Purity (Pure and Tainted) (26 page)

Chapter Nineteen

“Well this is just ridiculous,” Boone muttered, staring out at the
huge crowd and the richly uniformed Erian soldiers who had been sent to meet
them. They were standing on the gangplank of the ship which was currently
docked in the main bay
of Lunestra, the capital
city of the entire planet. Loki was on one side, preening for the crowd and
bowing to everyone and K was on his other side, keeping well back and away from
the press of people crowding around them.

For the life of him, Boone couldn’t understand how it had all
happened so quickly. But of course, the whole thing was Loki’s fault. From the
moment Boone had finally dragged him up from his prostate position on the floor
of the sleeping quarters, the pilot had been babbling about a stolen princess
and the blessed triple rings.

Loki had been falling all over himself to apologize to K and kept
calling her princess until Boone was afraid she might pull out the wickedly
curved blade he’d seen her with that morning and slit the effete pilot from
groin to gizzard. As a matter of fact, he
wasn’t far from
wanting
to gut Loki himself—the moment they finally got rid of him and got
some peace, Loki had apparently jumped on the communicator and blabbed
everything to anyone who would listen.
Which had resulted in
the current crowded conditions outside their ship.

Boone’s main impulse was to turn around and go back into the ship
but they couldn’t stay there forever, especially not with K entering her cycle.
Also, he had an uneasy feeling they wouldn’t be allowed to go back. The Erian
soldiers had on gorgeous, flamboyant uniforms but they were still armed to the
teeth. Somehow Loki had managed to involve the local government as well as
drawing a crowd.

“Boone,” K whispered at his back. “What do they want? What are
they all talking about and why are they all staring at me?”

“Got no idea, darlin’,” he murmured. “But don’t worry—just stick
close to me. I’ll keep you safe.”

“I can protect myself,” she objected sharply. But Boone noticed
that when he took her hand, she didn’t try to pull away. In fact, she entwined
their fingers and held on tight, pressing close as though she wanted to
disappear into his shadow.

It wasn’t surprising that such a loud, vibrant crowd would upset
her, he thought. Though the Purists’ home world of Athena was densely
populated, it could hardly be described as a party planet—at least to hear K tell
it. And everyone knew that the most frightening thing about the Purist Paladin
squads was the way they fought in almost total silence, like a well oiled
machine whose parts didn’t even have to speak to each other to work
effectively.

In contrast the crowd greeting them on Eros was loud, rowdy and
colorful. Everywhere he looked Boone saw painted faces, gaudy costumes and
outrageous hairstyles. Both men and women wore make-up and jewelry aplenty. The
whole scene reminded Boone of old vids he’d seen of Earth-that-was documenting
an ancient street celebration. What was the name of it again? Oh yes—Marti
Gras.

Suddenly an elaborate gold and purple coach rolled to a stop a few
hundred feet from the ship’s gangplank. It looked like something out of a fairy
tale, right down to the prancing white horses with plum colored plumes attached
to their bridles. The animals snorted and stamped their hooves which glittered
in the bright Eros sunshine. Boone stared at them—did they actually have on
golden
horse shoes?

Before he could consider the extravagant display, two footmen in
gold and purple livery jumped down from the back of the coach and put long
silver trumpets to their mouths. A trilling fanfare rang out and the crowd’s
babble fell to a dull roar as a sense of excited expectation filled the air.

Boone couldn’t take much more. “Loki,” he muttered in his pilot’s
ear. “What exactly did you bring down on us? What is all this pomp and
circumstance bullshit?”

“Isn’t it
amazing
?” Loki
looked at him, his eyes shining. “I have a cousin who works in the royal palace
who knows the under-gardener, who fucks the chambermaid,
who’s
best friends with the empress’s hairdresser, who of course, has the empress’s
ear. So I was able to get word to her almost at once.”

“Get word of
what?”
Boone
wanted to strangle his friend out of sheer frustration. “Just what the hell did
you tell them?”

Loki frowned. “Why, that K is the lost princess, of course. What
else?”

“Lost princess? What are you talking about?” Boone demanded. But
just then an officious little man with a pointed blue goatee which matched his
elaborately tailored waistcoat and trousers came prancing up the gangplank.

“Ahem.” He came to a stop in front of Boone and nodded his head.
“I am Pontillius Grabar, her majesty’s Grand Viceroy and I am here to see the
one claiming to be the lost princess.”

“Nobody’s claiming anything,” Boone growled. He could feel K shivering
behind him, overcome by the noise and the crowds, and a wave of protective
possessiveness washed over him. She hadn’t asked for any of this, damn it!

“Oh, yes they are—
we
are, I mean.” Loki stepped forward and made an elaborate bow which the little
man with the blue beard barely acknowledged. “I believe that this female…” He
pointed to K who was still standing behind Boone. “Is in fact and indeed the
princess who was stolen from her room in the royal palace so many years
ago.
”

“Is that so?” The little man frowned. “You had better be correct,
my dear fellow. The empress had been searching for years for her one and only
daughter and she
does
not take disappointment well.”

Loki went pale. “You won’t be disappointed, your eminence, I swear
it. Just look at her—look at her eyes.”

“Very well.”
The Grand Viceroy beckoned to K.
“Come here, my dear. Come out where I can see you.”

For a moment Boone thought she wasn’t going to come. Then she
stepped out from behind him, head held high, and took a step forward.

“I am no princess,” she said clearly, her voice rising above the
murmur of the crowd. “I am a fourth class Paladin.”

An excited murmur ran among the crowd, people picking up K’s words
and passing them along.
A Paladin—she
says she’s a Paladin. What—you mean like a Purist? Oh my Goddess, the lost
princess is a Purist!

The Grand Viceroy stared at her for a long time before speaking.

“You may have been raised as a Paladin, my dear, but you most
certainly were not born one. We will have to have some DNA tests to be for certain,
but I believe that you are the one we have been looking for.”

Before Boone could protest, the Grand Viceroy turned to the gold
and purple carriage and nodded. The two footmen in livery blew another blast on
their trumpets and several of the soldiers quickly rolled out a lush purple
carpet which started at the steps of the carriage and reached all the way up
the gangplank of the ship right to Boone’s feet.

The carriage opened and a tall female with long black hair done up
in
a
elaborate style that involved golden braids and
expensive looking diamond netting stepped slowly down. She had the same strong
but delicate facial features as K and her eyes were the same violet with a
triple golden ring. Her elaborate, jewel encrusted dress rustled richly as she strode
in a slow, stately manner down the purple velvet carpet.

“What’s the matter with you?” Loki hissed at Boone, breaking his
contemplation of the elegant female who had to be the Empress of Eros. “Bow
before her majesty! And never look directly at her—especially not her face!”

Boone suddenly realized that everyone in the crowd, including the
soldiers and the footmen and even the Grand Viceroy, were bowing low, their
foreheads nearly touching the ground as the empress approached. Only he and K were
left standing in what was probably a huge breach of Erian etiquette.

Reluctantly, he got down on one knee and tugged at K’s hand.

“C’mon, K.
When in Rome.”

“No.” K shook off his hand, refusing to get down or even to bow.
Instead, she faced the approaching empress head-on, a look of fierce
concentration on her face.

The empress continued walking, never giving any sign that what K was
doing was wrong, though everyone around them was bowing low. Boone watched,
unable to help himself, as the two women finally came face to face. He kept
expecting them to talk, to say something—anything. And there was certainly
something to say—the resemblance between them was undeniable. K could have been
a younger version of the empress they looked so much alike.

At last K spoke. “Mother?” she whispered, her voice breaking on
the second syllable. “Are you…is that you?”

The empress’s expression remained stern but tears filled her violet
and gold ringed eyes.

“Krissana, my darling,” she murmured. “You’ve come home.”

* * * * *

The next few hours were like a blur to K and not just because she
was being bundled along with Boone—who she refused to let go of—into the
elaborate gold and purple coach and taken to a ridiculously ornate palace. All
of it—the jostling, shouting crowds, the overwhelming richness of her new
surroundings, the strongly perfumed interior of the coach—was eclipsed by the
memories that were pouring into her head, like water from a broken dam.

This road—I recognize it. I
remember riding along it when I was little. But everything was so much bigger
then.
But the road
hadn’t gotten smaller—it was just that she had grown, K realized. And it had
been over twenty cycles since she saw the place.

When they pulled up in front of the Empress’s palace, a huge
gilded affair with massive purple columns carved of some rich alien marble, she
grabbed Boone’s arm.

“What, darlin’?” he asked in an undertone, casting a glance at the
Empress who was sitting quietly across from them. “What is it?”

“The…the columns,” K choked, staring out the glazed windows of the
coach. “I remember…I used to hide behind them and my nurse would try to find
me. We made a game of it. Sometimes the guards played too if no one was
watching. I remember laughing…
laughing,
Boone.
I remember being…happy.
So happy.”

“Yes, you always were a cheerful child,” the Empress remarked from
the other seat. “Everyone in the palace loved your sunny personality.”

Loki, who had also been dragged into the coach along with them
nearly choked.
“Sunny personality?”

The Empress turned a cold eye upon him.

“Indeed, commoner.
Does that amuse you?”

“Not at all, your highness.”
Loki attempted to bow and nearly
knocked his head against the ornately carved door handle of the coach. “Forgive
me. It’s just that—”

“It’s just that K, well, she hasn’t had a whole lot of happiness
in her life,” Boone finished for him. “Or, well, any emotion for that matter.”

“Ah yes, the emotionless state of
complete and utter Purity.”
The Empress nodded as K stared at her, wide-eyed. “Yes, my dear Krissana,
I know the Precepts of Purity. The Purists are our enemies—it behooves me to
know their beliefs and motivations.”

“I am a fourth level Paladin,” K said, trying to keep her voice
from shaking. “I fear nothing, I feel nothing.”

“No, my darling—you are a princess. Stolen from your bed when you
were only five cycles old,” the Empress corrected gently.

“Look, your majesty,” Boone said. “I’m sorry but this is all news
to us. K is just a Paladin I captured to try and help me get my sister back
from the pshalite mines on Midas. Her eyes were black on black until last night
so we had no idea—”

“And why did her eyes revert to their true color?” the Empress cut
in, her voice harsh. “What exactly did you do to her, giant?”

“Boone helped me,” K squeezed his hand tight.

“She, uh, started her cycle, your majesty,” Loki supplied. “She
was growing desperate.”

“And you let her bond sexually with a non-Erian? With a giant?”
the Empress snapped. “Why did you not at least try to help her yourself? True
you are a grubby little commoner but even that is better than letting some
alien—”

“There was no bonding involved,” Boone cut in quietly. His cheeks
grew red but he refused to look away from the Empress. “I simply helped K, um,
take the edge off.”

“Not that it is any of your business,” K interjected, lifting her
chin. Purity but this would be so much easier if the memories didn’t keep
crowding into her head like noisy guests all shouting for her attention. She
remembered the woman across from her—remembered fearing her regal beauty, being
forced to sit beside her at state dinners on a tiny, raised golden
throne—always on her best behavior. Remembered—

“Of course it is my business whom you form a sexual life bond
with, Krissana,” the Empress snapped, looking irritated. “Your consort must be
of royal blood if you hope to rule the planet when I am gone.”