The Last Atonian

Chapter 23:

Not fifteen minutes after his conversation with Leem, Don was informed that Veerna had fled the planet. True to her word, Leem had installed a tracking device on Veerna's ship, and Don could see her heading for an unnamed and uninhabited planet not far from Vold. As he clambered aboard a borrowed ship, with a gun sitting at his hip, he was stunned to find that Leem was sitting in the pilot's seat, obviously waiting for him.

"What's going on?" Don asked. "Why are you here?"

Leem smiled serenely, obviously unbothered by his rude questions. "I thought things through, and I decided that, given the situation, it might be best if I accompanied you to your destination." She stood now, revealing the fact that she was no longer wearing the ceremonial Voldinian robes. Instead, she wore a tank-top and shorts, and looked remarkably like Veerna—just younger.

"Whoa, whoa," Don said, nonplussed. "Empress ... your Excellency ... you can't come with me. It'll be—it'll be dangerous."

The instant the words came out of his mouth, he regretted them. Leem's eyebrows shot up, and again, he was reminded strongly of Veerna. The reminder wasn't a pleasant one. "Dangerous? Oh me oh my. I'm terrified. Do I look like I'm scared to you?"

Don started opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. The unfortunate part of that was that Leem was not yet done with him. "I'm an Empress, yes, but I am also a sister, and a cousin. You did not know them when they were children. Veerna and Sareen ... inseparable. Partners in crime. They were closer than the closest of siblings. They had little time for me ... little Leem, too young to go gallivanting off with them. But what did it matter? I looked up to them. They were my everything. And then they were torn apart."

Don sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Leem, I'm going to kill Sareen."

Leem held up her index finger to stop him from continuing. "I understand that's your mission," she said. "But if I can make her see sense ... maybe it won't be necessary."

Much as he wanted to, Don couldn't meet Leem's eyes. "That might be harder than you think. I tried for three years, Leem."

Leem cocked her head. "You were in love with her?"

"More than that." Don looked up at Leem. "We were engaged to be married. I thought I knew her. But when Veerna started cropping up more and more ... Sareen got obsessed with getting rid of her. Particularly when Veerna was placed under my care, with me as her psychologist. I wanted to help her, while Sareen wanted to kill her. I never knew about any of ... this ..." He motioned around him, meaning Vold, "and now I don't know what to think anymore. Maybe if they'd told me, things would have come out differently. Maybe at the time I could have understood why Sareen wanted Veerna dead so badly. But the fact that she hid it from me shows me that she holds more blame for it than she wants to admit."

"In their way of thinking, the other holds the blame," Leem said. "Sareen blames Veerna for pressing the button, while Veerna thinks that Sareen was older and should have known better. In reality, it was our father's fault."

Don frowned. "How?"

"He gave them free reign," Leem said. "Wherever they wanted to go, they could. He knew they planned to sneak into the security office, and yet he did nothing to stop them. Mother was understandably worried, but I can remember his voice. 'What harm could it do?' he told her. 'They're just children.' If only he knew."

There was an undercurrent of bitterness in Leem's voice. Don looked at her. "You blame him."

"I do." Leem leaned back in her seat. "He tore them apart. He destroyed a beautiful friendship with his spoiling of Veerna. She was supposed to have my place, you know. Be the Empress. And she would have been terrible at it, because Father gave her everything on a silver platter. She only learned how to fend for herself when she was taken by the space pirates."