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“What am I?”
“You are my mate.”
She sighed again. “No, I meant what am I now that you’ve … er … killed the emperor? I mean, Captain Ashtul addressed you as the new emperor, so what does that make me? Your concubine?”
She closed her eyes as her brain kicked into high gear. Knowing what little she did, Louella figured that the male dominated culture of Ahn’hudin didn’t have empresses. From what little she’d managed to glean, females had few to no rights, only privileges.
“You are my mate,” he repeated, not understanding her question.
However, Louella needed clarification, definition. “But what will people call me? Mrs. Yas’kihn?”
“I do not understand,” he admitted, her words not translating into a concept he comprehended. He stroked his palm over her bald scalp. As he opened his mouth to speak, the healer arrived.
Yas’kihn stepped back to allow the healer access to his precious mate. Louella opened her eyes and said nothing as the Kaanian healer entered the room. He watched closely as the male touched Louella and listened closely as he asked her questions which she patiently answered. After a short time, the healer stepped away from her and addressed him.
“Your Majesty, your mate appears to be malnourished and weak as well as pregnant, but I have been apprised of her recent and unfortunate tribulations. I prescribe rest and plenty of nourishing food within tranquil surroundings. Perhaps you might make use of the garden while you are here?”
“Thank you,” Yas’kihn replied. “However, we cannot tarry long here. We must return to Ahn’hudin with haste.”
The healer nodded. “I understand your urgency, Your Majesty. Perhaps you would consider allowing your mate to remain here—”
“No.”
“—to recuperate and rejoin you later?”
“No.”
The healer clasped his hands and bowed his head. “Then I most strongly advise you to delay your departure for at least one full day. The female requiresrestandquiet.”
“Please, Jax?” Louella pleaded, feeling weary to her bones. “Give me just one full day to recuperate?”
Yas’kihn nodded. “We will delay departure until this time the day after tomorrow.”
So let it be written, so let it be done, Louella thought in a snide tone. She sighed and murmured, “Thank you.”
Once again, she closed her eyes, this time welcoming the oblivion of restful slumber. The healer and Yas’kihn watched her for a moment, then exited the room to find that Captain Ashtul had stationed a guard at the door. Yas’kihn nodded his approval and ordered the guard to allow none but himself into the room and not to let his mate leave except under his escort. Then he fixed the healer with a yellow glare and demanded to be guided to wherever the priest and the other traitor had been detained.
Pursing his lips in annoyance, the healer led the new emperor down four long corridors and three staircases to a subterranean dungeon where he transferred the hulking Ahn’hudi warrior to the guidance of a guard. Though kept meticulously clean, the prison nonetheless felt cold and damp. The traitor and the priest occupied adjacent cells.
The Ahn’hudi noble who had been spared raised his head at Yas’kihn’s approach and sneered, “The usurper comes. Will you take my head, too?”
“Gudren challenged me for my mate and lost. He acted with dishonor,” Yas’kihn replied. “By the ancient laws of our people what was his is now mine to claim—” he bent forward to lock the noble’s eyes with his own hard stare “—and I claim the crown and orb.”
The traitor seemed to shrink before the former general superior’s dominance.
Yas’kihn straightened and added, “You and the priest will speak of Gudren’s dishonorable challenge to the Solari Council and confirm my victory over him and those who betrayed me.”
He did not doubt the truth would be told, because no one lied to the Solari priests who could not themselves speak falsely. Legends of their ability to detect and compel truth were based in fact. In his long career, Yas’kihn had witnessed it.
The priest in the next cell piped up. “Lord Ulm’gaat, protest no more. Emperor Yas’kihn won the crown and orb honorably and without question.”
“Without question? Hah! He involved the warriors of Kaan!”
“And Gudren failed to meet Yas’kihn in honorable combat, but ordered his warriors to attack him,” the priest pointed out. He turned his greenish eyes toward his new emperor and bowed. “Your Majesty, accept my surrender and my loyalty, for I raised neither weapon nor word against you, but sought only to serve my people.”
Yas’kihn nodded and wondered if the priest spoke so to save his own life.He bears watching. Clergy are a tricky, slick-tongued sort.He turned to the Kaanian guard who lurked nearby. “Take me to the emperor’s ship.”
The guard bowed and turned on his heel. Yas’kihn followed him. His strength had begun to lag when they reached the docking station where the guard handed him off to a Kaanian official. He exhaled in relief to see the imperial ship remained docked.
