He was sure it was. And of course “Your Holiness” must be the High Priest.
Damn it—I knew he was a slippery bastard! I never should have trusted that he was falling into line and serving Ellina—never!
Ty wanted to grit his teeth but he still couldn’t move anything but his eyes. Apparently the drug they’d given him was some kind of a paralytic. All he could do was lie here and listen to the priest and his henchman planning, though he was itching to jump up and squeeze the life from both their lying throats!
“But how can you use him for leverage?” Fundreg’s voice asked as the light shone through the bars of Ty’s cell. “He’s just her ex-bodyguard, after all.”
Ty made certain to keep his eyes barely slitted as he listened, to preserve the illusion that he was still out. As long as he couldn’t move or speak, he might as well hear everything he could. No sense in letting the two traitors know he was overhearing their plans.
“He’s not just her bodyguard, you fool!” Kikbax exclaimed. “He’s her Lan’Glaver! She loves him—or thinks she does, the stupid little idiot.”
Hearing the High Priest talk that way about Ellina made Ty want to shout with rage. At that point, it was probably a good thing he was still paralyzed, or he couldn’t have stopped himself from acting, even though Kikbax was safe on the other side of the bars that made Ty’s cage.
“If she loves him, why did she send him away?” Fundreg asked doubtfully.
“Who knows?” Kikbax made an impatient gesture with one arm. “But it’s a sure bet that he’d be coming back to her one way or another. The bond between their chewchies would draw him. Speaking of which, have you located that chewchie of his yet?”
“I’m afraid not, Your Holiness.” Fundreg sounded worried about the other man’s response. “She must have run away somewhere between the passage where we took him and the dungeons. My men can’t find her anywhere.”
“Well, try harder!” Kikbax snapped. “She mustn’t be allowed to sound the alarm! Word has it that the Potentate left the Court very upset this morning and is sleeping in her apartments. She may already be aware that something is wrong, if she’s woken from her rest. If she tells that damn Captain Kiyda the Kindred has been taken prisoner, we’ll never catch the Potentate off her guard!” He made a noise like an angry clearing of his throat. “I have my own guards set to relieve the ones at her door after supper and I don’t want her to suspect a thing.”
“But will the new Royal Guard agree to go?” Fundreg asked doubtfully. “Word has it they are unshakably loyal to the Potentate and will not stand down for any word but hers.”
“Well, they should stand down for me—I am the High Priest of Thufar!” But Kikbax didn’t sound completely certain, which made Ty glad. He had chosen wisely and trained the Chorkay guards who now protected Ellina well.
“Of course, Your Holiness, I am sure you will have no problems with changing the Royal Guards for your own,” Fundreg said placatingly. “And shall I bring the Kindred’s chewchie to you when I have captured her?”
“Bring it to me? Of course not!” Kikbax exclaimed. “Kill the blasted thing!”
Kill Tisa? Ty felt as though a cold hand had reached down his throat and gripped his heart in an icy fist.
Though he had known her such a short time and she was mad at him and refused to “regard him” as she put it, at the moment, he still felt as though the fluffy little chewchie was a part of his heart. When he heard the High Priest talking about killing her, it was almost as though the bastard was talking about killing his child.
Goddess, no! he thought, feeling sick. Not Tisa!
Apparently Fundreg was almost as horrified by the High Priest’s cold-blooded plan for Tisa as Ty was.
“Kill a chewchie?” he asked faintly, sounding shocked. “A Sacred Blue chewchie? But Your Holiness, that is sacrilege on top of blasphemy. I cannot do such a thing!”
“Just do it!” Kikbax snapped. “And don’t worry about it being a sin—I’ll grant you a pardon myself. I’m the High Priest of Thufar, remember? Killing that damn chewchie is the only way to break the bond between the Potentate and her Kindred!”
“But to kill another’s chewchie…a Sacred Blue one at that…” Fundreg was shaking his head, a look of horror on his face.
“I tell you, I’ll grant you a spiritual pardon,” Kikbax insisted. “And you’ll be doing Thufar’s work. The bond must be broken so that the Potentate is free to take another as her consort. She can never fully bond with a male—not enough to bear a child by him, anyway—while her chewchie is bonded to the chewchie of another.”
“It’s all to make certain she has an heir,” Fundreg said slowly, as though to reassure himself. “It’s Thufar’s will that she should have an heir and she never could with an off-worlder like him.”
He nodded down at Ty, who was still feigning unconsciousness.
“Actually, she could have an heir with anyone,” Kikbax remarked. “The Sacred Blue always breeds true—both for color and for sex.”
“What? Even with an off-worlder?” Fundreg demanded.
Kikbax nodded. “Even so—if it’s the sort whose DNA is compatible. And these damn Kindred are genetic traders—they’re compatible with most every bipedal species in the universe, damn them!”
“But I always thought that the Potentate’s consort had to be one of our people—a Chorkay. One with noble blood in his veins and a skin as close to Sacred Blue as possible,” Fundreg protested.
“Of course, you did,” the High Priest said contemptuously. “Because that is what we wanted you to believe—you and everyone else on Helios Beta. The fact that the Potentate could choose anyone—anyone at
