The high priestess beamed and bowed, her attendants, all dressed as brightly as she, bowed as they left.
“I understand that the Az’anti have welcomed a new heiress,” Sechon murmured as the next—and hopefully last—order of business was being readied.
“Yes,” he said brightly. “A girl, Aris.”
The elder gave him a smile. “I hope to visit and offer a gift to the future clan leader in the next few days.”
“I hear she’s the most beautiful baby ever born on Az-kye.”
Sechon’s dark eyes were lit with humor. “Ah, well, I shall be sure to claim it so as well when I look on her.”
He winked. “She can hold the title until the Imperial Heiress makes her appearance.”
The elder caught her breath, her glance going to Alari. “May we thank Lashima that—”
Kyndan cleared his throat. “Not yet. But hopefully soon.”
The elder touched his arm, her smile warm. “It will be welcome news indeed, Your Highness.”
He barely kept himself from grinning back, imagining a little princess or prince with Alari’s dark eyes running through the palace.
“The War Council,” the majordomo announced.
Kyndan’s brow creased as the women hurried forward. There were five women on the Council and as warlord of course he’d met them all. They’d all seemed to take the news that the Council would soon be dismissed, well, except, of course, for Mezera.
Today, though, they looked positively grim.
Damn it, what now?
Kinara would be expecting them pretty soon and, while it had been agreed formalities would be kept to an absolute minimum, she’d just had a baby. The last thing he wanted was for their visit to be more trying for her. Showing up late because Mezera was scrambling to cling to power as war leader was not something he was going to tolerate.
“Honored Council,” he began shortly. As warlord it was his prerogative to speak to them first. “We were just concluding for the day. Is this urgent?”
“This matter is both urgent and grave,” Mezera said to Alari.
His eyes narrowed at the omission of his title and the fact that she hadn’t addressed him. Alari straightened in her chair, she hadn’t missed Mezera’s slight either.
“Well?” he demanded. “What is it?”
Mezera kept her gaze on Alari. “We beg you to hear us, Regent.”
His face heated with annoyance. Mezera knew very well whom she should be addressing here.
“I’ll take the Council to one of the reception rooms so you can finish up here,” he said to Alari. Kyndan took a step forward and addressed the War Council. “Come on. Anything you have, you can give it to me there.”
“Regent, we are here to safeguard the Empire itself!” Mezera cried. “We will speak only to you.”
“We don’t have time for your maneuvering today, Mezera,” Kyndan snapped. “You’re well aware that the Council for War is to be dismissed tomorrow so any information you have, you present to me.”
“I have nothing to present to you,” she snarled.
His nostrils flared. “Then you are excused from our presence!”
“Of course you wish me gone,” Mezera spat, her dark eyes glittering. “Of course you wished the War Council dismissed. How much easier then to conceal your actions, Tellaran! Regent, we have proof that this man—” She pointed at him. “This false consort is guilty of treason against you!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Kyndan demanded.
“Treason,” Mezera repeated. “You are an honorless pretender, an agent of the Tellarans sent to destroy us!”
The sword in his back scabbard was proving an awful temptation and Kyndan clenched his fist to keep from drawing it. “I don’t know what you think these lies are going to get you, Mezera, but if you’re smart you’ll stop this right now.”
“Lies?” she cried. “You are the one who lies, Traitor!”
“You are nothing but a power-hungry schemer,” Kyndan snarled. “And if you think you’re going to hold on being war leader like this you’re dead wrong.”
The majordomo, Jelara, was wringing her hands at the turn the audience had taken. The courtiers, clan leaders and their mates in attendance were murmuring amongst themselves.
“Regent,” the elder said urgently. “Perhaps it would be best if we should adjourn and—”
“I have proof!” Mezera cried to Alari then the war leader narrowed her eyes at him. “You once led a Tellaran attack against the Az-kye.”
“He was a Tellaran officer then,” Alari said tightly. “He has already told me of this, War Leader.”
“Then tell me, Consort,” Mezera made his title sound like an obscenity. “Do you take orders from the Tellarans still?”
“No,” Kyndan said impatiently. “Of course not.”
“He is our warlord,” Alari said, standing.
“So he has sworn, but he lies.” In response Mezera waved one of her assistants forward. “We intercepted this transmission. It took days to break the encryption. Listen and you will know I speak true!”
The recording began, audio only, the words in Tellaran.
Kyndan felt himself blanch.
“Is that your voice, Consort?” Mezera asked.
Oh, gods. “Yes, but—”
“We do not know what they say,” Sechon put in quickly, stepping to his side. “We cannot judge what we do not understand.”
“No,” Kyndan began. “Hold on. Alari—”
She met his gaze, her dark eyes confused, questioning.
Afraid.
“Translate it,” Alari said hoarsely. “Let me hear for myself what they say.”
Kyndan swallowed hard as the datastreamer translated the recording into Az-kye.
“—Commander, you are still an officer in the Tellaran fleet. And I am ordering you to get those people out of there! Commander!”
“Yes, Sir!” A pause. “Give me all the information you’ve got. I’ll get them home —”
The room was silent when the recording finally ended.
Alari’s gaze met Kyndan’s. “You are not a Tellaran officer. You resigned. You told me you had resigned.”
He wet his lips. “I did.”
“But he calls you ‘Commander.’” Alari gestured at the datastreamer. “He says you are an officer still.”
Kyndan shut his eyes briefly. “He didn’t—When we met he didn’t want to accept my resignation. I told him but—he placed me on inactive duty. Gods, Alari, the Fleet is everything to my father. I think it was just his crazy way of trying to save my career.”
“You lied to me,” she breathed, then her voice rose. “You said you had resigned!”
“I did resign!”
“Did you follow his orders?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “Alari—”
“Did you?” When he didn’t answer she looked at the war leader. “Did he?”
“This traitor ordered the Oshur to return the Tellarans to their ship. He ordered that they be permitted to return to Tellaran space.” Mezera’s nostrils flared. “He ordered the crew of the Oshur to conceal this fact and to purge all references of this from their records.”
“They were Tellaran civilians!” Kyndan said sharply. “Their only mistake was trusting that peace was at hand—that I had done the job my people had sent me here to do. They were godsdamned academics, Alari! An archeologist and a bunch of students who wanted to take a look at ruins on your side of the Badlands!”
The elder put out her hand. “Perhaps, Your Majesty, if it was an act of compassion only—”
“There’s more,” Mezera spat. “He concealed evidence about Princess Saria’s death.”
Kyndan’s eyes snapped to her. “That’s a fracking lie!”
“Saria’s death was an accident.” Alari shook her head. “There was a storm—”
“And who told you such?” the war leader demanded.
Her gaze went to Kyndan. “You said ther
e was no evidence—”
“Of course there was not!” The war leader threw a glare at him. “He erased it!”
“I didn’t erase anything!” Kyndan met Alari’s wide gaze and softened his voice. “Look, it’s true that I helped those people. I spared them years—maybe a lifetime—of the worst hell I can imagine. They would be clanless, slaves, and if there’s anyone I could save from that misery . . .” He swallowed hard. “Alari, if the Tellarans had broken the nonaggression pact, if they had sent a ship to attack the Az-kye, it would have been different. Those would have been soldiers who knew the risks but these people were innocents. I admit I helped them but before the gods I swear I didn’t hide anything else from you. I told you everything I know about Saria’s death!”
Alari took a step back. “How? How would it have been possible for him to tamper with them?”
“The consort demanded that he see the records first.”
“Yes.” Kyndan threw his hand out in frustration. “To find out if Saria’s ship had been sabotaged!”
“Imperial Regent,” Mezera said urgently. “The data submitted by your consort to the war council is different than the original data sent to him. The records he returned to the Council to support his findings about Princess Saria’s death were altered.”
Alari’s eyes met his and Kyndan shook his head sharply. “That’s not true! I returned them just as I got them.”
“Altered how?” Alari asked.
Mezera held up a datapad. “Here is the original unaltered data.”
Wordlessly Alari took the pad from her and looked at the display.
“Regent, you can see it here, from the sensor log of Princess Saria’s ship.” Mezera pointed to the screen. “A Tellaran energy signature.”
“What?” Kyndan rounded on her. “There was no Tellaran ship there!”
“The energy pattern is unmistakable,” Mezera retorted. “Az-kye vessels use a single caliber containment design, only Tellaran ships use a triple containment design.”
“That’s not—Let me see.” Kyndan took the datapad from Alari and his brow furrowed. “This isn’t possible. This wasn’t in the data I reviewed.” He shook his head. “This isn’t even large enough to be a cruiser, it’s smaller—”
“Then the Tellarans have new, smaller ships that are equally deadly!” Mezera interrupted.
“They don’t!” Kyndan objected but he read in their faces that they didn’t believe him.
Alari sought his gaze and he shook his head again.
“Alari, I swear to you, there was no Tellaran ship in the records I saw!”
She searched his face for a moment. “The data showing the Tellaran ship,” she said finally. “Could it have been altered instead? The ship added when it was not there at all?”
“No,” one of the other council members said. “This data was recompiled from the original sensor recordings. We each,” she continued, gesturing to her fellows, “came to the same conclusion.”
“Very convenient that you decided to recompile them,” Kyndan said glaring, “the day before the Council was to be dismissed.”
Mezera narrowed her eyes at him. “It was not convenient,” she hissed. “I discovered by accident that the data showed a discrepancy—that the records you returned were shorter than the originals.” She looked back at Alari. “The Tellaran signature appears to have been hidden by the storm’s disruptions. It appears only for a brief period in the ship’s sensor log.”
“What are you saying?” Alari whispered.
“Your Majesty,” Mezera began urgently. “This man is a traitor. He is still an officer of the Tellaran Fleet. He used his power as Imperial Warlord to act against the interests and security of the Az-kye. He erased evidence that implicates the Tellarans in the destruction of the First Daughter’s vessel. We can only assume he did so because it was not a storm that destroyed your sister’s ship, that Princess Saria was murdered by the Tellarans.”
Alari blanched. “No.”
He didn’t care that they were all staring at him in shocked horror. No one mattered but her.
“It’s not true!” he said roughly. “I didn’t have anything to do with Saria’s death. I didn’t hide anything about it from you. I don’t know why there’s a Tellaran ship there but there has to be an explanation.” He wet his lips. “Let me contact Central Command. Let me—”
“You said you had resigned.” Alari’s hand went to the high headrest as if she needed the throne’s support to remain upright. “You used power I gave you as warlord to—I believed you had become Az-kye. I did not want to see. . .You concealed your true loyalties, your true goals, Nisara and—and Saria—” Tears shone in her eyes. “My little sister. . .”
“I didn’t—”
She shook her head. “I trusted you.”
“Alari, listen to me! I—”
“I loved you!” Alari’s shout echoed through the throne room.
“No, you have to listen to me! You have to believe—!”
“I cannot have one at my side who bears no loyalty to the Az-kye, whose true loyalties have been concealed!” Her grip on the throne tightened, her knuckles showing white. “I cannot have such as a consort. We must be unbound.”
“No,” Kyndan whispered hoarsely, then his voice rose. “No! I love you, Alari. I would never, never hurt you.”
Alari drew herself up and every inch of her form shone with the pride and strength of the hundred generations of Az-kye rulers in her blood.
“You would have no Tellaran endure the pain of being clanless?” she demanded coldly. “I now grant your request.”
He held his hands out to her. “Alari, gods, please —!”
“Kyndan Maere,” she continued, her voice ringing with icy command, “you—and every other Tellaran—are banished from Imperial space. I will allow your people three days to reach safety then the border will be closed. From that day on any Tellaran found in Imperial territory will be put to death and if any Tellaran vessel enters our space again”—Alari’s dark eyes burned—“it will be an act of war.”
Alari’s honor guard had their blades at his throat before he’d taken two steps after her. Her advisors and the courtiers followed as she swept from the room and the disgusted looks they gave him made it clear he had no allies here.
The guard’s eyes, men who only this morning had met his eye with respectful regard, were black ice. Looking past their swords Kyndan saw only one whose face revealed shock and grief.
“Elder!” Kyndan cried.
Sechon stopped and turned to face him, her posture stiff.
“Mezera is lying!” He shook his head. “I didn’t do this. I didn’t betray Alari!”
Her gaze remained steady, but unyielding to one who she thought a traitor to her beloved regent, to the Az-kye.
“Whatever you believe of me,” he said hoarsely, “believe that I love Alari.”
Sechon’s mouth was still tight, but there was hesitation in her eyes.
“Tell her for me—that I told her the truth, that I loved her from the very first moment I saw her.” Kyndan swallowed hard. “Tell her that I always will.”
The elder searched his face, then she gave a scant nod.
“And please . . .” Kyndan wet his lips. “Take care of her for me.”
Now she did soften and wordlessly Sechon inclined her head. Then she too turned away.
They took his sword and, blades at his back to get him moving, ordered him into the hall.
Kyndan’s jaw was so tight it hurt.
Mezera faked the data. Somehow she added that fracking Tellaran energy signature. But it was the comm call that really damned me. She must have been watching me, waiting for something she could use against me—
“Cons—Commander!”
“Your Eminence,” he said. Even the guards at his back stopped respectfully as High Priestess Celera made her way to him, leaning heavily on her jeweled cane. From the opposite direction one of lesser priestesses of Lashima came at a run.
He reached out a hand to steady Celara, her white hair a bit windblown, her aged face flushed from her hurry. She waved the priestess forward to offer him a wooden box.
“What’s this?” he asked.
The young priestess opened the lid. Within, supported by a pillow of fine cloth, was a small, stoppered bottle. It looked very old and instinctively the scent that rose from it made his gorge rise.
Kyndan recoiled with sudden, horrified understanding. “I don’t want it!”
“Commander, you and Princess Alari must be unbound,” High Priestess Celara said hurriedly. “The empress has sent me to you.”
He pulled up short. “The empress? How could she know already? She wasn’t even in the audience chamber!”
“Please, there is little time for me to tell you all you need know!” Celara gestured toward the case. “To be unbound you will—”
He remembered how Lianna once argued—successfully—with High Priestess Celara to keep Tedah.
“Since when does the empress get to make Lashima’s decisions for her?” Kyndan interrupted. “She’d put it in my heart, wouldn’t She? If I were meant to be unbound Lashima would decide. Not the fracking empress!”
“Commander, please, I would spare you the agony of being bound to one no longer bound to you—”
“Do you know what they’ve done? They lied to her!”
“Commander—”
His fists clenched, his eyes stinging. “They took her from me!”
Celara put her hand on his arm, her dark gaze calm, compassionate.
“No one speaks for the Goddess but Lashima herself,” she said quietly. “Not even I, though I have served her these many years. Only you and She truly know what is in your heart.”
“I was told no one could be unbound. They said you would never do it,” he said, his tone accusing. “Damn it, I don’t want this!”
“In all my time serving the Goddess I have never agreed to do so.” High Priestess Celara closed her eyes briefly. “Now I have no choice.”
“Please.” He blinked against the tears blurring his vision. “I love her.”
“I believe you,” Celara said softly.
The Consort (Tellaran Series) Page 24