Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future (14 page)

So it was an open secret throughout the empire that the Princess Adaeze had inherited her father’s far speaker abilities. That would certainly draw lots more attention to Sanctuary.

Jamie could only hope Claire’s daughter knew what she was saying when she said she’d armed the planet’s weapons. Look
ing at the self-possessed princess, he was pretty sure she did.

“What do we do about Alice?” Isaiah asked in a voice Jamie barely recognized.

“Nothing can be done,” Adaeze told him bluntly. “I hear my cousin the emperor talking to her now. He is only a little boy and doesn’t understand that she cannot talk to him mentally. He is angry.”

“Adaeze,” her mother said very calmly. “Shut up, my dear!”

The tall, black-haired princess stared at her in absolute shock. Jamie supposed with some interest that nobody had ever dared to speak to her in that fashion in her whole life. She sat down abruptly on her couch.

“Captain Thereon,” Claire went on. “You will escort my daughters to the suites designated for their use by the governor’s house staff.

The captain looked from her to the princess. “Now!” Claire said.

Jamie managed to keep from grinning as the princesses were formally shown from the room, a door closing behind them.

Claire looked at Jamie. It was his turn now.

He shoved Isaiah gently into a seat on the couch just abandoned by Lillianne and sat down beside him. He leaned toward the table and spoke in a soft voice not intended to deceive anyone as to the mildness of his temper. All of the males present, including the youngsters who had so far sat in awed silence while they watched the girls and their mother do battle, were left with any doubt that Jamie Ward Lewis was less than happy.

“Now boys,” he drawled, “suppose you tell your dad and me just how you got involved in this debacle.”

Poor
Jon, the boy who had been held captive, still looked like he was in shock. Jamie figured he could be excused from blame. But Charlie and David Russell, Mack and Karen’s sons, and their buddies were another matter.

Jamie waited in a silence that he meant to be
excruciating to the boys he’d trained in guerrilla fighting skills since they were small children.

They might be scared of their mom and dad, neither of whom was long on patience, but Uncle Jamie was their leader and commander. This was more than a family matter.

“Jamie asked how you guys let yourself get dragged into this?” Mack demanded, the wait apparently sending him to boiling point. “I thought you had more sense,” he flung these words in his sons’ direction.

“I take responsibility,” Charlie responded immediately. It was the first thing they’d been taught, to stand up and admit it when they’d done wrong.

“You let a pretty girl persuade you,” their father charged in disgust.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Charlie took up the conversation again. “It’s just that we didn’t like what Kevin was doing, or not doing, and we thought it would be a good thing if we went ourselves to rescue Alice. We thought she must be plenty scared.”

“You saw her before they took her away?”

Charlie shook his head. “She was already gone when we got there.”

“Wait a minute,” Mack said. “If she was already gone, how come the princess could describe her so exactly.”

Charlie shook his head. “Can’t give a guess.”

“She sees through other people’s eyes,” Claire interrupted.

“Didn’t know that went with being a far speaker,” Jamie said in an aside.

“Never has before.”

Jamie considered. So they had the advantage of having a uniquely talented far speaker, maybe two, on their side.
And the bad news was that the two princesses were on their side and likely to be running things. He didn’t much like the idea of a strong-minded kid the same age as his own Charlie in charge of a whole world. And yet who would dare argue with the Princess Adaeze.

“She seems to know a whole lot about what’s going on,” David put in.

“She’d be a real advantage leading us to where they’ve got Alice hid out,” Mack said thoughtfully.

True enough. And they not only had the imperial cruiser, no doubt there were other larger spaceships still in dock here on Sanctuary. The princesses would know about that.

“My daughter’s life would be forfeit the minute she moved into Aremian air space,” Claire said, “No, absolutely not. Nobody is going to rescue that girl.”

“
The princess can read them,” Jamie argued. “They can’t read her unless she deliberately messages them. Isn’t that the way it works?”

Claire’s mouth formed a firm line through which she evidently had no intention of letting words escape.

“I’ll go by myself if necessary,” Isaiah said in desperation. “Once you were a girl held prisoner by the Gare.” He looked in appeal to Claire.

“Don’t see how they can kill your girl, Claire. Their whole system works only because of the far speakers and right now it seems the kid emperor isn’t doing too well. She’s the best bet they’ve got to hold the empire together.”

“Mellisande is not exactly a reasonable woman,” Claire interjected.

“Who’s Mellisande?” again Mack spoke.

“My mother-in-law, Mathiah’s mom, the girls’ grandmother. She hates me and she’s not real fond of Adaeze and Lillianne because their mother is a mongrel Earther.”

“Mack, she’s talking about the dowager empress who has made herself regent for the boy emperor in Claire’s place.”

As the two of them debated back and forth, Jamie was conscious of Isaiah, who was slumped in place, looking the figure of sadness and defeat. The images from the night when Alice was born played through his brain. He’d been there, along with old George who was then training Isaiah in much needed medical skills.

They’d fought through the night to try to save the mother, a delicately built and
gentle girl who he’d always thought had appealed to Isaiah for those very qualities. She’d slipped away just before the dawn broke and he’d been almost glad to see her relieved of her agony.

Isaiah had blamed himself for not being able to save her and in some unreasonable way had held the baby girl at fault as well. Several weeks passed before he began to fall in love with the petite bundle and by the time she could coo and smile, he was firmly wound around her dainty little finger.

He couldn’t let Isaiah lose his little girl to the Aremians. They couldn’t be allowed to use her youth and beauty only to save an underserving one of their own, a Gare child who might or might not have the far speaker gift they needed.

He would not see this child or any other Earther child in torment at the hands of the Gare.

“We’re taking your ship,” he told Claire, “and going to Aremia.”

“Fat chance,” she retorted. “You don’t know how to pilot the thing and even if you did
, they’d blast you out of the sky as you approached.”

“Not if they think the princesses are on board. They don’t actually have to be on the cruiser, but if the grandmother thinks Adaeze and Lillianne are there . . .”

Claire sharply outlined eyebrows rose slightly in a gesture of distaste. “Their grandmere is not exactly a sentimental woman.”

“From everything I’ve heard she’s a wily one, politically savvy to
the hilt. She’s got to know that little kid Michel isn’t a strong bet to survive, much less to rule. Did she know about Adaeze’s gifts when she let you get away?”

Claire frowned and shook her head.

“She’s going to want both princesses in reserve in case something goes wrong with the boy.”

Claire looked thoughtfully at him. “There is the idea that it’s criminally wrong for a girl to be a far speaker.”

“I’d imagine your leadership is going to be able to set that aside when they start going hungry. Most of Aremia’s necessities are imported from planets they can no longer contact. Your daughter says they have their firepower on line; she’s put Sanctuary on guard. What do you think those guys on the other worlds are doing?”

Claire told herself she’d agreed to help because removing the one Earther blood donor the Gare had in their possession would strengthen the position of her daughters. It wasn’t so much that she was anxious to see either of them ruling the damn empire as she wanted to keep them alive.

The fact that they would be doing their level best to save
Isaiah’s daughter was of secondary importance.

After an afternoon and long night of arguing, it was agreed that she and Jamie would be the only ones going, along with the crew. Isaiah and Mack were convinced only with great difficulty that they must stay on Sanctuary to safeguard the princesses and the little New London community. Charlie, David and their friends demanded and, when that didn’t work, begged to be allowed to go along.

Jamie refused to even discuss the possibility and Claire knew it was because he didn’t want to risk anymore young lives, especially not that of his own son and the half-brother who was nearly as close to him.

Adaeze didn’t demand, she insisted as imperial princess that nobody had a right to keep her from going. Claire was as adamant as Jamie was with the boys, but even so it was when Jamie said, “We can’t afford to risk you. Keeping you and your sister alive is the best insurance policy the rest of us have,” that she conceded the wisdom of
her mother’s judgment.

Jamie aimed his wicked grin in her direction. “Adaeze,” he said, “that’s the price of being a princess.  You get left out of most of the fun.”

The crew members, all of them speakers, would be the conduit through which Adaeze communicated with the travelers. Lillianne, too, would do her best, but her skills though strong enough to be of use in planetary distances could hardly reach across space.

Claire thought her younger daughter was relieved not to be asked to return to the capitol planet and supposed their last days there had been a horror to her. She didn’t want her mother to leave either and clung to her, white-faced and silent, as she prepared to board the Princess Adaeze.

Even Gare girls were supposed to always look strong and stoic and being hugged by their mothers in public was frowned upon, but Claire indulged herself on this occasion and gave each girl a warm hug and a huge kiss before telling them to mind Isaiah and Mack before she saw the cruiser door slide shut between them.

She gave the order and they began to move slowly upward, lifting away from Sanctuary and toward open space.

It was as if they were alone on the ship and, fast as the little ship moved, it would take several days to achieve their destination. The crew remained largely invisible as they went about their tasks and Jamie felt almost like a boy again, awkward and uncertain in the company of the girl who had haunted his dreams for a decade and a half.

When she’d left him, Karen
had made the claim that he’d never gotten over Claire and that was why things hadn’t worked out between them. Desperate to hold on to what he had of family, Karen and baby Charlie, he’d vehemently denied the charge even though he’d recognized its truth.

Other relationships with women he’d attempted over the years tended to be short-lived. The last thing he wanted was to live his life on such a shallow level. He was a man meant for commitment and deep connections. Back on the farm in Oklahoma he’d always planned to marry as had his grandparents in a life-long
relationship. He’d teach his sons and daughters to plow and fish. They’d enjoy long evenings before the fire telling stories of the past.

It was the romantic dream of a boy who had spent his first years wandering, often abandoned by quixotic parents who lived more for drugs and drink that gave the illusion of happiness then for life itself.

It hadn’t happened. And maybe because of that first instant lightning-struck time when he and Claire had first met at fifteen, ready to fall in love as all were at that age, the longing for her had become his own personal illusion, a kaleidoscope of emotions he didn’t care to examine.

The hours loomed long ahead of him. The voyage had just started and he’d already run out of words. It seemed a man who was possibly facing the last days of his life, heading into a danger that didn’t seem to offer much in the way of positive endings, should be able to do better at savoring the moments than this.

He followed Claire to what he supposed would be his room, but when he stepped inside he knew these luxurious quarters had to be the imperial suite. “This is where you live,” he said, feeling even more like an awkward kid.

She shook her head. “It’s the guest suite. I thought we would stay here.”

“Oh,” he said, looking around at the soft blues and lavenders of the room, the rich polished wood of the furnishings and was reminded that her guests would have been Gare aristos, accustomed to the best in everything.

“Unless you would prefer greater privacy,” she suggested delicately.

He dropped his travel bag unceremoniously on the floor and pulled her into his arms, looking down into a face that was even more lovely than he’d remembered. The ice blue eyes met his with unquestioning confidence. Claire Shiray, the girl from Chicago who had become a Gare empress, looked at him as though he were the whole world and more.

“No,” he said. “Privacy isn’t what I’m looking to find.” And then he kissed her and memories of empires and danger faded from his mind so that nothing mattered but this exact moment in time.

The first thing Claire thought when she awakened was how glad she was that neither of her daughters cold read her mind. Oh, they said that wasn’t what happened, that it was more like talking without audible sounds then peeking into someone’s brain, but she’d seen them at work and suspected they picked up a whole lot more than the owner of that brain intended.

Adaeze and Lillianne were different, something new, off the charts. Who could know what their abilities were. But they couldn’t get even a drip of info from an Earther mind and she was thankful for that.

Jamie still lay deep in sleep and she took advantage of that to study his face. He had a long face with a decided chin, lean cheeks that showed high cheekbones, a nose that looked like it might have broken once or twice, a broad forehead that led up to an abundance of slightly wavy hair, worn longer than when she’d first met him.

Even though he still showed the signs of suffering from his injury, he still somehow gave a sense of strength under restraint. Just from looking at him, you knew he would fight if he had to, for what mattered to him, but that he would never fight just for the fun of it the way some men did.

She tried never to compare him and Mathiah, it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Like most of the Gare, Mathiah had been tall enough to be considered almost a giant back on Earth. He’d been bald, his body hairless. Among the Gare only women had hair and not much of it at that. He had been the product of hundreds of generations of genetic engineering, her husband, and his features could hardly have been perfect. He was very good looking, even by Earther standards.

And she’d come to care for him. They’d been the closest of companions so that when he began to be ill two years ago, withdrawing into the pain and delusion of his illness, she had felt so alone.

During the years of their marriage, she had tried not to think of Jamie, not because it would be disloyal, but because of the aching longing it brought. But her dreams had always betrayed her. Months might go by, but then she would have one of those dreams where they were in each other’s arms, sinking deep into kisses and more. She’d tell herself she couldn’t help what she dreamed, but for days she’d go around dissatisfied and irritated, feeling somehow cheated.

The trouble was that she and Jamie had met too young, not ready for the intensity of feeling that had sparked then. She remembered hearing how a wild bird baby would attach to the first creature it saw as its mother, bonding for life. Her love for Jamie had been like that. She’d been only fifteen when she first met him, but she’d bonded to him so that from then on he was hers and stood always between her and any other love.

When she realized his lashes had lifted and he was looking at her with those dark eyes, she smiled and moved closer, taking a kiss from his warm mouth.

They were in a microcosm of contentment during those days of travel. Jamie no longer found it hard to talk to her. In fact, there wasn’t time enough to hear all she had to say or to tell her all he needed to reveal.

Each evening the ship’s medic, a middle-aged woman with a thoughtful face, who had been chosen by Adaeze as communicant with her mother, came to them to reveal the news from Sanctuary.

Then they broke away from the
idyll and were not just lovers discovering each other, but parents, friends, citizens of their world. Adaeze told her mother that a ship had attempted orbit around the planet she called Blood, had been warned off and retreated. She was glad she hadn’t been forced to blow it up.

They were all well. Charlie was bossy and tried to tell her what to do, but this was nothing she couldn’t handle. That man from New London, the one who thought he ran things, had come over in a crude land vehicle and tried to take over, but he’d brought the woman named Karen with him and between her, Isaiah and Mack, she had loyal followers. Oh, and old George had joined them as well. She liked old George.

Claire would have smiled at the egotism of this daughter of hers, except it wasn’t really funny. Adaeze had been raised as an imperial princess. Naturally she thought she was supposed to be central authority.

This thirteen-year-old girl could only be contained for so long, her mother knew.

Adaeze wished her mother well and, even though Claire knew she could see through the medic’s eyes, that Jamie was with her, she didn’t mention him or give him any message.

That silence told her that Adaeze wasn’t feeling any better about the potential relationship between her and her old friend.

The last part of the message was relayed from Lillianne. Her younger daughter said she was homesick for her and that she was to hurry back to them as fast as she could.

Claire would have liked to send messages from Jamie to his cohorts, but decided that the better part of wisdom was not to do so. After all, Adaeze was only a youngster and if they pushed her beyond her emotional limits, she might withdraw her assistance and then where would they be?

She could hardly reach across space and threaten discipline to either of her daughters.

She sent her love to both girls and then allowed the medic to retire.

It took a few minutes of casual conversation before they were able to push away the outside world, but after that they were able to draw back into the cocoon of what she was beginning to think of as their honeymoon.

Surely they had a right to this much considering that most likely they were approaching their own deaths, either blasted out of space by the Gare space force as they approached Aremia, or killed in an attempt to rescue Isaiah’s pretty little daughter.

Either way, this was their time alone, a few blessed days together before they risked everything.

So far they had avoided any talk of the future, but this morning as they breakfasted on hot breads and fruits totally unfamiliar to him, Jamie brought up the subject. “Where are we going to live, New London and that damned governor’s house?”

Claire laughed, a tinkling sound that reminded him of their youth. He hadn’t heard her laugh many times, but he’d always liked the sound. “Sounds like you have already chosen,” she said.

“Well, if we’re going to boss the planet, then we get our choice of landscape. That castle’s too fancy for me, but New London feels like home.”

“Not to me,” she teased. “It’s full of Earthers.”

“The best kind of people.” He grinned. “Give or take a Kevin Hartley or two.”

“And a Karen Russell.”

“Hey, nothing wrong with Karen. Mack thinks the world of her.”

She got up from her chair and went over to curl up in his lap like a kitten cuddling. “I’m pleased for Mack,” she whispered. “And I don’t want to think about what lies ahead. I just want to live in today, right in this moment.”

“We’re going to win through on this. We’ll go home. You see if we don’t.”

Delicately she raked her fingers over his larger ones. “I’m not so afraid of dying. It’s being caught that scares me. You don’t know what Mellisande can be like.”

“That’s the empress’s name.”

“I’m the empress, or at least I was. She was only the dowager and I guess now that Mathiah’s gone she’s the dowager-dowager, while I’m just the dowager.”

“Hey! You’re Claire Ward.”

“You’re so old-fashioned, my love.” She reached up to kiss him and what with his response the kiss went on so long that by the time it was finished, he had forgotten what they were talking about.