Stardancer

by Ariel MacArran

  What did it mean that Opeh of the Az’tal sat below another woman at the arena? So what if she sat in the wrong seat? Why didn’t she just apologize and move? What was the point of wiping out a whole family over something as stupid as that?

  She didn’t bother asking them about it. Now, save Laric, they wouldn't even answer her questions.

  Kinara let her breath out when she heard his footstep. At least his return meant the women would leave.

  Aidar’s glanced flicked around the room. Her relieved smile faded under his scowl.

  She stood wearily. “Was the day pleasing to you, my mate?”

  “Other days have pleased me better,” he said curtly.

  Kinara looked at the floor. “Are you hungry? Shall I serve you now?”

  One of the women snickered softly and Kinara guessed it was Nathe. The girl didn’t seem to be able to go five minutes without giggling at her.

  She sighed. “I’m sorry. Would you care to sit first? Shall I bring wine for your thirst?”

  Aidar spared the women a glance. “You will leave now.”

  Kinara’s stomach sank as the women filed out. Whatever she’d done wrong now annoyed him so much he neglected to even inquire about her day.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about my – about the Tellarans. I mean if, uh . . .” She faltered for a moment under his glare. “If they’re all right.”

  “They are well cared for.”

  “Well, I just — I mean, they aren’t like your people. You can’t expect Tellarans to want or need the same things Az-kye do.”

  “As I am learning,” he gritted out.

  “Look, I’m not trying to . . .” She twisted her hands in the soft fabric of her skirt. The tears she had checked all day burned her eyes.

  He frowned, his dark eyes taking on a look of concern.

  “Damn it,” she said, wiping at her face. “I don’t understand how I always manage to say and do the wrong thing. Like with the women – And they’re laughing at me! Do you know what it feels like to know people are laughing at you?”

  “No one laughs at you,” he said softly.

  “They do! They think I’m stupid and ignorant and they’re right.” She pushed her hair back. “I don’t know anything! I don’t know how to act or what I’m supposed to do. They won’t even talk to me! Now when I try to make friends they just stare at me or at the floor. Half the time I don’t feel like I’m even in the room!”

  “This cannot continue,” he said gently. “A Ti'antah must have their respect."

  Kinara frowned. "Ti'antah? Wait, on the Ty’pran you said — Well, what the hell is that?"

  Aidar sighed deeply.

  She swallowed. "Oh, I'm really not going to like this, am I?"

  An hour of explanation later, Kinara threw her hands up. "Gods, no wonder they hate me!"

  Aidar bristled. "It is not for them to judge your worthiness! You are clan leader now!"

  "Are you kidding?" she demanded. It had grown dark and dinner sat untouched on the table. Her? Responsible for the vassal – gisel – clans numbering no less than a dozen, with their hundreds of members? "I'm supposed to lead them? Get them ahead in Az-kye society and you don't think they might find that idea ludicrous?"

  “It does not matter what they think!” Aidar scowled. "Such was your vow to me! You promised to be Ti'antah."

  Kinara threw her arms wide. "As if I knew what that meant!"

  His nostrils flared. "You gave your vow! We were mated on your promise to lead this house!"

  "Damn it, Aidar, why would you even think I could do this?"

  Aidar glanced away and the breath rushed out of her lungs.

  Stars, he doesn't! Is he . . .

  A lump formed in her throat.

  Is he sorry he married me?

  Kinara twisted away to look out over the Empress’ City, her heart hammering. The largest of the moons shone over the ancient city and it’s light reflected in the golden turrets of the palace in the distance.

  The idea of him regretting it, of being disappointed, maybe even ashamed of her made her feel as if the ground gaped open below her.

  Her jaw hardened. The hell he will!

  "All right then." She turned to face Aidar squarely. "I can't be a clan leader like this. Teach me. Starting right now, teach me everything about being a Ti’antah."

  “Az’zeb.”

  “Uh,” Kinara hedged. “Wait, let me think for a minute.”

  “You will not have a minute to think when the clan leader passes you at the opera!” Aidar said impatiently.

  “Okay, just give me a sec here! Az means ‘child’ in the ancient language so one of the original clans. And that means they’re as old as the Az’anti but zeb means ‘sea’ so . . . bow? No!” she cried before he could correct her. “Nod. She bows.” She spread her hands. “I nod, right?”

  He gestured, inviting her to demonstrate.

  She stood tall, lifted her head regally and gave a nod.

  “You look down again!” Aidar threw his arms out in exasperation. “Only before the Empress or an Imperial daughter does clan leader of our house lower her eyes. Why do you continue to do so?”

  “I don’t know!” She pushed her hair back. “Maybe ‘cause I was up till the middle of the night memorizing house colors and lineages for half the clans in the Empire!”

  In response he picked up a datapad, holding it up so she could see the screen.

  Kinara blew her breath out and focused at the display. “Okay, I know green means clan formed after the Great Divide of Empress Yi’ara’s reign. But there’s a stripe of black . . . which means either honored or one of the Imperial house—”

  “No, only when there is a triangle on the upper left does it mean Daughter of the Imperial house.”

  “Fine! Green, after Yi’ara, and honored . . . Xah clan.”

  Aidar sighed. “Tahara clan.”

  “No way!” Kinara flared. “Xah clan!”

  He gave her an exasperated look and handed her the datapad.

  She scrolled through to see. “Oh, fracking hell,” she muttered. “Tahara clan.” She gave the datapad back and rubbed her eyes. “Gods, sometimes I think I’m getting worse at this.”

  “It will merely take time,” Aidar said shortly.

  “Yeah, how long till I’m supposed to stand in front of the Council of Elders and not look like an idiot?”

  “You will not shame us.”

  “Aidar, we’ve been at this for days!” She rubbed her temple where a headache seemed to have taken up permanent residence. “Couldn’t we take a break? Please?”

  He sighed then nodded toward the table. “Show me again then you may rest.”

  Relieved, Kinara took up the brightly painted, jeweled fan lying there. Thanks to Laric she could at least do this well.

  “Bored,” she said and fanned herself with slow movements. “Interested.” She held it lower, her wrist stiffer, the fan moving in quick movements near her shoulder. “On the brink of offense.” She turned her wrist so the fan so was full across her throat and moved it with little twitches like a sercat’s tail.

  He gave a nod. “We may stop for a time.”

  “Thank you!” Kinara put her fan down and arched her back, hearing the bones pop. A clan leader never slouched and holding that posture all day was exhausting.

  She went out on the balcony and leaned on the rail, looking longingly over the city. She’d been cooped up in these rooms for weeks. The breeze cooled her face and the blooms from the garden below smelled wonderful.

  “Aidar, couldn’t I please go outside? Just for a little while? Maybe see some of the city? Or take a short walk in the garden?”

  He frowned. “What do you ask this of me?”

  “Come on, please,” she begged. “I’ve only been out of these rooms twice since I got to Az-kye.”

  “You have not ventured from these rooms?” He searched her face. “I do not understand. Why have you not?”

  It was Kinar
a’s turn to frown. “You said I couldn’t go out without your say so.”

  He blinked. “That you could not go outside? Never did I say such!”

  Kinara stared at him. “You fracking well did!”

  “Cy’atta, never did I — would I — tell you so.” His dark eyes were bewildered. “You may go out if you wish.”

  “Yeah, if you take me! Or tell someone else to take me!”

  “Take—?” He shook his head. “Come.” He caught her elbow and led her to the entrance of their apartments. He opened the door. Standing outside were the two warriors who always stood there, the garnet, cobalt and silver of the Az’anti clan bright over their left shoulders.

  The men came to attention.

  Aidar nodded to them. “Order them as you will, Cy’atta.”

  “Order? You mean I can—?” The men regarded her with respectful gazes. “Hold on, okay?” she said to the pair and closed the door quickly. “I thought their job was to keep me in here.”

  Aidar looked shocked. “A warrior imprison his mate?” He pulled up short. “Tellaran men do so to their women? How can they bear such brutes?”

  “No! That’s not—” She waved her hand impatiently. “Okay, you’re telling me I can go out any time I want, go anywhere I want, as long as those two go with me?”

  “You are mine to protect and it is my honor to do so. I will see you safe,” he said softly. “But you are Ti’antah. They are warriors of your house. Order them as you will.”

  “Hold on, what about that whole obeying you thing? You told me to stay in our quarters. And the last time I tried to leave I almost got you killed, remember?”

  “On the warship? You scarce had a proper dress then and no guard to accompany you!” He shook his head again. “I am your mate, your protector, and thus can order for your safety’s sake. Do you go out I have the right to insist you take a guard if I am not with you, but I cannot bid where you may go or what you may do.” His brow creased. “Thought you, truly, you were prisoner in your own home? Believed you a warrior considered his mate an inferior to be ordered about?”

  Kinara cleared her throat. “Yeah, well, I’m starting to wonder if any Tellaran information about the Az-kye is fracking accurate.” She looked at the door and back at him. “Anywhere I want? Any time I want? Like right now?”

  “Of course, Cy’atta.”

  She threw open the door. The men came to attention again.

  Kinara stepped into the hall and turned her full smile on Aidar and the two guards. “Come on, gentlemen. Your clan leader is going to see the whole starblasted city!”

  “Wow,” Kinara mumbled around a mouthful of quen’dila pastry. “I can’t believe how good these things are.”

  “You have had three,” Aidar said, amused. “Soon you will wish you had agreed to be carried in a litter.”

  “No, thanks.” Kinara nodded toward the teeming streets of the temple district. “I’d probably still be trying to get here.”

  Often simply called the Empress’ City its true name was synonymous with one of the ceremonial titles of the Empress – Shina’ aru’ Az-kye – Heart of Heaven’s Children. Capital since the Empire’s founding and built on and around the remains of other times, the city had no consistent building style. In places the streets were narrow and treacherously winding. The streets of the temple district now at midday were mobbed.

  Az-kye used white only to indicate shame. Seeing the myriad of colors and intricate carvings covering every available inch in the Empire’s most important city, Kinara realized that to these people Tellaran cities of white stone and smooth lines would look as if a pall hung over them.

  But if the city’s appearance was startling, the people themselves were fascinating. Not every man was a warrior. Many were, filling the streets with black, but some men wore loose, dark colored clothing marking them, Aidar explained, as men not of the warrior class but who had their own status structure — merchants, weapon smiths, engineers and the like. The not-warriors went about their business with a touch more public show of emotion than warriors, something that also set them apart as men who weren’t in the sphere of the warrior class.

  No wonder normal, emotional Tellaran men seemed like undisciplined, uncivilized creatures to the Az-kye. A public smile from any man was untoward; the Tellarans comparative casualness only lowered them in the eyes of the Az-kye.

  Warriors passed others of rival clans with narrowed eyes but violence without the proper forms was rare. The women, in dazzling contrast to the men, were dressed as brightly as exotic birds, their jewels sparkling in the sun. The women’s faces were alight with animation as they chatted with warriors who barely allowed themselves a glimmer of a smile in public.

  Kinara licked the pastry’s sweetness from her fingers and Aidar shook his head, his dark eyes shining.

  “You have the heedless joy of a child, Cy’atta.”

  She crinkled her nose at him and took the moistened towel from the pastry merchant to clean the last of the stickiness from her hands.

  “They were delicious,” she said to the man. “All of them.”

  He bowed and one of her guards, Nyat, paid the man.

  Kinara looked at the crowd of foot traffic. Here and there she could see a litter, some with the privacy curtains closed, moving slowly on the crowded paved street.

  She pitched her voice low. “Okay, so why have shuttles flying over our heads and warships in orbit but no land vehicles?”

  His eyebrows shot up. “In the Empress’ City? Her Imperial Majesty only recently allowed shuttles here. When I was a boy, shuttles landed far away and we had to travel days to reach the city.” He glanced at the sky. “I remember my mother being very shocked by the Empress’s decree to allow them but her Imperial Majesty is progressive.”

  That’s what he calls recently . . . and progressive? “Well, we’ve seen the temple of Maithera, Goddess of the underworld, and that’s Uthan the Armorer’s temple.” Kinara nodded across the square. “What’s that big one there?”

  Aidar glanced toward the elaborately decorated building of stone and tile on the other side of the square. Colored glass, or perhaps even jewels, caught the sun’s rays sending a thousand beams of color and light into the street and the area around the building was abundant with flowers and fruit trees.

  “Temple of Lashima, Goddess of love, the heavens and home.”

  A statue of Lashima stood on a high pedestal in the front courtyard of her temple. The Goddess’ long hair was loose and flowed around her and her cloak, dark as the night sky, sparkled with jewels clearly meant to represent stars. The Goddess’ expression was sweet, her smile kind. One hand held her billowing star cloak’s edge and the other reached outward, her slender fingers slightly spread as if to gently alter lives by her touch.

  Kinara threw a narrowed glance at the lush-figured Goddess of love. Hey Lashima, feel free to drop by next time I’m trying my hand at seduction.

  “What about that one?” Kinara asked.

  Aidar looked at the black building directly across from Lashima’s temple. “The temple of Ren’thar.”

  “Warrior god, right?”

  “Lashima’s mate and her protector.” He cleared his throat. “I have wondered if Tellarans have such.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t know of course, but I have heard that they don’t. Their Goddess of love is Arrena but Seleni rules the heavens. They have a God of war named Jandar but his wife is Bathena, Goddess of peace. ‘Course whenever I’m in trouble I always call on all gods and goddesses.” She gave him a smile. “I mean, you never know who might be in town and willing to lend a hand, right?”

  A smile flittered across his face then he looked away, his face assuming warrior seriousness again. “Now we both act as children. You will make me grin like a boy.”

  “Oh, I don’t think anyone noticed.” Her gaze went uneasily to the looks she was garnering. “Everybody’s too busy staring at my hair. Maybe I should dye it brown or something.”

&nb
sp; Aidar gave her a shocked look. “You must never do such, Cy’atta! Your hair is like no other, its fire dazzles the eye.”

  Kinara blinked. “Thank you.” She gave a short laugh. “I never liked it, that’s for sure! It’s unusual even for a Tel-uh, for anyone. It seems outright astonishing here. It’s a little unnerving to have everyone gawking at me.”

  “How can they help but look on you?” he asked softly. “From first I did, I could not stop.”

  Her heart sped up. He’d wanted her, she’d known that but she never thought he might actually find her . . . pretty.

  Her cheeks warmed under his soft, dark gaze.

  Suddenly Aidar tensed. “Clan leader of the Az’ayen,” he murmured, his mouth hardly moving.

  Kinara turned to meet the eye of an elaborately dressed woman being carried past in a litter. That Ti’antah had no less than six warriors around her litter and a handful of maids walking beside it to boot.

  The woman’s gaze darted around Kinara to take in the house colors Aidar and her guards wore. Her face took on a look of interest and surprise.

  Kinara timed her nod to match the Ti’antah of clan Az’ayen perfectly as the lady and her retinue passed.

  Kinara tossed Aidar a grin. “Hey, see that? I didn’t drop my eyes.”

  “Aidar?”

  With their appearance before the Elders rapidly approaching, they couldn’t play in the city all day. Sitting beside her, shaded from the afternoon sun by the flowering trees in the garden, Aidar looked up from the datapad he held between them displaying the history of the early clans.

  “I heard one of the women say Lianna of the Otan spoke to the Tellarans.”

  He frowned. “Hers is a lesser clan than ours and it was not well done of her.”

  “Yeah, I get that,” she said quickly. “But I don’t understand why Lianna’s actions mean that her mother won’t do well in Council.”

  “Baruta is powerful in the War Council but she may lose status because of Lianna’s actions.”