oath forger

by Nia Mars

  “If she wants to eat here for a couple of days, she’ll eat here. We shouldn’t push her.”

  I’m grateful. Not only does he pay enough attention to me so he knows how I feel, he is also concerned about what I need. He said ‘we’ shouldn’t push her. Not ‘you.’ His language avoided putting the other two on the defensive and adding more tension between the kreks.

  And because he’s concerned about overwhelming me, I can handle the morning. I know that if the other two push too hard, Uthan will make them stop. So I say, “It’s okay. We can all go together.”

  And we do, after breakfast.

  “The palace is a torus,” Tiam says as we walk down a curved hallway.

  When I look to him for explanation, he draws two circles in the air, one inside the other.

  “A doughnut shape?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t know what a doughnut is.” Then he goes on with, “The garden is in the middle. Your quarters are on the inner side of the ring, protected.”

  Uthan adds, “All the rooms you are expected to use the most are on the ring’s inner side: the private dining room, the private living room, the library. On the outer side of the ring are the public areas: various reception rooms, a ballroom, and dozens of offices. On the lower level are the kitchens and the servants’ quarters.”

  Tiam is walking on my right, Uthan on my left, Dason behind us. I feel like I have bodyguards. The few palace staff we pass bow deeply then move on in silence.

  “If the coming of an Oath Forger is a once-every-other-century kind of event, why do you keep up an entire palace for the position?” I ask.

  “Hope,” Dason says cheerfully behind me.

  “The Oath Forger’s Palace is also used for a number of diplomatic missions and events. It’s accepted as neutral ground by all,” Tiam puts in, then points at a beautifully carved door as we walk by, made of real wood and decorated with leaves and flowers. “Your office.”

  They keep moving but I stop, seriously relieved. Having an office means having a job, right? Which means I can finally earn my keep? Accepting everything from clothes to food on a daily basis, makes me very uncomfortable.

  “Can I go in?”

  “Certainly. But you’re not expected to work right now. This is your time for settling in.”

  And accepting your kreks, I hear the unspoken part of the sentence as clearly as if he’d said the words. I push the door open to hide whatever emotions might be flitting across my face.

  A spacious reception area greets me, two crimson couches and a dark-wood reception desk that is currently vacant. I move through the open door on the right and find myself in a circular room, the walls painted with green vines. Except for that, it’s pretty similar to the presidential office in Washington that I’d seen in old movies.

  I run my fingers over the rich, gleaming surface of the desk’s black marble top. “What will I do here?”

  The men glance at each other uncertainly. It’s not a look they wear often. Then again, it’s not like they have extensive Oath Forger experience. There’s no reason for them to know the answer to my question.

  “Your secretary will know the answer,” Uthan says at long last.

  “I have a secretary?”

  Tiam responds. “You will have to hire one. Someone with expertise in the history of previous Oath Forgers, and also in diplomatic affairs.”

  I put finding such a person on my mental to-do list. It’s a short list that has only three items.

  #1: Don’t freak out.

  #2: Don’t get caught lying about the Oath Forger gig.

  #3: Find secretary.

  We leave my office and walk down the hall, turn, then Tiam strides toward a set of massive double doors up ahead. They’re carved, in breathtaking detail, with images of mountains. He pushes the doors open, smiling with pleasure. “Your library.”

  I stop in the doorway and blink in awe.

  Bookshelves fill the room, all the way up to the soaring ceiling. Giant ceiling frescoes show star maps and faraway galaxies. A pink marble fireplace tall enough to walk into sits on the far wall facing me, a low fire burning, ready for a cold night. In front of it and in between the shelves, large, deep couches are waiting, spacious enough for several people.

  A few of the couches have dents in the pillows, as if someone used them recently. As if people...

  I spin to the men behind me. “Did you sleep here last night?”

  Dason answers. “We have accommodations in the city, Oath Forger, but we didn’t want to be that far from you.”

  A mix of emotions swirl through me. Their dedication to me is both flattering and uncomfortable. Mostly, I have no idea what to do with it.

  I turn from them, and my gaze snags on the shelves, on the rows and rows of books, and only then do I finally comprehend that I’m surrounded by millions of pages of paper. I walk forward as if drawn by a tractor beam.

  This is more than a library. It’s a treasury. The value of this many books is inconceivable.

  I walk in between two rows of shelves and let my hands float over dozens and dozens of spines with gilded lettering. I don’t dare touch. Being this close is enough to make me feel drunk.

  Your library, Tiam had said.

  My library? For this much paper, I could buy every colony on Earth. But even thinking about touching these books, let alone selling them, feels like blasphemy.

  Laughter bubbles up my throat. I can’t control it. And then, before I can stop myself, tears are rolling down my face.

  “Oath Forger?” Dason’s voice is thick with worry. He steps up to me and places a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  “Give her a moment,” Uthan says in a warning tone. Then, “How about we stop at the library today? Tiam can stay here with her and explain the histories.”

  Dason immediately protests. “I want to stay too.” But he releases me, as if wanting to prove that he can be more restrained.

  “Let’s give her some breathing space.”

  Truth is, I want to be alone. But I know I’m not going to get that. If I told all three to leave, they would send guards in their place. I would rather be with one of them than with strangers.

  I clear my throat. “I’d like some time with Tiam.”

  Tiam’s gray eyes flare with triumph.

  Dason moves back, shoulders sagging, chin dipping.

  Why do I feel as if I’d just kicked him?

  “Don’t push her.” Uthan’s tone is hard, his gaze boring into Tiam’s.

  Tiam squares his shoulders. “Do not presume to tell me what to do.”

  The cavernous room immediately fills with tension. It touches Dason, too, and he bristles.

  “Please?” I quietly ask.

  Uthan turns on his heel and walks away, his boots hitting the stone floor harder than they have to, as if he’s pushing himself to get out before he can change his mind. He doesn’t look back.

  Dason follows behind him, glancing at me over his shoulder.

  When the double doors close behind them, I fill my lungs with air that smells strange. It’s the smell of books, I realize, the same time as I realize that I’m alone with Tiam. When I turn to him, I find his gaze on me. I am the sole focus of his attention.

  Suddenly, I am not sure if I made the right decision in sending the other two away.

  Tiam is about Koah’s age, maybe a year or two younger than Uthan. His straight silver hair spills over his silver uniform. His gray eyes are penetrating. His features are not as coarse as Koah’s, yet far from delicate or effeminate. He has the smooth perfection of ancient marble statues. He is perfectly symmetrical, perfectly built, all lean strength unlike Koah’s more burly, gladiator build. Ridiculously handsome. There isn’t a female on Earth who wouldn’t respond to him.

  “What would you like to know first?” he asks.

  I think about that for a couple of seconds. “Whatever will help me the most.”

  He smiles. I must have given the right answer.

>   The smile softens his face, making him twice as attractive, if possible. I seriously need to get used to the way these guys look. I can’t spend the rest of my life here dazed and dazzled.

  “Good,” he says. “I didn’t want to bore you with a millennia of interstellar history.”

  Does he know a millennia of interstellar history?

  “Have you read all the books here?” I gesture weakly at the shelves, entertaining the inconceivable idea.

  “Yes.”

  My eyes must be bugging out of my head. “Have all the other kreks?”

  “I’m something of a scholar. I think knowledge wins wars.” He flashes a deprecating smile. “Koah thinks it’s the latest fighter ships.”

  I bite back a grin. Tiam is a nerd—a breathtakingly gorgeous warrior nerd.

  My brain can’t get past the thought that he’s read the entire library. I can only read some FCL, Federation Common Language, nowhere near fluent, and I can read very little English. If he knew, he would think me an ignorant idiot.

  God, I hope he never finds out.

  Would I be required to read some of these books? Cold spreads through me at the possibility.

  I clear my throat. “Don’t your comm units read stuff out loud?”

  He raises an eyebrow.

  “We usually listen to and watch information we need.”

  “Yes, of course.” He glances at the neckline of my dress, his gaze hesitating where the silky azure material and my skin meet.

  He draws in a slow breath, blinks, then he goes back to a narrow table at the entrance and picks up a small black dot that looks like plastic. He brings it to me, holding it on the tip of his index finger. “May I? You should have received one already. I’m sorry I didn’t notice.”

  Instantly, my whole body tenses. “Please don’t tell me you have to inject that into my brain.”

  Chapter Five

  A SMILE TILTS UP Tiam’s perfect lips. “Have a difficult time with the translator, my Ava?”

  “It hurt like a bitch. Whoever invented it should be shot.”

  His laughter echoes off the library shelves. Then he shakes his head. “Try not to say things like that in public. You are the Oath Forger. Your words might be taken as command.”

  I suck my lips in. “I didn’t mean it. Sorry.”

  “It’s alright. Harlod is gone now. He was a brilliant inventor. We wish he were with us still.”

  Note to self: Try not to get any innocents executed.

  “This won’t hurt at all,” Tiam promises and reaches for the neckline of the dress. He sticks the little dot on the fabric.

  Oh, okay. That’s familiar. Yesterday’s clothes had a dot like that. I thought it was decoration. I didn’t realize it was a comm unit and I was supposed to move it from outfit to outfit.

  As Tiam presses the little button to make sure it stays in place, his knuckles brush against my jaw.

  He freezes. His gaze flies to my face and stays on me. He’s watching me as if he’s trying to make out whether I’m displeased.

  I’m not. I’m just not used to casual touching from men. Especially when I’ve spent the night with another guy. This feels wrong to my earthly sensibilities, even if I know things are different here. I pull away.

  Tiam lets his hand drop and turns toward the shelves, but not before I catch the disappointment in his gray eyes.

  “Every book in this library...” He gestures at the temple of knowledge around us. “Is in your comm unit. So is the news, by the way.”

  He taps his own black dot. “Current affairs. One minute summary.”

  “Pirate attacks continue in the Outer Territories,” a disembodied voice says in the tone of a newsreel. “The Federation war seems to be in an unexpected ceasefire since yesterday. No official announcement has been made, but four kreks of the five Alliances have suddenly traveled to Merim. To hammer out a more lasting peace? There is rampant speculation from unofficial sources about the appearance of an Oath Forger, however, this has not been confirmed by any reputable news outlet. No press releases have been made, and inquiries have not been answered by official sources.”

  All through this, images flash in the air between us, showing pirate ships somewhere far away, then what I assume to be Federation war footage, then footage of spaceships quietly floating through space, then an image of my palace, as if the camera is circling it in the air, and I can see now that it does look like a giant doughnut, with the emerald garden in the doughnut-hole middle.

  I can even see the glass cupola above my bedroom. I wonder if I am about to see myself in bed this morning, but the camera stays at a respectable distance.

  My gaze snaps to Tiam, my throat going dry. “Am I going to have to make a public appearance?”

  I’m so not a leader. I’m no good in public, or at speeches. I am a scavenger.

  “Eventually,” Tiam says, and there is kindness in his gray eyes.

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “You’ll be ready by then,” he promises. “And we’ll be with you. You won’t have to face any task alone, ever again, if you don’t wish it.”

  The not-being-alone part sounds reassuring. Not that I’d been completely alone on Earth. I’d had Lily. But we’d been kind of alone together. Resources are limited at Dallas Colony, so there’s a definite competition for them. Families stick together. Colonists aren’t enemies, but we’re definitely competitors. There’s a certain distance between unrelated people.

  “You can ask your comm unit anything you want to know,” Tiam tells me.

  I walk deeper into the library because I’m too nervous to stand still. Of course the Oath Forger would have a public role. I’ve been so hung up on the idea of having to ‘accept’ five kreks, I haven’t really thought about the Oath Forger’s other responsibilities.

  I try and fail at giving Tiam a smile. “I’m not even sure what to ask.”

  “You can ask me, too, if that makes you more comfortable. Anything.”

  I’m at the fireplace, the pink marble carved with flowers and leaves, bringing the garden inside. The artwork is stunning. Just running my fingers over the images makes me feel better. I spend several seconds letting all that beauty settle me, before I turn to Tiam.

  “I know that there is a blood feud between Koah’s family and yours. Is there anything else like that among the five?”

  He hesitates then points at the nearest sofa. “Would you like to sit?”

  The deep sofa looks too much like a bed. I can see the indentation of a body on the seat. Is this where he slept last night?

  “I’d rather look around a little more.”

  The sides of the shelves are all carved with stunning images of buildings and people. I step from one to another. Orderly cities and soaring architecture, all breathtaking and inspiring. Did Earth look like this once? Is this what we lost? My throat constricts.

  “The carvings are of our most famous universities and scholars.” Tiam’s smile says he’s pleased by my interest.

  We walk to the end of a row. Here, the walls are all painted. Again, I see people, spaceships, something that looks like the DNA double helix, and other images I can’t make out at all.

  “Our most important discoveries. Things that changed life as we know it.”

  I marvel at painting after painting. They remind me of old museums I’ve seen on my comm unit on Earth. “I’m glad it’s not just the most famous galactic battles.”

  Tiam laughs. “You should see Koah’s royal palace on his home planet.”

  Koah. The krek who is even now heading to war, risking his life. Because I asked him to. My heart squeezes. “Do you think he’ll be all right?”

  Tiam’s smile slips away. He doesn’t like that I’m worrying about Koah.

  Then I remember. Tiam and Koah aren’t exactly friends.

  “You didn’t answer my question. Are there any other blood feuds among the five that I don’t know about?” I ask as we resume walking.

  “Yo
u should ask them.”

  “Do you have a blood feud with anyone other than Koah?”

  He hesitates for a long time. “No.”

  “But you dislike them.”

  “I hate them. We’ve been at war for too long. We’re too used to having one goal only: to conquer each other.” His sculpted lips stretch into a slow smile. “And now here you are. I don’t want those bastards within a lightyear of you.” Then he says in a wry tone “In all fairness, they probably feel the same.”

  Maybe I should take the men’s interest as a compliment, but instead, I feel like a bone tossed among five very large and angry dogs. Or wolves. Unease fills me all over again.

  What am I doing here?

  What have I agreed to?

  I’m never going to get away with pretending to be the Oath Forger. But Koah has already left for Earth. It’s too late to insist that I go with him.

  I swallow hard, hating, hating, hating that I’m lying to these men. Hating that I can’t be strong and courageous for longer than half an hour.

  “Can we go outside? Back to the garden?”

  Tiam watches me as if he’s doing his best to puzzle me out. He doesn’t understand the undertones of alarm in my voice. He glances around, probably looking for what on earth could have set me off.

  “Wouldn’t you like to see the rest of the palace?”

  “I know it’s big and beautiful, breathtaking, really, but...”

  “Too much?”

  I nod. Too much, and at the same time... Suddenly the enormous room doesn’t seem big enough. The tall walls are just walls to lock me in. And if the palace is merely a glamorous prison, then what does that make the garden? The prison yard? “Or maybe not the garden...”

  Anxiety crashes through me. I know I’m looking at Tiam all panicky and wild-eyed, but I can’t stop.

  “Ava?” He steps closer and runs a hand down my arm, a gesture meant to comfort me.

  He watches me with intent gray eyes, as if he’s trying to decode my programming. Then he gives a brief nod—a decision reached. “How about if I take you out into the city? Incognito. Nobody has to know who you are. Let me get you out of here for a while.”