Page 162 of The Space Between Stars

Thyatira only sighed. Niklaus closed his eyes, bracing for another hit.

None came.

“Here’s the story as I understand it. You have been trying to topple Aetech for the past year to collect on an insurance policy that expires on the summer equinox. You procured unethical slander against your own organization last winter, which failed. Then you enlisted in the military to weaponize defensive distortion technology against us, which failed. Now, you’ve hired a mercenary to kidnap the younger sibling of Aetech’s primary engineer as a means for blackmail.”

Blackmail that would whitewash everything Thyatira had done. “You know that’s not true.”

“And with your track record, what will the courts in Seraphinden believe?”

Niklaus might have glared, but with his sensory input so overwhelmed, he couldn’t be sure what his eyes were doing.

“Now that I have your attention, I think we can have a discussion. Meyernes, you and I can work together. I’ve been paying attention to you, and I can say for certain that we have a common enemy.” A more diplomatic way of saying ‘you’re being watched’ had never been proffered. He’d rather have the gut punches. “That enemy is not Aethertech Mechanics. It is not Odeneous Taranil. It is not the Tera’thian State.” Thyatira did have his attention now, and Niklaus held his gaze level. “It is the victims of our oligarchy’s systemization, so weak-minded as to believe that this is the way things must be, because it is how they are going. You can help me fight that.”

The last thing he’d expected was for Thyatira to ask him for help. “I… what? If you want to work together, why did you punch me?”

Thyatira snagged him on a pointed stare. Niklaus could have sworn the corner of his mouth moved. “Someone needed to punch you.” And that just might have been the case. “We share a goal, and for that I want to prevent you from getting screwed on a poorly made deal with Calverous Curtaim. You have no idea who he is or what he is capable of. He, like his father, is a Tera’thian ally. He was hired to assassinate an ex-high-ranking official—Deshpian Thackore—last winter in Chira’na, and he was successful. Any idea how he did it?”

Niklaus clenched his jaw and shook his head.

“He incinerated Thacklore’s heavily guarded estate and everyone in it. The street reported multiple explosions, likening it to a volcanic blast. Said it was magic. What do you think might have caused that?”

Niklaus swallowed. “Couldn’t say.”

“It sounds nearly identical to what happened to the wagons in the southern rim a few nights past, don’t you agree?”

Niklaus tilted his head to one side.

“I know the story he’s fed you, because you fed it to my command staff: the energy retainer from those shields has been tampered with—removed, even. It was done as a part of a covert Tera’thian offensive. But what you have yet to put together is that he was the Tera’thian offensive. And everything you’ve witnessed was him doing the tampering.”

Niklaus’s heart beat in his throat. It sounded… plausible. Not just plausible, but the most likely possibility. It was as though the whole world had shifted beneath him, and he needed to get his bearings.

Thyatira crouched before Niklaus. “Curtaim was hired to tamper with those defensive shields. He manipulated you to make it happen. And he accomplished his goal. Now he is heading to the enemy to deliver them a pivotal tool.”

Niklaus squinted against the light. “Thedexemore?”

Thyatira nodded. “Leverage against Aetech Mechanics to gain distortion intelligence.”

Used again. Had he ever been more than a tool for others to get what they wanted?

The General Prime’s brows pinched in sympathy. “You cannot blame yourself for this deception. He has proven time and time again to make allies of his victims before their demise. But it does pose a problem—you’re implicated. If you work with me now, you won’t find yourself sitting on the wrong side of a witness stand back in Seraphinden. We can set things right.”

Thyatira nodded to the guard behind Niklaus. Niklaus flinched, waiting for pain. The bracers at his wrists unlocked and clattered to the ground. Niklaus rubbed at his wrists, his throat suddenly very swollen. Calver might very well be a bounty hunter. The rest of the world had always thought Niklaus’s judgements to be foolhardy. Maybe it was time he joined them.

Thyatira offered Niklaus a canteen. “It’s been a difficult road for you, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Someone can finally believe you again, and no one else has to get hurt.”

No one else?

The veil stitched over his eyes rent, and he saw both the lie and the artist who had painted it with perfect vision. What was that, if not a confession? This was the man who’d sent Dex to kill him. Who’d silenced all those who might speak against him. Of course he’d make up a clever lie about Calver.

Niklaus’s thoughts turned a full circle. He had taken this journey with one objective in mind: reveal Roskaad Thyatira. The opportunity was in his grasp, and he had nearly thrown it away in a game of fetch with an unwilling retriever.

“Please, help me,” he whispered.

He fought the corners of his mouth down, but his insides beamed bright enough to reach Chira’na. Perhaps he could have it all. He could topple Aetech, save his own skin, help Calver, and avenge Latouda all in one swing. The path became suddenly clear to him, as though the Fates themselves lit the way to make it unfold.

He would meet Thyatira’s lie with another. “You’re… you’re right. He is a mercenary. I’ve known it all along. But he didn’t say he was working for the Tera’thians. He told me he was hunting the Shadewalker.”

Thyatira’s demeanor shifted so suddenly that, had Niklaus not been staring him in the eye, he might have missed it. That was something. There was a correlation between General Prime Roskaad Thyatira and the Shadewalker, and only Niklaus knew.