Stardancer

by Ariel MacArran

  “Yeah, so? He’s a kid,” Kinara countered.

  “He is eight summers,” Aidar gritted out. “Too old to be clinging to a woman’s skirts, even were you his mother!”

  “I was eight when I lost my mother,” Kinara snapped. “Believe me, it’s too young to lose one.”

  “You would have this . . . urchin elevated far above his birth and made a warrior?” Aidar demanded, pointing at Bebti. “So be it! He is eight summers. He must go to the boys’ quarters. He will live there while he trains.” His nostrils flared, looking at Bebti. “If any can be convinced to teach him.”

  Kinara held the boy still. “Bebti, what do you want to do?”

  Aidar looked at her in furious disbelief. From the corner of her eye she could see the women’s shocked reactions and Kinara instantly knew she’d blundered.

  I’m clan leader and right now a clan leader would – “Uh, I mean,” Kinara put in quickly. “Do you want to go to the boys’ quarters now or after you’ve had your breakfast?”

  Aidar’s shoulders lost some of their stiffness and she could almost feel the tension in the room fall.

  “Now, please, my lady!” Bebti cried. “I’m not hungry!”

  “That’s a first,” Kinara joked. She blinked away sudden tears as the child squirmed away but she didn’t try to hold him.

  Bebti gave Aidar a quick bow and ran from the room in such a hurry to start training he didn’t even glance back.

  “My lady,” Laric murmured.

  Kinara cleared her throat again. “Right. Benne and Pellena will be here any minute. Let’s go.”

  Aidar followed her into the south garden and took up a place behind her as she took a seat near the trees. Her maids arranged the cups and plates for the light meal. Metha shooed some of the children, wide-eyed to see their lady so close, away.

  “What do you do today?”

  Kinara spared Aidar a glance. “I have to make friends with Banne and Pellena. With their support I can go for a Council seat.”

  He frowned. “A Council seat?”

  “I had the idea when I was looking at our grain surplus.” She fiddled with her fan. “If grain were under the jurisdiction of the Council for Trade we could sell it here on the Imperial world directly, our clan could quickly dominate the Az-kye grain market. But that would also open a wedge to move meat, milk, fruit, almost everything under the Council for Trade. The power the Council would take is staggering. But I have to take a Council seat before the assembly hears the plan. Helia’s position is the weakest. Banne and Pellena have support split between them so they’re the ones whose backing I need once I take Helia’s seat.”

  “You will make an enemy of her do you take her seat,” he warned.

  She bit her lip. “She owns storehouses outside the Empress’ City. If I gave her a season’s contract to sell our cloth here she would make a lot of money. Besides if this works she’ll profit enormously just as a member of the assembly. It’ll be worth it to Helia to lose the seat. I hope it will anyway.”

  “And by this you would gain far greater power for all the members and make your own seat that much more influential.”

  She nodded. “We could also invest in the Ati clan’s venture to mine zahah jewels. Floods destroyed much of Litha’s bakauri crops and prices have soared but she’s overextended. She can’t cover her expenses and fund the mines too. She’s willing to offer a big return on investment and then we could import the jewels too.”

  His glance took in the refreshments. “And from her you have bought the bakauri candies Banne favors.”

  She’d tried to explain the whole thing to Kyndan but he hadn’t been interested. She gave a half-shrug. “Well, I had to have some excuse to call on Litha.”

  “Banne of the Az’leb,” Laric’s soft voice announced. “Pellena of the Sah.”

  Kinara rose to greet her guests. Banne was a cheerful-faced woman, her love of sweets well known. She was unfashionably thin for an Az-kye but her richly ornamented clothes were of the latest style. She accepted Kinara’s welcome, her fan waving to show herself politely interested but not terribly impressed.

  Kinara had tea poured and sweets offered, discussed the weather and the quality of cloth to be had in the Empress’ City. She mentioned the Council of Elders audience with a casual wave of her fan.

  “Do you,” Banne mumbled, biting into another sweet. “Really think the old ways are always best?”

  “Well, to be sure one must place duty to the Az-kye first,” Kinara demurred.

  Pellena, who still retained her beauty despite the birth of seven children, waved her fan faster and nodded in agreement. “Of course we must. Tradition is the foundation of our lives.”

  Banne raised an eyebrow. “If the foundation of your house was cracked would you fix it or wait for the place to fall around your ears?”

  “Oh, but a house is not a tradition,” Kinara put in as Pellena’s face flushed in annoyance. “And the traditions serve a greater calling.”

  “But,” Banne put in. “The ancients founded those ways to serve their purpose not ours.”

  Pellena’s flicked her fan in annoyance. “And having found them, the traditions they have passed to us serve our purposes as well.”

  “But look you on our tradition of slaves,” Banne argued. “Once those who fought and lost became the dead ones and donned white but Tellarans know nothing of clans. They act as they know, as Tellarans, and we make them slaves.”

  “As well we should!” Pellena huffed. “They are Tellarans.” Pellena’s glare turned to Kinara. “Think you differently, Lady of the Az’anti?”

  Kinara shrugged, never more aware of her red hair. “They are not Az-kye. What can be said?” she replied with a lazy wave of her fan.

  She could almost feel the tension run out of Aidar’s body.

  Pellena’s glare softened. “You are fortunate that Baruta has bought your slaves. And for such a price!”

  Kinara smiled. “I wager she’ll soon offer twice that to have me take them back!”

  The women chuckled and Kinara gave a sigh. “But now I am short of help with my flocks and I am reluctant to turn gisel hands to the task.”

  “Yes, such work is beneath them. I have occasioned to purchase some Tellarans from your mate,” Pellena said with a smile at Aidar. “But my harvests are at an end and I would prefer not to feed them during the fallow time. Perhaps they will suit your task?”

  Yes! Kinara bent her head. “I would be pleased to make such a purchase.”

  Aidar leaned forward. “My mate?”

  Kinara’s hold tightened on her fan. Gods, he’s not going to ruin this, is he? “Yes?”

  He looked at Pellena. “May I ask how many Tellaran slaves you offer to the Az’anti?”

  “Certainly,” Pellena said. “I will offer four.”

  Kinara blinked. Damn it! Pellena had six of Kyndan’s crew! How would she get the other two?

  “As my lady said, we are short of workers. Tellarans do not obey well. I fear we will have to look far to find enough help this season.”

  Pellena nodded sympathetically. “They are unruly. I will offer six to the Az’anti and hope their greater number will compensate.”

  Kinara quickly blinked tears of gratitude away. “Perhaps you will accept a hundred coins for each Tellaran?”

  Pellena smiled at the generous offer. “I will send them to your lands on Az-kanzar as soon as I reach home.”

  Kinara steered the conversation to the subject of grain prices on the Imperial world, ready to dangle the hook.

  Pellena merely nodded. “A shame that the Council for Food does not control prices better. But we must all pay what they ask.”

  Kinara blinked, seeing her plan blocked. If she couldn’t get Banne or Pellena to show interest in her ideas she’d never get that seat.

  “A pity. The Az’anti have surplus enough to fill the markets of the Empress’ City,” Aidar said. “If we could bring it.”

  “But how could you
so?” Pellena wondered, frowning. “Grain is under the jurisdiction of the Council for Food.”

  Kinara feigned surprise. “But don’t all imports fall under the direction of your Council?”

  The women’s eyes widened at the implication.

  “In fact we all could import other foodstuffs.” Kinara flicked her fan. “If your Council was agreeable.”

  Banne and Pellena exchanged a glance.

  “Well,” Banne began. “I don’t see why the Council for Food should impose such a hardship.”

  “Our council meets in two days,” Pellena said. “I think this a matter that warrants discussion.” She looked at Kinara. “You will attend?”

  Kinara smiled. “Of course.”

  An hour later Kinara spoke the ritual words of goodbye to them. As soon as they were out of sight Kinara threw aside Az’anti dignity and collapsed against the pillows.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to sit on a council with those two,” she said. “I thought they were going to start clawing at each other.”

  “You did well.”

  “Yeah,” she mumbled. Once the assembly understood magnitude of this opportunity that seat would be hers and she had gotten six of Kyndan’s crew back to boot.

  So why do I feel so fracking lousy?

  “You will see the boy again,” Aidar said mildly, surprising her. “You may visit and he may dine with you occasionally. You may have him come to the house for festival days.”

  She swallowed. She missed Bebti already. “Is that what you did? Move to the boys’ quarters to train when you were eight?”

  “Yes. But I was youngest and all my brothers had gone before me. It is a time a boy child of our class looks forward to with great pride and excitement.”

  “Oh,” Kinara said, plucking at her fan. “Well, he sure was happy about it. Sounds like you were too.”

  He gave a faint smile. “Until night fell. I cried every night for weeks.”

  “Wow, that makes me feel better about letting him go,” Kinara said, throwing him an exasperated look. “Didn’t your mother even care?”

  “I was the youngest,” he reminded. “Indeed, she wept when I went but I think it harder still for my father. He did not show tears but he came to check on me unseemly often.”

  She suddenly wondered if Aidar would check on their son like that.

  Kinara throat closed. But we won’t ever have a child now, will we?

  He stood. “I must go.”

  Kinara’s grip on her fan tightened. “Where are you going?”

  He avoided her gaze. “There is someone I must see.”

  "Any one I know?” she asked, trying to sound flippant and managing only to sound desperate.

  “No.”

  “Do you have to — I mean, when will you be back?”

  He looked toward the gate. “Very late. Unless you have something you need of me, I will leave now.”

  A thousand excuses to keep him here flittered through her mind and none sounded even remotely believable. “No,” she said thickly. “No, I don’t.”

  Why should she be jealous, she wondered, watching him leave. Why should she even care?

  He’s a liar. He broke every damned promise he ever made me.

  She was the one who ended things outside the Council of Elders, who said they weren’t mated anymore.

  Let him go back to Senya! It’s better this way, with him not around. I’m still clan leader and all I want is the power to get my people back to Tellaran space.

  Isn’t it?

  “Fracking hell,” Kinara said softly, rubbing her temple where the headache had already begun to form.

  Kinara finally sent her women to their suppers, eating her meal alone. She’d met with Helia of the Az’shu that afternoon. Such a generous offer of exclusive right to sell Az’anti cloth on the Imperial World was not to be trusted and Helia had watched her with narrowed eyes throughout their meeting.

  Probably trying to decide if the red-haired Az’anti lady was very adroit or just very stupid.

  Kinara’s Tellaran heritage was, of course, not a topic that could be discussed. That didn’t stop curious glances on the street and one of the other women seated with Helia had stared at her hair with unquestioned rudeness. Kinara wondered if she looked as strange to everyone and she worried that the difference would be a setback she couldn’t overcome.

  She had spied another Tellaran, one of Kyndan’s crew, in Helia’s house and instantly offered to purchase the man. She used the yentath flock excuse again and a very generous offer. Helia accepted, sending the man on to Az-kanzar.

  With the Tellarans on Az-kanzar they wouldn’t give rise to talk as she worked on Az-kye to solidify her position as a clan leader.

  How solid it would have to be before she could take Senya down?

  Senya wasn’t even a Ti’antah, only a younger daughter of a younger sister of the clan leader. Kinara went over Senya’s clan’s weaknesses with a sharp eye. Would Aidar lose interest if Senya’s clan fell from favor in the Council for Finance? How many favors would Kinara have to curry to pull that off?

  She heard a sound from the doorway and looked up.

  “I’m sorry about what I said today,” Kyndan said quietly.

  Kinara raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? Which part? When you said I was a traitor or when you said I was a whore?”

  He came in, his glance darting about. “Are you alone?”

  “Since you’re here, obviously not.”

  “I mean, is he here?”

  Kinara put down the datapad. “If you mean Aidar, no, he’s not.”

  Kyndan sat down next to her on the couch and took her hand.

  “I really am sorry. I don’t know why I said those things.” He shook his head. “I just hate to see you like this.”

  Kinara snatched her hand away. “Maybe you’d feel better if I were wearing white too.”

  “Yes, I would,” Kyndan said sharply. “At least I’d know you hadn’t gone and married one of them.”

  “If you’ve come here to insult me again, you can leave now.”

  He made a sound of frustration. “I came here to make up with you. Kinna, I’m sorry for what I said. I know you’re just trying to do your best and deal with what he’s made you.”

  “What he’s made me?” she echoed. “If you mean clan leader, then you’re right. I am doing my best. Is that what you mean?”

  He pushed up and turned away, running his hand through his brown hair. “Kinna, I don’t want to fight with you! I’m not trying to hurt you, I just want us to get out of here!”

  Kinara stood too. “Well, if you do, you’re not making it easy for me to make it happen.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Kinara threw her arms wide. “Damn it, you seem to go out of your way to make me look bad! Don’t you realize these people have to respect me? How can they do that if you shout at me?”

  His mouth tightened. “So now I’m not supposed to speak to you either.”

  Kinara pushed her hair back. “That’s not what I said. I just mean you have to show some respect for their ways. Just be patient for a little while.”

  His face flushed. “I don’t have any respect for their ways! I hate them! Their savagery, the way they look through me, the way they don’t even have enough respect to call me by my name! I only wish I'd been able to kill more of them!"

  "Kill—?" Kinara stopped short, her heart hammering.

  Kyndan looked away.

  "You did it, didn't you?" she whispered. "You opened fire first on their ship, on the Ty'pran. Aidar told me the truth. You crossed into their space and unprovoked you attacked them."

  Kyndan's eyes were stormy, his nostrils flared.

  Kinara shook her head. "You attacked them."

  "I followed orders."

  "Orders? Who—?" But she knew. "Papa. He sent you because he could trust you. He knew you would do whatever he ordered." She spread her hands. "Why? Attacking one of their warsh
ips straight on like that is insane! You were alone and completely outgunned—"

  Kyndan's face was closed and set.

  The new Viper design, so bottom heavy and unwieldy, she'd seen it herself at the ceremony when Kyndan had taken command.

  The scoring on the hull of the Ty’pran . . .

  "You weren't outgunned, were you?" she breathed. "Not at all. You crossed into Az-kye space because you knew you could take them on." She closed her eyes. "Oh, gods, you were doing a weapons test, weren't you? You were packing enough firepower to blow an Az-kye warship to hell and you crossed into their space to do a field test."

  Kyndan’s nostrils flared. "I followed orders," he repeated.

  "You used them for target practice! You murdered those people!"

  "They're warriors, aren't they?” he sneered. “They live for combat."

  Aidar was on that ship . . .

  “So what went wrong?" she asked hoarsely. "Since you were so eager to blow them all to dust, why didn't you?"

  His blue eyes, so like her own, flashed. “The design was a prototype. There was an energy surge in the port cannons. They misfired. It blew out half the systems on the ship. And then the bastards returned fire. By the time your – he boarded, there wasn't much left of the Reliant. The only choice I had was surrender."

  "I didn't think one of our people would – that you would ever –"

  "Don't you understand?" he demanded. "We need more ships like the Reliant! We need to protect ourselves from them!"

  "By murdering them?" she cried.

  "Why did you cross into Az-kye space, Kinna? Isn’t that what you wanted? Blood?”

  She shook her head. "I thought they’d killed you and your whole crew! You turned your guns on an innocent ship! If I had known –"

  "Innocent? Have you forgotten what they did to me, to your crew, to Tedah? They’re a bunch of savages with no sense of honor or decency!”

  “Gods, Kyndan, their whole society is based on honor! You don't understand anything about these people!”

  “You sound like you want to be one of them.”

  “I’d rather be one of them than a murderer!”

  “Then you can fracking be one of them but stay the hell away from me!” He stood, trembling. “I’ll leave now, if I have your permission. I can’t breathe with the stink of so many Az-kye around me.”