I awoke with a start, feeling cold marble beneath my cheek. I was lying on the floor but not the metal and stone corridors of the guard area I last remembered.

“Well, that was easier than I expected,” said a regal female voice.

Opening my eyes, my vision slowly cleared to reveal a large cathedral-like room. Columns that looked crafted from coral reefs spiraled up from the shiny, marble floor under my face up to the tall domed ceilings. I felt my arms restrained behind my back.

A large throne crafted of what looked like living coral dominated the front of the chamber. Although the room was dry, the coral making up the throne looked like it was still underwater, wafting gently as if enchanted. Hanging from the ceiling were giant chandeliers made to look like explosions of bubbles. For now, however, the light they produced was dimmed, leaving the room sparsely lit.

Pushing myself up to a sitting position, I looked around the room trying to locate the voice that had spoken. In my perusal, I noticed Par, Tor and Celo restrained and looking groggy but awake on my left. Dick and Cash were just starting to rouse to my right. Vomero was out cold. He had a gash in his head that was bleeding onto the floor. Like myself, they all had their hands bound behind their backs with restraining cuffs.

A beautiful Syreni woman wearing an expensive-looking gown of blue and gold gossamer fabric stepped out of the shadows from behind the throne. Though I had never met the woman, I recognized her immediately from photos and newscasts. This was Queen Lethe, the Syreni monarch who killed her own people.

“I was expecting your crew to fail this mission,” she said, “even after I reduced security so drastically.”

I wasn’t shocked to find out that our mission had been a set-up the whole time. That had always seemed like a possibility. My mind raced trying to put the pieces together. Why was the Queen behind her own uprising? Why go through this elaborate ruse to bring us here and then backstab us? She obviously had no qualms of doing whatever the hell she wanted. Mandala proved that.

She was about to speak again, when a side door opened. A familiar dark-haired assassin barged into the room. She was dragging the old man behind her, or at least she was trying to. The codger had quite a bit of fight in him for an old dude.

“Here’s another one,” the assassin said. “We’re still looking for the other two.”

Growing impatient, she bashed him on the head with her fist, rendering him unconscious. I moved to stand and defend the old geezer, but quickly found myself still too weakened from the taser blast. Glancing at me, the assassin sneered.

“Oh don’t look so surprised, Alnasi,” she said. “Turns out you’re not nearly as clever as you imagine yourself to be. I was so sure this plan wouldn’t work on you, and yet here you are.”

“How’s the arm?” I asked simply.

I noticed that she hadn’t been using it much while dragging in the old man. At my words, her eyes burned with anger. She took out the pistol strapped to her hip and shot me in the arm. I let our an involuntary shout of pain as the blaster shot ripped through the fleshy part of my arm just below the shoulder.

“That was payback,” she said and charged the blaster for another shot. “The next one is pure pleasure.”

“Enough, Katra,” the Queen said, and I saw the assassin’s hand clench around the grip of her pistol before she reluctantly lowered the weapon. “We need some of them alive for the guards to kill.”

“I don’t see why she has to be one of them,” Katra argued with the Queen. “And you can drop the disguise now. We don’t want anyone thinking she’s still alive after these fools have been apprehended.

“Fair enough,” the Queen said, and slowly her appearance began to morph. She grew taller, more wiry, and more male, until Owen stood in her place. “And now that you’ve shot her in the arm, she seems to be the perfect one to send limping toward the guards. They can’t possibly fail to kill her in that condition.”

Pieces were starting to click into place, and I had a feeling that the Queen hadn’t been herself for quite some time. This explained the sudden shift in economic policy, the divisive and abhorrent attacks against her own people. It even explained why they would bother to stage an uprising against themselves, using outsiders to smuggle in the enemy. We were the perfect fall guys, and nobody would believe us if we claimed a shapeshifter had been posing as the Queen the whole time.

“You need to drag the rest of the bodies in here and stage them,” Katra said. “I’ll take care of the ones we don’t need.”

“Execute the Malunites for sure,” Owen said. “They’ve too much credibility among their own kind and sympathizers to be left alive.”

“If your plan was to kill the Queen and make it look like we did it,” Tor spoke defiantly, understanding the grave danger he and his companions were in, “why not just let us? We had a common goal to end this kingdom’s tyranny.”

“I’m afraid his benefactors don’t care about toppling this kingdom’s tyranny, Tor, not when they can wield that power for themselves,” I said. “Isn’t that right, Owen? And I bet when the world realizes the Malunites murdered the Syreni queen, your patrons will be there to install their own puppet on the throne.”

“Hatred makes people easy to manipulate,” Owen said to Tor. “Your people are proof of that. So to answer your question, I couldn’t leave it up to you because you never would have killed her. Not when you realized she wasn’t the one you should be hating.”

Without warning, a blaster rifle fired and hit Tor directly in the chest. His companions shouted in anger and agony as he fell to the ground, dead in seconds from the direct hit. Across the room, Katra held one of the weapons the enforcers and guards often carried.

“Enough talking,” she said to Owen. “We’ve got a job to do.”

Without hesitation, she fired the blaster two more times into Celo and then Par. I heard myself shouting in anger as the two Malunites joined their leader in a lifeless heap on the floor. Walking over to their bodies, she kicked them hard several times to make sure they were dead before reaching down and unshackling them.

From behind the throne, Owen was dragging in a woman’s body, which he placed on the floor near the throne. Although I couldn’t get a clear look at it, I was sure this must be the real Queen Lethe. Next, he retrieved a dead guard’s body from the same area and drug it out to the throne room, as well. Struggling under the man’s heavier weight, something fell from Owen’s coat and rolled with a clang down the stairs.

It was a crown. The Drowned Diadem. Of course they would have it. They would need it to control Lord Acheron.

Katra looked aggravated as she retrieved the crown and walked over to the Queen’s body.

“You can’t just leave it on her body for any fool walking by to take,” Owen said. “I was going to leave it in her chambers on our way out. Help me get the rest of these guards and we’ll finish up with them before triggering the alarm.”

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Katra shrugged and tucked the crown into her own coat. With the Malunites dead, I knew she would soon start executing members of our crew. I assumed she didn’t need us all alive for their frame job to work. As they went in the back to retrieve more dead guards, I looked at Dick and Cash. Vomero had also roused during the commotion with the Malunites but had chosen to feign unconsciousness.

“We need to make our move before they start executing us,” I said. “If they’re scrambling, they’ll make a mistake.”

Vomero nodded in acknowledgement. He also wiggled his hands behind his back to show he had disabled his restraints.

“Matthew went for the transport,” Dick said. “We still have the evac plan to fall back on assuming he made it.”

Nodding, I cast a glance toward the throne area where the two were just emerging again.

“We need a distraction,” I said, lowering my voice even more.

“I got it,” Cash said. “Lizard man, can you give me a boost?”

Vomero nodded again. It was all the time we had for communication as the two were bringing the dead guards’ bodies toward us. They each dropped the guard they were carrying unceremoniously on the floor.

“It’s good to know your aim isn’t as shitty as I first thought,” Cash said to Katra, maneuvering to his feet so he could face her standing up. “It would really put a stain on our profession if you always went around missing your targets.”

“I didn’t miss,” she said. “But then I should have expected the infamous Theodoric Cash to require killing twice. It’s nothing personal, by the way, just business.”

“Here’s a little pro to amateur advice,” he said, tauntingly. “Learn to put the bullets in their head. But then again, that does take a higher caliber of skill.”

“Big talk, yet here I am getting the drop on you for the second time this week,” she said. “You know what they say. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...But then again, they also say never meet your heroes. You’ve been a big disappointment.”

“You know a lot about me,” Cash said. “But I’ve never even heard of you. And when I’m done, you’ll be just another footnote at the bottom of my dossier. That discount assassin who was stupid enough to try killing Theodoric Cash, twice, and failed.”

She shook with rage at his words and raised the gun in her hand to his face. Cash simply stared at her past the barrel of her blaster, never flinching.

“Katra!” Owen called. “Control yourself!”

“Sure you don’t need to be closer? Wouldn’t want to miss,” Cash continued.

Her nostrils flared and she charged the blaster.

“Now,” I whispered to Vomero.

Time seemed to slow, everything happening in an instant.

Katra squeezed the trigger of the blaster. At the same time, a loud mechanical whir signaled the power boost Vomero was channeling to Cash. His mechanical arm ripped free of its shackles and moved with lightning speed, intercepting the weapon’s blast and crumpling the barrel like paper. Cash’s foot came up and caught her square on the chest, sending her flying several feet back.

Dick was the next to make his move. He transformed into something I could only describe as a large prehistoric version of a bat. The restraints fell off his much smaller wrists and he took off, barreling into Owen, who was pulling out his own blaster.

Vomero scrambled to me and quickly disabled my restraints.

“Get the old man,” I said.

Owen had wrestled his way free from Dick, who had now transformed into his Centuri form and was pressuring him again.

“Spring it!” Owen yelled, and Katra shot another blast toward a panel on the wall. Immediately, alarms blared deafeningly throughout the room. I felt like the same was probably happening all over the palace grounds.

“Go!” Owen yelled at Katra. “You can’t be found here!”

With a groan of frustration, she turned from her fight with Cash and ran, deftly scaling one of the pillars and barreling through one of the cathedral windows to escape. Cash was already in pursuit. Owen tried to cover her retreat by firing blasts at Cash as he followed her climb.

With a thought, a series of constellation tattoos along my forearms began to glow. As I drew my arms back into an archery stance, a bow and arrow made of light energy manifested in my hands. I let loose the arrow at Owen. He reacted quickly but couldn’t dodge it completely, the arrow slicing cleanly through his bicep.

I could hear the sound of footsteps pounding toward the throne room entrance. Just before the doors burst open, Owen transformed into one a Syreni guard. As the other enforcers breached the room, he shouted orders at them.

“They’ve killed the Queen!” he yelled. “Stop them at all costs!”

It was time to go. Vomero had a head start, having grabbed the old man and leaving immediately toward the previously agreed upon evac point. We could only hope that Matthew was waiting if we made it there.

Dick landed beside me. He was now some angelic looking humanoid form I had never encountered. Despite our situation, I couldn’t help but take a moment to rib him about it.

“Well, if that’s not irony, I don’t know what is,” I joked.

“Hop on and I’ll take you to heaven,” he replied, cheekily.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have room to refuse. He pulled me close to his body and took off with a mighty flap of his wings. The enforcers lobbed shots at us as we made for the broken window Cash and Katra went through.

“Don’t look back,” I said in Dick’s ear, then pointed my right hand toward the guards below.

“Supernova,” I whispered and channeled every bit of energy I could spare into the incantation.

The room behind us lit up like daylight as we burst through the open cathedral window. From our vantage point, I could see Katra running along the rooftops. She hadn’t gotten far. We landed on a roof. Dick’s energy had apparently been exhausted, and he fell to one knee as we landed, transforming back into his normal human form.

Ryuuk landed next to us.

“Matty’s got the transport at the ron-de-vu,” he reported. “Those last-minute driving lessons came in handy, but I don’t think we want him movin’ it any further than that.”

“We have to stop that woman,” I said, pointing to where Katra was just now making her way down a rooftop along the outer courtyard. If she made it to the wall, she’d be gone for good.

Ryuuk pulled out his sniper rifle, and I summoned my light bow. I closed my left eye and a tattoo in the corner of my right eye lit up, activating my sure sight ability. It was useful for long range accuracy with the bow, though it had its limitations.

We were both about to fire our shots, when the loud crack of sniper fire split the air like lightning. With my enhanced sight focused on Katra, I could see clearly as a bullet pierced through the back of her skull and exploded through her forehead. She dropped instantly, her body rolling along one of the steep curves of the roof to become lodged in one of the balusters lining the edge.

Pulling back from my bow, I looked around. Cash was kneeling on a nearby rooftop, Carla braced against his shoulder. We converged on Katra’s body.

“Feel better?” I asked Cash.

Kneeling beside the body, I searched her coat until I found what I was looking for. I pulled the Drowned Diadem free.

“I’ll feel better when we put this place behind us,” he said nudged her body off the roof with his foot.

The palace was crawling with activity as enforcers searched for us.

“I’m also in favor of high-tailin’ it outta here, fellas,” Ryuuk said. “And lady.”

“See if you can find a clear path out for us,” Cash said, and Ryuuk nodded as he took off.

Using Ryuuk’s eye in the sky, we were able to avoid most of the patrols searching the palace for us. There were a couple of close calls where we had to engage the enforcers, but, in the end, we were able to fight our way out and disappear into the city.

Thirty minutes later, we made it to the rendezvous. We had taken a roundabout route to shake anyone who might be pursuing us. Vomero and the old man were already at the transport when we arrived. As we loaded in, I ruffled Matthew’s hair in appreciation.

Dick took the controls of the transport and engaged the now repaired shields. It would let us maneuver easily through the water.

“Well, time to say goodbye to Veridi,” Dick said, as he pulled the transport away from the ground and punched through the air pocket of the dome. There was a moment of turbulence as we switched from traveling through air to moving in water.

“I for one won’t be sad to see this watery death-trap go,” Cash said.

“I’m not really fond of it myself,” Vomero admitted.

As we pulled away, the lights of the city shone brightly in the dark trench. Even from this distance, it was obvious that Veridi was in an uproar searching for the Queen’s killers. Even the waterways were busy with activity, but we were able to blend in seamlessly with the traffic, courtesy of a new ship ID Vomero had forged for the transport.

We had never trusted Owen or his benefactors to follow through with their deal, and our paranoia paid off. We were all gathered in the control room watching the city fade into the distance on the view screen. Matthew was the first to break the silence, asking the question that was surely on everyone’s mind.

“Where to now?”