Rebel's Honor(41)

"Do you remember that sword-sharpening exercise of mine on the train?"

The image of his forearms flashed through her memory. "How could I forget?"

"Stefan sent Saskia to sort through your dresses to get her out of your hair-"

"That was kind of him," Lynx interrupted. "He's a bit of an enigma, our Colonel Zarot."

"Do you mind?" Axel flicked her arm playfully with his fingernail. "I'm in the middle of a fascinating story."

Lynx gave him a mock bow. "Please, my lord, continue."

"That would be good, if you actually meant it. Anyway, Stefan went to  the guard car, where he sent the duty officers off to inspect something  that didn't need inspecting. Do you know why he did that?"

Lynx shrugged. "Like I said, he's an enigmatic man."

"No. Well, a bit." He smiled fondly as if thinking of something specific  about Zarot. "But that's not the point. He wanted to make sure none of  the guardsmen overheard Bear's pathetic attempts at warning you about  life in the palace."                       
       
           



       

Lynx folded her arms across her chest. "I knew you were listening."

"Of course I was listening. Understanding was the problem." He rolled his gorgeous golden-brown eyes. "You were speaking Norin."

Lynx leaned back and studied Axel's face.

It was surprisingly open and sincere.

"You have no idea how many questions this conversation raises. How did  you hear us? We were talking so quietly. Does your ruby enhance your  hearing as well as your speed? Because, clearly, the jasper does  something to the guardsmen's hearing if Stefan had to get them busy  while we spoke."

It took Axel a moment to reply, and she wondered if he would deny the power of the stones.

"Lynxie," he said in an amused voice, "where was the guard car on the train?"

"At the back. Why?" she asked, bristling at his patronizing tone and smile.

"Nothing can enhance human hearing enough to discern Bear whispering to  you through a steel dining car, a steel salon, and half a dozen steel  sleeper cars on a moving steam train."

That sounded logical. No wonder he was mocking her. A blush scorched her face. "I knew that."

Axel laughed, and he reached up to cup her cheek. "Sure you did."

Remembering his girlfriend, Lynx pulled away.

Axel didn't stop her. "You-and the rest of the world-think all technology was lost in the Burning."

"It was. And the vile stuff that survived was destroyed as part of The Treaty of Hope."

People still spoke about some of those technological horrors, but the  stories were always so embellished and far-fetched, Lynx didn't know  what was myth and what was truth.

"You're wrong, my Lynxie. While he was signing the Treaty of Hope,  Thurban's scientists were searching for manuscripts and weaponry. A lot  of them didn't survive the aftermath of the Burning, but enough returned  to Cian with incredible treasures. Since then, my family have built on  that technology-all for a very specific purpose." Serious eyes locked on  her face. "Does the Dmitri Curse mean anything to you?"

Those machines had almost destroyed the planet, yet the Avanovs had salvaged them? Still owned them?

"No. Never. What is it? A weapon from before?"

He sniggered. "Hardly. But I guess you could still call it a weapon-of  sorts." He cleared his throat. "What I'm going to tell you never leaves  this room. Got that?"

Got that? Poor Axel! Those words didn't even form a promise, let alone an oath. She nodded. "Of course."

"Thurban had a brother-Dmitri-who was a seer of some kind."

Lynx raised her eyebrows skeptically.

"Yes, weird as that sounds, he could see the future."

"Handy," Lynx said, wondering what all of this had to do with gemstones and electricity.

"Trust me, it didn't turn out so well for Dmitri. Thurban flayed him after the invasion of Norin."

Lynx's voice was brittle as she asked, "And why would he do that?"

"Dmitri tricked him into signing the Unity with Norin-and then proceeded  to curse the Avanov line. He prophesied that a crown prince would marry  a Norin princess who would deliver a son to destroy his father and the  Chenayan empire. Or that's what every Avanov is told, virtually from  birth. Since then, every crown prince has done everything possible to  convince the family he would never destroy the empire. That includes  trying to wriggle out of marrying his Norin betrothed. Every one of them  failed in the marriage department. Dmitri said that if the Avanovs  destroyed Norin or reneged on the Unity, then the Free Nations would  muster an army to slaughter us. No one has dared taken Dmitri up on  that, so, the curse has some bite." Axel brushed her face with a gentle  hand. "It's why the Avanovs don't like you Norin much. We can't get rid  of you, but we can't bear to keep you alive, either."

Lynx's breath stuttered. That explained so much. And it opened so many  possibilities. If true, could she be the woman prophesied about? The  idea sent a thrill coursing through her.

Then, it struck her that Axel may not fancy having his empire destroyed.

It was time to rein in her emotions. She dropped what she hoped was a neutral expression over her face. "Does that include you?"

Axel's face hardened to granite. "I didn't support sending fifteen guardsmen into Norin."

Lynx wanted to believe him, but the pain of loss was still too raw.  Voice icy, she asked, "How does this all fit in with gemstones and  electricity?"

Disappointment flickered across Axel's face-could he have expected  anything else? His face cleared, and his voice became businesslike. "In a  quest to prevent that Norin princess and her son from ever rallying an  army, my family have used that technology to create the finest military  surveillance system in the world. It keeps the conquered at our feet."                       
       
           



       

Lynx bristled. "That is precisely what the Treaty of Hope was supposed to prevent."

"Foul play, I know, but that's how it is." Axel hopped up and strode  across the darkened room to his cloak, hanging over the sconce. He  pulled a second sconce, identical to the one on her wall, from a pocket  inside the lining and tossed it to her.

She caught it in midair.

"Have a good look at that and tell me what you see."

Holding it in the faint candlelight, Lynx turned it over in her hands,  studying every angle. She looked up at him and shrugged. "Can't see  anything."

"Maybe some light would help." Again, his hand vanished into his cloak,  this time appearing with a black metal tube. He tossed that to her, too.  "Hold it and see what happens."

It fit in her palm, and as her fingers closed over it, a beam of  brilliant white light burst from the front. Lynx gasped, dropping it as  if it had burned her. It hadn't, but she'd never seen anything so  incredible. Or unbelievable. The light vanished. She looked at Axel.

"It uses the heat from your body to create light, but it won't hurt you,  I promise." Kneeling in front of her, he picked up the tube and wedged  it in her hand. She closed her fingers over it, and the beam flared once  more.

"This is amazing, Axel," she whispered in awe.

"I rather like it, too. See, not everything from before the Burning is bad."

She looked up at his face, just inches from hers. They smiled, locked together in the wonder of her discovery.

"Now look at the sconce again," he said.

With more confidence, she held the sconce under the beam, noticing the  tiniest flare of light reflecting back at her. She leaned in closer for a  better look. "Is that . . . glass?"

"Ice crystal. That's what the emeralds, sapphires, jasper, and the  moonstones are made from." He touched the ruby next to his eye. "This is  real. And so are the diamonds. Everyone else? They wear ice crystal  embedded with tiny-" he paused, scratching the stubble on his chin,  "brains. Well, not really, but . . . okay, it's like a . . . man-made  intelligence powered by body heat."

Even though Lynx was finally getting her answers, they made no sense to  her. They would mean nothing to her father, either. She looked at Axel  blankly.

He sighed with frustration.

Lynx figured that, for him, it must be similar to communicating with  someone who spoke a foreign language. She gave him what she hoped was an  understanding smile.

He responded by stroking her face with a gentle finger. "Look, you've already come a long way from candles to-"

"I'm not a child!" Lynx swatted his hand away. Difficult as this was, she had to grasp it all.

Axel rocked back on his heels. "I know! But how do you explain this," he  jabbed a finger at the tube, "to someone who learned the word  electricity a couple of hours ago?"