When they walked into the ballroom, Kendra was overwhelmed by the crowd. There were too many people milling around, talking in tight groups of rustling silk dresses and satin brocade suits. The smell was overpowering. Her nose wrinkled. A hundred different perfumes assaulted her at once, as well as the pungent smell of overheated bodies. No need to worry about being cold in here. Even with the windows thrown open, the room was still quite warm.
Tiran was right about her parents getting distracted. They were stopped almost at once by acquaintances, but Tiran took her cousin’s arm and tugged her forward into the crowd. They reached the front of the mingling crowd where they could see the dancers swirling in patterns across the dance floor.
The Blue Promenade, Kendra observed wistfully. Despite her resolution to put Bren out of her mind, he darted in again. She had danced (or not danced) the Blue Promenade with Bren at her first dance lesson. Her heart squeezed again. Stay out! she muttered.
You know I can’t, Dina said cheerfully.
You know I’m not talking to you, Kendra uttered darkly.
Talking to yourself is a sign of madness, Dina returned blithely.
A throat cleared behind her, and Kendra turned in surprise. A tall young Denicorizen man in a green brocade vest over billowing white satin sleeves smiled nervously at her.
“May I have this dance?” he said politely in heavily accented Basic. Kendra stood motionless for only a second. Then her manners automatically kicked in.
“I’d be delighted!” she agreed, offering him her hand. She glanced behind her and smiled at her cousin, who grinned back at her, before following the young man to the dance floor.
She never saw her cousin again.
14. Invaded
Before she even had the chance to thank her first partner for the dance, another young man was at her shoulder, requesting the following set. She’d danced with a third young man, and then a fourth, when she turned to find Bren standing behind her just as the set finished.
“May I have this dance?” he asked politely and correctly.
“Yes!” she exclaimed, giddy with joy that he had actually come. “I mean, I would be honored, thank you.” She held out her hand and he took it. They joined the queue of couples forming at the down end of the dance floor.
It’s about time that boy showed up. I thought he might, Dina said.
You kept saying he wasn’t going to change his mind!
“What made you change your mind?” she asked aloud.
“Mikal. I couldn’t get any straight answers about that thing he wanted me to go to tonight, and it was making me nervous. I needed an excuse to get out of it.”
“So you came to the most exclusive social event on the planet Corizen just so you could get out of spending the night with your roommate?” she asked with a snort.
He didn’t answer, instead leading her into position for the set. Kendra couldn’t help but glance down at her hand in his. We’re just friends, she reminded herself. Dina chuckled but didn’t say anything. They took their spots in the line, standing opposite each other an arm’s length apart.
“Well, and I also realized that I shouldn’t break a promise to a friend,” Bren said. Kendra’s eyes snapped back up to his face. He was staring down at her, his eyes almost uncomfortably intense. “I did say that I would come.” Then he smiled. “I didn’t promise to dance, though.”
“Then why did you ask me?”
“You’re so popular with the guys around here, I figured I wouldn’t get to talk to you any other way. You’re the most beautiful girl in the whole room tonight.”
Kendra’s heart stuttered as the musicians struck up the intro.
“But,” Bren added, “I’m going to have to stop talking now and pay attention, or I’m going to trip and bring us both down.” She laughed and held out both her hands just as the line started to move ahead of them. He took her hands in his and shuffled sideways after the other dancers.
At least he went the right direction, Dina said. Kendra didn’t care if Bren was staring at his feet and counting under his breath. She didn’t care about either time he stepped on her toes when it was time to turn. She was just so happy that he came.
With Bren concentrating so hard on the steps and Kendra blithely overlooking any little mistakes, half the set went by without any conversation or any disasters. Kendra had just decided it was time to see if she could get Bren to look at her face for a few minutes instead of their feet when Dina suddenly gasped.
No, no, no, she said, her voice rising with each word. She isn’t . . . she can’t . . . Then Kendra was swamped with a full-blown wave of panic. She stumbled, and Bren, completely caught off guard, stepped on her dress and jerked her forward. She plunged into a neighboring dancer, smacking her head against his elbow and sending him careening into his partner. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground along with two other grumbling guests, with Bren standing over them all. She blinked, still unsure of what exactly was happening. Her heart was racing and her palms were damp.
Suddenly her mind felt like it was invaded by a completely foreign presence. It didn’t speak—not in any words that she understood. But she recognized the emotion directed at her—it was pure malice.
Dina, she whimpered.
“Kendra!” A hand grasped her arm. “I’m so sorry! Are you OK?” She stared up at Bren blankly, still overwhelmed by the wave of psychic hatred battering at her mind. She was frozen, unable to act, unable to speak, unable to even feel Dina. It was if her very soul was being attacked by a force that wished to rip her from existence.
All of a sudden, it was gone. It was as if a thick concrete barrier had slammed down, shielding her mind from the hostile alien force. Kendra let out a shaky breath and realized that she was sitting in the middle of a very angry huddle. A woman was hurling insults at her while another dancer helped her to her feet, and a man was poking a finger into Bren’s chest and shouting something in Denicorizen that Kendra couldn’t understand. Bren was tugging at her arm, still trying to get a response out of her. She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her to her feet, trying to shield her from the angry man who quit jabbing his finger at Bren and now turned her direction. She shrank back from the circle of hostile eyes.
“Kendra?” a voice called from behind, and Kendra turned to see Aunt Andie pushing her way through a knot of guests who had crowded around to watch the altercation. The angry shouting man turned his venom on her aunt, who responded calmly in Denicorizen.
The music ended, and the disrupted line of dancers started to disperse. Aunt Andie continued to speak pleasantly to the offended couple, and Kendra was still so muddled from the invasion of her mind that she couldn’t understand a single word. Bren tugged her away from the dance floor, where a new group of dancers was starting to form into position.
“Are you all right?” Bren asked when they reached the edge of the dance floor.
“I—I think so,” she said.
Dina?
There was no answer. No emotions from Dina either. It was as if the barrier shielding her from the mental attack was keeping Dina out as well. Kendra bit her lip. Did she dare try to pull the barrier down herself? Had Dina put it up to protect her?
“I am the biggest fool alive,” Bren said, rubbing one cheek. “I don’t know what made me think I could dance tonight.” He stared at the ground miserably.
“That wasn’t your fault!” Kendra hastened to reassure him. “It was mine. You were doing great!” She looked back at the dance floor. Her aunt was still talking to the other dancers who had been knocked down, though they didn’t look angry anymore. The man was even smiling at whatever her aunt was saying. The musicians started playing the intro for the next set, and Kendra vaguely recognized the strains of a Denicorizen waltz.
“We can try again,” she said, smiling hopefully at him. “The waltz is the easiest dance of all.”
“I don’t think so.” Bren scuffed a shoe against the floor. “This was a mistake. I should have stayed home.”
“Bren, who cares if you’re clumsy?”
His cheeks flushed scarlet. “See, even you admit it. I’m a giant, clumsy oaf.”
“No, you’re not, that’s not what I meant . . .”
“Kendra!” a voice called behind her. She glanced behind to see her aunt making her way toward them again.
“Thank you for the dance, Miss Forrest,” Bren said formally, and then he turned and strode back along the edge of the dance floor. She started after him, but her aunt’s voice reached her again.
“Kendra, what happened back there?”
She threw one last longing glance after Bren’s quickly retreating form and then turned to her aunt. “I tripped, and it caused a chain reaction, I think,” she said.
Aunt Andie shook her head. “Representative Endev is a pompous prig.” She took Kendra’s arm and started guiding her the opposite direction from where Bren had gone. “I think I persuaded him not to declare a blood feud,” she chuckled. “Just figures that you would knock him down when he was dancing with the most famous actress in all of Roma. He may never forgive our family the fatal insult to his dignity.”
“Where are we going?” Kendra was still craning her head backward, trying to figure out where Bren had gone. He wasn’t leaving for the night, was he?
“The cloakroom,” her aunt said, maneuvering her deftly around a group of loudly laughing Denicorizen men holding drinks. “Somehow you tore your dress during that little fracas.” Kendra looked down and to her dismay saw that the skirt had torn free from her bodice right in front, leaving a gaping hole.
“It must have happened when Bren stepped on my dress,” she realized.
They reached the ladies’ cloakroom, and the attendant studied the rip. She waved Kendra forward and started rummaging in the drawer of a small worktable. She held up two different spools of blue thread to the fabric, then chose the one the matched the closest and quickly threaded a needle.
“No worries, see?” Aunt Andie said, dropping onto one of the chairs and rubbing her foot. “They’re prepared for this kind of stuff.”
While the attendant deftly stitched up the tear, Kendra searched for Dina again. There was still no response, and Kendra couldn’t sense any emotions from her either. But she could get enough of a read to tell that it was the mental barrier dividing them. She was certain that if she wanted to she could bring it down, but what would she find if she did?
What had been that oppressive malevolent force?
Was it possible that it had been Dina’s twinspark?
She swallowed nervously. It was too terrible to contemplate.
“There,” the attendant said in Denicorizen. “Not perfect, but good enough for tonight.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure,” the attendant responded.
Did you hear that, Dina? I just understood everything she said! Kendra crowed, before she remembered that Dina still wasn’t listening.
Was this what it was like to be normal? Kendra bit her lip again. Normal wasn’t all that great after all.
♦
Back in the ballroom they found that the music had ended, and the new Denicorizen president was giving some kind of a speech. Aunt Andie spotted Uncle Casey pretty quickly and led Kendra through the other guests until they reached his side. The speech went on and on, and Kendra understood very little of it. All her triumph at understanding the cloakroom attendant evaporated. The president might as well have been speaking in gibberish. She swallowed her impatience, trying to pay attention to the words anyway.
Aunt Andie leaned over and whispered into her ear. “Where in the world is Tiran?”
Kendra glanced around the crowd. Her cousin was nowhere to be seen. She was probably off somewhere with Markus, staying out of view of her parents. Kendra shrugged, trying to sound perfectly casual. “I’m sure she’s around. We got separated during the dances.” She fixed her eyes on the president, worried that her aunt would see the guilty evasion plastered across her face. No way was she going to betray her cousin now. Tiran would never speak to her again.
Her aunt turned to her uncle, and Kendra heard her quietly say that she was going to look for Tiran. Her uncle was clearly irritated.
“Now?” he whispered back. “It’ll look terrible if you walk out on the president’s first speech.”
“I don’t care,” her aunt shot back, though she kept her voice low. She turned and slipped back into the crowd. Kendra watched her go and bit her lip again.
Dina, I think we have a problem. Tiran is so busted if her mom finds her.
There was no answer, and the president’s speech continued on, his voice buzzing around meaninglessly in her skull. She finally gave up trying to understand and started searching the crowd for Bren or Tiran. She didn’t see either, so she tried to count the Citizens she could see in the crowd. She’d reached fifteen and was idly trying to guess which planets each might be from when suddenly, the mental barrier vanished. Dina was there, filling her mind, her emotions swelling through Kendra. She was terribly anxious, and worse, furious in a way that Kendra had never felt before.
Don’t leave this room! Dina ordered sternly. I’m fine, but I’m going to block you again. No matter what happens, don’t bring it down. I’ll do it myself when it’s safe.
But what . . . ?
Promise me, Kendra!
OK, I promise, she said meekly. Then Dina vanished, and the barrier was in place again.
She studied the ballroom, wondering what was happening and why Dina wanted her to stay in the room. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong at all.
One minute later, sirens blared from outside the ballroom, and panic erupted all around her.
15. In the Palace Gardens
When he left Kendra in the ballroom, Bren fully intended to leave the ball and head straight back to the International Complex. He was absolutely furious with himself. He had humiliated himself, and worse, he had humiliated Kendra, making her the center of angry accusations. Why had he risked dancing with her? He was terrible at it, and considering how accident prone he was, it was inevitable that he would screw it up.
However, by the time he had made his way into the entrance hall and stomped down the front steps of the palace, his anxiety and shame started to ebb. He slowed and then abandoned the walkway that led to the gate, choosing instead to wander down one of the raked gravel pathways through the gardens. He couldn’t leave yet. Not without speaking to Kendra again. That would defeat the whole point of showing up here. Maybe if he just walked around the grounds for a few minutes he could gather enough courage to go back inside. There were quite a few guards stationed around, but they just nodded at him when he passed, so obviously guests were allowed on the grounds. Eventually he even saw a couple of other guests strolling among the flowering shrubs. Maybe he should have asked Kendra to walk outside on the grounds with him. It would have been safer than dancing.
He frowned as he tugged at a loose thread on the cuff of his long-sleeved dress shirt. Why did he always do the wrong thing with Kendra? She was figuratively the one bright star in his life—and though she seemed willing to forgive him over and over, he blundered so often that it was as if a part of him wanted to chase her away. The part of him that listened to his father. He could still hear his father’s voice in his head.
“Your time on Corizen is valuable. I expect you to make as many connections as possible with the Denicorizens of high birth. Any Terrans you may meet are acceptable. Do not waste your energy on those who will not be in a position to further Krati’s interests.”
He knew his father would be furious if he knew that the only person Bren cared to spend time with on Corizen was a girl from Zenith.
Abruptly his path ended, and he f
ound himself at a fountain. It was a large basin made out of white stone with jets of water shooting out from the edge. They were lit up with different colored lights—something he’d never seen on Krati. Of course, he’d never seen an outdoor fountain on Krati of any type. He was staring at it thoughtfully, wondering if it would be possible to install such a thing in the Governor’s Garden back home, when a scuffling noise in the bushes attracted his attention. He moved around the fountain, trying to get a better view. Was it an animal? It sounded too big to be a rodent. Maybe some guests taking advantage of the bushes for a tryst? Some people enjoyed the extra risk of public places. But still . . . his nerves hummed. There was something wrong. He glanced around, but the light from the globed stakes lining the pathway didn’t reach very far. The gardens were too dark to make out much. There were at least three Palace Guards in sight on the pathways, though none were close, and they didn’t look alarmed. Was it nothing more than an overactive imagination? As he moved to the far edge of the fountain he could see a pathway leading to a gazebo. Beyond the gazebo another path led to an open gateway in the towering fence. A whole brace of guards were stationed at the gate; Bren could just make out a couple walking up to them, presumably escaping the ball early like he had wanted to.
Suddenly, he heard a hoarse scream erupt from the bushes to his left.
“Tiran! No! Tiran, come back!”
Bren spun, spotting two struggling figures. He darted toward them just as he heard the whining screech of a laser discharge. “Guards! Help!” he shouted, pushing his way through the bushes. “Someone, help!”
He stumbled right into a man wearing a Palace Guard uniform pointing a laser at a woman already crumpled on the ground. Bren didn’t think, he just rushed forward and barreled right into the man, knocking him to the ground. The laser flew from the guard’s hand, but he rolled from under Bren and sprang back to his feet before Bren was even able to get to his knees. The guard lashed out, viciously kicking Bren in the side and knocking him over. Adrenaline jolted through Bren’s bloodstream; he shoved himself upright just in time to see the guard lunge at him with a knife. The guard was laughing madly, his eyes wild with manic glee. He slashed through Bren’s shirt, slicing into his chest, and Bren stumbled, landing backward with a jarring jolt. The insane guard then turned back to the woman, who was lying motionless in the dirt. Bren tried to push himself back to his feet, and his hand landed on a sharp cold lump of a rock. He fumbled it up into his hand, trying to get a good grip. The guard dropped to his knees before the woman, raising his knife above his head.
The Search for Ulyssa Page 17