"Many Psyclids have empathic or telepathic powers, have they not?" Tal said at last.
"Of course."
"If-and this is only theoretical-if I should agree to your request, I must assume your presence on Psyclid cannot remain a secret. Your people will know you are there."
"I am counting on it."
Beside him, Tal heard Dorn blow out a breath. He had to agree. Mondragon was not rational. "That's a hell of a lot of trust," Tal countered.
"My people will remain loyal."
"Kass?" She was now sitting with her hands steepled before her face, hiding her expression. Her opinion mattered. She knew both Mondragon and the Psyclid culture far better than he did.
"Kass will, of course, come with us," the sorcerer declared. "People will flock to the . . . to the ParaPrime Designate even more readily than they come to me."
"No!" Tal snapped. "Kiolani's skills are needed on Astarte."
"She is essential to our mission."
"She is needed on Psyclid."
"Be quiet, both of you!" Kass snapped. "I will hear the details of Jagan's plan and decide where I can do the most good. I will go where I wish, when I wish."
Mondragon stood, bowed, if a trifle mockingly. "Highness." He slid back into his seat with the innate grace that set Tal's teeth on edge. He could only assume Mondragon and Kass were playing obscure Psyclid games with each other. At least she defied the sorcerer and her captain equally.
Time for a little honest truth, with perhaps a dash of Rigel manipulation learned at his father's knee. "Kiolani, you are my most important hidden asset. Astarte needs you. I need you."
"My people need me."
Fyd! No way was she going to Psyclid, even if he had to lock her in the Round Tower. The maze of secret passages he'd discovered that afternoon popped into his head, and he swallowed a rueful laugh. Even if Kass didn't have a built-in escape route, all she had to do was open a window and transport herself to the ground. I will go where I wish, when I wish.
Time to maneuver, give a little, take a little. "Mr. Jorkan, how long to look into the feasibility of landing Mondragon and his friends on Psyclid?"
"A day to red-flag the mission as too dangerous. If it's not, fifty hours to work out a plan."
"A compromise, Mondragon," Tal said. "We will consider the problem of landing you and your team on Psyclid on one condition. Kiolani stays here."
"No!" Kass's amber eyes blazed. He'd really pissed her off this time. Did she want to leave him that badly, or was she simply challenging his orders? Again.
"S'sorrokan's conditions, take it or leave it," Tal intoned. "Remember me? I'm the man with the transportation."
Mondragon didn't even glance at his companions for their reaction, but he exchanged a long look with Kass. A look Tal didn't like. "Very well," the sorcerer said, "condition accepted."
Kass came close to shooting to her feet, right then and there, and informing them that she ruled here. Any decisions of this kind were hers to make, not anyone else's. But if she did, Tal really would find a way to lock her up. So far he seemed to consider Jagan's "Highness" a joke, but if he knew the truth, he would never risk the life of Psyclid's Princess Royal.
And, besides, she really didn't want to leave him. Or Astarte. Or Zee-Zee, Dorn, Mical, Anton, Joss . . . Ah, goddess, and what about K'kadi? As soon as the ship landed, he'd dashed off to visit his mother. She couldn't just go off again and leave him. Not now, when she'd finally realized how selfish she'd been to follow her own willful path, abandoning all those she'd left behind.
But if she hadn't, she wouldn't have Tal.
Or all the anguish that went with him.
He was about to wind up the meeting, she realized, all plans on hold until Dorn's report was ready. "Captain," Kass inserted quickly. "Jagan has, as usual, not been entirely truthful." All heads turned her way. For the first time in days she could feel Tal. Perhaps, after all, there were emotions that remained untrampled. "Coordinating Psyclid talents into what we call enlasé is a dangerous practice, strictly forbidden. That much combined power could easily explode into the same kind of tyranny we are trying to put down."
"I can control it," Jagan asserted.
"You cannot be certain." Kass held up an imperious hand. "Which is why we need to visit Crystalia, consult with the king and the ParaPrime before we take so much as one step toward Jagan's plan."
"I do not agree-"
Kass waved Jagan's protest aside. "Do not be so full of yourself, Jagan, that you forget the power of the ParaPrime or the respect given her by our people. You ran. She stayed and faced the invasion, shoulder to shoulder with Ryal. She endured an occupation while you were wallowing in the pleasure palaces of Hell Nine."
Careful, my pet, or I'll turn you into a slimeworm.
Ignoring Jagan's threat, Kass turned to Astarte's three highest-ranking officers, who were strangely silent, as if watching a theatrical performance. "I suggest a reconnaissance team that includes both Regs and Psyclids. K'kadi to disappear the shuttle, Jagan, myself, Dorn or Mical, with Anton Stagg and Joss Quint as security. There's a park adjacent to the palace where we can land. I can get us over the wall and into the royal chambers."
"Whoa!" Dorn protested. "Way too much risk."
"Not if we're invisible," Jagan inserted.
"If K'kadi's with the shuttle, then how-"
"K'kadi is not the only one with illusion skills, if you will recall," Jagan returned smoothly. "I can create blank space more easily than I can create a huntership or a monster."
"You're saying we could walk right into the palace," Tal said, emphasizing each word, "and no one would see us."
"Yes."
"Mal-lick!" Mical Turco didn't bother to hide his awe.
"Feasibility on both ideas, Mr. Jorkan," Tal ordered. "This begins to get interesting."
"And not so suicidal, after all." Dorn shook his head. "Easy to forget Psyclids are freaks." But he was smiling, taking the sting out of the words. Kass grinned right back.
"Meeting adjourned," Tal said, "until two nights from now, same time. And, Kiolani, please stay. We have unfinished business."
Uh-oh. Kass sat back down in her chair, folded her hands in front of her, and waited, making a sincere effort to appear meek and subservient, a definite stretch of credulity after she'd just seized control of the meeting and turned their plans toward her mission, not Jagan's.
Spiders. Large hairy ones in your bed. Jagan's hiss filled her head as he passed by on his way out.
One teeny speck of a spider and I'll have Tal throw you in the dungeon!
You always were difficult, my pet.
Tal stood and moved down the table, seating himself directly across from her. For a moment his sky blue eyes studied her as if she were his own private puzzle, a challenge he had to solve, and then he surprised her. "You have doubts about Mondragon. Tell me."
She'd expected . . . she'd thought . . . Dimi, but the man was aggravating. Even now, in private, he was talking business.
Kass clasped her fists in front of her mouth, struggling to find the right words to explain something so ephemeral she barely understood it herself. "One of the duties of the ParaPrime," she said at last, settling her hands back in her lap, "is to keep watch over the Sorcerer Prime. Do you recall the ancient saying, ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'? That is the fear with all Sorcerer Primes. We must be ever vigilant they don't go too far."
"And letting him organize a multitude of psychic talents could go very wrong." It wasn't a question.
"It is a grave consideration," Kass admitted solemnly. "I fear the ParaPrime may consider Jagan's plan more dangerous than the Reg occupation."
Tal blew out a breath. "Mallick!" He looked straight into her eyes. "Your opinion, Kass? The fate of the rebellion could rest on what we decide here and now."
"If only I had the power of foretelling . . ." Kass offered a wan smile, but no words of wisdom came. "At first, when I heard Jagan's plan, my heart leaped. Psyclids fighting back, freeing themselves, not waiting for Reg rebels to do it for them. But to rid our planet of the occupation, he would have to practice enlasé, a melding of many minds, which is strictly forbidden."
Kass frowned, gazing across the room toward the green marble fireplace. "I applaud Jagan's initiative, knowing it to be strategically sound, undoubtedly as effective as it is infinitely terrifying. For a moment, I even allowed myself to gloat over what such an enlasé might do." She folded her hands, resting them on the table, her delight in the vision of a free Psyclid fading from her face. "But then I realized turning the Sorcerer Prime loose is not a decision either of us should make on our own. Without the approval of Ryal and Jalaine, there can be no enlasé. Our people would not stand for it."