“Watching you be her is hilarious,” Clo said. “I mean, this is probably going to get us killed, but I’m enjoying the flark out of it anyway.”

“Shut up, Clo.”

With a lopsided smirk, Clo angled the ship and began their descent. Many merchants used retrofitted Empire ships, sold off once the Empire no longer required them. Luckily, Zelus was a slightly older model—the entire fleet hadn’t yet been replaced by new technology, so the ship wouldn’t be too suspect. Ariadne sent out drones to paint over Zelus’s name and temporarily change it to Euphemia before entering the Three Sisters’ checkpoint. Eris went up to the observation deck and paced, agitated.

Could she face her brother?

Would he see right through her?

“Eris?” Rhea’s gentle voice came from the doorway. “Clo says to come. We’ve been given permission to enter the Three Sisters quadrant.”

Had she been gone that long? It had only felt like minutes. “Good. I’ll be there in a moment.”

At the other woman’s disappearing footfalls, Eris dropped her hand and stared out at the stars.

“Queen kills King,” she whispered.

—

Zelus crossed into the Three Sisters territory.

Tholos, Agora, and Macella were three habitable planets in the same system that comprised the first Tholosian colonies. They remained the most populous parts of the Empire, the seat of its power. On their path to Macella, Zelus passed Mylos, the largest of the moons that orbited the Three Sisters. One half of its surface was a prison, packed with criminals awaiting their fates who could only look out their portholes down onto the world below. Once their cases were reviewed and their next planetary destination decided, they would be turned into gerulae. People whose entire existence was erased from their memory until they were reprogrammed to question nothing, choose nothing, and be nothing.

Eris wondered how many people in there were imprisoned for daring to run from the Empire. That would be the fate of the women on this ship if they were ever caught—that is, if they weren’t executed outright.

Ariadne had fitted them all with metal shifters, stamped to the roof of their mouths. The clothes were raided from the ship’s stores. Shifting clothes was only to be done in an emergency. The energy output would potentially be too noticeable.

Eris gave the other women a once-over. Part of the soldiers’ training was to notice inconsistencies in people’s clothes, behavior, accents, and demeanor. The smallest details could expose them.

Ariadne and Rhea were wearing smart, dark blue sheath dresses to fit their roles as an accountant and a personal assistant. Rhea would be staying behind on the ship, called out only if needed.