Rebel's Honor(66)

His father swept his hand around at the carnage of the broken desk,  buckled chairs, soiled carpet, and smashed artworks. "This has to stop,  for the good of the throne and the Avanov family."

"No doubt you have a plan."

"I offered Lukan a deal, and like the wimp he is, he agreed to my terms."

Axel stuck his feet on his father's wrecked desk, enjoying seeing him wince. "Then you certainly did better than I today."

"Perhaps it is time you listened and learned, my arrogant son." His  father pulled out his handkerchief and flicked it over the  chenna-stained squab of the only other functional chair. Then he sat.  "Lukan has commanded Morass to kill Mott tomorrow after the wedding  ceremony. With my new ice crystal in Morass's face, the imbecile will  obey."

A gush of air-relief for himself and sorrow for Morass, who had no  choice-escaped Axel's lungs. If he were honest, patching together  credible footage of a copulating couple was not how he wanted to spend  the evening.

"It's not over yet, son. The Fifteen will not be happy with Mott's  demise, and as Lukan is the one to benefit, they will be quick to blame  him. It will fall to Lukan to justify his actions."

"They won't turn him down. They can't, because he's the legal heir. And  let's face it, regicide is hardly a new thing in Chenaya."                       
       
           



       

"Quite. Some might say it's a sport played exclusively by crown princes.  Still, there are plenty of men among the Fifteen who believe that  neither Lukan nor his brother are suitable candidates for the throne.  They would happily see you as emperor."

Axel's stomach knotted. "That implies that Lukan and Tao's reprieve is short lived."

"Except this time, the Fifteen will take care of the messy bits. I have  it in good faith that many of them are looking to make a clean sweep of  things. They are supremely tired of Mott and his offspring."

Axel sighed, wishing this whole sordid business was over. He considered  mentioning that he would never take Tao's place on the throne, but he  knew his father would brush his objection aside. He leaned forward into  his father's personal space. "I'm going to Treven. Nothing else is more  important than that."

"Not even Lynx?"

Axel took a quick breath-it wouldn't help if his father knew the depth  of his care for her. With a wafer-thin crust of calm hiding his  emotions, he asked, "Where is she? In the dungeons, I presume?"

His father's jaw dropped. "The dungeons? Our future empress? What do you take me for?"

"Do you really want to know?"

A rare smile split his father's face. "Perhaps not. Now, my son, please  see reason and work with me here. If we plan carefully, in the  not-too-distant future, the throne will be yours." He fixed Axel with  sharp eyes. "But your game with Lynx-it ends now."

Axel raised an eyebrow.

"You have what you wanted. You have taken over command in Treven. Now  leave Lynx. The only way Mott will go blithely to his death is if she  and Lukan show up tomorrow for the wedding."

Axel grudgingly admitted that his father had a point. Still, he shot back, "Knowing she is safe is hardly interfering."

His father sucked in an impatient breath and then pulled his informa  from his pocket. Quick as a flash, he held it up to Axel's eyes,  blasting his retina with a red beam of light.

"What the hell?" Axel yelled, tossing his chair back in his scramble to get out of the rays.

"Oh, calm down, Axel. It's the new technology I programmed to control  the doors in the lair." His father stood. "If you're so worried about  the Norin bitch, spend your night searching for her. It's certainly not  the worst thing you could be doing between now and the wedding."

Axel no longer believed Lynx was in the dungeons, but when he left the room, he still slid open every door, looking for her.

It was fruitless. Finding her in the palace, with its thousand rooms,  would be almost impossible, but he had to try. After dismissing the  guardsmen in the camera control room, he pulled up a chair at a bank of  monitors and started the slow scan of every room in the palace fitted  with candle sconces.

His ears pricked when he saw Lukan in conversation with Morass. His  cousin held a crossbow and a vial of yellow liquid in his hand. Axel's  blood chilled as he listened to Lukan brief Morass to kill Lynx after  the wedding. He buried his face in his hands and tried to breathe as the  full implication of Lukan and his father's scheming hit him.

Needing to move, he leaped up from his seat and started to pace as he  considered how to save her. Lynx avoiding the wedding was not an option.  That meant he had to come up with another workable plan. The obvious  solution was to change the command Lukan had programmed into Morass's  head.

Axel flipped to the ice crystal program on his informa and flicked  through lines of coding. Cold fear settled on him when he didn't  recognize the programming. Clearly, it was something new his father had  devised.

It's just code. No different to anything else. Just figure it out.

Face puckered in concentration, he began to unravel the complexities of  his father's mystery. Just when he thought he was making progress, he  hit an unfamiliar encryption. Conscious of the passing of time, he  systematically worked through it.

Until he met the next encryption, then the next.

Finally, it struck that this was no coincidence. The changes were coming  so quickly that his father had to be dueling with him. His heart sank.  Was this why his father had let him stay in the lair? To prove that he  was in control and that Axel had no choice but to obey him?

Not while Axel drew breath.

But he knew that a battle of attrition, with him thrusting and his  father parrying for supremacy of Morass's brain, was pointless. He could  never win on his father's battleground.

Perhaps the answer was to command one of Stefan's loyal men to eliminate  Morass while the assassin waited in his hiding place during the  wedding? Axel rejected that idea. His father would expect Axel to try  something like that. It would only expose Stefan and his  ice-crystal-immune men to possible scrutiny. Axel couldn't risk Stefan's  safety like that.                       
       
           



       

There was always another plan . . . Axel tossed his informa down and  hoicked his feet onto the table. Too radical to consider seriously, he  tried to push the idea away. It refused to budge. Sweat beading on his  upper lip, he prayed to all the gods he didn't believe in that he would  not be required to use it.

But it was the only current option. Axel grunted, knowing it was the hugest, riskiest toss of the dice he had ever made.

His father and Lukan had left him no choice but to step in front of Lynx's quarrel.

Axel grimaced and then brushed his fear aside. He didn't plan on dying.  His ceremonial armor-a black leather brigandine emblazoned with a  red-and-gold Dragon-would offer some protection against the quarrel, and  King Thorn had an antidote to the poison. The Norin were a mere three  days away by airship. Twenty-four years of overprotectiveness convinced  Axel that his father would have him on the first available airship out  of Cian. Lynx would be afforded no such courtesy if Morass targeted her.

If Lynx knew, she'd never let him risk his life for her. She could know  nothing of his plan, but she would surely use her influence with her  father to save his life. That influence would give her power-and amnesty  from his father's scheming. His father would never target Lynx while  she held the key to Axel's safety.

It was the only solution he could see to the calamity his father and  Lukan planned. Face set in a mask of determination, Axel set off to  enlist Stefan's help.





Chapter 40





Lynx heard the key rattle in the lock on her cell door. With no windows,  she had no idea what time it was. Sleep had been elusive, due to a  combination of claustrophobia and despair, which she knew her wedding  day would do little to dispel. Her beloved Axel would have to stand by  and watch her marry his cousin. Every fiber in her body berated her for  causing him pain, but honor had to be served.

Winds, please let him understand. And forgive me for hurting him.

With one oath almost fulfilled, she needed to meet with Uncle Bear to  plot a strategy to complete her second oath-telling her father about the  ice crystals. Regardless of the Chenayans, she would find time today at  the wedding to speak with him. It would take her mind off her own  sorrow at losing Axel.

The door opened, and she stood to face her visitor, expecting to see Mother Saskia.

Lynx raised her eyebrows as Lady Tatiana stepped into the room. Over her arm hung a golden dress. She held it out to Lynx.