The Fractured Dark by Megan E. O'Keefe

Author:Megan E. O'Keefe [O’KEEFE E, MEGAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2023-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

Tarquin

Mercator Station | The Present

Tarquin’s announcement that canus would not be distributed to the other families had been met with the kind of subdued displeasure that meant they had expected such a reversal, and had been secretly sharpening their knives behind his back in preparation.

He’d braced himself to be shouted at and had brought facts to back up his decision to the holo meeting. He needn’t have bothered. Every last one of them rolled over. Because he was Mercator. Though they all pretended at an equal share of power, at the end of the day, Mercator stood alone.

So it had come as a minor shock when Chiyo requested a private visit.

Tarquin sat behind the desk in his personal office, repressing an urge to fidget with his sleeve as he scanned reports other Mercator stations had sent in about misprints gone awry and glitches in the printing cubicles. “Corrosion” had been discovered on some of the relkatite circuitry in those systems, so he ordered a complete tear-down and deep clean of them all. He then sent another order to his chief of security, Alvero, to look into similar reports on the stations of the other MERIT families.

“Tired, Liege Tarquin?” Chiyo asked from the door.

Tarquin straightened, offering her a strained smile. “Aren’t we all, these days? Please, sit.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “And do call me Tarquin. You’ve practically been an aunt to me, Liege Chiyo, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

It was difficult to remind himself that, Acaelus aside, Chiyo might be one of the most dangerous people in the worlds. Her warm smile was an echo of his past. It was the same expression she’d given him when he’d been a child and had told her the family mark she’d had printed upon her neck was a shade of garnet he rather liked. She’d ruffled his hair—he’d been eight—and told him she’d been trying for rubies. He’d spent three weeks obsessed with corundum after that.

“It’s good to see you behind that desk, though I wish the circumstances were different.” She settled into a chair and crossed one ankle over the other, carefully arranging the finely embroidered silk half skirt that hung around the hips of her snugly tailored slacks.

“I never wished to be here at all,” he said.

“I know. Despite your inexperience in these matters, that is a large part of why I’m glad it’s you.”

Tarquin wiped the holos between them away and leaned back, letting his hands rest on the arms of his chair. “Do you mean to imply that my greenness is more appealing to you because it makes me easier to manipulate than Leka?”

“No. But the others certainly would. I worried about you falling into such a trap at the first meeting, but I’m pleased to see you came to your senses.”

“I had poor advice early on,” he said without inflection. “I have handled the source of that advice.”

“A victory I’m here to congratulate you on in person. You had me worried there for a moment, Tarquin.

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