CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Over the next days, as the recording of Gruber’s end circulated to the farthest reaches of the empire, it seemed to strike a chord with even the worst of skeptics. To have the father of the virus show his confusion over being wrong about jit’suku DNA mixing so well with human was really something. It seemed a lot of the people who had refused to accept that Ginny truly was the prophesied Velkir had objected on the basis that a human couldn’t fill that role.

The fact that Gruber had ranted about Ginny’s jit’suku DNA somehow made it easier for those skeptics to believe. It was one thing to be told the facts by people who supported the new regime. It was another, apparently, to have the father of the virus confirm it.

Faced with prophecy and the undeniable presence of the Goddess, not once, but twice, working through the women, the skeptics and supporters of the old regime had no choice. They either slunk away, taking a backseat and letting the new galactic order take hold, or they allied themselves with Tigh and Ginny.

The warrior priests of the Zenai were kept very busy with hearing confessions and redirecting those who had gone astray. The concept of confession wasn’t really part of the Zenai way, but Jurdan had agreed with Ginny’s desire to have the priests evaluate each of the former enemies, to judge whether or not the repentance was real. Acting as judges of character and reform were well within the purview of the warrior priesthood, so in the end, it all worked out.

Having the Zenai work with the former transgressors also kept a buffer between those bad actors and the emperor. Tigh feared that, if he’d had to sit in judgment on any of the warriors who had helped abduct Ginny, he wouldn’t be able to be lenient. Yet, leniency was what Ginny desired, as long as the men truly repented.

Much better to have actual priests take care of making that judgment. Tigh could not be objective where the safety of his beloved was concerned.

As the days progressed, another topic became foremost in his mind. He’d proposed to Ginny, and she’d accepted, but they had yet to have the formal ceremony. The wedding of an emperor to his empress wasn’t something that could be undertaken quickly, and the dowager empress was heavily involved in the planning.

She roped Ginny’s family, and the ladies of Ginny’s crew, into helping with the preparations. Tigh feared the party was going to be something that the jit’suku empire had never before experienced. It seemed there were many human traditions they wanted to include, and the dowager empress was inclined to indulge them—as long as they included all the necessary jit’suku traditions, as well.

The wedding, from all accounts, was going to be a true mix of their two cultures.

 

Ginny kept tabs on her crew over the next days. She also visited Sally daily, to check on her progress. She was still too ill to move to her own room but was being kept entertained by Tolo, who was, likewise, still taking up a bed in the infirmary. Both of them had been laid low by the drug Gruber’s men had used to knock them all out.

Ginny sensed a little spark between Sally and Tolo. They weren’t admitting to anything, just yet, but Ginny had high hopes for a budding romance between the two. It felt like, now that she’d found a man to share her life with, she wanted all her friends to be as happy as she was.

The dowager empress had befriended Ginny’s mother and aunt, and she was taking them around to the orphanages and medical centers. Once Ginny got wind of it, she realized her family was going to settle in well. Her mother and aunt were already working with the dowager to develop ways to help with all the boys left motherless by the virus. Already, the number of young pages in the palace had tripled, each woman having taken a group of little boys under their wings.

It was good to see the children laughing and playing around the halls of the big building. There was more than enough room for them, and the ladies were educating them, as well as mothering them. Ginny wanted to encourage that sort of thing throughout the empire, and she was taking careful notes on what worked…and what didn’t.

After the wedding was over, Ginny had plans to put out a special call to any women in the human galaxy who had an enhanced ancestor—and therefore jit’suku DNA in their profiles—to come help restore the balance here. If the human government was interested in allowing some jit’suku men to move there, Ginny was already thinking about ways to screen and select suitable candidates.

The first few groups of men to go back home were going to have to be especially patient fellows. They were likely to get a cold reception in many places. They’d have to earn the women’s trust, and that could take some time. She wanted to set up classes to prepare them for the traditions, beliefs and customs they might encounter. Her crew would be the teachers, but they weren’t even close to that stage yet. The wedding had to come first, and then, all her plans could be set into motion, though she was already discussing some of it with Tigh.

He was supportive and offered very good suggestions, which was a great help. Between the two of them, she’d already prepared some notes on how to go about the various steps in the plan. All it needed now, was the right timing.

 

When the wedding day arrived, the pomp and circumstance was even greater than Ginny had expected. News cams floated everywhere along the route she took from the suite where she had slept the night before. There was a tradition among the jit’suku that all the women of the family would gather together in one place the night before a wedding to tell stories, laugh and keep the bride-to-be company. It was something like a hen party, only it included all ages of women and didn’t focus so much on the party aspect as it did on the camaraderie and family ties.

Ginny liked it. She hadn’t had a lot of time lately to just hang out with her crew and family. Her crew had become part of her family, and it was good to renew those ties and gossip about the men they had met so far. It was clear to them all that Krysta and Xeer were getting very close, as were Hansa and Henny. There was also something between Sally—who had been released from the infirmary just the day before—and Tolo. Good-natured teasing was passed around evenly until Ginny’s mother and aunt started talking about how their marriages had been before the virus.

The mood grew a bit somber when they remembered the way things used to be and the good men that had been lost forever. They drank a toast to Ginny’s father and uncle, the crew members’ fathers and brothers and cousins. All those men, just wiped away by something so tiny…and deadly.

But there was hope, too. Hope for a rebirth of both races that had suffered so badly. Now that the man who had crafted the virus was gone, they all felt that they could truly start over and make both races stronger. United. At peace.

There hadn’t been peace between the jit’suku and humanity for centuries. There had been brief periods of ceasefire and one long stretch of quiet during Emperor Tren’s time, but it hadn’t stuck. This time, though, Ginny was certain the peace would endure. For, after the next generation or two, there would be no more jit’suku and human. There would be one race of people with shared DNA.

That would stop the jit’suku warriors in their tracks. It was one of the tenants of their warrior’s code that they did not make war on their own people. Humanity was going to become jit’suku, and jit’suku would, likewise, merge with humanity. It was an elegant solution for an untenable situation, but she’d take it.

They discussed many topics that night from the peace treaty that would be formed by her marriage, to scandalous teasing about the jit’suku men. The women dined together and spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing and remembering. Ginny enjoyed it immensely and thought it was a great tradition that humans would do well to adopt from the jit’suku.

They all slept in the big room that had been set aside for this event, on colorful couches designed for lounging. It was like a pajama party or a camp out, where the women talked until the wee hours of the morning and remembered why they were friends…and family.

In the morning, a late breakfast was served buffet style in the room next door. Everybody cleaned up and put on fluffy robes that had been prepared for them, for the next part of the day involved dressing for the ceremony. Since this particular marriage involved the head of the entire empire, it had to be more elaborate than a simple provincial wedding. There were heavy ceremonial robes to be worn for the actual ceremony, with underclothes that were much more comfortable, that would be revealed once the party began, later that evening.

In between, there would be a few hours of sitting in state on the throne, receiving emissaries and lords from far-flung regions of space within the empire. It seemed like everyone who could possibly do so had sent a high-ranking representative or come themselves to pledge fealty to the emperor and see the new empress for themselves.

Ginny knew she would be under close scrutiny. She just hoped the Goddess who’d been taking such an active interest in this situation would stick by her now. She would need a deity’s stamina to sit through all the rigmarole expected this afternoon after the wedding ceremony.

Maybe that’s why they made the formal robes so stiff and cumbersome, she thought. Sitting for hours was hard enough, but with the support of the robes, she wouldn’t slouch. She couldn’t. The bead-encrusted fabric wouldn’t allow it.

 

When Tigh saw his bride walking down the aisle toward him, his heart skipped a beat in pure pleasure. She was radiant. The formal wear made her move slowly, but she had a grace that was all Ginny and owed little to the restrictive clothing.

She met his gaze and smiled at him as the news bots hovered in front and behind. They were less obtrusive than he’d thought they’d be, but both he and Ginny understood the need for everyone in the empire to see this event. Those who couldn’t be here in person would be able to view it live on their newsfeeds. It was an historic day that deserved to be marked.

Therefore, they’d agreed to the newsbots. Ginny’s crew also had their own floating cams arrayed around the room. Tiggy had rigged a monitoring station where specially trained and screened security agents were watching the direct live feeds from the floaters, watching the crowd for potential trouble.

Tiggy would also be recording this to send back to human space so they could see the result of the Valkyrie’s adventure. The wedding would cement the deal and make everything official. Which was why it was so important that it go off without a hitch.

The palace guard was on high alert, and the new palace contingent of Zenai priests hadn’t let either Ginny or Tigh out of their sight. During the ladies’ party, they’d posted themselves at every entrance to the large chamber where the dinner and slumber party had been held, and examined everything in minute detail before letting it into Ginny’s presence.

The tight security was a bit tiresome, but Tigh knew Ginny understood it was necessary. For that matter, he wasn’t comfortable with it either, but he endured. It helped that he knew these men and had studied with them. He’d started setting up a wing of the palace specifically for the Zenai. If they were going to guard him and his empress, he wanted them to be in familiar and comfortable surroundings.

To that end, Tigh had begun remodeling some of the unused rooms into something resembling the rooms and facilities he’d become accustomed to on the Zenai mountain. He’d given the men leave to create a shrine to the Goddess, an exercise area both indoors and outside in a disused courtyard, and whatever else they wanted. Tigh only asked that they allow him to train with them on occasion, to keep his skills sharp.

But the warrior priests had gone even farther. They’d welcomed Henny and the ladies who wanted to continue learning the fighting arts to their outdoor courtyard. The mixed group of martial artists had drawn quite a few onlookers from the palace staff when they’d started training together, and almost all of the little page boys wanted to emulate what they saw, which led to a few accidental black eyes and bruises.

Seeing that, one of the warrior priests had suggested adding a class for the youngsters into their training schedule, and when it was mentioned to Ginny, she’d supported the idea wholeheartedly. She’d even been known to observe the class with some of the other ladies, like proud mamas watching the little boys learn how to respect themselves, their fellow beings, and the Goddess, through the discipline of martial arts.

Before too many days had passed, almost all the little boys had started training in the ways of the Zenai. It would do them no harm to learn to defend themselves and get a bit of exercise, Tigh thought. And, if it turned out that one or more of them felt a true calling to the priesthood, they could pursue that path when they were ready.

Such training also helped focus young warriors who chose that path later in life. Tigh had often thought that, if more of the warrior class had been trained under Zenai principles, they never would have let Elius get away with half the things he had done.

For his part, Tigh hoped the presence of the Zenai in the palace would become a permanent addition. It was good to have them around. Their mere presence stood as a symbol of righteousness, and Tigh knew enough about the order to know that they would have something to say if Tigh somehow strayed from the path of the Lady’s Light as he grew into his new role as emperor. He was counting on it.

Ginny finished her long walk down the aisle and joined him in front of High Priest Jurdan in the area in front of their thrones. Tigh took her hand in his, and for a moment, as he looked into her shining eyes, time stood still. His heart filled once more with the deep and abiding love he felt for her, and he didn’t care who saw the look on his face. Let them look. Let them see the reality of their mating and know, once and for all, that this is what had been ordained by the Goddess, Herself.

Together, they turned to face Jurdan and listened to what he had to say. A lot of the ritual was formulaic, but there was a point during which the High Priest would impart a teaching of wisdom he wanted to share with the particular couple standing before him. But Jurdan surprised them. The message he shared was not for them, alone, but for all jit’suku and all humans who would see this recording. It was a message of hope and peace, forgiveness and love, prosperity and Light.

At the end of the ritual, they kissed, and it felt like that very first nij’ta, when Tigh had first discovered the truth about this amazing woman, who was now, legally, his wife. He didn’t realize it during the kiss, but he would discover later that there had been an ethereal glow around them when they kissed. All the priests knelt when it appeared, believing it to be a manifestation of the Goddess’s blessing.

All the news bots floating around caught it and recorded it from many angles, which would be looked at later, in great detail, lending validity to the fact that the Light was real and not some manufactured effect. When the kiss ended, so did the glow, going back to wherever it had come from just as mysteriously as it had arrived. Tigh noticed the priests on their bended knees all around them, but he didn’t know, at that point, why they’d taken that position.

The stunned faces of the assembled crowd registered next as Tigh turned with Ginny on his arm, to face the audience in the chamber. The moment of stunned silence continued until someone started cheering in the back of the room, and the sound started a chorus of cheers that shook the rafters of the vaulted ceiling far above.

The stunned faces turned to happy faces, some with tears streaming down their cheeks. Emotion was running high, and for once, it was all positive emotion. Tigh had taken over a troubled empire, and it had been a struggle to give people any reason to be hopeful, much less happy. Today, it certainly seemed as if the tide had turned.

The audience, filled with men, was cheering as if they’d just seen their own salvation. Perhaps they had. Tigh wanted to think he’d finally brought hope back to this people. Ginny was the embodiment of that hope—for his empire and for himself.

“I didn’t expect quite this reception,” Ginny said to Tigh as he leaned down to speak with her over the din.

“I didn’t either, but I’m grateful for it,” he replied, kissing her cheek to renewed cheers. “They will love you as much as I do, my heart,” he said, feeling the truth of every word. “You will heal an empire, just by your presence.”

 

A group of page boys came over to lift the train on Ginny’s dress, signaling it was time to walk to the thrones—two equally majestic chairs placed side-by-side on the dais, behind where the High Priest had performed their marriage ceremony. Ginny allowed the little boys to escort her—and her massively heavy dress—over to the chair, but she didn’t let them go without giving each one a touch of affection.

She’d learned from the older women how starved for the simple gestures such as a pat on the back or a touch on the cheek these little ones were. Following her mother’s example, Ginny never passed up an opportunity to bestow a gentle touch when she saw one of the orphans in the halls. Each boy beamed at her, the littlest lifting his arms for a hug that Ginny could not resist. She reached down and kissed the boy, who could not be older than about six or seven, on the cheek before letting him go.

Ginny had thought her movements would be well camouflaged by Tigh’s arrival at the chair next to her. The protocol called for settling the woman first, then the male taking his own seat. What she hadn’t realized was that everyone had been watching her minutest motion—especially the news bots. Ginny wanted to roll her eyes when she finally noticed the bots hovering just a few feet away. No doubt her every movement would be critiqued and commented on before the day was through.

Shrugging it off, she resolved to be more circumspect. The stiffness of her bodice kept her upright with nearly ramrod perfection of posture. Tigh settled beside her, and then, the next part of the ceremony unfolded as each nobleman came forward to re-pledge his loyalty to the emperor…and the new empress.

Ginny had feared there might be a few hold-outs. She knew she was not universally welcomed. She’d thought many still had doubts about her presence, but she was proved wrong. As the day wore on and man after man came forth to welcome her, she couldn’t detect any sort of resistance.

Maybe she wasn’t as good a judge of jit’suku body language as she’d thought, but it certainly seemed as if they were welcoming her with real gladness. A few times, she looked over at Tigh to catch a bemused smile on his face. She wanted to ask him if what she was seeing was real, but she didn’t dare speak out of turn with all the news bots covering every angle.

When the parade of nobles was finally over, Ginny and Tigh were able to escape public scrutiny for a few moments by retiring to the antechamber behind the dais. Once again, the page boys helped Ginny with the heavily embroidered and beaded robe. They also helped her remove it to reveal the much more comfortable ensemble beneath, as Tigh did the same.

“Good to be able to move again,” Tigh commented as he rubbed his arms and stretched a bit.

“Will we have to wear those again?” she asked, dreading his answer.

“No. They’re works of art now. They’ll be put on display in the main hall here then moved to a museum where everybody can go look at them, if they wish. There is a collection of such things stretching back to the first emperor. Sadly, the styles haven’t changed much in all those centuries.” He grimaced then smiled as she did the same.

The page boys left, burdened with the heavy robes, but not before Ginny thanked each one of them. This little crew was really starting to blossom and work together as a group. Tigh had told her they’d all competed for the honor of serving at the wedding ceremony by achieving high marks from the priests who trained them, as well as their teachers in academic subjects. The small group that had finally been chosen had earned their spots in this honor guard.

When they were alone, Ginny rubbed the back of her neck and looked up at Tigh. “I think that went well. Or am I just delusional?”

“No, you’re right. It went better than I, or anyone, expected, really.” He looked bemused. “I can’t be sure, but I think something might’ve happened. Wait…” Tigh went to the door and stepped out for a moment, holding the door ajar. He stepped back, and Xeer was with him. “Tell Ginny what you just told me,” Tigh prompted his friend.

“The Light shone all around you two when you kissed at the end of the ceremony. It was a clear manifestation of the Goddess’s approval of your union,” Xeer said, wonder in his voice.

“Is that why all the priests were kneeling?” Ginny asked, wondering aloud as Xeer nodded. “They dropped as one, and the crowd of onlookers went utterly speechless.”

“I’d wondered…” Tigh said, shaking his head slightly. “Overall, I’d have to say I’m pleased with the result. I thought it would be much more difficult to get through this day without bloodshed. Or, at least, harsh words and a few feuds declared among the nobles.”

“Now, we just have to get through the feast, and we’re home free,” Ginny thought aloud. “I know I shouldn’t have said that, because now, something will happen.” She rolled her eyes at her own nonsense, and Xeer laughed.

“We will do our best to make certain nothing bad happens,” he assured her.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she joked with him as she stood and straightened her outfit. The robes of state had been heavy and restrictive, but they hadn’t crushed the silky fabric of the dress beneath. A few brushes from her hands, and she was good to go.

They went in to the dinner together, and a smaller crowd of nobles filled the room. Tables had been set up around the walls of the great hall with Tigh and Ginny at the center on one side, in chairs a bit grander than the others, up on a small dais, just a foot or two off the floor. It was so they could be seen, she surmised, as everyone stood to mark their entrance. The crowd cheered when the herald announced them as the emperor and empress. Ginny started a bit. Being called Empress Gineva was going to take some getting used to.

The dinner went well and lasted long into the night. There were many courses, with entertainments between each. One surprise was a boys’ choir that performed, made up of boys she recognized from around the palace. Apparently, her cousin had taken a few of the page boys who had an ear for music and the ability to catch a tune, and had taught them some classical music from human antiquity. Ginny knew her cousin had musical talent and training, but she hadn’t realized the extent of it.

The jit’suku seemed astounded and enthralled by the sounds the boys made as a choir. Ginny looked carefully at the rapt faces of those listening and realized that, although it was clearly different and surprising, the people who heard the boys’ efforts were not appalled by it. Far from it. They seemed genuinely to enjoy it and be intrigued.

“We do not have this kind of music,” Tigh said as the performance drew to an end. “It is very different but also very beautiful,” he said approvingly.

“I’m glad you liked it. That music, I believe, was from well before humanity reached the stars. It is very old, and the text is religious, I think, but you’d have to check with my cousin for more precise details.” Ginny marveled that her shy cousin had done so much in such a short time with the boys.

“I should think that, after tonight, musical scholars will want to know more about these haunting melodies,” Tigh predicted.

The rest of the evening passed in a bit of a blur. Tigh was attentive and charming, and his people were welcoming. There were a few speeches and toasts, but Ginny didn’t have to speak, except to thank everyone for coming to the feast. When it was finally time to leave the feast, Tigh took Ginny’s arm and led her from the great hall.

The party went on without them, but their part in the public festivities was over for now. It was just as well. Ginny was tired. Just in the past few days, she’d been starting to feel her pregnancy a lot more than she had before. Fatigue was her near-constant companion, and certain smells made her want to vomit.

While last night, spent at the slumber party, away from Tigh had been nice, Ginny was glad she would be able to sleep with him again tonight. Pregnancy apparently increased her sex drive, and she was starting to really crave a little private party, just for the two of them.