Alien General's Bride (Brion Brides 3)(30)

Had he – had he given up on her?





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Diego



If space had been much smaller, Briolina would have been clear to see just over the next hill. Since it was not, they had a last meeting before their arrival. The same people had gathered, the only difference being that to Diego, it was obvious how distressed Isolde was. The others would – hopefully – put it down to the pressure of very soon being the face on every screen around the galaxy and stepping foot on a hostile planet. He knew better. Unwilling, unwanting, he had broken her somehow.

He knew how, in truth. But this was her choice. She could end it with a word and during some moments, she seemed to have been very close to saying it. One night, he’d heard her steps come across the floor towards where he slept, but stop a way off. She’d stood for a moment, and then all but run back to the bedroom. There was also no way a Brion’s keen hearing could tune out the whimpers. They’d hurt him, but he was doing all she’d asked of him, after all.

This was out of his hands.

The fight to come, however, was not. Ironically, it soothed his mind. Fighting, winning wars – that he knew how to do. He was pleased with his allies as well.#p#分页标题#e#

“Report,” he commanded.

Technically, Eleya was in no way answerable to him, but she’d agreed to let him take the military lead. So she offered, “Generals Ilen, Argo, Thora and Shien are with us. The senators… who knows these snakes, but some hesitate. Eren is back on Briolina. I convinced him he has to take you down right so as not to make a martyr of you. I think you’ll get to live at least until you land.”

Diego nodded. “Aneya?”

“I spoke to my family,” the woman said. Diego noticed the unmistakably vicious looks she snuck in Isolde’s direction when she thought he wasn’t looking. He’d have to have a talk with her. It was not proper for a Brion woman to behave this way. Until then, she could deliver valuable allies. “I believe you are not alone. Many fear Eren, but many more fear you and Faren. With every day that you have gotten closer to Briolina, I have noticed more support for us. Mind you, do not confuse support with believing – they still want the Elders to confirm your words.”

“I expected nothing less from them,” Diego snarled. He looked around the room. “Seven generals out of 15, including us. That will give even Eren pause to challenge our…”

“Sixteen,” Eleya said.

All eyes but Isolde’s looked to her in surprise. It had been a long-standing tradition to have 15 active generals, with new ones only replacing the old, never adding to the number.

“Explain,” Faren told the senator. “Who did he promote?”

Of course, Diego cursed. Eren would resort to such a tactic, would give a command to some pet of his to give him an edge. The coward would pay for this.

“Crane,” said the senator.

If he hadn’t hated the bastard’s guts, Diego would have admired him – and, partly, being a Brion, still did – for the reputation the man had achieved to silence his war council with his name. To make even Faren frown.

“Who is he?” Isolde asked, clearly picking up on the room’s mood.

“A brute,” said Eleya. “A warmonger.”

Seeing the look in Isolde’s eyes, the senator laughed. “Yes, I suppose that is rich coming from us, but imagine someone we would name a brute and a warmonger.”

Urenya added, “He is big. Big and strong, but stupid like all people whose mind only has one track. But he is very big. And very strong. Unfit for command of anything but himself and barely that.”

“So why would Senator Eren give him a command?” Isolde asked, still confused.

“To challenge other generals,” Deliya said.

“Couldn’t he do that anyway?”

“As a senator, he cannot. But general to general, he can.”

Isolde’s eyes searched Diego’s. “But you’d win, right?”

No one answered. Finally, Eleya sighed. “Diego might. Faren, if Crane does not take him on first. That is the problem. All the others we named – they would fall to him, leaving us without their support. Who knows who their heirs would be loyal to?”

“Only one way, then,” Diego said. Isolde’s beautiful green eyes went wide with understanding, and fear. “I challenge him first.”

He turned to Eleya. “Have it made known. Pass my challenge to him. This actually works out in our favor. We had been planning to make Isolde the cause of my return, but it will be obvious Eren and I are at odds and the public will wonder why. This way, we can play it off as my protest for a sixteenth general and our people will remain as oblivious to the Rhea question as they have been so far. Eren actually gave us an excuse to muster in force and to have the Elders called out of their meditation.”

Faren nodded. It was always good for him to nod, Diego had found. Yes. This was how they’d do it.

He disbanded the meeting and ordered Narath and Deliya to escort Isolde back to his quarters, ignoring the look of worry on her beautiful face. That would also work out, though it physically pained him to see her distressed. Crane was a formidable fighter, his gesha’s concern would not be frowned upon. Then he turned to the other worried face, pale with terror. This one knew better how good Crane was.

“Aneya,” he said.

The holoimage tried to put on a brave face, but wasn’t successful. At least she knew better than to plead with him not to fight, knew better than to insult him.

“You must finally accept this,” Diego said. “You are not my fated mate. I am bringing Isolde to a strange and faraway planet. You will not make things worse by treating her with contempt.”#p#分页标题#e#

Urenya dared to speak her mind to him because she was a friend and her wisdom was always appreciated. Aneya feared him, but in times, spite got the better of her. Diego tolerated it for the sake of their friendship. She hadn’t always been like that. Only since it’d become obvious they would never be one. Before, she’d been kind and smart. Lately, she was merely a shadow of that memory, but Diego would deal with that once the much more pressing issues were handled.

“She is not a Brion,” the woman protested. “She does not belong with you.”

“She is my gesha,” Diego said, blood rushing in his ears. “That is exactly where she belongs.”

“You deserve better!” Aneya snapped. “A proud, strong Brion woman who would make a true gesha for the mightiest general. Not some human.”

Diego should have been furious, but a part of him understood. He was trying to rationalize something with Isolde that she could just not accept.

“We are not meant to be,” he said calmly. “Never were.”

Aneya pouted, somehow beautiful even in frustration. Diego didn’t know whether to congratulate her future mate for her beauty and temper, or offer his condolences for the latter.

“It is not fair,” she finally said.

No. It really is not.

“It is not for us to decide,” he replied. “Will this be a problem, Aneya?”

“Of course not,” she shot back, venom tripping from her words. “I would never cause you harm, never put you in danger. Never hurt you.”

“I believe you,” Diego said, and he did. “I meant if this will be a problem with Isolde?”

Aneya looked furious enough to explode, but shook her head.

“Good,” Diego said. “Do not disappoint me.”

The holoimage sent him the same look that greeted him in the mirror every day – a mix of love, fury and frustration – and flickered out of life.

Finally alone, Diego could at last let his mind go to Crane. He’d expected a trick from Eren, hadn’t even ruled out the sixteenth general option, but to have it yield him – that was something. They were not exactly of age as were he and Faren. Out of the depths of memory, childhood lessons returned. His father had wanted him to learn from the best fighters and took him to watch and train with them.

Watching Crane hadn’t been Diego’s first meeting with death, but it had been the first time he’d seen somebody so thoroughly enjoy seeing someone die. Crane had been a monster then, and he’d only gotten worse as years went by. Once thought to be a great general in making, he’d been removed from the armies when they joined the GU.

It was said Crane no longer interacted with the world. That he was truly, utterly mad with everything washed away but his need to kill. To fight him, Diego had to be of similarly single purpose.

Didn’t they say you were never supposed to stoop to someone’s level, because then they’d beat you with experience?

Diego Grothan smiled. There was a fight to come, a true fight. One he believed he could win, but for the first time in ages didn’t know he would win. His blood roared in hunger at the prospect.

He felt like himself again.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Isolde



Isolde barely registered her last days on the Triumphant. She felt alone and abandoned, despite everyone on the ship theoretically on her side and most of them under orders to protect her with their lives.

At nights, she lay sleepless in Diego’s huge bed, gripping the sheets in exasperation, forever hesitating between going to him and staying put. It was just all wrong. The joke was she wanted to want him. The comfort of him, the excitement, the desire… she’d tasted heaven and was no longer sure she could do without.