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“It is.” Baris pushed off the wall. He crossed the small room to stand directly in front of her. His front eyes focused on her alone. “The palace has been retrofitted to be a modern facility, but issues remain. It was originally the residence of my, let’s see, great uncle. The brother to my grandmother, Queen Taras. He was king for nearly half a day before dear grandmother poisoned him.”
“What?” she asked, lulled by the juicy story into forgetting her mistrust.
“By all accounts, he was cruel and would have been a tyrant. Grandmother was more of a benevolent tyrant. She converted his palace into a charitable hospital out of spite. She spent more converting the old palace than it would have cost to build new. Even now, the building is drafty. The cost of upkeep is staggering.”
“But spite.” She got it. Lenore took all the charger cables with her when she moved out. Childish? Absolutely. Satisfying knowing that Brad wouldn’t be able to charge his phone and would tear the house apart looking for nonexistent cables? Very.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“See, all that sounds too good to be true,” she said. “We’ve got a saying on Earth—if it’s too good to be true, it is. So what’s your angle?”
“My angle?”
“What are you getting out of this? Are you trying to punish me because I said no?”
He blinked. “How is this a punishment?”
Lenore tossed up her hands. “I don’t know! It’s controlling. Manipulative. I can’t imagine why you’d go through the trouble, but you just told me about the spite hospital, so yeah. Punishment.”
His eyes narrowed and his fingers flexed. For a moment, the mask slipped, and Lenore saw a man who was genuinely offended. “Perhaps I want to recruit a highly skilled medic. Humans are popular in the media, so I am told. The public is fascinated with your story. A human medic will bring me prestige. A human medic at the academy, seen by the public, and one who attends to all the residents of the palace will keep the media’s attention for at least a season.”
“And if they’re watching me, they’re not watching you,” Lenore said, understanding. “I’m a distraction.”
“You’re an opportunity,” he clarified. “My reign has not lasted this long because I let opportunities slip by.”
Lenore rubbed her tender wrist, thinking. His reasoning was mercenary but honest. “You’re not trying to get me to change my mind about the marriage thing?”
“You declined and made your feelings quite clear.”
“Yeah, but that’s not saying you respect my decision.”
Baris’ hand rose, as if he would reach for her, but he drew back. When he spoke, he dropped the politician’s smoothness. “I apologize for that oversight. I respect your decision and will not try to sway you otherwise.”
The apology was barebones but sincere. It soothed her bruised ego. She believed him.
“Okay. I’ll take the job. Shake on it.” Lenore stuck out her right hand.
BARIS
Baris looked at her outstretched hand with confusion. She wiggled her hand, clearly waiting for…something. Lightly, he pressed the palm of his hand to hers. This appeared to be the correct action. A smile spread across her hand as her hand wrapped around his.
“Explain why we touch hands,” he said.
“It’s how we seal a deal on Earth. It’s tradition.”
“My word is enough,” he said, filled with the confidence of authority that came from a lifetime of unquestioning obedience.
“For crying out loud—” Lenore pumped his hand up and down. “Baby’s first handshake.”
“This ritual does not inspire confidence in the legally binding nature of our agreement,” he said. “Must it be this hand?”
Lenore glanced down, and her eyes widened as she realized she held his thumbless hand. He prepared himself for her to drop his hand immediately and the revulsion that would surely follow.
It did not come. Instead, she continued to smile and pump his hand up and down. His hand was just another hand. He appreciated the point she was trying to prove, but it seemed excessive.
“Yes, it must be this hand,” she said. “The right hand is dominant for about ninety percent of all humans. Also, there’s superstitious nonsense about the right and left hand.” Another pump. “The left hand is sinister, which…okay, you don’t need a lesson in Latin. That’s an ancient language, by the way, that no one uses except for the sciences and medicine. We love Latin. Anyway, the left hand is evil, but the right hand is good.”
Another pump.
