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“What’s going on?” she said.
Emana laughed and slapped her knee.
“You believed Titans snap each other’s arms to demand an apology!” she said, and wiped the tears out of her eyes. “Oh, that is good. That is really, really good.”
Sirena folded her arms.
“Well, how was I supposed to know?” she said. “You guys do heal faster than normal.”
“That doesn’t mean we like pain!” Emana said, leaving to go tell Aunzika about her gag.
“I told you,” I said to Sirena, “you get used to her.”
“Sir?” a local Titan said. “We found these Changelings trying to pass themselves off as Titan locals.”
A group of Titans dragged an unwilling trio of Changelings before me. They had not practiced mimicking us and their work was sloppy. Their noses were droopy and long, their ears even worse. They looked like bread taken out of the oven too early.
The first Changeling morphed into his original shape. It was a helper. He dropped to his knees and extended his hands to me pathetically. The second Changeling did the same.
“So, you must be S’lec-Quos,” I said to the final melted Titan. “Show yourself. We won’t hurt you.”
The last Changeling morphed into another helper. It fooled me for a moment… until I realized he was a duplicate of the first helper. He looked at me coyly before shutting his eyes and assuming his original form.
“What are you going to do with us?” S’lec-Quos said. “Don’t forget, we were very merciful with you. We could have killed you at any time—”
“You were going to kill me!” I barked.
The Changelings whimpered and backed away. They weren’t so tough when they didn’t have their guards and war frigate to back them up.
“Take them to the cells,” I said. “I’ll decide what to do with them later.”
The Changelings struggled but they were no match for their Titan captors.
“Look,” Sirena said.
She motioned to something on the fringes of the forest. A figure I knew very well waved an arm back at me. It was Qale. The rightful heir to the castle.
A Titan female stood at his side with her arms wrapped around him. Qale kissed her on the top of the head and smiled as he led her into the forest.
I could understand why he wanted to leave the mantel behind. I was inclined to do the same thing, but now that I wasn’t quite so hated by my people, I thought I could do pretty well as a lord.
“When are you going to tell Emana her eldest brother is still alive?” Sirena said.
“At the most opportune moment,” I said.
“You mean when it’s funniest?” Sirena said. “I swear, I’ll never understand Titan humor.”
“Come on,” I said. “We’ve got an empire to rebuild. And I’m going to need you by my side to do it.”
“I’m at your command, my lord,” Sirena said with a strange movement of her body I could only describe as a bow.
“You’re never at my command,” I said. “You are at my pleasure.”
“Amen to that.”
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