by Alyse Zaftig
Lord Georgius let go of her arms. "Go away, little Yore."
"Do you have the legal claim-right to place your hands on this noble Draka?"
Lord Georgius stepped away from Arienne and practically touched his nose to mine. "You're not Draka, so why do you care? Your sister might be a princess, but you're nothing. You should mind your own affairs."
"I am," I told him, smiling. I put an arm around Arienne's shoulders and guided her away from Lord Georgius. He growled but didn't stop us.
"Thank you," she said. "I didn't know how to stop him."
"Can I escort you to a tea shop? Your hands are shaking."
Her whole body was shaking in the aftermath of that encounter. I didn't know why Lord Georgius believed that he had the right to touch her like that. Arienne might have dallied with a Yore, but she had rights that Lord Georgius seemed eager to stomp all over. I might not be able to be with her for the rest of my life or anything, but she definitely deserved better than that crazy man.
She swallowed hard before nodding. I took her away from the market, away from Lord Georgius and the other Draka nobles who had watched us.
"Maybe we should eat lunch," I said.
"I'd be delighted," Arienne said, her voice just a little bit more steady than it had been before. She appeared to be ready to flout convention. The nobles were whispering to each other behind their hands, but I didn't care. I was ready to eat lunch with her and pretend, just for a moment, that I had some kind of claim on this beautiful girl. We walked to a small restaurant and sat down at a table outside.
22
Coconut Water
Arienne
I looked at Xuan's smooth brown skin. He didn't seem angry with me anymore, which was incredible.
"What can I get for you?" the Yore waiter asked.
"Coconut water," I said. "With ice."
"And you, sir?"
"The same."
The Yore man seemed to have an easier time recognizing Xuan than I had. "Aren't you that fighter?"
"Yeah," Xuan said.
"I've seen you in the ring," the waiter said, hero worship clear in his voice. "You're like a machine."
"Thanks," Xuan said. The waiter seemed to look beyond us. A manager was motioning for him to get back to work.
"I'll be back with your drinks." He walked to the kitchen.
"I think you're famous," I teased.
"I am, but only among a certain group."
"Right," I said.
"You're the one in the newspaper," Xuan retorted.
I sighed. "Ever since my mother printed those lies in the newspaper, things have gone crazy."
"How?" Xuan said. The waiter came back with our drinks and interrupted us. We both ordered bowls of beef noodle soup.
"I think Lord Georgius thinks that he's going to own me."
"Own you?"
"He accosted me today. He's never touched me like that before."
"He'll be dead if he does that again."
"My mother insists that I spent time with him in our home parlor and just waits for me to leave my chambers."
"You're being stalked by that man?" Xuan's whole body tensed up.
"Not stalked..." I shook my head. "But you can't do anything that will result in you being in any kind of danger."
I thought that I said the wrong thing. He definitely looked like he'd take on the challenge.
"I'm going to have a talk with him," Xuan said, his teeth gritted. "And he might be losing some teeth afterward."
"Don't!" I begged. "It'll just get you in trouble. You're Yore and he's Draka. It won't be good."
"I just can't let this go by," he argued. "I need to bash his face in."
"You can't get in trouble
just for me!" I retorted.
"I'd do anything for you, Arienne," Xuan said, but his voice was softer than before. His hand moved to touch mine.
"Please stop talking like a hothead. Let's just enjoy our time together," I said.
He leaned back in his chair. "I don't actually have much time today."
"Oh?"
"There's a Yore festival that I have to go to with Phuong, my sister. It's done by the seaside. I already promised her that I'd go."
I was disappointed, my shoulders drooping slightly. "I understand. Thank you for the rescue."
"We'll talk again soon," Xuan said, getting to his feet. He patted my shoulder before walking off.
I didn't understand what was going on. Was he uninterested in me? I felt like that wasn't the case, given how angry he'd been about the suggestion that I'd discard him after having a little fun. I sighed. I needed to get moving on finding alternative accommodation if I didn't want to live with my controlling mother anymore.
23
Decorations
Xuan
NEXT AFTERNOON
"Are you listening to me?" Phuong asked me.
"Uh, what?" I replied. I looked back at her.
"You've been staring at the ocean for the last 5 minutes."
"Sorry," I apologized, chagrin clear in my voice. "I'll pay attention."
Both of us were wrapping ribbons around various trees in order to create the right ambiance for this festival. We had Yore helping us set up a few performance areas. It was harder than you might think, since we were all wearing our nicest ao dai. They were made of silk and popped open with the slightest exertion. Phuong cursed as I indicated that one of her buttons had popped loose.
"I hate this dress!" Phuong pouted. "Can't I go with a sleeveless one?"
"Not if you're a Yore empress," I replied, smirking. As the older child in an absolute monarchy, she got to get all the responsibility while I had little to none. The Yore wanted to see me, but I was nowhere near as important as my sister. "And you look okay."
She rolled her eyes. "My mates told me that I looked stunning."
"One of your eyes is smaller than the other," I told her. "And I think your nose is a little big for a Yore."
She put her hand over her nose. "Xuan!" But she was smiling. She knew that I was teasing her.
"Excuse me," a Yore man I didn't know the name of said. "But I was wondering if I could steal away Prince Xuan?"
"Of course," Phuong replied. "Please, take him away."
"As you wish, Your Imperial Highness." The Yore man crossed his arms and bowed to her. I walked away from ribbon duty to talk to him.
"I can see that you are preoccupied today. I don't think it has to do with your sister's first official speech to the Yore."
"It isn't."
He studied my face for a few seconds. "I will give you a few words of advice."
His hair and beard were white, so I said, "Please."
"The heart knows when it's true love. And it will never let go, no matter what the mind says."
I gaped at him like a fish.
He wasn't done. "The mind can be controlled. Managed. But the real foe is distance."
"Distance?"
"It's always advisable to draw your heart's mate close to you when distance is not yet an obstacle."
I rubbed the back of my neck. I was disconcerted by the way that the Yore elders seemed to know things that they shouldn't be able to. Then I remembered that they used mind-speech. I had no idea if I was broadcasting or not. My cheeks grew a little warm, thinking about everyone in my vicinity knowing my private thoughts about Arienne.
"I can't hear your thoughts," the elder said.
"Your statement proves that you can."
The elder only laughed. "It doesn't. I'm just good at reading faces. And you are very easy to read."
"That's a relief," I answered, over-exaggerating wiping sweat from my brow. "I'll take your words into consideration."
"Then I'll leave you to your work." He bowed with his arms crossed again and whistled as he went away. I settled into a chair and turned things over while I watched Phuong do her opening speech. Her delivery was perfect, the timing right. She made our people laugh and love her. My heart swelled w
ith pride as I watched her present her most regal face to the Yore who'd come to believe in something real. One day, Phuong would be more than just a figurehead. One day, we'd take back what we were owed.
24
Escaping
Arienne
"Go away!" I shouted through my door.
"You have a guest who is calling on you. He wants to invite you to the Draka heritage event at the big auction house." My mother was far too persistent for her own good. My "guests" weren't really mine. They were hers. I knew that my mother wanted to set up a good match for me, but it would be her decision and not mine. I had no desire to marry any of her candidates.
The dragon part of me wanted to burn my bedroom to ash and let it blow away in the wind. I was having a harder time than usual controlling my Draka half. I wasn't very good at shifting or turning into smoke, but my dragon still lived inside of me and roared when she was upset. She'd been roaring inside of my head as my mother kept bothering me.
"Be polite, Arienne. Be the lady you were raised to be."
"Leave me alone!" I yelled through the door. I looked at the escape from my room, but she'd notice if I just vanished right now.
"You can't stay in there forever. Your little Yore toy Xuan is wholly unsuitable for you."
"I can make my own decisions, Mother," I replied. "Tell them to go away." I heard the floorboards creaking as she walked away. I had a slight reprieve, but she'd start again soon. That's when I heard the tapping on my window. Xuan's face was there.
I ran to my window and opened it. "What are you doing here?"
"Pack." Xuan motioned for me to get started. "We don't have much time."
I widened my eyes at him. What was happening? When I realized that he'd rented one of the floater-crafts from that man at the port, I scurried around my room. I needed a few changes of clothing, some toiletries, and my comm device. My mother would be welcome to keep all of my useless evening gowns that cost an arm and a leg and were worn only once after months of fittings. I took the clothing that I actually liked, which only filled a small trunk. I passed it through the window to Xuan. He put it down and then gave me his giant hand to pull me through. I only yelped a little bit when stepping out of my window. He caught me in his arms and held me close.
"I know that it's not this easy to leave behind your place in Draka society," he whispered in my ear. "But for right now, we can pretend."
I stepped back and smiled up at him. "I'm happy to live in the moment." Now I didn't have to go to the heritage event tonight.
Xuan walked to the controls and sat down. "You'll want to buckle up for this."
I sat down in a seat and fastened my harness. Xuan immediately pulled the floater into a loop which made my stomach churn. I put both hands over my mouth to stop my lunch from reappearing and closed my eyes. He was going to engage in evasive maneuvers that would bring me to the brink of vomiting.
I tried to think of something else as my whole body spun around as he cut through places no floater was meant to travel through. He must be an incredible pilot. I didn't know if he was showing off for me or genuinely trying to shake off any tails. It would've been more impressive if I could have managed to open my eyes. My heart was in overdrive, just like the engine.
But despite how airsick I felt, I felt more whole than I'd ever been. I hadn't even noticed that i was in pieces until I suddenly wasn't anymore. I'd always been mostly Draka with the Yore part of me hidden, forbidden. But Xuan was willing to celebrate it and love me despite being a Draka noble.
We must have gotten into open space, because we suddenly leveled out.
"Tricks are over," Xuan promised. "You can open your eyes now."
He was turning around and grinning at me. "I know that it was scary, but I managed to shake the Draka car with royal symbols on it."
"We were followed," I squeaked. I could just imagine what my mother was capable of if she knew how to get me back.
"Relax. I shook them off of our trail." He stood up. I tilted my head back to look at his face. "I have a present for you." He dug into a small leather bag to fish out something wrapped with ribbon. "It's for you." He put it in my hands.
I untied the intricate knot and began to unwind the ribbon. Inside was a gold bracelet.
"It's inscribed with chu nom characters," Xuan explained. "Do you like it?"
"Like it?" I answered, snapping it on my wrist. "I'll never take it off. Thank you."
He kissed my bracelet and then the underside of my wrist. "I'm glad."
I pulled him close for a hard kiss. As his tongue entered my mouth, i could feel him opening himself to me. Inside of my mind, he tumbled all of his memories of the Yore festival that he'd attended on the day that he rescued me from Lord Georgius.
I didn’t know how to respond the same way. I was still learning how to decipher Yore telepathic speech. I broke the kiss to tell him, "I would've liked going there."
"You should have been there." Xuan dropped a light kiss on my nose. "We have to find a way to break your father's hold on the Yore."
"My father?" I whispered. I barely knew what he looked like since I'd been kept well away from him.
"He's forbidden the local Yore from talking to you. We have to figure out a way to break his hold on them. He can't deprive you of your birthright."
I shook my head. "I thought it was my adoptive mother."
"It's more than one person," Xuan said through gritted teeth. "But we're going to fix it." The floater came into an area heavily populated with other floaters.
"Why are we in a crowded area?"
"So that they can't drag you off without a lot of witnesses."
We were next to a light show, which meant that everybody was looking up. It was dark, although the lights would briefly illuminate the neighboring floaters. On complete impulse, I turned towards Xuan and hauled his hard body close to mine. I kissed him for all I was worth.
He pulled us down to the floor of the floater. At another time, I would've thought about the filthiness of a rented floater. All I wanted right now, though, was his body inside of mine.
We yanked off our clothes, kissing and caressing each revealed body part before Xuan yanked my knees apart and sank inside of me. It felt like the best sex we'd ever had, as hasty as the foreplay had been. I put a hand behind my head to cushion it as he pounded me into the floor. We tried not to make too much noise. I was grateful that nobody could see us here on the floor, although most of their attention was on the light show anyway.
When we were done, we sneaked to the back to use the sonic shower. "That was crazy," I said.
"Making love in a crowd of people? Yeah." He kissed my neck as we were cleaned off. "We should do it again sometime." The spark in Xuan's eye made me think that sometime might be right now, but I gathered my clothes and put them on. I stared out the window.
"Those are chu nom symbols," I said quietly. "Can't the Draka tell?"
"They think it's just art," Xuan said, wrapping one arm around me. "This is how the Yore can communicate on a grand scale."
I had no idea that there was anything behind Yore light shows, but it made sense. I guessed that there were a lot of things that I'd never noticed about my everyday life, things that stayed under the surface. I looked around us at the awestruck faces of all the people who'd come to see the lights.
"Wait a minute," Xuan said while he squinted. "I recognize that hover-house."
***CHAPTER
XUAN
"I'm going to drive towards the hover-house." I took the floater in that direction, dodging through the cracks. When I arrived, I anchored next to the house.
A crackling message came through the comms, "Back up," I heard Thao say. "We don't permit people so close to the hover-house, not unless we know them."
"Idiot," I told him.
There was a moment of silence. "Xuan?"
"Yes." I smiled at Arienne, who looked nonplussed.
"I'll send the line over." I watched as the front door of
the house opened and a moving walkway edged toward us, eventually ending at our door before attaching itself to our floater.
"Come on," I told Arienne. I held her hand as I drew her outside.
"Is it safe?" she asked, peering downward. "I don't want to fall."
"I'm right here with you," I told her. "Be brave."
She stepped onto the walkway despite her obvious reluctance. I wrapped my hand around hers as we walked the short distance to the house. When we got to the door, Thao came to hug me.
"It's been a while," Thao said. "After your sister got married, you stopped coming around."
"I set up a store," I told him. "And I have twin nephews."
"Mischief makers, if they're anything like you." Thao gestured around us. "You and your lady are welcome in our hover-house."
Arienne slowly spun around, taking in everything. "This is a pleasure ship."
"It's a hover-house," Thao and I said. "We've up-cycled it into a home."
I walked a little further in. "It's awesome." I turned to him. "Where did you get the cash for this?"
"The number of people living here made it affordable."
"Is it all orphans from Heritage House?" I wondered if they still had their implants.
"Yup." He hit a button to bark, "Xuan's here!"
Two people came in, Huu and Gia. "What are you doing here?"
"Where is everyone else?"
"Coordinating the light show," Huu said.
I came in to clap him on the back and look at the base of his skull. "You still have your implant."
"We can't afford to have them taken out. It's a huge risk, as you know. Not all of us have sisters married to Draka princes."
"Stop it," Gia said. "You need to be more welcoming." Gia slapped my arm. "Where've you been?"