by Alix Nichols
“You’re not the only one.” Keiron rolled his eyes in mock smugness. “I have five hundred new applications to go through when we’re back at the base.”
Areg blinked twice, clearly unprepared for Keiron’s joke, then laughed. Keiron chuckled, too. It had been a while since he’d allowed himself to forget his stern persona and relax like this.
His enhanced sense of smell told him Linni was coming down even before he heard her bodyguards’ heavy steps. That perfume… Keiron suspected it was a unique scent made by some Ittroise master to her specifications. Or maybe it was a common fragrance that the delicious scent of her skin rendered unique. Whichever it was, it suited her. And it muddled Keiron’s thoughts.
Linni came up to him. They bowed and touched their foreheads.
She said a few kind words to Areg before turning back to him. “May I have a quick word?”
Areg bowed and strode back to his post.
On her sign, her bodyguards fell behind.
Keiron and Linni walked down one of the hallways branching off the lobby.
“I just wanted to go over the strategy we agreed on at the last preparatory meeting,” she said.
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“We’ll insist on the incentives, compliance guarantees, deadlines, and LOR’s willingness to intervene militarily if they do go to war.” She looked up at him. “Right?”
He nodded. “Willingness, yes, but also capability. You must impress on them that we have the capacity to pacify the planet by force. In which case, LOR would depose both governments and administer both realms for the next decade.”
“I propose that you take the lead when we get to the that part.”
He couldn’t help a sly smile. “In other words, you’ll dangle the sweet roll and I’ll brandish the sword.”
“Yes,” she said. “For a good reason. I can sing the Enforcers’ praises and relate how powerful they are. I can cite all your successful operations. But…”
“But?”
She lifted her right hand, palm up. “Look at you, Colonel.”
He quirked an eyebrow.
“It’ll be more effective if they look at and listen to you on that subject. You led those operations. You’re in charge of the Corps. You should be talking about its capabilities.”
“Understood.”
A faint noise drew his attention to the lobby. The governor of Tosuw had entered the lodge surrounded by his aides and security and headed toward the meeting room.
“My biggest concern is…” Linni hesitated. “What if that strategy fails? What if the hate the realms have cultivated for each other prevails? What if they decide they still must go to war?”
He squinted, furrowing his brow. “Compel them?”
“Out of the question.”
“Even to save lives?”
“The decision must be theirs. If I trick their minds to believe it, sooner or later they’ll figure it out. And they’ll still go to war. And I, and the whole League of Realms, will lose our credibility for future peace mediation.”
She was right, of course. Besides, he remembered all too well how much she hated using her compulsion gift, and how deeply it hurt her when she had. He should’ve never suggested it.
“Those are fair points, Your Grace.”
Xasoni’s governor and his entourage marched into the meeting room.
Linni squared her shoulders. “We must go.”
The talks had been a clear-cut success, Keiron thought, forcing himself not to smile smugly as he found his nameplate at the round banquet table.
To his delight, the nameplate to his left read LOR Superintendent H.G. Lady Olinnie Tann-Lo. She hadn’t arrived yet.
A few hours ago, the two of them had delivered a perfectly coordinated sweet-roll-and-sword package. The governors of Tosuw and Xasoni had chosen the voice of reason over their mutual animosity. A deal was signed. And now for the first time in years, the top officials from each realm were going to share a meal.
The governors and their spouses took their seats.
Linni arrived shortly afterward.
She wore a beautiful evening gown that hugged her perfect, albeit artificially aged, body. Keiron forced himself not to stare. The banquet began. There were many courses and even more speeches and toasts. A group of musicians played large pleasant-sounding stringed instruments Keiron hadn’t seen before.
He turned to the Tosuw governor’s wife, Dame Izola, seated on his right. “Are those instruments Terran Heritage or Ra, my dame?”
“Terran,” she said with pride. “Zeefede is the only planet where they are still made and played.”
He aahed dutifully, said wonderful twice, smiled politely, and then turned his attention back to his plate. He’d hoped this dinner would allow him to enjoy a relaxed, informal conversation with Linni. But she talked nonstop with her neighbor on the left, Xasoni’s governor. As for Keiron, he struggled to find conversation topics with Dame Izola. Small talk had never been his strength.
Clearly, it wasn’t hers, either.
It was during one of the long silences at the table that Linni sent the server standing behind them to fetch something and turned to Keiron. “Colonel, may I ask you to meet me in the lounge at midnight and accompany me somewhere?”
His eyes lit up. Was she inviting him to spend the night with her like she’d done on Upere 2?
“It’s not… It’s not like you think,” she added in a rushed whisper. “We’re going to slip out to meet with someone.”
He cocked his head.
She smiled. “It’s my dearest, oldest friend. He’s here on Zeefede. I haven’t seen him in a year.”
He tried not to show he wasn’t liking what he was hearing.
“Besides,” Linni said. “I can’t wait to recount today’s talks to him and, hopefully, deserve his praise.”
“Would it matter that much to you?”
“It would mean the world.”
Jealousy spoke before reason could. “Does it now, Your Grace?”
She looked back over her shoulder to check there was still no one behind them. “It would to you, too, considering what he achieved a hundred years ago.”
Linni’s friend had to be a very old cyborg or a rich-blood capable of self-regeneration.
“What was this feat?” Keiron asked.
“Brokering peace between the remaining Empire supporters and the Allied Realms.”
The person who’d done that was also the person who’d been instrumental in winning the Empire War. After the Allied victory, he was endorsed as Toholt’s governor and rebuilt the realm. Unwilling to stay in power longer than was necessary, he retired twenty years ago, and founded the Circle of the Enlightened.
Keiron narrowed his eyes at Linni. “Your friend is Raween Cummills?”
“My friend and mentor.” She grinned. “But please, Colonel, keep that information to yourself. “
The server arrived with a small sauceboat. Linni turned to her left-hand neighbor, explaining to him why she’d asked for that particular gravy for her fish.
Keiron did his best to come up with a new topic to discuss with Dame Izola. When it turned out both had done part of their studies on Oiru, the conversation flowed at a much more natural pace. Dame Izola confessed those were the happiest years of her life. Keiron shared an anecdote, and they spent the rest of the evening reminiscing about the planet, its university, and its professors.
After the banquet was over, Keiron went straight to the lounge. Twenty minutes later, an unfamiliar woman who smelled like Linni rushed down one of the hallways.
He stood up. “How did you get out of your room and past your security detail? “
“I have many tricks up my sleeve, Colonel,” she said with a wink. “You haven’t seen half of it.”
They headed out of the lodge.
“Where am I flying you?” he asked.
“There’s no need to fly. Raween is waiting for us in an underground bar just a short walk away
.”
“I thought you’d asked me to come along because you needed my wings.”
She shook her head. “I want to introduce the two of you. Raween holds you in high regard.”
“He’s been my biggest hero since I was a kid,” Keiron said. “It will be an honor to meet him.”
Keiron had always pictured Lord Raween Cummills as a white-bearded, shriveled man who was still alive due to his indomitable spirit.
His hero had white hair, all right, but his face and body looked youthful, and his eyes were as bright as a boy’s. If Keiron hadn’t known the Lord Cummills’s real age, he wouldn’t have given the lone patron at the bar’s counter a day over sixty.
Lord Cummills laughed heartily after hugging Linni and returning Keiron’s bow-and-brow. “I always get that look from people who see me for the first time. It doesn’t follow, does it?”
“It’s just…” Keiron smiled. “You’re an Empire War hero, Your Grace. You’re in history manuals. I grew up reading about your exploits.”
Lord Cummills waved dismissively. “A lot of it is exaggerated. And, please, call me Raween.”
Keiron scrunched up his face in a silent plea.
“Do try.” Raween motioned to the bartender. “It’s hard to be friends with someone who calls you ‘Your Grace.’ ”
“How about Lord Cummills?” Keiron offered. “As a transitional compromise?”
“If you must.”
Linni and Keiron ordered their drinks.
Over the next half hour or so, Linni told her mentor all about the peace talks and the success of their strategy.
Lord Cummills asked questions and listened, visibly pleased.
“I’m glad Her Grace didn’t opt for the economic sanctions that Dodd Panrulyn had been pushing,” Keiron said.
“Me, too,” Lord Cummills said. “The Circle of the Enlightened had analyzed every instance of economic sanctions over the past decade, and our conclusion was clear. They’d failed to achieve the desired goal.”
“Here’s one example,” Linni said. “Superintendent Nohad had imposed economic sanctions on Teteum seven years ago to dissuade it from attacking Eia.”
“Teteum did it anyway,” Keiron said.
Lord Cummills set his palms down flat on the counter. “And then LOR ended up supplying Eia with advanced weaponry, so they could push the invader out.”
Linni trained her eyes on her mentor’s. “What do you think of Tastassi’s new governor, Polit Horbell?”
Lord Cummills held her gaze. “Why are you asking about him?”
“Colonel Yaggar and I witnessed some disturbing things there.” She glanced at Keiron. “Later, we received an even more disturbing report.”
“I have a theory about Horbell,” Lord Cummills said. “It would explain a lot, but it’s too… speculative, too wild to share at this point. I need to gather more information.”
Linni raised her chin. “And what about the other thing you were looking into, Raween? Have you made any headway?”
“Not yet, I’m afraid. But I’m working on it.”
On their second drink, the conversation turned less political and more private. Lord Cummills inquired after Linni’s adoptive parents, and then they reminisced about their first meeting, all those years ago.
Keiron drank in every word, every tidbit that hadn’t been part of Linni’s official biography, realizing how little he knew about her, and the extent of the mystery she was.
“How did you get the idea to apply for the LOR superintendent job?” he asked.
She glanced at Lord Cummills. “It was Raween’s idea, actually. Superintendent Nohad had invited him to be on the selection panel. He declined and urged me to apply.”
“I had no doubt she’d make it to the interviews.”
Lord Cummills put his hands behind his head and quirked an eyebrow at Keiron. “Do you know what her cumulative score was on Gifts, Skills, Composure, Logic, Strategy, Knowledge, and Psychology?”
“I can imagine.” Keiron laughed. “You wanted her appointment to be beyond reproach.”
“With me on the interview panel, there would’ve been a conflict of interest,” Lord Cummills said, smiling. “Because I had a huge interest in seeing her at the helm of LOR.”
An hour later, they said their goodbyes.
Lord Cummills left the bar first.
Keiron turned to Linni. “What is it that he’s is looking into for you?”
“My provenance,” she said, standing up. “We should go back.”
He stood. “Yes, Your Grace.”
They headed toward Amma’s Lodge.
As they walked, Keiron was dying to pull her to him, kiss her breathless, and then spend the night in her bed. But she kept her gaze on the road and a reasonable distance between them.
Her body language was clear. Don’t try anything.
The Zeechaa were just twenty minutes’ cyborg’s flight away, Keiron realized. Would Linni be interested in paying a brief visit to the mythical community? A species that was so reclusive, those who’d met them could be counted on the fingers of two hands. Ra-human hands, not seven-fingered Zeechaa hands.
Knowing her, she’d find it hard to say no to such a unique opportunity. Keiron needed no more than a couple of hours to fly her there, introduce her to his friends, and take her back to the lodge.
If she agreed, flying with her—their bodies touching—would be torture for sure. But he was so starved for her he’d take torture over nothing.
Provided she gave him even that much.
You are pathetic. Don’t do it. Don’t say anything.
“Your Grace,”—he turned toward her—“have you ever met a Zeechaa?”
<< <> >>
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed THE DRAGON’S WOMAN!
What do you think Iyatt’s caller told him about Unie? Did the “brothel bird” really have a message for him from his deceased betrothed?
You’ll find out in the next installment!
And what about Keiron and Linni? Do you think Keiron will suggest a little detour to meet his Zeechaa friends?
Yes? No?
If he does, how do you think that visit will go? Will they fly in, bow-and-brow and fly out? Or will they maybe stay for the night?
If you are on my mailing list, you’ll find the answers to these questions in a newsletter-exclusive novelette titled, “A Night of Amity.”
Warmest,
Alix
PS: If you enjoyed THE DRAGON’S WOMAN, you can help me out by leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads!
A Night of Amity
(a Keepers of Xereill novelette)
Superintendent Olinnie Tann-Lo and Colonel Keiron Yaggar have kept it strictly professional ever since she became his boss. But when the pair drink some heady Amity Tea with a local tribe on Zeefede, they don’t know that the word “amity” has a second meaning in Zeechaa.
That meaning survives in just two expressions today. One is “amity tea”.
The other one is “a night of amity”.
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GLOSSARY
Aheya, the Mother of All – divine being
Aheya’s Garden – the location of the afterlife, the Eternal Garden
Bionic / cyborg – an augmented Ra-human
The Book of Xereill – sacred religious text
Cataclysm – a devastating nuclear war, occurred on Hente over two hundred years prior
ERIGAT – Establishment for the Regulation and Inventory of Gifts and Traditions
LOR – the Lea
gue of Realms, Founded in 601, after the Allied Realms won the Empire War, LOR is the supra-planetary government of Xereill
LORSS – the League of Realms Space Station
Menial – a Ra-human with little or no education
Organic – an unaugmented Ra-human
Ouroboros (a serpent coil) – a winged dragon biting its tail, symbol of life, worn as a pendant, received from parents as a toddler on the day of Nine Blessings
Proficient – a highly educated or skilled Ra-human
The Ra – the original humanoid race of Xereill
The Ra and Ra-human chronology:
•Early Ra Era
•Middle Ra Era (golden age of Ra)
•Late Ra Era (decline)
•Human Infusion Era: -1129 to -625 (1930 to 1326 years ago)
•Ra-human Expansion Era: Year -626 to -1 (1300 to 700 years ago)
•New Ra-Human Era: Year 1 to Year 701 (current year)
- Age of the Empire War: Year 538 to 601
- Age of the League of Realms: Since 601, last 100 years
Ra-humans – the current hybrid people of Xereill
Religious hierarchy:
•Superior (always a vestal)
•Prioress (always a vestal)
•Abbess of a temple (always a vestal)
•Regular vestals, monks and hermits
•Healers (a vestal or a monk)
