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“Verdict?”

“My goodman, do I look like your valet?”

“No She was much fairer With better bedside manner”

“Adorable, pretending you just had one”

I raise an eyebrow “You should talk, prince of Mars”

Cassius au Bellona grunts “So are you going to sleep the day away, or get up and see for yourself?” He nods for me to follow; I do, as I have for ten years I smell whiskey in his wake

Once, the worlds called Cassius the Morning Knight, protector of the Society, slayer of Ares Then hetear down the very Society he swore to protect He let Darrow destroy ive him for that, but neither can I repay the debt I owe hi me He pulled me from the ashes of Luna and the chaos that followed, and for ten years he has protected iven me a home, a second family

We could be mistaken for brothers and often are Our hair has that saht My eyes are pale as yellow crystal His are dark gold He’s half a head taller than I, and broader in the shoulders and manlier in the features—a thick, pointed beard, a prominent bold nose, where my face is thin and patrician, like most from the Palatine Hill I wish I did not look so delicate

My name is Lysander au Lune I was naeneral who had thethat is both e of worldbreakers and tyrants Seven hundred years after my ancestor Silenius au Lune conquered Earth, I was born the son of Brutus au Arcos and Anastasia au Lune, heir to empire Now that empire is a fractured, sick land so drunk on war and political upheaval it’s likely to devour itself in er my inheritance When I was a boy, the day after the fall of House Lune, Cassius bent on a knee and told ot it was intended to shepherd, not rule I reject my life and honor that duty: to protect the People Will you join me?”

I had no family left My home was at war I was afraid And, ood So I said yes and for the last ten years we have patrolled the fringes of civilization, protecting those who cannot protect the between asteroids and backwater docks in the Asteroid Belt as the spheres change around us and war rages in the Core Cassius brought us here in search of redemption, but no matter how many traders we save from pirates, or foundered ships we rescue, his eyes remain dark, and I still dream of the demons from my past

I pull on a h the ship after Cassius, running my hands alon

g the walls “Hello, girl,” I say “You’re sounding tired today” The Archimedes is an old fifty-reat Ganyh to push her from Mars to the Belt in under four weeks at near-orbit Shaped like a reared cobra head, she’s o she was top of the line, but she’s seen better days The larger part ofrust fro her electrical innards

But for all that tending, it’s the Archi’s scars I love the most Little beauty marks that make her our home A dent under the kitchen’s oven where Cassius fell and struck his head when drinking long ago—after news reached us of Darrow and Virginia’s wedding Charred ceiling panels ht me a birthday pie when I elve and put the candles too close to a leaking oxygen pipe Scratches on the walls of the razor training rooether like those poems above my bed

I enter the cozy, ovular cockpit There is rooinalhas been stripped out and replaced by war covers the floor Several rows of row atop the console, presents I acquired for Pytha fro Market on Ceres Incense from the Erebian Mountains not far from Cassius’s family home on Mars burns in the corner Cassius and Pytha, our Blue pilot, peer out the cockpit s

Outside is the cargo hauler that drew us off our course to Lacrimosa Station We were en route for ship repairs after last month’s skirmish with Martian scar hunters e received the distress signal from the Gulf between Republic space and Rim territory