Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(55)

For some reason, his praise calmed Aria's nerves. To hear two generals assuring her that she hadn't been wrong to do what she did made it easier. Ryden had told her the same thing, but from her gerion, that might not have been truthful. To hear that Diego Grothan agreed meant a lot.

"In fact," the other general was saying. "I have already had the captains include your plan into their next tactical session. We have gotten too comfortable in a galaxy that doesn't hold many worthy enemies. This gives us a good chance to adapt."

My plan is going to be taught to Brion warriors, Aria thought. Wake me up.

"Once we get the Conqueror running, we are called to Briolina," Diego told Ryden.

Aria saw him nodding, a cold flash running through her. Was that it? She would pack her bags and leave everything behind? Aria didn't even have anything to pack, if she was being honest.

"Isolde," Diego said then, the word rolling off his tongue like it was a hymn.

Aria and Ryden both turned to greet his gesha, who came and caught him in a hug before Aria had a chance to say a word.

"I am going to keep you," the woman said, laughing. "Honestly."

She introduced herself to Ryden, while Aria was busy staring at her.

Isolde was... not what she'd expected. Aria didn't really know what that was exactly, but she sure wasn't it. In her mind, Isolde was either a timid human woman, dressed like a traveler that never settled down—or a Brion, draped from head to toe in elaborate robes with a spear on her back. Both images were ridiculous, she knew that, but she couldn't help it.#p#分页标题#e#

In fact, Isolde was something in between. Aria's first impression of her was that Isolde had wrapped herself in a Brion shell while keeping her identity.

She was wearing a long dress akin to what Aria had had in mind, her hair done up with jewels matching her eyes. But not once did she give off the impression of someone born into it. Isolde carried herself with the grace of someone who knew what she wanted and took it.

Aria wondered if she could do the same.

She let Isolde lead her away from the generals, into a room that had to be Isolde's own. There was no way Diego Grothan appreciated small trinkets and color patterns.

"You're the third, you know," Isolde said at once when the doors slid shut after them. "At first I thought it was weird, but now I'm thinking of starting a club."

"The third what?" Aria asked, accepting a drink from her.

"Human girl to bind to a Brion. They must have a thing for us. Or their gods do."

She was speaking of it all so freely, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Seeing her face, Isolde let her grin settle into a kind smile. She took a seat opposite of Aria and said:

"I think I know what you're thinking."

Aria didn't bother questioning her, because she'd figured that if anyone knew what went through her mind, it would be Isolde.

"How did you do it?" she asked, blurting it out.

"A day at a time."

"And was it worth it?"

"Yes."

There was no but in that answer, not a hint of doubt. When she said that, Isolde's face was completely serious.

"Don't get me wrong," she went on, appearing to read Aria's mind. "I put up quite a fight. You understand. A guy tells you that you are his. No questions, no nothing, no first dates, jump right in. And my story was a bit more complicated than that."

Yes, I remember the Rhea dispute.

"But then the bind really hits. It doesn't give you all the answers, but it takes most of the questions away."

"Like what?" Aria asked, sipping the sweet drink.

She didn't know what it was, but she was sure to ask later. No one on Ilotra had offered her a drink, but apparently Isolde knew that as well.

"Like what it's like to live among aliens on their home planet," Isolde said, leaning back, gesturing with her glass. "If you'll be able to connect to them. If you can understand them and if someone makes pizza on Briolina."

"I take it they don't," Aria said, laughing.

"They really don't," Isolde confirmed. "I keep asking Diego to take me to Terra so I can have a slice. He doesn't understand."

"That's because he's never had any."

"Exactly," Isolde said, grinning again. "See, this is why I said I'll keep you. After spending most of my last year with Brions, do you have any idea how good it is to talk to someone who knows the things I talk about?"

Her answer made Aria think.

"So it is lonely," she finally said, while Isolde sat and waited.

"A bit," Isolde admitted honestly. "I won't deny I've spent days wanting to talk to someone about a movie I once saw, but the closest person who could understand is star systems away. But then I go and see a Brion movie and talk to Diego about that…

And Leiya makes it easier now," she added after a brief pause.

That name sounded familiar. Aria searched her memory for it, until she remembered. Briolina's singing star, rumored to be taken from Terra many years ago.

"So she is human," she said. "There were rumors about it."

"She is," Isolde confirmed. "I was so thrilled. At least she has the human emotions, but since she grew up on Briolina, I still can't talk to her about Terra."

There was something sad in her voice, but then Isolde looked her deep in the eye and sat forward on her couch.

"Everything I just told you," she said, "is a fraction of what it really is. You might not know it yet because your bind is so new, but it will cloud all else in the best way imaginable. Every sadness you have, every little regret, they're gone the second you look at him.

It took me a long time to see the bind, but when I did, the world made sense. It's the real thing, the Brion bindings. They don't go away. They don't fade. It only gets better."

Aria thought for a second.

"Did Ryden bring me here for you to tell me this?" she asked.#p#分页标题#e#

Isolde laughed.

"No," she said. "I only wish someone would have assured me when I first met Diego. I would have stopped fighting long before I did."

Isolde's honesty moved her. Aria stayed in that odd little room for a while, in a piece of Terra far, far away from home. Without saying it out loud, Isolde was showing her the ways she could keep who she was and still live on a Brion warship.

"He'll do whatever he can to make you happy," Isolde told her. "Leiya's gerion, General Faren, gave her a garden."

"Faren as in the Monster of Briolina?" Aria asked, frowning.

Isolde nearly choked on her drink. "Yeah," she said. "The very same. Please don't call him that to his face, though. And don't scream when you meet him. You'll want to, God how you'll want to. And you must resist the idea that he can read minds. I asked Diego. He can't."

With every word that Isolde said, Aria felt more at home. In her room, but more so in her world. She'd always thought that the moon far below them was her home, but it was strange to her now. It wasn't the damage done to Ilotra that lost Aria, it was the council that she wanted to put far behind her. Maybe Briolina could be her home.

Or maybe not. There was another place.

When Ryden sent for her, Aria went with a much lighter heart than she'd arrived with. Isolde made her promise that they'd see each other again soon, and it was a date she was happy to make.

Walking back to the shuttle while asking about the bandages around Ryden's hands, Aria couldn't help but feel that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

"Can we go home now?" she asked.

There was a moment of confusion in Ryden's eyes before she specified, "To the Conqueror."





CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Ryden



Watching Aria go with Isolde, Ryden felt like he'd done the right thing by coming to the Triumphant first. No matter what Diego's gesha would tell Aria, it would be good for her to talk to someone who had been in her situation before. The repairs on the Conqueror were underway and Ryden wanted to leave Ilotra and her system behind, make it back to Briolina, and to do so with his fated by his side.

"It will do her good," Diego said, observing him. "Both of them, in fact. Isolde is so happy about her being Terran. A friend is the one thing I can't give her."

Ryden hoped the same. To leave Aria behind would break his heart, but he couldn't make her miserable. Ever since the binding, the smallest hint of her sadness tore at his heart.

"There's another reason I came here," he said.

Diego snorted. "You mean it wasn't to thank me for saving you?"

"I may have already had a duel today, but don't think your title intimidates me," Ryden growled.

Diego gave him a long hard look before matching the grin on his face.

"They fell for that barbaric act again," he said. "Will they ever learn? Come this way, we'll see if Urenya has time for you."

Ryden fell into step beside the other general.

"Of course they did," he said in response to Diego's question. "Until you roam around the galaxy, growling at people. Until they keep spreading rumors about Faren. We have our reputation."

Diego nodded. "You'd think it wasn't one of stupidity."

"I don't think anyone in the council knows what that really means," Ryden guessed. "Except the Palians. They are smug bastards, but they do the right thing."