Rufus nodded in understanding. “Yes, you don’t miss the stares do you?”
“That’s why I moved to Earth.”
Terry and Rufus started laughing, while Connor quietly smirked. Their drinks arrived and the waiter gave the princess a dip of the head before slinking away without word.
Nodding in direction of the waiter’s retreating back she said, “Me too.”
After the laughter subsided, Connor looked at her and asked, “So what are you going to do now? Are you coming back to Earth or are you staying here?”
Any humour that remained in her dried up there and then. She suddenly felt awkward. It was the decision she had deliberately put off for so long. She knew her father expected her to stay even though he had never asked the question; and even though her mind was made, she still felt nervous telling her oldest friend when asked. Her fingers wrapped around the flagon of ale before her. “I’m staying.”
Connor gave an understanding nod but she could see the sadness in his eyes. “I kind of expected you would.” He said, forcing a smile.
“I’m sorry but it’s what I want.”
He laughed. “You make it sound like I’m mad at you. I’m not. I’ve always expected this would happen one day.”
Terry smiled but it was fleeting. “What about you? I take it you’re going home.”
“Yeah...” he shook his head, “This isn’t my home anymore. It hasn’t been for a very long time...and there’s Jo.”
“What about Faye? As she decided what she’s doing?”
Connor sighed, his expression grim. “She said something about returning to Stormfront. She told me her parents live there now.” He gazed at his drink sombrely. “It’s half a world away but I can’t say I blame her...not with everything that’s happened.” He looked back to his old friend. “I think she just wants to be with her family just now.”
Terry nodded, understandingly. “I can’t say I blame here.” But Terry knew there was another reason, though she did not give voice to it. “It’s going to be weird, you living on Earth and me living here? I’ll never get to see you.”
“I don’t think this is as such a big deal as you believe it is. Your uncle has the transportation device. Earth is only ever a step over the other side. If you want to visit, it is easily enough arranged.” Rufus said.
She shook her head. “It’s not that Rufus, coming back here is such a huge change. Back on Earth I was just like everyone else. I had a job, I had bills to pay. Here I’m a princess again.” She shrugged. “Do not get me wrong, I am so glad to be home but...maybe my dad’s right, maybe I have spent too many years living with the humans.” She stared into her drink. “I think I’m going to miss it...as strange as that sounds.”
This struck a chord with Rufus, she could tell. “It is not strange, not at all. I know exactly what you mean.” He sipped his ale.
Terry looked at Connor. “When are you going home?”
“I’m hoping tomorrow but Lyle is being funny about me staying a bit longer.”
“If you really want to go back tomorrow I can make sure it happens.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I don’t know yet, I’m not sure about it. I really want to see Jo but your uncle is desperate for me to stay for the ceremony on Friday.”
Terry raised an eyebrow. “What ceremony?”
Connor stared at her, his mouth full of ale. He suddenly remembered to swallow and he and Rufus exchanged surprised looks. “You don’t know?” he asked.
“Know what?”
Connor shifted in his seat, suddenly appearing very sheepish. “I don’t really think I should say...”
Her eyes narrowed, her frustration ebbing. “Tell me.”
He hesitated, looking to Rufus for help but the Acara found himself also abandoned by words.
“What ceremony Connor?”
“You’re re-inauguration ceremony as heir.” He finally confessed, staring down at his drink.
Terry slumped back, turning pale. She looked as if she had been hit over the head and left dazed. Her brow burrowed and she sat-up. “Why would my dad put on a ceremony and not tell me?”
Connor shrugged and Rufus shook his head. They both muttered that they didn’t know.
“It doesn’t make any sense! He’s already reinstated me, everyone knows that. Why do I need a bloody ceremony?”
Connor fumbled his flagon, searching the dark, frothy drink for an answer. “Maybe he’s doing it because my country has ended your exile?”
Terry shook her head. “Dad doesn’t care what they think, he never has. He told me that he only went to Marrich to negotiate because I wanted to avoid a war.”
Connor shrugged. “Look, I don’t know, I really don’t.”
“Maybe he did not say anything because he was worried about how you would react.” Rufus suggested. Connor looked away to the bar, unprepared to back the Acara up.
Terry’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Well how are you behaving now? We all know you hate court and fancy ceremonies. He might have been waiting for the best moment to tell you which may not have arrived yet.”
Terry seemed to settle at his words. She looked away for a moment. “I’m sorry, I’m not angry about the ceremony, I’m just annoyed because he didn’t tell me. He had all of last night and all of today.” A look of defeat crossed her face and she slumped back into her seat. “Why is it no one tells me anything? I’m first in line to the throne, I live with twenty million people and yet no one tells me anything!” She laughed slightly. “It’s bloody stupid!”
Connor smiled. “I know, it is a bit daft.”
Rufus sat down his flagon. “It could be worse. You know he would have told you eventually.”
Her smile broadened. “I know he would have. But still, it is nice to kept in the loop.” She looked again at Connor. “I don’t why you’re laughing! You’re definitely staying now if this is going ahead.”
He shrugged, unfazed by the threat. “There’s nothing stopping me from using the portal to fetch Jo and bring her back to watch as well.”
Now Terry and Rufus burst out laughing.
Connor frowned. “What?”
“Nothing Connor, you do that and see how much she screams when she finds herself surrounded by Alchemists. She’s only ever met two and now you want her to meet the entire colony!”
He looked stung. “That’s why I wanted to go see her tomorrow. That way I’ll have time to speak to her and if she decides to come back with me then, we’ll have a couple of days for her to have a look around and meet everyone.”
Terry continued to laugh. “You think she’d be fine in just four days? You’re sure she won’t scream the Grand Hall down when she sees everyone there?”
“You don’t even know if she’s coming yet! And if she doesn’t, neither am I!” He decided, folding his arms.
“Ok then.” She giggled, unbothered by the threat. She lifted her flagon and shrugged. “Dad doesn’t like humans anyway so you’d be doing him a favour.”
“Alright, alright!” he quietened down. “In all seriousness though can I please go home tomorrow?”
Terry forced down a laugh. The joke had ended. “Yes, of course you can.” She replied in a respectably tone. “And if you want her to come, you know she is more than welcome, as are you.”
“Thank you. How would we let you know if we wanted to come through though? We don’t have a machine.”
“We’ll arrange a time for opening it on this end and you can come through and tell us what’s happening either way.”
Connor sat his flagon down. “Aye, ok then. Just as long as I don’t walk through and end up in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m sure Rufus and Lyle know what they’re doing.”
“I think I shall pop back too and return in a couple of days as well. I have not had the chance to go home properly yet.” His expression soured. “Unfortunately my house has become rather dusty since I have been away. I have some cleaning and a lo
t of mail to open. No doubt many of them will be bills.”
Connor nudged him. “You might as well stay here then.”
Terry shook her head. “No, they’ll find him, especially if it’s Inland Revenue.”
The three of them started laughing again, adding to the roar of the revellers. They drank long into the night.
******
The oak doors to Fallo’s chambers creaked as Terry pushed against them. To her surprise the lanterns still burned bright. She had thought at this late hour her father would have retired to bed. Pushing the door shut behind her she crossed to the brazier in the heart of the cave. Giant archways leading to other chambers came into view as she crossed to the low burning embers. She glanced through them as best she could but there was no sign of her father.
“Dad?” she called, her eyes scanning the vaulted ceiling in case he had taken to sleeping up there in his primeval form. Her kind were excellent climbers and the ceiling was as easy a bed as the ground. But there was no sign of him from on high.
She spun around looking in every direction for a hint of movement. “Dad?” she called again. One of the tall archways rounded a corner before emptying out into a full size cave again; her father’s library. Sometimes he enjoyed a late read. Heading toward the archway, she called out to her father again.
As she rounded the corner in the tunnel her father came into view. He sat with his back to her, in one of his high-backed, wooden chairs. For a moment she thought he may have fallen asleep reading. But why had he not heard her when she called? As she drew closer she could see his slumped limbs hanging over the arms and the base of the chair. A stab of panic shot through her and she ran to him. “Dad!” she shouted, rounding the chair.
She sighed with relief when he looked up at her. “Why didn’t you...” something was wrong. Fallo remained motionless despite his eyes finding hers. “Oh my god...” She knelt down next to him and grabbed his hand. “Dad what’s wrong? What’s happened to you?”
His eyes flicked passed her.
Terry spun, bringing her right arm up in an arc as she went. Metal clanged as her armour met a downward sweeping blade. With a hard shove, she forced her assailant away.
Ninu staggered back, her two forearm plates sliding back into their place of rest.
Terry lowered her arm – her armour fully fledged now. Her brow furrowed. “Ninu? What are you doing?” she asked, troubled.
Her cousin stared at her but said nothing; her face an unreadable mask. She began stepping slowly to her right. Every instinct in Terry fired, telling her that she was circling to attack. If any doubt remained in her mind it was expelled when she caught the flicker in her cousin’s eyes. But Terry held her position. Her gaze narrowed. “What have you done?”
Ninu stopped her advance but angled herself into an offensive stance. She nodded passed Terry. “I was just speaking to your father about making me his heir.”
Terry’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve been through this. You can’t be his heir, you are not his child.”
Her expression turned dark. “I know that.” She spat bluntly. “But I found out there was a way. People with that one genetic code that can make them like you and your dad. I found out that it’s dormant in some people.” Her eyes flashed. “But I know that you can turn it on.”
Terry rolled her eyes. Of all the secrets she guarded the one Ninu had spoken was one of the most sacred. Terry had never spoken of it to anyone. The only two people she knew who had knowledge of the process were her father and Uncle Lyle.
“Who told you that?”
Ninu’s lips pressed into a dark smile. “My father, he mentioned it at dinner last night.”
Terry shrugged. “So what? You decided to come here and poison my dad and force him to inject you or something?”
Her eyes flickered with lust. Lust for power. “No, not him.” They narrowed. “You. He can’t inject me when he’s paralysed can he? I knew the only way to get you to do it would be by threatening to kill him.”
Terry’s heard her father’s nails dig into the arms of his chair. He might have been immobilised but she knew inside he was seething. And she knew he wanted to kill her.
The princess turned her attention back to Ninu. “That was your plan? I have to be honest it’s a bit crap.”
The armour on Ninu’s arm rippled into liquid metal, transforming into a long, arching, death blade. “We’re going to fight and you won’t always be able to protect him.”
“More like we’re going to fight and you’re going lose again.”
Her smirk broadened. “We’ll see.”
Terry shook her head. “Don’t make me have to kill you. It wouldn’t work anyway, the injection. It would only work on certain family members. You’re adopted.”
Ninu swung her arm back and lunged. But Terry was faster and swung hers upward in a diagonal sweep. A shower of metal blades ejected along the length of her arm. The six inch slivers struck home, piercing into her face, an eye and the gaps between armour. Ninu let out a feral cry. In an instant Terry was on her. Ninu swung at her with her other arm which Terry caught with no effort. With a sickening crack she broke it. Terry winced as another agonising cry escaped her cousin’s mouth, but it did not deter the princess from her grisly work. Grabbing her other arm, she twisted that too, breaking Ninu’s wrist. As she screamed and flailed, Terry caught her swinging broken arm mid-flight and punched Ninu under the jaw with a gauntleted hand. The bone gave way to her fist and blood flew from her mouth. Terry punched her again, this time on the bridge of her nose, bursting it open. She let go of her cousin as the hit landed, allowing her to fall backward under the momentum her clenched fist had delivered. Now on the floor and screaming through her bloodied and ruined face, Terry kicked her over onto her front with a foot. There was no care in the move. No love for the traitor. Terry rested her foot on the back of Ninu’s knee and closed her toes like a vice. Ninu stiffened, her howls ringing from the heights of the vaulted library as her leg snapped. A swift kick to the head finally silenced her.
“Bitch.” Terry cursed, turning away from the wreck that lay motionless in a growing pool of dark blue blood before her. She hurried back to her father. Halfway across to him, the guards came bounding through the library archway. Ninu’s cries had not gone unheard.
“Princess!” one of them called.
“Get me a doctor!” she shouted, going to her father. “Dad...” she muttered, her voice thick with emotion as she grasped his hand. His eyes flicked to her and she could see the anger burning within them. Putting her other hand under his back, she sat him upright and laid his head back against the chair.
The guards buzzed about him. One checked his pulse while another examined him for any sign of where the poison was injected. They quickly found it, a small slither of a silver needle tucked away under his collar at the base of his neck. It was pulled out and the soldiers set a few of their probes to examine him while they waited for the doctor. But despite all the commotion around him, Fallo’s eyes remained fixed firmly on that of his daughter.
******
Terry’s head hung limply against her neck. She had fallen asleep in a high-backed chair beside to her father’s bed. A sharp hiss made her head snap up with her arm blade drawn. Seeing no one there she looked to his bed.
Her dad sat bolt upright, hands either side of him. Rage set a hard edge to his features.
“Dad?” she quietly asked. She did not dare move any closer.
His head slowly turned toward her. She winced under his gaze. “Daughter.” He replied, the word flat. “Are you hurt?” he asked, emotion finally creeping into his voice.
She nodded. He reached for her, his gaze unyielding.
Terry sat on the bed and let him put his arm around her. She wrapped her arms around him and shut her eyes. Fallo pressed his head against hers. “You saved me.” He muttered, staring at something in the distance.
“I wasn’t going to let that bitch anywhere near you.” She looked up at hi
m and saw the vengeance burning bitterly in his eyes.
“Where is she?”
“Lyle’s holding her.”
“Kila?”
“He wasn’t involved...”
“He broke his promise.” Fallo drew away at that. Pushing the quilts from him and tidying his robes he stormed out the chamber; their ends flapping furiously behind him. “Come!”
Chapter 25
The Shape of Things to Come
Guards pulled Ninu to her feet. She stumbled and was dragged back up with heavy hands. The bruises on the soft flesh beneath her armour smarted under their rough grip. The soldiers gave no special treatment to the traitor of the crown, even if she had been deemed family only a few shout hours before.