Star warrior complete a.., p.36
Star Warrior Complete: A Scifi Alien Romance Bundle, page 36
Ergohl favored me with another one of those fatalistic shrugs that he seemed to use so often. He was a man who was very much resigned to accepting the world as it was.
“You defeated her by combat. That means you’re now my daughter according to ancient tradition.”
“But no one has paid attention to that tradition in ages according to Jorav,” I said. “What’s so special about me?”
Ergohl turned and looked out over the city. In particular his attention seemed to be focused on the imperial palace off in the distance. No palace or tower in the city couldn’t have a view of the imperial palace what with the way it towered over everything else in the city.
“Let’s just say that I understand you and Jorav might be up to terrible things. Great things. The sort of things I might have more than a passing interest in. Adopting you as my daughter allowed me to get rid of a very big liability while at the same time moving closer to those potentially terrible things.”
I felt a tingle run through my body. Not the sort of tingle I got when I looked at Jorav with his ridiculously tight blue muscles and tattoos. I felt him somewhere out in the city, off in the direction of his tower. He was irritated about something, but then again when wasn’t he irritated about something? Still, irritation or no it was comforting to know he was out there.
Especially with Ergohl talking like this. Dangerous talk. The sort of talk that could get me in trouble. The sort of talk that had my danger since tingling as though I was in the middle of pitched combat and someone was about to hit me from behind with a disintegrator.
Never a pleasant feeling.
But it sounded very much like Ergohl had some inkling of my plans regarding the emperor. Not that I had much more than a vague set of moving pieces running through my mind that might end up with a dead emperor. The only problem was I had yet to think of a plan that resulted in a dead emperor and a live Talia and Jorav. And that wasn’t even taking account of my crew.
It was a tangled web. A tangled web that I wasn’t in the mood to share with Ergohl. Not yet. I might like him and enjoy his company, but I wasn’t ready to trust him with my life in the same way that I trusted Jorav.
“I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
Ergohl grinned. “Of course you wouldn’t,” he said. “All I ask is that when the time comes for you to go through with any plans you might be denying here and now, keep me in mind and remember the kindness I’ve given you.”
I looked down at my food but suddenly I wasn’t as hungry as I had been. No, I felt the need to get back to the safety of Jorav’s tower. That tingling danger sense wasn’t going away.
“I apologize, Ergohl, but I really must be getting back to the tower.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Of course my dear. I had a feeling you might say something like that.”
I quickly dabbed at the edges of my mouth and made my way through the corridors to where Jorav’s hovercar was waiting for me. The entire time I expected to be stopped by someone, but no security ever came out to stop me. Still, I didn’t feel secure until I was back in my car.
That conversation had really rattled me. Was I really that obvious about my intentions? Had Jorav said something that tipped Ergohl off? There were too many questions and not enough answers.
And for the first time since those assassins sucker punched me down on the bottom level of the city I found myself afraid. Truly afraid.
12: Hidden Currents
Jorav:
I felt a mounting sense of irritation as I looked down at the invitation. It seemed so harmless at first, but I knew that it was anything but. A personal invitation hand signed by Dovar himself?
No, something like that meant he was taking a personal interest. Something like that could only mean trouble. I wanted to crumple the thing up, toss it across the room, and fire at it several times until it burst into flames.
Though of course I couldn’t do that. The paper would’ve already sent a signal back to Dovar the moment I pulled it out of its envelope letting him know I received it. To not respond now would be a slight he might not be able to ignore, and then I would have to kill him in a duel which would ignite a war between his house and my soldiers and the whole thing would spiral out of control when the real target was sitting fat and happy in the imperial palace pissing the Ascendency away.
I growled again. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in the nobles to begin with. I should’ve ignored Dovar. Though it would’ve been difficult to ignore him after he showed up in my rooms to personally extend an invitation. That might have led to the war that was running through my mind.
Complications on top of complications when that was the last thing I needed.
I was irritated. Irritated at the way the planning for our bonding ceremony was going. Talia seemed more interested in spending time with Ergohl learning Livisk than she was in actually planning the ceremony. I wondered if that was part of her intention to tease me and keep me in a never ending state of torture because I told her we couldn’t be intimate until the ceremony was over.
I was irritated at the emperor. I was irritated at Dovar for dragging me into the snakes’ den that was the nobility. I was irritated at the universe for piling onto me at the moment when I needed it the least.
I also still didn’t trust Ergohl’s intentions. I didn’t know what he was hoping to accomplish by grandstanding and adopting Talia using a bit of Livisk law that hadn’t been invoked in living memory. I didn’t think that he was interested in stealing her from me, he was as much a stickler for the old ways as I was and would have challenged me directly if that was his intent.
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what his game was. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was working for the emperor. Damnation. There were so many dangerous currents swirling around me. It made me long for the days when I could point a battle fleet at someone and make them dead and that was the extent of my job for the day.
This was all so damned complicated.
“Sir?”
I blinked and looked across my desk. I’d been so lost in my thoughts that I forgot Telak was still sitting on the other side with a tablet in hand.
“I apologize, Telak,” I said. “You were telling me?”
“We’ve managed to find at least two snipers who were keeping tabs on Talia while she was out on the balcony having her lunch with Ergohl,” he said.
I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a low growl that started at the very center of my being and radiated out until I was certain it would rattle the transparent aluminum windows, though of course that was a ridiculous flight of fancy.
“Did either of them have orders to fire on her?” I asked.
I didn’t need to ask whether or not those snipers had been taken in for questioning. I also didn’t need to ask whether or not the questioning had been successful. Telak was very thorough in his work, and I had no doubt that he had the information I wanted before I knew I wanted it.
“Not as far as we can tell,” Telak said. “The best I can say is they had orders to observe, but not to kill.”
“Well that’s something,” I said. “Though I think I preferred the days when the emperor was moving against her openly with his assassins. I suppose he learned his lesson when they all turned up dead.”
“If I may, sir?” Telak said.
I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my hands together almost to the point of pain. I was not going to have an outburst. I was not going to allow myself to get angry at Telak for delivering news I wasn’t going to like. That he was going to deliver news I didn’t like I didn’t doubt. I’d come to recognize that tone.
“What is it?” I said.
“Again, as best we can tell it would appear that these snipers weren’t working for the emperor. I can assure you I was quite thorough in figuring that out,” he said.
“Wonderful. Did they say who they were working for?”
Again from the slight pause I knew Telak was about to tell me something I wasn’t going to like.
“It would appear that both of them had implants that released a fast acting poison into their bloodstream the moment they were on the verge of revealing who they were working for. Pretty standard kit, though well hidden. I didn’t know they were there until it was too late. We’ll take care to make sure the next ones we find are thoroughly scanned for devices before we begin questioning.”
“Very well,” I said. “I suppose that’s the best you can do.”
I felt Talia moving closer and closer. She was somewhere in the building now. Something had worried her while she was over at Ergohl’s and caused her to make the trip back here to the tower faster than she normally would. That added another nagging worry. I wondered what had happened to spook her. She wasn’t the type to spook easily.
I supposed I would find out soon enough. I could feel her moving up from the dock. I turned to Telak.
“She’ll be here in a moment. Not a word about any of this to her, understand? I don’t want her to know she’s being followed by a security detail, and I definitely don’t want her to know that she’s being targeted by cowardly snipers.”
“Understood, my general,” Telak said. He stood and bowed, crossing his arms on his chest in a salute. I returned the gesture as the door slid open behind Telak and Talia stepped into the room.
“Telak,” she said with a smile and a nod. “Always good to see you. I trust security in the building is going well?”
“Of course, my lady,” he said, his eyes darting back to me for just a moment. I suppressed the urge to sigh. Talia was sharp enough that she’d pick up on something like that if she saw it, though she didn’t say anything which made me hope she’d missed it.
Telak gave her an equally deep bow along with the same salute he’d given me. In the time Talia had been here it seemed that he’d transferred some of the loyalty he felt towards me to her. That might serve her well if we ever found ourselves in a situation where I was captured or killed, though I desperately hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“I trust you had a good time with Ergohl aside from whatever bothered you there at the end?” I asked.
“You could say that,” Talia said, moving over and collapsing into the chair Telak had just vacated. “Except for the part where I’m pretty sure he knows we’re planning something.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Is that it? Of course he knows we’re plotting something. Everyone in this city is always plotting something. That’s the way the world works. Did he manage to get it out of you?”
I didn’t have to tell her how bad it would be if Ergohl managed to get anything out of her. The severity of a slip on that score was communicated clearly through the bond. Not that I thought she would make a slip like that. In many ways she was more skilled at the political side of the battlefield than I was, and I had to constantly remind myself of that.
“Nothing like that,” she said. “But he did say that he wanted us to keep him and his kindness in mind when we went through with whatever we were planning.”
I felt something odd moving through the bond. At least it was odd coming from Talia. Fear. Genuine fear. Whatever Ergohl had said to her it had her truly worried, though I had a hard time believing there was anything to truly worry about if the conversation was exactly as she said.
“You’re worrying too much Talia,” I said. “I’m sure he’s simply going on what you humans call a fishing expedition. Trying to get you to give something away by making it seem like he knows something.”
“This felt like more than him trying to seem like he was trying to get me to give something away,” Talia said. “The way he was talking it felt like he knew something.”
I glanced down at the invitation from Dovar again. The invitation that had caused so much irritation. An invitation that made me want to pull my weapon out and go to ask Dovar exactly what he knew. I read the message once more.
“I strongly encourage you to come to the next ball being held at my palace. We have urgent matters that touch upon the highest offices that we need to discuss.”
I wondered. The message seemed crafted to make it seem like Dovar knew something, but at the same time it gave away nothing. Was it the same as Ergohl? Was he on a fishing expedition, as the humans said? Or was there something else going on here? Had someone leaked something or given something away without meaning to?
I knew I hadn’t. The only person I could think of who might have done something like that was sitting in a chair across from me. She’d been spending so much time with Ergohl. It seemed impossible, but what if she had let her guard down and let something slip that shouldn’t have?
“What’s on that slip of paper, Jorav?” She asked.
“Nothing of consequence,” I said.
“Bullshit. I can feel what you’re feeling, and don’t try to put up any of those mental walls to block me out either. I can tell when you’re doing that now.”
I stopped myself from doing exactly that. When she got angry like this it was difficult not to try and put those walls up. It was a defense measure and I felt like I was in combat and needed to defend myself.
I wouldn’t do that, though.
“This is an invitation from Dovar. He wants us to come to the next ball he’s hosting at his palace, and he made it seem like there was something important he wanted to talk to me about.”
“Just like Ergohl,” Talia said, fixing me with an odd stare. It took me a moment, and reading her emotions through the bond, to realize that she was looking at me with suspicion!
“Yes,” I said, regarding her with the same look. “Odd that all of this would come up at the same time, right on top of one another.”
“Are you trying to say something Jorav?” she asked, heat coming to her voice. Though that heat in her voice was nothing compared to the heat passing through the bond. She was furious. Lesser warriors would have turned away from the force of that anger.
But then again I wasn’t a lesser warrior. I wasn’t like one of those pampered nobles threatening us from the safety of their palaces. I would meet this danger head on just like I’d met every other danger in my life.
“What if I am?” I asked. All the frustration and irritation I’d felt recently came boiling over in those few words. Talia turned away at my harsh words, but not for long. When she turned back there was fire in her eyes and her words.
“I can’t believe you’d accuse me of something like that!” she spat. “As though I’d ever help one of those snakes! How dare you!”
“How dare I? I’m not the one who’s going over to Ergohl’s palace regularly to do who knows what with him!”
Talia paused. The fury in the bond went from white hot to cold. If her eyes were lasers then she would be boring right through my skull at that moment. I fought the urge to turn away from her. I was not going to give her the win in this battle of wills.
“Are you accusing me of what I think you’re accusing me of?”
I held her gaze. Somehow. Impossibly. It was a good thing that we already weren’t having our intimate time together because of the bonding ceremony, because with the anger that was floating through the bond I could guarantee that nothing like that was going to be happening any time soon with the way she was staring at me now.
“You’re damn right it won’t,” she said.
We held one another’s gaze for the space of another set of heartbeats. Or maybe the space of a heartbeat for Talia. Humans did have that odd plumbing with only the one heart that made them so vulnerable in single combat. Then almost at the same time amusement spiked across the bond and a moment later I was doubled over on my desk laughing as Talia sat back in her own chair letting out a laugh of her own.
“Oh my,” Talia said, wiping a tear from her eyes. “For a moment there I thought you were serious. As though I would ever do anything like that with Ergohl. No thank you!”
I shook my head. “I never thought you would. But to be serious for a moment, someone is obviously figuring out that we’re up to something. That could be dangerous. Very dangerous. Somehow it’s leaking out. Are you sure you didn’t say anything to him?”
“Nothing at all,” Talia said. “And believe you me that’s not for lack of trying on his part. He’s been subtly trying to pump me for information since the first time I went to his place. Today was the first time he decided to get less than subtle.”
“This is all very dangerous,” I said.
“Tell me about it,” Talia said. “Though at some point you’re going to say that often enough that I’m going to stop believing you.”
It was obvious with the mental link that neither one of us was the one who had said anything. Which was almost even more worrying in its own way. If neither one of us was talking that meant there was someone who was listening in on us somehow. I had my rooms swept regularly to make sure there were no listening devices, but no system was foolproof. It was impossible that they were tapping into the mental bond, though. There were ways to disrupt the bond with the proper materials, but no one had ever been able to figure out how to tap into the bond like you would regular communications.
If something like that existed then I would know about it because of my position.
Or it could just be that they suspected something. Ergohl might know that the emperor was trying his best to kill Talia and take me right along with her. Perhaps he thought it was a given that I wasn’t going to take that sort of thing lying down. Maybe he assumed that I would eventually lash out at the emperor.
There was just no way of knowing.
“I agree,” Talia said. “I think for starters we need to start having all sensitive conversations mentally, though. There’s too much danger otherwise.”
“Agreed,” I said. “If they were to know…”
I paused. Smiled as Talia put her fingers to her lips. Old habits died hard, I suppose. We had only just agreed to move our conversations to the mental arena and already I was still trying to talk to her the old fashioned way.
