The Elder spoke. "The Haka Bench finds the accused guilty."
Betrayal, Zecha thought.
"From this day forward," the Elder said, "the convicted no longer bears the Haka name. All will forbid her work. All Houses will turn her from their door. All citizens will refuse her haven. She is Shunned."
Shunned. It was even worse than Zecha had eXpected. She had no home. No place. No kin. She was no one.
This was Sevtar's doing. She would remember this evil he had caused her.
She would remember.
19
Ruby Fire
Summer blossoms scented the Calanya parks, clusters of red-gold flowers blooming on the jahalla trees. Iridescent insects hummed through their branches, giving the desert a trilling voice. Kelric walked with Rashiva along a gravel path, past tiled pools filled with water that, in the desert, was worth as much as the gold around his wrists.
"We changed almost a third of the prison administration," Rashiva said. "It's one reason the Tribunal lasted two full seasons." She shook her head. "Zecha baffles me. She truly believes she did what was right."
She's gone, Kelric thought. That was all that mattered. Giving the Calanya Speaker his testimony had torn apart the equanimity he managed to regain after coming to Rashiva's Calanya. But it had been worth it to see justice done.
He knew Rashiva better now after two seasons, had come to see her as a dedicated and soft-spoken Manager. Although they remained formal with each other, their marriage unconsummated, the tension in their conversations had eased. Hate no longer drove the desire she provoked in him.
When she took his hand with unexpected shyness, Kelric smiled down at her. She squeezed his hand. "You've a beautiful smile, my husband. I've wondered how it looked."
That caught him by surprise. Had he never smiled at her before? It wasn't the Propriety Laws; unlike most Haka men, they weren't habit for him. Within the Calanya he had no reason to think about them, except around his guards, whom he never felt much inclined to smile at anyway.
Holding his hand, Rashiva led him through the trees along a hidden path that took them far from the Calanya buildings. Irrigation kept the parks blooming all year, including these forests of gnarled jahallas with leaves and limbs plumped full of water. In a private clearing deep within a jahalla grove, they sat together on the soft decade-grass, which took its name from its ability to lie dormant for decades in the desert and come back to life when given water. Golden flies with gauzy black wings flitted around them.
With a touch of blush reddening her cheeks, Rashiva cupped his face with her hands and drew him into a kiss. Her mouth was full. Soft. The fragrance of spice-soap scented her hair. He wrapped his MS around her and savored the sense of discovery he always felt the first time he kissed a woman.
When they paused, she brushed her hand across his trousers. "You will get grass stains on these handsome clothes."
He slid his hand up her leg. "You also."
"Perhaps we should find a way to avoid this problem."
Kelric smiled, this time using it with full knowledge of the effect it would produce. "Perhaps we should."
So they undressed each other, each exploring the other's body as they shed their layers of clothes. His mind responded to their intimacy like a jahalla to water, swelling to fullness. He felt swirls and eddies of her emotions, more than he had picked up in a long time.
Lying next to him, bare skin against bare skin, she touched the hair at his pelvis, rubbing a curl between her fingers. "It looks even more like metal than the hair on your head. It even feels like soft metal."
Kelric tightened his embrace around her. "All my hair is an organometallic alloy."
"Hmmm." She moved her hand, distracting their thoughts from metallurgy to biology.
At first Kelric kept his caresses reserved, assuming that in love she would be even more traditional than Deha. But eventually he rolled on top of her. She felt fine, her body firm beneath him, breasts plump and hips curved out from a small waist.
Instead of cooling off when he became more aggressive, she pulled him into another kiss, hungry for his mouth. Her thoughts brushed his mind; she expected him to be passionate, out of control. She took it as a sign of virility. It was one reason Haka women had created the Propriety Laws; Haka culture claimed men were impassioned vessels of love with no restraint over their desires. Without restrictions, they would drive women to distraction with their unbridled sexuality.
Kelric lifted his head and laughed softly. "Rashiva, you are such a sexist."
She blinked at him, her face flushed with arousal. "What?" Without waiting for an answer, she pulled him back down and sought out his mouth, kissing him deeply.
Secluded among the jahallas, they came to their lovemaking with an intensity made all the more urgent by the long wait, both choosing to forget, for one afternoon, the reasons for their prolonged restraint. Kelric stroked her hips and breasts, tasted the honey between her thighs. For all her arousal, her caresses were shy. He suspected she had never lain with any other man but Raaj, though he doubted she would admit to such inexperience. The longer they played with each other, the more her guileless curiosity aroused him.
Finally, as they lay side by side on the soft grass, he entered her. They rolled over, Rashiva on top, then he, then Rashiva, then he. He thrust deeply and she held on to him as they moved together. So they went, until she cried out and stiffened in his arms. He relaxed his control then, losing himself in the consuming release of an intense climax.
Afterward Kelric floated in a pleasant daze. It wasn't until Rashiva pushed his shoulder that he realized he had let his weight sink onto her. He rolled onto his back and she rolled with him, coming to rest against his side, her leg thrown over his, her head on his shoulder. As the sun descended below the trees, veiling the clearing in shadow, they lay in each other's arms, sated and content.
After a while Rashiva said, "Perhaps we will make a child."
He opened his eyes. Child?
"I know I can," she added sleepily. "My daughter is almost Six."
Unwelcome thoughts of Raaj invaded Kelric's good mood. The Haka prince was twenty years old, ten years Rashiva's junior. If he and Rashiva had a six-year-old daughter, Raaj must have been a child groom, probably not even a Calani yet. Given the seclusion boys training for the Calanya lived in, Rashiva was probably one of the only women he had ever seen, let alone spoken to. Kelric needed no telepathy to realize what it would do to Raaj if she bore another man's child.
"You and I come from different worlds," he said. "We can't have children."
"Your parents did."
"How did you know that?"
"You are a Ruby Dynasty prince, yes? Isn't it true your mother comes from one world, your father from another? I have heard this."
Although he knew the ISC Public Affairs people might have included information about his family in their discussions with Minister Karn, it surprised him that Rashiva knew. Then again, Quis was the ultimate gossip mill.
"My parents have the same ancestry," he said. "My mother's lineage goes back to Raylicon, the home world of the people who colonized my father's planet."
"Ralkon is no world," Rashiva murmured. "She is a spirit of wisdom."
Kelric knew the similarity was more than coincidence. Six thousand years ago, an unknown race had moved a population of humans from Earth to the planet Raylicon and then vanished with no explanation. All they left behind were their spacecraft. As time passed, the stranded humans reproduced the technology and went searching for their lost home. They never found Earth, but they established a number of colonies, what historians now called the Ruby Empire. It collapsed after a few centuries, isolating the Raylicans on their world and cutting the colonies off from their mother planet.
So the Raylicans began a long slide into extinction. After four millennia, desperate for an influx of fresh genes to replenish their shrinking pool, they redeveloped space travel and went out to reclaim the lost colonies. Two
factions formed: the Traders, who took the slave trade that had always tainted Raylican culture and turned it into an economy of mind-numbing brutality; and the lmperialate, an attempt by the free worlds to stay that way, or as free as possible in a civilization founded on the need for an indefatigable military machine that grew ever more powerful. .
Less than two hundred years ago, in Earth's twenty-first century, her people had finally made their way to the stars—and found their siblings already there. Research soon showed that the Raylicans' ancestors came from Earth circa 4000 B.C. Yet no civilization from that period matched any remnant of ancient Raylican culture.
Some anthropologists postulated Egypt as their birthplace. But though ancient Raylicans built pyramids, they didn't look Egyptian. A few scholars believed they came from Mesoamerica, or perhaps both Mesoamerica and the Middle East or North Africa. Rare hints of Christianity and Greek mythology seemed to show up, yet all evidence indicated humans had been stranded on Raylicon four thousand years before the birth of Christ. One school of thought held that the abducted humans had been moved in time as well as space. Genetic drift, both natural and self-induced, added the final complication. It all added up to make the Raylicans' ancestry a mystery.
Kelric was certain the Twelve Estates descended from a lost Ruby colony. He saw many similarities between the Twelve Estates and the primary culture of ancient Raylicon, especially the hieroglyphic language and the Cobans' love of ball courts. But the lesser known side of Raylican culture also showed up, most notably in the architecture and names of Haka. He suspected scholars would find Haka a geld mine, a living remnant of a subculture that had vanished on Raylicon after the fall of the Ruby Empire.
He rubbed a strand of Rashiva's hair between his fingers. "My ancestors had black hair and eyes, and dark skin."
She opened her eyes. "Hakaborn."
"Like Hakaborn."
"But you need only find a mirror to see that you are no Hakaborn man."
"I look like my grandfather." He paused, at a loss to explain the genetic engineering that altered his grandfather's people. Then he thought of Shaliece, his childhood love. "Even if you did conceive, the baby might not survive. The mother of the only child I've ever fathered had so much difficulty with her pregnancy that she miscarried."
Rashiva curled her fingers around his. "I'm sorry. I never knew you shared bands with another woman besides Deha Dahl."
"Once. But not with the girl who miscarried." He still remembered Shaliece's stunned look when he had offered to marry her. They were only fifteen. He pressed too hard and she fled, frightened by his Ruby Dynasty titles. Perhaps eventually he would have won her over, had she not miscarried. After a suitable amount of time, to let be and Shaliece mourn, Kelric's parents sent him offworld to the Deishan Military Academy. Afew years later Shaliece wed another youth.
Rashiva was watching him with an inscrutable expression. "This woman named you as the father of her child but offered you no kasi bands?"
He brought his thoughts back to the present. "That wasn't our custom. I offered to her."
"You offered?"
"Yes."
She looked as if he had hit her in the stomach. "Was this the only time you offered to—to be free with—"
He stiffened. "With what?"
"Yourself."
How could she, who had two husbands, condemn him for past lovers? "No."
Rashiva drew away from him. "We should get back. I have matters to attend to on the Estate."
They dressed in silence. Although they headed into the forest together, Kelric soon stopped. He didn't want a day of such contentment to end in this stiff and silent walk. Better to let Rashiva go on alone.
She stopped and glanced back. For a moment he thought she would finally speak. Then she turned and went on, disappearing into the trees.
The screen in the archway of Kelric's suite rustled. "Sevtar?" Kelric put down his dice. "Come." Saje came in and eased himself down on the other side of the Quis table where Kelric had been playing solitaire. "When you didn't show for dinner I worried you weren't feeling well."
"I'm fine," Kelric said.
Saje glanced at the structures on the table. "Red blocks. Red balls. Red bars."
"I wasn't paying attention to the colors."
"Red is often used in patterns of anger."
Kelric collected the dice and put them in his pouch.
"You came back from the parks alone," Saje said.
"Rashiva had business on the Estate." Kelric considered the Third Level. "Saje, do you have children?"
He smiled. "Two, born at Varz. They're adults now. They visit me whenever they come to Haka." Softly he added, "Their mother passed away a few years before I came here."
"I'm sorry."
"We had many good years."
"What would she have done if you had fathered a child who wasn't hers?"
Saje's gentle expression vanished. "I forgive such a question, Sevtar, because I know you have no idea of the insult you give."
Kelric winced. "I meant no offense. I just—" Just what? Need Rashiva? No. "I guess I'm tired. I should go to bed."
With a nod, Saje tried to rise, giving Kelric an apologetic look. "Could you assist me back to my suite? My bones grow less cooperative each day."
"Of course." Kelric stood and offered his arm. He walked slowly with Saje out into the common room. He suspected the Third Level suffered from advanced arthritis with spinal complications.
"Can your doctors help your joint stiffness at all?" he asked.
"Nothing much seems to work," Saje said. "But I don't tell them that. One doctor massages my spine and I don't want her to stop." He gave Kelric a conspiratorial grin. "She is very beautiful."
Kelric laughed, his tension easing. "Ah. I see."
They had just reached the screened archway of Saje's suite when the Outside doors across the room swung open and Captain Khaaj strode Inside.
Saje chuckled. "My thanks for your aid Sevtar. I can make it from here."
Kelric nodded, his attention on the captain. Instead of going to his suite, she went to another and tapped on the screen. After a moment Raaj appeared, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
Khaaj spoke—and Raaj smiled, his perfect teeth flashing white. Then the smile vanished, doused as the Propriety Laws reasserted their hold. He nodded to the captain and withdrew into his suite.
"Sevtar, you're breaking my door," Saje said.
"What—?" Kelric turned. Saje was trying to pry his fingers off the screen of his suite.
"You should come in." Saje lowered his voice. "I have some contraband. You can help me dispose of it."
"Contraband?" Kelric turned back in time to see Raaj reappear. The youth had changed into a black velvet shirt with its laces left loose enough to reveal his muscular chest. His Calanya guards gleamed under his cuffs and his hair glistened the way Rashiva's did after she brushed it. A Talha scarf hung around his neck. As Khaaj escorted him to the Outside doors, he put on the robe he was carrying and hid his face with the Talha.
"Contraband," Saje repeated. He pulled Kelric into his suite. "Come. I will show you."
Kelric forced his attention back to him. "What?"
Saje pushed him into the usual alcove "Be comfortable" Before Kelric could object, the Third Level disappeared into an inner room.
Kelric scowled, but he did sit down. Saje reappeared with a decanter of gold liquid and two crystal goblets. He settled onto his customary cushion, then poured two drinks and gave one to Kelric.
"What is it?" Kelric tilted the glass, watching the glimmering liquid slosh around.
"We call it baiz."
He took a swallow. The baiz glided past his lips, eased down his throat and detonated when it hit bottom.
"Gods," he muttered. He finished the rest in one swallow.
"You mustn't tell anyone I have it," Saje said. "If my doctors knew they would take it away." He refilled Kelric's glass. "It settles .well, yes?"
"Th
at it does."
After his second drink Kelric lost track of how many times Saje refilled his glass. He leaned back in a pile of cushions and watched patterns swirl in his baiz. "Too bad you can't import this stuff. You'd make a fortune."
"It does have a calming effect," Saje said.
"I don't need calming."
"Whatever happened between you and Rashiva will mend."
"Beautiful Rashiva." Keln'c shook the baiz patterns, destroying them. "Beautiful intolerant Rashiva."
"Sevtar—"
"My name is Kelric."
"Kelric?"
He looked up at Saje. "Jagernaut Tertiary Kelricson Garlin Valdoria kya Skolia."
"An unusual name."
"Maybe. But it's mine."
"You are the son of someone named Kelric?"
"No. Someone named Eldrinson." He took a swallow of baiz. "My parents named my oldest brother Eldrin. Guess they figured Eldrinsonson was overdoing it."
Saje smiled. "Who is Kelric?"
"Lyshriol spirit of youth." The room seemed to be tilting around him. "They named me that because I was their last child. Littlest Rhon child."
"Little," Saje said, "is hardly how I would describe you."
Kelric stretched out on his back sprawled on the silk cushions. He tried to drink more baiz and discovered his goblet was empty. "I'll tell you something, Saje." He pushed up on his elbow and poured another drink. "My mother had a son long before she met my father."
"You have a half brother?"
"That's right. The lmperator. Military dictator of the universe. I'm his heir."
"This is a joke, yes?"
"No."
Saje took a swallow of the drink he had hardly touched.
"My infamous brother." Kelric finished his bail. "But I'm not his heir anymore, am I? Now I'm a Calani in a cage."