“Was.I don’t know what he wants now.”
“Ah.Well, we are about to find out.They are meeting us in the audience chamber in five minutes.”
“Oh.I thought I was meeting with the seamstress.”
“After.”
“Wait, are you getting a play-by-play from the king?”
Himera smiled.“You are not the only one with an activation.I just chose which alpha to bless with my skills.Communication is my skill.”
“That is just fascinating.”
They got to their feet.Ival asked, “So, how did you get a son with a stinger on his butt?”
Himera smiled.“Just lucky, I guess.”
They laughed together, and Ival fought her nerves as they walked toward the audience chamber.They were side by side until they entered the court, and then Himera walked to stand next to her husband, and Ival walked to stand next to Riimal.
He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her softly.“Don’t worry.”
She grinned.“You can tell I am worried?”
“Sure.You didn’t threaten to blow me in a public place.You are worried.”
She grinned.“You are catching on.”
The king snorted and looked at them, shaking his head.Ival arranged herself next to Riimal, and the king nodded for the door to be opened.
Suuro had been sixteen when she saw him last.In the intervening two decades, he had filled out and looked strong and serious.He saw her, and his face split into a bright grin.
“Ival!We have missed you.Why did you leave?”
Ival paused.“Your mother sold me.They drugged me and smuggled me out of the country, returning me to Uradda for torture and using me as a means of destruction.”
Suuro paused.“She said you left in the middle of the night.”
The king said, “I have been granted access to Uraddan records regarding my sister-in-law.She was purchased by them twice.Once, when her family here surrendered her, and again when she was purchased from her deceased husband’s family.They were handsomely compensated.”
Suuro shook his head.“No.That was Zukker’s pension.”
The king said, “Zukker’s pension was just forwarded to his widow.This week.It had been held until she placed a claim or twenty years passed.She got in two weeks below the deadline.Your mother had tried to have her killed.”
Suuro paused and closed his eyes.“I read the brief, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
He opened his eyes slowly.“So, you didn’t abandon us?”
“I was doped and drooling.Oh, wait.There are recent images of me before I ended up in the lab.”
The king nodded, and a hologram of her in her cyber-eye, red other eye and scarred body was slowly rotating in front of Suuro.
“Oh, god.”
She leaned against Riimal.“So, that is what I was sent to.The large pores on my hands and feet constantly exuded poison.I was recently repaired through semi-violent means, and Your Majesty, could you show him those pictures as well?”
The king shuddered but sent the displays of her skin slipping off, her body in the tank, and then her skin slowly growing back.
Suuro stared, and he looked ill.“When was this?”
