Gio slowly nodded. His voice was thick with emotion. “Aye. I am awares and in agreement.”
High Lord Death, mayhap the only Trystonni accustomed to keeping his own counsel more than Princess Dari, alas spoke. “We cannot know if King Elian needs be killed until we know what we are dealing with.” When all eyes turned to him he admitted, “I have seen this evil afore. ‘Twas long ago, but I have seen it.”
The Emperor’s eyes rounded. “Why did you not speak up afore?”
“Until I heard the princess’ story in full, I couldn’t be certain ‘twas the evil to which I had once been enslaved to.” Death’s nostrils flared. “For a certainty, ‘tis the same dark being. It has taken on a different form, yet ‘tis the same.”
Silence.
“How do we defeat it?” This from King Rem.
Death shook his head. “I cannot say for a certainty, but I suspect wee Dari has figured out more of the puzzle than have I.”
Gio began to pace. “How can you know that?”
“’Tis obvious to me that the princess seeks out the origin of that bedamned tree with the silver-ice leaves.” He threw a hand toward the viewing window. “Why else would she have trekked so far to a silver-ice planet whose existence was naught but a rumor?”
“Point taken,” King Kil muttered. “She hopes to find something down there.”
“We must stop her afore she does,” Gio intoned. His pacing didn’t relent. “If this evil thing once captured High Lord Death…”
“…Then my hatchling would be an easy target,” Dak finished.
Silence.
“We must burn moregastrolightto speed up toward their cruiser’s current position,” the Emperor decreed. “If we can get close enough then mayhap at least one of us can teleport to it.”
“I beg the lot of you to let it be me,” Gio rasped out. “I needs must bind her to me irrevocably so she cannot run again.”
Every warrior knew precisely what ‘twas Gio was asking for. The High Lord wished to claim her as his Sacred Mate afore the traditional twenty-fifthYessat-Yeararrived.
“Under normal circumstances I would give you my nay,” Zor admitted. He sighed. “Leastways, I will leave this decision to Dari’s sire, my brother.”
King Dak mulled over the plusses and minuses of the situation. In the end, realizing how headstrong his beloved hatchling was, he relented. “Aye,” he said simply. “I give you mine aye.”
Chapter Seven
After a long bath Dari crept onto her raised bed. She slept o’er long, the eve prior having exhausted her both mentally and physically. Qenda managed to rouse her but once, asking if she wanted to break her fast. Dari gave her her nay and fell back into a deep if fitful slumber.
Nightmares plagued her—dark dreams of King Elian and what he had done to Amia…
And imaginings that Gio would be his sire’s next victim.
Even in slumber Dari could find no peace. She awoke, unrested, aNuba-hourpast the nooning meal. Shaken, she wondered how much of her nightmares had been naught but dreams and how much of them had mayhap been portent. How was she to leave Gio now? Running from him had been an impossible choice afore the king’s possession; now it felt as if to do so would leave Gio destined to be made a meal of by that bedamned silver-ice tree.
‘Twas clear that being pricked by the tree’s thorns had changed the king. How such was possible she couldn’t say, yet she knew in her hearts ‘twas true.
“I have done all you asked, Master. Let me feel your power within me.”
Dari shivered at the memory of those words… and of the recollection that some dark thing had in fact entered him after he’d uttered them.
“You had a big moon-rising last eve,” Qenda said cheerfully. “Did you manage to have a passing fair time?”
Dari blinked. She could not tell her bound servant the whole of it—or any of it. Her duty now was to see Qenda safely removed to Galis. “Aye,” the princess said simply. “’Twas a passing fair eve. Leastways, all things considered.” She cleared her throat, desperate to change the topic. “Would you fetch my whitemazi?” She forced a smile to her lips. “I’m of a mind to stroll the gardens.”
“Aye, milady.”
ThirtyNuba-minuteslater, Dari sat on her favoredvesha-benchunder a myriad ofkrosisplants. A slight breeze wafted through the air, causing thekrosisto giggle. The melodic sound, always jovial, was at complete odds with her stark mood. She was so lost in thought that she almost overlooked the boy-child Bazi’s presence—not to mention his disheveled appearance.
