They were back in the balcony, the fragrance of flowers in full bloom permeating their senses as they looked out over the river shrouded in darkness, the water only visible where it reflected the light of the stars above. Everything they had found in the safe, including the case of sif ores, was wrapped safely in a bedsheet Ashwin had retrieved from the wardrobe and slung over Ruban’s shoulder.

Ruban knew they should leave, but when the Aeriel offered to fly them out, he held up a hand, stalling. A part of him wanted to run away and forget everything that had happened in this place, but another part of him did not want to leave – because he knew that once he left this house, his life would never be the same again. And Ruban didn’t think he was ready for what was to come next. He didn’t think he would ever be ready for it.

“You realise she must have turned him,” Ashwin said at last, not looking at the Hunter. His head was tilted upwards, eyes gazing out over the pinpricks of light dotting the vast, endless blackness that was the universe. “It’s the only way to explain any of this. The papers, the sif. The bloody stolen disk we’ve been looking for all this time,” he sighed, turning to face his companion. “Subhas was – is – her inside man in the IAW. Tauheen must have turned him, and from what we’ve found here tonight, she did it years ago.”

Ruban said nothing. He did not know what to say. The truth was staring him straight in the face and all he wanted to do was look away. When had he become such a coward?

Perhaps the day he lost his father, his best friend. He thought he had lost everything there was to lose; but he really hadn’t, had he? The thought of losing the only family he had left…it left him feeling cold in a way that the thought of facing death on a Hunt never had.

Baba always said there were different types of courage. This was one type in which Ruban felt himself singularly wanting.

Of course, the Aeriel had no such qualms about dissing his own family. “I mean, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Not about your uncle, obviously. I never seriously suspected him of being the leak. But then again, my mother can be very persuasive. Which is a nice way of saying that she’s a lying, manipulative psychopath who wouldn’t know a conscience if it was sitting on her shoulder clawing at her frozen heart.”

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Despite himself, despite the impossible situation they were in, Ruban chuckled. He couldn’t say that the image of something clawing at the Aeriel Queen’s heart seemed entirely unappealing at the moment. Hell, he would have given anything for the opportunity to do just that himself – tear her beating heart from her chest and stomp on it.

He ran a hand tiredly over his face. He felt defeated, wrung out. “I don’t understand. Just…why? Why would he do this? Betray everyone, everything. His country, his family…the goddamn human race! What could possibly have been enough of a price for that?”

Ashwin shrugged. “I never understood what was enough of a price for any of them, really. But she’s always been like that. She always had…an uncanny sort of sway over mortals. Even when I was a child I saw it. Not that she couldn’t manipulate Aeriels, because she could. And did. But she was never as effective as she was with a human, or even a vankrai. Somehow, they always seemed to be completely in thrall to her, to everything she said and everything she did. Once she had them, that was it. They could see no wrong in her. Safaa says she manipulates human emotions, uses it against you. I suppose she would know.

“It’s easier to see why Tauheen needed him, of course. Even if she had the formula, she couldn’t have decrypted it on her own. She’d need an insider for that. An insider high enough in the hierarchy to have access to classified information of the most sensitive nature. Subhas could have helped her decrypt the formula and gotten her the sif ores without much trouble. That’s obvious enough.” He turned to look sharply at the Hunter, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning against. “What I don’t get, though, is why my mother would have felt the need to kidnap Hiya if she already had Subhas doing her bidding of his own free will.”

Before Ruban could answer, they heard the whirr of an engine in the distance and the street leading up to the villa was momentarily illuminated by the headlights of an approaching car. As it reached the eucalyptus grove, the vehicle turned a corner into the lane leading up to the front gates, disappearing from Ruban’s line of sight.

“Well,” he said, looking up at Ashwin with a humourless smile. “I guess we’ll get those answers whether we want them or not.”