“It was a choice we had to make at the time so she didn’t lose her position,” Jon said. “It’s a situation I plan on correcting in the near future.”
“You were both manipulated by my father,” Opellissa said.
“Oh?” Jon said.
“My father doesn’t have the power to remove the last legitimate heir to the throne,” Opellissa said.
“Then why did Deatra go?” Jon said. This revelation confused him. Why would Deatra go if she knew she couldn’t be removed?
“It’s one of those closely guarded laws that very few know about,” Opellissa said. “I know of its existence only because of my position within my order.”
“If it’s a closely guarded secret I don’t understand how your order would know about it,” Jon said.
“My order protects the King and his interests,” Opellissa said. “Secret might be the wrong word, it’s more of a forgotten law. The King has to have approval of his council and the Queen before he could remove the last heir from the line. He also must have a replacement in mind and name them at the time of the removal.”
It’s a very rare thing to have happen and only under extreme circumstances. It has only happened one time in our history and that was when my family took over the crown thousands of years ago.”
“So, you work for the King and yet you have decided to change sides,” Jon said. “That’s a bit contradictory isn’t it?” Her closed eyes finally got the better of Jon. “Are you trying to hide something by keeping your eyes closed?”
“No, not really,” Opellissa said. “First to answer the question of my loyalty, you are now the rightful King and I serve you.”
“I’m not the King, I don’t really want the throne but I’ll take it if I have to,” Jon said. “I find that watching people’s eyes tells me a great deal about what they’re saying. The fact you’re keeping your eyes closed tells me you’re hiding something from me. So, if this conversation is going to continue you’re going to have to open your eyes and look at me.”
“According to the prophecy, you’re the King, you were the King the moment you stepped foot on Euthara. My eyes being closed has to do with the other part of the prophecy I was talking about,” Opellissa said. She raised her head but kept her eyes closed. “You know how bonding works for Eutharans right?”
“Yes, one bond mate for life,” Jon said. “Under the right circumstances other wives can be accepted, like in my case. Siblings can also share a limited bond due to their close nature but it’s nowhere near what a bond mate feels or how they’re even affected by a bond.”
“That’s correct for the most part,” Opellissa said. “You can’t bond with another Eutharan because of the bond you have with Deatra. She has opened and allowed you to take another bond-mate because the situation demanded it. Kelly hasn’t bonded because it takes Deatra’s acceptance of her…”
“Uh, Kelly a bond-mate,” Jon said.
“Of course why do you think she’s so attached to you,” Opellissa said. “You two already share a limited bond and even Nefeit shares some of the bond. But, for it to fully establish and not die away Deatra has to accept her as does each of the other mates. The nature of the bond will never allow another Eutharan into the union though. We don’t know why but it just never accepts the connection.”
“I knew about the Eutharan thing,” Jon said.
“Did you know that there had been a double bonded Eutharan before?” Opellissa said.
“No, I thought it was impossible,” Jon said.
“It was a Duke,” Opellissa said. “He was a very strong man who was the one who lead the war that united all the races in this part of the Galaxy. He was the one who forced the Crown to change hands and allow my relative to sit on the throne. He could have taken the crown but he had no such desires.”
“And this has what to do with me?” Jon said.
‘He who wields the four shall walk side by side with the sisters of fire and ice,’ Opellissa said. “That was the part of the prophecy not told to you. It goes hand in hand with the other part.”
Jon took a step back as he started to register what she was saying.
Opellissa nodded as she opened her emerald and gold flecked eyes and looked directly at Jon. Jon’s mind exploded as she released the connection between them. Suddenly his mind was on fire and he stumbled back as he grabbed his head. The guards reacted immediately every one of them pointed their guns at the cell.
“Put your guns down,” Opellissa said. “I’m not harming him; I just released the bond so it would fully establish itself.”
The Eutharan guards lowered their weapons and then knelt. The other guards were in conflict as they tried to decide what to do. Jon was still groaning as he tried to fight for control. The pain was starting to subside as Opellissa finished speaking.
Jon could feel a slight presence of Deatra, Nefeit, Kelly and Opellissa in his mind as it cleared. He couldn’t get anything but a sense they were alright but he had never really been able to do the things Deatra was able to do through the bond.
Jon looked up at Opellissa and shook his head as he tried to clear it. “How do I know this isn’t some kind of trick?” Jon said as he started to regain his feet. The pain had been so great he had fallen to his knees.
“It’s no trick and if you look hard enough you’ll know,” Opellissa said.
Jon didn’t have to inspect the connections in his head as Deatra confirmed it.
‘Opellissa?’ Deatra’s voice said in his mind.
‘Yes, it’s me sister,’ Opellissa’s voice responded.
Chapter 19
Treacherous Acts
Jon sat in his room with his head in his hands. He was trying to decide how he got himself into his current situation. His three wives, Kelly, Nefeit and Opellissa were just chatting away at the common room table. All of them seemed happy enough, Kelly especially.
Jon shook his head, Kelly was going to give birth to Bill's twins and now she was bonded to him. His best friend’s wife bonded to him, how in the hell did this happen to him and why? Jon looked up at the beaming Kelly, it was the happiest he had seen her since Bill's death.
She had even seemed overly happy during the funeral service for Bill and the many men and women who had died during the battle. Admiral Breq had awarded Bill the Invaru Cluster of Might, the highest honor that a captain could receive in the Invaru Navy. Oddly enough the Eutharan high class had also awarded Bill with the Eutharan Distinguished Battle Wreath, another honor among the Eutharan people that hadn't been given out in the past hundred years.
The King had been against it but the high class had all voted against his wishes, even some of the ones opposed to the ADF and what Jon was doing. The King had raged and threatened the ruling council against the honor but in the end the rants and threats fell on deaf ears as the people made their wishes known. The King had little choice but to back down or have a full scale riot on his hands.
The ceremony had taken place on the station with the wreck of the Earth's Revenge sitting in a berth in plain view. Several higher ups had taken the time to give a speech about the bravery of the crews and Captains in the battle. The King and Queen had even been in attendance along with a large armed force. Jon wasn't happy about it but he felt secure enough when Mark showed up with three times the number of troops than the King had.
Oddly enough Deatra had been there too, though Jon wasn't allowed near her. That irked Jon more than the guards knew, and the King had done it on purpose. Every time the King looked in Jon's direction he scowled at Jon. Jon had thought seriously about taking an armed guard over and wrestling Deatra back but he didn't want to make a large scene. He would bide his time and strike when he knew the time was right.
Later, after the ceremony, Jon noticed Opellissa talking with Deatra quietly. Opellissa's guards had replaced Jon's Royal guards and she had two in tow herself. Something his personal guards didn't like and rejected off hand. The captain of his royal guards finally conceded to
Opellissa's demands, but not completely. His guards now guarded him at a distance, the first line of defense for him now, with his female guards now being his inner defense. Opellissa had no objection to that as more protection was always a good thing. So, things went well even with the tension, and Jon was happy for all the honors bestowed on Kelly on Bill's behalf.
The last order of business was the announcement that the Earth's Revenge was going to be refitted and put back into the fleet. Some of the work could already be seen. Mike and Brad had already been hard at work and had the plans drawn up. She was going to be refitted to hold two more squads of fighters and a stronger defense.
Dalliana, the Earth's Revenge's AI, had been retrieved and was remarkably undamaged for what had happened. When she was told of Bill's death something unexpected happened, she began to cry as she fell into a heap on the floor. Mike was at a loss, what he saw wasn't possible in her code base. Mike started pouring over her base code to look for the answer but nothing caught him out of the ordinary. It took a Psychological Councilor two weeks to get Dalliana back on her feet and back to operational status.
Dalliana was currently installed and helping guide the repair crews working on her hull and super structure. There was no main power and she was using power from the station to keep herself running. Then there were snags that the various crews had to stop and fix so that Dalliana could access certain systems. Some of those systems had to have special power lines run for the time being. One of the first systems they got running was her spider-bot Bays, this helped the repair crews, as Dalliana could then concentrate on returning her important systems herself.
When Jon asked, Brad had told him that the Earth's Revenge would be operational in under a month. Jon was astounded by the news, and Brad quickly let him know it was because everything else had stopped, and the various races now living on the station had banded together to repair her in Bill's honor. She was and will be the largest ship of the fleet, for now anyway, and the ADF needed her, so all the stops were pulled out. Ghost Station had already been sending replacement fighters and crew for the ship and the newly reformed Eutharan companies were making contributions to the cause.
Those corporations had been doing very well as they shipped their wares to the planets that had managed to dodge the Crystari bullet for now. Most of those planets had increased their ship production at the behest of Jon as he made contact with them. Some of them had even started shipping non-essential people to Euthara and Ghost Station. All in all, things were looking good as long as he could get Euthara under control and figure out what was really happening here.
Jon had been down at the impact crater when Deatra’s rescue happened. Mark and Brad’s teams had managed to gain access to the interior of the structure and to the core computer even though there was not much left. What they gained access to was something the Jon hadn’t imagined in a thousand years.
They had managed to rebuild most of the data banks and reconstruct what was going on at this station. The information made Jon pale then turned his stomach as he fought to understand why someone would do something like this to their own people. This information was the nail in the coffin so to speak and Jon immediately had it transmitted to a special archive on Atlantis that only he and Atlantis herself had access too. He ordered the structure sealed off and under full guard until this thing was resolved.
Atlantis would spend the next two days going over the data separating the important from the not so important. Time was on the King’s side and now Jon knew how much that was a true factor. His time to act was quickly approaching, and the battle that was ahead was not only for his people and the Crown but for every life on Euthara and even the planet itself.
Jon looked up as the door to the master bedroom opened and Deatra stepped out and smiled at him. Jon's heart fluttered and out of the corner of his eye he saw Opellissa give him a grin. Jon sat back as he watched her move, he was only saddened because he wasn’t there when she was freed.
Deatra's return had been a surprise to him, and he was still foggy on how it had happened. From what he gathered, her shuttle had a guidance failure of some sort, and it had to land at the port in Euroth, his city.
Opellissa and her people had been there to greet them and to escort Deatra to a ‘safe’ place. Her guards put up a small fight in the form of an argument and Opellissa calmly explained the repairs might take the better part of the day. Deatra's guard told Opellissa they would have her secured here in the shuttle while the repairs were done.
Opellissa was having none of it as she explained that she couldn't guarantee their safety and it would be better if they moved to the Atlantis. They ended up placing a call to the King who said he was sending a second shuttle to retrieve them.
When the captain of Deatra's guard told Opellissa she shrugged as she told him it was unlikely. Two minutes later sirens came to life in the city as fighters from the Atlantis sped off into the distance.
Opellissa answered her com link a few seconds later, “Opellissa, go command.”
“We have a shuttle requesting access to the city. They say you authorized them for landing,” Carla said.
“No, I gave no such authorization,” Opellissa said. “We have a person of importance here and their shuttle will take an hour or two to repair. The Captain of the guard for them stubbornly refuses to move to the safety of Atlantis. He called in the request for additional transportation.”
“I can assume he can hear this,” Carla said.
“He can now,” Opellissa said as she flipped on the external speaker.
“Good,” Carla said. “Captain, I'm Captain Taldage of the starship Atlantis. This city is a no fly zone, you're lucky to even be allowed to land here. Pack your people up and move them to the Atlantis while the repairs are completed on your shuttle. I'll then have the shuttle brought to my ship and you can leave from there.”
“My thanks Captain,” the Eutharan Captain said. “But, we'll stay where we are while the repairs are completed, or you can escort us to the shuttle outside the city and return the shuttle at your convenience.”
Carla's voice sighed through the com as she spoke, “Are all Eutharan military people so thick headed? I do not have the people to escort you out of the city. On top of that there are a lot of people who aren't very happy with the Eutharan military and the current rulers that live in this city. Currently, you're in a secure area very close to the Atlantis, I can guarantee your safety from where you are, I can't if you decide to try to leave the city.”
Deatra was standing in the middle of her guards a small grin across her face. She finally spoke up, “Captain, I think my father would be very unhappy if something happened to me because you decided to butt heads with the ADF. I think it was rather nice they allowed us to land to effect repairs to our ship.”
The Captain looked back at Deatra as he spoke, “Yeah, a little convenient don't you think? We just had to take the scenic route back to the Capital and now we're here where your bond mate is. Someone who has demanded you back in the past, and I've had orders not to let near you.”
“I assure you that Commander Hunter knows nothing of her presence here,” Opellissa said. “He has nothing to do with this or any knowledge of it.”
“I've been suppressing the connection,” Deatra said. “Trust me, I don't want to cause my mate any more pain than he feels already.”
“Whether or not he is your bond mate is still up to the King and his councilors to decide,” the Captain said. He looked at Opellissa and narrowed his eyes. “I know who you are and do not think you hold any sway with my duties. You’ve been removed from the royal line and as such have no authority here on Euthara.”
Opellissa gave the Captain a grin that made a shiver run through his body. “Then you also know the order I used to serve,” Opellissa said.
“I do,” the Captain said.
“Then you know not to fuck with me,” Opellissa said. “And Captain, right now you’re fucking with me. I’m ordering you
to proceed to the Atlantis where the Princess will be safe and I can protect you and your men. You’re in Euroth and I do have command here as Jonathan Hunter’s bond mate.”
The Captain laughed as Opellissa finished her statement. “Two bond mates,” the Captain said. “He must truly be an amazing man. You and I know that there has only been one person to ever have two bond mates. No one else in our history has ever had more than one.”
“Four,” Opellissa said.
The Captain blinked as he stopped laughing. His men started to murmur among themselves. “Four?” the Captain said. Deatra frowned as she looked at Opellissa who glanced at her out of the corner of her eye as if to say ‘I’ll explain later’. “You’re kidding.”
“No, he has four bond mates,” Opellissa said. “He wields fire and ice, light and dark as prophecy said he would.”
“You’re not kidding,” the Captain said as he let out a sigh. “You really think this man is who he pretends to be?”
“He pretends to be no one,” Opellissa said. “If he had his way he wouldn’t be here right now. My father made that impossible and so now he is here to set our world right. You and your men had better choose which side you want to be on, and soon.”
The Captain’s eyes narrowed as he spoke, “I knew this was a trap to remove the Princess from her rightful place beside our King.” The murmuring stopped behind the Captain as Mark and thirty mixed marines stepped around a corner and approached their small gathering. The Eutharan guards tightened up their ranks as they engulfed Deatra and readied their weapons.
Mark stopped next to Opellissa and his men fell out in a loose formation behind him. He snapped a salute to the Eutharan Captain which wasn’t returned.
“Good timing,” Opellissa said under her breath.
“I try,” Mark said under his breath. Then he brought his attention back to the Captain as he spoke up. “Sir, if you would follow me we’ve been ordered to escort you to the Atlantis for your safety.”
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