Warrian kept one eye on the perimeter alarms and the other on the empress. She’d suddenly gone quiet after the string of questions, slipping away into one of the bedrooms. The door remained open. He could see her sitting on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest.
At least she was no longer hugging him.
He could still feel her body quivering, inching toward his as if he could somehow make her fear and worry cease if she got close enough. He hadn’t been able to control his reaction. He hadn’t been able to hold himself back from wrapping his arms around her in an effort to give her what she needed. Even with Talan scowling at him.
She didn’t know it was improper for her to cling to him, or for him to touch her for any reason other than to protect her. All she knew was that she’d been tossed into a situation that both shocked and frightened her.
As difficult as it was to hold her close and still remember his vows, in some ways it was a relief to know she was in distress. If she hadn’t felt something—some fear or doubt—he would have worried over her fitness to perform her duties. A cold empress would be a dangerous empress.
Talan sat in the kitchen, eating a sandwich and tinkering with one of the devices he carried on his person. Warrian lowered his voice so that it wouldn’t carry to where the empress sat alone.
“You will not speak of this,” he ordered.
“Speak of what?” asked Talan, his tone sharp. “The way she curled into you like some sort of camp follower? Or the way you encouraged her?”
Warrian growled a quiet warning. “We will provide her with whatever she needs to make the right decision to return home. Of her own free will. I may be able to shove her back through the window, but there is little I can do to force her compliance on the other side. We need her cooperation. She must willingly provide the Loriahan cannon with the power it needs. And if that means we defy convention, then so be it.”
Talan waved his hand, making his ring sparkle. “Defy whatever convention you like. Fuck her for all I care. But you find a way to drive all that weakness right out of her before you send her through the window. She has to be strong. Without her, your people aren’t the only ones who will suffer.”
Warrian’s blood heated at the suggestion that he bed the empress. But Talan’s accusations that she was weak sent a wave of anger through him that overpowered his inappropriate lust. “Mind your tongue. And remember who is in charge here.”
Talan sipped from a glass bottle, giving Warrian a steady stare. “I know the rules. She is from House Loriah, which makes you our leader. Temporarily. But don’t go getting too big for your britches. Your turn to follow orders is coming as soon as the empress is through the window and we’re on to the next mission.”
“Agreed. But until then you do as I say. And I command you to be silent about what you saw here tonight.”
“Suits me. Her weakness will only frighten our people more than they already are. I’m not going to spread that around.”
“She isn’t weak,” said Warrian, trying to keep the anger from his tone. “You can’t expect her to behave as a warrior would.”
Talan frowned, making the ink along his scalp move. The intricate markings changed shape as his skin did, forming new lines and curves, none of which Warrian could decipher. “Certainly no risk of that. I’ve never seen a warrior cuddle another the way she did you. It was a disgusting display of weakness.”
“She did not cuddle me. She merely leaned on me for support.”
“And you cuddled her right back.”
“I did not.”
Talan’s lip curled in disdain. “A true empress needs no help. She is obviously lacking from being raised here. Our chances for survival were always slim at best. Now I’m convinced they’re even worse.”
Anger flared beneath Warrian’s skin. “She will do what’s required of her.”
“She is going to be completely overwhelmed by the situation. The council is going to sweep her away the second she’s through the window. She won’t even know what hit her. They’re going to stuff her in the weapon and expect her to perform. They’re not going to give her time to adjust, to get her sea legs. She’s going to be used. Hard.”
Warrian hadn’t considered that would be the way things would go for her. His sole focus had been on completing his mission and seeing her safely through the window.
The idea that she would be abused chafed him, agitating him until the garala sparked between his fingers with his need for battle. “Are you suggesting there’s another way?”
“No,” said Talan. “What happens to her once she’s back on Loriah is going to happen. There’s nothing any of us can do to stop it. But she has a few more hours before her life as she knows it ends. You should do what you can to brace her for what’s ahead, try to toughen her up and make her at least pretend to be the hope of an entire world. If enough people buy into the lie, maybe it will be enough.”
“There is no gain to be had in frightening her more than necessary by telling her what’s to come.”
Talan shoved back from his seat. “Fine. I’ll go talk to her if you won’t. I’ll lay it all out and tell her how it is. At least that way, when she steps through the window, she won’t start cuddling the first person she meets.”
Warrian shifted a step, blocking the other man’s path. “No. She is my duty. I will speak to her.”
“You’d better not pull your punches, Warrian. Because we both know the council won’t. You send her through unarmed and uninformed, and she’ll be eaten alive.”
Of that he was acutely aware. “I will go to her. I will prepare her.”
Talan shrugged and sat back down to his meal. “Maybe you should feed her too. She’s scrawny as hell.”
That Warrian hadn’t already considered such a basic need told him how deeply the empress had affected him. He wasn’t thinking clearly. His priorities were skewed.
“Do we have soup?” he asked Talan, remembering her earlier request for it.
The man nodded his inked head toward a cabinet. “In the metal cans. Already cooked. Just heat it up.”
Warrian poured some in a bowl and took it to the empress. He used the garala to heat it before setting it down on the table next to the bed where she sat. “You should eat.”
She eyed the steaming bowl. “Did you put aspirin in it?”
“No, but I can if it pleases you.”
“No, thanks.” A flicker of a smile played at the corner of her mouth, reminding him of how warm and smooth it had felt against his.
Warrian forced his gaze away, ignoring the stirring he felt within his blood. “You are not a warrior.”
“Uh, okay. I already figured that one out. But thanks for the info.”
“I don’t expect you to behave as one.”
She frowned at him as if he were making no sense. “Good to know, especially considering I don’t have any weapons.”
He was making a mess of this, explaining things badly. He paused, took a deep breath and tried again. “When you pass through the window, you will be asked to do difficult things.”
She picked up the bowl and held it in her hands. The surface of the liquid trembled. “If it was easy, anyone could do it, right? You wouldn’t need me.”
“You will be in a strange place, surrounded by people who will expect you to know things you don’t. They will take advantage of your ignorance.”
“You’re not selling me on the whole window hopping thing, Warrian. In fact, you’re freaking me out a bit.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face and pulled in a long breath. “I’m trying to help you. Prepare you.”
“By scaring me shitless?”
He took the soup from her hands and set it aside. He knelt in front of her and curled his fingers around hers. “You must remember that you are the Loriahan empress, Her Imperial Majyr, Isa Telwyn. No one may harm you without consequence so long as you know to inflict that consequence upon them.”
Her eyes went wide, showing off a turbulent sea of fear. “Someone’s going to harm me?”
“They will not intend to, but we are desperate. Your duties will call the moment you set foot on Loriah. There will be no delay, no quarter, no comfort.”
“What are you trying to tell me, Warrian? Are you saying I should stay here? I thought you wanted me to go.”
“You must go. But there will be no one there to protect you.”
“What, they’ll just toss me into an arena with some Dregorgs and hope for the best?”
“It’s not the Dregorgs you should fear. It’s the council. They will demand things from you.”
“Like what?”
“They will demand you power the cannon.”
“That’s the whole reason I’m going, right?”
“There is more.” He hesitated even mentioning it, but she deserved to know what she would face. “They will expect an heir—someone who can take your place if you fall.”
“If I die, you mean?”
“Yes. That.”
She shuddered as if racked by cold. “So am I walking into some kind of arranged marriage?”
“Marriage is unimportant to the council. Feelings are unimportant. They will send men to you—men chosen for their service or station.”
“Send them to do what?”
“Create an heir. Only your offspring can power our defenses. And then only if you operate it while you are with child, so it can recognize that life.”
Her spine straightened and anger twisted her mouth. “Then I’ll send them right back. I’m not sleeping with a string of strangers just so some council can get their magical cannon-operating baby.”
“You don’t understand. Powering the defense will drain you. The men will come when you are weak. When you are sleeping. They will do what they believe must be done, because to disobey in a time of war is a death sentence.”
Her pale hair swayed as she shook her head. “No. No freaking way. I’m so not jumping through some window with a bunch of rapey dudes waiting for me on the other side. How could you even think that would I’d agree?”
“Rapey dudes?”
“Men who will wait until I’m unconscious or too weak to fight before they rape me? That is a crime where you’re from, isn’t it?”
“Not when the imperial heir is at stake. Not when it is ordered by the council.”
She leaned forward and grabbed the sides of his face, her words coming out between clenched teeth. “Promise me you won’t let that happen. Promise me you’ll guard my bedroom and keep all the raping assholes out.”
He could make no such promises. His duty was here, his orders to find as many of the children sent here as possible, even those who were not from House Loriah. “I’m sorry. My orders will not allow me to go with you.”
“Can’t I override those orders?” she asked. “I am your imperial martyr or whatever.”
“Majyr. And once you return home and are inside the palace, you will be guarded by members of the imperial guard.”
“And these guards? Will they do what I say?”
“They answer to the council. They will not go against the council’s wishes.”
She flung his hands away and scooted back. “Then I’m not going. Your entire rapey planet can find another empress to run their cannons—one who doesn’t mind being forced against her will.”
Warrian had ruined everything. Not only had he not offered comfort, he’d also changed her mind about willingly helping Loriah. He should have kept his mouth shut and stuck to combat. At least that was something at which he excelled.
From the corner of his eye he saw one of the perimeter alarms begin to flash.
“When is Radek to arrive?” Warrian called out to Talan.
“Not for another hour at least.”
He pulled the empress from the bed as he stood. “We must flee.”
The empress’s skin paled. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve been found,” said Warrian, just as Talan shouted out a warning of, “Dregorgs moving in!”