by Mara Gan
“And if they refuse that?”
“In that case,” I said softly, “I plan to impose restrictions on their flight paths through our space, as well as ban all Galaxians from dealing with the NTA.”
“Strict.” Thal raised her eyebrows as she rolled onto her side, her tail flicking thoughtfully.
“Necessary,” Clee said, swiveling to look at her. “To begin with, the NTA’s plan violates our fundamental law of treating all peoples with respect, regardless of their technological advancement. Secondly, it violates interstellar law. Thirdly, if the NTA disregards everything our Heir asks of them, we need to demonstrate that we’re willing to take action—otherwise, the law means nothing.”
“But isn’t that too much action?” Thal asked dubiously. She straightened her tunic and took her seat again.
“Not at all,” I replied. “It’s indirect. There is no outright attack on the NTA, merely a restriction of the freedoms we grant to our citizens. If they want to be our allies and enjoy the same benefits as our citizens, they must obey our laws, or give up those benefits.”
“I love it,” Nia said. “I can’t say I’m optimistic about the outcome, but I think it’s an excellent tactic.”
“Why do you have to go, Princess?” Eute asked again.
I sighed. “This is a delicate situation. I am, no offense to Clee, the best person to negotiate with an entire room of people bidding on what they see as a prize; I can sense their moods and what tactics they might pursue, and the areas they may be willing to negotiate more deeply. I may even be able to read their minds, which would make this even easier. An entire planet’s fate is at stake; we can’t risk it going badly.”
“But what if it goes badly for you?” Eute said.
Synie scowled at me, eyebrow raised. I shrugged. “Let’s hope it doesn’t,” I said cheerfully. “Besides, the NTA are elitist. They want to deal with leaders, not representatives. They feel snubbed if a leader sends someone in their place.”
“Doesn’t that cause a bit of a security concern for everyone?” Thal asked. “That would mean a lot of leaders, all in one room.”
“Indeed,” Synie said, her mouth twitching in annoyance. “But I’ll say that I couldn’t care less about the other leaders. Given that Meda will be the only one allowed in the negotiations, this is a serious concern for us, and we’ve not figured out how to resolve it. The NTA is very particular about who joins the negotiations, and no one, not even a bodyguard, is allowed to witness the proceedings. Only one delegate per organization.”
“That is so not okay,” Nia growled, frowning at me.
“I have a question,” Callie said quietly.
All eyes swiveled to her.
“Has anyone told the Protector of this yet?”
Silence.
Callie smiled without mirth. “I thought as much. We would have heard him smashing heads if he had known.”
“Rest assured, Boss will be pissed at all of you,” Gi said easily, slipping into the room. “And for not telling him, he will hold all of you liable.” His eyes came to rest humorously on me. “But you will undoubtedly hear the worst of it.”
I sighed, resting my head in my hand. “What are you doing here, Gi?”
He smiled. “I have something that might interest you.” He set a long, thin package on the table. Synie stepped forward as he unwrapped it, displaying a mahogany rod, about two meters long, with intricate burned patterns in swirls and glyphs down the entire length. The tip was sharpened to a point, harkening back to the days when it was used against people who talked out of turn.
“Where did you get an actual Narran negotiating rod, Gi?” Synie asked, leaning over the stick on the table.
Gi smiled. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I looked at him askance. “Where did you get it? These are extremely rare and not sold to outsiders.” I narrowed my eyes. “And how did you even know this trip was happening in the first place?”
“You seem to have no faith in my abilities, Princess.”
“It’s not exactly your abilities I don’t have faith in.”
He held a hand to his chest in mock dismay. “Why, Princess! You mean to say you don’t trust me?”
I just gave him a look.
“And here I thought we were kindred spirits,” he said. “Don’t we Halians stick together?”
“You’re a mercenary,” I stated, crossing my arms. “Why should I trust a mercenary? Did you steal it?”
“This negotiating rod is exactly what we need,” Synie interrupted, inspecting the sharpened point. “Frankly, I don’t really care where you got it, and it’s probably better that I don’t know anyway. This, however, will give Meda the leverage she needs to get the Council to listen to her.”
I gaped. “Synie, this was probably stolen—”
“So?” Synie leveled her gaze on me. “Let’s say it was stolen. Is the theft of one negotiating rod worth the lives of an entire planet?”
I sighed. “I see your point.”
Gi rolled his eyes. “Funny how your principles go out the window when better principles are involved.”
I glared at him. “Do you need to be here?”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“Yes.”
Gi laughed. “In that, you and Boss have a lot in common,” he said, giving me a wink as he flounced out the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“You sure you want to be the one questioning him?” Callie asked, turning to me as we entered the brig.
Tired, I shook my head. It was late and I had way too much to do to add this to my list, but I needed to see him. I was the only reason he was in this city, so any misdemeanors he’d committed could also be, to an extent, indirectly my fault. “Let me in.”
Callie raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Eute and Erie caught him red-handed,” she said, leading me down the corridor to a holding cell at the far end. “He’s not said anything definitive, but we have enough to hold him for a day before charging him.”
“Have you confirmed that the opiates were the only things stolen?”
“Yes,” Callie replied over her shoulder. She placed her thumb on the scanning pad to the last chamber and the doors slid open. “We’ve also confirmed that they definitely came from our hospital.”
I nodded to Callie. “Thank you,” I said. “Please give us a few minutes alone.”
She glanced at the prisoner, then at me, then nodded. “Ten minutes,” she agreed. “But I’ll be watching on the monitor.”
“Fair enough,” I said, watching her leave.
I turned back to see the ever-present smirk on the prisoner’s face.
“Come to visit me, Princess?” he mocked, putting his hand on his chest. He was seated on a cushioned bench, pushed up against the wall. “I’m so flattered.”
I frowned, already reading the answer I had come for in the prisoner’s mind. “Hello, Yalan.”
Yalan sneered. “I bet you’re thrilled, eh, Andromeda?” he asked, leaning back with his hands behind his head. “Finally. You’ve got enough to lock me away in one of those cushy prisons. I bet you were just waiting for an excuse.”
I studied him before pulling up the guard’s chair. I was confused, to say the least; this was Yalan, a man I knew as one of the most unforgiving mercenaries in the galaxy. Yet my telepathic abilities had confirmed that this latest incident was no ordinary misdemeanor.
Slowly, I sank into the chair, not entirely sure how to go about talking to him. This was, surprisingly, sort of new territory for me. “I was not looking for an excuse, Yalan,” I said softly, gazing back into his face.
“Oohh, I get it,” he said. “Catching me was just sheer luck? Of course the princess gets lucky. She’s the goddamned princess. Her life is gold.”
“Why did you do it?” I asked, folding my hands in front of me. I already knew the answer, but I hoped—really hoped—he would consider telling me the truth.
“Because I’m a bad man, Princess.” He smil
ed and the motion was not pleasant. “I like being a mercenary. I enjoy money. It’s not so difficult a concept.”
“But you didn’t have a buyer,” I said, watching for his reaction.
It was faint, but it was there. His steel resolve flickered and I saw what I had sensed all along. Yalan had a strong will, but he had to focus on it to really keep me out. Any break in that focus would open his mind to me.
His wall shot back up. “Well, I would have, if those crazy warrior women hadn’t interrupted me.”
“You’re lying about what you were doing.”
“I usually am,” he said easily.
I shook my head. “Why are you trying to hide the truth, Yalan?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, my lovely princess, so if you’ll just leave—”
“You weren’t going to sell the drugs,” I said. “You were giving them to the leper colony.”
His mouth snapped shut and his glare was furious. I wasn’t even remotely taken aback for once; I was just perplexed. He was stealing painkillers for a leper colony? Why? And furthermore, why did he hide it?
“Tell me,” I urged softly.
For a moment, I thought he might actually reveal something. But then his wall was back up and the glare was every bit as intense as it had been before. “I am not telling you anything.”
I studied him for a few moments before sighing and standing. “All right,” I said, moving to the control panel. “You’re free to go.” I pressed my thumb to the keypad and released the lock, then stood aside to motion him forward.
He eyed me suspiciously. “You’re letting me go? You’re not pressing charges?”
I shook my head. “No.”
His eyes narrowed. “What’s the catch?”
“What you did, and how you got the drugs, was wrong. But I can’t question your motives.” I smiled. “The drugs have already been forwarded to the Selene Leper Colony, which was my best guess for where you were going, based on your past visiting history.”
He stepped out and stared down at me. “You’re just… letting me go, and sending on the drugs I tried to steal? I stole them, Princess. Surely that warrants some punishment.”
I shrugged. “True, but my guess is that Perseus will give you more punishment than I could, and as I said, I am not inclined to punish someone for doing good deeds.” My smile hardened a little. “Next time, Yalan, ask me for what you need.”
His gaze swept my face as I stared back. For a moment, I think we almost understood each other; despite his previous record as a weapons trader, this little misdemeanor had slightly redeemed him in my eyes. I didn’t know why he did it, but in the end it didn’t really matter.
The door opened to reveal Callie and Erie. “We’re letting him go?” Erie asked, scowling as she folded her arms.
“Yes,” I said. “I will explain everything, but Yalan is free to go.”
He moved forward, but Erie remained in the doorway, blocking his exit. “I believe the princess said I was free to go,” Yalan said sarcastically, staring down at her.
Erie’s jaw ticked and she remained deadlocked with him for a few seconds, her ice-blue eyes shooting silent daggers, before she slowly stepped to the side. Yalan was almost down the hall and through the exit when she called after him.
“Yalan.” He turned. “I am not as kind—or forgiving—as the princess is. Don’t forget that.”
With that she smiled and turned back to me. “Care to explain that, Princess?” she asked, clearly annoyed.
I smiled at her disgust of Yalan. Yesterday I would have been right there with her. “He was stealing the drugs for a leper colony,” I said. “Theft or not, that’s a tough crime to prosecute. And,” I added, “I imagine the encounter with the Protector for violating city rules will be worse than any punishment we would have doled out.”
Erie actually smiled a little at that. “Now that is something I can get behind. Maybe we should release all the prisoners and just let Perseus deal with them? That could be fun.”
I rolled my eyes. “One thing at a time, Erie.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Focus, Princess,” Kos said patiently. “Close your eyes.”
My exasperated sigh made the candle flicker. “Kos, this is getting nowhere. I just don’t think I’m as gifted as you think I am.”
He chuckled. “You are most certainly gifted, Princess. But even gifts need practice. You wouldn’t play in a Dískos match without having practiced, would you?”
“How can I practice what I don’t have?”
“How do you know what you have and don’t have until you explore the possibilities?” he countered.
I screwed up my mouth, feeling far too impatient for his annoyingly keen insight. “I hate it when you get philosophical.”
“Focus, Meda.” His deep voice resonated against the walls of his study.
I had been coming here to practice meditation and hone my abilities for over a year. Ever since the first time I’d accidentally read someone’s mind, he had been making me work with him to see if we could control the power. Unfortunately for me, my ability got stronger and stronger and the mind exercises he taught me were only barely keeping me from going completely insane.
One of the most basic exercises we always started with was my favorite, because it involved thinking about forests. Kos instructed me to imagine any problem, whether it was the psychic noise of the station, my own anxiety over not being able to help the petitioners who came to see me, or simply an itch on my nose, and put it “into the forest.” Every problem was just a single leaf in the forest, and if I could step back and see the trees, the leaf didn’t seem so significant anymore.
It was surprisingly useful for getting rid of itchy noses in the middle of meetings, but obviously I needed something stronger for the really rough days.
I could read minds more easily now than I could before, but the ability came and went with the ebb and flow of people’s emotions. It was easy for me to read the mind of someone whose emotions were running high, but I had to concentrate to read the minds of people who were focused and calm. I liked it when people were that way, because they were like cool glasses of water to my parched brain. While the ability could be immensely useful, I didn’t especially like reading minds and emotions, since I had no way to turn it off. It was exhausting, having everyone else’s thoughts and emotions in my mind all the time. Sometimes I had trouble separating other people’s anxiety from my own. I would start to have a panic attack, only to realize I wasn’t even the one panicking. But I supposed that was the basic problem with anxiety: it often had zero reasoning behind it. It just was.
Kos was trying to help me learn to block not just thoughts but emotions, to focus my own mind enough that I could keep a grip on my own sense of calm. The more advanced exercises had me working to put up mental barriers, but that was a lot harder than it sounded.
Kos snapped his fingers in front of my face and I jumped, my eyes popping open.
“You were thinking too much,” he said, wagging a finger at me. “You need to focus. Blank your mind of all but the task at hand. Read my mind.”
For some reason, today’s exercise consisted of me trying to read Kos’s mind. Instead of blocking my ability, I was trying to enhance it. He maintained it was important to stretch my ability like a rubber band to get it as completely within my control as possible, which I supposed had a certain logic, but his mind was impenetrable to me.
“Kos, reading your mind would be like reading a brick wall’s,” I protested.
“Are you saying I’m dense, Princess?”
“No, no!” I sputtered. “I only meant—” I stopped, seeing the amusement in his eyes. “You’re funning me,” I accused. “Perseus is rubbing off on you. You know very well what I meant. Your mind is unreadable. Your kind—Sapitian? Sapillian?”
“Sapientian,” he supplied wryly. k12
“Right,” I said. “Sapientian. Aren’t you all supposedly impermeable t
o telepathy?”
Kos waved his hand over the candle. “That’s a difficult question, Princess,” he said quietly. “There have been very few telepaths in recorded history, for one thing.”
“Empaths, then. I can’t feel anything from you, either.”
“I believe we are impermeable to that as well,” he said, smiling faintly. “But unfortunately, there are very few of us left.”
I was surprised. “Why?”
He smiled, holding his hands out. “Never mind that now,” he said, taking my hands, his cool skin smooth. “We can commiserate about being an endangered species later. Right now I want you to focus. Think of the candle. Think only of the flame; it burns, flickering, never the same, blue at the center. Orange in the middle, deep red at the very tips. Feel it with your mind.”
I focused, trying to remember all he had taught me. I saw the candle in my mind, saw the changing colors, shapes, heat.
“Channel all your body’s energy into that candle,” Kos said, voice soft. “Let the tension in your body go. Let your mind be the candle.”
I followed his directions, releasing all my strength into the flame, letting go of my consciousness. It was nice; it was meditative, relaxing. All my worries and concerns seemed to flow out of me and into the candle, burning up as they left me. Swirling clouds of color surrounded me; I felt like I was floating in the stars and visiting distant worlds, all at the same time. I loved these meditative dreams; they were so beautiful, so freeing that I wished I could stay in them forever.
I sighed and dropped my hands, suddenly exhausted. “I’m sorry,” I said, stifling a yawn. “I guess I’m just tired.”
Kos released my hands, nodding thoughtfully, his attention seemingly elsewhere. “It’s alright, Princess,” he said, absently patting my shoulder. “You did well today. Proficiency will come with time and practice.”
