Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  “Where’s Shestna?”

  “On Sistair.,” Ch’Wik said. “He’ll be back in a couple days.”

  “Why is he on Sistair? How long have I been asleep?” she demanded, leaving the bed with a bladder that pained her, it was so full.

  “I don’t know and a day and a half.”

  “Day and a half? Fuck.”

  Docku came in to the room. “The Emperor’s Infantry are all over the street. They’re taking up positions on the outer wall all around the perimeter of the property. I wouldn’t let them into the house.”

  “What’s going on?” Tyler asked, starting the water in the shower stall Shestna had just ordered installed on the outside of the bedroom.

  Turning her back to the mirror on the wall, she saw no marks from the whipping. Bummer. She should at least see faint stripes.

  “We haven’t been told what’s happening. Only to keep ourselves very close to you,” Ch’Wik said, from the other side of the wall and trying not to look.

  “Wanna come into the actual shower with me? Would that be close enough?” she groused, stepping into the stall.

  “If your husband wouldn’t kill me, I would, Ma’am. Standing alongside will suffice.”

  “I do love that K’Tran single-minded dedication to duty.”

  She stood unmoving under the newly installed shower for several minutes, letting the hot water envelope her with steam. It formed a cushion around her, pushing back the oppressive energies and voices for as long as it was there. She had to end it at some point and turn off the water. She had to come out.

  “By the Raas! Your back!” Ch’Wik blurted when she turned to reach for the towel.

  Towel held over her breasts, she looked over her shoulder in the wiped off mirror. Vivid pink stripes across, others making a cross-hatch design with them.

  “There they are!” she smiled.

  “Do I need to protect you from your own husband?”

  “Why? I asked him to do this. I selected the implement for him to buy. I wore it around my waist at supper and said yes, please when he asked if I was ready.”

  Eyes wide, throat stuck, he had no words. He had no thoughts. She patted him on the cheek as she passed. Pisod was in the room.

  “Now what?”

  “Our Emperor Father requires your presence. I am to escort you in your husband’s stead,” he said.

  “What about the guys?” she asked with a jerk of her head to Saber.

  “Father prefers they not come but I informed him you likely would not budge without them.”

  “Damn straight. What’s really going on?” she asked, pulling on the sheath she’d worn the other day.

  Dressy enough for the Emperor’s Court but comfortable enough to wear for hours if needed.

  “I couldn’t tell you.” He caught her angry eyes in the wall mirror. “No, really, Tyler. It’s all been very secret. Father knows. No one else does. He’s ordered men around this property and your own, to remain until further notice and with command centers on the street outside of both.”

  “Peachy,” she grumbled in English, putting on eyeliner.

  Purple shadow and a brush through her hair, she stepped into the flats she’d worn with the dress. She brought the messenger bag to her hands.

  “How’d you do that? The port traps are on,” Pisod said.

  “Apparently they don’t work for something like this,” she replied, giving the bag to Ch’Wik to carry. “It doesn’t exactly go with the gown.”

  Ch’Wik handed it to Saber, who put it on over his shoulder.

  “That is so you,” Docku teased, and got a hard punch to the front of the shoulder.

  “Alright, enough,” Tyler stopped them.

  “Are we ready?” Pisod more said than asked, plugging in the code for the port trap so they could leave.

  The group gathered around him and he set the size of the field and number of people. They arrived in a room Tyler didn’t recognize. It didn’t feel right. There was no huge crystal pulsating in the background, just hot spots in the immediate vicinity. Dorn was there.

  “This isn’t the palace. Where are we?” she demanded.

  “A secondary residence, more private. Not as large but always fully staffed,” Pisod told her.

  “Shestna knows you are here,” Dorn said. “It was his idea.”

  “I am liking this less and less,” she complained.

  “The Emperor is waiting,” Dorn said rather than explain.

  Wide corridors to accommodate an entourage following the Emperor, open doorways on both sides revealed moderately sized rooms. A big double door led to a larger audience chamber but they continued on past it. They went into the next room on the left, a sitting room with chairs, sofas, tables, and the Emperor sitting in one of those chairs facing a view screen.

  The attorney she’d spoken to was there as well. Something to do with the charges being put together?

  “What is going on?” she asked rather than curtsy to the old Emperor.

  Encito waved the others out. Tyler nodded her approval. Only then would the K’Tran leave her. Pisod, Dorn and the attorney were left.

  “The Feralina will greet her Emperor Father appropriately and with all protocol,” Encito said, those sharp eyes saying nothing more.

  Jaw clenched, because she hated bowing to anyone, she performed the slow, deep curtsy with head bowed.

  “Your Majesty sent for me.”

  He left her in that position for a long moment.

  “My apologies for the secrecy, First Daughter,” he finally said, the signal that she could stand again. “It is necessary for your own safety. Administrator Earnol is about to be Congress-wide news. It seems that, knowing he was being investigated, he has gone himself to the Attorney General of the Celestial Congress. The proceedings are about to begin. We will sit and watch together.”

  He gestured to the end of the two-seat sofa next to himself. She had no choice but to take it. Pisod brought her a short glass of something to drink.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Fruit juice. No water added. I made sure to order it for you,” Pisod said.

  “Thank you.”

  “Screen on,” Dorn said, taking the other side of the short sofa.

  Pisod took a chair to sit behind it.

  A courtroom was a courtroom. Shestna and Mankell were there with another of the Emperor’s palace attorneys. There was no audience. Earnol sat at a small table with an attorney. The Attorney General sat at the second table.

  “They should be sitting at the same table,” Tyler said. “They cooked this shit up together, whatever crap it is they’re about to pull. Where is this?”

  “It is the Congressional Court building on Sistair, Your Highness,” the attorney said. “All cases involving Congressional figures and matters are heard and decided here. There are three judges.”

  “Which means this judge is on Earnol’s payroll,” she said.

  “Likely yes, to have this done so quickly and quietly before anyone could do anything about it,” he agreed.

  The judge entered in his red and gold robe. The Attorney General rose, as did the sparse audience. Earnol did not. The judge sat and slapped a button on his desk to start the timer on the wall.

  “What matter have we today, Mr. Attorney General?”

  “Your Eminence, Administrator Earnol of the Celestial Congress and Ambassadors Administration for Space and Time Travel has a desire to confess certain crimes and misunderstandings committed during his time in office.”

  “I have read the list. What does the defendant say?”

  Earnol stood. “Your Eminence, in exchange for the agreed upon sentences, I will plead guilty to the charges as stated in the list submitted to you by the Attorney General.”

  “What list?” Tyler asked.

  “No one knows,” the attorney said. “No one knew of it until this moment.”

  “To the charge of False Arrest of the Congressional Employee named Tyler Brooks�
�“

  “I was not an employee at that time. I was a citizen of the Congress and of Earth,” she said.

  “How do you plead?” the judge finished.

  “Guilty, Your Eminence.”

  “I impose a fine of ten thousand Ruds. To the charge of disallowing an emerging telepath access to the Doyen Confederacy, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty, Your Eminence.”

  “A fine of ten thousand Ruds and you will resign your membership from the Confederacy.”

  “Resign his membership?!” Tyler spat, on her feet to start pacing.

  “At once, Your Eminence,” Earnol said.

  “To the charge of falsely charging the same citizen of Earth with violating the quarantine of Earth, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty.”

  “Fine of ten thousand ruds.”

  “This is ludicrous,” Tyler said, becoming more angry by the second.

  “To the charge of blackmailing your son Julian into complicity in denying said telepath access to the Doyen Confederacy, how do you plead?”

  “Guilty, Your Eminence.”

  “Sentence on this charge is your immediate removal from all offices of the AASTT and Celestial Congress, with the stipulation that you will not run for any public office in the future. You will remove yourself from all public service and live instead a private life on Sistair.”

  “Yes, Your Eminence.”

  “Your Eminence, if I may?” Earnol’s attorney stood up.

  “Yes, Counsel?”

  “I would move that no further charges be allowed to be brought against my client. He is removed from office. He is fined. Any other charges brought now would be redundant and serve no purpose except as malicious, punitive measures.”

  “So ordered. The matter is concluded,” the judge said, and slapped his hand onto the timer to stop it.

  Shestna stood up. “Your Eminence this is ludicrous. Thirty thousand Ruds, loss of membership in the Doyen Confederacy and stepping down as Administrator? He should go to prison for ten years at least!”

  “You are out of order,” the judge said. “This court is free to assign any sentence it sees fit up to the maximum. I see no purpose to putting a 3000 year old man in jail for what may be the rest of his life. The matter is ended and if any of you say one more word, I will throw you all into jail for a week.”

  The view screen shattered with the force of Tyler’s glass thrown into it.

  “Fucking god-damn corrupt mother fuckin’ asshole needs to have the Statue of Liberty shoved up his god-damned corrupt ass sideways followed by my foot,” she stomped out of the room.

  “Did she mean the judge or Earnol?” Dorn asked Pisod.

  “I think either would suit her fine right now,” Pisod said, and followed her.

  “Do not let her leave the building,” Encito said to Dorn. “She is in more danger right now than ever.”

  “We know, Father,” Dorn replied, already heading for the door.

  “Bring her back to me when you can do so without violence.”

  Encito sat back in his chair, looking at the view screen and wondering how much telekinetic force she’d put into that throw to be able to shatter the screen that thoroughly. He’d thrown more than one vessel at the screen on various occasions and never so much as cracked it.

  “How can it be legal that a judge can say no other charges can ever be brought against him?” Tyler demanded hotly. “Fuck, I need a cigarette!”

  Pacing back and forth the ten feet from corner to corner at an intersection in the garden kept her contained enough that Dorn hung back and let Pisod deal with this one.

  “You can ask the attorney if you go back inside,” Pisod said.

  “Fucker needs his face bashed in.”

  “You’re right. He does.”

  “I shoulda killed the fucker myself months ago,” she said.

  “You’re right. You should have.”

  “I don’t think that’s one to agree with,” Dorn said under his breath to his brother.

  “It doesn’t matter. She’s just blowing off steam. I have my orders, same as you do. Agreeing works better than trying to make her to calm down. You should try it sometime instead of fighting and subduing her.”

  “Fucking asshole!” she said, kicking a rock.

  “Yeah, fucking asshole,” Pisod said.

  “When you’ve got her sufficiently calm, Father wants to see her,” Dorn said, already pointed back toward the small palace.

  “You’re not going to stay and help?” Pisod asked.

  Dorn stopped, looked at her, looked at his brother. “I am not going to waste my time unruffling a female’s fur. Especially not this female.”

  “You never change, Dorn.”

  “Is there some reason I should? There’s a reason I have never done Concubine duty. I have zero patience for them.”

  He walked away, leaving the fuming 1st Daughter to her continual cursing.

  “Pisod will bring her when she is able to speak without epithets,” he told the Emperor, ignoring the team of Neverseen cleaning up the mess of the view screen. “Shall I prepare to punish her?”

  “For what?” Encito asked.

  Dorn gestured to the glass and ruined five thousand Rud screen.

  Encito puffed a chuckle, his smile more an indulgent father than an Emperor. “For that? No, Dorn, you do not get to tan her hide for that. I’m grateful that was all she destroyed. There will be no punishment for any behavior today.”

  “Your Majesty is very merciful toward her,” Dorn said.

  “Someone needs to be.”

  Words spoken with a bite that meant many things, all of which stung smartly.

  “Tell Pisod we are to sit and eat shortly. I would have her at my table.”

  Dorn texted a time limit of ten minutes. At the nine minute mark, she led the group into the room. She wasn’t happy, but she was in control of herself. She performed the curtsy without being prompted.

  “Please forgive my outburst.”

  “I do forgive it, Feralina,” he replied, rising from his seat. “A great wrong has been done this day and it will not be forgotten for a long time. But we still must eat, and we will do so as family. There are places set for your guards as well.”

  He took her hand to escort her into the next room. A long table was set with nine places. The Emperor took the head, seating her to his left. The attorney was across from her, Dorn beside her with Pisod next to the attorney. The four K’Tran occupied the two seats beyond on both sides.

  “All foods have been prepared with distilled water, Your Highness,” said the resident butler.

  “Very good. We will begin,” Encito told him.

  An order that brought in a line of servants with two plates each. Except for the butler, who carried the Emperor’s dishes himself.

  “What can be done?” Encito asked the attorney.

  “While the judge did order no further charges be brought, he did not say there could be no appeals,” the attorney replied. “My office is already working on them.”

  “What was left out of the charges that they would not want pursued?” Encito asked.

  “Sending me back in time to keep me away from Earth when it was attacked,” Tyler said. “It’s the only thing I know for certain.”

  “Yes, and as an abuse of his role as Administrator, that is the one that would have carried more significant prison time,” the attorney said. “I’m sure there are many other things that would be revealed during investigation. The order against future charges is to prevent them from being of consequence.”

  “Does your investigation end?” Tyler asked.

  “No, Your Highness. I am as determined as ever to find out everything we can. We may not be able to prosecute in a court, but there is the court of public opinion and it would be on your side. Have no doubt of that.”

  “He is removed as Administrator. Who will replace him?” Encito asked.

  “It is too soon to know. There will be
an emergency vote of the Council as soon as they can convene.”

  Encito noticed Tyler wasn’t eating. “First Daughter, I know it is very upsetting. However, not eating will not be a victory over anything.”

  “When I’m angry, I lose my appetite,” she said in quieter tones than usual.

  “I do understand. Please don’t make an old man worry. Shestna will be mightily displeased if I couldn’t manage to feed his wife in his absence.”

  Wife…pet. What difference did it make? She was equally owned and leashed. She picked up the spoon and dipped it into the warm cream something soup. She finished about half of it. The second course was some form of fish she wouldn’t touch. Instead, she speared the vegetable something and ate small bites.

  “Was he ever arrested?” came out of her mouth the instant it hit her brain.

  Her eyes lifted from her plate at the same time the attorney’s did.

  “No,” he replied already arriving on her path.

  “Is that legal?” she asked. “Where I’m from, even if a person goes to the cops and confesses, they don’t go directly in front of a judge. They have to be arrested, fingerprinted, mug shot taken, the whole processing thing. Then charges are filed. If he was never arrested, was this going straight to the judge legal? Is there a precedent?”

  He blinked at her over the table, silently kicking himself for not thinking of that. “I don’t know if it is legal and I don’t know if there is a precedent. I’ll have my office start looking into it as soon as I get back. If it is not specifically named as legal, and there is no precedent, we may be able to have the deal and the judge’s rulings thrown out by another, uncorrupt judge. I will build our appeal case around that premise.”

  The dark clouds lifted from Tyler and she smiled for the first time in what felt like days.

  The fish course taken away, a pile of thin-sliced beef surrounded by wedges of soft tortilla-like bread was put before her. This she ate every last bite of, thinking it was probably the best tasting food she’d eaten on the planet.

  “Take a walk and enjoy the sun,” Encito told her when the meal was over. “We’ll play cards or something before I retire for the night.”

  “How long do you intend we will stay here?” she asked.

  “A few days. Additional security measures are being installed at your homes. When I am satisfied they work, you can return.”