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Swallowing, Aru nodded. "It has to stay between the two of us. No one else can find out."
Kian lifted a brow. "Not even the heir to the throne if she decides to join your cause?"
"For now, I need your word that it stays between us. If further down the line we need to include the princess, we will."
Aru
Aru had as much as admitted that Kian had guessed correctly, but he couldn't go the final step and tell him more.
"Let's assume that I can communicate with someone. I'm not saying I do, but if I could, what would you like to say to them?"
Kian let out a breath. "I don't know. I don't want my mother anywhere near the resistance, but it's not my call to make. She's still the head of the clan, and I answer to her. What I want to know is what their response was to the revelation that a legitimate heir to the throne lives on Earth."
Tension radiated from the immortal, and Aru could understand why. Kian was protecting his loved ones as best he could.
"I didn't get a response yet, but I assume it would be greeted with jubilation. The person that this information will be delivered to will protect it with their lives. You have nothing to fear from them."
"Is it the queen? Ahn's mother?"
Kian's guesses were too accurate for Aru's comfort.
"I can't confirm or deny because I'm not privy to that information."
Kian chuckled. "Should I call Andrew over and verify that statement?"
Damn. Aru had forgotten about the truth-reader.
He shook his head. "The same way you are protecting yours, I am protecting mine. I will not say more. I cannot."
"I understand." Kian took a puff of his cigar. "I'm anxious to hear their response, and I'm even more anxious about my mother's reaction to it. She's reckless, especially when she believes in a cause, and she believes in yours."
"And you don't?"
Kian shrugged. "I don't know enough to pass judgment. The Eternal King has kept the gods in line for hundreds of thousands of years. Who knows what would have happened with someone else at the helm? I've seen enough examples of rulers who were too decent for the good of their people, and in the end, the people suffered. I've also seen rulers who weren't good and restricted their people's freedoms. Still, once they were removed from power, the so-called liberators became much worse monsters. I don't think my mother can be ruthless enough for people to fear her, and therefore keep the peace. The most important thing for a ruler to realize is what kind of enemies they have and in what way those enemies will respond to them. As human history indicates, enemies raise their heads when they perceive weakness."
"The gods don't have enemies."
Kian smiled. "Right now, they don't because the Eternal King rules mercilessly over them. With a weaker ruler at the helm, factions might break away from the collective and form their own countries or planets or whatever. Wars could start over resources, over colonies, over ideologies, and the Fates know what else. Take us and the Brotherhood. We are the same people, and we both need to hide from the humans, but Navuh and his mercenary army want to annihilate us, and there is nothing we can do to change their minds about it. We can either hide, fight, or die. Those are our only three options. And since we can't fight a force so much larger than us, we must choose the first option."
"What about technology?" Aru asked. "Can't you get a leg up with that? From what I have observed, brute force is no longer the determining factor. Whoever controls the technology wins."
"Only to a certain degree." Kian finished the last dregs of the whiskey. "Besides, Navuh realized the same thing, and now his focus is to bring his forces to the twenty-first century, and soon we won't have even that advantage."
Aru didn't envy Kian his position. It seemed hopeless.
"Why does he want to eliminate your clan?"
"Different ideology. We want peace and prosperity for all; he wants to dominate and subjugate. It also serves his agenda to have a handy scapegoat to rally his troops." He gave Aru a sad smile. "That's actually the one speck of light in the dark. He might not want to do away with us completely because he would lose his scapegoat. Humans are not a good substitute for a hated enemy."
"The Kra-ell are," Aru said.
"He doesn't know about them. Not yet, anyway. I hope it stays that way."
Aru finished his drink and took another puff of his cigar. "You need the resistance to establish its headquarters here and to be on your side. That's why you are willing to help us."
Kian nodded. "It's one of the reasons. I'm much more afraid of the Eternal King than of Navuh's Brotherhood. Given what you've told me, though, it might take thousands of years before the resistance makes a move, and it might be too late for us."
"Then we need to impress upon the resistance leaders the urgency of the situation on Earth. The heir's survival could be at stake if they don't act more swiftly."
