CHAPTER SIX

 

“Something is troubling her,” Tyal told him as the celestri stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his jacket. They were both still waiting for her to return. “I’m worried.”

Valdur frowned. “What are we facing? An outside threat? Or is she having doubts about our bonding?”

“No, it’s not that. Her feelings are complex. Both joy and fear. I thought we’d managed to lift her spirits, but as she left…” He shook his head.

Valdur grunted. He wasn’t certain where Tyal was picking up all these emotions from. She had seemed fine to him, eager and randy and driving him wild. He could only feel grateful that the mar’don weren’t plagued by the fears and doubts that seemed to trouble his two mates. As long as he had a blade to hand and a duty to fulfill, his worries centered around keeping those he cared for safe.

“Humans are known for their complex emotions,” he said carefully.

“As are the celestri,” Tyal conceded. He turned and paced to the balcony door but paused and glanced back before he stepped through. “Follow me.”

Valdur wasn’t used to taking orders, but their binding had made them equals. Through their bride, they’d been sealed closer than blood. He followed and joined Tyal at the railing. The ocean breeze blew against his face; he could feel the mist spray from the fountains carried upward on the wind currents. In all directions, the water spread to the far horizon without sight of another floating building, island, or ship. The sunlight blazed off the tops of the waves. He wished his bride were here by his side to appreciate this beauty with him.

“Thank you,” Tyal said. “I didn’t want to discuss this inside the room in case there were listening devices.”

“Are you so paranoid then? Let any cowardly spies listen and quake with terror. I do not fear them.”

Tyal smirked. “That’s a very mar’don thing to say. But it is our mate I worry about. Something isn’t right.”

“So you say.” Valdur narrowed his eyes as his jealousy flared. “How do you know all this about her? Does she speak these secrets to you and not to me?”

Tyal held his gaze, unflinching, unfazed by his anger. Then he turned to stare out over the water and began to speak.

“This is a secret held closely by the celestri. I would not share it now, except that I feel I must if I’m to give myself completely to our bonding.” He took a deep breath and met Valdur’s gaze again. “My ancestral line has the blood of empaths. We are highly attuned to reading the emotions of other sentient creatures. I posses such power. That is how I know.”

Valdur’s fists clenched. He’d heard rumors, intelligence reports, but nothing certain. The mar’don empire had suspected it, although if Zagar and Rikari had known Sygen was an empath during the first marriage binding of this kind, they had not shared it.

Valdur had hidden nothing from his two mates. All he was, he showed the world. He was a warrior. He had no need of deceptions or secrets. He scorned them.

“Do you expect me to keep your secret?” he growled.

“Not from our mate. She deserves to know. As for others, I will trust you to make the right choice.”

“You should have told me from the beginning. It was faithless of you to hold such a secret from us. I should’ve expected as much from a celestri.” His fists were clenched, his jaw clamped tight. “If not for her, you would have kept this secret forever.”

Tyal did not flinch from his rage. “I am as dedicated to peace as you are. Mar’don are not the only ones in the galaxy who know their duty.”

They faced off, the tension in the air growing heavier.

From the doorway behind them, Ishtali spoke. “You’re fighting?”

They both turned to face her. Valdur felt a flash of guilt, as if he were in the wrong for challenging the celestri over his lies and secrets. “All celestri are liars and unworthy of trust. I should never have lowered my guard. There was a good reason our empires once fought.”

Tyal’s eyes narrowed. “I shared the truth with you. If you take issue with the timing, that is on your head, not mine.”

“What truth?” she asked. Her voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper.

They both glanced at her. He frowned in concern. She looked shaken. Her violet eyes were wide, her face strained and tense. Damn Tyal for bringing this between them, for driving them apart. His fists clenched tighter when he thought how this strife would hurt their bride. He wanted to fight someone. To make someone pay.

Valdur spoke through clenched teeth. “Our mate is little better than a spy. He can sense our emotions.”

She paled. “Is that true, Tyal?”

“It’s true. It is a royal secret, and I do not share it lightly. Celestri of the royal bloodline are empaths, attuned to the emotions of others. I am one.”

“So you know…some things haven’t been…right with me?”

“I only know how you feel. Your doubts. How you feel you do not belong. Your fear and your stress. But also I know how we made you feel last night. I know how you feel about us.”

She was very still. “And what am I feeling now?”

Tyal’s gaze was piercing as he looked into her eyes. “Saddened. The strife between us hurts you.” He paused. “But also…you’ve reached an important decision, and you hope it is the right one.”

Valdur felt the first twinge of fear—a sensation he was not used to. What decision could Tyal mean? He hated feeling like he was out of the loop.

She began walking toward them, moving the rest of the way onto the balcony. She was small and beautiful and delicate. He wanted to shield her from this. He was sorry she had seen as much as she had. The upgusts of wind caught the waterfall spray and threw it all around them. The sun turned it to dozens of rainbows, but even a sight as memorable as that didn’t seem to lift her spirits. She seemed defeated. Seeing her like that enraged him…and broke his heart.

“I…I have a truth to share with you. The Terras Alliance told me not to tell you, but I can’t keep it a secret any longer. You deserve better from your wife.”

“Tell us, serrasa va,” Tyal gently urged her.

“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding detached and robotic. “Tell us this new truth, Ishtali.”

She flinched when he spoke her name, as if he’d tried to strike her. He didn’t know why she’d reacted so strongly, but he told himself to be patient.

“My real name is Mindrin Zeras. I worked here at the temple until yesterday afternoon.”

“I don’t understand,” Valdur said. He felt hollow inside, empty, as if he’d fought a battle with all his heart and still been defeated. “You were chosen as the best mate for us. You were chosen from all the available females.”

“No. I wasn’t. I’m nobody special. I’m just a technician. I work with the systems and the robots here.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. Then she laughed, but the laugher sounded more like a sob of pain. “I was fixing some stupid feedback loop error on the lift. Then the lift activated…and it brought me onto the platform. We tried to fix it in time, but then the ceremony started. And you both saw me.”

Tyal closed his eyes. “And the terms of the peace accords…they demanded we both see you for the first time there in the temple, at that exact moment. Let me guess, one of the Terras Alliance delegation told you to go through with it so the treaty would hold.”

She nodded. A tear ran down her cheek. She angrily swiped it away.

Valdur’s jaw was clenched. All the feelings he’d begun to have for her, it had all been based on a lie.

“Did you know this?” he demanded of Tyal. Although why he though the other prince wouldn’t simply lie, he didn’t know.

Tyal didn’t blink at his tone. “The first time we spoke after the ceremony, I told you something was odd. Her uniform. Her demeanor. None of it was what I’d expected.”

“You didn’t tell me you could read emotions like you were watching a holovid show,” Valdur snarled. “That might’ve made a difference.”

“No. It wouldn’t have,” Tyal replied, his voice cold. “And you know it. You are the one who always talks of duty. Well, we know our duty. Our duty is to peace. The human female the Terras Alliance gave us never mattered, not in the grand scheme of things. This was always about binding our two empires together. We were only lucky to find a woman like her.”

But Valdur wasn’t having it. “I have no duty to faithless celestri and lying humans. I’m done being deceived. This whole charade has humiliated my people. I’ve done all that was asked of me, as have the mar’don, only to find that our trust was always misplaced.”

Valdur turned and walked past her. She reached for him, tears on her cheeks. His heart felt as if someone had stabbed it, but he only brushed past her, ignoring her silent plea. He was the last one here with a shred of honor. He would not sully that honor standing alongside liars and people who made him look like a fool for trusting them.

The main doors hissed shut behind him when he left the suite. He would return to the mar’don delegation, to his servants and his warriors. Valdur could not deny the bitter truth. Everything he’d traveled here to do had come unraveled. He would call for shuttles from the star cruiser in orbit around Andurai.

They would be gone by tonight, back to the empire, where he would have to tell his father, the king, how the peace accords had failed…