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  Chapter Thirty-two

  Charlotte

  Someone pounding on the door woke me up. I looked around blearily and realized that Kristoff was already alert, up on one elbow. He was also still hard inside me. Wow—how had he managed to stay hard all night like that?

  The pounding came again and he withdrew, making me give a stifled little moan. I missed him the moment he was gone.

  “Who is it?” Kristoff demanded, his voice deep and protective.

  “It’s me, Captain Verrai.” The voice was vaguely familiar. I thought it might be the Guard who had warned us that the Trials of Ascension had been moved up. What was his name again? Something with a T…

  “T’zorin?” Kristoff got out of bed and pulled on the bottom half of his uniform. He looked incredible in the short leather kilt with his bare, muscular chest.

  Mine, I couldn’t help thinking. He’s all mine now…and I’m his.

  It was a happy thought, shattered the next minute when I heard the other guard calling through the door.

  “Captain, the Council of Wisdom is demanding that the Empress appear before them right now to tell who she has chosen as her Consort.”

  Crap! I sat bolt upright in bed, clutching the heavy, gold satin sheet to my chest as though the entire Council had suddenly appeared in my bedroom to glare at me accusingly. What were we going to do? I had foolishly assumed I would have some time—at least a day or so—to make some kind of a plan. Now, here I was, summoned to a Council meeting with no idea of what I would do or say.

  Kristoff walked into the other room and I heard him conferring in low voices with T’zorin.

  “You can go to the Council Chamber and try to delay some if you want, Captain,” the other guard was saying. “I will escort the Goddess-Empress there when she is ready.”

  “No,” Kristoff said at once. “I thank you for your offer, T’zorin but this is not a meeting which can be avoided or stalled.”

  My heart sank into my shoes. If Kristoff thought I had to go, then I had to go. But what was I going to say? I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn’t think Kristoff would go along with it at all.

  “Tell the honor guard we will be going to the Council Chamber very shortly,” Kristoff told him. When he came back into the bedroom, his handsome face had a grim cast to it. “Come, my Lady—it’s time to get you ready to meet the Council.”

  “All right.” I lifted my chin and got up quickly. “Do I have time for a shower?”

  “You’ll have to,” Kristoff said. “We must do the best we can to wash my scent off you. It won’t be easy since you’re completely covered in it—inside and out.”

  I blushed but held my ground.

  “Why should we wash it off?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips. “Why don’t I just tell the Council this is my decision and declare you my Consort.”

  He sighed. “Charlotte, we’ve been over this. It will look like you’re committing blasphemy if you choose a non-Royal as your Consort.”

  “No—it will look like I’m making a new rule—the first one of my time as the Goddess-Empress. Which is that the Empress gets to pick her own mate and the Council has no say in her private life.”

  I liked the sound of that but Kristoff was already shaking his head.

  “Do you know what that would do to the balance of power between the Royals and everyone else? If the Goddess-Empress is allowed to take a commoner bond-mate, the other Royals will be allowed to mate with them as well. It will mix and muddy the Royal bloodlines which have been carefully protected for centuries.”

  “Protected why? Just so the Royals can feel special?” I asked. “This isn’t the Star Bellied Sneeches, Kristoff. I don’t give a damn about upholding a law that basically keeps the Majoran people from having class equality.”

  “You’d better not let the Council hear you say that,” he said grimly. “Or any of the leading Royals—you might as well paste a target on your back. My Lady, for your own protection, I beg you not to name me your Consort. If you have to say anything, tell the Council that you don’t feel drawn to any of the candidates and you choose not to have a Consort.”

  “I thought you said they wouldn’t like that either,” I said, frowning.

  “They won’t. But it’s better than naming a non-Royal as your Consort. Now come—we must get you ready to go.”

  He had me showered, dressed in another rich, royal looking gown—in shimmering gold trimmed with rubies this time—and on the way to the Council Room before I knew it.

  I wished I had more time to argue my case for making him my Consort—I didn’t like lying and I wanted to be upfront with the Council of Wisdom and let them know they didn’t own me and couldn’t dictate my life. But Kristoff seemed to think this would put me in an insane amount of danger and since he was the head of my security, I decided to listen to him

  Soon I was standing in front of the assembled Council, who were sitting on their raised, semicircular platform, looking down on me again. I felt like a kid being called to the principal’s office—not a good feeling.

  Off to one side were the three candidates from the night before—the five year old boy, wriggling to be loose of his mother’s arms, the old grandpa with gray hair who was asleep in a chair someone had pulled up for him, and Morbain, grinning like a cat who’d gotten into the cream.

  Well, I would soon wipe that grin off his face, I thought with some satisfaction. Standing beside the little group of candidates was someone else I hadn’t expected to see—Dr. Churika. She was dressed in a long gray robe and had her usual disapproving expression on her face when she looked at me. Clearly, she still didn’t think much of me. That was okay—I didn’t much like her either. Her bedside manner sucked.

  “Now then, this meeting of the Council of Wisdom with the True Incarnation will come to order,” Tannus said, banging on his podium with the fist-sized crystal he used for a gavel.

  He had a smirky expression on his face. Clearly he and Morbain thought they had this in the bag. I would be more than happy to disabuse them of that notion.

  “Let it be known that the Council of Wisdom has summoned the True Incarnation for the purpose of—” he began but Kristoff interrupted him.

  “The Goddess-Empress is here as a courtesy to you, Head Councilor,” he said, stepping forward with a frown. “But you should not get into the habit of summoning her at your whim. When all is said and done, the Empress has authority over the Council of Wisdom and not the other way around, as you are well aware.”

  Tannus frowned. “And the Council is in good standing with the Majoran Royal peerage, as you are aware, Captain Verrai. Therefore don’t make threats you can’t carry through with.”

  “No one is making a threat here, Councilor Tannus,” I said, thinking it was high time I spoke up for myself. “Kristoff is simply letting you know that from now on if you want a meeting with me, you ask for one. Don’t just have a meeting and expect me to show up.”

  He glared at me and seemed about to speak but Morbain stepped forward, stroking his long mustache.

  “Now, now—there’s no need for enmity between the Empress and the Council. It’s simply been twelve hours since the Culling Ceremony—the traditional time limit for an Empress to announce her Consort following the Culling. Myself and the other, ah, candidates are assembled that you may choose between us.” He smirked at me and said in a lower voice. “Just trying to put you out of your misery, my dear. I don’t know how you’ve held out this long but by now you must be in absolute agony to have your, ah, Royal needs met. I stand ready to service you when you finally admit what you feel for me.”

  Kristoff growled possessively and stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword but I put a hand on his bicep.

  “It’s all right,” I said in a low voice. And then, lifting my chin, I addressed the Council. “I am happy to let the Council of Wisdom know who I would choose as my Consort,” I said.

  I saw Tannus and Morbain exchange a look of smug satisfac
tion.

  “Very well, True Incarnation,” Tannus said importantly. “Be so kind as to let us know which of these fine candidates will stand at your side during your Coronation ceremony tonight.”

  “None of them,” I said clearly, looking Tannus in the eyes. “I choose not to take a Consort.”

  “What?” Tannus exploded. “But this is most irregular!”

  “You cannot choose not to have a Consort,” Morbain protested.

  I ignored him and spoke to the head of the Council.

  “What’s most irregular is the way you tried to rig the Culling Ceremony last night,” I said, barely hanging on to my temper. “You tried your best to give me no choice as to who I would share my life and my throne with. As a consequence, I reject every candidate you so generously offered.”

  “You cannot choose another Royal,” Tannus said quickly. “The Council has ruled very firmly on that issue.”

  “I didn’t say I was going to choose another Royal,” I said, lifting my chin. “I said I wasn’t choosing one of your candidates. I will rule alone, the way the previous Goddess-Empress and Sundalla the 887th both did after their Consorts died.”

  “Sundalla the 887th?” Morbain’s eyes narrowed. “Now I know why the True Incarnation wants no Consort! She has formed a bond with this…this commoner.” He gestured at Kristoff with disgust, who glared back at him.

  “I never said—” I began, but Morbain was already shouting at Tannus.

  “Head Councilor, I insist that a test be made to see if this little slut has bonded herself to another male—a commoner male—without the Council’s permission!”

  “How dare you speak so of my Lady?” Kristoff surged forward, putting a dagger blade to Morbain’s throat. “The Goddess-Empress will not be thus spoken of in my presence on pain of death.”

  “She’s not the Goddess-Empress until the coronation,” Tannus said, raising his voice importantly. “And she will not be crowned unless the Council determines she is worthy. Dr. Churika, make the test.”

  The older woman came forward, frowning at me. She had a long, sharp pin in one hand and I wondered if she was intending to do some kind of a blood test.

  Kristoff stepped between us, glaring at her.

  “You will not pierce my Lady’s flesh, Churika. Especially not on the orders of these two vipers.” He glared at Tannus, whose eyebrows were extra-bushy with indignation and Morbain who was still puffed up with wounded pride.

  “Very well,” Churika said calmly. “Then I’ll pierce yours, Captain Verrai.”

  Quick as a snake, she sank the long sharp pin at least two inches deep into the big muscle of Kristoff’s upper arm.

  “Ouch!” I gasped and put a hand to my own upper arm. I couldn’t help it—I felt his pain. I knew Kristoff felt it too, though he stood there stoically, still blocking the way between me and the doctor.

  “See? Do you see that?” Morbain shouted excitedly. “She felt his pain! The True Incarnation has allowed herself to be bonded by a lowly Guard! She has broken our most sacred rule and allowed her Royal blood to mix with that of a commoner!”

  “Why is it a sacred rule?” I demanded, raising my voice to be heard above the babble. “So the Royals can keep feeling superior to everyone else in the Majoran Empire? Well I refuse to perpetuate this lopsided system and feed your fantasy of superiority! And I refuse to allow the Council of Wisdom to dictate to me and tell me who to spend the rest of my life with!”

  “Blasphemy! Heresy!” Tannus bugled, his eyebrows working frantically. “The True Incarnation rejects the wisdom of the Council openly!”

  “Because it’s not wisdom—it’s you and Morbain trying to rule through me!” I shouted back at him. “I’m not going to let you set up a puppet regime with me as the puppet!”

  “Then maybe it’s time for a change of regime.” Morbain was grinning evilly. “Maybe it’s time that the reign of the Goddess-Empresses came to an end and someone else of Royal blood stepped in and took control of the Empire.”

  “You cannot do that,” Kristoff growled at him. “To even speak of deposing the Goddess-Empress is to sign your own death warrant. As Captain of the Imperial Guards, I am within my rights to kill you here and now for having even uttered those words.”

  Morbain turned pale and backed up a step. “I’m only saying what everyone in this room and on the Council is thinking,” he said self-righteously.

  Unexpectedly, one of the Councilors spoke up. “Untrue—not all of the Council feel that way.” It was the young Councilor—the one with brownish-tan skin and matching brown eyes. “And what’s more, I want it known right now that I and the majority of the Council had nothing to do with choosing the Culling Ceremony candidates—Tannus and his subcommittee were the ones that deemed them appropriate although at least two of them clearly are not.” He nodded his head at me. “My apologies, your Majesty. I should have spoken up sooner.”

  “How dare you, Minchin?” Tannus rounded on the youngest Councilor. “You can tender your resignation to this Council immediately!”

  “Councilors, please! The issue isn’t the Council of Wisdom’s extremely impartial and fair choice of candidates for the Culling Ceremony,” Morbain said loudly. “It’s whether this little slut allowed herself to be bonded by a commoner—and Dr. Churika here has just proved that she has.”

  I looked in his eyes and suddenly knew he had planned this. He was the one who had left that scroll about Sundalla the 887th and her Guard for me to find. It was a safeguard—another way to depose me. If all his other plots failed, he could always claim that I had wrongfully joined myself to a commoner. I would have thought that I had played right into his hands but I had been falling in love with Kristoff long before I found the pornographic history scroll and began to draw parallels between that long ago Empress and her Guard and myself and Kristoff.

  Speaking of Kristoff, his face was nearly white with fury at Morbain’s inflammatory words.

  “I have warned you about speaking slanderously against my Lady, the Goddess-Empress. Now you die!” He surged forward again, only to be met by four of the Guards who were apparently loyal to either Morbain or Tannus blocking the way. “Stand back,” he growled at them. “Don’t make me kill you, Brothers. This male’s insolence and blasphemy must be answered for.”

  “I’m afraid you won’t have much luck convincing my personal guards to let you kill me,” Morbain remarked, grinning nastily from behind the safety of the four armed warriors. “You see, these four were hand-picked by me—all of them are members of the Male Liberation Movement. We are tired of the tyranny of females and it ends here and now—today, along with the dynasty of the Goddess-Empresses!”

  “You will never take my Lady’s rightful place on the throne, Morbain,” Kristoff snarled. “I’ll kill you with my own hands before I allow it.”

  “Let’s just take care of that then, shall we?” Morbain said. “Dr. Churika?”

  I looked around for the little doctor, realizing I had lost track of her. To my horror, she was on Kristoff’s other side and she had one of those futuristic hypodermic things in her hand.

  “Kristoff—watch out!” I gasped as she darted forward. He looked but on the wrong side and Churika had a clear shot at him. At the last moment, I was able to push her away from him but not before she jabbed the hypodermic with it’s hundreds of tiny needles into his thigh. I slapped it away, hoping against hope that I’d gotten it out of him before it could deliver its payload.

  At first I thought I’d succeeded but then he staggered.

  “My Lady…Charlotte,” he murmured, his voice hoarse.

  “Kristoff!” I felt like crying. “What did you give him?” I demanded, glaring at the Denarin doctor. “Whatever it was, I want the antidote right now!”

  “I merely gave him a sedative, child.” She gave me a condescending look. “The two of you appeared to be getting entirely too excited.”

  “How…could you?” Kristoff looked at her, his sword sagging. Cle
arly he was fighting for consciousness, trying his best to fight off the sedative she’d given him. I was pretty sure he hadn’t gotten a full dose but it was plainly enough to put him out of commission, at least for a while. “My old mistress…trusted you,” he said to the doctor. “How could you…side with Morbain?”

  “Sundalla the 999th never tried to change the entire order of the galaxy.” She frowned at him sternly. “And we’re not going to change it now. Morbain…” She turned to him. “You cannot depose the Goddess-Empress. No, Tannus,” she went on when the Head Councilor would have interrupted her. “And don’t start about how the Royals are all behind you. The common people are behind this girl.” She gestured at me disdainfully. “The vids of the Trials of Ascendancy have spread like wildfire among them and the Majoran people as a whole like having an Empress. You’ll never get enough support for a male dominated rule, no matter what you and Morbain think. You’ll only plunge the galaxy into civil war and I will not allow that. I promised Sundalla the 999th that I would help to keep peace in the palace and the galaxy and I intend to keep my word.”

  Wow…I looked at her, surprised. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all. But her next words chased that idea right out of my mind.

  “The old ways must be upheld no matter what!” She looked at me. “Which means you must choose one of the candidates from the Culling Ceremony. Since he is the only one of the correct age, it will have to be Morbain.”

  “What? No!” I exclaimed. “I wouldn’t choose him if he was the last man in the entire galaxy! Besides, I’m already bonded to Kristoff.”

  “I warned you about that.” She shook her head, looking sorrowfully at Kristoff, who was still barely on his feet. “I’m afraid that bond will have to be broken.”

  “You can’t do that,” I protested. “I thought nothing could break a bond once it was established!”

  “Nothing can—except death.” Dr. Churika looked up at Tannus. “Head Councilor, it is my professional medical opinion that Captain Kristoff Verrai must be put to death in order to nullify the bond between himself and the ascending Goddess-Empress, in order to clear the way for a proper bonding for her.”