by Stacy Reid
His phantom arms dragged her atop his body. “They fear him.”
“Our history has taught us it is unwise to allow a ruler to reign with fear. Dxyriah has an army, why has the Senate not mobilized them if they fear Prince Quan?”
She felt the warrior in him turning over her words.
“He has the support of those in your Senate.”
“That is what I fear.”
“You are wise and intelligent, mate, they will see the wisdom of your words.”
Warmth burst inside her chest, and with a sigh, she snuggled even deeper into his arms, wishing she was in the Darkage with him.
“There is someone I’d like you to meet, Shilah.”
With a blink, they were within his halls. A young girl walked over to him, a hesitant aura about her, but her eyes shining with absolute faith and acceptance.
“She is over three hundred years,” he said with some amusement. “She denies the beast inside her and does not let it out. This is my sister, Nayia Ravenswood. I have hopes that you will meet and speak with her one day.”
Unable to speak, Shilah nodded, enthralled by the way he greeted his sister, the careful way he spoke and touched her.
“Does she live at your castle?”
“I have avoided her since I returned from Mevia. The malice is too much for her. I feared how she would react to me in such a state given our history with the beast.”
Shilah glanced up at him. “And now?”
“The more I’m connected with you, my mate, your light anchors the malevolence.”
Three little boys barreled around the corner, and with fierce roars, they rushed toward him.
“These are Nayia’s sons.”
Shadows darted from his feet, and grabbed them, hanging them in the air, upside down. They shrieked, loving it, and at that moment Shilah irrevocably lost her heart to Lachlan.
For once in her life, she was desperate to allow her heart to overrule her mind and logic. Needs long denied rolled over her like an ocean of fire. She saw it—the promise of a future with him, the man within the beast, the darkness, and the light. At this moment, Shilah wanted to belong to him as she’d never wanted anything in her entire existence.
22
A couple of days later, a shrill sound alerted her that a hovercraft approached the underground docking area. Kala glanced at her, her eyes deepening, and she peered into the future. “It is Rah and Megladine. They have news.”
At last. The inaction and lack of information had been driving her mad with frustration. She’d spent the previous six days locked away, not venturing out of the hovercraft despite Prince Novar’s numerous invitations. She’d read over the bloodlines laws until they’ve been interred in her mind, watched the city through the monitors, and re-watched the multitude of memory feed of her brother with his wife and children.
Those moments were the hardest, for it had been difficult to watch their happiness and recall how brutally their lives had been taken. The family hovercraft had malfunctioned in the sky, and before they had ejected from the ship, their vessel had crashed into the side of the mountains. It had been the investi’ator's believe their vessel had been hacked, their path redirected, but there had been no electronic footprint to follow. How quickly their hovercraft had crashed into the mountain, without their Prime Sentient Intelligence canceling the potential hack led Shilah to believe the attack had been made by an assassin with telekinetic or teleportation powers. There had been no virus redirecting their system and taking control of the ship’s mainframe, only raw, brutal power as they slammed the ship into the mountains.
Grey metallic cubes rippled in the air as Arrow used nanites to take a physical pixilated shape. He then spoke through the interactive construct of the vessel. “Baron Rah Blavenstoke and Megladine K’tair seek permission to dock.”
“Arm the high beams,” Kala said, moving over to the large windows of the ship, so she could keep the approaching craft in her line of sight.
Their hovercraft door slid open, and Rah and Megladine boarded. There was an air of satisfaction about them, and from the tender way Rah brushed against her, Shilah surmised they had been intimate. A profound ache filled her. Megladine had already been sterilized when her family had revealed an Alpha telekinesis genesis along with her foresight, but the law still prevented her from seeking a life partner. Despite her inability to produce children, Rah loved her with every breath in his body, and Megladine had the same love and respect for him. It was heart-breaking that they had to hide their relationship or face the full force of the bloodline bylaw. When she’d just discovered them in bed together, quite by accident, Rah had expected her to report them. She hadn’t, and Shilah knew he’d never understood why she did not.
It had been the first time she’d compromised her honor, but it had hurt something in her at the thoughts of Rah losing the woman he loved. It would have been a judgment of death for Megladine.
“The meeting has been convened, and we leave for the Senate now. It is not being broadcast for we do not wish to stir unrest within the kingdom until the best way forward to declare you both still live.”
Kala made her way over. “I’ve seen what will happen if our people know we are alive. They will march to the Senate doors, and there will be a riot and lives will be lost. I cannot see what inflames the riot, so it is best we make an announcement after we’ve removed Prince Quan from our kingdom.”
Megladine eyes swirled with power. “I do not glimpse the future you’ve seen, Princess Kala.” Then she cast her lover a sideways glance, and a radiant smile creased her lips. “But I do see a future our kingdom will celebrate in.”
Unease slid down Shilah’s spine. “And what future is that?”
Megladine shifted her regard to her. “I see no death of our people, and that is every reason to feel relief. For months my dreams have been haunted with darkness and despair. Now it isn’t so.”
The tension seeped from Shilah. “I will be ready within a few minutes.”
She made her way to her room and opened the glass partitions that housed her suits. It would not be the full regalia of what a princess should wear, but it would be enough to meet the Senate. There she dressed in a dark blue bodysuit, which fitted her body like a second skin. She grabbed her weapons belt and banded it about her waist and took up her high beam gun and slipped it in the holster belt. Then she tugged on the overdress, that was similarly molded to her upper body and down to her hips, then the skirts flowed to her ankles. Each side of the flowing material had thigh long slits, so she could easily access the blasters on her hips. Next golden armbands were secured to her upper and lower arms. Using her telekinesis, she brushed her hair until it rippled down her back in cackling energy, and then braided it in a single plait. Shilah then slipped on her boots, ensuring another high beam gun was secured in the holster on her boot.
And the entire time, she felt Lachlan Ravenswood in her mind, daring her to connect with him as she had done days ago. But Shilah had been strong and had denied the connection, but not strong enough where she hadn’t lain awake hungering to simple feel his warmth and scent around her.
Shilah exited to see that Kala was similarly dressed. Rah glanced at the blaster on her hips. “You know the Senate will oppose to you taking weapons into the chamber.”
“They can oppose all they wish. Prince Quan should not have been crowned, even if they had believed the Symonrah bloodline had ended. Another Prince from our Kingdom should have been called to serve. Quan flouted the law, and they allowed him to.”
He nodded, and they made their way from the vessel. Prince Novar and several supporters from the resistance waited. Prince Novar smiled at her, although there was no humor in his eyes. A pervasive tension entered the group, and they did not speak after greeting each other. Their party made twelve in total as they moved toward a large steel plated rover craft. A short, stocky man dressed in white waited by the rover. She glanced at Rah who flanked her left.
“Is that
man with us?”
“Yes. He is from O’andor. I’ve hired him to teleport us to the halls of the Senate. The less time we spend in the open, journeying there, the better.”
“And he is to be trusted?” she asked, even as she delved into his mind, reading his intention which resided in the wealth promised for the job, nothing more.
Rah’s gaze was restless, moving over the street, up into the buildings and along the ground. They stopped at the teleporter, and he glanced around furtively. Tension rose in Shilah and knotted her stomach. It was evident they anticipated Prince Quan uncovering the route they might travel to the Senate and execute a pre-emptive strike.
“Please, everyone hold hands.”
They complied, and then he touched Rah. A flash of light blinded Shilah, and then with a blink, they were in the building of the Senate. Her stomach roiled, and several of their party bent over heaving. The halls were quiet, and Shilah did not linger in the corridors but made her way to the chamber. Rah went before her and opened the door. She entered, and a hush descended over the gathering council.
All two hundred and eighty-five members of the Senate were seated, clothed in white robes. Shock blared from some of their auras, and relief from others. Prince Quan was there, seated on the high seat where the ruler of the kingdom should sit. His arrogance set her teeth on edge, and anger pounded through her veins.
“We will sit below the Prince,” Rah murmured.
“No,” Shilah snapped. “I will not recognize that he has a right to my throne when he does not.”
She made her way around the circular gallery, heading toward Prince Quan. His eyebrow arched in sharp inquiry, and a mocking smile curved his lips. All the princes, High Priestesses, and Barons of the Senate watched her. She could feel their eyes on her, feel their assessment of her actions.
She paused right before Prince Quan. His eyes too were like perfect diamonds—colorless, hard and sparkly, and ringed with black. He was an imperial in his genesis and very dangerous. He was also shockingly handsome with his jet-black hair, and chiseled cheekbones.
“You are in my chair, Prince Quan. Remove yourself.”
His gaze narrowed thoughtfully on hers. He was the kind of man to demand complete loyalty from his followers, and he got it through intimidation. No doubt he believed because she had fled, she was weak. “I am the Prince of this Kingdom, Princess Shilah and—”
“I am not certain if the laws of your lands are different to ours,” she said with a deliberately mocking smile, reminding him and the Senate he did not belong to their kingdom. Her chin went up. She refused to look away, holding her gaze steady on his. “I am Princess Shilah Symonrah, and you are on my seat. I will educate you today on the steps you can take to challenge my position, until that time you are only the ruling Prince of Arcadia and an interloper in Dxyriah. I am at a loss how the Senate did not correct your impudence when you planted your ass here.”
A choked laugh from Rah ended quickly, and several murmurs swept around the chambers like a wave.
“We were not sure you were really alive, Princess Shilah, the Senate meant no disrespect. Of course, we would not dream to recognize any claim made by Prince Quan if this council had irrevocable proof that the Symonrah bloodline lives,” High Priestess, Elizabeth G’undar said from the far left of the chamber.
Prince Quan’s expression of mild amusement did not change, but he flowed gracefully to his feet, and stepped away from the seat, lowering himself into a highchair on the next level of the chamber.
Shilah sat, and Kala took the seat to her left. Rah did not take his place but positioned himself above her, as if he was a bodyguard.
The high priestess continued, “The Senate has been called to assembly to answer the charge that Princess Shilah is not fit to rule the kingdom of Dyxriah. Prince Quan has put forth that the Symonrah line has—”
Shilah laughed, low and softly, but it was enough to arrest everyone attention on her. “That is not the agenda for this meeting, high priestess.”
There was a niggling sense of wrongness Shilah could not put her fingers on. Though the Prince and his supporters had willingly appeared before the Senate, something warned her that all was not as it seemed. But what? She couldn’t anticipate it. The Senate comprised all the ruling Princes, Princesses, the High Priestess and her chief acolytes, and the Barons who made and administered the laws of their kingdom. As a unified body through voting, they would be the ones to determine the fate of Prince Quan. If it was up to her, Shilah might have ordered immediate banishment to one of the exiled planets. In their kingdom when a peer of the realm committed a crime, they could only be judged by fellow peers in the Senate who would give them a chance to defend themselves.
She fully expected the judgment of exile, for the crimes he had committed against her family was one of the most heinous. Since the division of the three kingdoms more than two thousand years ago, there had been no fight by a usurper to oust a ruler from their throne. The laws of inheritance had been created, and he had broken seven tenets with his cruel actions. If only a penalty of death could be levied against a prince. Shilah stood. “Prince Quan tried to take over Dxyriah by circumventing the law. That is all that should matter today,” she said, holding the eyes of the Senate. “If Prince Quan wanted to challenge my rule, he should have shown his proof that I am an unfit ruler and a new head of the monarchy was needed, then demand a trial by combat if I refused. He did neither. He acted like a sniveling coward and took the lives of innocent people under my protection. I demand justice, and the Senate will render it today.”
She glanced around the Senate, assessing their reception to her impassioned plea. Rah nodded approvingly from where he stood, and Kala offered a smile of support. Shilah moved down a few steps toward the wide-open floor of the Senate. “Prince Quan orchestrated an attack on my coronation three months and eight days ago. He murdered fifty-eight of our people in his senseless quest. I am the witness to his atrocity, and my sister, Princess Kala is another witness. You will hear our testimony in full, of how he stormed the gates of our sacred temple with his bands of assassins, you will hear how he hunted my sister and me through the underground caves, and you will find him guilty.”
Prince Quan clapped mockingly, stood, and descended a few steps while looking across the Senate.
“The princess has tried to remind you that you are from Dxyriah and I am from Arcadia. The princess forgets we are all Serangites. We are one people, one race, who have been cruelly divided through the archaic bloodline laws. The Symonrah family proved they were not open to a different way of thinking for the inclusion of all Serangites.”
Several princes of the Senate nodded, glancing at each other, their expressions she did not understand. She inhaled, freezing as with her heightened senses she smelled a fragrance she could not identify. It tasted bitter.
Deceit.
The dark whisper deep inside felt as if it came from someone else. And she searched along the thread to find it quiet. It had been her newly enhanced senses at work alone. Her awareness seemed to sharpen with every breath she took, along with knowledge of each beating heart. Shilah studied the members of their Senate, trying to discern whose loyalty she might rely on. It was not logical to try and read their thoughts. That was an illegal act, and she was here defending the law which needed to be upheld.
The Prince’s voice rang with power and conviction as he snapped, “We’ve become cowards. Once we traveled the stars, our borders were opened for trading, slavers docked in our ports, and we sold the best of technologies throughout the galaxies. We had a prime fleet of ships, we conquered and had colonies off-planet. What do we have now? Nothing! We deceive ourselves that we are in the Golden Age. We are a weak planet that fears the powers we were given. With my rule, we will become all that we should be. We will be Serange, and no longer a three-monarch triumvirate! A Na’Vita is rising, and, where is she? Exiled from our planet by your brother, living a life of poverty and degradation as the pe
rsonal slave to the Titan King. Our people in exile are more powerful and revered than us, and this is palatable to you? To Dxyriah, to O’andor?”
“You are power hungry and delusional, Prince Quan,” Shilah snapped coldly. “We have laws that you’ve broken. You may have hidden your psychic print, but I know you murdered a ruling Prince of Dxyriah, my brother, and preen as if those cowardly actions have no consequences. As ruler of Arcadia, you are not exempt from Dyxriah’s justice. The last Na’Vita ruled with tyranny, and we have the unedited stream records of his senseless slaughter of over one hundred thousand of our people. Men, women, children who were innocent of any crimes. Our world had been lawless, working with slavers, and mercenaries from off planet as our Na’Vita king sought to consolidate more power. Is that the rule you would wish to return the three kingdoms of Serange to? Are you so misguided you cannot see the laws have given peace to our kingdoms and our lands have flourished? Instead of warring with other planets, the brightest minds turned to develop our world, and now we have medical units that can cure diseases, reverse the aging process of our people and regenerate body parts. We have buildings that rival the greatest architecture of the galaxies. Our people have thrived and evolved, and your self-serving ideology and ambitions will not take us back to the dark times!”
“Our people?” he murmured caustically, power humming through the air around him. “I’ve been tracking the exiles, they number in the thousands, Princess. And they wander aimlessly without a home, a planet to call their own, a people, a culture to connect with. Some are enslaved for their powers by other worlds, and they have no one to defend and liberate them for they have no people! That is what these bigoted laws have done to our people.”
“They were given a choice!” she snapped, glaring at Prince Quan. “They chose exile!”
“Not much of choice. A life without a family, without love. Is it different from an exile to another planet?”
