by Tammy Walsh
Why did he let me fall in love with him?
I dumped myself on the bed and cried openly into my hands.
It was the shock more than anything. It was an absolute and total surprise.
Did I still love him?
Yes. The truth of who he was didn’t alter that.
Then what was I going to do about this?
How was I going to react to my boyfriend being the freaking emperor of the entire Titan empire?
The most powerful figure in the entire galaxy?
Just putting it like that tore a laugh from my throat, fringed heavily with madness.
And yes, perhaps maybe I had gone a little bit insane.
Had I imagined what I’d seen in the great hall?
Had that scene really happened?
Had I lost my mind somewhere in the forest?
With the rollercoaster of terror and excitement, it was only a natural reaction.
That was it, I decided. I had lost my mind.
Fiath wasn’t the Titan emperor.
He couldn’t be.
The door hissed open and revealed Fiath.
Behind him were his Titan chieftains. They thumped a fist to their chests and left.
Fiath entered the room and the door slid shut behind him.
Suddenly, the room felt tiny.
There was no escape. Nowhere for me to run.
Fiath strode toward me. He immediately fell to his knees before me.
The emperor of the freakin’ Titan empire had fallen to his knees in front of me!
He took my hands in his and kissed them.
“I’m sorry you discovered the truth this way,” he said. “It was not my intention to shock you.”
“So, it’s true?” I gasped. “You are him. The emperor?”
“I am.”
The world twisted again and I felt a little dizzy.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I said in a voice much softer than I intended.
“Would it have helped?” he said. “An emperor is nothing without his empire. It couldn’t have helped us but it could have hindered us. It could have made us much bigger targets. The Changelings would never stop hunting me down. They want me killed and they almost succeeded.”
“What does that make me? Am I your concubine?”
Fiath smiled and kissed my lips again.
“It makes you the woman I love,” he said.
“Is there anything else you want to tell me? I said. “Any other little secrets?”
“None. Except for the fact I’m head over heels in love with you.”
Okay, so that made me smile.
He reached up and kissed me on my cheek.
“What happens now?” I said.
“First, they want to give me better rooms to live in,” he said.
“Well, that’s a nice perk.”
“We won’t be here for long. We have to plan our attack. When we do, we’ll wipe the Changelings off the face of this planet and a thousand others before the week is out.”
Wow. It was pretty hot to be dating someone so powerful.
He drew me to my feet and we embraced. Then I wagged a finger at him.
“Don’t think I’m going to fall to my knees every time you come into the room.”
I gave him a wink.
“Except when I want to,” I said.
He hugged me again.
I was now dating an emperor.
This was sure going to make buying gifts difficult.
Fiath
I marched down the long winding tunnels toward the war room. Today, we would be making plans for how we would strike back at the Changelings on this planet.
Titans going about their business stopped in their tracks and immediately dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves, taking up too much space and making it difficult to step past them.
I would have to speak with the chieftains about encouraging the Titans not to bow to me. Not when we were preparing for war.
My life had returned to normal. It both made me happy, as it was a return to what I was used to, and sad at the same time.
The difference was Hazel by my side.
I meant what I asked her the previous day in the great hall before I revealed myself. If she wanted to leave right then and there, I would never have looked back. I would have taken her to the farthest reaches of the galaxy where no Titan lived.
We could have lived out our lives anonymously. I was already dead in the minds of every Titan. What difference did it matter?
All I needed was her.
Instead, she had chosen another route. For us to make a stand and fight our conquerors. The best way for me to do that was to reveal who I was and become the beacon I was born to be.
My honor guard consisted of the strongest, most well-trained Titans of each clan.
I would have much preferred a group of friends who’d fought side-by-side with each other through many battles. They would fight not just to protect me, but each other.
It was a stark reminder that they did not answer me. They answered to their chieftains. I wondered what they would tell their leaders. Would they act as spies? Would they do what was best for the empire? Or for themselves?
I had already witnessed several angry glances between my honor guard members. The only thing keeping them from attacking each other was the dishonor they would bring to their tribe if they acted on their baser instincts.
Why could they not get it into their thick skulls? We were not going to survive if we failed to work together.
We approached a door built into the solid flint of the mountain. A member of my guard took position on either side of the war room door.
Inside, the other two soldiers took position inside the room.
And I thought about Garrick, the chief of the emperor’s guard in the palace. He might just be the only honest member of the upper echelons of power in the palace.
Had Garrick known about chief advisor Slak?
I shook my head. Easier to believe the Sun would stop shining, the planets stop revolving. He was a man of duty and honor. It was more likely my own arm would turn against me than him.
I entered the war room. The four chieftains immediately stopped bickering and dropped to their knees in supplication.
“Rise,” I said. “In fact, I don’t want you or anyone else to bow to me in the Fallen Temple. We have work to do and we can’t afford to waste it with idle tradition.”
“But sir,” A’nshon said, his eye scar puckering with concern. “It’s an honorable gesture—”
“I know it is,” I said. “But it’s unnecessary. We’re Titans, aren’t we? We should focus on fighting the Changelings.”
I could see the counter arguments on their minds but none of them dared voice them.
Yet another tradition.
No one could argue or disagree with the emperor.
His words were gospel and never, ever wrong.
Except to Hazel.
To her, my words were often wrong. My lips quirked into a smile.
Sensing I was in a good mood, Nus stepped forward.
“Sir, if I may,” she said. “The people need you to be the emperor. They look up to you. They need a symbol of hope to believe in. You’re the best of us. If we take traditions away from them, you become less… important. We need you as the powerful symbol you are. To lead us. It might frustrate you, but it might be bearable if it leads to us winning the battle, don’t you think?”
She bowed once more for emphasis.
I couldn’t help but smile. Nus was the female Titan chief of the smallest local Titan clan. One of the other clans should have conquered them years ago but they had avoided that fate with cunning and deception. It was perhaps no surprise she was the one to come up with this idea.
“Very well, Nus,” I said. “We’ll keep the traditions, so long as they aid our goals. We don’t have much time, so if we’re going to come up with battle plan ideas, we need to be able to criticize e
ach other without causing a fight inside our own ranks. Understood?”
The chieftains eyed each other uncertainly before nodding their acceptance. I was an idiot if I thought just because they agreed that there would be no other issues.
Besides, this wasn’t the first time an emperor encouraged fair discussion of ideas. The emperor heard what his allies had to say and then had many of them executed because they criticized him.
But I was not my great great grandfather.
I was me.
On the large table was a to-scale model of the local area. The local towns were mapped out in detail, along with sprawling forests and deep valleys. The palace—my palace—was perched on a hilltop, overlooking the nearest town, Okem.
“So, what do we know?” I said.
“Very little, unfortunately,” A’nshon said. “The few reports we’ve received come from traders. They report the Changeling army keeps an iron fist around the town of Okem and the majority of their best forces are in the palace.”
“Who’s in charge?” I said.
The chieftains exchanged a look. None of them wanted to pass on the information.
“Chief adviser Slak,” M’rar Thres said, his armor bright and shimmering. “The rumor is he’s working in alliance with the Changelings. He’s overseen by Changeling officers but they’re only there to support him. He knows the area, town, and locals better than the Changelings ever will. He’s likely the one responsible for the attack on your life, Sire.”
It was as I had suspected. Slak was the member who could most effectively control the information I received about the Changelings’ aggressive behavior toward our people.
He was also the only person who could have made decisions in my stead and handed me the paperwork to sign.
I was his puppet.
I buried the anger deep down and focused on the model before us.
“Strategy plans?” I said. “How do we take back the palace and Okem?”
“We hit them with a head-on attack,” Qi said with a growl. “It will be a glorious death.”
“How about something with a little less ‘glory’?” I said. “I almost died for no good reason and I have no intention of doing it again.”
Qi blinked, awakening from his daydream of martyrdom.
“The weapons cache is in the palace,” A’nshon said. “If we can get inside, we can take it and use it to mount an effective attack on the defense systems. Then we can take them down and take the town. We’ll never overpower the Changelings otherwise.”
“Slip inside like a common thief?” Qi said with a sneer. “I expect such a cowardly plan from M’rar Thres but from you, A’nshon? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
A’nshon’s eye glinted menacingly.
“The only shame is in using a strategy that would hand us over to the Changelings so easily,” he said. “Tell me, Qi, which side are you really fighting for?”
“Why, you…”
Qi scooped up the blade at his hip and closed on A’nshon, who did not move to defend himself.
“Qi!” I said, voice booming even in the broad space. “You will remove your weapons and hand them to the guards now!”
Qi opened his mouth to argue before recalling who he was addressing.
“Yes, your majesty,” he said without a hint of malice.
He moved to the two honor guard members inside the room. One belonged to Qi’s tribe, the other to M’rar Thres. If he needed his weapons, there was no doubt in my mind the guard would obey his chief before he did his emperor.
“Hand the weapons to M’rar Thres’ warrior,” I said.
Qi glared at me before muttering under his breath and doing as I asked. Then he marched back to the table. I didn’t like the way Qi’s warrior eyed his chieftain’s weapons now in his enemy’s possession, so I issued another order.
“Stand guard outside,” I said.
The warrior seemed put out. He glanced at Qi, who nodded, before saluting and heading outside. Nus’s warrior entered and took position beside M’rar Thres’s.
I massaged my temples, already feeling a headache coming on.
“So,” I said, “as the plan currently stands, we sneak inside the palace, access the weapons, and use them to power down the defense systems.”
“How do we get past the Changeling army?” Nus said. “There are thousands of them. We would all die before we even reached the palace walls. Especially with the defense turrets firing on us.”
“There are a number of secret entrances into the palace,” I said. “We can use those.”
“There are secret tunnels?” M’rar Thres said. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve used them many times over the years,” I said. “I could find them with my eyes closed.”
Qi snorted, folded his arms, and looked away. Lurking in the shadows wasn’t his idea of a master plan.
“To do that, we’ll need to draw the Changelings out,” Nus said. “Create a distraction. So, we’ll need a head-on attack elsewhere. Maybe over here, in Klout Valley. What do you think, Qi?”
At first, he refused to be a part of the discussion. Then he glanced at the spot Nus was pointing at and snorted in derision.
“You think that’s a good spot to fight a large force?” he said.
“Tell me where is better,” Nus said, maintaining her calm.
Qi pursed his lips and stabbed a finger on the opposite side of the valley.
“It’s narrowed and the Changeling numbers will count for less in there,” he said. “It would be hard for them to sweep in behind us and the hilltops will allow us to engage their shuttlecraft with our spears.”
“Then that’s where it’ll be,” I said.
Qi loosened up after that, now that he was a part of the team. Honestly, sometimes it was like trying to corral children.
“How many men would you need in that pass?” I said.
We went around and around, exploring every nook and cranny of the map. Once the others forgot their titles and rank and the feuds that’d existed for millennia, they got on very well. It was interesting to see how differently each chieftain led their people into battle.
Eventually, we were decided. We would have a full-frontal attack and engage the enemy. A smaller team would head into the palace and take out the defensive turrets. Then, a smaller army would flank the Changelings and prevent them from escaping. We all agreed that once they were free, the Titan civilians would pick up arms and join us in battle.
As I left the war room, my honor guard followed me out. It’d been a long four hours, but fruitful. We had a battle plan and we would attack in the early hours of the morning. There was no time to lose.
Now, I went to visit the one person I cared most about in the whole world.
After tomorrow, I might never see her again.
I entered our new apartment. It was at least five times larger than our previous one. My honor guard followed me in. I told them to wait outside. They bowed and left.
“Bowing guards,” Hazel said, shaking her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
She was bent over the dining table, pouring something from a pot into a bowl.
It looked too heavy for her. I rushed over to take it from her. She let me, before turning back to the cooker and retrieving something from the oven.
“You’ve been cooking?” I said.
She dumped a tray of bread on the tabletop. It smelled sweet and delicious.
“I figured I ought to do something useful while I’m here,” she said. “How did the battle plans go?”
“Fine. We came up with the final plans. We’ll attack tomorrow.”
Hazel nodded and removed the lid from another pot. Steam billowed from it. I could smell its contents from across the room.
“Is this Earth food?” I said.
“It’s called a roast. It’s a pretty big meal.”
There was a large roasted pluarch, slices of hexadodron meat, a pot full of steamed vegetables, and so
me sort of brown sauce.
It looked delicious and my mouth was already salivating.
“The ingredients are a little different from what I’m used to,” Hazel said. “Hopefully it won’t taste too bad.”
“If it tastes half as good as it smells, it’ll be great.”
“Go get washed up. Then we can eat.”
I did as she asked and returned to the dining table.
“Would you like something to drink?” I said.
“What do we have?” she said.
“Pretty much anything you could want. Wine?”
She nodded. I brought over a bottle of red and poured two glasses. She sipped on it and smacked her lips.
“It’s good,” she said.
We sat down to eat.
Was this what living with her would be like? I wondered. Ordinarily, my cooks made my meals for me. I couldn’t cook at all. I wondered how my cooking staff would feel about having Hazel working alongside them.
Knowing Chef, he wouldn’t take it too kindly.
Chef.
His helpers.
The guardsmen.
They were the closest thing I had to friends.
Who was I kidding?
They were my friends.
I tasted every ingredient before I settled down to stuff myself with my favorites.
In the morning, the battle would begin. I wouldn’t eat anything for breakfast. It was always better to fight on an empty stomach. Especially when chances were good you wouldn’t survive. Being hungry put your instincts on high alert.
“Make sure to save some space,” Hazel said. “I made apple strudel and custard.”
Now she tells me.
I chuckled. I wasn’t sure my stomach could take it.
Hazel said, “I thought it was a good idea for you to have a nice meal before…”
She let the sentence hang. She didn’t like the idea of me heading off to battle.
I reached across the table and held her hand. Her face was fraught with frown lines.
“Everything will be all right,” I said.
“I hope so,” she said. “I only just met you. I don’t intend on letting you go just yet.”
“And you won’t.”
“I wanted to speak to you about tomorrow.”
Aha. So here was the real reason for the meal.