"Now, Captain," Jagan said, "explain to me why I should join the rebellion."
Tal's surprise radiated through her. Kass opened her mouth to assert that she was the chosen negotiator, when Tal returned calmly, "Kiolani tells me you would be a great asset and I trust her judgment. Yet I must admit I am curious to know not only how you got away from Psyclid, but why you've hidden yourself in such a bleak and inaccessible spot as Bender's Folly."
Jagan gazed at the wall behind Tal's head, glanced down at his long fingers marked by a single talisman ring. "I chose Folly precisely for the reasons you just gave. It is about as far away as I could get, and it is bleak enough to punish my guilt over running away."
When he didn't continue, Tal repeated his question. "But how did you get away? I was under the impression the Regulon invasion was a complete surprise."
Complete surprise. Kass could still hear her door slam open, see the three masked men storm into her room, their words ringing in her ears as if it were yesterday: Pack. No uniforms. Pilots you pissed off planning rape . . . spreadeagling you, naked, on the nymph statue in the fountain
"I have many skills, Captain," Jagan said, "including the gift of forewarning. Yet I did not distinguish myself in those last weeks before the invasion-details failed me when they were most needed. I urged our army to be on alert, I urged the royal family to flee, even if it was only to Blue Moon. But all I had were forebodings, nothing solid enough to make anyone pay attention."
"That can't be true," Kass countered. "Everyone respects your skills."
"Midamara, the Regulon Ambassador dined regularly at the palace. Invasion seemed impossible. Our thoughts were running toward the possibility of a natural disaster of some kind. As I have said-much as it pains me to admit it-I did not foresee what happened."
The Regulon ambassador dined . . . Torvik Vaden, it had to be, Kass thought. The diplomat who came to Psyclid after Kass left for the Academy. The Reg who seemed to have become a Psyclid sympathizer, as he now headed the Hierarchy on Blue Moon. Was it possible the invasion was as much a surprise to him as to the Psyclids? Or . . .
"Then how did you get away?" This time Tal's repetition was sharper.
"It's difficult to explain," Jagan admitted. "Two days before Regulon ships filled our skies, I felt . . . a disturbance. Something had happened to L'ira-the one you call Kass. And even as I knew it, I knew I had to leave, that one of us must survive. So my friends and I slipped aboard a merchant ship and went where she took us. After that, we just kept going, farther and farther out. Tor joined us on Folly. It took us almost three years to get here, and for the last twelve months I've been moldering on this hunk of rock and wondering what the hell I'm doing here."
"I take it you're not attached to the place?" Tal drawled.
"If you'll pardon the pun, Hell no!"
Kass looked from Jagan to Tal and back again. In a sense, each had just met his match. Two powerful men shutting her out, going all man-talk, just when she'd expected to be the skillful negotiator, recruiting Jagan for the rebellion.
"Are you thinking you'd prefer a cozy spot in the neutral zone, like Tatarus," Tal asked, his tone bland, nonjudgmental, "or do you want to fight?"
Jagan raised one thick black brow. "You didn't come all this way so I could make a cozy new home on Tat." He offered a taunting smile. "But then you're assuming I'm a patriot who wants to fight Regulons instead of a jilted lover who would prefer to tear you limb from limb."
"I'm thinking that if we're going to work together," Tal responded with what Kass considered far too much self-control-couldn't he have risen to the bait just a little?-"we have to put personal animosity aside."
"Ah, Captain, how remarkably noble." Jagan's penetrating gaze shifted to Kass. "So silent, midamara. Do you not object to your lovers fighting over you? Or perhaps to the possibility we will not fight over you?"
"You are not my lover!"
"I am your betrothed."
"Then call your circle back, and we will conduct a dissolution ceremony."
Jagan offered a pitying glance. "But, midamara, you know quite well only the ParaPrime can do that."
"Fine. Then I will break our engagement in a more-ah-unorthodox fashion."
Jagan stared. "You are not already his lover?"
"No." Kass clenched her fists and glared straight back.
"Great goddess, are you mad? What I feel between you two-great rolling waves of passion-I assumed you'd been lovers for some time."
Kass subsided into her chair, noting Tal's fingers relaxing their grip on the rifle by his side, even as his face burned red. "It's extremely complicated," she said slowly, struggling to find the right words. She could not offend Jagan, the asset. Nor could she lie. "It is true," she added carefully, "that I have reason to believe Tal and I are destined to be together. Yet," she continued in the measured tones of a woman who was trained to rule, "I have matured enough to regret, for the sake of our parents, that their plans for us will never materialize. And I am sincerely sorry if your interest in me was ever personal."
For a moment, Jagan studied her. "Only if I were the last man in the galaxy, isn't that what you said?"
"I fear the gene pool, Jagan, and so should you."
"And you're just a wee bit afraid of me."
"That too," Kass murmured.
Jagan crossed his arms, stretched out his long legs. So afraid you are willing to pollute the gene pool of the Psyclid royal family with Reg blood?
Oh, pok! Kass shot a glance at Tal, who was merely looking solemn. Thank the goddess! Evidently, Jagan had spoken only to her.
"Business only, no nuances," Kass declared, praying Tal didn't question the seeming non sequitur. Jagan's lips twitched but she felt his silent agreement, even though his eyes were black holes, revealing nothing.
Kass stretched out her hand. Jagan touched his fingers to hers. As always, lightning flashed between them. "Will you and your friends come with us?" she intoned with the combined authority of a Psyclid high priestess and heir to the Psyclid throne. "Will you join the rebellion? Or if you do not care to join us for the long fight against the Empire, will you use your very special skills to help us free Psyclid?"
The hairs on her arms stood on end, her whole body tingled. Not from love, but from power. Together, Jagan Mondragon and L'ira Orlondami could rock the galaxy, though never be joined in bed. What she had only sensed before, Kass now knew to be true. Sexual union between them could destroy them both.
Fingers still touching, Jagan looked straight into her amber eyes and said, "You did not come all this way expecting me to say no."
Kass twisted her fingers, turning their touch into a handshake. The electricity abruptly cut to normal. His doing or hers? More likely, a mutual escape. "Listen to me, Jagan. When a Pybbite told me you were on Hell Nine, I feared we might be walking into a well-baited trap, but I also knew we had to chance it. The rebellion needs you, Jagan. Badly."
You may say no to me, L'ira, but I will never say no to you. This I vow.
Jagan at his most dangerous when he was being nice. Then tell the captain yes. I wish it. And thank you.
But somehow Tal knew. Perhaps he'd simply taken the measure of his rival and recognized he was no coward. Or else he was again catching Kass's thoughts as she was occasionally catching his. He and Jagan exchanged a look, an infinitesimal nod, and it was done.
"Will your friends join us?" Tal asked.
"The Psyclids will. Tor, perhaps not."
"They can't waver, Mondragon," Tal cautioned. "Commitment is final. We'll be returning to our home base and trust is essential. And I have to tell you I think the rebellion can do without your Folly errand boy."
"Tor's been loyal, and good at his job. I must give him a choice."
"I doubt anyone raised on the standards of Bender's Folly has any concept of trust or honor," Tal countered.
"But he does, Captain. That's one of the things I can sense. If disloyalty occurs, I assure you I will take care of it long before it becomes a problem."
Man-talk again. Kass shivered. How strange it was that these two men seemed to understand each other. She should feel the joy of a mission accomplished, but it was all too precarius. The tensions between them could well explode before they were halfway home.
And then there was B'aela. And Jordana Tegge, waiting on Tat.
Kass slumped in her chair, thinking dour thoughts, while Jagan and his minions packed. As it turned out, all, including Tor, were determined to leave Hell Nine. Not that Kass could blame them. There had been a time when she'd followed Jagan around like an eager puppy, basking in his power, certain they would one day rule Psyclid together.