Tal knelt down before the stricken young man. "It's all right, K'kadi. I was a fool not to have guessed sooner." Admiral Vander Rigel create a velvet prison for some little nobody just because his son asked him to? Dimi, he should have known better.
"I met Kass on Psyclid a long time ago," Tal said. "I should have recognized her. I suppose I didn't want to," he added, more to himself than to K'kadi. "Kass is an asset to the rebellion, but a princess has to be protected, kept from all danger. Including me."
K'kadi raised his head, shaking it violently.
"You don't think she needs protection from me?" Tal asked, managing a rueful smile. K'kadi nodded a vigorous yes. "Well, thank you for that, but I'm afraid I've strayed so far off the path of righteous rebel leader that I'm not sure I can find my way back."
K'kadi's chin firmed, azure eyes flashed. Once again, the wedding image hovered in the air in front of them.
"Wishful thinking, K'kadi, but I'm afraid you don't know much about how royalty does things." Pok! What had he said? K'kadi's handsome face had screwed up like a gargoyle.
More images. King Ryal. A beautiful woman Tal recognized from security reports on K'kadi Amund. The teen's mother. A third image. A baby. K'kadi pointed to the baby, then to himself.
"King Ryal is your father!" A big smile transformed K'kadi's earnest expression. He nodded.
Tal lowered himself to the floor next to K'kadi, leaned his head back against the wall. For months now, he'd been using their talents, risking the lives of two royal children. Fyd!
And was about to do it again. Because neither his protests, the threat of Regulon might, or common sense was going to keep Kass from the mission to Crystalia.
There was, however, one thing he could do to show respect for the House of Orlondami. He could stay out of her bed.
Mallick! What had the girl been thinking? Rejecting her fiancé, applying to the Academy, an affair with her captain. Princesses didn't do things like that. Especially dainty little princesses like the child he remembered from so long ago. Not that he'd ever given her more than a passing admiring glance, like the appreciation of a finely done portrait hanging on a wall.
But the why of a Psyclid princess turning Regulon space cadet escaped him. And that wasn't the only puzzle. Softly, Tal pounded a clenched fist on his desk. What in the nine hells had brought K'kadi to his office today? Why now, when he must have known about his sister's affair for weeks?
Last night's reunion with Kass must have been even more powerful than he'd thought. Enough to ring wedding bells in K'kadi's head? Making him so happy the joy simply burst out of him and he had to show his captain his approval?
Tal shook his head. Omni bless the boy. He meant well, but . . .
Kass should have told him. Long ago-
Fyd! What about Mondragon? Was K'kadi's empathy with Kass unique to their blood line, or did the sorcerer know when . . .
Tal's breath caught. He dropped his head into his hands. Mondragon. Shock had kept him from seeing it until now. When he and Kass conducted their private dissolution ceremony, Jagan Mondragon, Sorcerer Prime, had lost more than a wife. He had lost a kingdom.
Kass leaned back against the latticed side of the g'zebo, eyes closed. Unlike yesterday, she sought the privacy of her childhood haunt to revel in the memories of last night's reconciliation with Tal. Love! Her heart was singing more merrily than the birds. The colorful flitterflies swooped through the air around her, their iridescent wings of blue, green, and gold adding a frosting of shining color to her bubbling mood. A smile teased her lips as she thought about last night, about the wonder of Tal Rigel, the sheer joy of returning home to Mama, Papa, and M'lani with this very special man at her side.
She needed to tell him, apologize for her deception. Yet how could she be sorry when there had been no other way to be near the dashing Talryn, son of Vander Rigel?
She would tell him tonight.
Perhaps not. One more night . . . was that too much to ask? Then she'd tell him.
Coward!
Be quiet! I am L'ira, and I shall do as I please! The willful princess coming back to life.
The willful princess whose hero-worship of the dashing young ensign Talryn Rigel had sparked her determination to become the only Psyclid in the Regulon Fleet Academy. Which meant that because of Tal Rigel she had endured four bleak years in the Archives.
At his orders, she had killed.
And now he was hers, and she simply could not risk-
A shadow fell across the g'zebo's wood floor. Kass knew, even before she looked up, that her bubble had burst. Tal Rigel, as cold and angry as she'd ever seen him. Dimi. She'd left it too late. He knew.
He paced toward her until he towered over her. He folded his arms. Glared. She'd swear the temperature dropped twenty degrees. Her brain must be frozen because the words she was hearing were so far from anything she was expecting him to say.
"I am seriously considering sending Mondragon to Psyclid to organize the resistance, and now I discover I've deprived him of a kingdom." Not cold. Beneath the ice Kass felt a white-hot fury that rivaled the sun. "Just what's to keep him from organizing the planet to suit himself? Tal pressed. "Just a tiny switch in momentum, perhaps a whisper or two in Reg ears, and Ryal and Jalaine are out, Jagan Mondragon in. Vive le roi!"
Tal's sarcasm might be cutting, but the truth of his words hurt. Why else had she proposed a mission to consult Ryal and Jalaine? It would likely take the power of the entire Orlondami clan to keep the Sorcerer Prime in check.
"This is why we're going to Crystalia," Kass returned with as much dignity as she could muster with the menacing presence of S'sorrokan hovering over her. "Ryal and Jalaine must decide if Jagan can be controlled."
"I notice a significant absence of the word trust."
"You do," Kass agreed, her royal mask firmly in place. And, as usual, they were talking all around the real problem, which she could no longer ignore. "I knew I had to tell you before the mission," she said, the words tumbling over themselves as she tried to make amends, "but obviously I left it too long. Please"-she patted the bench beside her-"sit down and tell me how you found out."
His shoulders still stiff and unyielding, Tal lowered himself to the long bench a good meter and a half from where she was sitting. He sat, silent and scowling, as the flitterflies, evidently sensing his mood, disappeared into the woods. When he finally spoke, it was a toneless recitation of his morning's encounter with K'kadi. He might as well have been delivering a report to an admiral. But Kass's eyes misted as he described K'kadi's air paintings. Dear goddess, who knew what powers her brother had? Did he actually foresee the scenes he showed Tal, or was his imagination as lively as her own?
With almost no change in his cool, impersonal tone, Tal added, "Dorn has informed me that if we make full use of K'kadi's and Jagan's talents, the mission to Crystalia is feasible. Be at the planning session tonight. It would appear you are about to enjoy a joyous reunion with your family." He stood, executed a stiff bow, then exited the g'zebo, his booted feet echoing as he stomped across the wood floor and down the steps.
Kass's lips curled as she watched his retreating back. She'd taken a lot of blows over the last few years. She would bounce back from this one as well. Because . . . because something important lurked just out of reach of her scrambled brain. Something that should have hit her in the face ten minutes ago.
Tal. Furious. Tal, hurt. He hadn't shown it, but she'd felt his pain.
Tal. Who hadn't known she was L'ira.
Tal. Who had not used her for his personal advancement.
Tal. Who should have been told the truth before he ever touched her.
So now she was abandoned again, and this time she had no one to blame but herself.
Chapter 35
When working for the rebellion, you will remain Kass. My people don't need any added distractions. I'll inform Stagg and Quint. No one else need know. Tal's order, delivered in a handwritten note the day after K'kadi's revelation, echoed through Kass's mind as she pressed her nose to the shuttle's small porthole and watched the graceful, gleaming towers of Crystal City flash by a few marks out, vague blurs of color becoming houses, streets, lawns, parks, and forest. Psyclid. Home. Almost there.
And he was right, of course. Princesses were sacrosanct, precious beings to be sheltered and protected at all times. But Kass Kiolani was allowed to risk her life for the rebellion. And the rebellion, of course, was all-important.
Kass lifted her head away from the window long enough to note that K'kadi, handling the shuttle's cloak with typical insouciance, also had his nose pressed to the viewport. Bless him. It was his first glimpse of Psyclid. To the best of her knowledge, he had never been off Blue Moon until the rebellion grabbed him up and threw him into the maelstrom of war. Oddly, he seemed to thrive on it.