What a joke!
Only it felt like the joke was on him. What in the Seven Hells was he doing, leaving Ellina like this?
I’m doing the only thing I can do, he reminded himself. The only thing that makes sense.
Then why did his departure feel so damn senseless?
Ty had no answers. He looked down at his feet as he climbed the long, narrow passage which led up and up. When he had first come to Helios Beta, he’d thought it would be hard to get used to living below ground. Now it felt strange to be going to the surface. Strange to be leaving Ellina and Tisa and Lor…
“Ouch!”
He was pulled out of his morose thoughts by a sharp stinging pain in the side of his neck. Reaching up automatically, he felt something hard and sharp buried in his flesh.
Pulling it out hurt even more but Ty managed, with a muttered curse. He examined the small, barbed thorn with a drop of his own blood still clinging to its sharp end.
“What in the Seven Hells?” he muttered. “Where did this come from?
Looking around, he saw a narrow tunnel leading off the main corridor. Just inside it, a dark shadow moved. But when Ty tried to see who it was, he found his eyes didn’t want to focus. That was strange.
“Hey! Who’re you? Whadayou wan?” he asked. But why were his words coming out slurred?
He tried to take a step closer to the blurry figure in the tunnel mouth, but his knees buckled under him. Falling heavily to the floor, his brain sluggishly informed him of what must have happened.
Drugged…I’ve been drugged!
Ty fumbled for his blaster, determined to take out whoever had shot him with the poisoned dart. But now his hands weren’t working right either. They couldn’t seem to grasp his weapon and everything was getting more and more blurry…
Can’t talk, can’t see, can’t walk or reach my blaster. This is bad…very fucking bad, he thought. But even his thoughts seemed sluggish, moving through his brain like slow-flowing mud.
The blurry figure came to stand over him. Ty tried to focus but he still couldn’t see who it was—just a jumble of deep blue skin tones and the muted gleam of gold.
“Who…wha…?” he tried to ask but his tongue was like a lump of lead in his mouth.
“Good—he’s nearly out,” a familiar voice said above him. “Take him to the dungeons—I have plans for our brave Lan’Glaver.”
Ty tried to protest, but now his mouth wasn’t working at all. In fact, nothing was. And then everything around him blurred into blackness and he knew no more.
Thirty-Eight
After Ellina cried herself out, she sat curled in a ball on the couch, feeling horribly lonely. She knew she needed to get up and wash her face and get on with the business of governing, but somehow she couldn’t make herself move.
I’m too tired, she thought, feeling like someone had draped a lead blanket over her head. Too tired to move. I’m just going to take a little nap…
* * *
She woke up, some hours later, to a knocking at her door. It was Captain Kiyda again, asking if she was well.
“Fine,” she croaked, and then cleared her throat and tried again. “I am perfectly well, Captain,” she called through the closed door. “Do the ministers still expect me back in Morning Court?”
There was an awkward silence and at last the new captain of her Royal Guard answered.
“No, Your Majesty. It is evening now. The ministers all left some while ago. I was merely asking if Your Majesty would like your supper served to you in your apartments or in the Dining Hall?”
“Oh…” Ellina put a hand to her head. How could she have slept the day away like that? What must her ministers think of her now? And worse, what rumors might be flying about the Court? She was only too aware of how the nobles loved to gossip. Who knew what nefarious reasons they might assign to her absence in Court that day?
Well, there was nothing to be done about it now, she told herself grimly. Except be certain she showed up to Court bright and early the next day and did her royal duties to the best of her ability. Nothing to do but carry on and act like everything was normal, even if she felt like she was falling apart inside.
And the first normal thing she could do was eat dinner. Or at least pretend to eat it.
“I thank you, Captain Kiyda,” she called through the door. “You may have my dinner sent here to my apartments tonight.”
No matter how much she needed to save face, she felt she couldn’t bear to go to the formal dinner in the Dining Hall. She would go on with the business of being Potentate tomorrow. But for tonight, she wanted to stay in her apartments and lick her wounds.
“Yes, oh Goddess in the Flesh,” Kiyda answered. “It shall be as you say.”
He went away and in due course, her silver dinner tray arrived.
Ellina sat at the table by herself and looked at it sadly. The food looked and smelled delicious but she had no appetite. All she could think of was Ty tasting a bit of everything to make certain it wasn’t poisoned or drugged and how he wasn’t here to taste for her now and keep her safe with the essence from his fangs.
Of course, she reminded herself, he wasn’t needed now. The poisoner had been caught—it was the same male from the Southern Continent who had planned the attack during the Grand Promenade. The same male whose head Lord Kikbax had blown off with his blaster…
But the memory of that—of the bright spray of blood and brains all over the wall of the dungeon interrogation room—turned her stomach. Ellina pushed the tray away without tasting it. Ugh—she couldn’t eat a thing tonight. She just wasn’t hungry.
She sent the tray away, back to the kitchens, and settled disconsolately on the couch again with her legs curled beneath her. She wished she had someone to talk to besides Lor and Tisa. The two chewchies were curled up together on the back of the couch, comforting each other. They were considerately not mating, though Ellina wasn’t certain how she would handle it when next they did. After all, she didn’t have Ty to take the edge off the intense sexual lust the two chewchies generated now. She was probably going to go crazy with need the next time they decided to get together. If only Ty was still here…
Ty, Ty, Ty—stop thinking about Ty, she told herself angrily. He left you and he’s not coming back so it’s time to forget about him! He—
“Oh my child—you are in turmoil. I can feel it through Shel.”
Her grandmother’s voice, coming from Lor’s mouth, interrupted Ellina’s train of thought abruptly.
“Grandmamma?” She looked up, as though she might see the old woman standing in front of her. Her grandmother had still been ill—too ill, Ellina had thought, to bother or frighten with the news of the latest assassination attempt. She’d been checking on her two or three times a day but usually she only got her lady’s maid, who informed Ellina that her grandmother was on the mend, but slowly. Now, she found she was very glad to hear her beloved voice.
“Grandmamma,” she said again, smiling. “How are you? I’ve been so worried about you!”
She expected the older woman to say she felt perfectly well and that Ellina shouldn’t worry about her. So her next words came as a terrible shock.
“Ellina, child,” Lor said softly in her grandmother’s voice, “I’m dying.”
Thirty-Nine
When Ty woke up, he couldn’t tell where he was. It was so dark that at first, he couldn’t even tell if he had his eyes open or closed. And even more frightening, he couldn’t move.
Be calm, he told himself sternly when he wanted to panic. The first thing to do is to figure out where in the Seven Hells you are. Everything else can wait until you do that.
Closing his eyes—he thought, anyway—he took a deep breath and held it, listening.
From somewhere near, he heard the slow drip…drip…drip of water. It echoed as though in a deep chamber, like beads of moisture were falling into a stone throat. Next he became aware of the smell of dampness and rot. His nose wrinkled—where had he
smelled that scent before?
Finally it came to him—the dungeon. That was where he’d heard these sounds and smelled that scent before. He must be down in the dungeons under the palace.
But how in the Seven Hells had he gotten here?
Suddenly he became aware of a faint light in the darkness and then footsteps—two sets of them—coming towards him.
“You’re certain he’s still out, Your Holiness?” one voice asked
“Quite certain,” came the reply. “There was enough toxin on that dart to put a terga beast down for a day and a night. He won’t wake up until I’m ready.”
“I don’t understand, though,” the first voice said as the light came nearer. “Why not kill him right away and be done with it? Why lock him away in the dungeons like this?”
“Fundreg, you fool, you never could plan worth a damn,” the second voice, which sounded very familiar said. “I can’t kill him because I need him for leverage, of course!”
Fundreg? Ty frowned. Wasn’t that the name of Ellina’s old Captain of the Guard? The one who was dismissed from service because he failed to stop the assassination plot against her at her coronation?
He was sure it was. And of course “Your Holiness” must be the High Priest.
Damn it—I knew he was a slippery bastard! I never should have trusted that he was falling into line and serving Ellina—never!
Ty wanted to grit his teeth but he still couldn’t move anything but his eyes. Apparently the drug they’d given him was some kind of a paralytic. All he could do was lie here and listen to the priest and his henchman planning, though he was itching to jump up and squeeze the life from both their lying throats!
“But how can you use him for leverage?” Fundreg’s voice asked as the light shone through the bars of Ty’s cell. “He’s just her ex-bodyguard, after all.”
Ty made certain to keep his eyes barely slitted as he listened, to preserve the illusion that he was still out. As long as he couldn’t move or speak, he might as well hear everything he could. No sense in letting the two traitors know he was overhearing their plans.
“He’s not just her bodyguard, you fool!” Kikbax exclaimed. “He’s her Lan’Glaver! She loves him—or thinks she does, the stupid little idiot.”
Hearing the High Priest talk that way about Ellina made Ty want to shout with rage. At that point, it was probably a good thing he was still paralyzed, or he couldn’t have stopped himself from acting, even though Kikbax was safe on the other side of the bars that made Ty’s cage.
“If she loves him, why did she send him away?” Fundreg asked doubtfully.
“Who knows?” Kikbax made an impatient gesture with one arm. “But it’s a sure bet that he’d be coming back to her one way or another. The bond between their chewchies would draw him. Speaking of which, have you located that chewchie of his yet?”
“I’m afraid not, Your Holiness.” Fundreg sounded worried about the other man’s response. “She must have run away somewhere between the passage where we took him and the dungeons. My men can’t find her anywhere.”
“Well, try harder!” Kikbax snapped. “She mustn’t be allowed to sound the alarm! Word has it that the Potentate left the Court very upset this morning and is sleeping in her apartments. She may already be aware that something is wrong, if she’s woken from her rest. If she tells that damn Captain Kiyda the Kindred has been taken prisoner, we’ll never catch the Potentate off her guard!” He made a noise like an angry clearing of his throat. “I have my own guards set to relieve the ones at her door after supper and I don’t want her to suspect a thing.”
“But will the new Royal Guard agree to go?” Fundreg asked doubtfully. “Word has it they are unshakably loyal to the Potentate and will not stand down for any word but hers.”
“Well, they should stand down for me—I am the High Priest of Thufar!” But Kikbax didn’t sound completely certain, which made Ty glad. He had chosen wisely and trained the Chorkay guards who now protected Ellina well.
“Of course, Your Holiness, I am sure you will have no problems with changing the Royal Guards for your own,” Fundreg said placatingly. “And shall I bring the Kindred’s chewchie to you when I have captured her?”
“Bring it to me? Of course not!” Kikbax exclaimed. “Kill the blasted thing!”
Kill Tisa? Ty felt as though a cold hand had reached down his throat and gripped his heart in an icy fist.
Though he had known her such a short time and she was mad at him and refused to “regard him” as she put it, at the moment, he still felt as though the fluffy little chewchie was a part of his heart. When he heard the High Priest talking about killing her, it was almost as though the bastard was talking about killing his child.
Goddess, no! he thought, feeling sick. Not Tisa!
Apparently Fundreg was almost as horrified by the High Priest’s cold-blooded plan for Tisa as Ty was.
“Kill a chewchie?” he asked faintly, sounding shocked. “A Sacred Blue chewchie? But Your Holiness, that is sacrilege on top of blasphemy. I cannot do such a thing!”
“Just do it!” Kikbax snapped. “And don’t worry about it being a sin—I’ll grant you a pardon myself. I’m the High Priest of Thufar, remember? Killing that damn chewchie is the only way to break the bond between the Potentate and her Kindred!”
“But to kill another’s chewchie…a Sacred Blue one at that…” Fundreg was shaking his head, a look of horror on his face.
“I tell you, I’ll grant you a spiritual pardon,” Kikbax insisted. “And you’ll be doing Thufar’s work. The bond must be broken so that the Potentate is free to take another as her consort. She can never fully bond with a male—not enough to bear a child by him, anyway—while her chewchie is bonded to the chewchie of another.”
“It’s all to make certain she has an heir,” Fundreg said slowly, as though to reassure himself. “It’s Thufar’s will that she should have an heir and she never could with an off-worlder like him.”
He nodded down at Ty, who was still feigning unconsciousness.
“Actually, she could have an heir with anyone,” Kikbax remarked. “The Sacred Blue always breeds true—both for color and for sex.”
“What? Even with an off-worlder?” Fundreg demanded.
Kikbax nodded. “Even so—if it’s the sort whose DNA is compatible. And these damn Kindred are genetic traders—they’re compatible with most every bipedal species in the universe, damn them!”
“But I always thought that the Potentate’s consort had to be one of our people—a Chorkay. One with noble blood in his veins and a skin as close to Sacred Blue as possible,” Fundreg protested.
“Of course, you did,” the High Priest said contemptuously. “Because that is what we wanted you to believe—you and everyone else on Helios Beta. The fact that the Potentate could choose anyone—anyone at all—and still produce a Sacred Blue female heir is something we of the priesthood have known for generations. A fact that we have striven to keep secret and erased from all the archives as we gradually took over the breeding of the Potentate and the selection of her consort ourselves.”
“But…why?” Fundreg sounded confused.
“Because we of the Priesthood of Thufar are the power behind the throne—we are the true rulers of Helios Beta!” Kikbax exclaimed. “So it has been for generations as we carefully chose consorts who would stay out of our way so that we could ‘guide’ the Potentate to make the correct decisions for our planet.” He frowned, his pudgy face pulled into lines of disapproval. “It’s only been in the last few generations that we somehow lost control.”
“The old Potentate—she had a mind of her own,” Fundreg pointed out.
“So she did,” Kikbax admitted testily. “Because she was crowned during the time of my predecessor—he was weak and allowed her to choose the consort she wanted—one who refused to work with the priesthood to help influence her decisions. I vowed when I came into power that such a thing would not happen again. So when the old Potentate�
��s daughter refused to listen to my advice and choose the consort I had picked for her, something had to be done.”
“You…you were behind the assassination of the former Y’res the Fourth?” Fundreg sounded awed.
“Indeed I was.” Kikbax nodded. “With a little help from the dissidents from the Southern Continent, of course. We all want the same thing, you know—for a male to rule Helios Beta. It’s just that those fools are too overt about it—they don’t realize that a High Priest can rule just as effectively through the Potentate as without her—which avoids upsetting the common folk, of course. Superstitious fools!”
“But the current Potentate, who took her mother’s title—”
“The current Y’res the Fourth is every bit as stubborn as her mother and grandmother,” the High Priest growled. “I waited for years for the Old Potentate to retire and let her granddaughter take over so that I could once again guide the planet, as is my destiny and right as the High Priest of Thufar. And what does she do? Rejects my candidate for consort at once!” He shook his head angrily. “No, the time for subtlety is over. I will rule Helios Beta through the young Potentate and she will do every damn thing I tell her! If not—her Kindred will die!”
He spat on the ground, just outside the bars which Ty’s face lay close to. Some of the warm spittle splashed off the dirty stone floor and flecked his cheek.
Once more Ty had reason to be grimly glad he was still paralyzed. Otherwise he would have jerked away and wiped his cheek in disgust. Instead, he had to lie there, unmoving, as that bastard Kikbax and his henchman made unspeakable plans for the ones Ty loved.
“Well, we’d best get moving,” Kikbax said at last. “I wanted to be certain the Kindred was secure but now that I know he is, I have other matters to attend to. And you have to find that chewchie!”
“Yes, Your Holiness.” Fundreg bowed submissively.
“And you know what to do once you find it,” Kikbax said. “Don’t disobey me, Fundreg—there are plenty who would love to take your place.”
Guarding the Goddess Page 22