When the blast of the chopper was gone, they looked at each other.Now what?they seemed to ask.
“We...” Mekos said. Since he had no idea what he and Aradella were going to do, he didn’t finish.
“Us too,” Qip said, then he and Darr and Ian went into the house.
For a day and a half, the young couple were content. They talked some, but mostly they basked in the joy of just beingtogether.
On the second afternoon, they were lying on the grass and looking up at the sky.
It was Aradella who broke the silence. “What are we going to do?”
He knew she meantifthey managed to escape the threat of Olina and her mother.Ifthey could repair the damage they’d done to Vian’s plan. In a perfect world, where would they live? Where would they fit in? What about a livelihood? The truth was that they were homeless and jobless.
“Should we return to Pithan?” he asked.
“My birthright makes me a threat to King Aramus. Eventually, he’ll put Nessa on the throne.”
“So he can easily be controlled by Fahir.”
“Of course,” Aradella said. “I doubt if Fahir would let you and me live in peace in my little rooms. I would always be a threat to them.”
“He’d probably seal the doors with us inside. We could go to the Homestead. My father plans to rebuild it to what it was.” When she didn’t reply, he turned on his side and looked at her. Wherever they went, danger would follow them. “My grandfather lives on Eren. Maybe we could go there.”
She didn’t look at him. “And will your grandmother, Vian, be living there?”
The memory of being bawled out by her made them both shiver.
Mekos rolled onto his back. It was like a great, ugly cloud was hanging over them. They were the ones who’d destroyed the plan Vian had sacrificed her life to make happen. “Because of us, Evil Olina was exchanged for Evil Fahir.”
“In the future, the story of what we did will be embellished,” she said. “People will say that our belief that onlywemattered is what caused us to destroy things.”
“And lust,” he said. “I’m sure people will talk of that. ‘The lust of the Lely swan herder for the high-ranking princess ruined it all’ is what they’ll say.”
“It’ll become one of those Earth stories, those fairy tales, that Kaley knows.”
“Stories that seem to actually happen here.” He shook his head. “I wonder what happened to the goat-man? What did Kaley call him?”
“A satter, or something like that. He said...” She looked at Mekos.
“That Urah will want the medallion.”
“Then of course we will have to turn it over to someone,” he said and she nodded. “So what aboutus?” Mekos sounded frustrated.
“We could join Bree on that island Reena knows about.” She was only half joking.
Mekos sighed. “I wish we could do something to erase what happened at the Lair. Something that would make my father forgive me.”
“It’s nothim!” Aradella said fiercely. “It’s your grandmother! She shows up after years of nothing and shouts at us. If she didn’t want Valona killed she should havetoldus.”
Mekos couldn’t help a laugh. “‘Don’t kill your hostess.’ That should have been her advice. I just hope that when my father at last invades Empyrea, I’ll be allowed to go. Or will I be told to stay back with the children?”
“Ifhe goes there! None of us have evenseenthe place. Except Vian and she tells us nothing. She—” Aradella looked at him.
It was as though their minds linked and they read each other’s thoughts. “Except Qip. He spent most of his life there.”
Aradella turned to her side and propped her head on her hand. “Did you hear Frank and Qip talking? Those men want to make more creatures like Darr.”
Mekos looked at her. “But they don’t have the materials.”
