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“If I have one, I’ll have ten,” she said.
Damn. I hope my disappointment wasn’t too obvious.
“But you can walk me to my room if you’d like?” she said.
“Sure!” The word was out before I summoned it.
I took a step forward and almost lost my feet. I braced myself on the bar.
Sirena chuckled.
“That is, if you can manage to get that far,” she said.
“I’m fine!” I said. “I just… need to get my sea legs under me, that’s all.”
I glanced at Zes as we sailed past him. I really should wake him up…
And have him ruin these few private minutes I would share with her? Dream on. I’d come back for him later.
I extended my elbow to her. She smiled and took it. Her arm tucked in nicely around my bulging muscles. I held her gently, like a paper flower. I walked with my head held high, the way I used to with my wife. She’d been the most beautiful woman in any room we visited too.
I took her toward the elevators but she resisted.
“No,” she said. “Let’s take the stairs. I doubt I’ll ever get to see this palace again.”
We ascended the wide set of red-carpeted stairs. I loved how Sirena walked slowly, peering at the items lined along the walls as if it were a museum. I wished I was more knowledgeable about our culture so I could explain it to her. The plaques gave much better information than I ever could. But there was one thing the plaques could never divulge…
I led her to the banister.
“Look down there,” I said, pointing to the rectangular first floor.
She looked.
“At what?” she said.
“This room is the oldest part of the entire palace,” I said.
“Really? How do you know that?”
“Because I used to play here with the young prince when we were both boys.”
“You played with the prince?”
I shrugged.
“I was brought here by my father when I was very young,” I said. “I came here to study, and he came to my home sometimes too. And when we were here, his nanny told us about this room. This was the original palace. It only had two small bedrooms.”
“How did it get to be so big?”
“As our empire expanded, so did the palace,” I said. “Until it became as you see now. Our ancestors were great miners. Once we conquered space, we used their skills and techniques to mine other worlds. The bigger we became, the more we mined, and the more we could trade with other cultures across the galaxy.”
“Wow,” Sirena said. “You must be really proud of your culture.”
My chest swelled.
“I am,” I said. “We all are.”
“I heard some lords speaking earlier about what happened here today,” Sirena said. “They said the Titans lost a war and the lords and ladies had to pledge allegiance to the conquerors. Is that true?”
