Rebel's Honor(55)

"Axel and you?" Tao asked.

"Don't get excited. As much as I like your cousin, I am marrying your brother."

Tao's face was all sympathy.

It prompted Lynx to say, "It seems your father heard and saw Axel telling me about the cameras."

Tao rocked back on his heels, whistling. "You have had an education." He  paused, looking her up and down. "It adds to your charm." Grinning, he  held his hand out to her. "We haven't met properly. Tao Avanov. Care to  be friends?"                       
       
           



       

Lynx put her hands on her hips and made a show of checking him out, too.  He had the most open face of any Chenayan she'd ever met, and his eyes  were gentle. She could be friends with Tao-even if he was an Avanov.

She took his hand, giving it a firm handshake. "Why else would I follow you into a maze?"

"Good point. You don't strike me as the trusting kind." He started  walking, leading Lynx deeper into the labyrinth. Then he said, "I hope  you don't think Axel told him. It's not his style."

"No, I don't. Your cousin is arrogant and snarky, but I don't have him  down as a deceiver." She cocked her head. "And you, what can you tell me  about yourself?"

Tao laughed self-consciously. "As you have seen, I don't always approve of what goes on around here."

Lynx's heart fluttered with all the possibilities Tao's words opened. "I  happen to like that about you." She paused, thinking, and then asked,  "So if Axel is going to be Lukan's Lord of the Conquest, what happens to  you? Lord of the Household?"

"I won't get a position of power. According to my brother, I lack the  killer instinct necessary to help him govern Chenaya when our father  dies." Tao gave Lynx a wry smile. "I've always seen that as an  advantage. He and I had a different set of nannies growing up. Mine  actually cared. As a result, I see our subjects differently than he  does. I happen to like them, and that's why Lukan and the Fifteen will  never allow me any influence."

"More's the pity. So what will you do with yourself?" When Tao shrugged,  looking embarrassed, Lynx cajoled, "Come on, I've told you things about  me and Axel. Now it's your turn to share. It's what friends do."

Tao hesitated, then he blushed. "Laugh and-lack of killer instinct notwithstanding-I may just slap you."

"Glad you're a perfect gentleman."

"There aren't too many options open to failed Avanovs. So, I want to try  my hand at parenting, hopefully doing a better job than my father did.  It's the only reason I let him force me into marrying Kestrel." Tao gave  a hollow laugh. "Before I met her, I consoled myself with the idea that  a rebellious Norin would make me a better wife than a high-born chasing  rank and power. But now, I'm not sure. She pretends to like me, but I  know it's Lukan she wants. It'll be even worse when she learns I'll  never be powerful."

Lynx's heart went out to him. "I understand how my sister may seem like a . . . disappointment."

Tao looked glum. "Nothing I can do about it now. The wedding  announcements have been sent out, and my father would slit my throat  before he'd let me back out of it." Then, his face brightened. "Maybe  motherhood will change her." His face fell again. "No, my children will  probably end up horrible."

"That's what aunts are for, to help raise their nephews and nieces. It's  what I did at home with my little nephew, Raven. He's a great child,  but you're going to have to work much harder with your children, Tao.  Honestly, the world desperately needs some decent Avanovs."

"That's what I keep telling myself."

Lynx was about to broach the letter when Tao opened a door she hadn't  noticed in the brickwork. "Through here. It's a shortcut to the other  side of the labyrinth."

She stepped into a very different type of passageway. More like a tiny  room, four walls and ceiling made of mirrors reflected her image into  infinity. The stuffy air forced her to breathe through her mouth. She  swirled around, starting to complain to Tao, but he had vanished. Worse,  the door had disappeared.

Lynx sucked in a breath, both confused and disoriented. "Tao? This isn't funny. Open up."

There was no reply.

The urge to pound her fists against the glass was overwhelming, but she  resisted it. Lacerated hands were the last thing she needed. Fighting  claustrophobia and panic, she sucked in a breath, telling herself there  had to be another way out. She slid her hands across the closest wall,  feeling for a concealed door.

Nothing presented itself.

As she turned to tackle the next wall, a cool draft brushed her face.  She squeaked with relief. Somewhere, there was an opening; she just had  to find it. She turned a full circle, scanning the walls, trying to  focus on the glass behind her reflection. No easy task, she quickly  discovered. She had been hard at work for a few minutes when someone  spoke.

"That is what you have to do in Chenaya. Look beyond the illusion to find reality."                       
       
           



       

Lynx spun to find the speaker, but there was no one there. Her skin prickled with fear. "W-who's there?"

"Perhaps this will help," the speaker said. Laughter sounded,  reminiscent of a bubbling stream, as a winsome girl about Lynx's age  stepped out of the mirror.

Lynx almost jumped out of her skin. She slumped back against the mirror,  hand clasped to her wildly beating heart. The girl looked like a shiny  version of her. But as she shimmied closer, Lynx noticed she was taller  than her visitor. There were slight differences in their faces, too, the  most notable being their eyes. The girl's were a gentle gray. Apart  from that, her visitor looked as if she had arrived here straight from  Norin.

Recovering from her fear, Lynx put her hands on her hips. With as much  flippancy as she could muster, she said, "I never thought I'd see the  day when I'd actually talk with one of Emperor Mott's fantastical  creations."

The girl raised a perfect eyebrow. "Is that what you think I am? A hologram?"

"A what?"

"A hologram. That is what the Dreaded are made from. Light reflections designed to deceive."

More technology from before the Burning? It had to be. "Is that what you  are?" Even as Lynx asked the question, she doubted she would get a  truthful answer.

"Lynx, you face illusion at every turn, so you can no longer trust what  you see." The girl waved her arm at the mirrors. "Now you have to rely  on your heart." She stepped up to Lynx and dragged a finger down the  line of her cheekbone, making her gasp. "I'm as solid as you are."

Lynx gripped her wrist. It was tangible and warm, nothing like the light  that had come from Axel's informa. Nor, Lynx realized, did she look  like the Dreaded. More than one had jumped out at her since her first  night here. She shoved the girl's hand away. "Stop messing with me. What  are you? You can't be human, because you stepped unscathed through  glass."

"Oh, I'm human, just like you. Only I'm resurrected from the dead."

Lynx swallowed hard, wishing she could dispute it, but she had never  seen a living human with pearlescent skin. She eyed the mirrors again,  desperate to get out. Still nothing, so she edged away from the girl,  asking, "So why are you here?" A thought struck. "Does this have  anything to do with the Dmitri Curse?"

"Of course it has. Nothing is more important than the fulfillment of  that curse." The dead girl clicked her fingers, and an image of Axel  flickered to life before her. "I'm here to talk to you about your  choices in regard to that cursing."

Lynx took another quick step back. She bumped into the wall. With nowhere to go, she studied the image before her.

Axel was dressed in the casual clothing he had worn that morning. His  strong face drew her in. His lips twitched with a smile-derisive, of  course-making his honey-brown eyes dance. She drank in his body,  powerful chest, narrow hips, and athletic legs. She lingered on the  curve of his bicep and the muscles of his forearm, rippling under  sun-bronzed skin. Her eyes trailed to his hand and fingers.

Enough! She turned to the girl. "How did you do this?"

"It's a simple vision created by manipulating light waves. In fact, this  whole room is a manipulation of light. I suppose you would call it a  miracle. I call it power derived from Dmitri, the great prophet and seer  who once experienced visions of the future of Chenaya."

Lynx reached out and touched Axel, but her fingers passed through him,  as they had with the informa. "He's no different than anything Felix can  create."