“Why did they do it?” Ana asked.
Since Kole was adamant that Jewel not tell the truth behind the tattoos forming on her flesh, he’d helped her construct a cover story, but Jewel could see now that a simpler lie would be better.
“I guess they just thought that as the wife of an Empyreal, I deserved the marks of Empyreal status too,” she told Ana.
Ana touched Jewel’s cheek again. “It’s amazing and they really did it quickly. What process did they use?”
Kole intervened in the conversation. “Take your seat now,” he told her in a firm voice that brooked no disobedience.
Ana hesitated, looking at Jewel for instructions.
Jewel nodded to her and the former engineer of the Euripides returned to the table.
Kole glowered over the delay. The day may have started promising with great sex, but as the afternoon stretched toward evening, Jewel was really starting to detest her new husband.
The thetes had been gathered in the same recreational lounge which the Armenites had provided for Jewel’s first meeting with her former crewmates. Very little else had changed since then. All seven were dressed in the same gray that Jewel now wore, although each continued to wear the wrist band that monitored their location and made it possible for the Armenites to instantly sedate them if they stepped out of line. All seven looked frightened, demoralized and just a little bit hopeful now that Jewel had returned to them.
Body language told Jewel that Kole was getting ready to speak, but she wasn’t ready to get down to the bleak business ahead of them so she delayed things by stepping forward and greeting Meg Falco. Meg was a classic malcontent, but Jewel had warmed to her during their time in Valkyrie. Add in the little fact that Meg had saved her life by pulling her unconscious body out of the water after her dive in the Northern Sea and Jewel was more than willing to cut her some slack for her attitude problems.
She gave the tall woman with the nearly shaved head a little hug. “How are you, Meg?”
Meg hugged her back a little timidly under Kole’s glare. “Just wondering what’s going to happen to us.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Jewel told her. She gave the woman a little pat on the back and moved to the next crew member.
Jester Carter also got a hug; her former lover, Erik, a cautious pat on the shoulder. Vega Costa, her lazy, good for nothing, old roommate got a handshake, and Jewel contented herself with simply meeting the stares of Gunther Brüning, whom she flat out didn’t like, and Dawil Kwon, whom she didn’t trust.
“Are you finished now?” Kole asked her. The question was polite but the tone made it clear he thought she was wasting time. It was very important to Jewel that he realize these people were important to her, but it was clear that Kole simply didn’t approve. He was an Armenite and they were now thetes. No, it was worse than that. Kole was an Empyreal, however flawed in the views of his peers. He probably felt the need to reinforce his status against those at the lowest rungs of his society.
She’d have to think of something to do about that.
She smiled sweetly at him, because she was a Cartelite princess and understood the power of a smile. “I think we can begin,” she agreed.
“Attention!” Kole snapped while simultaneously stamping his heel against the floor.
The whole room started in surprise and Jester Carter, jokester of the Euripides, leapt to his feet and stood ramrod straight. Jewel wished he hadn’t done it. She couldn’t tell if he thought he was being funny, or if he’d made a realistic assessment of his circumstances and was trying to get on Kole’s good side. Either way she wished he hadn’t brought attention to himself.
Kole stalked around the table and examined him carefully. He never said a word and Jester began to sweat under the weight of Kole’s stare.
Jewel had to do something. “We’re here this afternoon to brief you on what the immediate future holds. There’s good and bad, as you might expect.”
“They gave us a briefing on these thetes,” Ana told her. “It sounds unbelievable—”
Kole rounded on her. “Did I give you permission to speak?”
He wasn’t shouting.
Like real military officers—he didn’t have to.
Ana shut up and turned to face him.
“On your feet,’ Kole ordered her.
Never taking her eyes off of Kole’s, Ana stood.
“And the rest of you,” Kole snapped. “Did I not call you to attention?”
Vega Costa leapt to her feet but couldn’t hold the erect posture very long. The others followed more cautiously with bruised and battered Erik bringing up the rear.
“You are all guilty of crimes against the Hegemony,” Kole informed them. “Your sentences have been generously commuted to the status of thete under my guardianship. While your duties in my service have not yet been established, I want to make certain that you understand both what is expected of you and what the punishments will be if you violate my instructions.”
No one said a word. Vega Costa’s lip quivered as if she were about to complain or to cry. She’d been a citizen of the Confederacy before she’d accepted the Hegemony’s plea bargain. It was difficult for her to believe that the Armenites really were willing to court the Confederacy’s wrath by locking up one of their citizens—not that Jewel believed that the Confederacy would have even made a diplomatic protest if it had learned of the events. The Armenites were too scary to provoke over a generic citizen working in the Fringe.
“Documents have been made available to you describing the status of a thete and the proper respect due to loyalists and citizens of the Hegemony. Study those documents. Memorize them. You will be physically punished for any violation of those standards not just in your person, but collectively as a group.”
Jewel hadn’t heard this before and she turned toward Kole in shock.
Kole ignored her.
“We are going to be traveling into the Cartel Worlds by civilian transport. Many of you will be tempted to violate your parole and attempt to escape back into the Fringe or into the civilian population of the Cartel Worlds, or the League or the Confederacy. Such attempts are punishable by death not only for yourself but for any of your fellow thetes who is deemed not to have been aggressive enough in his or her efforts to prevent your escape.”
As eyes widened around the table, Jewel had to clench her jaw to keep from interfering. She intellectually understood that Kole had to lay down the law to her old crewmates, but she was very much afraid that he meant everything he had just said. She knew that to undercut him in front of the thetes—oh, Stars, had she really just used that term for them? She knew that to undercut him in front of her friends would almost certainly harden his resolve to discipline them.
Still, she had to do something.
She turned back to face her former crewmates around the table. “That’s the bad part of the news. The Armenites take the status of thete very seriously. They mean it when they say you’re on parole and that they will enforce respect, discipline and obedience. They see this process as a sort of rehabilitation and it will reflect personally on Kole’s honor if you violate the terms of your service.”
She took the time to look each one in the eye again. Ana and Jester were trying to be strong. Meg looked demoralized and defeated. Gunther Brüning, a thoroughly unethical man who had been ship’s doctor aboard the Euripides, bore a calculating expression, like he was biding his time. So did Dawil Kwan, a petty thief with a streak of bully in him. Vega looked outraged. She’d have an even harder time than Erik in accommodating herself to Kole’s expectations because she had so little self-discipline. In her heart, she was still a citizen of the Confederacy. She wouldn’t be able to believe that Kole’s rules really applied to her. As for Erik? Jewel couldn’t read his battered expression. Was it possible to mix brooding anger with despair?
She’d have to watch out for all of them and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Now we get to share the good new
s,” she told them. “The status of thete is used not only for punishment but for what the Armenites think of as rehabilitation.”
Vega had held her tongue as long as she could. “Rehabilitation for what—being kidnapped and threatened with murder?”
Kole struck her so hard across the face that Vega flew back onto the table. The sound of the blow reverberated throughout the room accompanied by horrified gasps from Ana, Jester, Meg and Jewel. Vega’s sobs quickly followed.
“I am willing to permit my wife to try her Cartelite approach to rehabilitating you, but you will keep courteous tongues and show proper respect at all times.”
Jewel closed her eyes. She was absolutely furious with Kole, but she was disturbingly angry with Vega too. Couldn’t the fool see what a thin line Jewel was trying to walk them down here? Why did the idiot have to provoke him so soon?
She took a deep breath to calm herself and opened her eyes again. “Dr. Brüning, will you see to Vega’s injuries please?”
She waited while Brüning made a cursory examination of Jewel’s old roommate. “She appears to have a broken cheekbone,” he announced. “We’ll have to take her to the ship’s medical facilities for treatment.”
Jewel started to turn toward her husband but he preempted her question. “That can wait. Finish giving your instructions.”
Faces hardened toward him around the table, but no one dared to express a contrary opinion—not even Jewel.
She took another breath to steady herself. “Alright, back to the good news. There is quite a bit of latitude in how thetes perform their service. Kole has agreed that I can take each of you into my own employment. I don’t know what you will be doing for me yet, you will have jobs commiserate with your abilities and the pay and benefits will be generous by Cartelite standards.”
She gave the group a little smile even as Kole’s jaw clenched and he ground his teeth.
“I don’t agree with the way the Hegemony interpreted our actions in Valkyrie and this is a small thing that I can do to positively influence your sentence. I will expect superior work from you, as I would any employee, but you will have more freedom, free time and compensation than I gather is the norm in the Hegemony.”
A cautious smile made its way onto Jester’s face.
“But make no mistake,” Jewel told them. “You are still thetes of the Hegemony and no matter where we travel in the universe, you will be subject to Armenite discipline. It really will behoove you to work to meet Armenite expectations and become what they consider to be good citizens.”
Erik frowned—a very bad sign in Jewel’s opinion.
Ana very tentatively raised her hand.
Jewel forced herself not to look to Kole for permission. “Do you have a question, Ana? If I were in your place, I’d have dozens.”
Ana wet her thin lips with her tongue. “You and your husband have both used the term rehabilitation. Is it possible to—I don’t know what the term would be—graduate? Would it be possible to graduate from the status of thete to normal citizen?”
“An excellent question,” Kole answered before Jewel could even open her mouth to speak. “It will not happen quickly, but I fully hope that many of you can aspire to achieve the status of loyalist in my service.”
Ana tentatively raised her hand a second time and Kole nodded to her.
“Forgive me, sir,” she said, “but I really don’t understand what that means.”
Kole seemed pleased with both her attitude and her quest to better understand her place in Armenite society. “A loyalist is a member of a subject people who has demonstrated their commitment to supporting the Hegemony in all ways.”
Erik grimaced but Kole ignored the expression.
“Loyalists carry out their lives in much the same way as they did before their nations joined the Hegemony. As a loyalist, you would be free to continue in my wife’s employ or to seek other arrangements more to your liking. So long as you obey the laws, pay your taxes and promote the well-being of the Hegemony you will be free to live your life and raise your family as you see fit.”
This time it was Meg Falco who raised her hand. “Would we be able to go home again?”
Kole’s expression hardened. “Your home is the Hegemony now, but if you have family members living outside of it and you achieve the status of loyalist, I would be willing to sponsor your petition to permit them to immigrate and join you. As a thete, that is not a possibility.”
From the expression on Meg’s face, Jewel judged that nothing in the universe could entice her to invite her family into the Hegemony.
Jewel was hoping rather feverishly that she would never have to go there herself either.
“If there are no more questions,” Kole said, “you may return to your cells. The Righteous Lighting is underway and we’ll be entering slide space in another fourteen hours.”
Jewel felt the need to apologize for her former crewmates’ treatment. “Apparently there is a real dearth of accommodations on this ship. I promise you will have much better living quarters on our transit to my home planet of Luxor.”
She wasn’t certain that her words had reassured the thetes, but what else could she do?
Kole opened the lounge door and spoke quietly to the guards outside. Then he stepped aside while they entered and removed the thetes. Each of them met Jewel’s eyes as they passed—Ana, Meg and Jester pleading; Erik reproachful; Brüning and Dawil calculating.
When the first six thetes had gone, the seventh, Vega Costa, was left lying on the floor. “Take her to Physician Lieutenant Bree,” Kole instructed the guards.
Jewel waited for them to leave before turning on Kole. “Why did you hit her?”
Kole did not demonstrate even the slightest embarrassment of or discomfort with his actions. He appeared calm, but she couldn’t be certain that he was. The damn stoic mask of the Empyreal hid so much from her. “She was acting in a disrespectful and insubordinate manner.”
“You broke her cheekbone,” Jewel complained. The ruthless act of violence had shocked and horrified her. Was this the same man who’d been so tender and attentive in making love to her just a few hours ago?
“Discipline must be maintained. If we give the thetes any reason to doubt the gravity of their situation, they will be tempted toward actions that will result in much more serious forms of punishment.” Evidently Kole didn’t think Jewel fully comprehended his point, because after a short pause he added. “Coddle your friends now and you are killing them.”
Jewel couldn’t believe she’d been beginning to like this man. “You can’t be serious.”
Again, the impassive face—dead for all the expression it gave away. “You know I’m serious. The kindest thing you can do for these people is make certain they understand just how deadly serious I am. I’ve tried to explain to you how grave the larger political situation is in the Hegemony. I am not going to permit seven thetes—however fond of them you might be—to endanger the futures of the Hegemony or your Cartel Worlds. And I’m certainly not going to permit them to endanger your life and the lives of the children we might very well be able to conceive together.”
In the heat of the moment, Jewel didn’t realize that Kole had left his own life off the list of things he was trying to protect.
She got up in his face, shaking her finger at him. “Don’t you dare think you can kill these people!”
He grabbed her hand. Lightning moved more slowly than his hand appeared to travel. One second, she was in his face and the next his fingers closed over hers in a rock-steady vice grip. He didn’t hurt her, but he completely immobilized the hand, forcing her to pay attention to him.
“Jewel, you can’t afford to think like a spoiled Cartelite princess about this. If you have some secret vision of hiding these people away when we reach your home and helping them escape as you once did, take it out of your mind. I have no choice in the matter. I cannot allow these individuals to escape their punishment. If they run, I will execute them.”
Jewel believed him. She didn’t want to, but she was standing close enough to him to look into his eyes with a minimum of distraction from his facial tattoos. “That would be murder, Kole.”
“No, it would be just—”
“Don’t say it’s justice!”
Kole let go of her hand and allowed her to take a step back away from him. “It’s the law, Jewel, and my duty.”
Stars how she hated him right now. “And you always do your duty, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Kole told her, “with one horrible exception, I always have.”
Her anger stuttered, if such a thing were possible. It didn’t break or crack, but for one instant there was a gap in the red haze and she remembered just what that horrible exception was. In payment for some failure no one seemed to hold as his fault, Kole had been required to kill himself. The shame of his failure to do so appeared to outweigh all of the accomplishments of his life.
“I’m trying to protect you, Jewel,” he whispered.
The anger slammed back in place in her brain. Damn these Armenites anyway, thinking they had a right to expect her to kill herself if she somehow failed to live up to their expectations.
“Listen to me, Kole—”
“No, you listen! My discretion is extremely limited. If you want these people protected, teach them to behave. Make them understand that if they run, it isn’t only their own lives they’ll be risking.
Jewel felt her tiny bit of influence slipping away. She lashed out with the only thing she had to hold over her husband’s head, feeling weak and shallow as she did so. “If you ever murder one of those people, you’ve made love to me for the last time.”
Whatever sense of compassion might have seeped into Kole’s face drained away. His tone hardened. “Our marriage contract requires us to have sexual relations at least once a year.”
“Oh, you can fuck me once a year all right,” Jewel told him. “No one is going to accuse me of violating the letter of our contract. But I’ll lie beneath you like a dry board until you’re done. You’ll have more fun coming in your hand.”
Bride (The Unity Book 3) Page 11