“No!” I gasped, grabbing Kristoff’s arm. “No, you can’t.”
“The Council agrees that this is a sound decision,” Tannus said, frowning.
“No it doesn’t!” the younger Councilor, the one Tannus had called Minchin said. “We haven’t even voted on the issue! You cannot keep speaking for the entire Council, Tannus!”
“A Council you are no longer on, Minchin,” Tannus hissed. “As of right now I relieve you of your duties. You are dismissed from the Council of Wisdom and banished from Femme One.”
“Aren’t you overstepping your authority, Tannus?” The other councilor’s eyes flashed. “Only the Empress may banish someone. Or are you taking over the Empress’s duties in the same way you and Morbain are trying to usurp her power?”
“She has no power here—nor will she ever have,” Tannus snarled. “Nor do you, Minchin. I order you to leave and I want the True Incarnation placed under house arrest in the Royal apartments until her bond can be broken so that she can form a more proper union.”
“No!” I shouted and Kristoff glared at him.
“You’ll never take Charlotte from me,” he growled, lifting his sword and stepping in front of me. “You’re going to crown her here and now as is her right as the True Incarnation.”
I felt a surge of relief—he was shaking off the effects of the sedative! Now we would get out of here and—
Suddenly a big, hard hand closed around my upper arm and I felt something cold and sharp pressing against my throat.
“I have a better idea,” a new voice said, right beside me. “Why don’t I take the Empress off your hands so none of you have to worry about her anymore?”
Chapter Thirty-three
Kristoff
I felt Charlotte’s surge of fear through our bond—it cut through the drug Churika had given me like a knife. Turning to confront this new threat, I saw with confusion that it was none other than T’zorin standing there.
He had a knife to Charlotte’s throat.
“T’zorin,” I growled. “What are you doing? Unhand the Empress at once!”
“Allow me to introduce myself,” he said smoothly, ignoring my order. “I am not the Imperial Guard known as T’zorin, though I am making use of his body.”
“Then who are you?” Tannus said, frowning.
“And how dare you lay hands on the Goddess-Empress?” Councilor Minchin demanded.
T’zorin—or the thing using his body—gave all of us a cold smile. “Count Doloroso, the last of the Assimilated at your service,” he said, nodding his head in a brief approximation of a bow. “Your old Empress, Sundalla the 999th thought she had wiped out my entire race on the Last Day but she was wrong! I alone remained to carry on and repopulate my race and so I shall. You see, this female is not just the exulted Goddess-Empress—she is also a La-ti-zal. A female with bloodlines powerful enough to carry the first of a new race—the Organic Assimilated. A race I myself will start, beginning with her.”
“You dare!” I lunged at him but he wrapped an arm around Charlotte and dug his knife into her neck, making a nick in her pale flesh. I felt both her fear and the sharp pain of the blade as it bit into her throat.
“I don’t think so, Captain Verrai. Stay back!” He smiled at me mockingly and I felt sick—Charlotte’s friend, Zoe had warned me that this bastard might still be at large. How could I have ignored her warning? How could I have just assumed that T’zorin’s story of being attacked by pirates was true? I had thought that Morbain and Tannus represented the greatest dangers to my Lady’s life but I had let the deadliest threat of all slip right past me, unnoticed.
“Let her go,” I said, my voice coming out hoarse and rough. The last of the sedation had left my system now—my adrenaline was surging. But there was nothing I could do while the male who had been T’zorin still held a knife to Charlotte’s throat.
“I don’t think so,” T’zorin/Doloroso said. “In fact, I think it’s a bit too crowded in here for my taste. I’m going to take the Empress here on a little walk to someplace much more exclusive. Then we can discuss my demands.”
“If you hurt her,” I snarled. “If you so much as touch her—”
“Don’t worry, Captain.” He gave me a malevolent smile. “I’ll take very good care of your lady.” He raised his voice. “Now everyone clear out of my way or I’ll slit her throat!”
“Do it,” Charlotte gasped, looking at me with wide, frightened eyes. “He means it. I can feel it!”
I knew she was talking about what she called her “touch-sense.” She had seen into Doloroso’s mind and knew that he was serious in his threat to kill her if we didn’t make way for him. But surely he knew if he killed her, he would lose his bargaining chip and be killed instantly himself. He didn’t fear his own death—why?
I had no time to answer the question. As much as I hated it, I had to give in to the bastard’s demands—at least for now.
“Move back,” I said to the honor guard, who were still staring at the male they’d known as T’zorin in surprise and dismay. I couldn’t blame them for letting him through to get close to Charlotte—I had let him as well, because it had never occurred to me that one of my most trusted guards could be a threat.
“That’s the way.” T’zorin—no, Doloroso, I reminded myself—began backing away, taking Charlotte with him. I followed, though at a distance. I didn’t intend to let him leave the palace with her, no matter what he said. And once he was out of the Council Chamber, the way would open up some. I could get a sharpshooter with a tightly collimated blaster beam to pick him off the moment he took the knife from Charlotte’s throat.
“Be calm,” I sent to her through our link. “I won't let him hurt you, sweetheart!”
“I’m trying.” I could feel the desperate panic trying to break free inside her but she was doing her best to keep it at bay. Even with a knife at her throat she refused to cry or let herself become hysterical. Gods, how I loved and admired her!
Doloroso backed away, out of the Council Chamber door. I and most of the rest of the Council as well as Morbain and his own guards followed at a safe distance. Strangely, Doloroso didn’t try to dissuade us from following. I had expected more threats but he simply dragged Charlotte away, keeping a firm grip on her and never letting his knife blade waver from her throat, even for an instant.
It wasn’t until he backed down the small, side corridor that led to the Chambers of the Trials of Ascendancy that I began to have an inkling of what he had in mind.
And by then it was too late.
Charlotte
“Grab the knob, my dear. Open the door at once!” the person who was calling himself Count Doloroso snarled in my ear.
We were standing in front of the large door that led to the Garden of Death—the same place the hapless Eucilla had met her end. The place filled with poison gas and flora and fauna—well, poison to anyone but me, that was.
“No,” I said, fear rushing through me. “No, I’m not going to let you poison everyone in the palace.”
“Who said anything about poisoning the palace?” he purred in my ear. “There are probably other La-ti-zals here, especially among the Royalty. I don’t want to kill any of my future brides. No, my dear—I simply want a nice safe place where we can stay unmolested while we wait for that foolish ‘Council of Wisdom’ to meet my demands.”
Through the touch of his skin to mine, I knew it was true. But I still didn’t like the idea of opening what amounted to a gas chamber and letting a terrorist inside. I wanted to refuse again but Doloroso dug his knife into my throat, letting the knife just pierce my skin for the second time.
“You know, my dear, I only need you for your womb,” he remarked in a horribly conversational tone. “Everything else is unnecessary. Including your pretty eyes, your sweet little tongue, your dainty fingers and toes…I could cut any or all of those away from your lovely body and still have a perfectly serviceable vessel for the first of the Organic Assimilated.”
&
nbsp; I felt cold all over.
“All right,” I whispered, groping for the knob. “I…I’ll open it.”
“Charlotte—what are you doing?” Kristoff’s message came through the two-way link we now shared as the door to the Garden of Death swung open. He and the rest of the Council of Wisdom and Morbain were still following at a safe distance, trying to keep sight of me without antagonizing Doloroso.
“I…I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it,” I sent back through the link, feeling sick and numb. “He…he said he’d cut out my eyes and tongue if I didn’t let him in!”
“Bastard!” Kristoff’s rage and fear for me were huge—filling me until I could scarcely breathe. “I’ll kill him! Hold tight, Charlotte! I won’t let him take you!”
I hoped he could follow through on his promise because now Doloroso was dragging me into the deadly Garden, his knife still at my throat. I looked around as well as I could, seeing the lovely flowering tropical plants, the curly golden bench, the trickling blue stream and the golden gravel path. If only I could get free of him for just a minute this place would kill him—if only he wasn’t touching my skin the Garden of Death would take care of him for me!
When we were just inside the entrance he relaxed his grip on my arm. But before I could make a break for it, he locked one large, muscular elbow around my throat instead. I wasn’t sure what happened to the knife but I didn’t feel it at my neck anymore. Not that it did me any good—Doloroso—or the body he was inhabiting—was almost as tall and big as Kristen, and probably about a hundred times stronger than me. Majoran warriors are no joke.
Knife or no knife I was stuck.
“Let me go,” I whispered in a choked voice, looking at Kristoff who was staring desperately at me through the invisible barrier that kept the poison gas inside the Garden. Behind him stood Tannus and Morbain and the rest of the Council of Wisdom. Some of them looked appalled but Tannus and Morbain didn’t look too upset about the fact that I was now a hostage in a domestic terror situation at all.
“I don’t think so, my dear,” Doloroso purred in my ear. “I know perfectly well that the only reason this entire place isn’t poisoning and attacking me is the fact that I have direct skin-to-skin contact with you.” He nodded at the jewel colored attack-chipmunks who were watching him warily. “The minute I let you go I’d be nothing but poisoned bait for those little fellows. So, in the interest of staying alive…”
Instead of finishing his sentence, he produced something that looked like a small aerosol can. It was black with a silver cap and reminded me of my adopted mom’s favorite brand of hairspray.
What in the world? I wondered, staring at it as well as I could over the arm locked around my throat. Why does he have a bottle of Tresseme extra strength hold and what’s he going to do with it?
But of course it wasn’t hairspray. As it turned out, it was some kind of glue. Doloroso sprayed it over one large palm and then grabbed my hand and held it tight. After a moment, I couldn’t have let go of his hand even if I wanted to. We were stuck together.
“Now then. All safe and sound.” He sounded extremely pleased with himself as he sheathed his knife and stood back, holding my hand which was glued fast to his.
“Let her go!” Kristoff was standing right on the other side of the invisible barrier now. The one that kept the poison in and any kind of darts or bullets or blaster shots out, I remembered ruefully. So there was no way they could bring in any kind of sniper to pick Doloroso off while he stood there. No wonder he felt safe enough to put away his knife—he no longer needed it.
“Not until my demands are met,” Doloroso said smoothly, giving him a maddening smile. “And maybe not even then. Or maybe I’ll return her to you after she’s born the first of the Organic Assimilated from her exulted womb.”
“You bastard,” Kristoff swore thickly. “Charlotte is mine. My fated mate and my love. If you think for a moment I’ll allow you to keep her, to hurt her—”
“I’m afraid you have no choice,” Doloroso said loftily. “As you can see, my dear Captain Verrai, I hold all the cards here and you have none. My skin-to-skin contact with the Empress protects me in this very deadly room. You don’t dare attempt to enter—anyone who tries will die almost instantly, as we all saw in the case of the hapless Eucilla.” He made a tsking sound. “Such a shame. Now then, for my first demand, I’ll want every La-ti-zal in all of the Majoran system rounded up and put aboard my ship. Next—”
But he never got to name his other demands. Without warning, Kristoff drew his sword and ran through the barrier, into the Garden of Death.
Chapter Thirty-four
Charlotte
“Kristoff—no!” I screamed. He hadn’t even given me any warning through our new bond. Maybe he was afraid I would try to stop him—if so, he was right, I would have.
Doloroso was clearly caught off guard. Obviously he hadn’t expected anyone to be willing to dare the Garden of Death to save me. Hadn’t he been at the Trials of Ascendancy when Kristoff had come in to help me drag Eucilla out?
Actually, no—I didn’t think he had. I vaguely remembered him running up afterwards saying he’d been caught at the far end of the hall where he couldn’t see the action. If he had, he would have known that Kristoff would come for me, even into a room that meant certain death for him if he didn’t get out in time.
Doloroso fumbled for his knife but Kristoff was already in action. I saw the silver sweep of his sword blade coming down in a chopping motion.
The next thing I knew, the hand I was holding no longer had an arm attached to it.
Doloroso shrieked—a high, breathless sound as his severed stump started spouting blood everywhere. He sucked in his breath to scream again but the only sound that came out was a wracking cough. Nevertheless, he pulled out his knife with his remaining hand and waved it at Kristoff, who was still circling warily with his sword.
“The Empress! Help the Captain save the Goddess-Empress!” I heard someone shout outside the Garden’s door. Looking up, I saw a crowd of Imperial Guards—my honor guard—surging forward. People were trying to get out of their way but unfortunately, not everyone could.
Morbain was one of the hapless few who was swept into the lovely, deadly garden. He squealed like a pig and tried to get out again but he was bowled over by one of the guards and went crashing face-first into a large, flowering bush. The same one, in fact, that Eucilla had fallen into, I remembered numbly. At once the tiny, jewel-toned terlings swarmed over him, nipping and scratching. Morbain screamed and fishtailed, trying to get up, to get away from the little creatures but they were everywhere, covering him like a colorful, living patchwork blanket.
All around me, people were shouting and fighting and I still had a bloody, disembodied hand glued to my own. But I had eyes only for Kristoff. He was still squaring off against Doloroso, who had dropped his knife and held something else in his hand. Both of them were coughing steadily and I could see the marks of the poisonous leaves and flowers on the skin of their exposed arms and legs but neither one seemed to be paying any attention to it.
“A bomb—he’s got a nano-lacerater bomb!” I heard one of the other guards shout in a choked voice. “Be careful, Captain Verrai!”
“That’s right—be careful, Captain,” Doloroso grated in a hoarse, strangled voice. “I do have a bomb. Not a very big one—but big enough to blow a hole in exactly one person here.” He looked at me, his eyes wild and angry. “If I can’t have this lovely La-ti-zal, no one can!”
With that, he dived straight at me.
I watched him come, feeling frozen in place, frozen in time. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion—I was even able to see his bloody thumb pressing down on what I supposed must be the trigger mechanism of the small bomb.
“No!” Kristoff roared and launched himself at me.
Or, I thought he was aimed at me—but then I saw he was actually targeting the bomb instead. I watched with horror as he bore the maniacally laughing D
oloroso to the ground and dived on top of the bomb, planting the golden breastplate of his uniform directly over the other man’s clenched fist.
There was a muffled bang—more of a pop really—and then Doloroso was screaming again and Kristoff…
Kristoff wasn’t moving.
He lay face down on the poison grass and didn’t so much as twitch when I ran over to shake his shoulder.
“Kristoff,” I tried, sending through our new link. “Kristoff, please be all right! Please come back to me!”
Nothing.
Tears were pouring down my cheeks and I was shaking him, trying to roll him over but I couldn’t manage—I still had the damn grisly hand glued to my own and Kristoff was too big, too heavy.
Dead weight, whispered a hateful little voice in my brain.
No—shut up! I told it fiercely. He’s not dead. He’s just knocked out or something.
“Your Majesty, can we help?” Suddenly two of the other guards who had rushed in were at my side. They were just beginning to wheeze from the poison air. I realized that the whole conflict, from the time that Kristoff had dashed into the Garden of Death and cut off Doloroso’s hand to the time he had dived onto the bomb, had taken barely a minute or two. How could that be when it seemed so much longer? A lifetime at least.
“Grab him,” I ordered, gesturing to Kristoff’s inert form. “Drag him out of here. And you two,” I pointed to two other guards. “You get Doloroso—I mean T’zorin,” I said when I saw their confused looks. “Get him out of here and get him medical attention. Do not let him die!”
I didn’t know why but I knew that was important. An inner sense I hadn’t had before I was Invested as the True Incarnation was whispering inside me. This imposter who had found his way into my inner circle needed to be stopped and part of that was keeping him tied to the body he had hijacked.
“Help! Mercy! They are eating me alive!” The weak voice came from the bushes to one side of the door. Looking up as the first two guards dragged Kristoff out of the garden, I saw it was Morbain, still struggling under the furry blanket of angry terlings.