Rebel Princess(15)

Careful neutrality disintegrated into a fierce scowl. "She tried to kill me!"

"Yes, she did," Tal agreed, and watched Kass swallow her planned  arguments. "She's the one in solitary now, with a couple of her  assistants trying to figure out what went wrong."

"What went wrong?" Kass cried. "Premeditated murder, that's what went  wrong. How many of those things did she have? Did you think to find  out?"

Tal tugged a few locks of golden blond hair, no longer military short,  while he once again struggled with an urge to remind her which one of  them was the captain. "That, Kiolani, is what took up most of my time  since your little performance. And, no, there was only one krall. It  seems that while we were on Tatarus, my supposedly competent crew chief  decided having a pet snake would enhance his image. He bought the batani  creature from a street vendor who didn't bother telling him it was the  most venomous snake in the known universe."

Tal shook his head, while Kass continued to glare, arms folded, waiting  for him to continue. "After we got back to Blue Moon, someone broke the  news to him, and when Commander Dann said she'd like to use the snake in  an experiment, he was only too glad to get rid of it. It never occurred  to him to question her purpose. I broke him in rank for the next thirty  days. Do you consider that sufficient, Dama Kiolani?"

"Do not mock me! Of course it is sufficient. Your chief is not the criminal. Stupid, but not criminal."

Tal clasped his hands behind his back, hoping that might control the  warring urges to shake her or kiss her. He took a deep breath before  answering the unspoken question that quivered between them.

"Commander Dann is confined to Psych Med for evaluation. Beyond that,  her fate is out of my hands. With our previous relationship known to  everyone, only the Hierarchy can decide what to do."         

     



 

A beat of silence. "And me?"

"From what I heard below, I expect you will be forgiven. Too valuable an  asset to be rejected. I'd planned to quietly add you to my crew"-ah,  that got a flare of interest-"but you've made that impossible. When the  story of what happened today is passed through several hundred mouths,  you'll be a hero to some, a witch to others. You'll be treated with  wariness, outright fear, and no little awe. Most will be glad you're on  our side. Others will recall prayers learned in childhood and never  recited since."

Kass steepled her fingers before her face, cutting off his view, and it  was like the sun going out. Fyd! Those who said he was obsessed had it  right. Because of this fragile bit of female-he had suffered an  epiphany. An explosion of conscience that had turned a bright ugly light  on the culture he had taken for granted. The culture that encouraged  him to stand astride a multitude of worlds and shout, "This is mine.  Everywhere I look, is mine."

Because of Kass Kiolani, he had given up his family, his loyalty to  Fleet and Empire, and started a rebellion. He'd risked everything. And  she had no idea.

A peremptory knock on the door. Mallick! Not yet.

The door opened and the Chairman of the Hierarchy walked toward them. A  Regulon elder statesman and most recent ambassador to Psyclid, Torvik  Vaden had been recalled to Regula Prime only days prior to the invasion.  He had refused to go, taking shelter on Blue Moon and, as the war raged  below, finding a new home that put him in place to greet the newly  transformed Astarte when the huntership crashed through Blue Moon's  supposedly impenetrable force field, called the ridó, with an Imperial  frigate in hot pursuit.

In spite of being well into his ninth decade, Vaden had lost none of his  vigor or his Regulon stature. As a new system of government developed  on Blue Moon, there was never any doubt about who would lead it.

"Dama Kiolani," Tal said, "may I present Honored Daman Torvik Vaden,  Chairman of the Hierarchy. I'm told you two exchanged a few words  earlier." Interesting, Tal noted-Kass was sitting up, shoulders  straight, feet on the floor, regarding the older man with the hauteur of  a queen accepting the credentials of a foreign ambassador.

"Dama Kiolani," Vaden said, "I wish to apologize for the events in the  conference room. Commander Dann will be dealt with, I assure you. In the  meantime we are pleased to welcome you as an asset to the rebellion. I  believe Captain Rigel intends to take you with him on Astarte's next  mission, and matters here on Blue Moon will have time to calm down  before you return."

Kass offered the Chairman a cool stare. "You will never be able to trust her."

Vaden nodded. "We are aware of that, dama. It is a problem we must solve."

Tal sent a silent plea to Omnovah that Kass wouldn't inform the Chairman  there was only one way to deal with Liona Dann. Space her.

Kass took a deep breath, obviously struggling with her inner self. If  she beaned the Chairman with the tray of sandwiches, he was definitely  going to take her over his knee and . . . Kass held out her hand. Tal  helped her to her feet. Head high, she looked up at Torvik Vaden.  "Honored Chairman, I will be pleased to aid the rebellion on one  condition." Again, Tal held his breath. "I never want to see that woman  again."

"Condition accepted." Incredibly, the Chairman bowed his head in  deference to the little warrior the Hierarchy had just accepted into the  rebellion. Not that Tal wouldn't have taken her with him anyway. "Good  day, Dama. Good day, Captain." And Torvik Vaden was gone, leaving them  staring after him.

Royal training, no matter how strict or how long, didn't cover a change  this profound. Kass's head swirled, refusing to focus. Bits and pieces  of the last eight years kaleidoscoped across her brain in random,  incoherent fragments. Her stubborn personal rebellion, the heated  arguments with her parents. Exultant triumph on the bridge of Orion. The  desolation of her first days in the Archives. Reverent hands on ancient  pages. Orion gone, Tal Rigel gone. Overwhelming grief, the horror of  abandonment. All those hours, years, spent studying, learning. Cort  Baran's ready smile. Olin Lusk, invisible under a bombardment of books. A  flash of Imperial Marine red. The terrifying strain, the utter  desperation, when she destroyed the Tau-15s. The krall on its attack run  straight toward her. The relief that Torvik Vaden's days as ambassador  to Psyclid had come after she left for the Academy. Unless he'd seen a  photo . . . If so, he'd given no sign of recognition, a diplomat to the  core.         

     



 

"Kiolani?"

She was scooched up against the sofa pillows, knees under her chin,  hands over her face, rocking back and forth, unaware of anything but the  events leading up to this seminal moment. She had just been granted  everything. Everything. And she was acting like she should be joining  Liona Dann in the psych ward. She was to be an officer on  Orion-correction, Astarte. Could starships change sex? One more  nonsensical fragment to clog her brain.

Kass struggled, grasping for the one thought that penetrated the  whirlwind in her mind, a pinprick of hope growing brighter, coming  closer, ever closer. So close she could reach out and touch it.

Her two dream men lived. In one body. And that body had just lowered  itself to the far end of the sofa, brow furrowed in concern.

Liona Dann was out of his life.

It was said the captain was obsessed by a woman locked in solitary confinement. That had a nice ring to it.

"Kiolani, look at me."

Captain's orders, she'd better obey. Kass lowered her hands, eyeing Tal  Rigel with considerable trepidation. He must think her the weakest link  in the chain. Well, maybe just a notch up from the Chief who bought the  krall. Or maybe she was rock bottom. Anyone who fell apart this badly  under stress didn't belong on the bridge of a hovercraft, let alone a  huntership.

Stop! She hadn't fallen apart under battle stress. She'd fallen apart  because eight long years of stress-from fighting with her parents to  slamming a krall against a wall-had just been lifted. She was free to be  the woman she longed to be. And entitled to a few shattering moments of  readjustment.

"Kiolani-Kass-you need to eat." She looked into eyes as blue as  Psyclid's Azulian Sea. Eyes that drew out her soul and made her forget  every obligation drilled into her since birth. Neither princess,  sorceress, nor lowly ensign was allowed to live in the moment. Each must  always plan ahead, think of the consequences.

But not now. Now was the time to snatch a few moments out of time for  herself. Tal Rigel was sitting at her feet, holding a tiny tea sandwich  within inches of her mouth. Her golden-haired god, with his arrogant  nose and the thin lips she longed to coax into a smile was so close she  could reach out and-

"Come on, open up. No one can do what you did and not need to replenish their strength."

Vulnerability had her clutched by the throat. She couldn't look at him,  he'd see right through her. See every emotion she'd tried so hard to  hide since he'd rematerialized into her life, like a genie out of a  magic bottle.