I laid my hand on the bed. "Would you like to sit?"
Eldrin nodded stiffly. He settled on the mattress edge and stared across the dimly lit room at the opposite wall.
After a while he spoke. "My father is ninety-one now."
My heart grew heavy. "I dreamed about your father too."
His voice caught. "Mine was a simple dream, really. He was sitting in his favorite armchair in our home on Lyshriol. Mother was with him. So were my brothers and sisters." A tear ran down his cheek, catching a spark of light. "My father was saying good-bye to them. And to me. He sent a message to me, I don't know how."
Moisture gathered in my eyes. "He had a good life, Dryni. A family he loved. It made him happy."
"Makes," Eldrin whispered. "Not made."
"I'm sorry," I murmured. "I'm so sorry."
"It's just a bad dream."
"Yes. Just a dream." I started to reach for him. Then I stopped, fearing a rebuff, unsure what he needed now.
"Ah, Dehya." He pulled me into his arms, resting my head against his shoulder. With relief, I embraced him. His sleep shirt felt soft against my skin, and his hair brushed my forehead, smelling of the astringent shampoo he favored.
He hinged his hand, cupping it around my cheek, his four fingers firm against my skin. "I wish we could bring Taquinil back." The pain of loss ached in his words.
"He's still alive." I willed it to be true. If only I had the use of a Triad Chair, so I could search better.
Eldrin brushed his hand over my hair, from my head all the way down my back. "My father didn't receive any life-extension treatments until he met my mother. He was already eighteen. And the treatments were less advanced then. But he always said he had a full life, more than he ever expected. Gods know, he loved my mother. And she him."
I splayed my hands on his back, feeling the familiar strength of his muscles. "We need to go to Earth. We have to get him and Roca out of there."
"Yes."
We sat for a while, holding each other, neither saying what we feared, that it would be his father's body we brought home.
After a while Eldrin said, "He's a strange man."
I knew he didn't mean his father. "Jon Casestar?"
"Corbal Xir."
My hands tightened on his back. "Strange how?"
"He could be kind."
Kind?
I couldn't believe the word.
Eldrin answered my unspoken protest. "He almost never asked me to provide. Only when the Razers interrogated me—" He took a ragged breath. "Even then, I don't think my pain made him transcend. The Razers did, but not Corbal."
I wasn't sure I had heard right. "You mean Xir left you alone?"
"No. He… paid attention. But he tried to control his cruelty." His voice grated. "He didn't always succeed. And he liked having slaves. He used to make me kneel just to see a Ruby prince prostrate before him." His hand clenched my hair. "Nor did the word 'consent' mean anything to him."
My body went rigid in his arms.
I'll strangle him.
I didn't realize I was gritting my teeth until Eldrin rubbed my jaw. His voice lightened a bit. "Strangulation? Did that come from my gentle wife?"
"I'll put him in the exhaust nozzle of a starship antimatter drive and blast off."
Although he laughed softly, it sounded strained. He bent his head over mine. "It's over now."
"Thank the saints," I murmured.
But I feared the difficulties had only begun.
17
Bloodmark
Over the next few months, two thousand ships joined us at Delos. Many came from the Onyx evacuation. Their crews had delivered the evacuees to freedom, then refitted and set out to find the remains of Skolia's once mighty fleet. Their appearance at Delos didn't reassure the Allied forces.
Then the largest battle cruiser from Onyx arrived,
Pharaoh's Shield
, rumbling through the Delos star system, a star-faring giant attended by ships that were large in their own right, yet dwarfed by the rugged cruiser.
An old friend commanded
Pharaoh's Shield
: Admiral Ragnar Bloodmark. Tall and lean, with long muscles and a rangy frame, he projected a sense of barely controlled power, as if he might uncoil in vehemence without warning. Although his self-assurance, strong features, and dark coloring evoked a lord of the Skolian noble Houses, he had been born in poverty. He wasn't a full Skolian; his grandfather had come from a place called Scandinavia on Earth. But Ragnar was a Skolian citizen and had deeply resented the prejudice he encountered in his youth because of his mixed heritage. Given the high status he had attained in ISC, few dared belittle his lineage now.
We met in the Tactics Room of
Havyrl's Valor.
Ragnar, Jon Casestar, Eldrin, Vazar, Jinn Opsister, and I sat at a table near the luminous white curve of the spherical room. My bodyguards were stationed around the chamber, Ragnar and Jon had brought aides, and Ragnar also had two bodyguards. The sphere seemed too full of uniformed people, like dusky moths clustered within a white-hot flame yet somehow never consumed by its fire.
Ragnar continued his report to Jon. "We lost every space habitat at Onyx. We didn't lose the Orbiter space habitat, but it took serious damage during the Trader raid." He glanced at me, lines creasing his rugged features. "All your bodyguards were killed, Dehya. I'm sorry."
I struggled with that memory. I could still see their crumpled bodies in the coruscating hall that led to the Lock. Here in the Tactics Room, Eldrin was sitting next to me with his palm lying idly on the transparent table. His hand gripped the surface, his fingertips turning white.
"We must see to their families," I said. "And a memorial service."
"I have people on it." Ragnar watched me with his familiar, dark-eyed gaze. I knew him far better than Jon Casestar. Although Ragnar wasn't always easy to deal with, I valued his loyalty.
"Let us know how it proceeds," Eldrin said.
"Of course, Your Highness," Ragnar answered smoothly. As always, he somehow managed to make his courtesies to Eldrin sound like insults. At best he and Eldrin had a strained relationship; at its worst, their mutual dislike descended into open hostility.
Undaunted by the choppy emotional undercurrents, Vazar spoke to Ragnar. "A man lives on the Orbiter, an artist. He's called Coop."
Ragnar answered curtly. "Your husband is fine, Primary Majda." He had never hidden his distaste for their three-way marriage.
Vazar left it at that, but relief washed out from her mind, swirling over us like warm water from a sun-touched lake. Eldrin's gaze gentled as he watched his sister-in-law. Neither Ragnar nor Jon showed any indication they caught her reaction. The same was true of the woman standing behind Ragnar, one of his aides. Even after so many decades, it bemused me that most people didn't experience the rich clamor of emotions humans produced. Often that tumult became too much and I had to retreat from human contact, except with Eldrin. His mind flowed in strong and deep waves, forming a steady envelope for the faster, entangled oscillations of my own thoughts.
Eldrin had a similar effect on Taquinil, who had a mind much like mine. It was one reason Taquinil and I had such a good relationship; his thoughts, his moods, the way he solved problems and viewed the universe— they all made sense to me. Eldrin sheltered us both from the emotional storms of humanity that raged outside the haven of his love. Even when he was exasperated or annoyed with us, his mind still soothed ours. I'm not sure he understood it, any more than Taquinil and I understood our effect on him. With his song-writer's lyricism, Eldrin called us "spangled life, like dazzling sunlight reflected off waves of the sea, the sparkle that makes me feel alive."
Jon was speaking to Ragnar. "Have we secured the Orbiter?"
Ragnar concentrated his attention on the other admiral. It intrigued me to watch them interact, two of the Imperial Fleet's most influential leaders. Jon's quiet strength and calm efficiency inspired confidence, whereas Ragnar had a dark, brooding aspect that disquieted people.
"We've moved the Orbiter to a new star system." Ragnar turned his keen gaze back to me. "But as long as the First Lock remains operational, the Traders can locate the Orbiter using their stolen Lock."
I glanced at the aide standing behind him.
"She's cleared," Ragnar said.
"I can turn off the First Lock if we return to the Orbiter," I said.
Jon Casestar didn't look the least surprised by my statement, but that didn't make his expression any less stony. "Taking you to the Orbiter right now is too much of a risk."
Eldrin was staring at us, incredulous. No one had ever told him we could deactivate the Locks. But now he had a need to know. The Locks required Rhon psions to operate, and Eldrin and I were the only free Rhon psions. For the Orbiter's safety, we needed to turn off its Lock. But the fact that we could turn them off could also be exploited as a weakness in our defenses and in the Triad. Had Eldrin known before, he might have revealed it to the Traders during interrogation.
A model evolving in the back of my mind suddenly converged. "Of course!" I said. "He turned it off."
Jon blinked at me. Less than a second had passed since his comment about the risk of taking me to the Orbiter.
I clarified my abrupt statement. "Kelric turned off the stolen Lock."
Now they were all giving me odd looks, except Eldrin. "You still think Kelric is alive?" Eldrin asked. He tried to hold in his hope, but it lightened his voice. Even after all these years, I knew he still greatly missed his youngest brother; although Kelric had grown into a huge warrior, towering over his older brother, Eldrin would always remember him as the affectionate little brother who had held so much love for his family.
Ragnar raised his eyebrow at me. "Do you mean Tertiary Kelricson Valdoria? The Ruby Prince?"
"That's right," I said. "Kelric joined the Triad."
Jon spoke. "Pharaoh Dyhianna, I don't understand why you think he is alive."
"
Someone
new is in the Triad," I said.
"How can you tell?" Ragnar asked. "The psiberweb is gone."
"Kyle space is still there. I was in it. So was Kelric."
Ragnar spoke smoothly. "You've been under a lot of strain."
I gave him a dour look. "I'm not imagining it."
"I would never imply such," he assured me. "But what you've been through lately could affect your perceptions."
Eldrin scowled. "Her 'perceptions' are fine, Ragnar."
The admiral answered in an overly courteous voice. "Thank you, Prince Eldrin."
A familiar tension tightened my shoulders.
Not now,
I willed them both, even though I knew Ragnar couldn't hear. They had fought these verbal battles for years.
Eldrin glanced at me. Then he took a breath and answered Ragnar with formal civility. "Very well, Admiral."
When neither of them said anything else, both Jon and I relaxed. I wasn't the only one disquieted by the antipathy between Ragnar and Eldrin. When two people both held such high positions, their antagonism stopped being personal and became political.
Vazar, however, had no hesitation about wading into the fray. "Dehya, could your calculations be connected to Naaj? She was Kelric's sister-in-law."
"I don't think so." My main worry about Naaj Majda concerned what she would do if Kelric showed up, claiming his title and assets. She might decide he should go back to being dead before anyone discovered he lived.
"You think Kelric went to a Lock?" Eldrin asked.
"He would have had to," I said. "If he joined the Triad."
Ragnar didn't look convinced. "No one has been to the Orbiter or the Lock on Raylicon."
"Then he used the one the Traders stole," I said.
Vazar scowled. "How? They crashed the psiberweb with it."
"We don't know for certain they caused the collapse," Jon said.
I sifted through my mental files. "I suspect it was a combination of events. Taquinil and I dropped into Kyle space at the same time the Traders were misusing the Lock. Even without our presence, their activities would have destabilized the Kyle universe. Add Taquinil and me, and it's no wonder it imploded."
"Wouldn't a new one immediately form?" Ragnar's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Sort of a mental Big Bang?"
I quirked my eyebrow at him. "I imagine so, given that I'm not dead."
Jon spoke. "Then the implosion of the psiberspace where we built our webs must have occurred before you and your son fell into the Lock."
