Alien General's Bride (Brion Brides 3)(21)

The understanding meant close to nothing, however, since it was followed by a calm explanation that if Isolde was ever to feel safe among the Brions, she couldn’t hide herself in her room and should start by meeting their now closest ally.

Isolde also decided against saying it had been Diego who had assigned her to her room in the first place – to protect her and for a good reason, but still.

In the end, she still let herself be coaxed into meeting the other general who had expressed interest in seeing her. They’d been on their way to Briolina for a few days, with Diego’s promise that her next stop would be Rhea. That worked fine for Isolde. She could see Diego’s home, settle the whole mess as he’d promised and then get, as much as she was able, back to her old life.#p#分页标题#e#

Wearing a long sleeveless tunic-like dress Diego had ordered for her, Isolde resolved to meet the other commander, put on her best face and just walk away from the introduction alive. She told herself that if she could handle Faren, she could handle any Brion.

Diego had assured her she was safe on his ship, and Isolde strongly suspected it was for her comfort that she was to meet the other general aboard the Triumphant. Otherwise, Faren and the Unbroken had flown beside them for days, and he had seemed fine with keeping his own company. Somewhere a little behind them, the Fearless followed under new command – with them, but licking its wounds.

The commander of the Unbroken was, if possible, even more eerie up close than when Isolde had seen him from the balcony. His eyes were so light they could have been white, but for some reason they reminded her of a snow storm. With Diego beside her, she didn’t fear him, but the way his unwavering gaze held her for long moments made her shift uncomfortably.

“Are you prepared?” he asked at last.

Beside her, Diego tensed, but that was natural, it seemed. Her general was protective of her and after the attack, Isolde couldn’t blame him. She was, in fact, very glad he took her safety so seriously.

“Prepared for what, Commander Faren?” she asked.

Diego said something very quickly in natural Brionese, which she didn’t understand. Words she caught and the looks he gave her hinted that it was about her. Had she been impolite, offended Faren in any way? Gods be good, if she’d just made Diego have to fight another duel for her…

Faren said nothing to Diego, still focusing on her. “For your duties on Rhea.”

Oh. Isolde hadn’t expected the first person to really take an interest in her work to be the stone cold general.

“I am, of course,” Isolde hastened to assure him. “I’ve been reading the materials you sent me. It seems you’ve got a solid base there. I believe I can be of great use.”

The curving of Faren’s lips had little to do with smiling. “So do I. Rhea is very important.”

“So everyone keeps saying,” Isolde said, feeling a bit braver, even if the smile had been so fake it hurt. From what she’d heard, the twin generals had ruined their reflexes by carelessly implanting their valor squares. She couldn’t blame him for what his face did.

Feeling a sudden sense of gratitude that he didn’t seem to hate her – well, he wouldn’t, would he, if he agreed to help them – Isolde added, “I’m sorry about your brother, Commander. I didn’t mean to get anyone killed.”

Faren raised his brows just slightly. “How so, human? How did you get my brother killed?”

Isolde looked to Diego in confusion, but her general simply shrugged. “He means it was not your doing. Gawen made his choices.”

Perhaps Isolde would have believed him, if Faren hadn’t given Diego a look of compliance for his sake and left.

There had been something there, but until she could guess at what that had been, Isolde decided to focus on other things, like reading up on Rhea. The days she’d spent with Diego on their way had mostly been in his company, growing used to his presence and being close to him, sometimes very close. Her lips were on his more often than not.

She longed for him, and he knew that, but seeing two dead guys in such a short span of time had sort of killed her sex drive in a way not even Diego was fully able to counter. She would calm down first, let her senses agree to it all. She knew how important the binding was to the Brions. Isolde had no intention of messing this up.

Faren had now reminded her that she was something other than Diego’s gesha-to-be and she shouldn’t forget that.

The materials were so many it actually took her a while to sort through them and find the ones that concerned her fields. It was impressive, really. Usually the Brions weren’t so dutiful with the worlds they discovered, passing the bureaucratic stuff quickly over to the Palians or some other species that enjoyed that kind of work.

They tended to look for fights, to be honest. The Brions were often called to hold peace on more volatile worlds or bring order with the edges of their spears if there was no other way. This attention to detail in Rhea’s case was honestly astonishing. Putting together a completely satisfying guide in such a short time, that was impressive, it was like…

Isolde kept reading. Then she read more. Lunchtime passed, dinner. Then she finished and called for Diego.

As her general entered, Isolde stepped back when he came closer for a kiss.#p#分页标题#e#

“Don’t touch me,” she said.

A look of confusion flashed by before Diego took a look at the maps, guides and protocols arranged on her bed. His eyes became cold and hard.

Isolde thought she could hear her heart break. Even faced with all the evidence suggesting what she’d discovered, she’d hoped to the last possible second that she’d misunderstood. She would have sacrificed her professional pride gladly if it hadn’t brought her to this.

“You knew,” she stated simply. “You bastards knew about Rhea. It wasn’t just recently discovered. You’ve been there for a while. How else could it have such detailed accounts of flora, weather patterns dictating years, overview of minerals found in the planet’s core only possible to discover when digging deep, undetectable by orbital sweeps?”

Diego said nothing. The pieces of her heart broke in two again.

“Then there’s the thing of everyone saying how important Rhea is, because you’ve had to admit what kind of a world it is. Pretty, rich. If the Galactic union   even suspected you’d kept this to yourselves while others so badly needed what you had… It would be terrible for you.”

Still no protest.

“So it makes sense you don’t want anyone to know. Only if I could gather that from these files, so could have my team, right?”

Nor any denial.

“I don’t even know why I have these. I’m guessing someone messed up very badly and didn’t think how the amount of work you sent reflected on the time you had to have been there. I’m assuming they’re all kinds of dead. You’re the Brions after all.”

The first reaction from Diego – cold eyes, just a touch of pain. Good. Isolde had no pity for him, considering what was to come.

“All this time I’ve thought Ensha tried to kill me because I’m a human gesha. I thought I was the problem, they wanted to kill me because of who I was to you, they didn’t accept this because it hasn’t ever happened before.

“But they’re fine with me, I realize now. Neither Deliya nor Narath or even Faren looked weirdly at me. They have no problem with me being whatever I am. This was about my files. Being your gesha was what saved me, wasn’t it?”

A nod, nothing more.

And then the final conclusion Isolde had come to. The one that had made her sit quietly for long minutes, thinking about how to handle the new mess she found herself in, which had made her weep quietly into her sheets, crying of despair and betrayal and hopeless, furious anger.

“It was you who attacked my research ship. It was you who killed all those people and those who went before. Simple, honest people who just wanted to go and do their job and help the galaxy. You shot them and their flotilla to pieces. I feel so stupid. When they told me, I should have guessed at once that the only ones with the firepower and the only ones heartless enough would be you.”

“I did not,” Diego said the first words in her room, but they only edged on her fury.

“So it wasn’t you personally who pulled the trigger!” she snapped, distantly aware of her tone. “You, someone else, what’s the difference? Don’t you keep saying all Brions are one? It might as well have been you. It could have been you. You would have shot me to pieces too if I wasn’t so fucking special! Now I live because you believe I was meant for you, and everyone else is dead because they had the misfortune of being ordinary people!”

No denial once again, but it didn’t matter much. Isolde was almost done.

“Ensha tried to kill me because the Brions wanted to finish the job, but you stopped them. Gawen and Faren came to kill me, so you killed one of them. All of this so you could keep up your lie to the galaxy. And I don’t know why you’re now taking me to Briolina where everyone is bound to want me dead for no reason, but I at least know why someone is trying to kill me. And I know why we have ambassadors to deal with other species. And I know why the Brions aren’t trusted. You don’t deserve to be.”