Triad

by Cyndi Friberg

  You’re Bilarrian, his enemy. The possible reason for his reluctance sent a shiver down her spine. Resentment between their worlds ran deep. Was he unable to see past her origin? She was half Rodyte too, but he didn’t know that. She hadn’t actually lied to him. She’d just omitted some crucial facts.

  Unable to reconcile her conflicting emotions, she took a shower and tried to push Letos’s image from her mind. She dressed in a calf-length skirt and blouse, rather than one of her long gowns. Everything about Rodymia seemed less formal than Bilarri, at least the parts of Bilarri she frequented.

  Her cabin aboard the Endeavor was small but luxurious. The royal family used a variety of ships and traveled under false names. They found the practice safer than announcing to the universe that a member of the royal family was aboard. She’d just sat down at the vanity when Elantue, her maid and frequent companion, walked in with a breakfast tray.

  “Did you get any sleep last night?” Elantue asked as she set the tray on a nearby table. “You seemed extremely restless.”

  Mirella rotated the top of her padded stool so she faced her friend. Elantue had a round face with pleasant features, but her smile could light up a room. She wore the dark brown dress with green cuffs and collar required of the palace domestic staff. She’d bound her light brown hair in a gold net at the nape of her neck. Tiny green and orange flowers decorated the hairnet, giving the otherwise somber outfit a hint of her warm personality. Elantue was only three years older than Mirella and the princess considered her more friend than servant.

  “I know what Grandmother expects of me,” Mirella assured her, “but I find myself sympathizing with the rebels.”

  “Why does that surprise you? You’re battle born. How can you help but sympathize with others of your kind?” Elantue filled a mug with steaming rizata tea and handed it to Mirella. “If your grandmother didn’t anticipate that possibility, she’s not as clever as most believe.”

  “Grandmother anticipates everything. She probably thinks my loyalty to her means more to me than personal happiness.” By the time she finished the statement her tone had gone from conversational to grumbling. Why would her grandmother think anything else? Mirella had bowed to her every decree without argument or resistance ever since Mirella’s mother died. Until yesterday, she amended with a secret smile. The small rebellion had felt wonderful.

  “Coming here was AG Paytor’s idea, not Queen Aurelia’s,” Elantue pointed out. “If your grandmother had her way, you’d never leave the palace.”

  There was more truth to that than Mirella wanted to admit. Tutors, merchants, dressmakers, anyone who wanted to interact with Princess Mirella was required to come to the palace. Mirella tried to blame it on royal arrogance, but such was not the case for her half-brothers. It was only Mirella’s safety over which Queen Aurelia obsessed.

  “She blames herself for what happened to Mother. It’s made her extremely protective of me.”

  Elantue sighed. “I understand that her motives are more or less pure, but she has stifled you in the process. She’s so afraid you’ll be taken from her that she’s put you in a gilded cage.”

  “She isn’t that bad, and I’ve never felt a burning desire to be anywhere else.”

  Challenge dramatically arched Elantue’s brows. “Until last night?”

  Heat spread across her face, then cascaded through her body. “You heard about that?” Letos’s handsome image materialized in her mind and Mirella couldn’t suppress a dreamy sigh.

  “Paytor’s goon was so angry by the time you finally returned that I thought he’d tear the ship apart. You had him pacing the corridors for almost four hours.”

  “Four hours.” Mirella shook her head, feeling anything but guilty. “I knew my conversation with Letos was lengthy, but I didn’t realize I was gone that long.”

  After handing Mirella a small plate with a light repast, Elantue dragged a chair closer to the vanity and sat. “Tell me all about him. Which one caught your eye, the soldier or the technomage.”

  Elantue kept herself remarkably well-informed, so Mirella wasn’t surprised that her friend had already learned so much about the current situation. “Who told you Letos was a technomage?”

  “Fobitar told me, and he overheard one of the IG guards talking about it. I guess rumor mills work the same on any planet.”

  “Well, Letos never came right out and admitted it, but I’m pretty sure the rumor mill is right.”

  “Then are you interested in Bandar or Letos?” Elantue digressed.

  “Bandar is mated to a human.”

  “A human?” She sounded skeptical. “How did that happen? I’ve heard the inhabitants of Earth are positively barbaric.”

  “I’ve never actually met one, but I suspect the accounts of their barbarism are exaggerated.”

  Elantue accepted the conclusion with a shrug. “Then you fell for the technomage?”

  “I haven’t fallen for anyone yet. I find Letos attractive, and if his reaction to me is any indication, I think we’re genetically compatible.”

  Elantue’s eyes rounded and she pressed one of her hands to her chest. “You found a potential mate on Rodymia? That’s incredible. Some people search all their lives and never find a genetically compatible partner.”

  “We’ll have to be tested to confirm my suspicions, but I’m relatively sure.” She paused, then waved away the possibility before she allowed herself to become too hopeful. “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves. I just met him and we’ve shared one lengthy conversation. I think planning the bonding celebration is a bit premature at this point.”

  “Your grandmother won’t like this at all,” Elantue warned.

  “I’m well aware of her preferences.” Mirella raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure I care anymore. I’ve spent my entire life conforming to the expectations of others, first my father’s and then Queen Aurelia’s. Mother was the only one who ever gave a damn about what I wanted.”

  “How could she not after the choices she made?”

  Mirella’s throat tightened, so she only nodded. In the beginning her mother hadn’t had a choice. Pern Keire swept her away from court and kept her aboard his ship for the first two years of her captivity. He was deaf to her pleading and amused by her fits of anger. She swore to hate him until the day she died. But he showered her with attention and focused on her in a way no one else ever had, not even her royal consort and father of her two sons.

  If it weren’t for the children she’d been forced to leave behind, Mirella’s mother might have surrendered to Pern’s seduction much sooner than she had. Pern was a ruthless seducer with decades of practice bending females to his will. So little by little he eroded her defenses until she offered her heart as well as her body. The last few years she’d spent with Pern, she’d no longer considered herself a captive.

  Mirella shook away the memories. Thinking about her mother wouldn’t help her resolve the conflicts she was facing now. “Do you think I should tell Grandmother what I suspect about Letos?”

  Immediately, Elantue shook her head. “Absolutely not. If you confess that there’s a personal reason you want to continue the negotiations, she’d summon you back to Bilarri.”

  “But there are strategic advantages to the union. If I bond with a member of the Triad, it would help legitimize the council in the eyes of Kiere supporters.”

  “Queen Aurelia might be satisfied with that outcome, but AG Paytor would be furious. He considers the council treasonous and wants to return Rodymia to a global monarchy. Three people are three times harder to control than one, and I think that’s what he’s really after. He wants to be puppet master.”

  “And I’m the puppet.”

  “Exactly.”

  Mirella hadn’t eaten much, but she set the plate aside. Elantue had a way of boiling everything down to actionable facts. Because servants were trained to be invisible, affluent people frequently forgot they were around and spoke about highly confidential subjec
ts. It was an advantage Mirella had learned to appreciate down through the years. “Well, AG Paytor is destined for disappointment. I’m no one’s puppet. Rodymia is in the midst of a metamorphosis that will change the focus of its primary culture. I mean to be part of that process.”

  Elantue smiled, clearly approving of Mirella’s attitude. “You’re uniquely qualified for the position, and I know you’ll make the most of it.” She motioned toward Mirella’s mug. “Would you like some more tea while I do your hair?”

  “That would be lovely.”

  After refilling the mug, Elantue handed it back to Mirella. “So tell me about Letos. What does he look like?”

  “He has wavy dark hair and dark eyes, typical for a Rodyte. But the rings in his eyes are vibrant blue and he has a way of looking deep into your soul. It’s unnerving and yet exciting. He’s tall and surprisingly fit for a guild master.”

  Elantue laughed. “I thought all you did was sip wine and talk.”

  Mirella shot her an impatient look and turned back around, facing the large mirror that hung over the vanity. “His suit was perfectly tailored. He didn’t even touch me.”

  “Now you sound disappointed.”

  “I might be, just a little.” Mirella looked at her reflection, wondering what Letos saw when he looked at her. Rodyte females tended to be statuesque and dark, with luminous black eyes. Dark eyes were her only claim to the Rodyte standard of beauty.

  “I have the rumor mill to keep me informed. What made you think he’s a technomage?”

  Happy for the slight change of topic, Mirella forced her insecurities aside. Everything would be simpler if Letos never acted on their attraction. “He teleported me away from my guards. That was pretty unusual for a Rodyte.”

  “Then he knows you’ve guessed his secret. How did he react? Technomages can be incredibly secretive.”

  “Have you known many technomages?” Mirella challenged. “You speak of them with such familiarity.”

  “Actually, I have.”

  Surprised by the answer, Mirella looked at her friend. “Really? When and why did you encounter a technomage?”

  Elantue reached into one of the drawers on the right side of the vanity and took out a hairstyling kit. After unfolding the kit across the vanity, she selected a brush and went to work on Mirella’s long blonde hair. “Three years ago a man named Rikkar joined the palace guard. Do you remember him?”

  Thinking back, Mirella vaguely remembered a guard by that name. “Was he unusually tall and thin, with pale green rings in his eyes?” Elantue nodded and the corners of her mouth lifted. Then the implications of the revelation hit Mirella. “Rikkar was a Rodyte spy?” Again Elantue only nodded, but the telltale twitching of her lips turned into a beaming smile. “How did you find out? Why in hells rings didn’t you tell me?”

  She laughed merrily. “Rikkar was harmless. He was gathering information, nothing more.”

  “Information can become the most dangerous weapon of all,” Mirella insisted, and Elantue immediately composed her expression.

  “I apologize, Your Highness. I discovered his true purpose two days before his mission ended. If I’d turned him in, he would have simply disappeared.”

  “And how did you ‘discover his true purpose’?”

  “I caught him snooping around in an area of the palace that wasn’t on his rotation. When I confronted him, he went on the offensive, told me I was harassing him because I was attracted to him.”

  Fascinated by the tale, Mirella couldn’t help but ask, “Were you?”

  “It was more or less true,” Elantue admitted. “The second time I caught him in a room he had no reason to enter, he took things even farther.”

  It was said that Rodyte males studied the art of seduction just as carefully as they studied the art of war. Elantue wouldn’t have stood a chance against someone like that. “You became lovers?”

  “For three very intense weeks he shared my bed. I suspected from the beginning that he was an imposter, but I couldn’t decide if another monarch sent him or if he wasn’t even Bilarrian.”

  “You should have told me. You put yourself in serious danger by keeping his secret.”

  Elantue shook her head, chin raised stubbornly. “Rikkar wouldn’t have hurt me.”

  “You don’t know that. You don’t know him, not really.” When Elantue didn’t argue, Mirella let it drop. No harm had come to anyone, that she was aware of, so there was no reason to berate Elantue now. “You seem very certain he was a technomage. How did you confirm he was Rodyte?”

  “He crawled out of bed to respond to a com and I heard him speaking Rodyte. Some instinct warned me to remain still and allow him to think I was asleep. I couldn’t understand what he said, but I’ve heard the language often enough to recognize it. He sounded really angry and instead of crawling back into bed, he gathered his clothes and left the room. Two days later he was gone.”

  “Then you don’t know for a fact that he was Rodyte,” Mirella pointed out. “He could have been Bilarrian working for them.”

  Elantue shook her head, but didn’t look up from the intricate weave she was creating in Mirella’s hair. “It’s possible, but not probable. It makes more sense that he was Rodyte. And the only way a Rodyte can pass for Bilarrian is if he is a technomage.”

  Her theory made sense, but it was far from conclusive. Teleportation and telepathy were required abilities for every palace guard. Without extensive integrated tech, it would be impossible for a Rodyte to qualify for the position.

  Rather than debate the issue further, she indulged a mischievous impulse. “So do technomages make better lovers?”

  Their gazes locked in the mirror for a moment, then Elantue burst out laughing. “I don’t have much to compare him with, but Rikkar was the best I’d ever had.”

  Slow curling heat twisted through Mirella’s body at the thought of being intimate with Letos. She knew it was a trick of nature, a way of drawing genetically compatible couples together and ensuring that they reproduce, but that didn’t seem to matter. She wanted him, plain and simple. He appealed to her as no other male ever had, regardless of his planet of origin.

  Elantue finished with Mirella’s hair and slid her headband into place. “How’s that look?”

  Mirella admired the elegant upsweep, complemented by the delicate headband. “It’s lovely, as always.”

  “Well, have fun.” She gathered the dishes, then left with one last sunny smile.

  Mirella had no specific plans for the day. She was relatively certain the Triad would request a meeting with her, but she had no assurance that it would be today. She needed to update her grandmother before she met with the Rodyte leaders, yet she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. It was best to keep things simple and clear, uncluttered with emotion. The thought made her roll her eyes. Queen Aurelia was the most perceptive person Mirella had ever known. Anything she tried to hide, her grandmother would sense. Still, she had to tell her something or the queen would contact Fobitar to find out what transpired last night.

  Any blood relative was only a thought away, but Mirella needed to see her grandmother to better gauge her reactions. “Person-to-person holo-com, Queen Aurelia of Erotious.”

  It took a few moments for the com-system to establish the connection, but soon Mirella stood facing a life-size image of her grandmother. “You look well,” Queen Aurelia greeted. “How did things go yesterday?”

  The calculative gleam in the queen’s gray eyes warned Mirella that this was a test. Apparently, Fobitar had already tattled on her. “I caught the attention of Letos, IG guild master. He was clearly attracted to me, so I allowed him to flirt and fawn over me, hoping he’d become more talkative than he’d been in the formal setting.”

  “Is that why you teleported away from your security team?” She folded her arms over her chest, signaling her displeasure.

  “I wasn’t responsible for that, but it worked to our advantage. Letos told me all sorts of interesting things wh
ile we sipped wine in his private office.”

  “Interesting doesn’t make it useful. Did you learn anything useful last night?”

  “Letos is not only master of the most powerful guild on Rodymia, he’s a technomage.”

  Queen Aurelia arched her brow and uncrossed her arms. “He told you this?”

  “Not directly, but I was able to guess from things he did tell me.” She was surprised Fobitar hadn’t mentioned it during his report. He’d told Elantue, so clearly he knew.

  The queen fell silent for a moment then shook her regal head. “That’s still interesting, rather than useful.”

  She tensed. What had Aurelia expected? This mission had lasted less than twenty-four hours, and Rodytes were suspicious by nature. “Both Letos and Haven are genuinely interested in establishing a peace treaty. Bandar, the battle born representative, is the only hold out.”

  “That’s better, but still a bit general. What else did you learn?”

  Annoyed by her grandmother’s persistence, Mirella took a moment to ensure her expression remained calm before she answered. “Letos wants to know if I’m authorized to negotiate by all four regional monarchs or just you?”

  Queen Aurelia’s eyes narrowed, but the expression fell short of an actual glare. “As it happens, I just came from an emergency meeting of the Council of Kings.” Mirella knew her grandmother hated that name, but the other regional monarchs refused to change it, felt it kept her in her place. “You, my dear, are the official Bilarrian Ambassador to Rodymia, empowered by all four regional monarchs.”

  “Then doesn’t it make more sense to explain my blood tie to Rodymia and—”

  “And what? Propose a union between you and Master Letos?” Challenge made the queen’s eyes gleam. Had her grandmother been listening to her conversation with Elantue? It was more than possible. Queen Aurelia had made all the arrangements for this trip. Or the queen could have drawn her own conclusions about last night. Either way, it was obvious that Aurelia knew Mirella was attracted to Letos. “Do you really want nothing more than to be a powerful man’s consort?”