Freed By the Alien Prince by Tori Kellett

Chapter Twelve

N’ameth turned blindly and strode to the shuttle, flying back to the palace almost on automatic pilot. Not that there was such a thing on these crafts, but he was almost unaware of everything he did until he was preparing to land in the shuttle area next to the palace. His instinct—despite shying away from the very thing that seemed to indicate he was still a young and in need of advice—was to seek out his older brother. Zak was the only person he could think to talk to. He had mated a human female. Maybe he could tell him what he had done so disastrously wrong.

“I’m not his mulaa.”

He had felt like she had taken a blade to him. He thought—hoped—that their joining had meant as much to her as it did to him, but obviously he had been wrong. He took full responsibility for saying the wrong thing the first time, but she had seemed so content this daylight when he had left their bed.

The king, escorted by warriors, was waiting as he touched down. After N’ameth landed the shuttle, a solemn procession unloaded the bodies and took them away. Zak turned to him. “The ceremony will be at sunset. I will ensure they are sent to Ash’dar. Come and join us for a meal.”

He hesitated. He should get back. Sascha—

“That isn’t an order from your king,” Zak said gently. “It’s a request from your brother.” N’ameth nodded, and Zak squeezed his shoulder. “I will meet you inside.” Zak turned and followed the warriors transporting the bodies.

He strode up the steps past the small walled garden and heard his name called. His heart sank when he saw Callie sitting in the shade. Gye was clearly being tutored on sword forms by D’estaan. Not that they fought by the sword anymore, but it was an ancient physical form of exercise and didn’t hurt to teach any child—even as young as he was—self-control and discipline. Gye was clearly thriving. N’ameth went over to them reluctantly and bowed, greeting his queen and exchanging the proper Ishtaan prince greeting with Gye.

“Look, my prince,” Gye said proudly. “I am going to be a great warrior.”

“But what do all great warriors have to do?” Callie said expectantly. His face fell.

“Learn to read,” he muttered.

“That is true, my prince,” N’ameth said gravely. “You will know how to read maps to plan great battles and safely plot the direction of your cruiser.”

Gye’s eyes widened. “I get my own cruiser?”

D’estaan swallowed a laugh, and Callie rolled her eyes.

“You are a prince of Ishtaan,” N’ameth pronounced. “Great honor carries great responsibility.”

“Why don’t you go into the kitchen with D’estaan and see if Neela has some juice for you?” Callie said. “After all, great warriors need refueling.”

“And cookies?” he asked eagerly.

“After daylight meal,” Callie said.

Gye nodded seriously and automatically took D’estaan’s hand. D’estaan looked inquiringly at N’ameth. He nodded, accepting the queen’s security into his safekeeping. Much as he really, really didn’t want a conversation with her right now. She often asked some alarming questions. Like how did he feel? He could understand a polite inquiry as to his health because apparently humans did that a lot, but this insatiable need to know his innermost thoughts was unsettling.

She patted the seat next to her, and he obeyed. She was his queen. “So, how’s it going with Sascha?”

N’ameth gaped at her, but Callie just carried on, oblivious. “You know, Sascha. Pocket dynamo. Eyes like molten chocolate. Hips to take you all the way to heaven, as my girlfriend would say.” She looked at him expectantly.

N’ameth floundered. “I…she… You are direct, my queen.”

Callie grinned. “So are warriors. They don’t like to dance around a subject.” His translator briefly struggled, but he got the gist of what she was saying, and suddenly all the fight went out of him.

“She has rejected me, again.”

Callie narrowed her eyes. “Tell me exactly what you both said.” So he did, finishing with her pronouncement to the entire camp she was not his mulaa. “What do you know about Sascha?”

He smiled sadly, but felt his heart swell even still. “That she is perfect, beautiful. My mulaa.”

Callie arched an eyebrow. “No, I mean what facts do you know.”

“I know…” But what did he know? “I know she came from Earth as a…widow?” Callie nodded at the correct translation. “She has no young. She has rejected her elders.”

“And do you know why?”

N’ameth nodded. “They treated her as if she had no value. I find it unbelievable.”

Callie smiled and leaned back. “What you have to know is that some family groups on Earth often aren’t as treasured as those on Ishtaan. Her parents hurt her, so for her own mental health, she cut them out of her life.”

“Cut them out?” N’ameth repeated in confusion.

Callie huffed. “Were you friendly with your father?” N’ameth felt every cell in him harden. “Exactly,” Callie said before N’ameth had the chance to comment.

“Sascha grew up with parents who wished she was a boy, to the extent that they belittled her and made her feel worthless.”

N’ameth raised confused eyes. “But females are priceless. I don’t understand why her father didn’t think so.”

Callie smiled. “But would you feel the same if your existence as a species didn’t depend on us?”

“Absolutely,” N’ameth vowed.

“Okay then.” Callie leaned forward. “Imagine you had been blamed and belittled all your life for being born a boy and not a girl. But not just that. Marriage—mating—has some bad connotations for her. Mating—to Sascha—means being forced to do something she doesn’t want to.”

N’ameth opened his mouth, but Callie put up a hand. “In her head, when you issue demands and absolutes, she doesn’t see love—she sees bullying. She sees what her parents put her through.”

N’ameth swallowed his objection. “I would never force her. She said she understood that.”

Callie stood up and patted N’ameth on his shoulder. “I know. She just needs to feel like she isn’t being backed into a corner. She’s used to being in charge of a lot of people.” Callie paused. “In a lot of ways, she would have made a much better queen than me.”

N’ameth bowed his head. “My queen—”

Callie giggled. “It’s okay. I’m kind of stuck on the king.” She waggled her eyebrows.

N’ameth got the gist of that as well. He escorted his queen to daylight meal, and Zak joined them after a few minutes. Callie kissed him on the cheek as he sat down. “Everyone in the palace will be there at sunset. It’s all arranged.”

N’ameth watched quietly. Sascha would make a good queen, but so did Callie. He never thought he’d ever see his brother look so content, even with the difficulties they were facing and with Razorr still missing. The door opened and all three boys came in, each jostling to greet Callie and Zak. N’ameth loved to watch the open displays of affection, and while he desperately wanted the same, he didn’t begrudge his brother this for one second.

One of the guards wheeled in a cart a moment later. Apparently, they were having some new concoction that Neela had made from the Zinta tree bark. A kind of protein-based plant that was usually tasteless but nutritional. She had even been able to make a spiced flatbread with flour from the recent trade. It made a great change to protein bars.

The young were amazing. Il’yaa was very formal with him, which he understood. Gye used him and Zak as a climbing frame, which Zak seemed to tolerate with fondness. It even reminded him of how he was with Zak and Razorr when he was a young. Kaleth even enjoyed and returned affection from Callie after his initial distrust and resentment. Not that he thought it was possible to dislike his queen once she had disarmed you with the wise pronouncements she often made. Astonishingly enough, on Earth people enjoyed food purchased at eating houses, and some gave out cookies that had wise words written on pieces of paper and baked into them. Callie had made a study of them.

Callie eventually took Gye to his lessons—under protest—and Il’yaa left with Kaleth, who was just starting his lessons with Elder Ptorean. Apparently, Il’yaa was also intending on being a great warrior but didn’t seem as reluctant about the lessons as Gye, and they had Kaleth to thank for that. Il’yaa was besotted with the idea of having an older brother, and Kaleth took his responsibilities seriously. Zak leaned back, and N’ameth flushed under his steady gaze.

“Tell me everything.”

N’ameth had already kept Zak informed by communicator, but he filled in some more details. Zak met his eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

N’ameth flushed. “The females are meeting with the farmers from N’olaan. I cannot leave the females there alone until Xar’ta is caught.”

“And then?” Zak pressed.

“I don’t know,” N’ameth said miserably.

Zak studied him. “I thought you had selected the female Sascha.”

N’ameth rolled his eyes. “Like I have any say in it.”

“Poor choice of words.” Zak grinned. “I should say I thought she had selected you.”

“So did I,” N’ameth whispered, and bit by bit, he told him everything. Zak was quiet for a while.

“That is not as bad as I feared.” N’ameth raised incredulous eyes to his brother. “I mean,” Zak soothed, “that it isn’t because she has rejected you, just that she is reluctant to be forced into a role. Q’at is difficult. She wasn’t talking to you, but addressing him. Earth females—” He paused and smiled. “All females dislike being told what to do. She is not one of your warriors to issue commands to.”

“So, what should I do?”

Zak eyed him warily, and N’ameth couldn’t stop a chuckle from escaping. “Callie usually tells me,” he admitted. The thought of his so-in-control brother being instructed in behavior by a small human female was amusing. Or it would have been if Sascha had been present and they could all have shared in the joke.

“I haven’t attempted to take the cruiser out across the Dark since I returned with the females.” He felt hollow inside. Like he had failed his brothers. All of them.

Zak nodded. “You can’t, and Razorr would understand that as much as I do. He loved Ishtaan. Loves,” Zak corrected defiantly. “And much as it hurts me to say, he would never forgive us if we jeopardized the first real treaty we have secured in many cycles.” Zak leaned forward. “I know how you feel, but as your king, I am telling you this is no longer your responsibility. It also isn’t your fault,” he added firmly.

N’ameth opened his mouth to object.

“And before you say what I know you are going to—I am not giving up on him. I just want to find a better way. I have heard Vedur has some new technology. That they can track a magnetic signature for longer than anyone else. Isobel—much as Callie finds her difficult—knows this, but the vice-regent is stubborn. I am not sure what he is willing to give for Isobel.”

“Can we afford to let her go?” N’ameth knew they needed every single female.

“It might be that we can’t afford not to let her go,” Zak said grudgingly. “And this is something I am hoping the females’ presence will help with. We have at least ten thousand Ishtaans spread all over but mostly in hiding because of our sire. I cannot discount the possibility that there may be some females amongst them without the sickness. We know a lot of the villagers hid from our elder sire and maybe are still hiding. So, yes, my priority has to be more warriors, but even six females cannot repopulate a planet.”

“You think there is a chance more males didn’t accept the genome editing?”

“I think it very possible, and I need them shown it is no longer punishable by death.”

“You think the females’ presence will change the villagers’ minds?” Of course.

Zak smiled. “I hope so, but to get back to your plans, what are you going to do about Sascha?”

“I don’t know,” N’ameth said. “She said she was not my mulaa.” She had seemed pretty definite. And in front of his warriors. That had stung.

“Callie called me an oath breaker.” N’ameth gaped. It was their greatest insult. “It doesn’t mean the same on Earth as it does here. Or a diluted version anyway. They often find untruths funny.” His brow furrowed in concentration. “They even tell untruths for the good of all.”

N’ameth could understand that though. “If Sascha was in danger, I would say anything, break any vow to keep her safe.”

“Then I think you need to… Wait,” Zak said excitedly. “Callie has an Earth saying for exactly this. Something about ratifying an Earth delicacy. Something after a meal.” N’ameth stared at his brother. Maybe finding an Earth female made you insane. There were enough times he had questioned his own sanity over the last two lunar cycles.

“The pudding is in the proof,” Zak burst out, looking very pleased with himself.

Yep. Insane. “And that means?”

Zak grinned. “It means, little brother, that words are nothing. It’s what you do, not what you say.”

“But that’s the problem,” N’ameth said, bewildered. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Then maybe you just need to stay close to her while you work it out? I have a weapons master. I can train warriors myself. I think that you searching for and securing Xar’ta or who he was in league with is more important than anything else. I don’t think for one second if he is alive he will stay near the camp.” He paused. “Tee’a has gone.”

N’ameth smiled ruefully. “We would need to find Xar’ta to learn any more.”

Zak looked back automatically to the still-closed door of his suite, then leaned forward. “When I say gone, I mean vanished without a trace. His farm looks like he intended to return, and I have left another villager tending his crops.”

“Vanished?” N’ameth echoed.

Zak rubbed his head. “The last time we spoke, he requested some time with Xar’ta when he returned because he thinks he was in contact with someone in the cells—a guard. Someone loyal to our sire.”

“Disturbing, but it makes sense. He seemed to increase in confidence the longer I interrogated him. But who?”

“Tee’a didn’t know. He was reluctant to pursue it because he knew his interrogation was being observed.”

“By Voren?” N’ameth was incredulous.

“No, that’s not what I mean. I don’t doubt Voren’s loyalty for one second, but the thing was, Tee’a didn’t know who was watching him. He didn’t have time to ask him other questions. He just concentrated on the bodies and the possible second vein, but Tee’a thinks he knows more. He says Xar’ta was too easy and didn’t seem surprised by his presence. As if someone had warned him and schooled him on how to behave.”

N’ameth sighed. Had he been fooled? Couldn’t he do anything right?

“He told me he doesn’t have the proper gift of his ancestors, and a lot of it is his reputation. He was reluctant to explain what he meant, but he believes Xar’ta fooled him. If he had longer, he says he could be more confident.”

“And he’s gone?”

I sent warriors to his farm yesterday with some plants. He had lost much with our sire, and I promised him some supplies. He was missing.”

“And you don’t think he went voluntarily?” A shiver went through N’ameth. “I think I should get back to the camp.”

“It concerns me. We have a large planet, N’ameth. Our sire was only ever concerned with what he could access easily, but we have many unexplored areas.” Zak laughed shortly and stood. “But that is a conversation for another time.”

N’ameth also stood, reached out and clasped Zak’s arm, but Zak brought him in for a hug. N’ameth forgot they were able to do that now, and he clung on for maybe a minute longer than he should have.

“Keep me updated.”

N’ameth agreed. “I may have another warrior from N’olaan willing to move here.” He told Zak about Tamrath.

Zak was pleased. “Can you manage with the warriors you have?”

“I can’t take any more from the palace. Our numbers are low as it is.”

“I am releasing the rest of our sire’s guards. Three of the older ones wish to retire to their villages, and I have consented. The rest I am placing on probation, partnered with those I trust. The N’olaans are sending some more workers. And they are bringing fruit trees as well.”

“I will go back to camp and stay with the females.”

“Be vigilant,” Zak said gravely. “And when you return, I have a task I would like to discuss with you. It would be especially suited to both of you. In fact, maybe you could mention it to Sascha?”

N’ameth hesitated.

“I need you, ideally both of you, to tour the villages. They need to know things have changed. We need warriors and—”

“You want us to see if there are any females.” It was a good idea. “And they are less likely to see the visits as a threat if Sascha accompanies me.” He bowed to his king and left, hurrying to the shuttle.

N’ameth set off back to the camp. It had taken him a little longer because Lam’saak had sent a message asking if Neela could provide some Eish’ta paste. It was used as a staple to mix with Moray leaves and heavily spiced to be baked into flat cakes. Apparently, Sascha wanted it as they were experimenting with the aloe plants. He tried not to be jealous that Lam’saak was obviously involved in whatever Sascha was doing. He hadn’t been gone too long, but even a minute was much longer than he intended. He shouldn’t have stayed to share daylight meal, but then he shouldn’t have left in the first place, even if duty forced him to do so.

What should he do?

Sascha was his mulaa. He felt that with everything in him, but she didn’t feel the same way. Was it fair to ask her to undertake a diplomatic mission with him—even though she would be perfect for such a task?

Yes. He was done being noble, being fair. He was prepared to do anything he had to, to ensure she slept safely in his arms every night. Callie thought she was worried about being pushed into a role she didn’t want, but as far as he was concerned, Sascha could take whatever role she liked. He remembered how she’d taken charge of the search when Callie had been kidnapped. How unflappable she’d been. How perfect she was. No, Sascha was his.

She just didn’t know it yet.

His communicator bleeped, and expecting it to be Voren, he answered. The standard communicators attached to their uniforms worked in the shuttles, which was just as well. The one on his cruiser needed a serious update. “My prince?”

“Go ahead,” he responded to Lam’saak.

“Our engineers have finished inspecting the mine after the slide and confirm the second shift will be able to access it tonight. I have some free time. Would you like me to organize another search?”

“Has Voren returned?”

“I just spoke to him, and he will be back in a few minutes, but his warriors will need food and rest.” Guilt pricked at N’ameth that he’d been sitting and eating in an air-conditioned palace while his warriors were having to work in this heat.

“Yes, you can lead a team.”

“Me, my prince?” Lam’saak sounded unsure.

“I think you have proven your worth this month, Lam’saak. You are a warrior of Ishtaan, and I am promoting you to First.”

There was silence, then, “I am honored, my prince. I won’t let you down.”

N’ameth smiled. At least someone was happy. He rose just high enough to clear the tall Hasida trees that covered the area between Brey’s village and the mining camp. “My prince, will you return soon?”

“I’m on my way.” N’ameth’s eyes flickered to the instrument panel. The shuttles were useful, but old, and simply used for transport. His cruiser, however, he’d spent a lot of time and attention on, and as soon as he was able, he was going to see if he could do some upgrades.

He really needed Julian to help, but between the camp and the palace all the warriors were needed. “My prince?” He sounded excited.

N’ameth realized he’d missed what Lam’saak was saying. “Is something wrong?” There was a pause.

“No, my prince. I just wondered how low the shuttles flew. If it was worth taking them out to look for Xar’ta.”

N’ameth considered that. “I can’t see anything through the Hasida trees.”

“Of course.” Lam’saak sounded disappointed.

“I am nearly there. We can discuss it when I land.”

He didn’t hear how Lam’saak responded again, if he even did, and turned off the communicator. He would talk to Lam’saak, but he needed to see Sascha first. He knew she was his mulaa. He understood she wanted to carve her own role, and he was more than happy with that. She could do what she liked, so long as he was by her side.