The Seer (Tellaran Series) (36 page)

Thirty-seven

Jolar grinned and caught her chin to press a hot kiss to her mouth.

“How—” She was too stunned to do more than blink at him, her mouth still tingled from his kiss. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, my last attempt at rescuing you was less than impressive so I thought I’d give it another go. How am I doing so far?”

Behind the plexisteel wall of the cell there were no other guards. She’d seen just Jolar and since there were always at least two, assumed another one was there as well.

She held up her wrists, where the restraints still bound her. “
You
let them take me! You stood aside and let them take me! You
agreed
with Tasan! I heard you!” Her voice broke. “You—you thought, ‘Tasan’s right’.”

He blinked, his face alight with wonder. “You heard—?”

Something in her face clearly told him this was not the time for that.

“I’m sorry, sweet.” His blue eyes were serious now. “But he
was
right. There were FleetSec all around us and no way I could get you out of there. Getting myself stunned and thrown into a cell wasn’t going to do you any good. I didn’t have any choice. I had to give you to them to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” she cried. “And what if they’d just put a blaster bolt in my head instead?”

“You know, it’s a shame you won’t get to know Tasan,” Jolar said, directing his attention to the bindings around her wrists. “I really have known him forever and he’s a good man. When he came to visit me I could tell he was starting to question your arrest. Given time I know he would have come around. But what I’ve always liked best about Tasan,” Jolar added, as the last restraint came free, “is that he’s even worse at bluffing at tongo than I am.”

Arissa winced in relief as the bindings came off but it hurt too. Without them her arms felt too light and her shoulders ached.

He took her hands in his. “I knew Tasan was telling me the truth about getting you to Tellar unharmed. I know him well enough to know that
whatever
happened he was going to follow orders and make sure you got safely transported to the capital.” He gently massaged her wrists where the bindings had been. “That doesn’t mean I haven’t been half-crazed with worry about you.”

“He said you were ill.” She pulled her hands away. “That I’d—I’d
hurt
you.”

“I was ordered to return to Tellar, remember? Faking sick was the only way I could stay planetside.”

She tucked her hair behind her ears. “You had headaches.”

“Arissa, I have a head. Sometimes it aches,” he said reasonably. “I didn’t have any more headaches with you than before we met.” He traced the curve of her cheek. “On my soul, I only told them what they wanted to hear so I could stay near you.”

“You said you could hear me inside your head.” Her lip trembled. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” he said gently. “I was going to tell you eventually. You were just so skittish and I didn’t want to frighten you. I knew I was fine.” His smile was tender. “I really like having you in my head, sweet.”

Arissa stretched her arms, leaning away from him. He couldn’t be telling the truth no matter what her senses were telling her. He’d just put her through the worst days of her whole life. She reached out, surprised to find that she couldn’t detect anyone else on board.

“Where—what about the other Fleet personnel?”

He shook his head. “Nobody here but us fugitives.”

She shook her head again. “But
how?
”

“We just left Sertar, remember?” He helped her to her feet. “Most corrupt planet in the Realm and there is nothing including,” he glanced down at himself, “a FleetSec lieutenant’s uniform and security card that can’t be bought.”

“What about the other FleetSec?”

He gave a shrug. “Tasan was ordered to return to the base about five minutes before we lifted off. The last bunch of FleetSec got off the ship and none of the others ever made it on. Some found the doors to their base quarters wouldn’t open this morning and their uplinks out, some got on what they thought was the right transport and it wasn’t. Some got so drunk last night they missed their shift, some got stranded when their escort shuttle’s engine blew out.”

“You did all that?”

He gave a laugh. “No, that’s a lot for even me and they were watching me. Or at least they thought they were. A good slicer can play havoc with surveillance records. It looks like I’m still in quarters in Tano-Sertar. Bruscan says hello, by the way.”

Arissa blinked. “Bruscan’s alive?”

“Wily as a river snake, twice as tough and smart enough to have an escape tunnel out of his state-of-the-art security palace,” Jolar said wryly. “Once he realized he was the only one left alive he slipped out and disappeared to one of his nearby bolt-holes. Lucky for me, he tracked me down at Fleet medical. He sliced in with a secure signal, got me transferred to civilian quarters and we started on a plan to rescue you. ”

“Bruscan did all this?” she asked. “For me?”

“Now don’t go all gooey with gratitude to him,” Jolar warned. “Bruscan was very, very well paid.”

“You paid him?”

“And how.”

She searched his face. “Why? Why are you doing this?”

His arms went around her waist and he touched his forehead to hers. “Because—just in case my thoughts and feelings aren’t shouting it to you, my beautiful Seer—I’m madly, wildly in love with you and nothing is going to keep me away from you. Not the law, not the Fleet, not the whole festering Realm.”             

“Oh,” she breathed. His love was undeniable—white hot, more unbreakable than tarasteel and the hot waves of it surrounded her, filling her with its warmth. “I love you, too.”

He pressed a quick kiss to her mouth. “Come on—before you utterly distract me—I need to get back to the bridge.”

He took her hand and led her through the empty ship.

The bridge was small, with four duty stations. They had already left Sertar’s orbit. Jolar settled into the pilot’s chair and she stood beside him.

Her brow creased. What he’d done was more than extraordinarily dangerous—it was treason. “So what now?”

“Well, first I’m going to set the autopilot to take us toward the outpost at Rusco.”

“Where Doctor de’Sar wanted to study me? There’s not even a colony there.”

“No matter, we won’t be stopping there,” Jolar continued with a smile as his hands went over the instruments. “We are heading out to a place past the Rusco outpost.”

“There’s nothing past the Rusco outpost,” she argued.

“That’s what we thought,” Jolar agreed. “But a deep space probe found something interesting a few months back. Turns out some of unsettled, uncharted space
isn’t
. Light-years past the Rusco outpost there’s a whole civilization. They’re primitive, warlike and have limited interplanetary travel. In fact they don’t have near the level of technology we do. They call themselves ‘Az-kye’.”

Arissa stared. “You want to go
there
? You’re kidding.”

“Do you want to stay in Realm space?” he asked seriously. “I believe in the ideals of the republic but I can’t back the Council again, not after they lied to me, not after they broke about a dozen laws themselves. They were willing to throw you to the fire even after you saved their worthless skins and I’ll follow their orders again when hell freezes over. But there’s still plenty ready to raise a flag for the monarchy. You’ll make a beautiful princess. Say the word and I’ll change course to take us to Zartan.”

“Would they still follow you?”

“You don’t know the Zartani. Even Jasa would still follow me as her prince. Even Rekan would—after I was good and crowned. ‘Course I wouldn’t trust him near me with so much as cheese knife till then. Actually, considering the way it turned out, I’m really sorry I didn’t grab the fucking crown when I had the chance.”

“No, you aren’t,” she said softly.

If they went to Zartan they would be plunging a whole world into conflict. And to rule was not something Jolar wanted for himself; he would do it but he would be doing it for her.

Jolar was willing to give up a home he loved, a heritage he had been raised to revere for her. Surely she could do this for him?

She wet her lips. “How do you know we’ll even be welcomed by these Az-kye?”

He gently pulled her into his lap.

“It’s pronounced Azzzz-kai,” he said, cradling her in his arms. “Well, I don’t, but they aren’t Tellaran so we won’t be hunted as traitors or forced to the throne there.” He looked around their heavily shielded and armed boxy transport. “And they might be very appreciative of some far more advanced Tellaran technology. Besides, from what the probe already gleaned about their religion they have a particular fondness for those with, shall we say . . .” He touched her temple. “Magical powers?”

“Oh, you
are
kidding,” she managed.

He shrugged. “Maybe they play tongo.”

She chewed her lip for a moment. “Can we make it in this ship?”

“We’ll make it,” he said confidently. “With only two of us on a ship built for thirty, there’s enough food and power to get us there. There and back actually.” He looked at her coveralls. “The fashion selection might be a bit limited, though. Hey, that reminds me,” he said, reaching into a pocket. “I paid a little extra in ‘consideration’ and got this back for you.”

The Zartani firestar jewel caught the light as he held it out to her.

But as soon she reached for it he snatched the betrothal bracelet back.

“Hold on,” he said. “Our agreement was that I couldn’t ask you until I was free again. Now that my betrothal to Jasa is officially broken, I’m asking.” Gently he took her right hand. “Arissa, will you marry me?”

Her vision blurred with happy tears. “Yes, Jolar, I will.”

Grinning he fastened the cuff around her right wrist. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, then deepened the kiss, the heat of his hunger flaming around her.

When he broke away his eyes were dark with desire. “Now that it’s official I just realized,” he began huskily, his fingers brushing over the curve of her breast. “We’re free to do all sorts of things again . . .”

Epilogue

Arissa looked at Jolar askance. “Are you really going to be carrying that around all the time?”

Jolar’s hair had grown out over the past several months, long enough now to tie it back like the men of this world did. Still, he was blond where they were dark-haired and though their neighbors had grown used to him, he garnered a number of stares whenever they walked through the crowds of the Az-kye capital city.

Jolar shrugged, the hilt of the sword at his back shifting with the movement. “I’m pretty sure the empress intended me to. Zartani still wear ceremonial swords sometimes. And we decided to acculturate remember?”

“That’s not ceremonial,” Arissa pointed out.

“All the more reason to carry it,” Jolar returned.

“I know you have a holdout blaster hidden on you.”

“As if I could hide anything from you. Besides, I’m not much good with the sword yet.” His palm rested on her rounded belly. “And I have a lot to protect.”

As if aware of being the topic of their conversation the baby shifted under his hand and Jolar smiled. “I think that’s a foot I’m feeling.”

Arissa rubbed her back for the hundredth time today.

“Feeling okay?” Jolar asked. “We don’t have to go to the market today.”

“Since the baby dropped I can finally breathe again,” she said, fondly touching the curve of her belly and lightly brushed the blissfully contented mind within. “Of course now I can’t
walk
. But if you don’t mind going slowly, I really want to go.”

Jolar gave her a sympathetic look. “I’ll buy you one of those litter things today, sweet.”

“I can’t believe they don’t have groundcars yet.”

Jolar gave a laugh. “I’m just glad their empress was so eager to acquire our ship.” He looked back in satisfaction at their sprawling recently built home in the Az-kye capital city. “And you were amazing in the negotiations. I can’t wait to see the lands she gave us on the new colony. Once they start production on the new Tellaran style ships we’ll be able to get there in days instead of taking years in one of their ships. The technology we brought is going to transform this area of space.”

Arissa gave him a warm smile. “You look pretty happy for a man who’s looking at a lifetime of wearing animal skins all the time.”

“It feels good to help people who give real weight to the word ‘honor’. And the skins aren’t so bad,” Jolar said. “In fact, they’re pretty comfortable. I just wish warriors didn’t have to wear only black. It’s funereal.”

“You look good in black. And it’s a huge honor, you know.”

He gave a short laugh. “Yeah, and at least they’ve finally stopped calling me ‘Jolar Zartani’.”

“You introduced yourself by pointing at your chest and saying, “Jolar. Zartani,” she reminded, smiling. “Of course they thought it was your name.”

“I’m not sure I’m ever going to get used to ‘Jolar of the Az’anti’.”

“I love the clan name the empress gave us. Really I do,” she insisted at his eyebrow raise. “‘Children of the Sun’ . . . it’s very poetic. My father would have liked it.”

He nodded ahead at the spires of the palace in the distance. “If I’d known she was going to pick it as our new name I would have landed us at night.”

“‘Jolar of the Az’urhat’?”

He winced. “No, ‘Az’anti’ is better.”

“Besides I think the name the empress chose has more to do with someone’s distinctive feature,” she said with a pointed look at his golden hair. “Than what time of day we landed.”

“I can’t believe how quickly you picked up their language,” he said. “I can barely hold a basic conversation.”

“Yeah, well, being able to read their thoughts helps but it’s really two languages – one much, much older than the other.”

Jolar glanced at the Az-kye around them. “Have you been able to figure out why they keep calling you ‘Cy’atta’?”

She shook her head. “But every time I remind them to call me Arissa, they do. Maybe ‘Star Dancer’ is some kind of honorific in their ancient language. Or,” she said, meeting one pair of dark, dark Az-kye eyes after another. “It has something to do with having green eyes.”

“Or being able to read minds.”

Arissa laughed. “I wish I could ask Kemma to come here. I never imagined a Seer would be so warmly welcomed and respected anywhere.”

“Well, what the Az-kye lack in technology they more than make up for in wisdom.”

“It’s wonderful for me but . . .” Arissa stopped to study his face. “I know you miss home.”

“I miss Zartan.” Jolar touched his forehead to hers and took her hands in his, the firestar of her bracelet catching the light of Az-kye’s sun. “But home is wherever you are, sweet.”