Though a series of iron gates had been built to block the entryway from attack, they were now retracted into the stone walls. No one stopped them from entering as they made their way inside. At first the entryway was dim, but as Bron led her forward a soft light began to glow from long strips in the wall.
“Daylight?” she asked, though it appeared to be the wrong color.
“Yes, filtered,” he answered.
Suddenly, the hallway split into five directions. Bron paused and pointed straight ahead. “The center hall will lead you to all the common rooms. Starting on the right, it is in order of birth. I am the oldest, so our hall is first. Then Alek, Mirek, and Vladan. Once you are inside, there are more hallways to learn and,” he pointed over his head, “some above and below us as well. Try to stay on the main level until you know your way around. But, if you get lost, just close your eyes and think of me. I will find you or guide you back.” He glanced upward. “Actually, now that we are married, we will be expected to move into the tower rooms. They were my parents’ and we haven’t used them since they passed.”
“It’s a maze?” Aeron stopped and eyed each path. They looked identical.
“It was designed this way to confuse intruders. If you go down a path and are not able to open a door once we scan you into the main system, you are heading down a dead end and should turn around. The outer halls spiral outward in an endless pattern to trap intruders. Should the interior sensors go down, any attackers would be dispersed into the sides of the mountain until they can be found and dealt with.”
Aeron was about to ask more, but footsteps stopped her. She turned toward the entrance. Instantly, she stepped closer to Bron and took his arm. Several very large men loomed before them, carrying long planks of industrial grade plastic and unmarked crates.
“My lord,” a few of them said, seeing Bron, but they did not stop in their task. It took her a moment to remember which hall was which, but she realized they moved toward Mirek’s home.
“That is industrial grade sheeting,” Aeron said. “Do you think it’s safe here? Your brother’s bride must be really sick. No one was ill on the Galaxy Brides’ ship. They would not have brought her on world if she had been.”
“I did not think Mirek found a bride from the ship. Perhaps it is someone from his ambassadorial missions?” Bron asked more than answered. “There was a visiting bride not on the Galaxy Brides’ ship, Lady Clara of Redding.” Bron urged her to follow the workers. “Come. We will find out.”
Bron held her hand to his arm. The hall twisted and turned, but they stayed on a steady course. Coming to a door with intricate patterns carved into the frame, Bron led her inside. The workers were already setting up their supplies at the far end of the home.
Mirek’s living quarters were lavish, all smoothed stone walls and floors with thick rugs and wooden furniture. Like the palace, it was a home within the larger castle home. The oversized décor fit nicely into the spacious abode. A banner of a dragon standard hung on the wall. It’s predominant placement gave away its importance.
Seeing a man who looked very much like Bron and Alek, she knew Mirek was home. Bron went to his brother. Mirek had the same medium brown hair that seemed to run in the family, but his eyes were a bright green. He looked tired, but it did not show in his movements as he gestured toward the room being renovated in his home. Office furniture was being moved out and the plastic sheeting moved in.
Couches were set in a square around a low table wrapped around a fire pit. A worker bumped past her and mumbled an apology. Since Bron was in deep conversation with his brother, she made her way to the couches to get out of the workers’ way. Absently brushing at her skirt, she tried to get rid of the dirt stain. It really was a shame the blue was ruined. If she was lucky, they would have some kind of laser cleaner that could fix the material.
The workers had set some supplies on a couple of the couches. Aeron made her way past a large plastic crate. Glancing inside it as she passed, she froze in horror.
“Riona,” she whispered. Aeron took a hesitant step back. Her sister was locked inside the box. Riona’s eyes were closed and it looked like she slept in forced stasis. Red patches of blisters created strange patterns on her flesh. Around those bumps the flesh was pale, too pale for Riona. The auburn length of her hair had been pulled and twisted on the top of her head into a very neat, very un-Riona-like bun. Aeron touched the cool transparent barrier blocking her sister from her. She tapped the industrial plastic, and whispered, “Riona?” Her sister didn’t move. Aeron hit it harder with the flat of her palm. “Riona, wake up.”
Almost as soon as she’d slapped the human crate, two men were on top of her pulling her back.
“Don’t,” Bron said.
“What do you think you are doing to my wife?” Mirek demanded. He stood near Riona’s head, his arms spread as if to protect the sleeping woman.
“Me? What are you doing with my sister? She’s supposed to be out gallivanting the star systems.” Aeron turned, frowning with worry. “How did…? What did you do to her?”
“She is ill,” Bron tried to explain.
“No. She was fine on the ship. She was healthy. We all had the scans. We…” Aeron swatted at Bron’s hands, making him let her go. “We need to get her to a medical booth.”
“Riona is your sister?” Mirek asked, not as angry as before. He seemed doubtful.
“What did you do to her?” Aeron pushed past Mirek and leaned over her sister, seeing if she breathed. A tube stuck out of her side, filled with yellow liquid. A fine powder coated her skin. It was what made her look so pale. “Take her out of stasis. Wake her up. I want to talk to her.”
“I can’t. She won’t wake up,” Mirek answered. “The stasis is to keep her comfortable.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Aeron knew she was being mean, but she couldn’t help it. This was her sister. Riona was only on this planet because of her. “You can’t be her husband. Husbands are supposed to protect wives on this planet. This can’t be happening. Ri would never get married, would you?” Aeron stroked the box, wishing she could make it go away. None of this was right. A tear slid down her cheek to splash on the barrier. This time her words were for her sister, as she whispered, “What did you do? Ri, this is all wrong. You don’t belong here.”
“We are not sure what happened, but the physicians believe she had an allergic reaction to some plant life in the forest. She is stable, but for now it is best if she breathes filtered air. That is why we had her transferred to a stasis pod. I called in several favors to have one delivered here.” Mirek looked at his brother. He sounded insistent, and a little defensive. “The builders are constructing a room for her. She will be moved just as soon as it is allowed. I have sent for more doctors and a new medic unit, but the medical booths are not working. I—”
“I know you are doing everything you can,” Bron interrupted. He touched Aeron’s arm. “Everything will be done for her. I swear it to you, Aeron.”
“I will not leave her,” Mirek said. “She will have every care taken.”
Aeron gave him a dubious look. She didn’t know him. The only thing he had in his favor was that he was related to Bron. She did, however, know her sister. There was no way Riona would be tricked into staying on this planet. Her sister was too smart for that.
“We will move her to my room. She can stay with me,” Aeron said. “I will look after her.”
“She must be with her husband,” Bron disagreed.
“She needs a sterile room. This one is already being built,” Mirek said. “I will take care of my wife.”
Aeron glanced at him, thinking that he hadn’t done a good job of it so far. Bron touched her again and she felt his surety, his calm. She slowly nodded. “Fine. But I will be here often to check on her. I want to read the medical reports so far. And I want to know exactly what happened. And I want to be here whenever she is examined. And I want life sign monitors in my room. And if you so much as touch her with
out her consent, I’ll—”
Bron physically grabbed his wife and pulled her to his chest. He pressed her face hard into his tunic, cutting off her demands. Stroking her hair, he said very loudly, “Lady Aeron is worried about Lady Riona. They are sisters.”
The sound of the workers murmuring in understanding caused Aeron to realize they were being listened to.
“Everything you ask will be done,” Mirek said. If they had been talking about anyone else, Aeron might have felt sorry for the man.
Aeron opened her mouth, but Bron still had her pressed close. He broke in before she could speak, “You have both of our words. Your sister will have every comfort met.”
When Bron said it, she felt assured. Slowly, she nodded in agreement. “Fine.”
“Come,” Bron insisted. “There is nothing to be done while the men work. Mirek, we will come back first thing in the morning to visit.”
“You may visit her anytime,” Mirek said. “I have nothing to hide. I will program your voice into my home. You may come and go as you please.”
Aeron gave one last look at her sister as Bron urged her from the room. When they were alone in the hall, far away from the door to Mirek’s home, he said, “My brother is a good man. He would not have harmed her. If he said she had a reaction to plant life, that is what happened.”
“I did not say I doubted him,” Aeron stated weakly, though in truth she was not sure all she had said aloud.
“Your expression spoke for you,” he said. “You blame him.”
“I was shocked to see her. Riona would not have taken a husband.” Aeron shook her head in denial. “At all. If you thought I was stubborn about marriage, that is only because you haven’t met Ri. She would never agree to settle down, even if she was in love. In fact, if she was in love, she’d probably sabotage the marriage because of it.”
“Sabotage? Why would someone fight love?” Bron looked at his wife and pressed his lips tightly together, as if remembering their problems.
“When you see what we’ve seen, it changes you. So much loss in one moment. Everything changed. We lost our family, our people, our home, our belongings, our planet. I hid and Ri went out and lived life to the fullest, refusing to settle. There has been a fire under my sister’s feet since the day she was born. Then, after the attack on our home world, that fire ignited under her whole body. She’s been moving through the universe like a comet ever since. If she is here, it is not willingly. I would bet my life on it.”
“My brother is honorable,” Bron protested.
“And I know my sister.” She felt his frustration, but she thought of her sister in a stasis chamber waiting on an isolation room. “I want those medical reports, Bron.”
He frowned, but nodded. “It is late, my lady, and we have had a long journey. I will show you to your new home so you may eat and find rest. You will have your sister’s medical reports by the morning.”
To her surprise, she couldn’t feel what he was feeling, at least not as strongly as before. She followed behind him as he walked through the corridors at a fast pace. He did not go the way they came, instead opening a side door with a hand scanner before taking halls and stairs and more doorways in a seemingly haphazard pattern. If she didn’t keep up, there was no way she would find her way back out again.
Aeron’s new home was like nothing she’d ever seen before. She had been expecting it to be like Mirek’s but instead found a vastly different layout and design. Woven squares were fitted against the walls to hide the stone beneath. The main room was a giant oval with a hanging light fixture in the center. It reflected light from above, spreading it around the room. Semi-circle couches were next to the walls. The seats faced outward and were arranged around a center table.
In the middle of the room, two oversized couches formed a complete circle under the light fixture. The table in the very middle had seams running over the surface in what appeared to be a carved pattern. It might have looked like a decorative wooden table, but it was computerized. She knew her communications devices and the pattern had deep grooves where the transparent computer screens and holographic images would project from.
Before he left her alone, Bron revealed a food simulator hidden in the wall. It was an older model, but functioning. At her questioning look, he said, “On the occasion we entertain alien races in trade negotiations, it is helpful to be able to provide them with whatever they want.”
Aeron didn’t care what the reason was, she was just happy to not have to cook at the moment. She might not mind preparing food, but there was something to be said about the instant gratification of punching in an order and getting it automatically. Sure, it didn’t taste the same, but after a lifetime of eating simulator food it was hardly unpalatable. Even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t necessarily true. The simulator couldn’t compare to the flavor of freshly cooked meals.
Four doors were placed around the room. One went to the bathroom with a large carved tub much like the one in the palace. The second went outside to the halls. The others were to the kitchen and to an exercise room. Though the ceilings were two stories high in the main room, a balcony blocked off an open hall on the second floor. On the second story, doors led to more rooms.
Aeron materialized a bowl of bartal stew and waited for Bron to return. When he didn’t appear, she took a bath, part of her hoping he would walk in on her. She regretted walking out on him at the palace. It would have been nice to explore him in the water—so warm and wet, gliding flesh. She gave a soft moan. It would have been heavenly.
When her fingers began to wrinkle from overexposure to the water, she wrapped her body in a drying linen and made her way upstairs. The rooms were all sleeping chambers, but only one looked to be ready for use. The oversized bed was a perfect square. She crawled in wearing the linen and snuggled beneath the covers. She didn’t imagine she’d be able to sleep, but the inviting warmth was too much and her eyes drifted closed.
“I understand what you are asking me, but I can’t leave my wife,” Mirek said. “If it becomes necessary to leave, Vladan can go in my place. His marriage should be settled. We all saw the crystal glow when his wife chose him before the ceremony.”
“He is married to an alien woman who does not appear as we do and who refused to follow our ceremonies. I would hardly call Vladan’s marriage settled,” Bron said. “We need you, Mirek. You know the travelers who visit our system. You have dealt with them. We need you to make subtle inquiries. Vladan is not always the most diplomatic. He is used to dealing with the miners.”
Mirek sat by the head of his wife. He rested his hand on the top of her plastic prison. “You cannot ask me to go. Not now. I can’t leave her like this.”
“My wife will tend to her sister,” Bron said. “We need to assess threat.”
“I know the Tyoe,” Mirek said. “They are an aggressive race.”
“And you have never mentioned them?” Bron took the seat across from his brother. He had told him everything—his capture and imprisonment underground, Aeron’s warning about the aliens, the king’s orders.
“There was nothing to mention,” Mirek said. “Normally, we do not deal with them. They offered to buy our mines for a very unfair price, and I refused. They are not the first to attempt such deals and they will not be the last. I daresay their offer was better than those who wish for us to continue to do the labor while they reap the profits. I don’t know what intelligence you wish me to find out. I doubt there is anything worth finding. My dealings with them are logged in the records.”
Bron watched Mirek’s hand trace the outline of his sleeping wife’s face, as if he could feel her through the transparent barrier. He couldn’t imagine not being able to touch his wife. “It is unfair to ask it of you, brother.”
“And I am honor bound to go if duty calls for it,” he said softly. Mirek stared at his wife’s unmoving face. If Bron didn’t know better, he would have thought the woman dead. “I should not have tried to give Vladan my duties. I
will make the necessary arrangements. Let me reach out to a few of my contacts. We were not planning a launch, so it will take a few days to get the ship ready and the pilot back here. We will scan the countryside from space and will also ensure no one is in orbit. A visual search will be much more efficient than the scans from on surface.”
Bron nodded. He did not need to assure his brother that all that could be done would be done for Riona. Even if she wasn’t Aeron’s sister, the woman was family. When she married Mirek, she became one of them. They would each give their life to protect a family member. Or their fortunes to save her. Just as they would give everything to save Aeron. Bron studied Riona. If they were sisters, she would have the same issue. He thought about telling Mirek, but didn’t want to give his brother more to be concerned about.
“Many blessings on your marriage, brother,” Bron said. “I trust that fate will see your bride awaken from this sleep. If we have to send across the galaxy for a doctor, we will.”
Mirek nodded. “I already have. You will have a copy of the medical files in the morning for your wife.”
“Aeron does not understand our ways. She meant no insult—”
Mirek lifted his hand to stop Bron’s words. “She fears for her sister. There is no explanation necessary.”
Bron left his brother alone with the sleeping bride. The sight of them together haunted him. The gods would not give Mirek a woman just to take her away. They had to have faith that Riona would awaken in time.
Could it be the blessing of the ceremony was tainted somehow? The queen and king indicated that the princes were troubled in their choices. Vladan’s bride was a strange creature with an odd-shaped head. Mirek’s bride was ill and in isolation. If Riona was sick from the local flora and fauna, could she stay on world? Alek’s marriage seemed to be in trouble. Alek and Kendall had been fighting last he saw them. And, his own marriage, though better, still felt shaky. He’d felt Aeron’s earlier doubt when she’d looked at her sister. She did not trust them to do what they must.
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