The Consort (Tellaran Series) (33 page)

The elder blinked. “Commander, how can you even
think
—”

“Despite what convention says about the clans, Sechon,” Kyndan interrupted, “family bonds are very strong among the Az-kye and Jazan was your son’s son.”

“Well, yes, I told you so myself,” Sechon acknowledged, bewildered. “And it is hardly a secret!”

“No, but your orders to him were.” Kyndan’s face went hard. “You knew Alari wanted to end the betrothal with Jazan. She told me she’d confided her doubts to High Priestess Celara and to one of her mother’s advisors—you. Jazan wanted the warlord’s power more than anything and this opportunity was too good to pass up, for both of you. You told Jazan the only chance he had left to become warlord was to get Alari pregnant and that’s what you told him to do—even if he had to force her.”

“What?” the empress rasped.

“Alari once told me it’s expected that an Imperial Daughter will bear children with only one man even if, over her lifetime, she has more than one mate,” Kyndan continued. “I mean, half-sisters each with a different father’s clan interested in seeing them take the throne has been the perfect recipe for civil war in the past, right? And, as you yourself said, Elder, the Az-kye don’t like change. If Alari became pregnant through his assaults, the pressure on her to take Jazan as bound mate—to bear children only with him—would have been enormous. He did what you ordered but in his heart it cost him his honor. I saw that guilt, that self-hatred, for myself in the Circle.”

“You think I would have told him to do such?” Sechon looked at Alari wide-eyed. “My dear child, have I not always been your friend?”

“Well, Jazan’s dead so we can’t ask him but there was someone who, very unintentionally, overheard that conversation. Utar was a warrior of the Az’shu clan—your daughter Helia’s clan. He heard what Jazan was going to do, what
you
ordered him to do—”

“Your slave is your witness?” the war leader broke in with a disdainful look.

“That’s
how
he became a slave,” Kyndan returned impatiently and looked at his servant. “Because you did what an honorable warrior would do, you told Helia, the clan leader, what you heard.”

“It did no good.” Utar’s face was drawn and he met Alari’s gaze. “I failed you, Your Majesty. I knew what was to come. I should have protected you. I should have found a way and I cannot ask your forgiveness. I cannot ever forgive myself.”

Alari’s eyes stung but she could not rail against him, this man who had endured clanlessness simply for seeking to prevent Jazan’s crimes.

“Helia had to silence him quickly,” Kyndan said. “She had to keep what was happening from the empress and she knew no one would listen to a warrior who had been cast out of his clan. Of course, just in case, she warned that if he ever talked, his children would be cast out as well.” Kyndan looked at Utar. “That’s what you were trying to tell me the day I was banished. I thought you meant that the empress was responsible but you meant the empress would destroy them if she knew.”

Utar swallowed and gave a nod.

“You said that Sechon tried to kill Princess Saria,” High Priestess Celara reminded, looking deeply distressed. “Have you proof of that as well?”

“Oh, I have proof all right.” Kyndan’s gaze narrowed on the elder. “I was banished on the charge I altered the records to hide that Tellarans murdered Princess Saria. And those records were altered—by
you
, Sechon. You were there when I asked Mezera for the sensor logs and in that moment I gave you the perfect opportunity to get rid of me. You diverted the records and altered them. I sent what
I
got—the altered copy with the ship’s energy echo erased—to Mezera with my findings,” he said with a nod to the war leader, who regarded him round-eyed. “And I can’t blame you for accusing me of treason, Mezera. I looked guilty as hell. But a treasonous consort was the perfect distraction to keep you—and anyone else—from discovering that
Sechon
was the one responsible for the sabotage of Princess Saria’s ship.”

“Why would I harm Princess Saria?” Sechon demanded. “She is like my own daughter!”

“She’s actually your grand-niece, isn’t she?
You
were once Second Imperial Daughter and High Priestess Celara was Third,” Kyndan said with a glance at that lady, frowning as she leaned on her jeweled cane. “Taking a place on the Council of Elders means you’re out of the running, Sechon, but through you, as Second, your eldest daughter, Helia, has the best claim to the throne.”

“But Empress Azara has two daughters,” High Priestess Celara said with a frown. “The succession is assured.”

“Oh, but it’s a lot less assured with only
one
heiress. The original plan was that Alari was going to Az-litha, not Saria—remember? Plans were already in the works to make Alari regent because of her mother’s illness.” Kyndan met the elder’s gaze. “I doubt you were going to tell Jazan that you intended to murder his new mate. I’ll bet too that when the time came you would see to it that Jazan wasn’t on-board that ship. You needed him as warlord and even with Alari dead Jazan would still hold that right, remaining in full control of the military until the new First Daughter—Saria—took a mate. Isn’t that right, Mezera?”

“Yes,” Mezera said, with a frown at Sechon. “And you were very careful to remind me I was to hand over control to Jazan two days after he and Alari were mated, Elder.”

“Well, yes! I wished the transition to go smoothly for Alari’s mate.” Sechon looked at Kyndan. “As I did for you, if you recall, Commander.”

Kyndan snorted. “You know, at first I must have seemed like a gift from the gods to you, Elder. Alari’s disgraced by marrying me, out of the succession for sure with a Tellaran mate, and there’s no warlord to deal with. Even better, now there’s only Saria left, only
one
unmated daughter in your way.” He regarded Alari. “You’ve never been off Az-kye.”

She frowned. “No. I was First and not permitted to go until I took a mate.”

He looked at Saria. “But you were.”

Saria blinked. “But I wanted to go!”

“I’m sure you did,” Kyndan said. “And you might even have thought it was your idea to ask but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.”

“No, I—” Saria frowned and she sought the elder’s gaze. “No.
You
came to me the morning after Alari and Kyndan left the palace and suggested I might go in her stead.  That if I asked, Her Majesty would allow it.”

“Sechon said that I should,” the empress added slowly. “That it would do well for Saria to undertake her duties early if she was to become regent.”

“And just like that, Sechon arranged for Saria to take her sister’s place on the sabotaged ship. Now,” Kyndan held up a hand. “Things went off course a bit when Alari was made regent instead of Helia after Saria disappeared. The empress herself told me she had been counseled not to restore Alari’s claim to the throne.” He glanced at the empress. “By Sechon, right?”

The empress stared at Sechon. “You did counsel me so.”

“Sister?” High Priestess Celara asked, her frown deepening.

“It was I who begged Alari to become regent!” the elder exclaimed impatiently. “You were there yourselves!”

“And by doing so,” Kyndan agreed sardonically, “you convinced everyone, including me, that you genuinely wanted Alari to take the throne.”

“Of course I did! She is my regent.”

“Right.” Kyndan’s nostrils flared. “So the empress is dying, Saria is dead, and Alari is shamed by her disgraced Tellaran consort, harried by rumors that her rule is cursed, rumors I’m sure you helped along. Not
quite
enough to push Alari off the throne—not yet. But with me banished by her own command, Alari is unmated and without a child of her own. Finally, your daughter Helia is within striking distance of the crown.”

“This is absurd!” Sechon spat. “I have devoted my life to the service of the Empire.”

“Fuck, yeah.” Kyndan folded his arms. “Because your daughter, Helia, was supposed to rule it.”

“Think you I could have managed such a wide-reaching plot?” Sechon asked.  “It would be impossible!”

“Alone, sure. But Jazan’s clan was already in your pocket.
You
suggested the empress add all those clan leaders when I arrived for the peace talks, to delay open trade and keep their smuggling business going. Besides, Helia wanted Alari’s crown for herself as much as you wanted it for her.” Kyndan smirked. “Oh, don’t worry, the Az’anti were proud to come to the aid of their regent and the Empress Azara. Helia is being held
very
securely at my sister’s clanhouse as we speak.”             

Sechon’s lips thinned.

“So Alari’s rule is very shaky. She has to depend on you—her mother’s most trusted advisor. With Saria dead and me gone, you can finally maneuver Helia into being named to the succession, you know, just until Alari takes a new mate, has a child of her own. Not that you were ever going to let her live that long. And when Alari succumbs to the same mysterious illness her mother did,
her
heiress—your daughter—Helia would have been crowned empress.” Kyndan’s jaw clenched. “When I rescued Princess Saria, I also tracked down and captured the Tellaran smugglers you’ve been working with. Those smugglers have been providing you with qulcyne, a Tellaran poisonous compound that Az-kye healers would almost certainly mistake for an organic illness—one impossible to treat with Az-kye medicine.”

“
Poison?
” Alari rounded on Sechon. “You poisoned my mother?”

“She’s been poisoning
both
of you,” Kyndan said tightly. “Certainly couldn’t have you conceiving with me. This would keep you from getting with child too—until it killed you. Easy enough to explain away why you might feel ill, Alari, what with the strain of losing your sister, becoming regent, having your consort betray you. But you would have started getting much sicker as soon as your mother succumbed and you were crowned empress.”

“How could she have poisoned us?” the empress asked. “Our food is prepared in the palace kitchens or by our own attendants. Are they all her creatures?”

“The tea,” Alari breathed. “She gifts tea to so many—she even sent some when we were at the Az’anti clanhouse.” She frowned. “Could it be? She often drank it with me.”

“But didn’t share the antidote chaser,” he said. “It’s a slow poison. She wanted both of you to look sick, to give the healers plenty of time to make their best efforts to curb suspicion. And as for proof, that compound will be in both your bloodstreams and in tea she gave you.”

“But”—Alari sought his gaze—“Kyndan, you drank it too.”

He gave a nod. “That’s why she
had
to get rid of me quickly. Mother and daughter suffering the same mysterious symptoms? That could happen. The empress
and
both of us? No, that’s way too suspicious.” He threw Sechon a cold smile. “You blundered there, Elder. I usually drink caf. I even had my father send more from the
Sundragon
when he came to Az-kye. I didn’t drink enough of the tea to get sick. I might never have caught on—if you hadn’t forced me away from Alari.”

“You were my mother’s own sister!” the empress cried. “I thought you my friend!”

“Yeah, I thought she was my friend too, Your Majesty. An Az-kye who could see me as an honorable man, even though I was Tellaran.” Kyndan’s smile was bitter. “You played me very well, Elder.”

Sechon gave a faint smile. “Not well enough, it seems.” She glanced at Saria. “That Tellaran ship . . .was something I did not anticipate.”

“Yeah, those Tellarans are always fucking things up, aren’t they?” Kyndan glanced to where other Tellarans bearing equipment had quietly gathered in the doorway. “Rescuing people you need dead.”

Alari looked at her sister, whom Sechon intended to kill. Her mother who had suffered so greatly by the elder’s hand, the world and empire beyond that he had conquered though not with bloodthirsty cruelty. Perhaps he would be merciful to her people . . .

She swallowed. “Commander—”

“If this is about the ten creds, you can get it to me later. Over here!” He waved to the Tellarans in the doorway. “Your Majesty, these men are medtechs I’ve brought to treat you. I give you my word, they will do their best to heal the damage that poison has done.”