Ryden allowed a vicious grin to appear on his lips.
"You speak of allies," he said, watching the other man realize his mistake. "Meaning you are already certain that most of the council, including yourself, will rule me guilty of misconduct. Indulge me, Ambassador, what are the charges?"
Klaen glared at him, but relented that much.
"Declaring an unlawful martial law on Ilotra without authorization, endangering the lives of the civilians on Ilotra, using unreasonable methods of war to engage the enemy—"
That was about all that Ryden could hear of such nonsense. He raised a hand for Klaen to fall silent.
"I expected as much," was all he had to say about that, though Aria looked like she had plenty to say.
He couldn't let her implicate herself in his matters. Not if his gesha ever wanted to work with the union again. Judging by the fire burning in her beautiful blue eyes, Ryden sincerely doubted that.
"And what is the punishment if you find me guilty?" he went on.
The ambassador shrugged, as if his words were nothing too important to concern himself with.
"The charges mostly fall under the act of treason, General," he said almost dismissively. "The punishment for that, as you surely know, is death."
Ryden's laughter seemed to enrage the old man the most. The general could see the ambassador aching to slap the grin off his face, but he would have needed an army to do that. How fortunate for him then that he had two.
"I would like to see the man who comes and tries to execute me," he said with dark amusement.
Ambassador Klaen glared at him again, but there was a hint of victory in his voice when he replied.
"Commander Stavor has volunteered for the duty," he said.
That was as expected as well. Ryden saw Aria's face drop immediately, thinking it lucky that Klaen only heard her and didn't see the petrified look of horror on her face.
"I imagined he might," Ryden said.
Klaen nodded, as if that concluded something.
"You have two hours, General, to appear before us down on Ilotra. We would like for you to take Ambassador Harris with you, as she is still one of us," the old man said. "After two hours, if you are not here, we will rule on the matter without your presence or your defense. If the verdict is a guilty one, Commander Stavor will carry it out."
Klaen cut the feed, sending the bridge of the Brions into awkward silence. The situation was one of a kind for them. Ryden didn't think he remembered a time from history when someone had actually had the chance to threaten a Brion warship with realistic destruction.
Aria had tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "This is my fault. I broke the Conqueror and now—"
"You did nothing wrong," Ryden said seriously. "Neither did I. We did what needed to be done, something those scheming liars down there will never understand."
"But they will kill us all—" she began to say, but the general shook his head, gently lifting her chin so she could look him in the eye and see that he was deadly serious.
"They will not," he said.
His gesha's eyes went wide at his words, trying to contemplate the impossible.
"Then, you will let them execute you?" she asked. "You heard Klaen! They've basically already ruled you guilty."
Of course. They've been plotting this since I locked them up.
He smiled.
"I meant what I said before," he told her. "Any man who comes at me with the intent of killing me is in for a very unpleasant surprise."
"So what will you do—"
Aria was about to say something further, but she didn't get the chance before another incoming message interrupted her. Seeing who it was, Ryden allowed it to be put through. Stavor's gleeful face appeared on the large screen, transmitted to the Conqueror by the ship holding them at aim.
"I warned you," Stavor said with obvious relish. "Justice would come for you, Ryden."
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Ryden
Aria left the bridge fuming, but determined.
The general watched her go, an amused smirk on his lips. He liked her spirit, the insulted pride that reminded him of his own species. When they first met, the little Terran would more than likely have been disgusted by the comparison, but she had more in common with Brions than she knew. Ryden figured he'd point that out to her, although perhaps under different circumstances.#p#分页标题#e#
So far, he'd convinced Aria that for her, the best course of action was to get down to Ilotra and take her rightful seat at last.
His gesha had been as delightfully set on doing exactly that as the general had figured. He remembered Aria's shock when hearing she could have been a rightful member a long time ago if her weak-minded superior hadn't messed that up for her.
A nudge in the right direction sent her nicely on a rampage. It suited Ryden, because he had his own plans in motion and he would rather have not implicated Aria in them. Her words haunted him, but there was little he could do about it.
Diego Grothan had all but kidnapped his gesha, but Ryden was not going to repeat that. He understood the other general, but what he had in mind was a bit more... subtle. There was no way he'd leave Aria behind, but he would have preferred her to make the decision to leave instead of him dragging her away from everything she'd ever known, only for her to resent him for it.
For that purpose, he sent the ambassador down to Ilotra first, before him. Then he let the council know that he would be joining them soon.
Their surprise was almost tangible. Ryden carefully hid his enjoyment of their evident disappointment. Naturally they would have preferred to blow him to pieces in space rather than face him. The general knew they had never thought he'd agree to their ludicrous request, but that was fine. Ambassador Klaen could have boasted knowledge of the Brion mindset, but it was clear they knew nothing.
Pride was a luxury, the Elders had always warned their generals. It was a part of the image they carried with them to the stars, as dangerous as their military might, or possibly even more. After all, being severely underestimated by the enemy was an advantage like no other. And Ryden was going to savor shoving that in the council's face immensely.
Everyone knew Brion generals were rash, proud, temperamental and above all, unrelenting. Everyone was wrong, but not in the way they would have thought. The generals were stubborn and unrelenting to the bone, but it wasn't their own pride that drove them on. It was their duty to all Brions.
The council had predicted that if they used the word demand in any form, Ryden would rage at them and they would be rid of him. He had no intention of giving them that satisfaction. The Clayor hive mind had already lost the war because it had tried to play a game. It honestly baffled Ryden that the council couldn't see that if he didn't allow the Host to do that to him, there was no way he'd play right into their hands.
They wanted him mad and far away from them. He would restrain his fury until he was very close to them and then let them see what it meant to provoke a Brion warrior.
After he had made the arrangements to go down to the moon and ordered Captain Hastien to continue fixing the Conqueror, Ryden opened the channel to the Gray Armada.
The Koliar warlord answered him immediately, possibly anticipating his call already. Ryden had a hard time believing the commander would actually expect him to beg, but the look on Stavor's face was making him doubt.
"So you're coming down like a good boy," the warlord said, confirming he was the opportunist Ryden had feared he was.
It was a pity. He'd almost respected the Koliar after their fights together. But he turned out to be like any other enemy, when suddenly finding their opponent in a less than perfect situation. They forgot, instantly. Forgot who they were dealing with, forgot everything they'd ever known about the other, and only saw the disadvantage they were in.
Ryden intended to remind Stavor of that.
"I see no reason why I shouldn't," he said calmly. "After all, I've ceded the power back to the council and the union . The Brions are still a part of the union , are we not?"
The Koliar bared his teeth in an ugly smile.
"You are, but there have been talks of reining you in," he said.
That was not unexpected either, but all the more disappointing. It was the price of too-successful victors. Instead of praise, there was suspicion and fear. Ryden knew that as well as anyone.
The Brions had struggled with that for years. Every time they did the union 's bidding, effectively protecting them, the less powerful species became fearful that one day they might be the target. A part of him understood—to see the Brions in action was terrifying to anyone—but Ryden had expected more from Stavor.
"This wouldn't be the first time the union tried to do that," Ryden said dismissively, holding Stavor's ferocious gaze. "After the Rhea dispute, you already tried. And then the union discovered they needed us too much."#p#分页标题#e#
Stavor's face twitched. The warlord knew he was telling the truth, that much was plain to see. As predictable as the union 's fear was, it was always followed by a time when the Brions were called upon again. It amused Ryden how much the union needed their strength—enough to swallow its own fear of them.
"Be that as it may, you will still face trial," Stavor said with relish. "And when it ends, I will be there waiting for you."