Skolian Empire: The Radiant Seas Part 11

A girl was sleeping on the bed.

Kurj stopped. At first his fatigued mind couldn't absorb her presence. Then he remembered. The page.

She lay on her side, curled into a ball, her arms wrapped around his pillow. Her jumpsuit was in a style that had become popular after Eldrinson first appeared in public wearing his irritating rustic clothes. It looked much better on her than on his stepfather. The green velvet pants clung to her well-shaped legs. The leather thongs on her bodice had been laced up to her neck in the War Room, but since then someone had loosened them, revealing the curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her dark brown curls gleamed and her necklace sparkled like water in the sun.

Kurj reevaluated his need for sleep. Sitting on the bed, he smoothed her hair back from her face, then touched the sparkling trim on her collar. He wondered what would happen when she opened her eyes.

The companions he chose reacted in different ways to his attention. Often they feared him, though many tried to hide it, some putting on a show of love that would have fooled a lesser empath. If their fear was too great, he let them go. But many accepted their situation. A few even grew to like him. All sought to use his favor, hoping their charms would soften his heart. And somehow he always found himself giving them what they wanted, wealth, jewels, a new job, a nicer house.

He usually sent his security team for the woman he chose and had them leave her here. Sometimes he took her to a lake hidden in the hills, where they dined on a floating barge with lamps and music and later made love surrounded by the whispering lap of the water. It was, he supposed, romantic. Women seemed to like it, anyway.

Kurj watched the page, whose name he couldn't remember. As far as he could tell, no specters haunted her sleep. It relieved him that as of yet he had picked up no fear on her part. He didn't want to have to let this one go, not now, when he so needed companions.h.i.+p.

An oddity registered. This morning he had left a s.h.i.+rt on his bed when he decided to wear a sweater instead. For some reason the page had wrapped the s.h.i.+rt around the pillow she was holding. Why would she embrace his clothes?

He slid his hand along her side, in to her waist, and out again over the swell of her hips. The girl stirred, then opened her eyes, blinking. With his hand resting on her hip, Kurj leaned down and kissed her.

Her jumble of emotions swept over him: surprise, shyness, uncertainty. Through all that confusion, a vivid thread gleamed. Disconcerted, he stopped kissing her and pulled back. Of all the ridiculous things. This girl thought she was in love with him.

He eased down his mental barriers to see what else he could pick up. Her images vibrated. Although she hadn't been s.e.xually abused in the orphanage, the emotional lacks had done almost as much damage. She didn't perceive herself as a source of disorder; rather, she saw the rest of the universe as chaos. Her grat.i.tude to Bozner for sending her to the Orbiter permeated her thoughts.

But one image stood out. The day she walked into the War Room and looked up to see Skolia's Imperator in his throne among the stars, she felt safe for the first time in her life. So she fell in love with him. She imagined him as a hero and populated her fantasies with him as an affectionate, gentle suitor. It was an image so far removed from his true personality it might as well have been another man with no connection to him at all.

She watched him like an animal mesmerized by night lamps. For some reason his face relaxed into an unaccustomed expression. A smile. He tugged the pillow out of her arms and lay down next to her. When he drew her into his arms, she tensed, her confusion sweeping over him.

"It's all right," he said. Then he outdid himself in verbosity, adding a second sentence. "I won't hurt you."

She slid her arms around his waist, giving him a tentative smile. "My greetings, Imperator Skolia." Her voice had a rich quality that pleased him.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Ami."

"Ami." He pulled the laces on her jumpsuit, unfastening them the rest of the way. "A pleasant name, that."

As he undressed her, she stared at his chest, her cheeks red. From her mind, he picked up that she had hardly ever been kissed before, let alone anything else. He knew he was far from most women's choice for their first lover. Yet her thoughts left no doubt. She wanted him and no one else.

He rubbed his thumb along the lacy halter holding her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and she slid her palm over his chest, her curiosity tickling his mind. Then a chime came from the console in the nightstand across the bed.

Kurj swore under his breath. In a louder voice he said, "Skolia here."

A woman's deep-timbered voice came out of the console. "Imperator Skolia, this is Admiral Tahota. We've intercepted a transmission between the office of President Calloway on Earth and the Eubian Trade Ministry on Glory."

He pushed up on his elbow. "How much have you decoded?"

"Most of it," Tahota said. "It concerns an Allied citizen, a boy who ended up in the trade inventory of a Sphinx merchant. Apparently the empress freed the boy and the emperor is arranging his return to Earth."

Kurj frowned. What purpose could Qox have in freeing a slave or having his own people attend to such a minor matter? "Do you have an ID on the boy?"

"Jessie Tarrington," Tahota said. "His father is Senator Jack Tarrington, of the Allied Congress."

So. Politics reared its head. "Where was the boy taken?"

"We aren't sure yet," Tahota said. "It looks like his s.h.i.+p changed its flight plan to deliver emergency supplies to a colony near Onyx Sector. Apparently it crossed into Eube s.p.a.ce and a pirate caught them."

"How certain are you that his s.h.i.+p actually left our s.p.a.ce?" Kurj asked.

"It's questionable," Tahota said. "In fact, they may not have even been close to the border regions."

"Get me a full a.n.a.lysis," he told her. "I want all records of Onyx raids in our s.p.a.ce, the distribution of their raids, and any known interactions they have with the Onyx dust merchants. I need it in time for the upcoming a.s.sembly session."

"You'll have it," Tahota said. "Shall I open a channel so you can monitor the investigation?"

Kurj watched Ami. When she smiled at him, he almost groaned. To Tahota he said, "No. Have my brother Althor take care of it."

"Will do, sir."

"Very good, Admiral. Skolia out."

"Out, sir."

Kurj bent his head and kissed Ami again, stroking his hand over her breast. He didn't have time to make love to her now, not if he intended to take it slow, to avoid hurting her. But for these few minutes he wanted to touch her. For just a few moments he wanted to feel light.

III.

Year Four.

360 ASC on the Imperial Calendar.

383 EG on the Eubian Calendar.

A.D. 2263 on the Gregorian Calendar.

7.

Soz climbed the hill, with the laser carbine slung over her shoulder and a bow and quiver on her back. She followed Jai as he toddled through the spatula gra.s.s. Her son's mood matched the weather: happy and bright. When he crouched to examine a broken geode sparkling with purple crystals, Soz stopped and s.h.i.+fted the weight of the baby in a sling on her hip. Lisi. She and Jaibriol had named her Rocalisa, after Soz's mother Roca, but they ended up calling her Lisi.

When Lisi let out with a wail, Soz sighed. Only 250 hours old and already her daughter had a pair of lungs to raise the dead. As Soz lifted the baby out of the sling, Jai looked back at them with concerned eyes. Red eyes.

"Why Leesy cry?" he asked, still unable to p.r.o.nounce the short "i" sound in his sister's name.

"She's hungry." Soz sat down and tugged up the fur s.h.i.+rt Jaibriol had made for her, then cradled Lisi against her.

Jai toddled over. "Leesy always hungry. I want mum-mum too."

With her free hand Soz tousled his hair. She understood why MedComp wanted her to keep nursing Jai. The immunities and nutrients she gave him were even more important here, where humans maintained so precarious a balance with the environment. It also fulfilled an emotional need for him, creating a contentment that suffused her mind. She had thought she would have to stop when she became pregnant again, but MedComp said it was fine, even when Jai grumbled about the change in the taste of her milk. Still, nursing both children at the same time was too much.

"You can have some after Lisi is done," she said.

"Hungry now," Jai insisted.

"In just a few minutes, Jaibird."

"Want now!"

She smiled at him. "Are you practicing to be an emperor or an imperator, hmmm? You wait till Mommy says yes."

"Now," Jai grumbled. He sat down and laid his head in her lap, sucking his thumb. Lisi nestled against her, nursing like the suction tube on a star-dock crane.

"Daddy like mum-mum too," Jai said around his thumb.

Mortified, Soz stared down at him. "Why do you say that?"

"Saw Daddy and Mommy. Daddy hungry too."

Soz flushed. Living in a one-room house had its problems. Apparently Jai hadn't been asleep sometime when they thought he was. "We're going to build you your own room, Jaibird. Special for you. Would you like that?"

"All mine?"

"That's right. All yours."

He considered the proposal. "Jaibird like," he decided.

"Good." Soz s.h.i.+fted Lisi on her arm. "I have to take you back to the house now. Daddy will look after you for a while."

"Don't want house." Jai sat up, glaring with an inimitable scowl. "Go with you!"

"Sweetbird-"

"No! Go with you!"

"Jai, don't you know any other word but 'no'?"

"No!"

Soz made a show of sighing. "Well, I'm sorry. I guess only Lisi gets to stay with Daddy today."

Confusion sped across his beautiful face. "No! I go with Leesy."

"Well, I don't know." Soz put on a doubtful look.

"Go with Leesy!"

"Well ... all right. You can go with Lisi."

"Where Mommy go?" Jai sounded worried and Soz knew her game hadn't fooled him; it just gave him an excuse to give in.

"Hunting," she said. "We need food."

"Mommy catch the tommy-jommy?"

"The what?"

He tried a different p.r.o.nunciation. "Tummy-jummy."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Big and black. Tastes good."

"Ah." She nodded. "You mean a tomjolt. Yes, I hope so."

Jaibriol had named the animals "tomjolts" because EcoComp claimed they resembled Earth bobcats. Given EcoComp's description, though, Soz suspected one tomjolt could slaughter five bobcats before breakfast. Like the gilded crimson fliers that lived near the river, tomjolts had eight legs and were part crustacean, part reptile, and part plant, with chitinous hides rich in chlorophyll. Jaibriol decreed the animals belonged to their own phylum and christened them chloropods.

Soz had no intention of seeing a tomjolt dine on her family. So she hunted them with the same single-minded ferocity she had once directed against Eubian warriors.

"Hoshpa!" Jai's delighted shout rang out as he scrambled to his feet. Looking up, Soz saw Jaibriol walking up the hill toward them. Still feeling bulky from her recent pregnancy, she climbed to her feet, holding Lisi in the crook of her arm. MedComp insisted she was too thin, but MedComp always complained.

As Soz started down the hill, Lisi made a noise of protest, then resumed nursing. Jai ran toward his father, and Jaibriol crouched down, extending his arms to the boy. Jai promptly tripped on a spiderpouch weed, sprawled face forward on the gra.s.s, and let out a wail to split the sky.

Jaibriol jumped up and ran to his son, his smile vanished, replaced by the fear Soz knew well, the one that came every time their son took even the smallest tumble. Here, with only themselves to rely on, a simple injury could be fatal.

When Jaibriol scooped the boy into his arms, Jai sniffled and hugged his father around the neck, mollified. As Soz came up to them, Jaibriol's attention s.h.i.+fted to her.

"You look tired," he said.

"Just a little," Soz answered. Lisi quit nursing and Soz slid her s.h.i.+rt back into place.

"Don't go," Jaibriol said. "Stay here. Rest."

"We can't sit around while tomjolts eat our son's pets."

"Bad tommy-jommy." Jai sniffled. "Ate Puppli."

"We don't know that a tomjolt got Puppli," Jaibriol said.

Soz thought of the remains they had found of Jai's furred pet, a small chloropod with big ears and a long, green tail. "It's the same pattern as with the other jolts." She handed Jaibriol the carbine. "We can't take chances."

He pushed the carbine back at her. "You take it."