There was no mistaking the threat in his voice, and though Aryn’s eyes flashed, she walked with him down the long hallways in silence. She gave only the slightest sign of disappointment when Ellian’s own guards joined him.
Colin and James. Cade had assessed them with a soldier’s eye when he first joined Ellian’s household, and he had found them lacking. Now he realized that he welcomed their hatred with a sort of grim anticipation. Let them try to take him out. The one on the left betrayed a slight hitch in his movements that would hinder him when he reached for his gun. The other swung his head in a way that betrayed lost peripheral vision on the right. They were both highly trained, and no doubt deadly—almost the best money could buy. Only it turned out they would be going up against the very best money could buy.
For two years, Cade had managed to push away the voice that sang in his head, the siren call of the fight. His heart beat faster at every threat, his muscles twitched. Until now, he had kept his vow, stilled himself even when blows rained down on him. Three broken ribs, two broken arms, seven stab wounds, and he had never so much as raised his voice.
Until now, however, he’d had only his own life to lose by not fighting.
He took a chance at the door, reached out to touch Aryn’s arm. There was a caution in his eyes. Don’t do this. Let it be.
She only smiled, acceptance in her eyes.
In the room, she waited as Ellian’s guards affixed blockers on each of the walls. One eyebrow was slightly raised; she was almost amused at his daring, that he would be foolhardy enough to block the Warlord’s own listening devices.
She flinched, however, when he rounded on her.
“Are you insane?” he demanded of her.
“No,” Aryn said flatly.
“You could have ruined everything.”
“The weapons deals, you mean.” When he stopped, comically, Aryn crossed her arms. One eyebrow lifted in triumph.
“What are you talking about?” Ellian asked her.
“Oh, come now. Everyone in this room knows. James and Colin have always known, I would expect, and so does Mr. Williams. You’re the Warlord’s weapons dealer. Quartermaster.” She shaped Cade’s word with care, and he knew she meant him to mark it.
“Aryn…” Ellian started toward her, his hands out, a placating smile on his face.
“You kept it from me,” Aryn said simply. Her face was expressionless now.
“Then how do you know?” Ellian’s gaze turned to Cade. “Did Mr. Williams tell you, perhaps?”
“The bodyguard you hired?” Aryn asked. “Ellian, it’s been two years. I put it together long ago.”
And from Ellian’s bewildered expression, Cade knew she had pulled it off. The man was beginning to wonder.
“You lied to me,” Aryn continued.
Cade shook his head, and knew she saw it, but it was not enough to stop her.
“I protected you,” Ellian corrected her. There was a hint of anger in his voice.
“Oh? You listened to me telling you of the bombings. You knew I was terrified for my family. So who were you protecting, Ellian? Was it me? Or was it you?” She flung the accusation at him.
Cade was moving even before he knew why. The fury in Ellian’s eyes was unmistakable, and Cade knew he must go with the ploy Aryn had set up. The bodyguard you hired. He blocked Ellian with his body, hands out to Aryn.
“Ms. Beranek, I think you should go.”
“Mr. Williams.” Ellian’s voice was cold as deepest winter. “Step out of the way.”
“But, sir, she—”
“I will not ask you again.” Ellian waited for him to move. “This is between me…and my wife.”
Chapter 24
Cade’s eyes were fixed on hers, and for a moment the plea there was naked. Don’t do this.
She had to. What was she doing, if it wasn’t helping her people? And as she would never convince the Warlord, she would need to convince Ellian. In any case, that would do more good, wouldn’t it? No one else controlled a whole planet, but there must be others who bought Ellian’s weapons. If she could change his mind now…
Even if she couldn’t, she had to try. If she spent her days cowering against his disapproval, keeping her mouth shut for fear a fight, she would never be able to live with herself. So she kept her arms crossed and he chin up, and she waited for what Ellian might say.
“You do not understand how the world works.” His voice was ugly.
“Don’t I?”
“No. You do not. You grew up sheltered. You cannot possibly begin to grasp the forces that run in human society.” He stalked toward her. “You don’t understand.”
She had intended to keep her voice low, lead him to a resolution. But at this, she snapped. They had all lied, every single one of them. They thought she was incapable of understanding—even Cade.
“You don’t understand,” she spat back.
It stopped Ellian in his tracks, and she pressed her advantage.
“You grew up poor, you said. You left people behind, the same as me. You said they resented you. But you know what the difference was? They weren’t being bombed. They weren’t being shot in the streets. They didn’t have the options between being killed, or sold, or going down into the mines every day, unpaid, knowing their debt to the Warlord grew larger every time they had to buy food. The people you left behind didn’t have to live, day in and day out, with the knowledge that everyone else in the world had left them to their fate because it was just too inconvenient to start a war with the Warlord. Your family and friends didn’t have to know that they’d been written off, that no one was even going to try to save them.
“And now you tell me that I don’t understand how the world works. I understand just fine, thank you. I know that when you’re poor, and you’re being worked to death or bombed into oblivion, that the only person you can rely on is you, because no one else is going to come help. Everyone’s going to shake their heads and say how sad it is, and then they’re going to go home to their warm houses and their families that have food in their bellies, and they’re going to thank God that it isn’t them. Isn’t that the truth, Ellian? Because I’ve seen it every day since I left. No one’s coming to help Ymir.”
“And I got you out of there!” he hissed.
“Yes, while you lied to me about who you were and what you did. You lied. There’s no way around it, is there? You knew better than to tell me what you did for a living.”
“I saved your parents,” he said, and the threat was so obvious that Aryn had to clench her hands to keep from lashing out.
“Yes. You did, didn’t you? And you were kind to me.” Her voice was shaking now. She could see the path before her, and she almost thought her chest would break open, it hurt so much. She could not look at Cade. “And I’m grateful, Ellian, every day. You took me away without expecting anything from me, do you remember?”
Her voice was shaking, but she had to see this through. He was the only one who would help now. She would smile at the devil himself if that was what it took.
“I don’t understand,” she said softly. “I don’t. I can’t see how that man, the one who took all that time to show me how the showers worked, to hold my hand while we walked through the city, to hold me while I cried for home—how that man can bear to deal with the Warlord.” She held Ellian’s gaze desperately. “You’re better than that. You know what he does to people.”
“Aryn…” He swallowed hard, and she knew her words had touched something. He tried for a smile. “You know that if it weren’t me, it would be someone else.”
Disappointment struck, and she tried to keep it from her face. He wasn’t listening, and she had to plead with him again, and she felt part of her waste away when she said these words. How had it taken her two years to realize what the lies did to her?
She reminded herself that it did not matter. Nothing mattered but what Ellian could do for them all.
“Ellian…” She stepped close, trying to shut
out Cade’s face. If she pretended, she could do this. She put her hand up to his cheek. “Don’t you see?”
“What?” He trembled under her touch.
Victory, it turned out, felt remarkably like defeat. Aryn tried to smile.
“I love you.” Behind him, she saw Cade close his eyes briefly. She could not stop now. “I love you,” she repeated softly. “I started falling in love with you the moment you told me I didn’t have to. You’re a man of honor, Ellian, you always have been—and that’s why I love you so much. You just haven’t seen what’s been happening here, that’s all. And when you do…” She took a breath and made her play. “When you do, I’m sure you won’t be able to keep working with the Warlord.”
Their eyes locked together.
I’m sorry, Cade. I’m so sorry.
“Aryn.” Ellian reached up, covering the hand that cupped the side of his face. There was pain in his eyes…and something she hoped was love. “Now that you know what I am, do you see why I insisted you must have protection?”
“Yes.” She saw all too well.
“The Warlord does not take kindly to those who walk away from him.” Ellian’s face was grave. “He could ruin us. Aryn, he could hurt you to get back at me.”
“You’ll never let that happen,” she said, almost recklessly.
“We’ll have to take your parents and go,” he told her. “We won’t have any of the luxuries you love.”
“I don’t mind.” It would feel better that way, actually—not to be surrounded by what she now knew was blood money. And she didn’t have the first idea what to do with any of those luxuries, in any case.
It was so close to working…
“Aryn, I worry about what will happen if I do this.”
At last, something appeared in her mind: his own words, only a few days past.
“Didn’t you say you don’t like to work with him?” she asked. “With any of them. You said they treat you like you aren’t their equal, even though they couldn’t rule without you. Ellian, why settle for their scraps?”
It worked better than she could even have hoped. As she watched, Ellian looked away, his face going blank. His mind was racing, she could tell, his thoughts leaping ahead as they always did. She had learned that Ellian’s mind went faster than speech. His intelligence was what had guided him to the top.
“Yes, indeed,” he told her quietly. He looked triumphant. “Why settle for their scraps? My dear, you are cleverer than me by far.”
“What?” Something was going on here that she did not quite understand. She looked at him warily.
“You’re right,” he said simply. “All these years, this masked Warlord ruling a planet, doling out little scraps of money. All of them, doing the same. And me, bowing and scraping for each little piece of the profits.”
He sounded so bitter that she was truly frightened.
“And look how you rose,” she reminded him.
“At the cost of my pride,” he reminded her. “And one should never sacrifice that. It is more precious than anything.”
If only she could agree. She tried to keep from slapping him. There were more important things than pride—like, for instance, thousands of lives on Ymir. But if it suited him to believe this…if it drove him away from the Warlord…
“Precisely,” Aryn said. She swallowed back any other words that might bubble up. So will you do it? Will you tell him there is no deal between you?
She did not need to ask. He saw it in her eyes.
“I will do it,” he told her. “You were right, Aryn. You’re always right.”
She caught a glimpse of Cade’s face and was startled by it. The pain had been wiped away by distrust. He was staring at Ellian as if the words were a lie.
Aryn studied Ellian covertly. No. It was true. He did not have any of the mannerisms of evasion she had learned to see.
“Thank you, my love.” Part of her, very distantly, seemed to be sobbing. She ignored it.
“As long as I have a woman I can trust at my side,” Ellian said simply, “I need nothing else.” His eyes were cold, but his lips were curved in a smile.
The act had already begun and she could not change course now. Still, it was all Aryn could do to lift her chin and smile back.
Chapter 25
He was losing his mind. Cade paced around the perimeter of Aryn’s small set of chambers. He had been around, by his count, twenty-three times. He had been sent away, and she was alone with Ellian. Cade knew exactly what he should do. He should accept her choice and walk away, and all would be as it should be. God knew he was smart enough to see the way the dice were falling.
And what did it matter, in the end? They were two people. Very small in the grand scheme of things. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter at all. He stopped pacing and looked at the bags still piled in the corner. He could take his things and go—Ellian would understand, certainly. He would know he had won, and he had what he’d always wanted: a woman he could trust.
And Cade would drink himself to death on New Arizona. That idea sounded pretty good, all things considered.
There was a knock at the door and he opened it, eyes barely flickering when he saw the two bodyguards.
“Yes?” he asked, unceremoniously.
“Mr. Pallas wants the room outfitted with blockers.” One of them shoved several items into Cade’s hands.
He looked them over.
“And his listening devices, I see.”
“Mr. Pallas wouldn’t—“
“Oh, come now.” Cade felt the last dregs of his resistance melt away. “Surely we can be honest with one another, gentlemen. You hate me. Mr. Pallas hates me. It’s anyone’s guess why I’m still here. But since we’re all professionals, let’s just call these—” he held up the devices “—what they are. He’s spying on his wife.”
If he were honest with himself, he’d been hoping they would let something slip. Maybe someone would think to admit to him just why Ellian kept Cade here when he so clearly suspected that his wife was having an affair. But the one called Colin simply reached out and pulled the door closed, and he listened to their steps disappear down the hallway. Cade pulled out the desk chair, removed a small screwdriver from one of his cuffs, and began to take the device apart. Like hell he was going to let Ellian spy on Aryn.
It was only after he had the devices modified and up on the walls that he realized there had been no point to it. Aryn’s sadness had been clear—to him, at least—but she had made an unequivocal choice. Cade slumped against the wall and tilted his head back.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before the sound of the door opening jerked him from his thoughts. He only rolled his head sideways. He no longer cared who saw him like this.
“What on earth has gotten into you?” Talon asked. He slipped into the room and shut the door behind him.
“She sold herself,” Cade said bitterly. “Everything she was, to get him…” His throat was closing on his bitterness. “To get him to stop dealing with the Warlord. And it was all for nothing.”
Ellian had been lying. How could she not see that? It destroyed him to admit it, but her bargain might almost have made sense, if not for that.
“All for nothing?” Talon raised his eyebrows. “Then you haven’t heard?” he frowned. “By the way, I’m assuming you fixed all of those things on the walls.”
“I fixed them,” Cade said tonelessly.
“Good. Then here’s the deal: he did stop dealing with the Warlord.”
“What?” Cade said blankly.
“He did. He went marching into the Warlord’s office, cool as you please, and told him the deal was off, and he’d be taking the weapons and going home. Or something to that effect. I don’t think he’d landed them yet.”
“What?” Cade shook his head. “You’re wrong, he—”
“I’m not wrong, Williams.” Talon gave him a look. “Either he means it, or he’s trying to play hardball, but either way, I can assure you the
Warlord thinks it’s real.”
Now that was interesting.
“How do you know that?”
“He’s sent for the Dragons. Asked me to call back all the ones on ‘family leave’ and come at once.” Talon gave a mirthless smile. “At least he doesn’t know I’m here. I was worried. But I think he knows about the weapons.”
“You do?”
“It’s paranoia, not anything verifiable.” Talon sighed. ”I…diverted that shipment. And the Warlord’s got his claws in deep. He wouldn’t know who got those weapons, but he’s heard the whispers that they aren’t where they should be. And he’s getting more and more worried about that rebellion. You ask me, he sent for Pallas the second he figured it out and upped his price. That’s why Pallas was on our heels like that. The Warlord’s looking to stop the rebellion in its tracks before they have time to arm.”
“What good are fifteen hundred people with cheap guns really going to do?” Cade asked bitterly.
“More than you’d think.” Talon looked almost regretful. “Fifteen hundred people with nothing to lose, and a palace that was never built to withstand an invasion. He bet big that no one would ever get enough momentum to overthrow him. The attack sixteen years ago scared him, Williams. He’s been trying to make himself safer, but he overshot. Now he’s running scared while his people walk away from the mines.” He gave a slight smile. “He should never have let that woman off the planet. She’s going to be his undoing.”
“You’re going to be his undoing,” Cade said flatly.
“Williams…”
“Don’t.”
“Listen to me—”
The good news was that the door opened before Talon could get out whatever platitude he was going to say. The bad news was that it was Aryn. She paused when she saw them, but she slipped into the room and closed the door behind her.
“He did it,” she said. Disbelief sounded in her voice. “He went and told the Warlord. I almost didn’t believe he would…”
Dragon's Honor (The Dragon Corps Series Book 1) Page 14