Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) (22 page)

52

L
aney watched Preda enter the room. Her ever-present guardian was at her side. It seemed to her both Will and Preda had hardened over the past week. Preda had been constantly evolving ever since Laney had first seen her. Even her face had morphed into something more elegant.

Laney’s parents had told her stories of this as a child. When the Vozia used their voices more, it changed them. Preda had already exercised her voice more than any ruling Vozia in Vakan history. Laney briefly wondered if she knew that. Will had changed as well. His movements now carried more implied menace than before, if that was even possible. The guardian was dangerous.

Laney and Jim were sitting at the council meeting table with Tamron and Al. They were waiting for the arrival of the Vozia. Laney knew little about why she had been called here without the rest of the council except that it involved the recent disappearance of several Ceren servants living with Percin Vank’s family a couple of days before. Jim had told her Percin was being oddly silent about it.

Shortly after Preda and Will sat down, a woman who appeared only a few years older than Laney entered. A guard Laney did not know shut the door behind her. This left the woman standing awkward and alone at the entrance. She was wringing her hands anxiously, and Preda smiled and invited her to take a seat. She sat stiffly next to Preda.

Preda looked at Laney and Jim. “This is Ukra. She is one of the missing Ceren who worked for the Vank family.”

Laney had a hard time keeping the surprise off her face. “They aren’t really missing then, are they?”

Tamron shook his head and answered for Preda. “The remainder are under our observation. Aside from one.”

Laney didn’t think she should ask about that one. Preda cleared her throat, and the look on her face confirmed Laney’s suspicions about the fate of the one.

“We’re here today to discuss a persistent threat,” Preda said.

Both Jim and Laney sat up straighter, and Jim asked, “More were involved in the attack?”

“Yes,” Tamron answered. “It seems Macera Vank might have become Soundless. We have no confirmation yet.”

Laney shuddered involuntarily. Macera Vank was a formidable political figure among the families. She garnered support from financial backers Percin would otherwise have had nothing to do with. The thought of her becoming Soundless terrified Laney to her core.

Preda nodded after seeing her and Jim’s reactions. “I am told Macera is deeply entrenched in Vakan politics,” she said.

Jim exhaled loudly as if he had been holding his breath. “You said it, sister. She pulls a lot of strings.”

He stood and started pacing the room.

“Which is why it is important that she not know about any of our suspicions until we are ready,” Preda said.

“You’re not going to do anything about her?” Laney asked.

“Unless we catch her holding open her mouth without a tongue in it, there’s not much we can do while we’re on this ship,” Al said.

“It would appear she has been involved in multiple criminal activities that we might be able to prove once we land on Vaka. Not the least of which includes the prohibited captivity of an endangered species. Linki,” Preda said seriously.

“Linki are extinct,” Jim corrected her quickly.

“We have reason to believe they are not, and that Macera is breeding them for personal consumption,” Will said.

Laney felt disgusted. Linki were practically defenseless. Their main predators had been Vakans. Her parents had told Laney she would only ever see one in illustration in her lifetime. To think there were still some out there that could have been reintroduced into the wild and Macera Vank was eating them was vile.

Jim whistled quietly under his breath. “What about Percin?” he asked.

“Percin is loyal to me,” Preda answered.

Laney was struck then with how brilliant her tribute to Frak had truly been. Whereas Percin might have turned a blind eye to Macera before, he was now indebted to the Vozia.

Tamron then proceeded to list the information they had obtained from Ukra and the allegedly missing Ceren. Laney couldn’t believe the extent of Macera’s wrongdoings. The woman had been the conductor in a symphony of organized Vakan crime. Many activities she was being implicated in involved blackmail and piracy. Laney wondered why someone as influential as Macera Vank ever needed to involve herself in any of that.

“All of it seems designed to incriminate the outer islands and keep the focus away from home,” Jim said as if he could read Laney’s thoughts.

It was brilliant. Macera’s son had seemed obsessed with drawing the council’s attention to the outer islands. If what Tamron said was true, then the smuggling and illegal shipments the council had been concerned about were largely a result of Macera’s manipulations.

Laney thought about Macera’s carefully controlled face during the last council meeting. What Laney had interpreted as grief over her son’s death might have just as easily been hatred toward Preda and the council. They hadn’t even landed on Vaka, and Preda had already managed to find a powerful political enemy.

“The missing Ceren are to remain under our protection and custody until we land,” Al said. “No one is to know their whereabouts until we can accumulate enough evidence against Macera to formally accuse her. We have to tread lightly while still on the
Feria
.”

Preda nodded resolutely. Laney saw no trace of fear in her face—only determination.

“Ukra will remain hidden under my care until we land on Vaka,” Preda said. Laney saw the girl look at Preda with gratitude. “Can you think of anything to add, Ukra?”

Ukra was still nervously wringing her hands under the table as she spoke. “Lady Macera is not going to play by these rules. I believe her goal was to see you dead before we landed.”

53

P
reda was floating in space and looking at a planet with swirling green water. It hurtled around a bright purple-tinged star. She felt the now-familiar pull toward Vaka, and felt herself falling faster toward it. Pale green clouds whipped past her, and she felt as if she should be on fire as she hurtled toward the planet, but her skin stayed cool. The ocean was full of unfamiliar faces treading water just below the ocean surface. Just as Preda knew it would, the water caught fire right before she hit.

Preda jolted upright in her bed aboard the
Feria
and tried desperately to catch her breath. Fiver grumbled beside her and readjusted himself dramatically. Preda could feel cold sweat dripping down her back and decided she should get up and take a shower.

She swung her feet out of bed and padded to the bathroom on the cold stone floor. Once she passed by the light stone in the walls, it lit almost instantly. Maybe it was just Preda’s imagination, but the light stones seemed to be getting brighter as they approached their home planet.

She shook her head at the thought and turned on the water. She made it as hot as she could. Before she got in the shower, she caught her reflection in the mirror. It had been four months since she had sat down to dinner with Frak Vank, but the scar on the side of her neck was still the first thing that caught her eye. The second were her eyes.

Preda had attended and spoken during almost daily council meetings while aboard the ship. Her face had thinned and become simultaneously more alien and elegant, and her eyes had practically started to glow in the dark. The bright green reflected even the softest light. It unsettled Preda, and she tried to avoid mirrors.

While she showered, she thought about the water planet Vaka. It didn’t surprise Preda that she had had that dream again. It was becoming more frequent now, but she thought it was just the knowledge that the ship was slowing down.

The Landi reported at the last council meeting that there had been a noticeable shift in the control room. They expected the green planet to come into sight within days. Preda didn’t know whether it would terrify her more if the planet was exactly as she envisioned it or if it wasn’t.

She was a little earlier than usual when she got out of the shower, but she threw her long black hair back into a ponytail and headed down to the track all the same. She glanced at her bed, and Fiver squinted at her before curling up to go back to sleep. Preda didn’t wish to wake Will for a run. Instead she stole out of her rooms as quietly as she could.

She had tried to do this a few times over the past week, and Will had always been waiting for her in the corridor to walk her back when she was finished. He always looked amused about it, but she was determined not to bother him if she could help it.

After all, they hadn’t even seen Macera leave her rooms for months, and no one else on the ship had received any threats. Macera seemed content to wait until they landed to resume whatever machinations she was involved with. As far as Preda was concerned, that was all right by her.

Ukra seemed less convinced, though. The girl was a nervous wreck and had grown obsessive about Preda’s safety over the past couple of months. It was unnerving.

The run that morning was perfect. Preda found that her body was made for this. Her training with Jim had made her much more muscular, and the running kept her lean and light on her feet. Not only had her face been changing, but her entire body was transforming on this journey.

She doubted anyone would recognize the small, timid girl on Earth who had hidden in her clothes. Her thoughts distracted her, and she tripped on her next step but caught herself just in time. As it turned out, no amount of conditioning could make her less clumsy.

After at least an hour run, Preda decided to use the walk back to her rooms as a cooldown. When she opened the door to the corridor, Will was leaning casually against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He looked as if he had been there the entire time. Preda sighed in dramatic frustration, and Will laughed at her.

“Bad dream again?” he asked.

Preda nodded. She was resigned to the fact that her shadow would always be one step ahead of her. “I’m sorry if I woke you,” she said.

“It’s not your fault,” he said, and he matched her stride down the hall.

“You know it is. It’s not as if I asked for your permission or had you weigh the pros and cons of this job,” she said.

It was not the first time she had expressed her guilt for making him her guardian. He smiled a crooked smile at her. “We’ve been through this, Preda. I was born to be your guardian.”

Just as she was about to retort that he had probably been meant for greater things than being her watchdog, the ship shuddered. Preda was almost thrown into the wall behind her, and Will’s strong arm wrapped around her. Preda found herself pulled against him. When the ship stabilized, she asked, “What was that?”

“We’ve slowed down,” he said and smiled.

Preda pulled away, and he quickly let her go. She could have sworn there was a faint tinge of redness creeping up his neck. She shook her head, though, and started running down the corridor to the control room. Will was right on her heels.

When they entered the control room, the scene was chaotic. Preda couldn’t even spare a glance for the people scrambling around the controls. The screen in front of her was the only thing she could see. The swirling green planet and giant purple star occupied the entire wall. It was exactly as she had envisioned it in her dreams. The green was the exact shade as her eyes. Preda felt suddenly disoriented, as if she was falling.

54

W
ill had seen Vaka from space when he left his home planet years earlier, but the vision was no less spectacular. He watched Preda closely while she held on to the back of a chair for balance. He felt her disorientation momentarily pass through him. It was like having double vision. He reached out briefly to steady her, but the feeling had already passed.

She had woken him up early that morning with a nightmare. Will wished she would tell him what it was, but she always kept quiet about it whenever he asked. He suspected it involved Vaka, because she would occasionally question him about his home planet afterward to change the subject.

He had followed her at a discreet distance to give her space and waited in the corridor outside. As much as he wanted to run with her, Will suspected she needed to be alone. Oddly enough the Ceren girl Ukra had walked past him this morning with her usual guard trailing her. Will had greeted her, but she had just bowed shyly and walked by.

Ukra had been nothing but devoted to Preda ever since she had been in her care. Her behavior, however, had been too sycophantic for Will’s comfort over the past few weeks, and there was something about her he couldn’t put his finger on. His urge to follow Ukra had dissipated as soon as Preda entered the hall after finishing her run.

Will looked at Preda now. She was standing in the control room with tears shining in her green eyes. The similarity between them and the green ocean currents in front of them was uncanny.

“It’s exactly the same,” she murmured while she gazed at the planet floating on the screen in front of her.

Will was taken aback. He thought she could only mean the color of her eyes. “The same as what?”

“My dream,” she said. “Even the purple star.” Then she looked at him and said something that made his blood feel cold. “I’m not going to let it burn, though.”

Will felt more than saw that she was about to pass out. He grabbed her arm and made her sit down in the chair she had been using for support. Preda smiled weakly up at him. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Will wondered what she could have been sorry for—besides terrifying him. Once he was sure she was not going to lose consciousness, he asked the nearest engineer, “How long until we descend?”

“Hours,” the engineer answered.

The
Feria
ran on radiation that it pulled from the surrounding stars. That meant that although the Vakans had control over the final destination, they had little control over anything else. Hence the surprise morning descent.

Will turned when his father entered the room. Tamron glanced at the screen and then at Preda. He looked at Will. “She OK?”

“I have a voice, Foxy. I can answer for myself,” Preda said grumpily before Will could reply.

Tamron laughed. Will had never known his father to have a sense of humor before. When he had first heard Preda’s nickname for him, he could not have been more shocked. Now it seemed as if the older Kait actually embraced it. Still, Will didn’t think he wanted to see what would happen if anyone else tried calling the great Tamron “Foxy.”

“We need to call the council,” Tamron said after a moment of staring at Vaka.

Preda nodded in agreement. Will helped her stand and steady herself. She looked back once at Vaka before leaving the control room. Once outside she seemed able to clear her head of whatever had affected her. She smiled at Will and said, “Finally, we’re there.”

They made their way to the council chamber after stopping briefly for Preda to change. Will was not surprised to see that almost everyone else had already gathered, including Jim and Laney. He noted that the two had become inseparable while aboard the
Feria
. Although everyone else could see what was between them, it was only a matter of time before they admitted it to themselves.

Laney looked particularly nervous this morning, and Jim had his hand subconsciously resting on her shoulder in a comforting gesture. Laney’s identity as a human being had not been made public knowledge, and still only a handful of people knew. Although Artem was convinced the water filter would be enough to make her safe, they knew it could never replace the generations of evolution and adaptations humans had undergone to live on Vaka. Will smiled at Laney encouragingly, but her return smile was unconvincing.

Preda took her customary position at the head of the table and wasted no time in starting. The room felt electric, and everyone fell silent and waited for her to speak. As she often did, Preda made eye contact with Percin before starting. She had recognized his value as an ally, and their trust in each other had grown over the past few months. Despite Percin’s best efforts, Macera avoided him as if he was a Kait. Will thought Percin had aged while on the ship, and he could hardly reconcile him with the man who had left Vaka years before.

Tamron and Al stepped forward to outline how security would be handled once they landed on the planet. They had been careful not to mention Macera to the remainder of the council, but Will knew she would be closely watched once they had landed. The remainder of the meeting went smoothly. Brief points were brought up and discussed one final time before arrival. Finally the meeting drew to a close.

“Thank you for meeting with me one last time while aboard the
Feria
,” Preda said. “I know this has been a longer journey for some than others. I can only hope your faith in me will be rewarded with peace and prosperity on Vaka.”

It never ceased to amaze Will how Preda knew how to speak with no prior exposure to their politics or culture. She had been born to them and grown apart from them, but she was finally being returned home.