“That could be,” the queen said, but she was looking surprisingly sympathetic.
“What do you think he's up to?” Rachael asked, narrowing her eyes a little.
Aistrana held up her hands. “Now, I don't want to gossip or to make you think bad thoughts against our wonderful Lord Commander, but… Well, to be honest, he sort of has a reputation around the planet as being something of a player,” she said. She cleared her throat a little. “And it's not that uncommon for a married man of high rank to...choose a different woman to keep as a mistress.”
Rachael felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. All her deepest fears about the Lord Commander—about herself—were true. She hadn't even been married to the alien for a week and he was already sleeping around with someone else.
She wasn't attractive enough to hold his attention, and she'd probably appeared weak and needy and clingy with how easy she was to get off and with how much she'd needed his affection afterwards to soothe her into sleep.
And it wasn't surprising behavior from him, either. She had known his reasons for marrying her had been strictly for his personal gain. Maybe he was hoping that he'd already managed to impregnate her with little half-breed babies and would never even bother to have sex with her again. She was just some sort of single-use rag that–
“Hey,” Aistrana said, coming around the low table to sit next to Rachael, patting her gently on the thigh. “Like I said, I didn't mean to worry you or to make you think ill of Tavaayn. He's a great man, and I must be mistaken. Just, when you say that he no longer seems to be interested in you… Well, I assume he's getting his fix somewhere else.”
Rachael took a deep breath and then nodded. “That's not very surprising,” she said, keeping her voice level. She shook her head. “I just can't believe I did something so stupid like marrying him.” Now her only hope really was to leave the planet and ensure that their marriage was annulled.
“Oh honey,” Aistrana said, her voice sickly sweet. “It wasn't stupid for you to marry him. Look around you—you're one of the richest women in Saveithya, second only to myself. Now that you know about his mistress, you can use that to your benefit—convince him to do anything that you want him to do. If you play your cards right, you could keep the poor man wrapped around your finger, and maybe even have a consort or two of your own.”
Rachael frowned. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell the queen that none of that was what she wanted, but when she looked around herself… Well, despite the fact that she was still stranded there on that strange planet for the foreseeable future, she supposed her situation could be a lot worse. So she took a deep breath and pasted on a fake smile, turning to the queen.
If even her husband had turned against her, she was going to need allies.
Chapter Nine
That night, Rachael awoke to a hand on her shoulder. She jolted, groggy and disoriented, and for a minute, she thought that all of it had been some strange and vivid dream and that she was back on her couch in her living room. It seemed like too much had happened for it to have all been a dream, though…
And no. When she opened her eyes, it was to Tavaayn standing over her, looking concerned.
“Were you trying to wait up for me?” he asked. “Did something happen?” He sounded worried, and Rachael wished that that would make her angry instead of making her just more heartsick over the whole situation. She had thought that the man cared about her. But it seemed she'd been entirely mistaken.
She shook his hand off. “Just felt like sleeping out here tonight,” she told him, snuggling back down into the blankets that she'd dragged out to the couch. “Thought you might like to have the whole bed to yourself.”
“Why would I want to have the whole bed to myself?” Tavaayn asked blankly. He shook his head. “Come on, the bed has to be more comfortable than that couch.”
“This is fine,” Rachael said, letting her eyes drift back closed. “I'm not moving; I'm comfortable.”
Tavaayn was silent for a moment, and then he scooped the earthling up into his arms. “Come on,” he said. “I'm taking you to bed. I don't know what's gotten into you, but you're clearly-”
“Put me down!” Rachael cried out, thrashing until she fell out of his arms with a thud. She scowled up at him, pulling the blankets tighter around her shoulders. “I don't want to sleep with you in that bed tonight,” she told him icily. “Now please, leave me alone and respect my boundaries and let me go back to sleep.”
Tavaayn looked hurt, but he nodded at her. “All right,” he said. He paused, though, looking hesitant as she settled herself back on the couch. “Can I get you anything, though?” he asked. “Something to drink or-”
“No,” Rachael said emphatically, needing him to leave before she began to cry. “Just leave me alone and let me sleep.”
“Okay...”
Rachael squeezed her eyes shut, but she could hear his footsteps shuffling away. She felt guilty, that was the thing—but that was ridiculous. If there was anyone who should feel guilty, it was him. She couldn't believe that he was sleeping with someone else, but all the pieces just fit.
He must think she was stupid if he didn't think she would find out. Or maybe he just hadn't cared if she found out. Or maybe he'd expected her to stay isolated there in that ivory tower, unaware of the gossip because no one bothered to ever speak English to her.
She slept even more fitfully than usual that night. The next morning, she went straight to the queen's chambers and requested an audience with the woman, unable to take it any longer.
Aistrana looked sympathetic when she saw the human woman and pulled her into a hug. “Are you all right?” she asked. “I know it isn't polite to say that you look terrible, but...”
Rachael laughed hollowly at that and sank down onto a seat. “I need your help,” she told the queen. “I know you don't owe me anything, and I know that I...” She shook her head. “I'm not even sure what consequences I face on Earth if I return without having negotiated anything to do with the trade of technologies. But I need your help so that I can go home.”
The queen sighed. “I was afraid that you would ask my help for that,” she said, moving to sit beside Rachael. “But I'm sure you've heard about the curse.”
“I'm willing to risk it,” Rachael said. “I just… I have to get away from here. Away from him. I can't believe...”
“Did you confront him about it?” the queen asked sharply.
“No,” Rachael admitted. “But it all makes sense, just the way you said it. He had time for me before our wedding; he should have time for me now. At least to negotiate, which is what I was here to do in the first place. But even that, he keeps putting off. I haven't done a single thing I was supposed to do during this mission.”
“That must be frustrating,” the queen said.
“Very,” Rachael said. She shook her head. “Look, maybe I'll crash back down and kill myself in the process, but I have to at least try, don't you see?” she asked. “I'll drive myself mad otherwise. I'm already driving myself mad. I just keep thinking about the fact that I could escape from all of this, if I could only be a little braver...”
The queen put a comforting arm around Rachael's shoulders. “So why do you need my help?” she asked. “I can't say I know much about fixing spaceships or launching them out of the atmosphere...”
“They won't even let me near my ship anymore,” Rachael told her. “I'm not sure what—I didn't realize they weren't going to allow me near it or else I would have, I don't know...” She trailed off, shaking her head. “But they won't let me anywhere near it, and I thought that maybe you could get me the permission that I need to get there. Then I could start the launch sequence and be out of here within the hour.”
“Hmm,” the queen said. She shook her head. “The trouble here is that it must be Tavaayn's orders that are keeping you from getting close to the ship,” she said. “And although I am the queen, I have no jurisdiction over the guards—one of thos
e ancient fail-safes in organization that ensure that the queen cannot wage war without the consent of her Lord Commander.”
She winked at Rachael but then sobered. “So I cannot command the guards to step down and let you onto your ship, but perhaps there is another way.”
“How?” Rachael asked.
“I know this palace and the grounds and everything in this entire city like the back of my hand,” Aistrana said. “I know all its secrets and hidden passageways and places that the guards don't patrol—and places that the guards don't even know about. I'm sure I could sneak you aboard your ship. But you would have to find out some way to speed up the launch process so that they couldn't board your ship and drag you off of it.”
“I think I can do that,” Rachael said. She wasn't entirely certain, but if she just tinkered a little, tossed the idea around in the back of her head, she was sure something would occur to her. “When is the soonest that you could get me to the ship?”
Aistrana grinned at her, showing all her teeth. “You're in luck, actually,” she said, glancing towards the window. “Tomorrow, we will have our first eclipse of the year—the only time our planet gets even remotely dark. During that time, we'll be able to sneak around the back alleyways with no problems. Why don't you meet me in the banqueting hall tomorrow around this time? Make sure you have everything that you'll need...”
Rachael grinned and impulsively leaned in to hug the woman. Then, she made a beeline back to her chambers to plot her escape.
Chapter Ten
When she arrived at the banqueting hall, things were just as dark as Aistrana had promised. Rachael looked around, letting her eyes adjust to the lighting. “Hello?” she called out, pitching her voice so that it would carry through the room but not beyond.
“Rachael?” Instead of the queen's voice, though, it was Tavaayn's voice, and if she looked closely, she could just make out his figure walking across the battle floor towards where she was, up in the stands. “What are you doing here?”
“You can't stop me,” Rachael said, her voice a bit panicked. She was so close to escaping, and now here he was to screw it all up…
She wasn't prepared when one of the doors at the side of the arena opened, emitting bright light out onto the battle floor. Tavaayn turned quickly and had to duck as one of the ferocious beasts from the menagerie lunged out at him.
Rachael stared in shock, wondering just what had gone wrong.
“Guards!” the Lord Commander yelled, and they came running. But Tavaayn was holding his own, even weaponless as he was. He rolled when he needed to and generally managed to avoid the claws and teeth of the beast, at least until a scratch caught him down the side of his face.
Tavaayn screamed in pain, and Rachael screamed as well, because even for all that she knew the man had been cheating on her, she still couldn't deny that she loved him. And she could practically feel his pain, like liquid fire burning along past her cheekbone and down to her jawline.
Of course, her scream served to bring guards swarming at her.
Rachael panicked, flailing and trying to get to her husband. But she was no match for the guards, who quickly subdued her and dragged her out of the banqueting hall before she even saw the rest of the fight.
She spent that night shivering down in a dungeon cell and wishing that someone—anyone—down there would tell her what had become of Tavaayn. She didn't think the man was dead; she assumed the men would be more somber if their Lord Commander had died. But she didn't know how badly he had been injured either.
And she didn't know how her escape attempt had gone so wrong. What had Tavaayn been doing there in the banqueting hall anyways, and who had triggered the door to release that mangy beast? She could at least be grateful that whoever it was had released a beast who was barely a match for Tavaayn, so that he had been able to fight the thing with decent success until the guards had managed to take the animal down.
But she still felt hollow deep down in her core.
That feeling only intensified the following day, when she was dragged in before a jury and made to stand trial.
She recognized a number of the faces around the room—people she had eaten with, people she had passed in the hallways, people who had been there at their wedding. They all were staring at her with blank faces. And there in the middle was Tavaayn, looking grisly and grim with bandages down the side of his face, and beside him the queen, who looked...almost triumphant?
Rachael began to feel sick to her stomach.
At first, different people who had interacted with her came up to talk about their impressions of her. No one, it seemed, had a very good impression of her. They all thought she was a bit standoffish, or that she thought she was more cultured and civilized than they were. One man even went so far as to say that Rachael constantly looked like she was plotting death to those around her.
And suddenly, she realized what had happened. Aistrana had never intended to help her escape to her spaceship. In fact, the alien queen had probably made up everything that she had said about Tavaayn sleeping around with other women. The whole story had been designed to get Rachael there in that darkened banqueting hall at the same time that Tavaayn was attacked, so it looked like it was Rachael who arranged the attack.
“...and so it is with a heavy heart that I must order your execution, wife,” the Lord Commander finished.
Rachael stared at him for a long moment, barely able to breathe, and then burst into tears. These were the tears that had been waiting to fall in the weeks since she'd arrived in Saveithya—all the tears of loneliness and fear and regret and pain that she had refused to let fall.
She felt ashamed that it had come to this, that she had allowed herself to be so easily manipulated. But she supposed that was what happened when you weren't trained to be a diplomat and to see through the web of lies that surrounded a court like this.
She buried her face in her hands, shoulders heaving with sobs. It was utterly silent in the courtroom other than her.
After a long moment, she managed to pull herself together. She wiped the last of the tears from her eyes and drew herself slowly to her feet. “So be it,” she whispered, knowing that she deserved what she got.
If she had just trusted her husband, if she had just communicated with him long enough to ask him why he was never home anymore, if she had just…
A fresh onslaught of tears threatened, and she turned her face away. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “You loved me so much—you were so good to me, and I… I betrayed you. If I could only go back and do things right, you can't imagine all the things that I would change. I would...” But she trailed off, laughing a little hysterically.
“But I guess none of that matters now, does it? I can't change anything. I can't tell you that I, of all people, never wanted you to be hurt—that I feel your pain as though it were my own.” She touched her cheek, wincing as her fingers collided with the phantom cut that wasn't there. Then she brought her fingertips to her shoulder, where she could feel a similar injury.
Tavaayn looked surprised. “How do you know about the injury to my shoulder?” he asked.
Rachael blinked at him, looking for some hint of his bandages under his clothing. She hadn't seen the injury happen to him, that she could recall, but there should be no way for her to know… She shrugged, mouth twisting bitterly. “I guess I understand what you mean about mating now,” she told her counterpart. “Like I said, I can feel your pain.”
She frowned and shook her head. “But you should be able to sense my innocence, shouldn't you?” She looked around at the other Saveithyans in the room.
“You should all be able to sense my innocence, shouldn't you? Of course, you'll also sense my guilt, because I am not without blame in this situation. If I had...” She choked off, shaking her head. “I could never try to harm my husband,” she said, her voice barely audible. “It would be just like harming myself—only worse.”
“What were you doing in the banqueting hall?”
the Lord Commander asked, his voice loudly echoing around the chamber.
Rachael took a deep breath, forcing herself to look into his eyes so that maybe he could see the truth of what she was saying written in her own eyes. “I was trying to leave you,” she told the man, her voice ringing out just as confidently as his.
There was a murmur around the room, but it quieted when the Lord Commander raised his hand.
“I had hardly seen you since the wedding, and… I am ashamed to say that I listened to rumors and thought that perhaps you had grown tired of me already and had taken a mistress. You didn't seem to want to...” She glanced around the room, blushing a little, but she knew that she needed to tell the entirety of the truth so that they would understand where she was coming from.
“You showed no interest in sharing a bed,” she said. “You would come home after I had gone to sleep, curl up very deliberately on your side of the bed, without touching me in the slightest, and then you'd be gone again before I woke up.”
Royal Defender: Her Space Guardian (Celestial Mates Book 9) Page 12
