“To be your kept man?”
Shanee frowned. “No, as my husband. You don’thave to let your mother know you’re there.”
“There is no way under heaven or above hellthat she wouldn’t find out, ionúin,” he said. “Nothing happens on thatplanet that her spies aren’t privy to.”
“Even so, you don’t have to see her. PrimäOne and Primä Two wouldn’t allow anyone into my quarters without your directconsent.”
“Primä One and Primä Two?”
“My cybots,” she answered. “They had beenassigned to me by General Morrison when I was sent after Rory Quinn to arresthim and when Morrison decided to off himself, I asked for permanent custody ofP1 and P2. There was some finagling but the ’bots are mine.” She laughed. “I’vereprogrammed them and they are as loyal to me as if I had given birth to them.They’re my babies.”
“Class 10s, huh?” He drew in a long breath.“That’s seven feet of pure power. There was one on the Tiogar’s ship and Istayed well away from it. They only had Class 2s when I graduated FleetAcademy. Those things scare me.”
Shanee made a rude sound with her lips. “Asif anything could scare a Reaper,” she said then winced at labeling him suchsince he’d asked her not to.
“There is one thing that every Reaper isscared shitless of,” he said.
“Other than water and fire?”
“Well, aye,” he corrected himself. “But youcan stay the hell away from fire and water can be overcome. This can’t.”
“What is it?”
“Ghorets,” he said.
Instinctively Shanee glanced down at theground, half expecting to see one of the three-foot-long silver and greenvipers with florescent blue venom—the bite from which could kill a human in theblink of an eye.
“There are no snakes on Theristes,” he toldher. “Lizards, but no snakes and the lizards aren’t venomous.”
“I don’t think there is a humanoid alivewho isn’t terrified of ghorets,” she said with a shudder. “Their bite can’tkill you though, can it, like it can the rest of us?”
“No, but I’m told you will wish you coulddie after being bitten by one. Tariq said when he first arrived on R-9 and theybegan experimenting on him, they put a juvenile ghoret in his cell to see whatwould happen when it bit him. He was sick for days afterward. He said if it hadbeen a full-grown specimen, he would have been much sicker and the illnesslonger-lasting.”
“You very neatly changed the subject,didn’t you?” she asked.
“I’m not going back to Riezell ever again,Shanee,” he said.
“But, Ailyn…”
“No,” he said, and the word left no doubtin her mind that it was final.
Chapter Four
Elspeth Harmattan-Jost could barely breatheas she lay in her huge four-poster bed and stared out at the snow fallinggently over the gardens of her new husband’s estate. Her head throbbed brutallyand as she lifted a hand that shook worse each day with the palsy that waskilling her, the simple action seemed to take all her waning energy.
“What can I do, Mother?” Felix asked, hiseyes filled with worry. “The Riezell Guardian has gone after Ailyn. Please tryto hang on until he gets here.”
Giving her youngest son a faint smile,Elspeth closed her eyes. “Pray he arrives in time, Felix.”
Realizing his mother had slipped once moreinto the slumbers that claimed her more frequently and for longer periods oftime, Felix hung his head. He had taken leave from the new military transportto which he’d been assigned to be with his ailing mother, though there didn’tappear to be anything he could do for her. Much of the time she preferred herprivacy and would not allow even his stepfather into their bedchamber.
“She is fading fast,” the vice-counselorhad told Felix. “I have been on the horn every day with Command Central butthere’s been no word from Iphito.”
“She would only have reached Theristes inthe last day or so, Father,” Felix reminded the man, almost choking on thetitle his mother insisted he give Jost.
“I expected daily reports!”
“Reports of what?” Felix had countered.“What the Amazeen was doing on board the LRC? What good is that?”
The vice-counselor had cursed and thenstomped out of the room. He cared as much for Felix as the young man did forhim and therefore there was no love to lose between them. If anything, Felixhated Jost almost as much as he did his oldest brother.
“I know it was him,” Felix said to hissleeping mother. “I do. He saw me and I saw the recognition in his eyes. Imight have been young when he disappeared but he’s a Reaper now and I know gods-be-damnedwell he read my thoughts. He knew who I was.”
Getting up to leave, he took one last lookat his mother. She looked as though she were already lying in her casket. Shewas the only thing he had ever loved in life and the thought of losing her wasalmost more than he could bear.
“I’ll bring him back to you, Mother. Iswear I will, if it’s the last thing I ever do!” he said before closing thedoor quietly behind him.
He did not see the humorless smile thattugged at his mother’s lips.
* * * * *
General Maximillian Strom had never knownhis mother or his father either, for that matter. He had grown up in astate-run orphanage on Esvaria, escaping that hellhole when he was fourteen.Stowing away on a cargo transport dropping off supplies for the orphanage, hehad been overjoyed to find himself on Riezell. He’d made a beeline for theCoalition Forces training camp and enlisted, lying about his age. Since theconflict with the Alliance was not going well and every able-bodied male wasneeded to churn the wheels of the war machine, no one questioned him and he wassworn in as an infantryman.
Rising up quickly through the enlistedranks on bloody battlefields, one particularly heroic act of courage andselfless bravery had earned him a promotion to lieutenant and from there untilthe peace treaty with the Alliance was signed, Strom had steadily advanced upthe ladder until the golden star of a Fleet General now rested on his broadshoulders.
He was proud of his accomplishments fromunwanted child of a nameless mother and careless father to one of the mostrespected positions within the Riezell Conclave.
