Warrior's Valor (21 page)

“Now promoted. Now married to a Gantharian, who happens to be a Protector of the Realm. A guardian to the last member of the Gantharian Royal Family.”

Emeron paused, astounded that she was heading up a unit under orders to assist the two women responsible for more political bombshells than she could count. Not to mention that they were living proof of the mythical stories about the protectors. Glancing behind them, she saw the marines nod. All was well back there. She relaxed marginally.

“And just when I thought my life was turned upside down as it is. Totally weird. Completely and utterly crazy.” She groaned and ran a hand over her face.

“You calling me weird and crazy?” Dwyn wrinkled her nose. “A bit on the rude side, if you ask me.”

“Rude?” Certain she sounded like a repetitive
gomesk'a
bird, she refused to groan again. Instead she reset her brain, the way she would do if facing an impossible tactical dilemma while in a code-red situation. She cleared her mind of all unnecessary information and sorted the important facts into neat compartments. Now calm, she felt like serenity personified.

“Well, not rude, perhaps. Your words give you away, you know.” Dwyn shattered her calm with one look, a long curly tress escaping her usually tamed hair and caressing her jawline. “You can be so transparent sometimes.” Mischievousness sparkled in Dwyn's eyes, and Emeron didn't know whether to be angry or exasperated. To her surprise, she couldn't help but smile.

“Transparent, huh? I think I can still surprise you, maitele.”

Dwyn drew a deep, shaky breath and stumbled. “I should know better than to challenge you, I guess. You can never resist the competition.”

“You're flirting with me,
maitele
.” She held Dwyn's elbow and made sure they kept walking, not slowing the others down.

“Not really. I mean, only a little.” When Dwyn glanced quickly at her, the fire in her eyes made Emeron lose her breath. “What does ‘maitele' mean?”

“I'll tell you some other time.” Emeron fought to keep her focus. She needed to keep an eye on her sensors.

“I'll take that as a promise.” Dwyn winked discreetly as she moved up to walk in front of her, since the path had narrowed suddenly.

Concentrating on the march through the increasingly dense forest, Emeron was sure Dwyn wouldn't give up until she knew what the word meant. She scanned the area again, thinking how foolish she had been to call Dwyn “darling” in Disianii.

*

“We
cannot
, Armeo.” Ayahliss injected all the authority she could muster into her voice.

“But we can. You heard Kellen and Rae. We're safe here at the hotel. We're inside a military base, Ayahliss. And we won't leave the hotel.”

“Your grandfather will punish us.”
Especially me
. She folded her arms across her chest. “And we promised to follow their instructions.”

“We will. We'll just do it down in the lobby where all the stores are. I saw them when we arrived. They have so many interesting things there. If Kellen and Rae were here, we'd have explored them
ages
ago.”

“They aren't here, and we're not going to explore—”

“Ah, come on, Ayahliss, just half an hour. The guards won't even know we're gone. We can slip out the back door to the suite.”

“I didn't know there was a back door.” She frowned. “That's a security issue in itself.”

“There's one behind the walk-in closet in Rae and Kellen's bedroom.”

“You sneaky little—”

“Hey. You're talking to your prince, remember.” He laughed and threw a pillow at her. She caught it and grimaced at the pain in her side.

“Please, Ayahliss,” he said, apparently changing tactics. “I'm going crazy being locked up in here. Just half an hour.”

“We shouldn't…” She felt her resolve diminish.

“It'll be so much fun. I have credits. Granddad gave me some Cormanian currency. He said I could spend it later. Well, later is today.”

Her heart melted at Armeo's apparent joy. It was so obvious that he needed a little distraction. His mothers, and his grandmother, were in danger, his grandfather had to work most of the time, and all he had was her, who loved him and would die for him. Surely she could take him safely to the store he wanted to visit? “All right,” she said, and regretted her words almost instantly. “Let's go downstairs for fifteen minutes. Not a second more.”

“Oh, thank you.” He threw his arms around her. “I promise, I promise.”

She put on shoes and they crept down the hall to Kellen and Rae's room. The guards were in the sitting room, playing some game on the main screen. They had started only a few minutes earlier and would surely be occupied with it for several hours.

Armeo pulled her toward a narrow, nearly invisible door, decorated seamlessly to match the wall next to it. She took over, opening it just enough to peek outside. The corridor was empty, the glass and mirror hallways seemingly abandoned. She took Armeo by the hand and they ran over to the elevator.

“Armeo, it needs a pass.” She stared at the door that had closed behind them.

“And here it is.” He produced a small glass card interwoven with a thin strand of a yellow metal alloy. “Like so.” He swiped it across the sensor and the elevator door opened.

“The lobby with the stores was on the eightieth floor, right?” she asked as she perused the control panel.

“Yes. There.” He pointed, pressing the sensor before she had a chance. She had to smile at his eagerness, and again her heart swelled with sisterly affection. It wasn't hard to guess that he was lonely sometimes, especially when all the grownups around him were busy with politics and military affairs. He had spoken of his best friend many times, Dorinda de Vies, a girl his age. But he hadn't been able to spend any time with her for quite a while. He was brave, and more mature than any boy his age, or even older, but he was a kid, after all.

“We're here.” Armeo was about to jump out the door as the elevator stopped, but she prevented him, making sure nobody was standing just outside before he exited. A few people were window shopping, and others, some in uniform and some civilians, were inside the stores.

“Oh, look at that.” Armeo's dreamy voice caught her attention and she joined him at a window. A set of four hovering miniature assault craft floated inside with blue and yellow rays piercing the air.

“You'd enjoy playing with that?” she asked, uncertain how that could possibly be fun. “They aren't the real thing. The weapons, I mean.”

“Oh, Ayahliss, of course they aren't.” He laughed, a contagious sound that made her join him, even if she felt a bit silly for her assumption that he hadn't realized this. “They're toys, and you can play with four people, guide them by remote as you're firing on each other. The vessel that takes the most hits loses, of course.”

“Of course.” She answered automatically as more people were now sauntering through the commercial area of the hotel. Some had turned their heads as Armeo laughed, and a few of them were pointing.

“Armeo, we should leave.” Her heart thundered. Something was wrong.

“No, it's only been three minutes. Five at the most.” He dragged her toward the store entrance. “I have to go ask if I have enough Cormanian currency.”

The murmur from the group of people who had just pointed at Armeo grew, and some of them began to walk toward him. Ayahliss knew if they entered the store, they'd be trapped. “Armeo, come on.” She pulled back, but her side hurt and she could hardly hold on to him as he yanked her in the other direction.

“No. Just this one store.”

“Prince Armeo.” A loud female voice pierced the noise around them. “It
is
him. Oh, Gods, look. It's the Gantharian prince.”

Armeo heard and understood this time. Suddenly pale, he clung to Ayahliss's arm as the crowd moved closer. The faces were not unkind, and Ayahliss tried to convince herself that the people were merely curious since Armeo was such a celebrity, but she knew that an enemy could be hiding within the multitude of people.

“Ayahliss.” Armeo backed up against the window, and the people neared. Men, women, and children all came out of nowhere, it seemed, to look at him.

“I have you. I'm not letting go. Just smile and say hello.” Perhaps that would defuse things.

He smiled politely, a tremulous, nervous smile. “Hello. Nice to meet you. I have to go now.”

“Why are you on Corma, Prince Armeo?”

“Who's that young woman with you?”

“When are you going to Gantharat?”

“Where's your protector?”

Questions assaulted them, and the voices drowned out any answer Armeo tried to give. When finally a woman tried to touch his hair, Ayahliss had had enough. She kept hold of Armeo's hand, but grabbed the woman's arm and the stranger wailed, “She's hurting me.”

The people around them fell silent, but Ayahliss didn't let go. “Move away from him,” she demanded as forcefully as she could. “Can't you see you're scaring him?”

“I suggest you do as she requests,” an unfamiliar voice said. “That arm looks like it could snap any second.”

“Judge Beqq,” Armeo gushed, and the look of relief on his face told Amereena Beqq that she'd arrived just in time. She had walked through the entrance of the hotel, on her way to her suite, before returning to the orbiting
Dalathea
, when the crowd caught her attention. She had debated whether to investigate, but a woman's cry decided for her. The last thing she expected to see was Prince Armeo without security, being protected only by a Gantharian-looking woman.

“You know her?” the woman asked Armeo, her Premoni tinged with an unusual accent that sounded like Kellen's.

“She's Judge Beqq, the one who awarded Kellen and Rae custody of me.” Armeo tugged at his companion, who finally let go of the woman's arm. Rubbing her wrist fiercely, she glowered at Armeo's friend.

“She should be arrested for assault,” she hissed, and the man next to her nodded.

“Yes, let's call security,” Beqq agreed. “We can ask them to investigate how all of you mobbed a member of the Gantharian royal family and, by doing so, endangered his life.”

“His life?” the woman said in falsetto. “We haven't endangered anything. We were just—”

“Curious? And, by that, drawing attention to a boy you ought to know is always in danger of kidnapping or attacks from political opponents.”

“If he's in that much in danger,” the man next to the upset woman sneered, “then why is he running around the shops without an escort?”

“Good question.” Beqq turned to Armeo, who blushed deeply. “I think it's time we went back to your suite and found out.” The crowd dispersed as Beqq guided them to the elevator, where Armeo quietly swiped his pass. “And who are you, my dear?” she asked Armeo's fierce escort.

“I'm Ayahliss.” There was a tone of despair in Ayahliss's voice and something else, something Beqq couldn't interpret.

“You're Gantharian, aren't you?” Beqq asked as they entered the elevator.

“Yes, ma'am.”

“And you came back with Ms. O'Dal and the admiral after their latest visit to your home planet?”

“Yes, ma'am.” The monotonous answer didn't give anything away, but Beqq thought she could see tears glitter in Ayahliss's eyelashes.

“And you, young man, are out on an adventure without your security detail. What is going on?”

“It's my fault,” Armeo said passionately. “Ayahliss tried to talk me out of it, but I was so bored and thought perhaps I had enough money to buy—”

“Surely you know better,” Beqq said. “I have just been briefed about what's happened to your grandmother. I expected more from you, since we work very hard to keep you safe.”

“Don't talk to him like that,” Ayahliss said, eyes flashing with anger and her fists tightened by her sides. “He's just a boy, younger than he looks to you, and it's hardly a crime that he wanted to go look at some toys.”

Ayahliss's defense of Armeo was interesting, but Beqq had to prove a point. “He's not simply a boy. He's the heir to the throne of a country that's at war with a very dangerous adversary prepared to go to any extreme to get the upper hand. Armeo, you have to learn to take all precautions and not to test your friend's loyalty like this. Do you understand?”

Armeo nodded, slumping a little, but he didn't avert his eyes. “Yes, Judge.”

“Good. Now we're going to talk to your grandfather. I also have a few words to exchange with your security detail.”

“It's not their fault either, ma'am,” Armeo said. “We sneaked out.”

Beqq tapped his chin with a gentle finger and couldn't hold back a strong wave of affection for the boy. This child obviously stole everyone's heart. “Oh, son, that's where you're wrong. This situation is very much their fault. Your guards were left in charge of you.” Beqq was furious and looked forward to having them stand at attention while she gave them her opinion before sending them back to their commanding officer.