But the times after that, death – not exactly lost its edge, but it did make one ready to fight it. Isolde hadn’t had the opportunity to fight, which is why the Brions considered poisons a coward’s weapon or fit only to those who didn’t have the martial capability to carry their battles out with a spear. So Diego understood why the second attempt to kill her had made Isolde more alive. When faced with the possibility of one’s existence ending, it’s natural to want to live a whole life.
To his delight, in Isolde’s case it seemed to mean enjoying her life with him among other things. After all the trouble they’d gone through, Diego was infinitely grateful for her finally allowing herself to live as she wanted. As they had nothing very urgent to do before the Elders gave him his marching orders, he didn’t even think of objecting when Isolde came to him, eyes burning and a smirk Diego was growing to love more with each passing day on her lips.#p#分页标题#e#
For once, they were uninterrupted. Their fucking was fast and intense and wild. Every time, Diego discovered something new about what Isolde liked, and he used it the next time to drive her out of her mind with pleasure. When they’d finished, she lay exhausted against his arm, her whole body still gently shivering from her orgasm. There were bite marks on Diego’s neck, and Isolde’s lips were red and swollen from all his kisses.
“Do you think we have to go soon?” she asked him.
“Yes,” Diego said, although a part of him wouldn’t have minded staying right there with Isolde in his arms. “We could not stop the war, but we can punish the one who started it.”
“Where do you think he went? How do you even find someone in the whole known universe?” Isolde went on. “I mean, huge Brion warships aren’t the most inconspicuous of things, but still.”
Diego nodded. “They are not, but I think I know where he went. It would be pointless for him to hide. He knows me and Faren and all the others are close behind him as soon as there is a sighting. He cannot run. No, I imagine he is where he believes he can put up a fight. The only place besides Briolina where there are Brions. He is a fool if he thinks they will side with him, but I suppose in his place I would go there too.”
“You mean Rhea,” Isolde said, clearly surprised. “He can’t seriously assume he can win.”
“I do not believe he plays to win any more,” Diego said. “He just wants to cause the most damage now. And by being on Rhea, he can at least hope that the Brions see what they are giving away.”
“It won’t work,” Isolde said, although it sounded like a question.
“No,” Diego agreed. “But the damage is done.”
They spoke of Eren no further. The galaxy was no longer the place where Diego had met Isolde and started to dream of a life with her, then again that was simply the way it was. It wasn’t in Brion nature to keep pondering on how things might have been. Eren had betrayed them, and that was the world they lived in now. Only one thing bothered him.
“We may have to live a dangerous life for a while,” he said. “I want you with me, but the Triumphant does not make us immortal, as much as its reputation would have you believe.”
“I know,” Isolde said dreamily, her hand around him. “But you’re here. That’s all that matters.”
Diego smiled. She was right. They were together and that was all that mattered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Isolde
Isolde was honestly surprised.
Others were usually not allowed on Briolina. The closest they usually came was Sphere, the station orbiting the planet. So very few other species had actually seen the Brion Elders. Isolde had assumed from the name they were… well, old. Maybe some were. Probably all were. There was no question the Brions seemed to age pretty much as the Terrans did.
The man standing before them in the Triumphant’s main arena definitely wasn’t old. The stasis sleep in which the Elders spent their meditation had kept his body in the moment he entered it, but there was something ancient about him. After a moment Isolde realized what it was. His eyes seemed very old.
Like Faren’s, they gave the impression of seeing straight through her, but unlike Faren’s, the Elder warrior’s eyes weren’t cold. Instead, they burned in a way that reminded Isolde of a sleeping volcano, the fire bubbling so close to the surface you could almost see it.
She wasn’t on the balcony this time, but standing in the midst of the Brions with her guards. Most of the personnel on Diego’s ship had come to meet the Elder warlord, the one who spoke for all the Brion warrior Elders. Even before Deliya told her that, Isolde could see why. Without speaking a single word, the Elder had silenced them all with his presence. That was their way, however he also looked ferocious. Almost as big as Crane, he lacked all the madness, but had all the fire.
His name was unknown. His age too. No one who lived outside the Elder stasis sleep remembered him, so there was no telling how old he really was. There was a limit, of course, the stasis sleep didn’t make a person immortal, but Isolde had no idea how long it could keep someone alive. Long enough to fade from living memory it seemed.
“So you are the one who killed another grothan,” the Elder said, looking at her gerion, dressed in his general’s battle armor, standing beside Eleya.
“I am,” Diego said.
Isolde had expected some honorary title, or at least something to refer to the revered position the Elders had on Briolina, but no such followed. They were simply two warriors conversing, until the Elder gave an order. Only then would the difference be seen.#p#分页标题#e#
“The last I saw you, I gave you that title,” the Elder said.
Isolde could have sworn she saw Diego tense up, but she knew that was what he’d expected. He had failed the Elders, and so their first task would be to take his title from him. Then they’d send him on a penance hunt to make up for his failure.
“You will remain grothan,” the huge Elder said. Even Isolde could see Diego’s surprise, which was a wonder, because her general rarely ever displayed any emotion in public. Honestly the only one who didn’t seem to be taken aback was Faren, present with many of his men as well.
“I failed you,” Diego said. It wasn’t even a protest, merely a statement. Isolde saw Eleya frown at him. Clearly even that was considered disobedience.
“You fought for us when our chosen turned traitor to our will,” the Elder said. His voice wasn’t very loud, but somehow it carried through the room easily. It made Isolde think of volcanoes again, the way they rumbled before they burst. “The outcome is secondary to that. We wished Rhea to be shared. It would have been better if the Galactic union had never known, but we did not have much hope we could keep it from them. We merely thought someone there would expose our secret.”
He seemed to think for a moment. “In fact, the traitor Eren did us a favor. We always prepared for it to come out one day. He has given us a scapegoat. Now we must find the speaker.”
Isolde was confused, and she didn’t seem to be the only one. Then the Elder looked straight at her.
“Come here, human,” he said.
Isolde’s legs started walking of her own volition, merely on the command alone. She met Diego’s eyes. Her general gave her a slight, encouraging nod, though as much as Isolde could tell, he didn’t understand either.
“Your ambassador tells us you were ready to keep our secret,” the Elder said. He was so tall Isolde’s neck hurt to look him in the eye even when she stood a few feet away from him.
“Yes.”
“Why? We are Brion, you are human.”
“I didn’t want there to be a war.”
The Elder nodded. “So he said. The Brions do not fear war, but we do not hold meaningless ones. This would be one of them. We have no dispute with the Galactic union . Will you fight for us?”
Isolde’s mouth dropped open. “I can’t fight.”
“With spear, no. With words.”
The matter started to slowly dawn on her. “What do you need me to do?” Isolde asked. Somehow the question itself made her hold herself straighter. She was Diego Grothan’s gesha. She was not irrelevant. She could fight.
“Speak for us. Talk to the Council. Tell them – tell them the truth.”
“I will,” Isolde said, hesitantly. “But I don’t know if it’ll help. If they’ll listen.”
“It does not matter,” the Elder said. “If they listen to you, there will be no war but our own. If they do not, there will be. You are fit to speak for us. Senator Eleya will instruct you.”
Isolde’s legs were shaking, but she nodded. She was so tired of being useless, of Diego and her guards, and Eleya and Urenya, and all of them fighting her fights for her. Gods, she really was becoming a Brion, wasn’t she.
My fights, gods.
“You and Faren follow the traitor,” the Elder said, turning to Diego. “Show him and all that went with him the Brion way.”
Diego nodded and so did Faren.
Just like that, Isolde was the center of attention again. For a while, Diego and Rhea had overshadowed her and honestly she’d preferred it like that. Now all eyes were on her again, wondering if she was up to the task. The Elder left, having said all he came to say. That was very in character. Isolde had heard the Elders, like all the other Brions, didn’t think it necessary to say anything twice.