"This isn't some fan pushing you against the wall," Tyra said. "That Trader could turn your life into a nightmare."
"Only if you blow up the situation!" Del tried to calm his voice so she would listen. "If I leave, Tarex will be offended that I walked out, but I'm probably not the first person on Earth to react that way to him. So he's insulted and doesn't buy rights to my work." He took another breath and let it out slowly. "If you bring in my brother, it could become a major incident."
"I have to report this," she said.
"Tyra." Frustration strained his voice.
"I'm sorry." She looked past him to Staver. "I'll have to ask you to leave."
Staver stood up. "You want me to go out there?" His voice shook on the last word.
Alarm swelled in Del. "Staver is an empath! He can't go."
Tyra nodded, her face pale, and indicated a door by the bed. "That leads to another bedroom. You can wait in there."
"I don't understand." Staver came over to them. "Who is your brother?" he asked Del. To Tyra, he said, "What did you mean, report?"
"She's my bodyguard," Del said. "My brother hired her."
"Do you want me to leave?" he asked Del.
Del had no desire for Staver to see him humiliated by Kelric. "Maybe it'd be better. I'm sorry."
The door to the party hummed, and the room's AI said, "Ricki Varento would like to enter."
Tyra glanced at Del. It was an unspoken question: did he want Ricki to come in? Tyra had no idea how much that one gesture meant to him. His previous bodyguards would have decided whether or not to admit Ricki without asking him.
"Let her in," Del said.
The door slid open, bringing a wave of noise. Ricki stalked inside in her high, high heels. Her red dress glistened with holos, left her shoulders bare, and was slit up the side from the floor to her hip. Any other time Del's pulse would have gone into overdrive at the sight, but right now even Ricki at her most devastating couldn't affect him.
As the door closed, she came over and spoke softly to Del. "Are you all right?"
"What the hell?" Staver said.
Ricki frowned at the Skolian exec. "What?"
"I expected you to be furious," Staver said. "We just insulted your biggest client."
Ricki studied him. "You knew how Tarex would affect Del."
"Staver is an empath," Del said.
"Staver's right, babe," Ricki told him. "You pulled a major drill out there with Tarex. He's not saying anything, but I can tell. He's pissed enough to launch off a lune."
Del wasn't sure what she had just said, but he got the gist of it. "I can't talk to him. I can't be in the same room with him."
She considered him and Staver, then turned to Tyra. "It gets to you, too, doesn't it? You just hide it better."
"If you mean, does Lord Tarex exert a negative effect on the neurological physiology of my cerebral cortex, the answer is yes." Wryly Tyra added, "That translates as 'He scares the blistering hell out of me.' "
Ricki didn't look surprised. "I have to tell him something. I can't leave it like this."
"Tell him the truth," Del said. "He knows I'm an empath. Say I was so shaken up, I panicked. He's probably seen it a thousand times from his providers." With disgust, he said, "Tell him that his magnificent presence overwhelmed me."
Ricki frowned at him. "Sarcasm doesn't help, babe."
"I'm not being sarcastic. That's how slaves talk to Aristos. It's what Tarex expects." Del had to make a conscious effort not to grit his teeth. "Tell him, and he'll believe you."
Ricki pushed her hand through her long hair. "I don't claim to understand all this. But he scares me, too."
Del touched her cheek. "Don't go anywhere with him alone. He can't take you by force with so many people around."
She stiffened. "What are you talking about?"
"You're so pretty. You look like a provider." Del's voice hardened. "To Tarex, we're all slaves. If he got you into Trader territory, he could own you."
"Why would he?" she asked. "I'm not an empath. And I'm sure he can bonk all the sexpot slave girls he wants. So why piss off a major Allied conglomerate he hopes to do business with?"
"If you offend him, he won't care who he angers with his actions," Del said. "Aristos are the ultimate narcissists. They think they're gods. Don't even hint to him that you might defend my actions. Convince him you're on his side."
"Don't worry," Ricki said. "I've been in this business a long time, as your hard-assed brother so rudely pointed out when we were on the Moon. I can calm down drilled-off clients."
Del smiled. Any woman audacious enough to call his overpowering brother names was worth the pyrotechnics in their relationship. He pulled her close and bent his head as he kissed her. "Just be careful, okay?"
"I will."
After Ricki returned to the party, Staver raised an eyebrow at Del. "I didn't know kissing was part of the producer-artist arrangement at Prime-Nova."
The AI in the console spoke, saving Del from having to answer. "I have a Kyle link."
Tyra turned to Staver. "You'll have to go."
He hesitated, but when Del just waited, Staver nodded and left the room. Cameron took a post by the door after it closed and checked his wrist gauntlet, monitoring Staver.
Tyra sat at the console and set up the link to Kelric. Del stood behind her, his hand resting on the back of her chair. He didn't realize he was gritting his teeth until a stab of pain shot through his jaw. He rubbed his neck and tried to relax.
It wasn't Kelric who answered, though. In the strange universe of Del's recent communication with his family, of course the person they called didn't come on. This time, his brother Eldrin appeared. He looked exhausted. Dark circles showed under his eyes, and his face was drawn. The elegant furnishings of his living room gleamed, light gold wood with blue and white accents.
"Your Majesty." Tyra reddened. "Please accept my apologies for disturbing you. I must have misentered a code. I was trying to contact your brother."
"No, you didn't make an error." Eldrin rubbed his eyes. "Kelric is working in the Kyle web. He set your codes to contact my wife if you set up a link while he was unavailable."
"I didn't mean to disturb you at home," Tyra said. "The message should have gone through to her office."
"She's not there," Eldrin said. "She's here, asleep."
Del stiffened. Why would Dehya set up her system that way? He leaned over the console. "Eldrin? What happened to her?"
"Del!" His brother smiled. "My greetings."
"And mine," Del said. "Is Dehya all right?"
His brother's smile faded. "This pregnancy doesn't go well."
"She's pregnant?"
"Yes." Eldrin spoke quietly. "Her doctors fear the baby won't survive if he's premature. We've almost lost him twice."
"I'm sorry." Gods, how could Dehya be pregnant, apparently for months, and he hadn't known? They criticized him for not telling them about the singing, yet he knew nothing about this?
Stop it, Del told himself. You've avoided them for months. Why would they seek you out for something so painful? If her doctors couldn't keep a premature baby alive even with all their modern medicine, the fetus's condition had to be terrible.
Eldrin was watching his face. "It's good to see you, Del."
Del hoped so. He had only been two years younger than Eldrin in their childhood, and they had been close as boys, but they had drifted apart in adolescence, and Del had seen little of him since he came out of cryo.
"It's good to talk to you," Del said. Gods, he sounded so stiff.
"I watched your concerts," Eldrin said. "I've never seen you sing that way before. It was interesting."
Interesting. Del smiled wryly. "They have a curse here. It's used when you wish truly noxious things on a person. You say, 'May you live in interesting times.' "
Eldrin smiled, his face lightening. "I didn't mean it that way. You look happy when you sing. That is good."
"It is." Del he
sitated, unsure what to say. His brother sat on the Ruby Throne now as consort to the pharaoh, and Del no longer knew how to talk to him. "I wish I could do something to help Dehya."
"Knowing that will mean a great deal to her." Even exhausted, Eldrin sounded regal. "It's the baby we're most worried about."
"Those doctors can do anything," Del said. "Hey, they even kept me alive."
"That they did." The thought did actually seem to give Eldrin comfort.
"Your Majesty, I'm sorry to intrude," Tyra said. "But I need to talk to Imperator Skolia as soon as he's available."
"I'll tell him," Eldrin said. "Can I help with it?"
"I don't know," she said. "There's an Aristo here, Lord Axil Tarex, who is interested in licensing Prince Del-Kurj's music."
Eldrin sat up straight. "Del! You have to leave Earth."
Del made an exasperated noise. "That would be subtle, to drop all my commitments and run off the week my latest release becomes the most popular anthology on Earth."
"It doesn't matter," Eldrin said.
"I already went through this with Kelric." Del wished he could make them see. "If I were a test pilot, like Kelric used to be, I would be putting my life in far more danger every time I went up in one of those fighters. Yet none of you would tell me to stop."
"This is different," Eldrin said. "You don't have to do it."
"No, it's not different. It's my job."
"What, singing like that?" Eldrin started to say more, then caught himself.
"Like what?" Del said.
Eldrin hesitated. "Live. Can't you give virtual concerts? When I sang those operas, I did it here on the Orbiter, in a mesh studio, with verification protocols that my voice wasn't enhanced. Billions of people watched. The virts have trillions of downloads. You wouldn't have to give up your singing."
"It's not the same." Del struggled to let go of his anger, for he understood the unstated pain beneath his brother's words. "You're the Ruby Consort. One of the most valuable people in three empires." He felt small. "I'm nothing, Eldrin. I'm no good to the Traders. I'd die if they tried to use me in a Kyle web. No reason exists for ISC to constrain me unless I ask for it. And I'm not." He hated saying that to his brother, who had been forced into his title. It was a mercy Eldrin and Dehya had fallen in love; otherwise, their situation could have been a nightmare.
Eldrin's gaze never wavered. "Don't say you're nothing. Those of us who love you don't feel that way."
Del had prepared many arguments for the next time someone in his family told him he should stop his singing here. He had been ready for any angle of attack—except We love you. He just stood, at a loss for words.
Eldrin suddenly looked down at his console. "Dehya's medical alarm just went off. I have to go." He glanced at Tyra. "Do you want Admiral Barzun?"
"Yes, please." Tyra sounded subdued. She had heard more of the internal strife in the Ruby Dynasty in the past few days than most people would ever know if they searched the interstellar meshes for every mention of the royal family they could find.
"Very well." Eldrin smiled at Del. "Be well, my brother."
"And you," Del said. "Always."
The screen went blank, then cleared to show a man with iron-grey hair in a blue uniform.
Tyra reported to the admiral. Barzun wasn't happy, to put it mildly. He didn't have the authority to make Del leave Earth, but Del agreed to cooperate with whatever other precautions they wanted, knowing that if he didn't, Kelric would have him hauled back home.
Of course he promised not to accept any contract from Tarex. Del would have rather cut off his nose than license his work to an Aristo. He knew it would mean a big loss in potential revenue to Prime-Nova, and he hated that he was going to look unprofessional, as if he had become arrogant with success. He could talk to General McLane about telling Zachary his real reasons, but ASC felt the same as ISC; the fewer people who knew the truth, the better.
The room's AI spoke. "Mister Arden's band wishes to enter."
Tyra signed off with Admiral Barzun and glanced at Del.
"It's okay," Del said.
As the door opened, Jud, Anne, and Randall spilled into the room, talking and holding drinks. Anne glanced around until she saw Cameron, then reddened and looked quickly away.
"Hey, Del!" Randall yelled, even though he was right there. He lifted his oversized glass of ouzo. "Why aren't you celebrating? It's a great party."
Jud's smile faded as he studied Del. "What's wrong?"
Del just shook his head.
"He had a fight with Zach," Anne said. "Ricki is smoothing things over."
Randall gave Del an incredulous look. "You argued with the tech-mech king on a night like this? Damn it, Del, we're flying as high as we can. Why fight with Zachary?"
"He wants me to sell our work to the Aristos," Del said.
Randall's alcohol-flushed face turned redder. "It's not just your decision."
"Wait." Jud came up to Del and spoke in a low voice. "I heard an Aristo was here."
"I met him." Del winced. "And I panicked."
"Panicked?" Anne asked. She and Randall joined them. "Why?"
"Del, come on," Randall said. "Don't screw this up. Eube is a huge market. Man, we could outshine a screaming nova."
"Randall, don't," Jud said. "He's an empath. He can't be around Aristos."
"Oh, cut the crap." Randall downed his drink, then spun around and stalked away from them. Pivoting back, he spoke furiously to Del. "Whenever you screw up, you pull this 'I'm so sensitive' shit. It isn't just about you. Can't you stop thinking about your own damn problems and remember that four of us are involved in this?"
Randall sounded so much like Kelric, Del wanted to sock him in the face. Another thought came from deeper inside: maybe everyone was right, he was nothing more than overwrought and immature, and he didn't deserve this success. He knew this much; he didn't want to ruin things for his band.
Jud spoke sharply to Randall. "That's enough."
"You let him get away with this garbage." Randall hit at the air with his glass, his fist clenched around it. "Maybe if you quit coddling him, he wouldn't be such a high-strung baby."
"Shut up!" Cameron said.
Everyone gaped at the guard.
"Leave him the fuck alone," Cameron told Randall.
"Great," Randall said. "Now your babysitter is mouthing off."
"Del." Tyra spoke awkwardly. "Staver wants to know if he can come in."
"Staver?" Randall's face turned a deeper red. "You better not have pissed him off, too."
"He's the one who warned me about Tarex," Del said tightly.
Anne walked over to Cameron. "Is everything okay?"
"Fine." Cameron kept his face impassive, but his jitters at seeing Anne leaked out of his mind. He glanced at Del. "Shall I let him back in?"
Del nodded, flushed and uncomfortable. "Go ahead."
The door by Cameron opened, and Staver strode inside. He faltered when he saw everyone. Then he came over to Del. "Did you talk to your brother?"
"One of them," Del said.
Anne gave him a startled smile. "You have brothers?"
Del had no intention of talking about his family. "I need to leave," he said. "Go home."
Randall watched him in disbelief. "It's your party. Haven't you ticked Zachary off enough already? I can't believe you'd walk out after they went to all this trouble for you."
Del didn't want to antagonize Zachary, but he didn't know what to say. Someone in the party was using a spiker, and the smoke affected Del even here, leaving him dizzy.
"Can you get home all right?" Staver asked.
"No, I—I don't—" Del rubbed his temples. "My head hurts."
Randall gave him a disgusted look and talked in a falsetto. "Not tonight, dear. I have a headache."
"You're drunk, Randy," Anne said shortly. "Lay off."
"I'm sorry," Randall said. "But this always happens. Del, our livelihoods depend on your keeping it together. Here
we are, on top of the stars. Don't take it away."
Del felt how much Randall feared he would ruin their success. Cameron and Tyra were waiting for Del to decide if he wanted to go home. Del couldn't answer. He needed his bliss-node.
A spark of anger jumped within him: Are you going to run to a fantasy world every time things get a little tough? How much of your life will it devour before you've had enough?
Cameron joined them and spoke to Del. "I can bring your racer around to the front of the hotel."
"No." Del took a breath. "I'll stay." He went to the bed and lay on his back with his arm over his eyes. "Just give me a few minutes. Alone."
After a pause, Jud said, "We'll be outside."
Del listened to them leave. When it was quiet, he lowered his arm and saw Cameron posted by the wall. Tyra was still standing by the console, watching someone near Del. Staver. The Skolian man had stayed, slumped in the chair, his face pale.
"I can't go out there," Staver said when Del looked at him.
Del nodded. "You should stay."
They fell silent, and Del closed his eyes. After a while, he began to calm down. The spikers left him sleepy and nauseous.
Eventually Staver spoke. "Why did he call you Del's babysitter?"
Del opened his eyes. Staver was watching Cameron, who stared back, impassive. Knowing Cameron wouldn't answer, Del pulled himself up and sat against the wall at the head of the bed. "Cameron keeps people away. I can't go alone in public anymore."
Staver glanced from Cameron to Tyra. "Two bodyguards?"
"It used to be one, before Raker and Delilah." Del felt Staver's mental knock. Now that he had recovered some, he lowered his barriers. This time, though, he didn't cut out Tyra.
Does Tarex know you're a psion? Del asked Staver.
I'm sure of it, Staver answered. He asked to meet me. And a woman with him offered to take me home. She was beautiful, but I wouldn't go anywhere with someone from an Aristo's retinue.
Del shuddered. Never.
I knew Tarex was on Earth, Staver thought. Some people want to help a provider he brought. A lot of security surrounds her. To break it—let's just say it requires specialists outside usual channels. Help like that costs more than my friends can afford.