightforward than the Brions. I find that enticing, but it makes dealing with the Brions much easier, of course.”
A thought occurred to Isolde – how fast he moved and how free he seemed to be with his time. “I take it you’re not really an agent stationed on Luna Secunda.”
“Oh, I was,” the agent said, inclining his head. “I planned to study humans further, but this here called for my attention, so I left.”
“Who are you?” Isolde asked. “Why do I have the feeling I really have you to thank for the Palians’ support in the Council?”
Agent Perkins gave her a small bow. “I may have put in a good word for you. And for the Brions.”
“Why?” Isolde asked. “And please tell me you didn’t see all this coming. Because in that case you could have given me a warning about so many things.”
The Palian laughed. “Trust me, if I had seen half of this coming, I would not have let you go anywhere. But it is true that I felt you were safe. I thought I recognized the moment Brion men have with their geshas. It is not like Diego Grothan to stare at someone in that manner unless he means to kill them in the very immediate future.”
Isolde sighed. “I hope you will continue supporting us. And that the Galactic union reaches the decision soon.”
“So do I,” the agent nodded. “I will do all I can for you. But I want to hear it from you personally – do you think the Brions can be trusted?”
Isolde thought over everything that had happened to her. From the moment her transport ship had left without her and she’d been ripped from the world she’d known to finally arriving at Rhea with her gerion. She’d met a lot of Brions, of whom all were ferocious, but few actually vicious.
She nodded. “Yes. And I’m not saying this because of Diego. They won’t play nice, because they’re Brions, but they won’t stab you in the back either. That wouldn’t be the Brion way.”
The Palian smiled, nodding. “Very well. As it happens, I agree with you. I will see what I can do. Meanwhile I wish your gerion luck in his hunt. If the Brions show they will deliver justice to those who defy the Elders, it will look better for the Council, I am sure. Farewell, Miss Fenner.”
Isolde was left alone to be very, very confused about who she had actually met on her first day in space. A whole lot of Brion warriors, her fated, and a Palian who apparently could change the vote of his race on a whim.
When she got back to Eleya, the senator’s face was so pale she didn’t even really need to ask. Deliya and Narath joined them before Isolde could offer a word of comfort, though she didn’t know what she could possibly say to make it any better for her.
“We are called to the surface, senator,” Narath said in his booming voice. “You too, Isolde. They found him.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Diego
It was raining when Diego and Faren descended to the planet with their warriors in search of Eren. The senator couldn’t honestly hope to beat them in a fair match, so perhaps he hoped to lose them in the wild, treacherous mountains of Rhea.
Possibly, Diego thought, a single man, travelling alone could have eluded them for a while. Even then, his trackers knew the territory well. They had been on Rhea before, and even if they hadn’t, they had been trained all their lives to find people who didn’t wish to be found. Only Eren had clearly decided against escaping alone and had taken the generals with him. For protection?
Diego was more concerned with whether they’d catch the traitors before the generals decided to try saving themselves by sacrificing Eren than he was with whether they’d actually find them.
Beside him, Faren was grim. One by one, the Brion generals had abandoned Eren. Some had already switched sides when the Triumphant reached Briolina, and they had been convinced that Eren was in the wrong. Some turncloaks had run back to them after Diego killed Crane. In future times, Faren would make short work of them, Diego had no doubt.
After the Elders emerged, Eren had only a few generals left with him – the most vicious, the most bloodthirsty, the ones who refused to part with Rhea’s treasures even against the commands of the Elders.
Diego knew Faren hungered for their blood. To be honest, so did he. The traitor generals shamed their station and everything they should have stood for. Crane, at least, had had the mitigating circumstances of being absolutely insane when he ended up on Eren’s side. It was barely his choice at all, though Diego harbored no illusions of the monster siding with him had he been sane.#p#分页标题#e#
Behind them, bits and pieces of machine and Brion were still raining to Rhea’s surface from the two warships. No doubt the sight of the Brions fighting amongst themselves made for a nice image to broadcast to the Galactic union . Diego knew quite well that there were plenty who wished they’d just kill each other off in Rhea’s mountains.
He planned to do no such thing. He would find the traitors and drag them to Rhea’s only considerable city to be executed. Then he would return to Isolde, and they would make what they could of what remained of the galaxy.
They had found the tracks easily. A large number of warriors travelling didn’t precisely make for a stealthy escape. In his mind, Diego went over every possible way Eren might have run. Like an animal that knew it was quite certainly dead already, the senator simply tried to draw out his torment by running into a corner. Ahead of them, Rhea’s towering mountains rose. If Eren reached the mines, he might manage to hide in them for a while. Diego had no intention of letting the traitor starve to death somewhere in the dark without justice reaching him.
“Pick up the pace,” he ordered. “We must not let them reach the mines.”
They ran.
---
So had Eren, apparently. But not far enough. His head start hadn’t been that great – the Triumphant and the Unbroken were much faster ships than his. They were the flagships of the Brion fleet and could boast power the others only dreamed of. All of that Eren had to have known, and without any particular pride, Diego took it for a fact that running from him and Faren was simply hopeless.
It seemed Eren had come to that conclusion himself. In the end, his options were reduced to what he should have done in the first place if he had been a true Brion, in Diego’s judgment. He fought.
It wasn’t an even fight by any accounts, but Diego noted some warriors who at least died a warrior’s death. They didn’t back away from the cutting, razor-sharp edges of his spear nor from the whirling, bloody axe Faren wielded. Even in the midst of the battle craze, valor squares pulsing wildly on his neck, Diego took time to note that. It was always honorable to see a warrior accept their death and face it like a Brion.
He knew Faren felt the same, searching for a sign of honor still in their fallen brothers. Diego witnessed an unusual act of mercy for a high ranking warrior who had faced Faren, and while he obviously lost, Faren took the second to end his life quickly. Diego hadn’t seen the engagement, but judging from the end, the warrior must have given Faren a true fight.
They fought on, through the droves of honor guards between them and Eren, their warriors at their side. They were equally grim, both to fight their brothers and sisters, but even more from finding them to be traitors to all they held dear. That alone left no room for mercy. The spears of their warriors were matted with blood and flesh, ghastly to see in the dim rain, the only light the wild pulsing of valor squares.
Faren, who had so far grimly advanced step-in-step with Diego, his battle axe rising and falling to end lives, broke away from him to face one of the traitor generals in single combat. His face, which had remained expressionless all throughout their hike higher up the mountains, was now etched with fury. Diego almost felt sorry for the fool to fall to his brother soon.
He searched for Eren. The Elders had let him continue being grothan and he wasn’t about to disobey them by letting Eren escape to some unnoticed death. Fury rose in Diego’s heart as he saw the senator through the mass of bodies, Eren’s eyes filled with what suspiciously looked like fear. He kept looking around and Diego didn’t doubt for a moment it was to search for him.
Unrestrained fury was useless, but well-aimed was not. Eren had disobeyed every law the Brions had, down to the most important – to do what was best for all Brions. His selfishness had driven them all to this, to fratricide, to the brink of a war the Brions could only emerge from, but none would come out victorious. He had corrupted the other senators, put in charge by the Elders themselves, he had tried to kill Isolde…