“What do you think the Sovereign wants with us, now that you’re healed?” I asked Sir anxiously as his golden chariot ascended the side of the golden pyramid once again.
He had just been released from the Healing House and I think he would have liked to take me straight home with him. But we had standing orders to report to the Sovereign the moment he was better, so the enormous golden pyramid was our first stop.
Sir shook his head.
“I don’t know, little one. But one does not ignore the orders of the Sovereign.”
Soon enough, we reached the top of the pyramid, (with me bouncing up the last hundred steps, thanks to my gravity belt,) and were facing the golden throne. I noticed, with some trepidation, that we were not alone. Sir Gra’multh was already there, leaning heavily upon a golden cane. He still had ligature marks on his neck and when he saw me, his face twisted into the most hateful expression imaginable.
I felt my stomach do a slow, uneasy flip as I gave him a blank face in return. Geeze, if looks could kill…
“What is he doing here?” I murmured to Sir, who shook his head.
“I don’t know, little one. I suppose we’ll find out.”
Then the guards on either side of the throne both stepped forward and one of them spoke.
“Sir Gra’multh, Sir Barinthian and Lady little one, please approach the Golden Throne.”
Lady little one? I wasn’t sure what to think about that, but it wasn’t like I could ask about it. So I just bowed my head as we all approached the huge, golden throne.
The Sovereign was looking even more regal today, in another jewel-encrusted gown and she had a determined look on her face, I thought.
“You may be wondering why I have called you all here today,” she began, looking at the three of us. “Especially when the two Overlords are just now recovering from life-threatening injuries.”
“Injuries inflicted by that little bitch, you mean,” Gra’multh snarled, shooting me an ugly look.
“Silence!” the Sovereign snapped, glaring at him. “You will not speak to the Lady so.” She looked at me. “I have been calling you ‘little one’ but that is only your pet name. Please, tell me your real name.”
“Oh, uh, my name is Eliza Angelica Thompson,” I said. “But all my friends just call me Elli.”
“Elli.” The Sovereign smiled at me. “I like that and, as I would like to count you among my friends, I would be pleased to call you by this name.”
“Oh, of course!” I said quickly. “I would be honored, Your Majesty.”
“You may call me Splendara,” she said regally. “As we are friends.”
I heard both Sir and the guards suck in their breaths and Sir murmured to me,
“Almost no one is privileged to call the Sovereign by her true name!”
“Thank you, Your Majesty—er, Splendara,” I said, bowing my head to her again. “You honor me greatly.”
“You are very welcome, Elli. You have earned the right to the honor, and to personhood as well,” the Sovereign said to me. “But first, I wish to hear Sir Gra’multh apologize to both you and Sir Barinthian for his treachery during the duel the three of you fought.”
Gra’multh sucked in a breath and choked it back out again.
“Your Majesty!” he protested in a dry, hoarse voice. “Surely you cannot mean for me to humble myself to a mere pet!”
“Do not speak so of Lady Elli,” the Sovereign snapped, narrowing her eyes at him. “She is much more than that—she has proven herself to be both valiant and brave and also extremely Mentally gifted. She deserves an apology from you and she shall have one or I will strip you of your title and give it to another!”
“Very well then.” Gra’multh turned to face me and Sir, his face twisted into a bitter mask. “You have my formal apology,” he snarled, biting off the words and spitting them at us like bullets. “For my behavior during the duel. It was…unsporting of me.”
“Unsporting?” Sir growled, glaring at him. “To attempt to have me assassinated? That seems like an understatement.”
“The Sovereign has told me to apologize and I have done so,” Gra’multh bit out. He looked at the Sovereign on her golden throne. “May I go now, Your Majesty? I have pressing business to attend to on my own continent.”
Splendara frowned at him.
“You would do well to remember, Overlord, that you rule at the pleasure of the Sovereign and of late I have not been very pleased with you.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Gra’multh said woodenly but I saw the bitter twist of his thin lips.
Clearly his angry look wasn’t lost on the Sovereign either.
“I see the look on your face and I know you’re longing for vengeance, Sir Gra’multh,” she said. “Before you go, I want to make it clear that Lady Elli is now and forevermore under my personal protection. If you attempt to harm or kill her, you will be answerable to me. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Gra’multh snarled, glaring in my direction. “I swear my oath as an Overlord that I will not lay a finger on her precious hide.”
“Thank you. Then you are dismissed.” Splendara nodded her head regally and Gra’multh limped heavily back to his two personal guards, who were waiting for him. They each took him under the arm and the last I saw of him, the three of them were slowly descending the hundred golden steps that led to the very top of the pyramid.
When Gra’multh was out of sight, I turned back to the Sovereign.
“Er, thank you very much for protecting my life, Splendara,” I said, bowing my head.
“I thought it was important, considering how vengeful Sir Gra’multh can be,” she told me. “But I have more to say to you, Elli. First, though…I have heard many reports that you make an Earth delicacy called a ‘chocker ship coolie?”
“Oh, you mean a chocolate chip cookie,” I said, smiling at her. “Yes, I made them for the staff of the Healing House a lot.”
“Would you make some for me?” Splendara asked hopefully. “I have a Matter Synthesizer for you to use right here.” She gestured and one of the guards rolled up something that looked very like the nutrition cart at the hospital, except it was made of gold.
“I’d be happy to make you some cookies,” I told her, stepping forward to take the control band from the guard, who was holding it out to me with a neutral expression on his face.
I put the band over my temples and thought of a platter of hot, gooey cookies…and with a ding, there they were. Unsurprisingly, Splendara loved them. I thought her a glass of ice-cold milk to dunk them in as well and then she asked if I made anything else and I nodded.
I wound up making her all kinds of cookies including almond-orange shortbread, pecan fluff balls, peanut butter blossoms, and even some double stuffed Oreos, because why not?
The Sovereign was delighted with everything. It turned out she had a sweet tooth and was heartily sick of nutritional gel cubes, which didn’t surprise me a bit. I just wondered how people who could make almost about anything they wanted with their minds, decided to just eat flavorless Jell-O for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I mean, yes it was good for you. But tasty? Not so much.
After just about every spare surface around the throne was covered in batches of cookies, the Sovereign at last put a hand to her stomach and moaned.
“Oh, no more! I have never felt so full in my life.”
“Yeah, you don’t have any tolerance for junk food, yet,” I told her. “You’d probably better go easy for a while.”
“I will have these put away until a later time,” Splendara said. “But I thank you for making them for me—the fact that you can operate the Matter Synthesizer so masterfully and the Mental Abilities you showed during the duel have persuaded me that what I am about to do is the right thing.”
“And what is that, Your Majesty?” Sir asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I am going to make a Royal Proclamation,” Splendara announced and all the guards around her stood up straighter and took notice. One of them muttered, “Call the Royal Scribe! Quick!”
A moment later, a Korrigon Noble with a fancy peacock-blue robe came rushing up. He carried an old-fashioned-looking scroll of parchment and a pen that seemed to be made of the hollow leg of some animal.
“Yes, Your Majesty?” he said respectfully, his pen poised over the parchment. “I am ready to record your Proclamation for posterity.”
“Thank you, Scribe.” Splendara nodded her head to him regally. “Then take note and let the word spread. I hereby decree that the Twelve Peoples of the Goddess’s Cloak Galaxy are, in fact and in deed, people. They are not animals or inferior beings—they are equal to Korrigons in status and stature. This means that neither they nor their galaxy can be exploited in any way. I forbid them to be taken as slaves and their minds must not be controlled or manipulated.”
This was excellent news! I nodded and smiled, grateful that the Sovereign was pointedly and specifically putting the protected status of my home galaxy into an official Proclamation, which seemed to be as good as making a new law.
But her next words made my stomach feel like it had fallen to my feet.
“I further forbid any Korrigon to take one of the Twelve Peoples as their pet,” the Sovereign intoned. And any that are held as pets right now shall henceforward be freed.”
“Uh…what?” I looked uncertainly up at Sir, who had a grim look on his face.
“It shall be a crime to take a man or woman of the Twelve Peoples as either a pet or a Sex Pet,” the Sovereign continued. “Because they are people with their own free will and must be treated as such.” She smiled at me. “Therefore, Lady Elli, you are free. You may go where you like and do what you like from this day forward. No one will ever enslave you again.”
“Oh…uh, thank you, Your Majesty. I mean, Splendara,” I said uncertainly, though that wasn’t at all what I wanted to say.
But how could I admit to her that I actually enjoyed being Sir’s pet? Besides, this was huge—it meant no more Korrigon Pet Finders, like that sleazy Shadrack back at the spaceport—could come and kidnap women and take them back to be Mind-controlled or held against their will. So I felt like I really couldn’t protest.
“That is all,” the Sovereign said to me. “I hope to see you in Court again, Elli. Your company is refreshing and your cook-lies are delicious.”
I didn’t attempt to answer this time, I simply bowed again and tried to smile at her.
But I had a feeling that something bad had just happened—something that was going to change my life forever—and not in a good way.