Royal Recruit - Susan Grant Page 0,59
tone even though no one remained in the room. Who knew who eavesdropped on the queen? Man, he was sounding more and more paranoid, but something in his gut told him he’d better be. “Tell me, then, where are your former suitors? Any of them still around?”
“I don’t know or care, Terran!”
“Do you know what happened to your most recent husband-to-be?”
She put on her haughty expression, the one he’d learned she used as a shield when she felt uncertain. “No one in the palace knows. The coward heard the rumor about my skill with a sword, perhaps, and ran away.”
“I know for a fact that isn’t true. I met him when he escaped to Earth, looking for a hiding place,” he fudged.
She lowered the piece of fruit she’d brought to her mouth. “What? He ran off to a non-Coalition world to escape me?”
“He was running for his life—not from you, but from a REEF assassin. He was one of the highest ranking military officers in your space force. He believes the assassin’s kill order came from someone high in the Coalition government because they didn’t want you marrying him.”
“That’s what he says. REEFs aren’t sent after just anyone. It may be that he was involved with some illegal activities in the military. Good officers can go bad. I don’t know—or care. The games of soldiers do not interest me.”
“Keira…” The woman was in major denial. She was blind to everything going on around her. The more he illuminated, the angrier she got. “When my transport exited the last wormhole, something hit us. The pilots shouted that we were under attack. Something came through their control console—an energy pulse, I think—and killed them both. Then all the sleeping-pods started ejecting.”
“They’re supposed to do that in an emergency. I remember the briefings from when I used to travel with my family.”
The way her voice hitched on the word family really got to him. It wasn’t hard to imagine her as a lost little orphan in this huge palace. In some ways, she still was. He wasn’t sure what passed for grief counseling in this alien society, but whatever it was, he wondered if she’d gotten what she needed—or any at all. Fifteen or so Earth years after the accident, and she still found it difficult to discuss.
“Vacations?” he prodded gently.
“Sometimes. We’d combine official duties with pleasure, yes, but the main purpose was to visit other worlds to give worshippers the chance to pay homage to us.” It drove home how different their backgrounds were. While he’d been kicking around a soccer ball, Keira had been prayed to. “I have not left Sakka since, but I’m sure evacuation procedures haven’t changed much. When all systems fail or are in danger of failing, the pods eject.”
“I realize that. Then how do you explain those pods getting fired on, one by one?”
Her hand tensed. Fury simmered dangerously in her eyes. Her voice was tight, reflecting just how hard she was trying to hold on to her temper. “It must have been something else related to the malfunction. Not deliberate. No one in the Coalition would do such a despicable thing.”
“But what if they were trying to kill me and wanted to make the whole thing look like an accident? Blowing up the whole ship would look too suspicious, so assuming I was sleeping in one of the pods, they destroyed them. When rescuers came looking for the ship, they’d think the pods were lost in space.” He imitated Rissallen’s nasal tone, “A terrible accident,” and frowned. “It was no accident. Why Rissallen wants it to be so badly, I don’t know.”
I don’t know either, Keira thought and squeezed her eyes shut to combat a bolt of fear. Jared had her tied in knots. He had her questioning everything that she thought she knew. It magnified her sense of vulnerability and the almost constant ache of loneliness, something Jared’s presence had blessedly begun to assuage—until he’d decided to persist with his insane accusations.
“Keira…”
She jumped, startled by the feel of Jared’s warm hand sweeping over her cheek. “Open those eyes. I won’t let you close yourself off, Sunbeam. Not from me. Not from life.”
She was so weary of being alone. Would she now not have to be?
“I don’t mean to close myself off from you,” she confessed to her shock and let him take her into his arms.
He held her for long moments before he spoke. “Regarding the transport, I’m going to launch an investigation. I hope