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  At the end of the aisle, I bowed to the duke. When I straightened, a servitor painted in the Barnes house colors approached me. A white light shone from its mechanical arms as it ran them up and down my body. Once it finished the scan, it trudged backward until it came to a halt beside Barnes.

  “You’ll have to excuse my attendant,” Duke Barnes said, nodding at the servitor. “The constant threat of the insurrectionists has made me cautious. Even lords are not safe from their blackguard.”

  “I’ve come to request a new assignment, my lord,” I said hastily, my nerves getting the better of me.

  The duke held out the goblet in his hand, and the servitor poured dark wine into it. “These servitors are good for other things, too, which is why I still keep them around,” he said, ignoring my request. “Some of the other houses think me old-fashioned, but it’s so difficult to find good quality service these days.”

  I eyed the robot and wondered whether it was scanning our conversation with its biofeedback surveillance systems. Technically, it was against Caledonian law to scan without verbal agreement, but the duke wasn’t exactly beholden to legislation within his private residence. I just had to make sure I avoided any questions about Tyranus.

  “Ah, yes, your assignment,” the duke exclaimed as if only now hearing what I’d said. “I have it here.”

  Barnes flicked his hand, and the Assignment Request Form materialized on a holographic display between us. Ludas had filled out the form on my behalf. The muscles on my shoulders bunched up when I read my assignment: Deira Sector Outpost.

  The duke brought the digital document forward with a wave, magnifying the final line. “This clearly states Ludas recommended the outpost on your behalf. It looks to me like he was doing you a favor by adding his name. I understand you may now wish to retract this, but you should know there’s no shame in wanting to be away from the battlefield.” The way he was smirking made it clear he thought it most shameful.

  I considered how best to bring up the truth. I couldn’t exactly say his son was both a coward and a liar. The duke dismissed the document with a flick of his hand and stared down at me behind thick eyebrows. He was a busy man, and he probably didn’t have a lot of patience for random squires meeting with him on such short notice.

  The stained glass windows behind the throne made the room swirl with colors, and I was having trouble focusing. Although I was wearing the ceremonial dress of a squire, and my throbbing palm bore squire runes, I was an outsider here. This was the first time I’d even been inside a noble family’s spire. A single thread in the tapestries hanging behind the throne was probably worth more currency than I’d earn in a whole year as a squire.

  Yet I had graduated. I wasn’t simply an Outlander anymore.

  I stared the duke straight in the eye. “I am sorry, my lord, but your son wasn’t exactly telling the truth.”

  “He lied?”

  Under his penetrating gaze, I shrugged my shoulders and cleared my throat. “My hope was to be assigned to the RTF Valor, my lord. Ludas said he would recommend me for the squire position on that vessel.”

  “Instead, Ludas got you sent to this outpost. Now, why would he do that?” Duke Barnes sipped from his goblet thoughtfully. His mouth broadened into a grin, and he slammed his goblet down, splashing wine on the throne’s golden arms. “Ha! Ludas wanted the Valor’s squire position for himself! He is a wily young man, of that there is no doubt.” A proud smile settled on the lord’s face. “He’s certainly the fruit of my loins!”

  This meeting wasn’t going as well as I would have liked, but pressing the point that Ludas had pulled a swift one on me might just anger the duke. “I was hoping you could get me another assignment, my lord. Honestly, any ship would do. I’m a proficient fighter, and I think my skills would be of greater service to our Queen if I were clearing rifts.”

  “Let me see.” The duke twisted his right hand, and my details materialized in front of him. He took a long draw from the goblet as he scanned through to the bottom. “You’re more than proficient. In fact, I’m surprised you were able to pass most of the tests given your poor lineage.” He swirled his goblet and gauged me with his eyes, as though maybe I’d somehow cheated. “The Deira Sector Outpost might lack allure, but squires are sorely needed there. Deep Space is not as uneventful as you might have been told, and someone has to watch the Starline.” His words made my heart slam into my chest, and I tried to think of a way to change his mind.

  “My lord, I am your servant. There must be some ship you can place me on where I might have more of an opportunity,” The sentence came from my mouth hastily, and I lowered my head more. I hated bowing before anyone who wasn’t the Queen, but my pride didn’t matter at the moment. I’d never be able to pay for a new home for my mother if I was stuck at the Deira Sector Outpost.

  “Hmmm. Now that I think of it, there is a ship who desperately needs a squire recruit,” he said, and I looked up to see the man wearing a coy grin.

  “There is?” My surprise gave way to intense gratitude. “Thank you, my lord!”

  I couldn’t believe my bad luck had turned around. Finally, I was going to be on a starship. It didn’t matter what class of vessel it was, as long as I wasn’t stuck on an outpost. An Omura class frigate wouldn’t be too bad. At least I could get used to it. Even a Sei class frigate would be tolerable. A few years, and I could request a transfer to a larger vessel. Anything but an outpost assignment would mean I could climb the ranks.

  “But—“ The duke raised a finger. “There is a condition. You would be working for me. I need eyes and ears on that ship.”

  “I’m not sure I understand, my lord,” I said.

  “I’d like you to be on the vessel as a squire and then report back to me everything you see and hear while you are there. It is a simple mission really. Your ability to pass the Academy tests show you are more than able to help me.”

  “You want me to be a spy?” I struggled to keep the shock out of my voice.

  “Not at all. The vessel is owned by the Caledonian Kingdom. You would be simply keeping an eye on things, making sure the crew is obeying the laws of our beloved Queen. I would have a servitor assigned to the vessel, but something makes me think they wouldn’t make great squires.” He held out his arm, and more wine trickled into his goblet from the servitor. “Have you heard of the RTF Stalwart?”

  My mouth dropped. I tried my best to close it, but it wouldn’t obey.

  Who hadn’t heard of the Stalwart? It was the laughingstock of the RTF. The kind of starship drill sergeants would threaten cadets with if they didn’t fold their tunics into perfect squares or properly polish their prot-belts. It was one of the oldest starships in the fleet, and no one could understand why it hadn’t been decommissioned yet.

  “I take it the ship is known to you, then?” the duke asked.

  I tried not to look disappointed. “I have heard of it, my lord.”

  A thought came to me. Maybe the Stalwart was one of many ships the duke wanted someone to have a closer look at. Maybe there were others he might assign me to. I only had to ask.

  “A ship like the Stalwart is bound to have hundreds of non-regulation modifications, my lord. I’m not sure I’d be able to list everything wrong with it even if I was on the ship for a decade. Do you really need someone on the ship to confirm it’s not space worthy?”

  “You won’t be there to detail failures in the enchanter code, Squire Lyons. You’ll be watching for insurrection.” He raised an eyebrow as he said the word. The duke must have noticed my shock, because he then said, “Yes, now you see this is an assignment of the highest order. One deserving of a hero.”

  I knew his intention was to make me overblown with pride, but I really didn’t feel like a hero. And this assignment was making me feel the complete opposite.

  This was almost as bad as being posted at the Deira Sector Outpost.

  Maybe it was worse.

  No, it couldn’t possibly be worse than manning wha
t served as a retirement home. Aboard the Stalwart, I’d be working for the duke, and he was directly under Queen Catrina, so this secret mission was practically given to me by the Queen--in a roundabout fashion. Maybe the spacecraft wouldn’t be so bad. Drill sergeants told all kinds of stories to cadets. The ones about the Stalwart could have been exaggerated.

  “I’ll do it, my lord,” I said with honor.

  “Of course you will. Apart from the possibility of insurrectionists among the crew, you’ll find the Stalwart an otherwise uneventful craft. Humanitarian missions are just the thing for someone who wants a break from the action.”

  My stomach dropped, and my throat became dry. “Humanitarian missions?”

  “The Stalwart avoids combat zones. There’ll be no rift clearing for you. No more Grendels to worry about. You’ll be delivering supplies to the kingdom’s provinces. Food and things. All the while keeping an eye on the crew and reporting everything you see.”

  This was definitely worse than the outpost. I would be a glorified trader, paid some meager sum while expected to spy on the crew. This was nothing like I’d imagined my first mission as a squire would be.

  “My lord, is it possible I’m not the right person for this mission?” I blinked a dozen times in a row, but the duke wasn’t paying much attention to my emotions.

  He dismissed me with a wave. “Don’t be foolish. Ludas told me all about what happened on Tyranus. Someone like you is better suited to humanitarian missions.”

  I clenched my fists, and my nails dug into my palms. “What did Ludas say to you about Tyranus?”

  “He told me you couldn’t deal with the combat.” Barnes smiled at me with pity. “He also said he dragged you to safety.”

  I was a fraction away from bursting into laughter at the ridiculousness of his son’s recount. If I hadn’t been so mad, I might have done so. Ludas was still making my life hell, even after graduation. One look at the visual feeds from my Academy training and the duke would know his son was lying.

  Maybe it was too much effort. Maybe it didn’t really matter what Duke Barnes thought of me.

  At least I had a job now, and it wasn’t on a backwater outpost. I’d report everything I saw on the Stalwart and find a way to make extra currency. The duke might underestimate me, and Ludas might have made things difficult, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fulfill my dream to become a knight, one way or another.

  “Now,” the duke continued, “your point of contact will be High Sorcerer Silvester Polgar. I will be unable to speak with you for the duration of your assignment, so please try not to vex him. He can be . . . difficult at times.”

  “Yes, my lord.” I didn’t care whether I’d have to shine the sorcerer’s boots to be on a starship.

  “Very good. Then I wish you luck in your venture. Remember, your service is to our most gracious lady, Queen Catrina. If the crew are indeed insurrectionists, they’ll believe themselves her servants. But any mission performed outside of her Royal Trident Forces’ chain of command is treasonous. You understand?”

  “Yes, my lord.” I was starting to sound like a broken servitor, and I felt a wide grin come to my mouth.

  “Polgar!” the duke called out. “Nicholas Lyons here is the Stalwart’s new recruit.”

  I turned to see the sorcerer glide toward the throne. When he came beside me, he leaned on his staff and studied my face without saying a word. I could hear the thrumming of magical power reverberating from the twisted wooden staff and see the arcane aura making the air around it shift.

  He had been somewhat jovial toward me after the ceremony, but now he glared at me from behind his hooked nose. “I was curious about your history, so I looked up your file. Almost perfect test scores. Difficult for a noble. Impossible for one of your stock.”

  I fought back the urge to tell him I’d never cheated on a single test and the only reason more Outlanders weren’t in the Academy was because the tuition was so expensive. I had my father to thank for mine, and I’d worked my ass off to pass those tests. While the nobles were partying, I was either in my room hitting the books or in the battle chambers fighting simulated Grendels.

  I could have told Polgar all those things, but an argument might mean me losing my new assignment. Instead, I swallowed my pride and tried not to show the sorcerer how much I despised him.

  “What does it matter how Squire Lyons managed those results?” Duke Barnes said as he flicked his fingers through the air to bring up my test scores. “He showed ingenuity. The kind of untraditional thinking these Outlanders excel in. It makes him the perfect candidate for our mission aboard the Stalwart.”

  “Perhaps,” Polgar continued staring at me, his scarred fingers strumming his glowing staff. “I’ve been meaning to ask Lyons about what happened on Tyranus.” The sorcerer’s gaze moved to the servitor. “I heard the report, but some of it doesn’t make sense. Tell us, Outlander, how is it that you and the duke’s son were able to jump to the starship when your jump mage was already dead?”

  The servitor beside the throne beeped, and I realized it was scanning everything. Was this conversation planned? An elaborate ploy concocted by the lord and the sorcerer to find out whether I’d been responsible for the mutation event?

  I shook myself out of the stupid thought. I was becoming too anxious.

  “Alice must have died during the jump.” I swallowed as the servitor’s front interface flickered strangely.

  Polgar didn’t remove his eyes from the robot. “Do you know the probability of a successful jump when the mage’s heart has ceased to beat midway through a transfer? It is infinitesimal.”

  “I guess I’m just lucky,” I said with a shrug.

  “Ha!” the duke roared. “You hear that, Silvester? The man is lucky. After all, he did get out of Tyranus alive.” He turned to the servitor to refill his goblet and frowned as its lights flashed an array of colors before settling on amber. The lord looked up at me. “What do you know about servitors, Nicholas?”

  “They are primitive tech which existed since before the First Pioneers discovered Arcane Dust. I don’t mean to offend you, my lord, but I don’t believe non-magical technology is all that reliable.” I swallowed as the servitor’s lights remained a dull amber. I was telling the truth, and the robot’s display hadn’t changed. Maybe it was malfunctioning, making me the luckiest man alive.

  “You appear to be correct, Squire.” Duke Barnes slapped the servitor. It let out a series of high-pitched beeps, and the power gauge flashed. It was just my luck when the robot suddenly blinked out, probably from the force of the duke’s blow. “Polgar, will you have my retainer order me another of these models?”

  “Yes, my lord,” he answered, though he was now staring at me as if I’d somehow caused the robot to die.

  I let my shoulders relax, and from the duke’s sudden anger, I guessed he might have lost all the robot’s truth records when it short-circuited.

  “I noticed your Kingdom Balance was low when I pulled up your file,” Duke Barnes said to me as he flicked his fingers through my test score reports again. “It looks like you were assumed dead after the Academy starship was unable to communicate with anyone on Tyranus.”

  Polgar’s bearded face twisted into a grin, and a sinking feeling threatened to overwhelm me. What was I going to do now? I needed to buy gear before I went on my assignment. I couldn’t show up to the Stalwart with only Novice equipment.

  I’d worked so hard to save those KPs. I couldn’t believe what the duke was telling me, but I now knew why the carriage hadn’t registered my payment.

  “Don’t be troubled by this, Nicholas. This is a fault of our kingdom’s efficiency. I shall correct our error immediately. Silvester, give the word to my retainer that the Barnes account shall transfer 3000 Kingdom Points into the account of Nicholas Lyons.”

  The sorcerer bristled, and my heart did a double-jump. I liked seeing Polgar peeved at my turn of fortune, but I was even happier about the duke’s generosity.


  “Thank you, my lord.”

  “You are most welcome. Ensure that you serve me, and your queen,” the duke said, and it was obvious that I was being dismissed.

  “I will, my lord.” I bowed again before leaving the throne room, feeling the sorcerer’s eyes bore into my back. The Duke might have dismissed his servitor’s objections to my story, but the sorcerer clearly hadn’t. Polgar might be able to pull the data from the dead robot, but it’d likely be corrupted. I would have to be careful around him from now on.

  Once I’d left the plaza of noble family spires, I decided against taking a carriage. Thanks to the advanced atmospheric systems, the air on Bratton was far cleaner than it was planetside, and I wanted to take in the scenery before spending months on a starship. While I crossed the park greenery, I accessed the Caledonian database from my prot-belt. Without my helmet, the menu displayed on a holo projected by the belt’s buckle. I searched for the Stalwart and read the ship’s details.

  RTF Stalwart (Beluga class Transport Support)

  Hull: Crystalanium-ST Composite

  Length: 180 meters

  Mass: Approximately 271,728 metric tons

  Crew: Approximately 80 current crew members. Maximum 220 crew members.

  Arcane chamber: Matthias

  Rune lances: 4

  Plasma quarrels: 10

  Heavy cannons: 2

  Shield stations: 5

  Fighter craft: 2

  Shuttle craft: 4

  Heavy Tanks: 4

  It was clear from the low-res image accompanying the readout the Stalwart was the product of a mad engineer’s experiment. No part of the starship was regulation. There was no guarantee it wouldn’t fall apart while we were voyaging through the universe. Maybe it would fail to leave the docking station.

  How in the hell was it allowed to fly? Someone could make a call to an inspector and have the ship docked, giving me enough time to organize another assignment.

  I stopped myself. Even though it wasn’t the Valor, I was still well on the way to becoming a full-fledged knight and helping Mom get out of the tenements. It might be a little harder to earn Kingdom Points on humanitarian missions, but I’m sure Duke Barnes would pay me well for providing information on the Stalwart’s crew. Come to think of it, we’d never discussed any form of payment. He’d given me 3000 Kingdom Points, but they wouldn’t last long. I sighed. He was probably expecting me to do the right thing for the sake of the kingdom. Working for the kingdom wasn’t a bad thing, but I needed currency to purchase a home for Mom that wasn’t located in a neighborhood renowned for all the wrong reasons.