Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 40

The morning of the wedding arrived. Before the sun set again, we would know the outcome of all our planning and preparations. Either we would succeed today, or we would all become prisoners of Queen Levana.

Or we'd be dead.

I cleaned the gun and strapped it to my belt. I wasn't unfamiliar with the possibility of death. But this job had unforgiving odds.

I tried to think of it as exactly that—just another job, just another task, just another mission. We weren't breaking into the palace and kidnapping the emperor. We were dropping by a depository and transporting cargo.

The sun had just showed itself over the frosted Siberian tundra when we piled into the remaining podship—eight people crammed into a space meant for five—to embark on the forty-minute low-elevation flight to New Beijing. No one complained. The Rampion was far too large to hide. At least the podship would be able to blend in with all the other podships in a city suddenly swarming with foreign spacecraft.

The ride was torturous and mostly silent, punctuated only by Iko's and Thorne's occasional chatter.

My mind strayed back to the townspeople of Farafrah. The Lunar townspeople of Farafrah. I wondered if they were being treated the same as the Earthens, or if they were just waiting to be sent back to Luna for their real trial. No doubt the government was going to try and keep this quiet. If this story of the small African town got out to the media, the general public would panic as they realized how easy it was for Lunars to blend in with them.

I wondered how the Commonwealth soldiers were handling it. At the time I was a bit preoccupied swimming in the dirt, so I wasn't able to discern which squadrons were sent to take care of the issue. If I'd still been with the military, would I have been leading the group? How would I have commanded the units in that position?

As New Beijing came into view, I dismissed my thoughts. The buildings at the city's center were grand and imposing, like willowy sculptures of chrome and glass reaching toward the sky. I was caught off guard by the sudden ache that hit me—homesickness. A homesickness I'd been too busy to recognize until that moment.

The palace stood regally beneath the morning sun, high on its watchful cliff, but we veered away from it. Jacin followed Cinder's directions toward downtown, eventually mixing with clusters of hovers and, I was glad to see, multiple podships as well. Cinder's stop was first, two blocks away from the Phoenix Tower Apartments.

Though autumn would be sweeping in fast over the next few weeks, New Beijing was still in summer's grip, and the day was starting off cloudless and warm. The temperature was just a click above comfortable, but not stifling with humidity as it had been the last time I was in the city.

Cinder disembarked the podship. "If you don't see me at the checkpoint in ten minutes," she said, "loop the block a few times and come back."

Jacin nodded without looking at her.

"If you get the chance," said Iko, "give Adri a big kick in the rump for me. With the metal foot."

Cinder laughed. Then we were gone, leaving her on the street.

The next stop was Iko's. We dropped her off a few blocks from the warehouse so as to not be noticed.

When Cinder told me His Majesty was planning on using lifelike escorts as staff for the wedding, I was surprised. It would take careful planning and there would be severe consequences if they were caught, but it was a genius idea. One that made me gain a tad more respect for the new emperor.

Naturally, this became the perfect way to smuggle Iko into the palace. We could only hope no one would ask about her hair.

Then we left Wolf and Cress at a designer boutique close to the main square. They would be posing as two guests going to the wedding, their tickets being the ones Cinder was stealing right now from her former guardian.