Skolian Empire - Quantum Rose Part 23

Tulain considered Kamoj. "We can protect you. No one can hurt you." She paused. "That includes Prince Havyrl as well as your husband."

"He's not her G.o.dd.a.m.ned husband," Vyrl said.

Tulain turned to him. "Perhaps it would be better if we address that question through proper Inquiry procedures."

Vyrl scowled, but said nothing more. Ashman watched it all with piercing concentration, letting his minions probe while he a.n.a.lyzed. Kamoj suspected that he was, by far, the most dangerous person in the room.

Tulain's a.s.sistant set a black book-box on the table, then opened it to reveal a sheaf of parchments. Tulain lifted the top paper. "The question," she said, "is whether or not these contracts were willingly signed by Kamoj Argali. Her signature is in your hand, Governor Ironbridge."

"Kamoj can neither read nor write," Jax said.

"Is she aware of what you signed for her?"

"Of course. She was here when we discussed it."

"Prince Havyrl contends you coerced her agreement."

"Prince Havyrl is mistaken."

As the questions continued, the scene blurred for Kamoj. All she could think of was how much she wanted to sleep. But the Inquiry ground on and on.

They covered every detail of her life since the day Vyrl had seen her in the river. The picture that formed was twisted around, yet nothing was false. She had said she dreaded the Lionstar-Argali merger. She had removed Vyrl's mask in the coach. He hadn't known her name, or even remembered he was married.

Then came statements from the palace staff. Vyrl's servants went far beyond the expected fealty. Again and again they expressed their devotion to him.

They spoke of humane working conditions, of wages that allowed them to climb out of poverty, of Vyrl's talent with grains and livestock, his innovation with crop rotation, his cleverness in using the tiny flying lizards to aid the crops. All spoke of his kindness. Although Jax sat quietly, Kamoj felt his growing anger. He had never expected this.

But every statement stumbled when it came to Vyrl's drinking, his moods, his tormented nights. With his marriage to Kamoj, the stumbles became lurches.

Tulain read the comments of the housemaid who had come to help Kamoj the morning after her wedding night. "'She looked so scared,'" the maid said. "'So vulnerable. And she be clutching a doll. A doll. Like a little girl. I know his Highness be a good man, I know it truly. But thisI don't know what to say.'"

In the silence that followed, Jax said, "Kamoj and I weren't to marry for at least another two years."

Kamoj stiffened. What game was Jax playing now? He had constantly chafed at the delay in their marriage.

"Under the laws of our people," Tulain said, "she can't marry for another seven years. That's about eight of your short-years."

"What?" Vyrl stared at the major. "What are you talking about?"

Jax snorted. "Perhaps you need to learn your own laws, Lionstar."

Vyrl ignored him, his attention on Tulain. "She can marry when she's twenty- five."

"That's right," Tulain said.

"But she is now."

Everyone just looked at him. Finally Dazza said, "Vyrl, Kamoj is eighteen years old."

"That's impossible," he said. "Look at her. Talk to her. She's a grown woman."

"Her people were gengineered to mature early," Dazza said. "To increase the span of their useful years as slaves. That trait manifests in Kamoj. She is more mature, in both mind and body, than what we a.s.sociate with her age. Also, in this culture people marry at a young age. Kamoj is actually considered old for a bride. But legally she is a child."

Vyrl sagged back in his chair. Watching him, Kamoj felt his defeat. He knew how he looked. He glanced at her and flushed, as if he believed she too thought him a monster. She wanted to rea.s.sure him, but she knew better than to speak. Maybe he would sense her feelings, maybe not. He never seemed to catch them fully, only in pieces, and what she felt now, more than anything else, was tired.

Tulain picked up a blue paper and glanced at Vyrl. "This is your conversation with Colonel Pacal when you took Governor Argali riding." She scanned it, then read, "'Look at this. My wife. A farm girl like a virginal s.e.x G.o.ddess out of an erotic holomovie, and all she asks is a simple life, a husband who doesn't beat her, and the freedom to walk in the woods.'"

When Jax turned his head away, Kamoj didn't think he was acting. Vyrl's words probably did offend him, though not for the same reasons everyone else looked uncomfortable. Jax considered it his right to beat her.

"It's not the way it sounds," Vyrl said. "I was drunk."

"It also says your stagman Azander had a bruise on his face where you hit him." Tulain paused. "What exactly did you mean by 'a husband who doesn't beat her'?"

"Saints almighty, Major, I was in the middle of a convulsion when I hit Azander." Vyrl's fist clenched on the table. "If you want to know what I meant about beating, ask him." He stabbed his finger in the air, at Jax. "He thinks it's his right. In bed, no less."

Jax rose out of his chair. "You will not speak of my wife that way."

Vyrl stood up. "She's not your wife."

"Gentleman, sit down," Ashman said.

Jax took a breath and let it out. Then he nodded to Ashman. "My apologies, General." He sat down, leaving Vyrl standing. After an awkward moment, Vyrl sat down as well.

Kamoj hated this. Jax was making Vyrl look worse and worse. Neither Tulain nor Ashman seemed disposed to speak in Vyrl's defense and she didn't dare.

Dazza, however, could. Kamoj looked across the table, trying to send a silent plea to the colonel.

Dazza blinked at her. Then she turned to the Arbiter. "Major Tulain, a fairly easy way exists to establish the truth of at least some accusations being made or implied by both parties in this disagreement."

"Go on," Tulain said.

"I can examine Kamoj," Dazza said. "If she's been mistreated, I'll know. And I can probably tell by whom."

Jax tensed. "My wife has suffered enough indignities at the hands of you people. I will tolerate no more."

Vyrl leaned forward. "Are you afraid of what they'll find?"

"Why don't we ask Governor Argali?" Tulain said.

Kamoj gritted her teeth. She didn't want anyone touching her. The idea of being "examined" was revolting. All she had wanted was for Dazza to speak in Vyrl's defense.

"Why can't you all leave her alone?" Jax said. "Hasn't she suffered enough?"

Tulain regarded Kamoj. "Governor Argali, no one will force you to be examined. But you have the right. If it shows you've been mistreated, it could change the nature of this hearing."

"Change it?" Kamoj asked.

"At the moment," Tulain said, "the only evidence supporting Prince Havyrl's contention you are being coerced is that the servants at the palace were bound, gagged, and unconscious. Governor Ironbridge claims you asked they be restrained to keep them from stopping your departure. No one saw you leave, Morlin was down, and none of our orbital facilities were monitoring the palace at that moment. Our attention was on the fires and Prince Havyrl."

The fires. What was next in the path of Ironbridge's vengeance? "I want to stay with Jax," Kamoj answered. "I've told you that. Can't any of you hear?

What else do you want from me?"

They were all watching her now: general, colonel, major. Too many t.i.tles. The priestess was frowning and the Ironbridge judge's face had gone hard.

Vyrl spoke softly. "Kamoj, last night you shouted for me. Why? If you wanted to stay with him, why did you call me back?"

"You misheard," Jax said.

"Everyone heard her," Vyrl told him.

The Arbiter spoke. "Prince Havyrl, you are the only one who thinks he understood her actual words."

"d.a.m.n it!" Vyrl hit the table with his fist. "I heard it because she said it."

Jax sighed. "What my wife shouted was an oath. I'm sorry this is so hard for you to accept, Lionstar. You heard what your overwrought mind wanted to hear, not what she said."

As Vyrl stood up, his face flushed, the Arbiter said, "Prince Havyrl, please. Sit down. Your outbursts help nothing."

Vyrl clenched his fists, but he sat down. Kamoj couldn't focus on his face. The room was dimming around her.

The Ironbridge judge spoke. "Governor Argali has repeatedly stated her wish to remain faithful to her husband. What more do you people require before you stop tormenting her? The only reason this Inquiry exists is because Havyrl Lionstar refuses to believe the truth. He is the one who took her to his bed without her consent."

Diskmail clinked, and Azander appeared at the table. The Arbiter glanced at him, then at Vyrl and Jax. When neither made an objection, Tulain spoke to Azander. "Yes?"

"I be sorry to interrupt," Azander said. "I wish to make a testimony."

Jax blinked. So did everyone else. Kamoj wondered what Azander was doing.

"What do you wish to say?" Tulain asked.

"When Prince Havyrl be near to dying in the large metal bird, Governor Argali spoke for him. She convinced them to take him home instead of to the Ascendant."

Tulain nodded. "Yes, we have that in your testimony."

"But it not be said proper on that parchment you read," Azander said. "It mattered to Governor Argali that he be well treated. The caring for him, she has it."

Dazza spoke to the Arbiter. "I know what he's saying, Cara. And he's right. I've seen it too. Kamoj has worked miracles with Prince Havyrl, reached him when none of us could even come close. His well-being genuinely seems to matter to her."

Jax spoke with unexpected affection. "Of course it matters to her. That is the kind of person Kamoj is. She cares about everyone. It is one of the many reasons her people respond so well to her." His voice tightened. "That Lionstar took advantage of this doesn't excuse his behavior."

Vyrl stiffened, but this time he controlled himself. None of the others seemed to know how to respond.

General Ashman spoke to Vyrl. "Did you know she was like that?"

"Not when I married her," Vyrl said.

The two of them kept looking at each other, fighting their own private war, which Kamoj suspected had been going on long before she met Vyrl. Finally Vyrl stood up. His guards tensed, and several Ironbridge stagmen dropped their hands to their belts, reaching for swords they no longer carried. Vyrl ignored them and walked away, stopping only when he reached a brazier near the edge of the tent.

He turned and spoke to Ashman. "Imperial s.p.a.ce Command went to great lengths to get me, lengths so extreme it boggles the mind. Why? Because I'm a great leader? A vital member of ISC? A brilliant strategist? No." He tapped his head. "Because I'm a Ruby telepath. So why do you doubt me now when I say I know what that thing"He pointed at Jax"is doing to Kamoj?"

"Because you've been in a telepathic catatonia for over a year," Ashman said.

Dazza spoke quietly. "Vyrl, she's the first person you've responded to since you came on board the Ascendant. How can you be sure of your reactions?"

He lowered his arm. "I'm sure."

"You're the only one who has picked up anything about abuse." Dazza motioned at his bodyguards. "They haven't."

"They aren't Ruby telepaths."

Ashman glanced at the Jagernauts, who had moved to stand near Vyrl. "What are you getting from her?"

"Fatigue," the first man said. "She desperately wants this Inquiry to end."

The second man nodded. "She resents ISC presence here."

That's right, Kamoj thought. She had given her answer and they had to respect it. More than anything, she wanted to sleep. She stood up, intending to demand an end to the Inquiry. Before she had a chance even to form the words, the world went gray and tilted sideways. The floor came up at her. Jax jumped to his feet and caught her as she collapsed. Sagging against him, she heard voices, something about Elixson, then more voices.

"Keep that hag away from her!" Jax ordered.

"Ironbridge, don't be a fool," Vyrl said. "Colonel Pacal is a healer, better than any you have here in camp."

Jax lifted Kamoj into his arms. Then the fresh smell of his bed enfolded her.

Someone had washed the covers. Jax made a blur above her, wavering in a grey mist. Lying on her side, she let the mist thicken until she could no longer see him.

A change in the pitch of voices brought her mind back into focus. Jax and Vyrl were standing a few paces apart now, by the bed, their faces flushed, their voices rising in volume.

"think you can take whatever you want," Jax said.

Vyrl clenched his fists at his sides. "That problem is yours, Ironbridge, not mine."

"Argali is none of your business."

Vyrl stepped forward, raising his fists. "We have laws"

"Don't threaten me." Jax put his hands against Vyrl's shoulders and shoved him away.

They came together like wrestlers, grappling with each other. Jax stumbled back, and with a crash he fell across the Inquiry table, knocking over a lantern. He and Vyrl wrestled, locked together, Vyrl closing his hands around Jax's throat.

The Jagernauts were also moving, so fast their bodies blurred. One grabbed Vyrl and the other Jax, both guards straining as their captives resisted. They yanked Vyrl and Jax apart, one of the Jagernauts holding Vyrl by the arms, the other holding Jax.

Vyrl swore, struggling in his guard's iron grip. For an instant Jax looked too stunned to respond. Then he tried to jerk his arms away from the giant who had caught him, a move he could easily have managed with a stagman, had one of his soldiers been stupid enough to try restraining him. It made no difference to the Jagernaut. Only when Jax quit fighting did the Ascendant stagman let him go.

"You have no right," Kamoj said. She wasn't sure who she spoke to: Vyrl, Jax, or the people from the Ascendant. Perhaps all of them. She wanted everyone to leave. She tried to get off the bed, but her body wouldn't respond. It occurred to her that if she didn't eat soon, she would die.

The bed creaked. Then someone lifted her head into his lap, just as she had often done with Vyrl. She rolled onto her back and looked up to see Jax's face above hers. Kneeling behind her, he held her head on his knees while he stroked her hair with the same inborn rhythm she had used on Vyrl. A bruise was purpling his face and a large tear made a ragged hole in the shoulder of his s.h.i.+rt. He looked far more vulnerable than Vyrl, who stood at the end of the bed flanked by his gargantuan bodyguards with their antimatter weapons.