by Jade Lee
"It doesn't matter. You are the Keeper." Then he stopped, peering at her through the deeper shadows of the trees. "You will get it... running, won't you?"
"Well, of course. It's just a matter of dusting off the old parts and getting the power going as it should." In her heart, she knew it wasn't nearly that simple. Two hundred years of radiation could do a lot of damage. Even hardware protected by the special energies of Dr. Beavesly could have been corrupted in hundreds of different ways, but she didn't judge this the time to tell Kyree that.
"Good," he rested his chin on his fingertips, apparently reassured. "As I was saying, you have the potential to carry enormous popular support. And I," he lifted his chin, fixing his steady eyes on her, capturing her gaze as neatly as if he'd snared her in a net. "I am the greatest wizard alive. And I am still learning. In addition, I have been managing this kingdom for years. I know the strengths and weaknesses of the lands surrounding us. I know how the Dwarves mine their gold and how they maintain that power base. I know where the Birdpeople nest and what they want most in the world."
He stepped forward, his voice throbbing with his passion, his eyes glowing with the power literally pulled from the radiation surrounding them.
"Jane, I have the knowledge and magic you lack. You have the popular support and ancient wisdom I need. Together, we would be unstoppable."
Jane took a deep breath, finally grasping the enormity of what he suggested. "You want us to overthrow Ginsen."
"The Elven Lord is weak. You've seen what he's like. He sees the world around him with the myopic self-absorption of a scholar. He sees things to learn, not powers to be managed or even a land and people to care for. His reign would have crumbled years ago were it not for me."
Jane's thoughts spun, and she leaned against a tree trunk while she sorted through his words. "Why didn't you take control years ago?"
Kyree spread his hands in a self-effacing gesture. "I have never enjoyed the good will of the people. I am too dark, too brooding, and they fear the magic I control."
Jane nodded, agreeing he was indeed too mysterious and too intense a man to easily gain the trust of a simple people.
"But you, Jane, you are a beautiful, young woman with a natural talent toward leadership. Didn't you see how they flocked to you last night? You sparkled like a living diamond, a goddess stepped down from the heavens to lead them. No one could resist you."
Jane shook her head, uncomfortable with the image he painted of her. "I don't know, Kyree. Weren't you maybe seeing what you wanted to see?"
He stepped right up to her, and she could feel the heat of his body envelop her. With one finger, he lifted her chin, while his other hand brushed back her hair in a long, loving stroke.
"I see what you are, Jane, and what you could be. I see it as clearly as I see your passion for good, your need to bring peace and prosperity to a land teetering on the edge of violence. I alone can give you the power you need to put your dreams into reality." He brushed his fingertips across her cheek, then framed her face, drawing her up against him until she could feel the lean strength of his body pressed against hers.
"Daken can't give you what you want. He is too obsessed with his revenge, too consumed by hatred. Only I have the power and the knowledge you need."
He lowered his head, resting his forehead against hers while his breath misted the air between them.
"Marry me, Jane. Marry me and be an Empress. Rule over the kingdom that will bring peace to the world."
He lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was potent, filled with the heady aphrodisiac of power and possession. In it, he gave her visions of world peace and placed them within her grasp. But equally potent, he also offered her the respect and companionship of a man who would not only support her, but actively help her fulfill her potential as a ruler.
How could she refuse that?
His kiss deepened, and his tongue stroked and teased the inside of her mouth. Then one kiss led into another, until he broke from her lips to trail long wet strokes across her cheek to her ear.
It was there he began her seduction. As he touched her, as he worshiped her body with his hands, he spoke of the world they would create together. He lowered his caresses to her breasts while he whispered secrets of the warring factions of the south. He unbuckled her belt as he told her of the exotic foods there that would no longer be trampled by armies, the fields no longer watered with blood. He slid his hands under her tunic, his long fingers firm and erotic as he teased her taut nipples. Then he spoke of vast transportation networks that could bring her message of peace along with food and medicine to the starving children of the western tribes.
His robe fell open, exposing his lean, smooth chest above soft breeches straining against his manhood. He pressed against her, rubbing in slow arcs of desire against her pelvis, and still he whispered seductive words of power and prosperity. She arched against him, the rough bark of the tree scraping the back of her neck as she raised into his embrace.
"We can do it, Jane. Together we can create an empire. Say you'll marry me. Say yes."
He pressed deep into her, and she felt his every muscle, every ridge despite the barriers of their clothing.
"Think of the power, Jane. I can put it in your hands."
His hands dropped to her waist, squeezing her supple flesh, pressing it down as he slid a hand under her leggings.
"Be my empress. Be mine."
Jane moaned aloud. Her body hummed with desire, her thoughts spun with visions of well-fed, happy people cheering her as she rode by on her way to peace summits.
He pressed her legs apart with his knees, and she felt her leggings slip lower on her hips while his hand slid into the widening gap.
"Say yes, Jane. Say it."
She was weakening. She wanted it so badly. The power, the peace, the joy, the love. But something held her back, something kept the word from her tongue.
Kyree lifted his face from the hollow of her neck. His tongue trailed liquid fire up her neck, along her jawline until he found her mouth.
"I want this, Jane," he said into her lips. "I want you."
He forced her legs apart and his fingers found her core. She cried out at the invasion, and she arched backwards, away from the sensations swamping her consciousness.
"Wait," she gasped. "It's too fast."
"No," he said, pushing her leggings out of the way. "You can do it. You can take it. Take it all. Now."
He captured her mouth again, invading her above as she felt him push aside the last of her clothing, readying her for his invasion below.
"No." She tried to wrench herself free, but he was too strong, his body too hungry for liberties she'd already allowed.
And then suddenly she was free. His weight yanked from her as if he were a puppet hauled back by its strings. Jane scrambled to right her clothing, pulling up her leggings and straightening her tunic. It wasn't until her breathing steadied and her mind cleared that she managed to look for the cause of her rescue.
Her eyes widened and her breath froze in her chest. One word escaped from her horrified lips. One word released half in relief, half in terror.
"Daken."
Chapter 10
Jane swallowed, wondering what to do. Daken stood over Kyree, his bastard sword gleaming dully in the thick shadows.
"Are you all right?" Daken asked, his voice hoarse and cold.
"Y-yes." She braced herself against the tree as she waited for her legs to support her.
"What shall I do with him?" he leaned forward, his blade hovering menacingly close to Kyree's neck.
"Put away your sword, Warrior King." Kyree's voice dripped with contempt. "It does not frighten me."
"Then you are a fool, Wizard. But then I already knew that." Daken's blade pressed down against Kyree's throat.
"Stop it, Daken," Jane snapped, her nervousness making her voice sharp and shrewish. "And put that thing away."
"Yes," echoed Kyree, his sneer on his face. "Put it away.
Jane is in no danger from me. My fiancée and I were merely celebrating our engagement, and I'm afraid I became too enthusiastic."
The sword tip didn't move, although Jane could see Daken flinch as he swiveled to pin her with his dark gaze. "Fiancée?"
Jane gathered herself together, calling on the tattered shreds of her dignity to help her. "Kyree presumes too much." She saw the triumphant gleam in Daken's eyes and hastened to dampen it. "But so do you, Daken." She stepped forward, placing her hands on the iron muscles of his sword arm. "I thank you for intervening. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, but that still doesn't mean you can kill him."
"He's a dangerous man, Jane. You don't know what he's capable of."
"No," she agreed, tugging gently on Daken's arm. "But I'm learning." She felt him relax, but only enough to allow her to draw both him and his sword back. Below them, Kyree scrambled to his feet, swiftly closing his robe. Though she kept her eyes locked on Daken's clenched expression, Jane noted the wizard's hands shook. It wasn't until he had himself and his clothing in order that Kyree spoke.
"Jane..."
She felt Daken's arm jerk forward, and she tightened her hold, trying through touch to soothe the fighting beast seething just beneath the surface of Daken's temporary quiescence. Kyree saw it too, and no longer moved toward her, but he didn't stop speaking either, his voice as low and seductive as if Daken weren't there.
"Don't throw away your dreams, Jane, for a set of muscles and a swift blade. I can offer you ten times as much as he can."
Stepping in front of Daken's blade, Jane turned to the wizard. "King Daken is more than a set of muscles and a swift blade. As for what you offer," she swallowed, acutely aware of Daken's barely restrained fury directly behind her. "I am considering it. I will let you know as soon as I decide."
Kyree bowed to her, then started to withdraw, but he paused at the edge of the tiny grove. When he spoke, his voice was cold and angry, and for the first time, Jane got a sense of how dangerous Kyree could be.
"I leave now not because I am helpless, Warrior King. I do so merely because Jane wishes it. Remember that I am not blind or deaf. I am the most powerful wizard alive. And if you harm her in anyway—"
Jane didn't see it happen. She was concentrating on the sword still gleaming to her right. One moment Kyree was speaking, his voice low and threatening. The next second, Daken's dagger thunked in the trunk spare millimeters from Kyree's face.
"She has always been safe with me," said Daken, his voice a low growl of hatred.
Kyree swallowed, drawing slowly away from the lethal blade. Still he continued, his voice as firm, if not as low, as before. "She was safe. Is she still safe now?"
Jane didn't wait for Daken's reaction. She stepped again into the space between the two men. "Daken would never hurt me." She wasn't lying. As angry as he was, as precariously close to violence as he seemed, she never doubted Daken. He'd never physically harm her. "I'm safe with him," she reiterated, her focus back to Kyree as she silently pleaded with him to leave.
Kyree nodded, but his attention remained locked on Daken. "See that she remains safe, Warrior King. In a very short time, she will be your Empress."
And with that he turned and strode away, his dark robe flapping behind him like an Emperor's train.
* * *
"You can't be serious." Daken's voice trembled with fury and disgust as he paced the confines of her room. They had moved here for privacy, although in the world of wizards and thin dormitory walls, she wondered if any place was free from prying eyes and ears.
At least Steve was mercifully absent. The boy had been waiting in the apartment, a plate of sweets set on the low table by the fire. He scrambled to his feet as Daken stormed into the room, then he bowed once to both of them and disappeared.
Jane collapsed onto the couch, feeling unequal to the scene she and Daken were about to play out, but unable to avoid it. The only thing she could do was get it over with as quickly as possible.
"Is that..." Daken grabbed hold of his temper with obvious effort. "Is he what you want?"
"Hell, yes," she exclaimed, rising from the couch to block out her own square of space near the fire. "He's offering me power, the chance to govern wisely, the opportunity to make real changes, affect massive numbers of people in positive ways. Of course, I want that!"
Daken squared off with her, his eyes catching and amplifying the light from the fire. "You could have all that as my queen."
"Since when? You still see me as a little fool, an innocent to be guided by your political ambitions. My only power would be in your bed, and even then I'd be underneath you, literally as well as figuratively."
"And you think he doesn't want to bed you?"
Jane threw up her hands. "Well, of course, he does. He's a man, as much ruled by his pants as you are. But at least he respects my mind, too. With him, I'd have real power. With you..." She let her voice trail off, not knowing what, if anything, she'd have with him.
"But he's dangerous."
"All power is dangerous," she returned.
Daken stepped forward into the glow of the fire. The light from the flames danced brilliantly across his face, making his skin seem to radiate with his own special power. Looking at his eyes, she saw the soothing comfort for which she longed.
"Do you want him, Jane? Not his power, but him. The man Kyree."
Jane sighed, closing her eyes against the headache that seemed to haunt her these days. She broke from his touch, pacing the room with heavy steps. "I don't know, Daken. If you're asking me if I love him, the answer is I doubt it. I barely know him. He certainly doesn't love me. He's in love with the power I could bring him."
"Then why—"
"Because he respects me. Because I respect him, and I respect the things we could do together. He's right, Daken. Politically, we're the perfect combination." She suddenly turned to face him, and this time hers was the face touched by the firelight while his remained in shadow. "I can live without love, Daken. I've been doing that for most of my life. Kyree's offering me power. Why else would I have been brought forward in time, fulfilling a centuries old prophesy, if not to influence the world for the better? I've got to guide this Earth away from the mistakes that destroyed my world. I can't do that without the kind of power he's offering me."
She bit her lip, knowing the pain she felt was only a fraction of the pain her words inflicted on Daken, but she continued anyway, not seeing any other way.
"What do you have, Daken, that can compete with that?"
He was silent a long time, his face cast in shadow, his body outlined by the pulsing red glow of the fire.
"Nothing," he finally said. "Nothing at all." Then he left, his footsteps firm as he walked away.
Chapter 11
Jane cried the rest of the night. Her love for Daken burned as brightly as ever, but without a similar love from him, she could do nothing. She'd be a fool to give up everything Kyree offered for the uncertain and probably subservient life she'd have with Daken.
So she cried, mourning the loss of everything she might have had with Daken more than she'd grieved for the loss of her whole world. Then, when the morning sun filtered through her window, she dried her eyes and dressed, trying to work up some enthusiasm for a bright future as an Empress.
Looking in the mirror, she wished she'd bothered to buy some cosmetics. Her eyes were swollen, her face blotchy. It didn't help that her head still pounded like a football field right after the winning touchdown.
Even food didn't help. Unwilling to face breakfast in front of the entire University, Jane sent Steve to bring her back something to eat. She took one bite, then ran to the bathroom. Five minutes later, she was sure she'd thrown up everything she'd eaten in the last year.
"I hate this place," she moaned, burying her face in the cool towel Steve handed to her. But that was all the self-pity she permitted herself. The Council meeting would start in a half hour, and she was determined to attend.
&nb
sp; She made it with minutes to spare. Steve led her to the Council's audience chamber. The room was predictably impressive with a curved table facing the door. The Council members sat in the five seats beneath a brilliant ivy flag that stood for the Elven Lord. Petitioners lined up in the hallway waiting for their turn to plead their cause.
The Elven Lord naturally sat in the center seat. Kyree stood to his right, apparently trying to convince Ginsen of something unpleasant. Given the bitter look on Ginsen's face, Jane guessed they were talking about her.
Kyree noticed her the moment she entered the room. He immediately crossed to her, his expression warm, his eyes concerned as they lingered on every sign of her sleepless night.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she forced herself to smile at him. "I just didn't sleep very well."
"When we are married, you will sleep like a babe every night. I promise."
His earnest expression drew her first real smile of the day. "Then you must be a great wizard indeed."
Kyree grinned. "Oh, I am. You can count on it." His face suddenly darkened, his eyes piercing beneath the stark slash of his eyebrows. "Does that mean you have decided to accept my proposal?"
Jane swallowed nervously. She couldn't think of any reason not to give him her answer. She made her decision last night. She'd given Daken his opportunity to stop her. There was nothing left to do but make it official. At least to Kyree. Still, it took all her composure to say the words that would seal her future.
"Yes, Kyree. I would be honored to marry you and be your Empress."
He raised both her hands to his lips, kissing them each in turn. "You do me a great honor, Oracle. You will not regret it."
"So what next?" She glanced around at the other Council Members. "Do we tell them?"
"Oh, no. Not yet. There are still some minor details to work out."
"You mean a strategy."
He grinned. "You are quick, Jane. Between my magic and your tech-nol-ogy," he struggled with the English word, "we will be unstoppable."
