“Willful and unfortunately, gaining in popularity,” the first voice said. “Someone took a vid of her trying to save Eucilla after the Trials and it’s been spreading like wildfire among the commoners and nobles alike. The people already love her for her courage and if they get behind her en masse…”
“Don’t worry about that,” the other male said. “I’ve planted a few, shall we say, failsafes in case things don’t go according to plan.”
“I won’t ask what they are,” the first voice said.
“Good. I’ll only tell you if you need to know. Now I must get back.”
“I will see you at the Culling Banquet tomorrow evening. Be ready.”
“I will. And never fear, my friend—the two of us will rule the galaxy together. Whether the new Goddess-Empress likes it or not.”
The voices ceased and after a moment, Doloroso was certain they were gone. So there were other players in this game—well and good, he didn’t care. What he had heard only confirmed what he had already known—whoever held the Empress held the key to the entire galaxy.
Doloroso just had to be certain that he was the male who held that key.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Charlotte
“My Lady, you have a long distance vid-call.”
Kristoff’s deep voice was cool and aloof. After our hot encounter in the House of Goddess Pleasures the night before, he had become withdrawn and distant in a way that hurt me more than I could say. I knew he was just trying to put some much-needed space between us, especially considering the illicit nature of our feelings for each other, but it felt like a personal rejection. He had refused to sleep in the bed with me last night and I had cried myself to sleep, so miserable I could hardly bear it.
Deal with it, I told myself dully for what seemed like the thousandth time. You can’t have him and after the way you’ve been moping around, he probably doesn’t even want you anymore, anyway.
Only I didn’t think that was true. I saw the desire in his eyes, when I turned and caught him watching me. He still wanted me as badly as I wanted him—maybe even more. But we could never be together and all because of a stupid tradition which had turned into a law which had become part of the Majoran religion somehow.
You rule these people now—or you will once you’re crowned, I reminded myself. You can’t start out by crapping all over their religion. I knew it was true but it still felt like someone was digging my heart out with a dull spoon every time I thought of spending my life with someone other than the man I had fallen in love with.
Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Everyone kept telling me that once I gave my blood to the prospective candidates at the Culling Ceremony I would feel incredibly drawn to one of them and desire no one else. Of course, I had also been told that the effects of giving my blood to Kristoff would fade and that hadn’t happened, so how could I believe—
“My Lady, did you hear me?” Kristoff asked, breaking into my morbid line of thought.
My Lady. All day long he had been calling me that—not once had he called me by name as he had last night when he was tasting me and bringing me to the peak again and again. His way of addressing me had seemed charming at first but now I was getting sick of it. I just wanted to hear him call me “Charlotte” but I had a feeling he never would again.
I looked up at him dully. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” I was bone-weary from staying up late crying the night before, and from all the religious rituals and purifications I’d been going through all day to get me ready to be crowned and enthroned, after I chose my Consort.
“I said you have a call,” Kristoff repeated. “I had it routed to the private conference area in the back of the Royal Apartments. If you’d like to follow me?” He indicated the narrow hallway which ran the length of the Royal Residence and raised his eyebrows at me.
“Fine,” I said. “But can you at least tell me who it is? I don’t really feel ready to start making rulings or doing trade negotiations or whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing as the Empress. I need to consult with some experts first—someone who can bring me up to speed on what the last Empress was doing.”
Kristoff’s icy gaze softened a little.
“You won’t have to worry about trade negotiations or royal duties to take this call, my Lady,” he said. “In fact, I think you’ll be most happy when you see who’s calling.”
The only thing that would have made me happy at that moment was being in his arms and knowing I could stay there. But I couldn’t say that aloud—it would only make things harder. Instead I lifted my chin and tried to look as cool and collected as he was.
“All right, thank you. I suppose I have time to take a call before the banquet tonight.”
The Culling Banquet—which I was not looking forward to—was supposed to be a lengthy and important affair which took place right before the Culling Ceremony itself. I was going to be dressed in a ridiculously heavy getup which consisted of a rich brocade dress of forest green worked all over with golden embroidery which Kristoff had ordered specially made for me. I was sure it would look spectacular—he had impeccable taste, after all—but I didn’t feel like getting dressed up and presiding over a table-full of snobby Royals who would be scrutinizing my every move and word. In fact, I really didn’t—
My thoughts cut off abruptly when Kristoff led me into a small room with a wide viewscreen covering one entire wall and I saw the two familiar faces glowing on its lighted surface.
“Zoe?” I asked, my eyes widening in disbelief. “Leah? What…how… I don’t even know how to start! Why are you calling me and why didn’t you call me before?”
“Charlotte!” they both squealed and I thought Zoe looked so excited she might just crawl through the viewscreen.
“We’re so sorry we couldn’t call earlier,” she said, her red curls practically crackling with excitement. “But the distance between Femme One and Eloim is crazy long—it messes with communications.”
“So how are you calling me now?” I asked, blankly. “Did you boost the signal or something somehow?”
“No, we’re actually on our way to see your coronation,” Leah said, looking as excited as Zoe. “We weren’t sure if we could all go first because of Sadie’s crown…”
“The Star of Compassion isn’t supposed to be parted from me or Eloim—my new home planet—for at least a year,” Zoe put in, touching a glowing pink jewel which she wore at her forehead. “But I talked to her and she agreed to make an exception and come off planet with me.”
“Wait—you talk to your jewelry now?” I said, frowning.
“Only because it has a sentient creature that lives inside it,” Zoe said a touch defensively. “Anyway, even after my Star agreed to come with me to see you, we still weren’t sure we could go because of Grav.”
“That’s my new guy.” Leah was beaming. “He’s had some, uh, problems in the past but your friend, Kristoff, issued a pardon for him. So the four of us—me and Grav and Zoe and her guy, Sarden—are all on the way to see your coronation ceremony.”
“Uh…a pardon?” I looked at Kristoff who nodded and gave me a small smile. “I thought you would agree with the ruling, my Lady. Gravex N’gol was instrumental in saving and protecting your friend’s life, as well as in apprehending Count Doloroso, the Assimilated criminal who was trying to abduct her for nefarious purposes.”
“Oh, well in that case…”
“Here, you have to meet him,” Zoe exclaimed. “Him and Sarden both. Wait just a second!”
There was a brief pause and then the viewscreen was suddenly filled with four faces instead of two—only two of the faces were male and extremely alien.
“This is my sweetie, Sarden.” Zoe was snuggling up with a seven-foot tall alien who had dark red skin, golden eyes, and horns like the devil. “He’s the one who dragged me through the bathroom mirror at my old work in the first place. Well, with a little help from the Commercians, of course.”
“The Commercians?�
� I said frowning. “Those blue worm guys, right? You know they kept trying to contact me for the longest time? In every shiny surface in the house—they even popped up on a scalpel when I was assisting in a splenectomy! I thought I was going crazy.”
“Oh dear…” Leah put a hand to her mouth. “Um, I’m afraid that was my fault. See, when I decided to go with Grav, here…” She nodded at the blue alien male who was built like a Mack truck and had curling black ram’s horns at the sides of his head, “I didn’t want you to worry, like we worried about Zoe. So I paid them to give you a message that I was all right.” She frowned. “Didn’t you ever get it?”
“I never let them finish,” I confessed. “I was so convinced I was seeing things that I ran away every time the worm guy started talking.”
“Well, even if you didn’t get the message, you know what’s going on now,” Zoe said brightly. “Humans are not the only intelligent species in the universe. Not even close—there are trillions and quadrillions and quintillions more in our galaxy alone!”
“Yes, I know,” I said dryly. “And now I’m apparently supposed to be ruling over all of them.”
“We know.” Leah looked at me, wide-eyed. “How are you dealing with that?”
I gave a glance back at Kristoff, who was still standing silently at my back.
“I’m…dealing with it,” I said. “As well as I can.” I didn’t want to go into the personal problems I was having—not with both their mates and Kristoff in on the conversation.
“You’re taking good care of Charlotte, aren’t you?” Leah asked, looking at Kristoff rather than me. “You promised you would if I gave you her location.”
“I am doing my utmost to protect the Goddess-Empress from harm,” Kristoff said shortly.
“And what about Doloroso?” the blue alien with black horns—he had black eyes too, I saw with white irises—asked in a deep, gravelly voice. He was talking to Kristoff, not me. “We heard he got away again.”
“Actually, no,” Kristoff said. “The Assimilation ship was attacked by pirates and only one of my men survived but he did manage to bring it in to Femme One.”
“Only one?” Sarden, the alien with the red skin and golden eyes frowned.
“The rest were killed.” Kristoff shook his head. “It’s made me regrettably short handed during a time when I could use more Imperial Guards, not less. But I am seeing to the Goddess-Empress’s safety myself.”
“Who is Doloroso?” I asked, frowning.
Zoe filled me in briefly on the weird body-jumping villain who was apparently a sentient computer program that could download himself into different hosts and take them over.
“Only what he really wants is to start a whole new race of computer babies with La-ti-zal mothers so they’ll have special powers or something,” Zoe said. “So watch out for him!”
“He’s not a threat anymore,” Kristoff assured her. “His ship was brought back to Femme One and he has not made a reappearance. I think it’s safe to assume that he is finally dead.”
“It’s not safe to assume anything about Doloroso,” Zoe objected. “We thought he was dead the first time and he came after Leah. You have to protect Charlotte from him!”
“Kristoff is protecting me! He’s saved my life more times than I can count,” I told her. “He’s really…” I glanced back at him, the words dying in my throat. How could I describe him, my Guard who had risked his life to save mine so many times? Amazing, incredible, strong…the man I’m in love with and can never have.
“I think…” Kristoff looked at me shrewdly. “That my Lady Charlotte would enjoy speaking to her friends without male interference.”
“Think you’re right,” Grav growled in his deep voice. He made a stiff bow to me. “Your Majesty.”
“Your Majesty,” Sarden echoed, also making a deep bow before straightening up. He looked at Kristoff. “Keep us informed, Captain Verrai, and let us know if there’s anything we can do to help during the coronation. We’re in communications range now and we’ll be coming into orbit around Femme One very soon.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” Kristoff nodded at both of them. “And now I’ll take my leave.”
Everybody bowed again and then Kristoff left the room and the other two alien males left the viewscreen, leaving just Zoe and Leah and myself to talk.
“Whew…” Zoe fanned herself with one hand and grinned at me. “Okay, that Captain of the Guards guy is hot! Are you getting some of that, Charlotte?”
“Zoe!” Leah protested. “You know Charlotte doesn’t like to talk about her love life! And besides, she’s the Empress of the whole entire galaxy now. She’s got more important things to think about.”
“Actually, I don’t.” I sighed. “I mean, I should, I know…but I just can’t.”
“What?” Zoe leaned forward, her blue eyes turning shrewd. “All right, Charlotte—we can see something is bothering you. Spill it.”
Always in the past when I’d felt like my friends were prying into things that didn’t concern them, I had clammed up fast. But this time, I was so miserable and upset I couldn’t help myself. When Zoe told me to spill everything that was going on, I did.
“…so we can never be together,” I finished, after talking for almost a solid half hour in which my two best friends had listened quietly, their eyes getting wider and wider.
“Whew!” Zoe whistled and shook her head. “That’s some story, Charlotte!”
“I can’t believe everything you’ve been through,” Leah said sympathetically. “All those assassination attempts! And it’s awful that you can’t be with the man you love.”
“It’s the law, apparently,” I said miserably. “And Kristoff is too honor bound to break it.”
“You break it then,” Zoe said. “You’re the Empress—can’t you do what you want?”
“It doesn’t work like that, Zoe,” I said, patiently. “Just because I’m the Empress doesn’t mean I can tell everybody to go to Hell and marry whoever I want to.”
“I would think that’s exactly what it means,” Zoe said. “I know I would.”
“I’m sure you would,” I told her, grinning a little. Zoe always had been the most adventurous of the three of us.
“Well every law has a loophole—isn’t that what you always used to tell us when you were a paralegal?” Leah asked practically, looking at Zoe.
“Not this one,” I said glumly. “It’s been in place for a thousand generations. Kristoff says it would take an act of the Goddess of Mercy herself to change it now.”
“Pray about it then,” Zoe advised. “The Goddess is real—she’ll hear you.”
“You really think so?” I looked at her doubtfully.
“Absolutely.” Leah nodded. “Something is going to work out—you’ll see.”
“I hope you’re right.” I sighed. “But I’m afraid you’re not. I just…” I trailed off, shaking my head.
“You just want to bond with the man you love,” Zoe finished for me sympathetically. “We know how it is, Charlotte—really we do. Leah and I didn’t think we’d get to stay with our guys either, but it all worked out in the end.”
“Well,” I began but just then there was a rapping at the door and Kristoff stuck his head in.
“Forgive me for interrupting, my Lady but the Culling Banquet is in half an hour. We really need to get you ready.”
“All right, thank you,” I told him. “Just let me say goodbye and I’ll be out in a minute.”
He nodded shortly and withdrew.
“Culling Banquet? What’s that?” Zoe asked.
“It’s this huge elaborate feast before the Culling Ceremony which is where I give three drops of my blood to three different candidates who the Council of Wisdom—a bunch of old men I don’t even know—has chosen for me as possible Consorts. Then, supposedly, I’ll be irresistibly drawn to one of them. The candidates, I mean—not the Council of Wisdom guys.”
“So the Council gets to pick who you
’ll spend your whole life with?” Leah asked, frowning. “That hardly seems fair.”
“To me either,” I said. “But apparently that’s how it’s done and it would be sacrilege to suggest I get to pick my own husband.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.
“Hang in there, Charlotte,” Zoe said, getting a stubborn look on her pretty, freckled face. “And don’t give up—you have to advocate for yourself!”
“I’m trying, believe me,” I said. “But this is kind of a difficult situation to advocate in, you know? I’m trying to be respectful of my new people’s religion and customs.”
“Well they need to be respectful of you too,” Leah exclaimed. “I can see why they would want a Council to balance the power of the Empress but this isn’t a trade negotiation or a whatever it is you’re going to be doing once you get on the throne—this is your life. And believe me, Charlotte, if your alien guy is anything like ours is, once you bond to him, it’ll be for life.”
“Leah’s right,” Zoe said seriously. “This is a lasting arrangement. Most of the Twelve Peoples don’t even know what divorce is. Once they’re bonded, they stay together until one of them dies. It’s no joke.”
I felt myself go cold all over. Bonded for life to a man I didn’t even know? A man who was picked for me by the Council of Wisdom, who I was pretty sure didn’t even like me? A man who isn’t Kristoff, added a little voice in my head. This was going to be horrible. What was I going to do?
“My Lady…” It was Kristoff again at the door. “We really must get you ready,” he said sternly.
“Hey!” Zoe was frowning at him from the viewscreen. “You—Kristoff.”
“Yes?” He frowned at her politely. “Is there something I can do for you? My Lady is about to be late for a very important state banquet.”
“Let her be late then,” Zoe said recklessly. “She’s the Goddess-Empress of the universe—let the guests wait on her a little. It won’t hurt to let them know she’s in charge of her own life. And speaking of that…” She pointed at him. “What are you doing about this thing between the two of you?”
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