by Jaleta Clegg
They both glanced over at the sleeping child.
"Maybe it would be different," Darus said, "if I'd been there for her. I had no idea she even existed."
Clark patted his shoulder. "Let's get the pump in. Before Jasyn decides to fly the ship by herself."
Darus let Clark lead him away.
Chapter 7
We watched vids the whole day and a half to wherever we were going. After watching even the really bad ones, Dariana still seemed to shine. She was beautiful and very talented. I couldn't shake the feeling she was familiar.
Vance sat next to me through a lot of the vids, but he had a reader in his hand. Max pretended not to notice when Vance slipped his arm around me. I leaned against him and just enjoyed the peace and the feeling of someone caring about me. He didn't try to kiss me again.
The reentry alarm sounded, a mellow beeping. Max stretched and yawned, so wide I could count all his teeth. He glanced at me when he finished. The alarm went off again.
"You want to land?" he asked.
"You have to ask?" I was grinning again.
"You trust her?" Vance said.
"I don't think she'll have a chance to barrel roll, although it would be interesting to see you try," Max added to me.
I stretched gingerly as I slid into the pilot's seat. I touched the panel that let the ship know I was there. The alarm shut off. The lights on the controls blinked green and yellow as the ship automatically set itself for reentry to normal space. The sublight engines came on with a rumbling purr as we slid through transition.
I pushed three whole buttons through the whole process. I missed flying the Phoenix, which had no system even close to resembling autocontrols. This yacht was a very expensive toy set up so the rich could play at being pilots.
The turbulence cleared and I gasped. The sensors showed ships everywhere. There had to have been hundreds. I was suddenly glad I had autosystems.
"Max," Vance called over his shoulder. "They want to talk to you."
Max made a face but he took the headset from Vance. He retreated far enough so I couldn't hear what he said.
"They're sending a course through," Vance told me.
I pushed a few more buttons. The yacht turned and glided onto a new heading toward a planet, a swirling ball of blue and green and gold. Ships swarmed around it, sparkling like diamonds in space. There were a full dozen stations orbiting the planet.
"Where are we?" I asked Vance.
"Linas-Drias," he said, as if it were an ordinary destination. Linas-Drias was the capital of the Empire, the seat of power. Linas-Drias was where the Emperor lived.
"You've never been here?" Vance asked. He leaned over and tapped a blinking button. "The autosystems can't do everything. I think you need to make a slight course adjustment."
I pushed the button and altered our vector. I studied Vance out of the corner of my eye, wondering again who he was.
He had dark hair, jet black. His eyes were dark and tilted just slightly at the corners. He looked like a billion other men in the Empire. But he was familiar with Linas-Drias. And he'd been sent as an ambassador to the Sessimoniss. It wasn't a choice appointment, not by any definition, but it was still not without prestige. He was young to have been offered such a post. His family had to be well connected.
Max's had to be even better connected. We got clearance to land directly in the Imperial landing field. I pushed a few buttons. The ship landed itself, mostly.
I powered down the engines. Max was still arguing with someone on the com.
"Now what?" I asked Vance. I was wary, wondering what other surprises were waiting that he hadn't thought to mention.
He glanced at the clock mounted on one side of the controls. "We spend two hours figuring out how to make ourselves presentable." He looked me up and down. "No offense, Dace, but you aren't exactly dressed for the party."
"As you should know," I said, "I have borrowed clothes and one dress uniform."
He looked me over speculatively. "The uniform isn't quite the impression I wanted you to make, but I guess it will do. Presenting an admiral would definitely be different."
He didn't give me a chance to object. Exactly one hour and forty eight minutes later, I was dressed in a Patrol dress uniform, silver with black trim for the Enforcers. The admiral's insignia on my collar made it seem to weigh a ton. I tugged the collar, it felt too tight.
"You'll make it crooked." Vance straightened my collar again.
"Why do I have to do this?"
"Because I want you to," he said with a smile that made my knees go weak.
His expression turned serious as he stood in front of me. His eyes searched mine, in the dim light of the ship they looked black. I saw nothing in them but my own reflection. I looked uncertain and strange in silver. He looked very self assured and elegant in a deep green formal tunic. The high collar on it was embroidered in an intricate knot of gold and black. He looked like a stranger. He looked nothing like the man I'd spent weeks with in a cave.
He touched my cheek, his face growing distant and unreadable.
"Trust me," he whispered.
I didn't know if the sudden fluttering in my belly was excitement, nerves, or fear. I think he might have kissed me then, and I would have let him, if Max hadn't made his appearance.
"I hate these blasted cuffs," he said loudly.
Vance stepped away from me.
Max stopped, his hand still holding one cuff closed around the other wrist. He shifted his gaze back and forth between us. "Am I interrupting something? I hope so. Vance, you devil. All this time, right under my nose, and I pretended not to notice."
Vance laughed and smacked him on the arm. "As if you've never tried it on me."
"I was never so bold. Are you ready?" he asked me.
"No." I wiped clammy hands on my thighs.
"It will be fun, Dace," Vance said. "Trust me." He said it lightly, bantering and teasing. He offered me his arm.
I rested my hand on his elbow. Max took my other arm and tucked it through his.
"Only fair," he said over my head to Vance.
The hatch slid open and I breathed the air of Linas-Drias. It smelled like any other space port. The sky was full of ships landing and taking off and planetary flitters and transports headed to hundreds of destinations. It was night, but not even close to dark. Lights glowed everywhere, highlighting the sides of ships and buildings. The sky was alive with lights from all the ships and flitters overhead.
The ramp for the yacht was short, curving gently down to the ground. A sleek groundcar, black and anonymous with mirrored windows, purred at the end of the ramp. Everything about it spoke of wealth, so much wealth that it didn't need to be obvious.
Vance and Max didn't seem to notice. They opened the doors as if they rode in such luxury every day. Maybe they did. I was beginning to realize just how much I didn't know about Vance. He helped me into the groundcar, his hand steadying mine. Max got in on one side of me and Vance got in on the other. The groundcar purred into motion.
We came up through a mountainous pass and into the city proper. Lights of every color rippled into view. I leaned forward, craning my neck to see and gaping like a cheap tourist.
"I forget the impact of driving this way," Max commented. "Up the ridge from the spaceport and then wham, lights as far as the eye can see."
It wasn't just the lights. Buildings soared into the air around us, seeming to float impossibly against gravity. I stared and gawked as the groundcar purred into the heart of the city.
We rolled to a stop in front of a huge edifice of white and pink stone, lit by numerous spotlights. Music drifted on the night air.
"Time to go," Vance said, amused by my reaction.
Vance opened the door and got out, leaning back in to offer me his hand. I took it and let him help me out. My side twinged with pain when I moved. I was glad the entryway was not a cliff of stairs, like some of the buildings we'd passed, but a gentle ramp, rising in a looping
curve to an enormous set of doors. The three of us walked slowly up the curve.
"I hate these parties," Max muttered. "They are so utterly boring."
We reached the top of the ramp. The attendants standing guard at the door merely nodded and let us pass. They gave me speculative looks. Vance ignored them.
"I should go pay my respects," Max said as we reached another set of huge doors. The sound of talk and laughter floated out. Max slipped through the doors and to his right.
Vance led me directly into the room. There must have been two hundred people inside. The women wore a rainbow array of rich gowns in fashions I'd never seen. The men wore formal tunics only slightly less flamboyant than the women's dresses. I caught glimpses of silver in the crowd, I wasn't the only one in Patrol uniform.
Vance greeted a few people as he led me through the crowd towards the far side of the room. A series of arched openings led into gardens beyond. He stopped near a set of pillars that supported a balcony.
"Would you like a drink?" he asked.
I shook my head. I was overwhelmed by everything. "I don't drink," I said when Vance still hesitated.
He gave me a questioning look. "I'm sure there's a story behind that. I'll be right back."
He melted into the crowd, leaving me alone by the pillar. I stood stiffly, uncomfortably aware that I was a nobody from a planet that wasn't even part of the Empire anymore. I tugged at my uniform.
Why was I there? What did Vance want from me? And just who was he? I looked down at the floor underfoot, a natural stone so polished it glowed. It was white with streaks of gold and the faintest touch of pink. Just one square yard of that stone cost as much as most of the cargoes I'd ever hauled.
Was I ever going to haul cargo again? I wondered where Jasyn was, where the Phoenix was. I wanted on my ship, not here. I didn't care who these people were, I didn't care they were the cream of the Empire. I wanted people I knew.
I looked up, at the crowd in front of me. I was imagining things, I had to be. I saw a face so familiar I couldn't have mistaken him for anyone else. The sudden surge of emotion his face woke hurt worse than any injury I'd ever had, grief and pain and hope and a million other shades of feelings.
"Tayvis," I said. It was barely a whisper. He was dead, but he was standing in front of me.
The emotions on his own face were impossible to read, he had his mask on. Only his eyes betrayed him. He was uncertain, watching me warily. I stood rooted to the spot, unable to move. The shock of seeing him left me speechless. I felt as if I were caught in a raging flood, the world spun out of control around me. Tayvis was alive.
He hesitated, staying ten feet away. I wanted to run to him, to throw myself at him. I was frozen with the shock of seeing him.
"Dace," he greeted me, as if we were just friends, acquaintances who happened to meet sometimes. "How have you been?" There were hidden layers in his question. I saw the hurt in his eyes and wondered where it came from.
I couldn't speak past the lump in my chest that squeezed the breath from me. I saw him retreat, his face closing even more.
"Tayvis." I made an aborted gesture towards him. My side ached, the pain held me captive.
"Well, if it isn't old bootlicker," Vance said behind me.
He wrapped his arm around me and squeezed my side, the one with the new scar. I stiffened with pain, biting my lip to keep from screaming. Tayvis took a step back, as he stared at Vance's arm around me.
"What mischief have you been in this time?" Vance asked, his voice laced with dislike.
Tayvis didn't say anything. A single muscle twitched in his cheek. He backed away another step. I took a step towards him, wanting to stop him. I wouldn't let him walk away from me. Not again. Vance tightened his grip. My vision blurred with the pain.
"There are some people I want you to meet," Vance said into my ear.
I wanted to protest, I wanted to shove him away. Tayvis was alive, Tayvis was walking away from me. Vance had his arm around me. I couldn't escape the pain he caused.
He led me across the room to a raised dais at one end. There were several people up there, five steps above everyone else. I pried at Vance's hand, trying to loosen it. He was relentless. He propelled me across the room and up the steps to the dais.
I stopped when he quit pushing. I was standing face to face with a man wearing very rich brown robes. The universe shifted under me. I was standing in front of the Emperor. I didn't know whether I should curtsy or salute. I just stared.
He looked ordinary enough, except there was something in his eyes that spoke of limitless power and the arrogance needed to command it. He also bore a very strong resemblance to Max. The blood drained from my face when I realized who I'd been flying with. Max was Maximillius the Fourteenth, heir to the throne of the Empire.
The Emperor smiled and said something polite and meaningless. I tried to smile back. I didn't dare try speaking.
Vance turned me to face another man. He could only be Iniuri Shiropi, Speaker to the Council of Worlds, the only man with as much power as the Emperor. He had jet black hair and slightly tilted eyes.
"My father," Vance said into my ear.
Now I really felt as if the universe were tilting. Speaker Shiropi smiled politely. He extended his hand. I mustered enough self control to shake his hand in the polite manner I'd seen others use.
"You really didn't know?" Vance asked, bemused by my reaction.
"You never said anything," I said, turning on him. I felt like a fool, standing there with them. I was acutely aware that I needed a haircut and that I wasn't wearing underwear. I couldn't quite believe it was real, that I was standing next to the two most powerful men in the galaxy.
"Which is one reason I like you," Vance said, smiling.
He used his arm, which was still around me, to turn me to face the room full of people. He held up his other hand. The music faded. People turned to look.
Tayvis stood motionless, at the back, near the gardens. He was watching me with his stone face. Right at that moment, I regretted the deal I'd made with the Hrissia'noru. I wanted my telepathic powers. I wanted to reach Tayvis to tell him I loved him. I wanted to tell him to wait for me.
"I'd like to make an announcement," Vance said. His voice carried clearly through the room. "I'm getting married."
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then a round of polite cheers and clapping. It took me a long minute to realize Vance was referring to me. He pulled me close. The pain was intense. I leaned on him, knowing I'd fall off the platform if I let go.
At the back of the room, I watched Tayvis' face harden. He turned suddenly and stalked through the door into the garden. I begged him silently not to walk out on me. I wanted to shout, I wanted to push Vance away. I wanted to run through the oblivious crowd and stop Tayvis from leaving. The pain Vance caused held me prisoner. I couldn't have made it three steps without help.
Tears blurred my eyes as the only man I really loved walked out of my life. Again.
Chapter 8
There was a long confused time while I hung onto Vance and tried to not pass out. Vance smiled and accepted congratulations. I must have looked shy to most of them. People shook my hand and smiled. I saw the predatory looks in their eyes. I bit back my own pain. I'd have to find Tayvis, soon. I wanted to explain. I wanted him, not Vance. I was stuck with Vance, for now. The pain wouldn't have let me go far.
Iniuri watched us, his eyes seeing more clearly than most. He finally waved away the crowd pressing forward to offer congratulations, giving us the privacy of the dais. The Emperor had long since moved on. It was only the three of us.
"Is everything all right?" He directed the question at Vance, but his eyes were on me.
"No," I said through clenched teeth.
"Dace," Vance said, "some of my friends would like to meet you. You can sit down when we get there."
I shook my head. I wanted to strangle Vance. My fingers ached to squeeze his throat and beat his head on the fl
oor. How dare he do this to me? The sight of Tayvis' betrayed look as he turned away would haunt me forever.
Vance tugged me. I gasped at the pain, unable to stifle it. Iniuri and Vance both caught me as I collapsed.
"Are you all right?" Iniuri repeated his question.
"No," I said again.
"It's nothing much," Vance said.
"Go away, Vance." I was acutely aware of Iniuri measuring every nuance of every word and gesture we made.
"I'm a bit tired myself," Iniuri said. "Perhaps I could escort you to your lodgings?"
"Fine." I hurt too much to worry about being polite.
"Where are you staying?"
That stumped me. Where was I staying? On the Emperor's private yacht, the same one Max had borrowed and Vance had used to kidnap me away from Besht?
"You were going to let her stay on the yacht with you?" Iniuri demanded of Vance. "And ignore the gossip about it? It won't do, Vance, there are certain proprieties that should be observed, whether you agree with them or not." He turned back to me. His hand on my arm was gentle, his manner solicitous. "I would be ungracious if I didn't offer to have you stay with me."
I nodded, not really caring. I needed to lie down. My side was on fire. And my heart was breaking all over again. I hoped Vance wasn't coming with us. I would be tempted to commit an act of unpardonable violence against him.
"Go visit your friends, Vance," Iniuri said. "I think there's a lot more here than appearances would suggest. This way, Admiral."
He led me through a door behind the dais into a private hallway. I gritted my teeth and managed to walk on my own until the door swung shut behind us. I couldn't pretend any longer. I leaned on him, barely able to keep from falling on the floor.
"Do you need a medic?" Iniuri asked.
"I just need to sleep for a while. It's healed, almost anyway."
He merely raised one eyebrow. "There's a price to my hospitality. I want you to tell me exactly what is going on. All of it."
"I'll be happy to, as soon as I know."