Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance Series
Page 3
“Botak, if she’s a fierce fighter, why did anyone think it was a good idea to tell her I was so weak?” he yelled, running his fingers through his long, white blonde hair.
“Jovin thought it would interest her. He thought she would view you like a piece of clay she could mold and be more interested. He knew the girl and I didn’t, so I agreed with him.”
“No, she should have been told from the start we were equals when it came to fighting. Did you know she wanted to go to the fighting pits so she could work out her frustrations? We probably have more in common than any of us thought, but we’re never going to find out because you lied to her. Why did you never let us speak over COMM? We could have gotten to know each other that way.”
“Or, you could have slowly grown to hate each other, the way arranged marriages sometimes go.”
“Your arranged marriage is not like mine! There wasn’t a cosmic event that led to you two being betrothed!”
“You two are together because of careful planning from the factions and because we listened to your bond animals. If it was up to both your parents, you’d never marry and she’d end up with someone willing to start a war with us.”
“Don’t you think we would have bonded over the secrets we shared? I wanted to talk to someone other than you about what the entire planet thinks of me. I’m sure she wanted to vent to someone about being beaten!”
“Beating her made her stronger. Perhaps a little too strong or she wouldn’t have yelled at both of us and stormed out.”
“Then why did you want to beat her again?”
“Because I wanted her to look to you for protection. Instead, she tried to attack me herself.”
“Get out, Botak. Have breakfast sent in and send word to the slave quarters I want her again. If she doesn’t come, it’s your fault.”
“She has to come. I’m sending a guard and the other slaves will hear. She can be stubborn and blow her cover or she can come eat with you. You should be happy she turned out so pretty compared to the Avalian slaves, even if she doesn’t want to cooperate.”
“Stay away from her. I’m trying to fix your mess. Go get her and don’t mess this up.”
Isolde shuffled in behind a guard. The table was already set with breakfast. She kept her eyes down even once the guard was gone and she didn’t have to keep up that charade. She was still in the oversized men’s clothes that had been donated to the slaves, but he had no idea if it would make things worse if he suggested she change. If she liked hunting back home, she probably didn’t do it the way the women on Cendis dressed.
He realized how different Avala must be when she stared down at her plate of food and didn’t seem to know what it was. She shifted on her pillow like she was hungry and hadn’t eaten with the other slaves, but she looked like she was going to sit there starving because she was too stubborn to ask what it was. He pulled his pillow over so he was sitting right next to her.
“That is fried ostrich egg. The meat is fire-grilled falcon. The rest is just potatoes and fruit.”
She still hadn’t looked at him, but he watched her face screw up. “Why do you eat falcons instead of using them for hunting? They can spot prey in the snow in the middle of the mountains. Aren’t you worried about eating?”
“We use suitable falcons for hunting. There are about four species of falcon here. The one on your plate is the size of a dog and the way it hunts ruins our hunts. They follow our birds and once they’ve spotted prey, the masked falcon swoops in and steals it. They don’t hunt themselves. They rely on smaller, smarter falcons to find food, then use their size to steal it from them.”
“Sounds smart to me. Sounds like the way both our people have done things for years. Sit back and get lazy and fat off someone else’s hard work. You hunt them for doing what we’ve been doing since we took our first slave.”
“I think you know that’s cruel and not smart. Botak told me you wanted to stop the slavery on the new planet too. You still aren’t eating,” he sighed. “What would you prefer?”
“Our eggs are much smaller and our potatoes have white flesh, not blue like this. Some of this fruit, I’ve never seen before and I don’t know what the orange on the potato is.”
“Isolde, try it! It’s my favorite. Do you not have curry on your planet?”
“Is it a spice? I’ve only read about those. We don’t have them anymore. We hunt as much as we can when it’s not frozen out. We have ovens that flash cook the meat, but we only use salt. Over the winter, we eat salted meat that has been cured.”
“All you have is salt? The black on the eggs is ground peppercorn, and the falcon has been rubbed down with spices before it was roasted over a fire. The potatoes in the bowl have curry and goat’s milk. You don’t normally eat it for breakfast, but it’s my favorite dish, so I asked them to make it for you. Peace offering? I haven’t slept yet. I yelled at Botak until the sun came up, then sent for you.”
“You really didn’t know I had been lied to for so long?” she asked, finally starting on her eggs.
“I think secrets about you were kept from me too. I don’t know if Botak knew and lied to me. The decision to lie to you was mutual between Botak and your uncle. I knew who you were without you trying to get into my head. I think you were trying to flirt with me. I miss that over the anger towards me now, even if it was brief.”
“You don’t have women here throwing themselves at you just dying to corrupt you?”
“I could be a performer if this king thing fails. Can you imagine me in my padded clothing at seventeen pitching a screaming, crying tantrum because my mother wouldn’t let me go play hide and seek with Botak in the woods outside the palace? Hide and Seek was code for sneaking way out and training, but it’s really embarrassing to put on a show like that when you’re that old. I didn’t want you to ever think of me like that and I can’t wait until I can drop this charade.”
She finally met his eyes with a furrowed brow. She had eaten most of her food and was just about to eat the curried potatoes, but there was a knock on the door. If that was Botak, Elan was going to ruin this farce getting into a fight with him in the hallway. He threw his bedroom door open and there was a Cendian soldier standing out there. The soldiers didn’t think much of him at all, even though he could best all of them in several forms of combat. The man peered over his shoulder and couldn’t hide his disdain that Elan was feeding his slave toy like she was a member of the court.
“Your mother wants a word with your new toy. Alone. Bring her out so I can escort her.”
“She’ll come out when I’m finished with her,” he said, making his voice nasally and whiny. He slammed the door in the soldier’s face and went to sit back down. Isolde didn’t seem the least bit worried about what his mother would say to her. She was happily eating her potatoes and seemed like she was in a better mood.
“You’re right. Those potatoes are quite good. Do you use that curry spice on other things?”
“Isolde,” he started, grabbing her hand. He immediately let go. She probably didn’t want him touching her and she definitely wouldn’t after Sartika got her hands on her. “I’ll feed you curry in bed every night if you just ignore everything my mother says. If you want, I can pitch a tantrum so you don’t have to go now, but she’ll find you. She’s going to try to get into your head and blame you for being in my room. She’s going to think you did something to get my attention. She’s going to think you’re trying to better your station by getting me to fall in love with you.”
“You think anything your mother has to say to me is any worse than my own mother has said? You forget, I can get into her head and hear everything. So, even if she tries to pretend like she’s being nice to me, I’ll know what she really thinks.”
This girl was infuriating and she could have spent last night with him instead of on straw mats with the slaves. “Why didn’t you just get into my head so you could see it wasn’t me that wanted you lied you?”
“I’m going to see your mother now. Thank you for showing me your favorite foods.”
She slipped out the door and was gone before he could catch her. He wondered if Botak and her uncle suspected they were going to hate each other as soon as they met, so they told each of them lies. If she could have fixed all of this madness by getting into his head, why the bloody hell hadn’t she done that when she first found out she had been lied to?
Chapter 6
Isolde was prepared to give audience to the queen, even if Elan hadn’t seen that coming. Her normal lie detection skills didn’t seem to work here. Elan said he could be a stage performer at this point, but what performance was he acting in right now? Had Botak told him to act a certain way so that he appeared to be less of a grown child before or had he really been pretending this long? She didn’t get a chance to try to test Botak because his immediate suggestion was beating her and she wanted to show him what it was like to be beaten.
The Queen’s chambers weren’t far from Elan’s, so she didn’t really get to see much of the palace. The entire place seemed to be made from some sort of shiny, black rock. She couldn’t tell if the walls were the same rock as the floor because every single surface was covered in tapestries. They seemed to be old and had things depicted that she didn’t think existed anymore. Some were from stories even she knew on her planet, but she thought the names might be different here.
The soldier walking with her was rough when he shoved her into Queen Sartika’s chambers and she ended up sprawled at her feet. She didn’t lift her eyes and risk a slap to her face. She reached out to Sartika’s mind to see if she could get in. Sartika was hiding something. Her thoughts were coming in so fast, it was difficult for Isolde to lock onto one. She almost missed the whisper Sartika didn’t want her to hear.
“Fjola didn’t lie. The girl is pretty. I’d hate to scar her to get her to cooperate.”
Her face flew up. Was everyone on this planet a liar? How did Sartika know Fjola and know any of this? She didn’t care about her cover anymore. She was tired of getting lied to.
“How do you know Fjola? And no one is beating me here. No one is beating me ever again.”
Sartika looked surprised, then her face relaxed into a cool detachment. “Fjola warned me you could get in my head. You’re good if you picked that up. If a beating doesn’t convince you to complete the bond, what do we have to do? Starve you? Tie you down and make him force you?”
“How do you know Fjola?” she yelled.
“Oh, and you’re making the room cold too! No ice daggers or we’ll have war instead of the peace we’ve been trying to prepare you for.”
“I’m not here for your amusement! If you expect me to let your son on top of me, all of you need to stop lying to me!”
“It’s a little too cold now, dear. Scale it down a bit so we can chat.”
“It was stupid coming here. I spent my entire life training for it and it’s never going to work. I’ve heard nothing but lies from all of you. When I leave this room, your soldier can drag me back to Elan, but I’ll find a way out. I can find the pod I came in again. Your planet and mine are doomed if this is everyone’s idea of working together.”
Isolde knew there was going to be an armed guard outside the door. She knew what kind of weapon he probably had and she already knew how to disarm him. She didn’t put it past anyone here to throw her into a dungeon if she didn’t cooperate.
“Isolde, stop before you do something foolish. Come sit with me and at least let me explain the lies you’ve been told?”
“I’ll stand!” she snapped, pacing the ornate rug. Nothing Sartika could say would change her mind about leaving.
“You really are magnificent, Isolde. You have the passion of the old Cendian warriors, but you lack the flame. We did that on purpose. Imagine all that rage and anger you’re feeling right now in Elan, who could scorch this planet and yours with the anger you always hold at bay.”
“I could freeze Cendis if I wanted to!”
“You could, but you won’t. If you lost control and started to, you would come to your senses before you killed the entire population. It’s not like that for our sixteen. Elan is the strongest. He could start a fire we don’t have the working technology to put out anymore. Don’t you realize what we tried to do?”
“Did Fjola have me beaten so you could accomplish whatever it was? I heard everything she was thinking about me. You’re lying again. She didn’t know.”
“You heard what Fjola wanted you to hear, the same with Elan. And before you’re thinking she couldn’t hide her thoughts from you, think about this. Once you knew she was having all those awful thoughts, how often did you listen after you could control it?”
“She would have slipped. You did.”
“Let me tell you something, little girl. Fjola and I would do anything for our children and to save our planets. It was a bonus when we found out you and Elan would have such a spiritual bond and didn’t have to do this because of obligation. We didn’t do any of this to have you in this bloody rage threatening to go home. So, sit down, shut up, stop freezing my chambers, and listen.”
“I’ll stay standing. You may be queen, but I’m still stronger than you. I could fight off several guards if you call them. Jovin told me what he knew of your weapons.”
“Isolde, I am not your enemy. Do you think I like knowing Fjola beat you? I thought that to see if you would catch it. I was testing you. Do you think I like my son putting on this farce that he’s weak? You think I like watching you storm out on him when he’s wanted nothing more except to meet you since Botak and his bond animal told him about you?”
“What the bloody hell do you mean watching? Elan and I were alone until he called for Botak. You couldn’t have seen any of that unless Botak was spying and I watched him come through the chamber door.”
“Darling, Botak doesn’t know anything I’m telling you and neither does Elan. I can lie to them easily, but they also can’t get into my head. Instead of storming off and blaming everything on my son, you should have just read his mind and saw how much you were upsetting him. Or maybe…. you can’t with Elan. That trick doesn’t work on him because that lie you’ve been telling yourself about the bond really is a lie. You can’t read his thoughts and I’m guessing the things he can do with his mind won’t affect you either.”
She wasn’t about to admit Elan was the only person she had ever met that she couldn’t get into their head no matter how hard she concentrated. She wasn’t giving up any secrets to Sartika or admitting anything until she started speaking the truth. She did something she had been trained to do on a thief, but was told only to do when necessary. She forced her way into Sartika’s mind and started digging for answers.
Fjola and Sartika were both secret faction members? And Uncle Jovin really didn’t know? Only one faction member from both planets knew and were influencing Jovin and Botak without their knowledge. The faction member from Avala was responsible for upkeep and communications on the pods. She saw what Sartika meant by watching. Viljar, from Avala, someone she knew was in the faction from Jovin, managed to develop several small cameras when she was still in the womb.
Fjola had been spying on her since she was born. Sartika had been watching Elan too as the tech had been smuggled to Cendis. When Sartika said she had been watching, she saw them naked in the pool and again when she attacked Botak. She let Sartika go before her nosebleed got worse. She didn’t want back in her head, she wanted to go grab Fjola and force out why she had done all this to her.
“That was quite unpleasant,” Sartika said, wiping the blood from her face. “You could have sat and just let me explain, but I understand why you needed to see for
yourself. You turned out exactly the way we wanted you.”
She finally sat down on the tasseled floor pillow. “Why did both of you do this to us? If you love us, why not let us decide who we wanted to be?”
“Because that is how we got into this mess. The Cendians have always been suspicious and quick to anger. Like we tried to guide you into becoming. The Avalians have always been logical and hard to anger. But once you’ve had their ire, they refuse to let it go. That was how we tried to make Elan. Gentle and logical to your fire and power. We raised an Avalian like a Cendian and a Cendian like an Avalian. It’s a good paring. You have what you need to rule together, but none of the native gifts that could explode when you’re using them.”
“I still don’t believe in this bond, but you could have let us figure this out on our own. I still would have done my duty and attempted to test the bond. I would still rule with him.”
“We did it to keep both of you safe from the other, but also to rally our people. The Cendians used to be a passionate people. They think the way they are now is this long-standing punishment from the gods. They are paranoid and scared. They think anything they do will risk the god’s wrath. They don’t even want to fix the swarm problem, even though it’s making people sick and certain bug bites kill because they think it’s their punishment. They didn’t even blink when my husband and all his advisors died. When all sixteen of us became pregnant, they thought we were all giving birth to their downfall.
“Some were scared enough to want to kill us and our children. That’s part of the reason I let everyone think Elan still plays with toys and grew up totally harmless. The other fifteen are trained much like they are on your planet. In secret. I’ve been told on Avala, it’s because they are still holding a grudge against us and want to use you as weapons. Here, it’s because my people have been so long without fire, they would try to hurt them because they think they are evil. You haven’t seen the rest of the castle. Aside from the high born, most people move about like the slaves.”