by TylerRose.
“Did he not assault you? Kick you in sending you out the gate?” Encito asked.
“He’s a physical man. He didn’t hurt me. I would have gotten up and gone back at him. I would have fought him myself and I could have gotten through to him. We would have come to an understanding. Sta was premature.”
Encito laughed heartily. “You defend the man splendidly, First Daughter. Your love for him is admirable. My son did exactly as he should have done. If the man Jerome is given to violence against a woman he is to protect, then he is no man to desire. I would not want that for you, to be battered out of meanness by the very one who should stop others from assaulting you. I do understand your resentment over the situation. It was fast and unexpected. There is no undoing it. Regardless our regrets, we must all move forward.”
“Not today,” she muttered.
“No. Today we weed the garden. Together.”
Hands moving, no more words, he continued on with her until at last her hands were still and she stared at the ground. She sat on her calves, hands resting on her thighs.
“I’m very tired.”
Encito gestured with two fingers, bringing Pisod to his side.
“Take her in. Wash her hands. Put her to bed for a while.”
Pisod did just that. The Emperor took a seed from his vest pocket and planted it in the last hole she’d made by pulling a weed. He marked the spot with a particularly charming trio of rocks, stacking them. With another gesture, the aides came to help him to his feet. One offered him a cloth to wipe his hands on, which he refused.
“Today I have tended a garden with a young goddess and she allowed me in that most sacred presence. I have no wish to wipe that from my hands so quickly,” he said, walking toward the gate on the side of the house. “Let us go home and contemplate the future.”
Pisod sat in a chairwith a book to wait while she slept, his father’s voice loud in his head from the first time he’d been sent to watch over her.
“She is going through a period of change, brought on by touching the power of the crystal. It will happen unexpectedly, so always expect it. She will be unsettled, easily distressed. Be her brother and her friend. Be patience when she is in discord. Be calm when she is fury. Agree with her.”
“Agree with her when I don’t actually agree?” he’d questioned.
“Nothing about what is happening to her is her choice or her fault,” Encito had said those months ago. “All she wants is for her feelings to be recognized and her position acknowledged. That is not so much.”
No, it wasn’t so much, Pisod thought.
He heard the commotion of voices coming in the front door and went to see. Mariah was coming back from wherever she had been, her two K’Tran escorts close behind. They were all in good spirits.
“I’m glad to see you well, Mariah.”
“I feel great. We went to a show and supper. Your brother’s offer of his theater box is getting plenty of use.”
“Good. He would be pleased to hear it. He’ll be here in a day or two. You’re warned: There’s likely to be some yelling.”
He turned toward the bedroom, not wanting to leave Tyler alone for long, when banging on the door stopped him. A Neverseen appeared to open the door and a team of five AASTT security officers burst past her. Pisod reached into his pocket to take the charge from the crystal he kept there. He shot the crystal energy at the first one who pointed a weapon at him, taking the shot to the chest in the process. Ch’Wik knocked a second guard down, taking his weapon. He shot another in the back at Tyler’s door. The other two were already through the door of the bedroom. By the time Pisod ran to it, they had taken Tyler and were gone.
Pisod had his phone in his hand, calling Shestna. “AASTT security was just here. They’ve taken Tyler. They didn’t announce themselves. They didn’t say why she’s being taken. Where are you?”
“On the station. We were about to head home. I’ll find out what’s going on.”
Shestna ended the connection and went directly to the Security level.
“You have Tyler Brooks here?” he demanded to know.
“They brought her a moment ago,” the Captain on duty said, pointing to a screen.
Tyler was pacing the small room in anger. She couldn’t teleport. It was designed to prevent teleportation both ways.
“Why is she here?”
“I don’t know the charges, Your Highness. Administrator Earnol hasn’t sent them to me yet. All I know is that she will be transferred to Quarint tomorrow to await her trial.”
“Quarint? Without even having a trial? That doesn’t strike you the least bit odd?”
“I don’t solve the mysteries, Highness. I make the arrests and keep the criminals in cells.”
“Yes, you’re a good company man. Don’t let anyone into that cell until I get back.”
“Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but you are no longer a Congressman. You have no authority on this station anymore,” the Captain told him.
Shestna walked away rather than break the Captain’s neck. Into the lift, because he could no longer teleport, and straight to the Administration level, he found Earnol in his office with Julian.
“Why is she arrested?” Shestna demanded.
“Numerous charges. Most importantly, she violated the quarantine of Earth. Since she has no permanent residence there, she cannot be there. Yet she went.”
“She does have a permanent residence. She has inherited her grandmother’s land and house,” Shestna said. “Release her at once.”
“No. There are numerous charges of failing to return to this station after her work shift as courier and another two dozen failures to use the Congressional teleport system for her deliveries.”
“Neither of those things is a crime.”
“There’s one for treason, for telling one planet the secrets of another.”
“What are you talking about?” Shestna demanded to know. “That’s ludicrous.”
“I assure you it is not.”
“There is no such thing as treason against the Congress,” Shestna insisted.
“She arrived at a meeting and intentionally tossed a memory cube to the opposing planet rather than giving them to the Sistarian Ambassador. That is treason.”
“She’s not a citizen of Sistair,” Julian said. “You can’t charge her with treason.”
“I can and I will. She will go to Quarint while the case is put together and stand trial as soon as the Prosecutor is ready,” Earnol said.
“As First Daughter of Voran, she has diplomatic immunity,” Shestna said.
“The Prosecutor doesn’t think so, since she was not born of the Emperor, and neither do I. She goes to Quarint in the morning.”
“You are an unbelievable shit box, Earnol,” Shestna said.
He shot Earnol in the face with a jolt of crystal power. Earnol fell backwards against the wall and to the floor, unconscious but not dead.
“I do have diplomatic immunity,” Shestna told Julian. “But we’ll be off the station in ten minutes.”
Tyler paced hard, the cell too small to go far. As angry in this moment as she’d been earlier, the field around the cell cutting off her telepathy and teleportation she walked the rectangle between cot and front wall. She could teleport from one spot to another within the cell but not leave it, was already working on a plan of escape. She only needed the door to be opened.
If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Kidnapped by Earnol’s security goons right out of her bed. Charged with who knew what trumped up bullshit Earnol would lay on her.
She hadn’t been questioned by anyone yet. That would be coming, but she doubted they would use the Sistarian Truth Seeker on her. The machine was sitting in the communal room of four cells. It would reveal things Earnol didn’t want known and they both knew it.
The access door to the security room opened unexpectedly, Shestna and Dorn both rushing in. Dorn kept lookout, weapon in hand, while Shestna punched in the code for the ce
ll and its door hissed open.
“Teleport her to the ship,” he told Dorn. “I’ll be there on the shuttle as quickly as I can.”
“I can teleport home,” she said.
“You cannot. They would only take you again. Trust me this once today.”
Dorn didn’t wait for her to agree with Shestna. He activated his personal teleport device and they arrived in his own room of the waiting ship rather than the royal suite.
“We’ll wait here,” he told her.
“What is going on?” she asked in growing impatience.
“My brother is saving your ass,” Dorn told her. “Again.”
There was nothing more to say. She paced until Dorn noticed the ship was underway.
“He’s on board. He’ll be here in a moment.”
“I am here now,” Shestna said, coming into Dorn’s room. “Have you called Pisod?”
“Not yet,” Dorn replied. “I was waiting to be sure we were safely underway. They cannot come aboard this ship without immediate and fatal consequences.”
“Call and tell him we are on our way.” He took Tyler by the hands. “I am sorry you are angry with me; but right now you need my personal protection more than ever. Earnol wants to send you to Quarint to await trial.”
“Trial? For what? I haven’t done anything,” she denied hotly.
“Of course you haven’t. Earnol knows damn well that I know his charges are complete lies. The fact is this: If you go to Quarint, you will be assassinated within a day. It’s the only reason he wants you there, away from everyone who has promised to protect you. There is only one way I can keep you from that place since he has failed to respect Father’s making you First Daughter.”
“What?” she asked with no small suspicion.
He reached into his jacket for a small red Psala flower. “We have to marry. Right now. That would at once give you diplomatic immunity for being part of the Emperor’s immediate family through marriage. The entire family is covered because he could call any of us to run any Congressional errand or conduct any business on his behalf. His own wives and the wives of his sons are included because they may go to other planets with him.”
“I have to marry you? Permanently?” she said, angry all over again.
“I cannot offer you the white flower. We’ve already spent your one use of the white flower. It must be red this time. I’m sorry, Femina. There is no other way to buy the time we need without stashing you in the palace itself to hide you. I’m sure you don’t want to live there for a single day, let alone the next month.”
“Just once, I want to marry you because I want it and not because some asshole has done something to force it,” she complained.
“That would be my wish as well. I must have your answer this moment. We must do this right now, down to consummation.”
“Which Dorn must witness, of course.”
“Yes. Then they cannot legally touch you,” Dorn said. “You will have instant diplomatic immunity.”
“I was under the impression that they couldn’t legally come to Voran and take me in the first place because I was supposed to have Encito’s protection as 1st Daughter. What happened there? What difference is it going to make to add marriage to it?”
“That will be dealt with,” Shestna promised. “Earnol will make the case that because you were not born into the family, and were married to me for only one week, status as 1st Daughter is only ceremonial. Refuting that will take time we don’t have. Earnol will be sending a ship after us as soon as he realizes you’re gone.”
“I can go back to Earth, to my grandmother’s—“
“He will find you there in ten seconds, Tyler,” Dorn told her. “There are no options. There is nowhere you can go to hide.”
She released a long, hard breath and took the flower. Shestna dipped a finger into his pocket and pulled out a string of green beads.
“I’d been keeping these in my pocket out of habit since our first week ended, in case I intervened with someone else. I would have chosen red for you if I’d had them to look over.”
“Green is fine,” she said quietly. “Just do it.”
He placed them around her neck, then held the hand not already occupied by the flower. Wishing he could change the unhappy expression in her eyes, he stated his simple vows.
“I promise to be your loving husband until the day I die. I promise to honor you with word and deed, to uphold your dignity and give you as many children as we can make together. Do you accept my promises?”
“Yes,” she said.
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” Dorn told her.
“No, I do want to.”
She looked up to Shestna, saw the curiosity in his eyes. He was at a loss for what she might have to say.
“Every time I have needed a friend, you have been that friend or provided one. Every time I have needed you, you have been at my side or at my back. Thank you. I could not ask for more in a husband.”
He smiled, put his arms around her, warm and gentle, and kissed her in his own time. When he broke the hold, he sent a message announcing the marriage to his parents. He included a request that the Emperor please make a public statement that his 1st Prince had taken his first permanent bride—and make sure that Earnol got a heavy reminder of the diplomatic immunity of the entire family.
“What happened?” he received back almost immediately as they were walking up the corridor to the royal suite. Whoever on board was the highest ranking Prince had the privilege when the Emperor was not traveling.
Shestna called back, getting his father at once since he was expected.
“Earnol arrested Tyler on contrived and false charges. He sent a security force to her home on Voran to kidnap her directly out of her own bed, Father. You could easily call it an act of war since she was under your direct protection. He was going to send her to Quarint in a matter of hours. Dorn and I stole her back. She and I married to buy us the time to prove those charges false and malicious.”
“Have you consummated?” Encito asked.
“Yes. Dorn was witness,” Shestna lied.
“Very well. I do not expect you to bring her to me this time. We’ve been down that road and I think it best for her if she does not come to the palace right away.”
“Thank you, Father. I will work with our lawyers and combat this directly.”
“I will tell them to be ready for you,” the Emperor said, and ended the call from his side.
“I am certain you have not yet eaten,” Shestna said to Tyler as they entered his room. “Smoke your pipe a moment. Sit and be calm. I will have supper ready soon.”
She needed a smoke, and toked from her pipe long and deep until she felt the buzz starting.
“I’ve not gotten a static shock from you,” she realized, watching him select foods for the Neverseen to assemble for them.
“Because I am much more in control of the crystal power than Jerome was. I have more experience working with it,” Shestna replied.
“You aren’t telepathic anymore, are you?” she asked.
“I am not. When it binds permanently with the host’s life force, it kills all telepathic abilities.”
Her expression was confused, stricken. “You would give that up for me?”
“Would give up?” he questioned, sitting beside her. “My dearest beloved, I did not hesitate to give them up when you were threatened. Telepathic abilities were never important to me.”
“Except during sex. I can’t share with you anymore,” she said, only in this moment realizing that she enjoyed that part of their sharing.
“I can live without that. Protecting you and providing for you are much more important.”
“Speaking of sex. What’s the plan?” she asked.
“There is no plan. We have supper. We relax. When we are ready for bed, we are ready for bed.”
“But you fibbed to your father. You said we’d already done it,” she said.
“Ye
s, I did. He will not ask the precise time it was done. Only if Dorn witnessed.”
“I will not volunteer a time either,” Dorn put in from the companion chair.
“I forgot before,” she said. “I wanted to offer my condolences.”
A brief flash of sadness for his wife came and went over his normally controlled countenance. “Shestna offered them on your behalf, but I thank you all the same.”
Supper was ready. Despite the extremely hectic and tumultuous day, or maybe because of it, she wasn’t hungry for much. The enormity of the entire day smacking her at once, she put her elbows on the table and her hands over her face.
“Will this day never end?” she said.
“It can end right now,” Shestna replied. “Go lie down. I will be there in after I speak to the Emperor’s lawyers.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to be alone?”
“I don’t. Dorn will sit with you.”
Not that Dorn was thrilled with the prospect, but that was what he was there for—so she would not be alone.
Stripped to her skin, she tried to lie still and sleep. Her mind wouldn’t stop, continuing to churn over the long day’s events. How could so much happen in a single day?
She knew she had to get it all out before she could sleep. Sitting up, turning the light on, she brought her current journal and a pen to her hands. Knees bent to make a surface, she started to write. Compelled to put pen to paper until it was all out, she continued even after Shestna came into the room. He went about his bedtime routine, leaving her be until he came to the bed.
His finger snaked over the spine of the book and he took it from her physically.
“Hey! What?” she protested,
“I have spoken your name three times.”
“Sorry. When I’m writing in my journal, it’s like I’m reliving that moment in time. I tend to shut out the world.”
“This I know,” he said, taking the pen from her. “The book will be there in the morning and it will take nearly three days to arrive home. I have engineers going to your home in the morning. They will install an external gate like mine and permanent teleport traps to prevent anyone from entering. Everyone will have to arrive on the walk outside the gate and be let in from there. Father is going to sign a law that no one may teleport directly to any location on the planet other than the shared Embassy building. It will be in effect by suppertime tomorrow.”
