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Or has the Creator granted me this miracle? A second chance at unbridled happiness?
And will I be strong enough to accept the offer?
2
KAL
Our shuttlecraft touched down behind the emperor’s palatial residence. Except now, of course, it no longer belonged to our emperor. It belonged to theirs.
“I just don’t like it,” Zes said, taking point and leading me down the ramp. His eyes swiveled in his square skull, looking for dangers around every corner. “A lord’s bodyguard should be allowed to check the location is clear before he enters it.”
“Why are you talking about me in the third person?” I said.
“Because that’s what one does when one talks about people of noble birth, doesn’t one?” Zes said. He frowned, managing to confuse himself. “My point is, I should be allowed to go inside and check to make sure it’s safe before you do.”
“You are going inside before I do,” I said. “The other lords didn’t bring their guards with them. They brought their wives.”
“And I appreciate the invitation,” Zes said. “But it’s not what I mean…”
“I understand what you mean,” I said.
He’d always worried about me and my brother too much.
“If it’s any consolation,” I said. “If they wanted us dead, we would be already.”
“That’s your bright side?”
“Right now, it’s the only bright side we have,” I said.
Dozens of shuttlecraft similar to ours sat with the guards standing uselessly around them.
The lord and ladies were dressed in their finest traditional Titan costumes. Males wore thin leather armor studded with hooks and special compartments where our ancestors would have stored knives, swords, spare bucklers, any and every type of weapon you could imagine. Titans were, after all, a warrior race. Now, they sported flowers, jewels, and other decorations. My own boasted important minerals we mined on our various colonies, and polished gems that came from our homeworld’s breast.
The ladies wore their own armor, smaller but more flexible than the males’. Once upon a time, male and female Titans fought side by side. ‘When a blade is at your door, it doesn’t matter what sex you are,’ was the popular Titan expression.
I watched the lords lead their ladies toward the huge palace perched on the hill. I glanced at the conspicuous hole my dearly departed wife had once occupied.
She was the most beautiful Titan on any of our colonies. She was slim, feminine, but tough as nails. She only agreed to marry me because I was second in line to the Taw fortune. She never wanted a life in the spotlight.
Neither did I.
I guess nobody ever got what they want.
Except for the Changelings. They were getting their heart’s desire. The Titan empire.
At least my wife would never have to put up with the spotlight. I felt sad. She would have shined brighter than the sun.
“Come on,” I said.
We approached the magnificent palace—the seat of power in the Titan empire. Each successive emperor had a new section constructed to celebrate our growing power and influence. With how often construction took place, it was no surprise the emperor rarely resided at the palace and preferred instead to stay at one of his smaller castles.
That was why the Changelings had failed to kill him outright. They didn’t understand Titan culture. This palace was more of a museum than somewhere to live.
No one knew if our emperor was still alive. We were forbidden to search him out. One whiff we were still loyal to him and the game would be up. And so we waited each day, listening patiently for news that the Changelings had discovered him, that he’d been put to death.
Our hopes for salvation would die with him.
He was the only chance we had of forcing the Changelings from our homeworld and mining colonies.
