“That would be dishonorable,” Falcan said stiffly. “The Tongue was created as a weapon of war. It was meant to save lives.”
“And take them,” Mal said in a low tone.
“We would never have slaughtered men who couldn't defend themselves.” Falcan drew himself upright. “It would have been used to capture your soldiers, not kill them.”
I squirmed uncomfortably. I had done something very similar to the Reaksarian Bleiten when they attacked Abaddon—the capital city of Hell. I hadn't made them docile but instead had done the opposite, magnifying their bloodlust into berserker territory. The result had been horrifying and still haunted me. The tribal Bleiten had turned into raving lunatics, shrieking and attacking each other instead of their opponents. They'd become so insane that it was easy for the Bleiten of Abaddon to kill them.
I felt horrible about it, especially after Malik expressed his disapproval. But the worst part was how it had started Chief Braxis' obsession with me. He wanted to make me pay for hurting his men. But after Braxis had spent some time with me, that desire to punish me had twisted into something far more sinister. In a way, I had made Braxis insane, just as I had his men, but his insanity was subtler and hadn't faded. He was still on the loose, traipsing about the universe in Malik's personal spacecraft, likely plotting my downfall... in his bed. Although, at this point, I wasn't sure what the hell it was that he wanted from me.
But back to the Silver Tongue and the Triari people who, for the most part, seemed to have more honor than I did.
“It doesn't matter how it would have been used,” Kyrian said firmly to Malik. “Our king refused to use it. What we should be discussing iswhyGregory took it.”
“There's more.” Falcan grimaced. “We believe he left Eden.”
“You fuckers let him leave the planet?” Malik snarled.
“He was a prince,” Falcan reminded us. “He knows how to evade our security. He was already halfway out of the atmosphere when our systems registered that his ship wasn't authorized to fly. At least, we assume it was him on the ship, no one else would have a reason to bypass our flight control.”
“But you have warships stationed around the planet to guard Eden,” Malik pointed out.
“And, just as that Bleiten, Braxis, evaded your security perimeter so did Gregory evade ours. It's generally easier to guard against incoming ships than outgoing. Three seconds was all it took to reach speeds that we couldn't track.”
“He's coming for Amara,” Kyrian concluded.
“King Jovan believes that is a possibility.” Falcan nodded. “Prince Altern is still on Eden so he's obviously not Gregory's target.”
“Gregory wouldn't be able to use the Tongue on him anyway,” I pointed out. “The mere fact that he took the artifact tells us that he isn't after his fellow Triari.”
“It may not work on you since you're half Triari,” Malik said to me.
“I was born half Triari but I've been altered so much that I don't know if it would make a difference.”
“And we don't know if she has enough Triari blood to protect her even if she wasn't altered,” Falcan added.
“But neither would Gregory,” Kyrian said pensively. “It would be a huge risk for him to attempt to use the Silver Tongue on Amara. No, I think he has another plan. That man is far too devious to resort to untested weapons.”
“Gregory's goal has always been to overthrow King Jovan,” Falcan said. “His most likely target is Amara, the second heir.”
“I agree, but I don't think he's going to use the Silver Tongue on her directly,” Kyrian argued.
“Directly or indirectly, he's coming for Amara,” Malik growled, then grimaced and turned toward me. “It looks as if this might be a good time for you to be in Danu after all.”
“Stuck between a dying realm and a silver tongue,” I mused. “How poetic.”
Chapter Fourteen
Falcan assured us that he was monitoring the area around Earth for any arriving spacecraft but Malik and Kyrian were going to set their ships to monitor space as well. They were also going to call Alex, our FEAR liaison, and have him do the same with Homeland Security's space monitoring system. FEAR—the First Extraordinary Abilities Regiment—is the secret supernatural government team we worked with and since it was our team who was called in for any kind of alien issue, they needed to know about this possible threat as well.
Although the conversation wasn't the most appetizing, Falcan still joined us for breakfast and even entertained us with stories of his adventures with Jade. Jade's a Faulin and one of Cyprian's top dominatrixes, so it was a little surprising when she started dated Falcan. But the two of them had been going strong for awhile now and I had high hopes for their relationship. Those hopes increased when I noticed how Falcan's eyes brightened every time he said her name.
By the time Falcan left, I had to leave as well.
“I'll call Cyprian and let him know,” Kyrian offered as we were saying goodbye.
“Thank you, darling.” I kissed him, then Malik.
“Remember your promise,” Malik said sternly.
