Empress Hiding

by Y. M. Roger

  “And there are also Teymans Farcallin and Dynarist,” Sila continued, “And Tracker Ehrtrul.”

  Dalis reflected on the names for a moment – they were all guards with whom he had had a good level of confidence in the past – none raised his and Mischief’s hackles as some of the others had tended to do. Only five total – even though the Black Guard tended to be fewer in number than the Red, that was still a really low number.

  They are all fine with me, Dalis – none of those have ever mistreated us as Jaylis and a couple of others did. And the Tracker puts out hanging treats in the rec area trees especially for my Cheo during her present times. Frustration radiated now from the monger. Speaking of whom, I am hard and need to siktir my mate, Dalis!

  After a moment of unfocused silence as he listened to and then subsequently ignored his Mischief as well as reviewed the names to his own mental reviews and recollections, Dalis nodded again, not even realizing that the males had patiently waited for his cue to continue.

  “And we have enough security to allow repair work to begin tomorrow?” The question left Dalis’ mouth before he realized his over-reach.

  Dalis! You presume to question them again! Please stop! They are not Rafal – you will get locked up for insubordination, and I cannot have my Cheo if we are in a cell!

  Dalis winced with Mischief’s reprimand – he was letting his concern for the Prime Magistrate and Hanımefendi Chiyoto cloud his proper judgment – and raised his eyes with full intention to apologize, only there seemed to be no need as Sila calmly continued.

  “Rec area, compound perimeter, and main house security covered,” Sila smiled confidently as he glanced from Dalis to Tajna and back again, “Farcallin is definitely a techno-wizard if not more, koruyucu – his talents definitely underutilized under Captain Yulstantis. I will also begin re-calling some of the more promising guard recruits that he had cut last time for,” Sila paused and shook his head although he never broke eye contact with Dalis, “Questionable reasons.”

  Tajna snorted in clear disgust.

  Mischief chuckled at Tajna even as he continued to fidget.

  I like him, yes? I wonder why we have not seen more of him. Now, about my Cheo …

  Dalis silently reminded Mischief of Jaylis’ speciatic bias which – regardless of the fact that it was probably Rafal who chose Tajna as a guard in the first place – would have put Teyman Q’Ynnto at the bottom of any duty rosters and the like even if he had been far too skilled to cut outright.

  Dalis continued as he realized his Mischief did need time with his Cheo, and he could certainly do with another round with his Margreet.

  Now you are talking sensibly, my Dalis!

  Dalis chuckled as he continued.

  “Well, beyfendis, all of the workers should arrive to begin repairs in the morning,” Dalis let his finger scroll down the page indicating the names and profiles of each, “Each of them has worked no less than three other jobs for the Prime Magistrate here except these two, Captain,” Dalis indicated the two profiles – one of a mixed-blood female and one of a Blood-borne male – both of whom specialized in glass enclosures. In fact, there was a total of nearly twenty cycles of experience between the two. “They are quite reputable even among some of the more pompous Crimson elites.”

  Sila’s eyes lit with humor, and Tajna rumbled heartily under his breath as the ebony Teyman carefully took the listing from Dalis – his hands quickly skimming through the many links and periphery data Dalis had included about each worker.

  Dalis was thoroughly amazed that the male was actually reading all of the information at that exorbitant rate!

  “Looks good, but you can simply meet all of them personally, eshecta,” Tajna spoke to Sila -- his voice deep enough to make Dalis wonder if objects in the room actually vibrated with his speech because it certainly vibrated inside of him, “That will take care of any of the hidden unknowns.”

  Dalis cocked his head in question, his eyes darting between the two Black Guards.

  “What is it, koruyucu?”

  Dalis flinched at Tajna’s address of him – that being the second time in this conversation such an address had been used. Dalis’ frown continued to deepen as Mischief – speechless for the first time this evening at the Teyman’s use of the specific title – became motionless inside of him.

  “You called him ‘eshe-e-e …’ wait!” Dalis began, “What did you just call me?”

  “You are the Koruyucu, the keeper of both my sovereigns’ house and their hearts,” Tajna’s deep yet so very gentle voice answered.

  Dalis? That is a term reserved for the before times, for the Empress’ palace … do they know about her? Dalis? Did you tell them about our …

  Dalis told his Mischief to shut up and tuned him out completely this time – he needed to concentrate here. Dalis nodded hesitantly at them both as he took a deep cleansing breath trying to think of where to go next with his inquiry.

  He must have appeared to the guards to be somewhat panicked because Sila reached back over to gently touch his hand again.

  “He knows what I know,” Sila removed his one hand from Dalis and reached over to Tajna with the other to tightly grasp the ebony male’s neck – a few of the nails digging deep enough to draw small drops of the deep emerald blood that flowed through the dark predator’s veins, “He is my jedan” – Tajna’s altre sounded his devotion as Tajna reached up and grasped Sila’s wrist with sincere adoration in his glance toward the Captain as he leaned his head sideways to briefly nuzzle the Captain’s hand on his neck – “And there are no secrets between us.” Dalis was sure he heard Sila’s altre hiss its possessiveness as well.

  It had been decades since Dalis had been acquainted with a jedandva. Although not unheard of in many of the remote colonies and on at least two of the major worlds of the OFW, jedandvas were not as prominent on Bohrea Cardinal as it was many times difficult enough integrating two alter-beings harmoniously into a mating bond – a third added all sorts of relationship variables that, when combined with the speciatic difficulties introduced with the Khedive line, made them many times untenable at best.

  Mischief’s curiosity momentarily over-rode his desires for his Cheo.

  Wait … if they are jedandva, my Dalis, where is …

  “But where is your dva, beyfendis?” Dalis and Mischief were on the same wavelength – the thought of being separated from a mate for an extended period of time was unimaginable.

  They both sighed and glanced at one another – Tajna gently placed the listing back on the table toward Dalis, grunting low and mournfully as Sila responded.

  “Our Nyrfentyl remains at home with my sire and progenitor until …”

  Dalis and Mischief both were horrified.

  “Does the Prime Magistrate know that you are mated?” his voice was probably more insistent than was proper, but the situation called for such. Surely Rafal would not have allowed …

  No! I know he scares us, Dalis … okay, he scares me, but … but … not even Rafal’s unholy beast would separate mates! He better not have or we will …

  “He does not, koruyucu,” Tajna spoke evenly, but he was forcing his voice to remain so – the situation was obviously unacceptable to him … to them … as well, “Captain Yulstantis made it clear that mated males were not …”

  Mischief completely lost it inside of Dalis – his hysterical words so garbled into monger jibberish that Dalis had to tune him out once again.

  “Well, Jaylis is dead, beyfendis!” Dalis was neither calm nor subservient as he stood to access the house security panel – his fingers skimming over them with ease, “And this is certainly not the Khedive’s household to manage” – it was almost as if something had flipped a power-up switch as the elder steward made further adjustments to floor plans and furniture distribution and eating times and food and beverage supply orders – “this is Prime
Magistrate Rafal Sadid’s household” – he completed those tasks and sat to begin making notes on his personal device where the working listing had previously been displayed, never missing a beat with his streaming diatribe – “Now, I have sent requisition and approval for a furnishing update to the Captain’s quarters” – Dalis made a few final notes before finding another of his lists containing as yet unfinished items for the day – “Oh, Makers!” – Dalis sighed and began to stand – “We have so many other things to handle before the Prime Magistrate’s return with his shioliah” – he was speaking completely to himself that time but then obviously switched to addressing the two guards again – “But you will contact your Nyrfentyl to join you, yes?”

  Those many things include an awaiting mate to satisfy now, Dalis!

  Mischief, too, had calmed with Dalis’ reassignment of the two males with their female – the topic now returning to getting Dalis and Mischief with their own mate.

  Dalis finally paused his organizing long enough to look over at the two large predators seated across the table from where he now stood – their eyes locked on him with a look of almost reverence on their faces – although neither of them so much as flinched in response to his question.

  Dalis looked at them expectantly as he halted all other tasks.

  “Beyfendis?”

  It seemed they both released a held breath at once as Tajna rumbled in amusement and ran his hand through his stiff, white hair. Sila chuckled as he responded respectfully with a nod.

  “We will, koruyucu.”

  Dalis seemed to hesitate somewhat with the Captain’s use of the term now, but he bowed respectfully for the time being – there was so much more to which he needed to attend, “Well …, good night then.”

  And the elder steward hurried out of the room, leaving the two males shaking their heads in amusement.

  Sila grasped Tajna’s wrist affectionately in reassurance, “Rafal may command his Himitsu Savaşçis, chectari,” Sila’s ‘spoken’ words were only inside Tajna’s head as Sila leaned forward and playfully nipped his jedan’s ear as the Captain stood to leave, “But Dalis,” Sila paused and took a deep, rumbling breath as he looked back toward where Dalis had stood.

  Tajna growled with affection toward his Sila – also staring in the direction Dalis had exited – as he finished Sila’s thought for him.

  “Dalis commands just about everything else around here.”

  They both laughed in understanding – although not a single word had been spoken out loud – as Tajna stood and slowly stretched predatorally. Sila paused in the doorway and turned to admire his jedan’s outstretched body.

  “Contact our shioliah and arrange for her to be here yesterday,” Sila spoke verbally and grinned lopsidedly at Tajna as both their eyes gleamed with desire, “We have been too long without her touch,” he added longingly along their link, “And she without ours.”

  Tajna’s growl vibrated the entire room again as he turned toward Sila.

  “Aye, my Captain,” Tajna rubbed his neck where Sila’s nails had marked him earlier – his face showing his obvious enthrallment with Sila’s earlier treatment of him, “And then I am going to check the damaged enclosure and Farcallin’s electronic sealant one more time before turning in.”

  Sila’s face became unreadable – as it always did when he was trying to control his sexual hunger for his jedan – only his eyes glowed with added intensity as his jaw clenched.

  Hiroto’s demanding hiss sounded forth from his absence as Tajna’s sheltanock answered with his needful, submissive mewls.

  “Do. Not. Tarry.” Sila’s choppy, mental command was forceful and given with clenched teeth, but Tajna understood the reason for such – theirs was a bond stronger than most given Sila’s gift and Tajna’s own sheltanock’s demand for a telepathic link with its dominant mate.

  “We missed you, eshecta.”

  The Teyman’s gentle answer of a tender caress across his mind was exactly what the Captain needed to complete the evening’s necessary preparations so he could join his jedan for the night.

  The whole night together, my Sila. From now on.

  A small smile tugged at Sila’s lips, “Where we belong, my Hiroto.”

  They both sighed in contentment as well as anticipation – it was good to have finally come home.

  Chapter 34

  Runa silently sneered at the two freight engineers as they busied about with their inventory pads and marking wands. Although she would have sneered at just about anyone at the moment – she had no patience for anything – she simply wanted to get her Treasure back to Haven. She even suppressed an aggravated snarl when the short, extremely tombul male managed to drop his pad between crates and proceeded to knock over two of them in his uncoordinated attempts to retrieve the pad. The remaining worker simply laughed at his companion and wandered around the end crate and on to more inventory work out of sight of the undetected dragoness.

  All of this while the Empress lay cloaked in a secluded corner of the cargo bay – somewhere that both she and Chiyoto had thought would be peaceful this close to departure.

  Of course, the clumsy malcontent had waited until she had finally managed to get her Treasure to sleep for his grandly inept performance that was accompanied by some flowery language that Runa could not even decipher.

  So Runa reached deep inside and wrapped her Chiyoto in a wonderfully sound-proof layer that would allow her to continue sleeping, no matter what other antics the bierabon and his clumsy, over-weight cognate had in store.

  Runa even heard the bierbon laughing at the male – that almost brought a smile to her lips.

  Almost.

  Repositioning her large wings and tail into a more relaxed position, Runa watched as the male froze and turned slowly in her direction when air which she had stirred with her motions passed over the plump being. She watched with amusement now as the male waved a hand in the air and began walking toward the general direction of her tail.

  Frowning with just a hint of deviousness, Runa let out a long, heat-filled breath in the direction of the man which put it, of course, blowing against the opposite direction from which he was facing. Once again, the male stopped all motion. This time, however, he slowly turned toward the direction that should have been the source of the hot air. When his attention had finally focused completely from where her breath had flowed, Runa once again waved her tail to stir up the air again … in the other direction. After teasing him for a while and enjoying his back-and-forth confusion, Runa heard the bierabon’s distinctive chuckle as they were ready to turn again. However, the male was apparently too tombul to enjoy the game for long as he began to show signs of irritation as well as slight physical fatigue. In fact, he had broken a sweat given the mental puzzlement combined with the muscular exertion of the back-and-forth.

  He childishly stomped his feet attached to those over-weight legs and let out a sound that might have been considered a growl in some pampered sections of the empire, but in the places Runa and her Treasure frequented, the sound would have earned him some good, old-fashioned ridicule. Huffing at her own thoughts and, once again, turning the pitiful male in that direction – and causing yet another of his poor-excuse-for-a-growl noises – Runa decided that ridicule was not enough.

  The Empress slashed out quickly along the floor with her tail and had to stifle her laugh as the male bounced soundly on his padded bottom. In response, Runa could hear the bierabon laugh even louder as she silently withdrew her tail.

  It seemed only the obese cognate did not find the exercise amusing.

  About that time, the other freight engineer re-appeared from the sea of crates to find the hefty engineer flat on his bottom. And promptly burst into laughter – a booming sound that echoed around the bay and managed to irritate the downed male even more than Runa’s teasing had done.

  The recent arrival remarked so
mething about the tombul male’s low center-of-gravity helping to prevent such clumsiness and turned to disappear again, only this time he called commandingly to the bierabon’s cognate. Upon standing and using some of the same disgusting expletives he had conjured earlier, he began to walk determinedly toward the dragoness. But Runa, who had been almost amused right up to the point that his mouth put her off again, growled low and threateningly – the sound intentionally directed right at the male who instantly froze in his approach. Not stopping there, the male’s face became a mask of utter panic as he turned and ran – if such an action could be used to describe the chunky being’s motion – in the same direction in which the other engineer had exited.

  Watching the tombul male disappear into the vast array of crates and luggage and such, Empress Runa settled in after her first day of holding court for her subjects – another farce, to be sure. Her Treasure was certainly right in one respect, though: Runa would have hated the whole idea of formal court and all the associated pomp and fanfare that came with it. She snickered in both pleasure as well as some added disgust that this would be her only opportunity to participate in such – pleasure because she imagined her Chiyoto would have made an excellent monarch – disgust toward the filthy Raksasa that had broken her own faith and shattered her Treasure’s heart.

  Deep sigh.

  Home.

  They would be home in less than three days time – young, respectful Braylen would be at the ICT waiting to take them there.

  And there they could start over.

  Runa settled in for a long sleep along with her Chiyoto – she could feel the hum of the engines begin to rise as the shuttle readied for departure.

  The newly-enthroned Bohrean Empress let the vibrations become her lullaby as she drifted into surprisingly delightful dreams of watching a certain auburn-haired pich die a hundred different ways at her own hand.

  Because he so deserved each and every one of those painful deaths.