“When I decided to stop going to temple, it was because I thought if Fanndis was real, she wouldn’t have put all that expectation on me. If I had to learn everything I needed to know, why couldn’t there be a point I could eventually rest and be happy? I thought it would be this constant struggle with you trying to pass laws because you’d have to talk to your mother first and she would be manipulating things in the background.
“Now I don’t know what to think. Fjola never hated me and I’m happy with you. We do get to relax sometimes before Tati calls us or someone starts pounding on the door again. I know Tati and Soelva know something and I suspect it was their doing that you had to put on that farce and I came here believing lies I just don’t know what their end goal is and why we have all these tests.”
Elan just shrugged. “I didn’t get angry because I latched onto the idea that you were coming and you were my soulmate. And it worked out. Maybe Tati and Soelva were around when the gods were still here. Maybe one of them was a bond animal to a god. Both our planets have been worshipping gods from the monuments the humans found when they settled, but how did they find out their names if they didn’t find any humanoid creatures here? Maybe Tati, Soelva, and the rest of the bond animals are ready to give us those answers and the reasons why we all got fire and ice, then lost it. Maybe they have the answers to who was responsible for the sixteen on both planets.”
“I think they have all the answers! And we aren’t going to get them until they’ve put us through hell. Something bad is coming, Elan. Bringing down The Children was too easy. All this has been too easy.”
“Oh, Isolde,” Elan chuckled. “It was not easy that first night when you were furious at me. I felt a connection to you the first time I laid eyes on you, even if you were infuriating sometimes. I wasn’t worried about the alliance when you stormed out to sleep with the other slaves. I was worried about losing you and having you fly back home before we could straighten things out. You were quite angry.”
“I think Tati and Soelva wanted me that way. We aren’t getting those answers tonight. We need to figure out how we are going to handle your people when you announce the arrests in the morning. Come to bed?”
“Can you behave yourself and just talk?” Elan teased.
“If you keep your clothes on until we’re done,” she said, tugging him into the bedroom.
She snuggled into his chest. She preferred talking about the hard things when she could feel his heartbeat steadying hers. “There’s going to be people who secretly agree with Hikmat. If you let him speak, they may riot.”
“That’s why he’s not going to speak first. I think I have this covered. I’m going to spill all his crimes and why we arrested all of them. I’m going to ask the women like Meida to come forward and speak against him if they are comfortable. Women have never been able to make their own claims before and I’m going to start that now. Plus, I have something Hikmat doesn’t when he tries to speak. I have my beautiful queen who can listen and whisper in my head when I’m veering in the wrong direction.”
She laughed and buried her face into his chest. “It’s not that easy listening in to a crowd that big. I can pick some up over the others if they are in a rage, but what if it’s more than a few people inciting the riot? They may be on your side, but not all of them agree with you on me.”
“That’s why if anyone starts screaming about burning you, I want you to freeze the room. They may ignore one night of freezing, but if the room freezes while they are actively screaming about hurting you, they’ll back down. Trust me, that’s a big sign they won’t ignore.”
“They’ll want to burn me all over again when we find out I deceived them.”
“Maybe you didn’t. Don’t you wonder how some of us were born to women who either shouldn’t have been pregnant or were too old? We can do things our ancestors couldn’t. Maybe the gods have a plan for us.”
“Elan, I’m probably Viljar’s bastard and have no claim to the throne. My father was in love with his favorite courtesan and spent most his nights with her.”
“I know you don’t do things the same on Avala, but wouldn’t your father have reacted badly if your mother ended up pregnant when he spent his nights elsewhere? I’ve only spoken to her a few times, but she strikes me as cunning and careful. She probably took the same capsules you brought with you.”
“No, Elan, she couldn’t. Those capsules don’t prevent you from getting pregnant from just one encounter. It stops anyone from getting you pregnant. She couldn’t take them with Viljar because my father still needed an heir.”
“Oh, Isolde,” Elan chuckled. “There’s more than one way to stop a baby. We don’t have those capsules here, but Botak went over several ways not to so we didn’t end up with a hundred babies running around after we were married.”
She only knew of the capsules. Jovin didn’t want to talk about it at all and seemed uncomfortable with her asking. That was part of why she was so sure the bond was this big lie. She thought he just wanted her pregnant. She saw the physician to talk about it and he only told her about the pills and nothing else.
“How?” she demanded. She wasn’t sure she trusted those capsules anymore, even if she was happy she was pregnant. She didn’t want to constantly be pregnant either.
“Botak said there’s this sheath the courtesans here make the men wear. It prevents pregnancy and most diseases. Botak says most men complain about it and want to go without. Some women use stoneseed root to make a tea, but there’s other herbs too.”
“Every time I have something I’ve believed since I was very young, you always have an answer that eases my mind. I’ve thought Viljar may be my father as soon as I heard in his head he was Fjola’s lover and I asked about those capsules. I’m starting to wonder if I’m really any good at this if I didn’t pick up more things from Viljar and that doctor I saw.”
“Come on, Isolde. You stopped listening to Viljar as soon as you heard he was sharing Fjola’s bed because you thought he was just like her.”
Elan knew her so well already. She felt shame burning through her because he was right. She just ignored him after that and stopped trying to listen to his thoughts because she didn’t want to hear him thinking anything good about her mother.
“I can’t keep doing that, Elan. Making snap judgments and refusing to listen because I think I don’t like someone. If I think I don’t like someone, that’s exactly why I need to keep listening. I can’t stop until I find out what it is that makes me not like them or until I can trust them. Even if I don’t like him, I do need to find out if Viljar is really my father and why he ordered some of my training the way he did.”
“Why didn’t you leave that first night? You thought everyone here had lied to you, Botak threatened to beat you, and you couldn’t hear me at all. You had no reason to trust me, but you just left to cool off instead of going back to your pod.”
“I didn’t think I could. I landed deep in your forest with coordinates that no one would find my pod. I was met by someone in the faction who gave me clothes and snuck me in with the other slaves. I was too nervous when I landed to listen, so I just tuned everyone out. You were the first person I tried to listen to and I just thought I couldn’t hear anyone on Cendis. I was angry and to be frank, didn’t like you very much when I stormed out. I knew me not liking you and being lied to wasn’t enough for me to break so many years of planning. You forget, Jovin kept drilling into me that if I messed this up, I was going to kill two planets.”
“I’m glad my mother asked for you. I thought she was going to embarrass me and be horrid to you. She knew you could read her mind and would blow her secret and your mother’s. I wonder why she did that.”
“It was another bloody test. She was trying to jumble her thoughts so I would have trouble picking one out. I’m afraid I did to your mother what you’ve seen me do to Hikmat, just not to the point we both fainted.”
She fully expected him to get angry. S
he left that part out when she was telling him the truth. She waited for him to yell, but his heartbeat remained steady. He actually laughed.
“I suppose she did have that coming. She was part of the reason you believed that lie. I still don’t understand why no one thought it was a good idea to let us talk over COMM as we grew up. It would have been nice to have someone besides Botak who saw me as I am.”
“Tati and Soelva have that answer. Don’t ask me how they influenced the faction if they could only hear us after the bond, but they did somehow.”
“I know you don’t believe—”
“I don’t know what I believe anymore, Elan,” she sighed. “How can I hear Soelva on another planet if my gift doesn’t work if someone is too far away? How can I hear Tati now? How did Tati and Soelva both know I was pregnant if there’s no test that exists that could confirm it this soon? Why do any of us have gifts beyond fire and ice? There’s no scientific explanation for why there’s only sixteen of us on both planets and not every new baby born can do what we can do!”
“Hey, focus on what we can do something about right this minute. Your shoulders are going to knot up again if you keep stressing. Take your shirt off so I can work your muscles out again.”
Elan had magic hands and soon, her mind was calm and her body was humming. “Tati and Soelva have to tell us the truth eventually. In fact, once the alliance is sealed, let’s see what they do when we protest and refuse to do what they say or do any more of these tests until they finally start telling us why we went through everything we did.”
She giggled. “Elan, are you suggesting questioning the gods if it was them this entire time? That’s not very Cendian of you.”
He leaned forward and licked her ear. “I think that was their intention.”
Chapter 37
Elan just wanted one day, just one, to spend with Isolde to show her around Cendis now that she didn’t have to hide. Instead, they got up early, ate, and called another arena. No one knew about the raid on the temple, but people would be missing relatives, neighbors, and friends and trying to make claims. Before things got out of hand and finger pointing started, they needed to know why people had not come home the night before.
While Elan and Isolde worried about tests and unanswered questions, Sartika was either not thinking about those things or trying to get her mind off of it by dressing Isolde like a doll. She came in while they were still eating with another dress she had made. She saw the looks they were both giving them. Elan thought Isolde looked beautiful in whatever she wore, but he had a feeling her preferences in clothing didn’t lie in pretty dresses.
“Hush, both of you,” Sartika fussed before they could speak. “If it were up to me, I would have had a dozen children and at least one of them would have been a princess I could dress in pretty clothing. Your father and I tried and tried for ten years. I didn’t fall pregnant until that night.”
“Why didn’t you remarry?” Isolde asked.
The room fell silent. She didn’t know better. Maybe it was different on Avala. Elan cleared his throat. “Women aren’t allowed to remarry, not even a queen. We’re going to change that.”
She actually looked embarrassed for asking. After everything that had come out her mouth since she got here, that was what it took to embarrass her? “Jovin didn’t tell me that,” she muttered.
“There was no way you could know,” Sartika said, smiling gently. “But you could indulge me with this dress.”
Isolde surprised all of them by getting up and embracing Sartika. She told her she could dress her however she liked. Sartika’s eyes watered and she squeezed her.
“There’s the princess I knew was in there somewhere.”
“Well, a dress isn’t going to fool anyone here into thinking I’m a queen and not a slave just yet and they will be angry when they find out we’ve taken their people.”
Sartika sighed. “You just can’t help it sometimes, can you? Let Elan do the talking and you do your thing in the background until we can tell the truth.”
Ace burst into the room without even knocking. If Ace was breaking protocol, it was something major. “You need to get to the platform now. People have been making claims since the early hours of the morning and were told you would be making an announcement. People are angry and starting to talk. Theories range from you’re actually mad to Isolde making you do this out of revenge.”
“Is everyone ready?” Elan asked. Isolde was already on high alert, standing on the balls of her feet like she would spring at any moment. Ace informed him Stretch and the others were getting everyone. Elan put his hands on Isolde’s shoulders. “Try to look relaxed up there. You look like you’re about to punch someone.”
She leaned into him and took his arm as they took yet another walk out to the platform to address the people. His council was already there, but the old council didn’t join him this time. Either they had noticed Soma had gone missing after speaking against Isolde and thought both of them were dangerous or they finally realized they were no longer needed.
The crowd was restless and angry this time, refusing to quiet no matter how loudly he yelled.
“They are afraid, Elan. They saw the signs and the omen and they saw me save you. The high-born think you are crazy and are choosing to ignore what went on the night we bonded. The people from the slums are afraid Fia has ordered some sort of mass genocide to cleanse the people.”
Elan switched the mic on as loud as it would go. “I am not mad and there is no cleansing of our people!” he yelled. The crowd instantly quieted because he shouldn’t have heard that. “Your people that are missing committed a crime. How deeply each person is involved, we do not know, but they will be allowed a chance to speak their truth. They chose to follow an evil man, Hikmat, who ran a cult, The Children of Fia. These people have been committing human and animal sacrifices to Fia to get their fire back. They are bilking some of you out of your money with an underground fighting pit. The pits started as a means to raise a champion worthy of getting fire back. Now, they take money from you and use it to build weapons. Hikmat’s end game was inciting civil war. Killing me and placing himself on the throne. The men he recruited from the military were building an explosive device for the military barracks to wipe them out so you had no one to defend you.
“All of your loved ones, neighbors, and friends that are missing, we arrested them at The Temple of Abra. They were there to listen to Hikmat preach. They are all being held together, safely. They will not be harmed in any way at this time. They can choose to elect someone to speak for them or I will hear them in their own words. Be warned. Fia will be with us during the trials. I will know the truth when I hear it. If your people lie, I will know. If they intend to tell me they knew nothing and come against us later, there will be no mercy.”
People who had tried to make claims, no matter what their status, were starting to exchange uncomfortable looks at being associated with someone who could have been at the temple. Elan didn’t know if it was because of what he said or if they thought they had been cursed somehow going to the temple in the first place.
“The family members that didn’t know, they are worried they will share the fate of those at the temple. And there are several women who want to see Hikmat pay. He made them fall because he raped them and put his child in them or he made their situation worse because they were already as far down as they could go. They are different than Meida. They weren’t in The Children. They were offered to Hikmat by family members and didn’t have a choice.”
“I will not punish any of you for being associated with anyone at the temple. I am also instituting a change Fia says needs to happen. Hikmat hurt a lot of our women. Men in The Children offered relatives to him for sexual pleasure and so that he could spread his seed. Hikmat will pay for this and women will be able to make claims now. If you make unwanted contact with a woman, she will no longer be the one that suffers for it. If any woman Hikmat hurt would like her
voice heard during his trial, Isolde and I want to hear your truth. My council wants to hear your voice. No one, no matter your gender or status, will be denied a voice anymore!”
“You need to start the trials soon. Today. They know you say Hikmat was the leader and they want to see and hear him. For the most part, they believe you, but they want to hear Hikmat say why he would blow up the military and try to hurt so many people.”
“The trials will start on this platform, after lunch. We will start with Hikmat and his assassin, Koswara. There are military dispersed within the crowd. If there is a question you would like to put to Hikmat, speak to one of them and they will be brought to me. I will try to put all of your questions to Hikmat. If your family is up here, you will be allowed on this platform with them to ask your own questions. If you make a move to hurt them, you will be restrained and removed from the platform. Everyone deserving will be given a clean death. Fia wants to sentence Hikmat herself and will do it in front of you.”
“That was perfect, Elan. Most of them are exciting about Fia being there and wanting to see her in action. You need to say something. They are wondering if they will be able to see or feel her while she’s there.”
He had to think up something. They could see Hikmat dying before their eyes, but how to make them feel it? Could he focus on that many people at once? He imagined his hand swooping across the tops of the heads of the crowd. Everyone jumped and started grabbing the crown of their heads.
“Fia is always with us, even if you can’t feel her or see her. Go. Eat with your families and come back after lunch. You will see what Fia does to traitors.”
The crowd applauded as he took Isolde’s arm and they went back to his chambers. She nodded at Ace and the others to give them a signal she wanted them to follow. He should have done that. They needed to know what was going down in the pit. The arena took longer than he expected because it took so long to quiet everyone down, so Isolde sent for food for everyone. He really should have done that too. It wasn’t just Isolde that needed to eat. He needed to keep his strength up too and he couldn’t let soldiers starve. Isolde didn’t know all the foods here to eat, but she didn’t totally blow her cover. She asked for all of Elan’s favorites to be brought in like people should know that. They did.
Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance Series Page 28