by test
“Evidently, where I belong has become blurred in my mind. I had a visit from your mother … she gave me quite a swaying argument. She made you seem like my white knight, and I don’t really think that I disagree with her. Nonetheless, I don’t want this war between Earth and your Empire. The problem is, there seems to be no other recourse does there? I mean, they’re coming to attack you. You must be ready and able to defend what is yours. I understand that all too well. I failed my uncle.”
“No. You didn’t fail your uncle. He probably believed he failed you. He was put into prison not just because he had debts he needed to pay to your government, but because he was ....”
“Let me guess, he was working for you.”
She didn’t need him to confirm her suspicion as always his eyes told her the truth.
They were so expressive, she could read him like a book.
“So many secrets. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He probably didn’t want to get you implicated. I’m sure you were being watched
… the government was probably just itching for you to put one foot out of line.”
“This is so bloody complicated. Aries, is there anything else you aren’t telling me that I should know? You should have told me from the get go about my uncle. I deserved to know.”
“I told your uncle that we would take care of you in the event that something unfortunate happened to him.”
“Why didn’t you just sneak into his prison and break him out? You have all of this power at your fingertips, and yet, my uncle is still six feet under!”
“I did send an agent in to retrieve him. They had almost made it out when their escape was discovered. They were shot on site.”
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“No.”
She bit down so hard on her lip that she drew blood.
“I’m sorry, Freya. If I could, I would turn back time and fix everything.”
“Well, even your great civilization isn’t that powerful.”
His eyes flickered, and then the slight glimmer of indecision faded. “You still need to conserve your strength.”
“Come here.” She winced at the commanding tone in her voice. “I’d really appreciate it if you would come and help me, I need to stretch my legs, they’re aching something fierce.”
He walked toward her. She tried to forget that he was making her burn up on the inside. Like he just said, she had to conserve her strength. And, right now, she was in no state to start thinking about going back to bed with Aries.
“Getting back to my mother … I didn’t know she was going to slip into the room when I opened the door to go to the war meeting. I didn’t want you to be surprised by her. But it’s true, I did ask her to watch over you when you were sleeping.”
“Sleeping, I was in a form of a coma.”
“I’ve never had anything scare me in my lifetime, but the thought of finding you only to lose you, truly did scare the hell out of me.”
“I believe you.” He stood a hairsbreadth away from her. She reached up and took the arm he offered her. She looked down at the silvery blue nightgown she wore. It glittered in the light of the bedroom. It was cut down low and when she stood in the room leaning heavily on his arm, she felt a chill go right up and back down her spine.
Still leaning on his arm, she turned around and rested her eyes on the wardrobe by the bed. “There wouldn’t happen to be something warm in there would there? I’m suddenly feeling the cold.”
Her head ached, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. He walked her toward the ornate wardrobe. “I asked for it to be outfitted for your every need. There’s another large room through that door that is stuffed full of clothes for you.”
“A whole room?”
“Several rooms if you desire them.”
“I’ve walked into a fairytale. I lived in a cupboard back on Earth compared to the size of this place.”
“Palace.” He corrected.
She snorted. “This is almost too good to be true. I’d ask you to pinch me if I didn’t already have this injury on my head, to tell me that I’m really in the here and now.”
“Is it still giving you grief? I should have the doctors come and treat you now that you able to talk to them and tell them how you feel.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve had much, much worse. And I have a feeling that your painkillers don’t exactly have the same effect on me that our Earth medicine does.”
“I should have consulted the other Earth women on that. I’m sorry. I’ve been rather single-minded. I couldn’t even allow Talia in here to see you.”
“Why not? She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”
“I never know who to trust anymore.” He looked away from her.
“What do you mean? What’s happened?”
He patted her hand gently. “No matter, you needn’t fret over anything. It’s all Doorway to the Stars by Marly Mathews 53
being taken of.”
“No. I want to know. What has happened?” Her heartbeat quickened. Something was up, he had that look in his eyes.
“I wouldn’t think that Mathias would like you doubting Talia’s honor.”
“I wouldn’t be so certain of that, Freya. Mathias is dead.”
“Dead?” Her hand shook.
“Murdered by Talia’s own hand.”
Her legs went to jelly again. She would have fallen to the floor if she hadn’t been holding onto him. He pulled her back up, and before she could protest he’d swept her up into his arms. “Impossible.” She gasped. Her head swirled.
“No. Quite possible. She killed him. We have it on our holographic recordings.”
“No. She loved him.”
“She never loved him. She was only biding her time to take her revenge against him. She hates Gaians. She wanted to be wanted by them so she could kill one and hopefully get to me. She was an agent for your government.”
“You see … when I asked you earlier if there was more secrets I needed to know, that falls into that category. I needed to know about that. I can’t believe you, Talia has always been such a faithful friend to me.”
“For being such a faithful friend, she was the one that contacted the bounty hunter and told him where to find you. She was the reason we were attacked.”
“Why? She was on my side during the war ….” Her voice trailed off as full recognition hit home. The sour sensation in the pit of her stomach intensified. It all made sense now. She now knew why they had lost so many key battles during the war. They had been fully infiltrated by the enemy. There was no telling how many of her so-called war buddies had actually been working for the other side.
“What do you do when everything you used to know to be true turns out to be a lie?”
“Not all of your life has been a lie. Your uncle did love you. He never would have done anything to betray you. Talia had the chance to kill you, herself. It would have been a great blow for our side, she knew how attached you and I had become, and yet, she never did betray you in that way. I think she knew we would be able to finish off your bounty hunter … but then, temptation overcame her when she killed Mathias. She told me she didn’t want him to touch her ever again, even though she was the one that had initially seduced Mathias. Mathias wasn’t the sort to take her without her consent.”
“How do you know? I didn’t even know Talia, and I thought I did. How do you know that Mathias was completely innocent?”
“Mathias was my cousin. I feel quite certain that I knew him far better than you knew your Talia.”
“That’s why your mother told me I was capable of deception but not murder. It didn’t make sense to me at the time. Now it does.” She sighed. “What about the child she was carrying?”
“What child? There is no child. Talia was taking a form of birth control that was untraceable. She only admitted it when she realized she’d been caught and she had no way out.”
“Something isn’t adding up … there’s something r
otten in Denmark. I can just feel it. Where is she now?”
Doorway to the Stars by Marly Mathews 54
“She is awaiting her trial, though I feel quite certain she will be sentenced to death.”
“Send her home. Put a tracker on her and send her home.”
“No. She has murdered a member of the Gaian Royal Family. I will not allow her to escape the hand of the law. Justice will be served.”
“Do you want to portray her as a martyr for the enemy? Send her back, put a tracker on her, and when the fighting comes to our borders, you will know which ship she is on and you will be able to destroy that ship.”
“You make an interesting point. We could use her to ascertain the ships shield capabilities and weapon functions. Our Intelligence we’ve gathered has been sketchy in the ways of how well equipped the new Earth space battleships are. This might give us the upper hand we could use.”
“Exactly. I’m not so stupid when it comes to this war thing as you thought I was.
Now I know why we lost. The great battle strategies our side had could do nothing once our moles ferreted back our weaknesses. I won’t forgive her for that. I lost a lot of good friends during the war. I lost my heart during the war. She’ll pay for that.”
“Your heart?” His eyes darkened.
“Yes. My heart. I lost my first love in the war. I lost the man I was going to marry.”
“Did you? I’m sorry.”
She laughed. “In a way, Talia helped you. Her actions inadvertently killed the man I loved so you could kidnap me and make me your wife. Had those events not occurred, I would be married, and it wouldn’t be to you.”
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Chapter Ten
“I am amazed at your ability to wound me time and time again.” He perused her face, looking for some form of regret in her eyes. He could find none, and it disappointed him further. He did love her. He didn’t know how many times he would have to continue trying to convince her of that but he would not give up or give in.
“I only speak the truth. I didn’t mean to maliciously cause you grief.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” His voice sounded hollow to his ears. He couldn’t stay long with her, he had more war planning to do. Earth had turned out to be a remarkably cunning adversary. He had believed himself to have the element of surprise, and now they had taken that power away from him.
“I’m hungry.” Her admission was a soft whisper on her lips.
“As am I. We should retire to the dining hall for our meal. I have instructed the servants to make up a meal that is palatable to your Terran tastes.”
“Wonderful. As long as I can keep it down with the way my stomach is rolling.”
“I think you’ll find it will settle on your stomach. I’ve instructed them to keep the menu bland and light.” The room was beginning to become claustrophobic to him. He needed to get out and get some fresh air. No matter how hard he tried to give her everything she could ever want, she still found a way to push him away. He would have to continue pushing back, hoping that eventually she would let her guard down and allow him into her heart. She had to know that he wasn’t going to let her go. He’d come too far to backtrack now.
“Bread and water then?” He knew from the sound of her voice that she was in jest, yet her barb still hit a raw nerve.
“I keep telling you that you are no prisoner.”
“I know. And I appreciate you telling me that even if I can’t quite believe it.”
“Perhaps my mother was wrong when she told you that you weren’t able to kill me. Should I be worried? Do I need to watch my back when you’re in the room?”
“I would never kill you like that. I like my opponents to have a fair fight. Killing in cold blood has never been in my nature.”
“It hasn’t?”
“Do I look like a murderer to you?”
“You look a pretty sad sight to me right now. You’re paler than I’ve seen you, and your eyes are fairly dull. You’re in no shape to give me a fight, and I’m in no mood for one, come to think of it. I do not want you to hate me, nor do I want you to feel uncomfortable around me. I want the air to be clean between us.”
“You should have thought of that when you kept those secrets about my uncle and Talia from me. Now that we’re back on that subject, I want to see Talia before you make your final judgment on her.”
“You want me to send her back to Earth, so I will.”
“You relent too easily, Aries. You want her blood, I know it. And if Mathias was a member of the Royal House as you say, then others shall want her blood as well. I don’t want your people to be enraged with you because you set her free.”
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“They won’t. They never question my decisions. They will know that I’ve set her free for a reason, even if she doesn’t suspect.”
“That’s the problem. She might suspect. You’ll have to listen to my counsel on this. I say you give her a drink with a biological tracker in it, then, let her think her craftiness has ensured her escape. She’ll go for it. She always has had an arrogant streak in her. Why do you think she probably volunteered for this job?”
“Mathias selected her as his wife.”
“Did he really? How sure are you of that? Did he pick her out like you picked me? Because your little fiasco really was a bolt out of the blue for me, I never saw you coming. Talia on the other hand ….”
“I’ll have to make some inquiries.”
“Do that. I could probably get the information you need, if my head didn’t currently feel as if it was going to split in half.”
“You’ll feel better soon.”
“I’ve always been a slow healer. I think it will surprise you how slowly I heal.
There wouldn’t be any possibility of you getting your hands on some Earth medicine would there? I don’t know how much longer I can go taking your stuff. I feel like I’m looped out.”
“I’ll see what I can do. We’ll have to have access to Earth medicine soon anyway.
Your women will need it when you go into childbirth.”
He liked the way her jaw dropped at that remark of his. Finally, he’d gotten back at her.
“You are good.” She smiled. He couldn’t help but return her smile.
“Now we should go and retire to the dining hall. No doubt my mother is waiting in great anticipation of us.”
“I can’t go there like this. Why can’t my food just be brought to us? Me, I mean. I have a bandage wrapped around my head, I’m in my night wear, and you said yourself that I look a sad and sorry sight.”
“All the more reason to make sure that members of my staff see you. They’ll be more inclined to sympathize and accept you at that point.”
“I’m not certain I’ll ever be accepted by your people or by your family.”
“They’ll accept you. Don’t worry. I always get my way.”
“I know. It’s one of your rather less refreshing qualities.”
Now it was his turn to smile. He had chosen his wife well.
* * * *
Startling. She was actually enjoying his company. He had given her his support, and she had taken it eagerly. But she was going to put her foot down when it came to him parading her in front of his staff in her nightclothes!
“I won’t step a foot further, Aries. I’m staying here. If you are unwilling to bring my food to me here, then I will readily go without food.”
“You need to feed your body.”
“There you go again. You’re giving orders. And here I go again. I’m not going to take them. I’m a stubborn assed mule when it comes right down to it.”
“Will it make you feel better if I say that only a few people will be attending to us?”
“It might.” She narrowed her eyes at him. He was at it again. He was trying his Doorway to the Stars by Marly Mathews 57
best to convince her to see it his way again.
; “Then let us go.” She looked down at her bare feet.
“Slight problem. I’m not prancing through the palace in my bare feet. That’s taking being a barefoot Princess to a whole new level.”
He guided her back toward the wardrobe. “One of these slippers should fit you.”
“I feel like a fairytale princess.”
“You certainly look like a fairytale princess. I want you to get back to your same vibrant self, Freya. The dull glint in your eyes and the pallor of your skin really does alarm me. Just try your best to get well, and then we can pick where we left off with our arguing when you are better.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Slowly, her heart was softening toward him. Before she knew it, she’d be head over heels in love with him. She was on a downward spiral, there was no fighting it, and she had to face her feelings toward him.
* * * *
The dining hall looked like something straight from a fairytale. Rose colored, marble pillars lined the room, and crystal chandeliers lit the space. Frescos covered the ceilings, and portraits of the past royal families lined the walls. She felt as if she was in a moment of pure beauty.
“My mother is sitting at the other end. She’ll appear once my father arrives. I have no idea what’s made her want to walk around in invisible mode these last few months, but I think it has something to do with the oncoming war. She doesn’t like the fighting aspect of ruling. Even though she is a strong and formidable woman, she doesn’t like death.”
“Who would?”
“The war will bring death to our worlds. She is already mourning.”
“Your mother is a wise woman. But think of the death you will bring to Earth’s many worlds.”
He thinned his lips. His lavender colored eyes sparked. His dark hair looked so ruffled that she resisted the urge to smooth it with her hands.
“Your father, why doesn’t he rule in your place? Your mother has placed a lot of responsibility on your shoulders.”
A light shimmered, the Empress appeared. “His father is not of the hereditary line of inheritance. His mother did not lay the responsibility on his shoulders, until he was ready for it. I assure you, Freya, my son was an adult when I gave him control over our vast armies. Before that, I ruled alone, and I ruled well. My husband was always in this marriage for the love he had for me. He is an artist, he has no heart for ruling. I’ve never had to worry about a power struggle with my husband, and in a way that has been a relief for our marriage. There are times, however, when I wished for his counsel.”
