She decided she would rather not know. Besides, hadn’t Shree just gone to some effort to conceal her?
Yes, yes, she had. She gnawed the inside of her lip.
“I know that look.” Shree folded her arms. “What is it you aren’t telling me?” Her eyebrows went up. “Or, don’t tell me if it’s a big secret or something. I’m sorry, I sometimes forget who you are now... Your Highness.” She grinned.
Calli grinned back. “It’s okay.” Should she say? “I do have another thing. A problem. I’m not sure it’s something I can say to you.”
“No?” The woman waited.
The seconds stretched.
She wanted to tell her. There was nobody else she could tell, she realized. Sassi was a bot, and it just was not the same.
“Okay.” She drew a breath. “It’s Drake.” Her heart thumped. She froze, thinking furiously. No. I can’t. But... I need to.
“Drake?” She leaned forward. “Him? Mister Deadly and Dangerous? The mauleon district sexiest beast of the year? I’ve seen him in here this morning, but he has left,” she added rapidly upon seeing Calli’s expression. “You okay?”
Calli blushed terribly.
“It is him?”
She sighed. “Yes. I think maybe you can help me. I and he, we... you know.”
“Uh-huh. Go on. I am getting the idea already. Is that a problem? Dammit, Calli. Should I envy you or not? The anti-mauleoners would likely have your neck and his but, honestly, most people I know much prefer you to Vass, or even to your brothers. Though I’m sorry about them.” A frown came and went.
Drake had been truthful, even if he’d doled out the data in dribs and drabs. All she had to worry about was her insane attraction to him. And whether she wanted to be some sort of arm decoration for him for the rest of her life.
If she could get her mind to function when around him, that’d help.
Spilling all of Drake’s plans and their agreement would be wrong, she thought, sobering up to reality. She must not tell Shree.
“I cannot say much more, though I wish I could. However, I find my attraction to him to be, ummm, excessive and so, is there anything I can get to lessen it?”
“To lessen your attraction? To Drake?” Her eyes seemed enormous and stayed wide open.
“Yes. As in something from the pharmacy here?”
“That would be interesting,” she said carefully. “Hmmm. Most people want aphrodisiacs. I cannot, though, even if there was something. You’d have to issue a royal command to get the pharmacist here to cough up a drug you’ve not been prescribed.”
If Shree knew of the torm she hadn’t mentioned it. “So where else could I try? A naturologist?”
“A witch with a cauldron probably, only we don’t seem to have any on this planet.” Shree frowned. “Sure. Try the naturologist on Pengle Street, it’s close to the lower city and I wouldn’t trust them to cure a cold, but love potions—”
“Anti-love potion,” she pointed out.
“Yes, that. Those they might have.” Then she hugged Calli unexpectedly and gushed, “Take care! I have to go help on the ward or they’ll be chasing me.”
“Thank you,” she said, following her out the door.
“My pleasure. Just next time you’re in bed with him, say hi from me.” She winked.
Calli was still smiling when they parted in the corridor.
An hour and a half later, she’d slipped back into the palace grounds and made her way back to her rooms. Sitting at the desk in her study, she pulled the small bottle from the satin bag they’d placed it in.
The label was rather grand.
Haute Reversal Desire Solution.
Take one spoonful, once daily, until symptoms lessen.
Not to be taken with alcohol or combined with any hormonal supplements.
The naturologist hadn’t been difficult to find and they’d been open on this chaotic day.
The mixture had been concocted for her, specifically, after the woman had taken down a few details about her weight and age. Though skeptical about Calli’s requirement, she’d made the potion.
Once daily. She had a spoon, now to dare to swallow this.
She unstoppered the bottle, laid aside the glass stopper, and poured a dose into the spoon.
Then she swallowed it. The taste made her pull a face and wish she had something sweet to chase it down.
By nightfall, Drake still hadn’t returned, and she was feeling odd in the stomach. Serve her right if she ended up throwing up. How was she to test the potion if he wasn’t here?
Calli went to bed early and watched the flicker of fireworks reflecting off the wall opposite her window. People were celebrating out there. That was nice. The solid stone construction of the palace dulled the sounds and she might’ve risen to look at them from her balcony, but she was feeling odd.
She yawned and drifted off to sleep.
Then had to get up numerous times in the night to throw up.
By morning she was distinctly unhappy and stayed in bed, curled up under the covers, shivering. Sassi seemed entirely too distraught for a bot and was hovering.
Of course Drake walked in.
“What’s happened? You’re sick?” He came closer, dumping guns and a folder of papers, other things she didn’t have the energy to look at properly. Then he sat on the edge of the bed. It sank under his weight. “Do you need a doctor? Have you asked for one?”
“It’s okay,” she croaked, when he bent over. “I will recover.”
She’d hidden the potion bottle, thankfully. The clothes had been whisked away by Sassi. She was safe.
Safe.
It was funny and not funny, how his presence made guilt surface. If he knew about her actions, what would he think of them? Nothing good.
The worst of it? With her stomach so upset, she could not tell if the potion had worked.
“What has happened?”
“Stomach.” She grimaced.
“I’m getting a doctor. This is ridiculous to lie there ill and not send for one.”
She lifted her head. “Sassi!”
When the bot walked in, Drake looked from him to Calli. “This is Sassi? The last functioning bot, correct? A novelty, an antique,” he mused.
“Yes. He’ll get a doctor for me.”
“No.” Drake held up his hand. “Both of you stay here. I need to talk to your bot. The guards at the door can fetch a doctor.”
He strolled out and she heard him speak to the guards, and the whole time she was wondering why he wanted to talk to Sassi. When he returned, he nodded to the bot.
“The doctor should be here soon. But first, while I wait, I wish to know why you sent your bot into the city dressed in your clothes. My men had to intercept it.”
“Oh.” She resisted the urge to worm deeper under the sheets. “I’m sure I don’t know why that would happen.”
The lie slipped from her tongue and it was only his stare that made her halt, rethink, and realize she had done what she hated others doing—lying.
“And can...” Drake tugged off one black glove. “Can Sassi lie?”
She stalled in the middle of drawing a breath. Her stomach chose then to gurgle and hurt, and she groaned softly. She also hoped he’d forget the question, but his eyes were solidly fixated on her. He pulled off the second glove then came over and sat on the bed again, laid the gloves on the quilt. They looked like an evil punctuation mark on the whiteness of the bedding.
“Have you lied to me?”
Ugh. How had he turned things around? It had been her doubting him that’d caused this.
Sassi wouldn’t lie, if allowed to talk to Drake about this, and not unless Drake was perceived as an enemy. Somehow, she doubted he’d approve of her advising the bot that he was a bad person and not to be trusted.
She sighed, frowned up at Drake. “This is my palace, remember. My bedroom.”
“Ours. Do I have to ask again?”
She could go down screaming or go down politely. “I lied,
accidentally. No, on purpose, but I...” She ran down, sure that explaining this was getting her deeper into trouble.
“Lies are fine when talking to another politician, but that’s not us. Are you sorry?”
Not. Us. Except she had been thinking of escaping from him. “Yes. I guess so. Yes.”
He chuckled. “Just because I caught you at it?”
“No,” she answered truthfully. “Because I hate lies. It’s why Sassi was out there.”
“Lies? Whose lies? Wait, no. I want the whole story in one go. The bot will tell me the story, if I ask it? I’d rather hear it from you. Since you’re not too ill to talk, you can start now.”
His under-the-brow look reminded her of his predisposition toward punishment.
“Begin.” He almost smiled.
How had she ended up here? She did not have to tell him. She did not.
She drew a breath and began. “I was worried you were lying to me.”
One eyebrow rose higher.
May an Overwatch sat blast me now. What would he think when she mentioned what the potion was for?
One of his punishments was in her future. Would she sit still for it was the question?
A faint stirring below, a mild rising excitement said she would. A stranger feeling came to her, that she was glad he’d found out. Lies would always come out in the end.
By the time she’d told the story, finishing with her swallowing the potion, the doctor was being let in by the guards. Drake pressed his hand over hers. He inhaled roughly through his nose while staring at the far wall.
“Get well first then we will discuss this further.” He looked down at her.
“Okay.” What else could she say? That she was awful at lying?
Lies were okay in politics, he’d said. Consort was a pretty word for partner on the throne. The throne was tangled up in politics, always had been—even she knew that.
Calli firmed her jaw.
Just because he’d made love to her, that did not mean she had to regard this mauleon as anything but another cog in the political machinery and a temporary bed partner.
This had been forced on her by circumstances.
Even if she did want him in her bed.
And... in her.
That last time had been amazing. If not for her stomachache, she’d have sent away the doctor and made extensive use of this mauleon.
“Good morning, Your Highness.” The doctor bowed to her from the bedroom door. A female doctor, thank the stars.
That day, Drake decided to stay with her, and ended up making her do exactly what the doctor had said to do—eat boring food, drink water, and stay in bed as much as possible.
She’d thought he would lecture her, instead he gave her more information about the rebellion. It was over. Vass had not been caught and most thought he’d fled to a neighboring kingdom, or the Autocracy of Zotney. None of those were likely to give him an army, so it seemed the situation was stabilizing.
“We found some disturbing sites left over from your brothers’ reign, places where General Vass was in charge.” Drake frowned at her from the armchair he’d dragged over to her bed. Papers were strewn about the floor beside him, a sword and a pistol hung over the back. Calli wasn’t sure she liked having her rooms redecorated in Male War décor.
Still, he was the perfect bedside helper.
“So he’s gone but left something bad. Tell me more.”
“Not yet. It’s one of those things that could upset your stomach.”
What? “Something gory? Not involving children?”
“No.”
And that was all he would say, apparently. Drake picked up a document and began to read.
Earlier on there’d been a meeting of his officers and some humans from sec-force, out in her living room. She’d also heard sounds as if some machinery was being deposited on her floors and used. If she didn’t get well soon there’d be an absolute mess in here.
“Nothing else you want to divulge?”
“Hmm?” He looked up, turning a page. “There is one thing the astronomers have said to me. My astronomers.”
“Mauleons have those?”
His mouth twitched. “They study the Overwatch satellites and saw one come down, six months ago. It fell from the sky, burned up. The orbits of the others are deteriorating. Within twenty years, or less for a few, they’ll be gone. All of them.”
Her mouth fell open. “We’ll be able to launch ships again. Spaceships.”
“Yes.” He read some more. “It’s something we can aim to educate people about, in the coming years.”
We. She still wasn’t used to this. He assumed so much. Yet he’d just given her secret information her own government did not seem aware of.
“Don’t spread this to anyone yet, Drake.”
It might cause riots.
“I hadn’t planned to.” He lowered his gaze to the page.
So casual about this, to just go on reading. She shook her head, watching him read—his broad nose, those claws gripping the edges of the papers. And, oh, that gorgeous long hair, when he let it loose from its ties. And she wanted to maybe leave him and go where?
Tired, she closed her eyes.
By the time she woke, it was evening and she found Drake was in bed with her. He rolled over and brought her into his side, sniffed her shoulder, licked her once, and began to purr.
Well, it sounded like a purr.
He’d decided not to punish her, or had forgotten to. Lucky for him.
Strangely content, she closed her eyes again.
Chapter Fourteen
She was still asleep when Drake woke, so he left her in bed to answer a call from the man he’d left inside the main door. Sawatel had returned from a mission searching for General Vass. They’d found nothing but even that was good news.
He sat facing the young mauleon in Calliope’s living room where he’d held a meeting the day before. The hovering of her bot, Sassi, reminded him of the mess they’d left and he okayed it to clean up and organized a breakfast to be set up outside, on her balcony. It was time to talk to her about what she’d done.
“So. Before you leave, Sawatel, tell me something of the years when you helped follow the princess through the city.”
“Now?” Sawatel looked surprised. “I did tell you, many times.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Again then.” It was true he’d listened on disconnect every time in the past. He hadn’t wanted to hear of what she did when obeying her father, so long as she remained safe.
“Yes, Lord. She used to visit the hospital a lot. Maternity ward. Though I had to stay back I looked too obvious there. The babies, you know. Humans.” He laughed softly. “The infertility problems make them baby crazy.”
Mauleons had mutation problems, so it was even. Drake knew this. Sawatel it seemed did not.
“Huleon babies?”
“Sometimes.” Sawatel shrugged. “Truthfully, apart from the anti-mauleon league, most of the humans don’t care. I’ve picked up my fair share of fucks wandering about in the upper city.”
Drake grunted. “Keep going. She likes babies...”
“I guess. And has a friend there at the hospital. Shree, also a male nurse called Bron. I’ve followed her down streets to markets, shops. She just wandered sometimes, talked to people.”
“How many knew who she was?”
“The princess? I’m not sure, but maybe half? It was a joke among those I asked. They like her being all common.”
“I see.”
Something to bear in mind. Something that actually stirred admiration. She wasn’t just a sadistic fuck, like her brothers and General Vass had been. Though he’d figured that out already, really.
He listened to more of her story but eventually dismissed Sawatel.
Yesterday, she’d been looking for proof he lied? And had tried to reverse the effects of the torm? It was enough to make most men and mauleons despair of training her, except he was no ordinary mauleon. And he wa
nted her, no matter how long it took to make her see sense.
Breakfast was served on the balcony, as he’d directed.
She was well enough today, to listen.
Chapter Fifteen
A huge screen of some transparent substance covered the view from her balcony toward the city. Power cords snaked across her floor and connected to it.
“What... is that?”
“It’s a portable armored screen, a leftover from before the Quarantine. This balcony is vulnerable to snipers.” Drake pulled out a chair for her and waited. The table was already set for breakfast.
Calli tsked, upset that her view had been in a way restricted yet unable to fault his reasoning. Joins ran down the glasslike substance. They’d fitted it through her doors by folding it.
“I hate that this is needed.” The breeze was blocked even though she could still see outward. It simply wasn’t as beautiful with that between her and her city.
“I understand.”
Wrinkling her nose and regarding it a while longer, she let herself absorb the change. There was nothing she could do, was there?
She sat and eyed the food, knowing she’d have to stick to toast or a pastry and not much else.
Drake sat opposite her, occupying the white metal chair as if he’d landed from above, splat. The mauleon was too large to seem normal in her petite chairs. He loomed. He blocked out the sun beyond. The birds were possibly scared away.
Breathtaking, really, just watching him raise a cup to his lips.
He began to fill her in on what was scheduled for the afternoon, a list of things, a tour of the city and the hospital, since he wanted to see what had enticed her to go there.
“First, we are going to do a royal court appearance.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Your official announcement as queen-to-be I was told.”
Which should have been planned with her. The rebellions had turned everything upside down. She hadn’t been to court in years. Hadn’t been anywhere official in years, apart from the funeral. She was still processing how she felt about being at royal court as the princess and queen-to-be when he mentioned something new.
“I’m not happy with what you did, Calli.” He set down the cup. “You’re finished eating and you’re well now?”
Ruled: A Dark Sci-Fi Romance Page 7