The Melier: Home World (Women of Dor Nye Book 2) (28 page)

Medic Tuzon assured her the fast developments were
normal
, and belated by Melier growth standards.

“I just hope he wakes soon to prove it,” Lu sighed, finally shoving a tasteless bite into her mouth, as she stirred from her own thoughts. “He said he had
news
…” she said after swallowing.

“What news would a guard have for you?” Val’Qa asked curiously, and Lu noticed the often pretentious undertone he had when speaking to her, on the few occasions, was almost nonexistent.

He simply sounded curious.  

“I wish I knew,” she replied, recalling the events, like she’d done a million times in the last day, to try and maybe piece together or guess at what he was going to say. “Nothing has been overly strange lately, and the last time we spoke…”

Lucia’s voice trailed as she recalled how she had felt at ease around Ishka. She could literally count on her fingers how few Meliers’ regarded her as kindly and equally as he had.

“All I know is that in the few times we talked, he was always friendly. In my current position that means a lot more to me than it may to someone else.”

“Loo-Sha,” Soren said clearing his throat, “what happened when you talked to him before the shooting that gives you the impression he is innocent? As Val’Zun mentioned, it is too convenient.”

Lu frowned at Soren, knowing he was just trying to ascertain the truth, but it still frustrated her how everyone seemed to call into question Ishka’s motives.

“Well it happened so quickly… I remember I began to greet him, but he interrupted me, stating he had news. Before he could say anything more, something caught his gaze behind me. I didn’t see what, or who, but could tell by his face. And then… and then he was bleeding.” Lu rubbed her fingers together absently, though they were no longer slippery with crimson.

“That still does not prove lack of ill will.” Val’Zun claimed blandly. “If anything that is more suspicious.”

“
Seriously?
” Lu stormed, her emotions getting the better of her. “If you were going to try a stunt like that, why would you take the bullet yourself? Why wouldn’t you just drag the person into a conversation, and slowly steer them where you wanted so they could get hit? How the
hell
does getting yourself shot accomplish anything? It makes absolutely
no
sense.”

“To erase any uncertainty,” Zun argued. “It is quite genius, as he would be ruled out as a sus--”

“
I can take no more!” Gi’Calla exclaimed, rising so quickly from her chair it toppled backward and
thunked
against the floor.

A heavy silence fell over the private dining hall, and no one seemed to even breathe, except Gi’Calla who was near panting with rage.

“If you had simply
died
during the first attempt, he would not have been shot at all. I would have never resorted to allowing
Trepnils
upon Melierun, and so many others would not be dead now,” Gi’Calla screeched.

“No,” the queen gasped, disbelief shifting her demeanor.

“All day long it is Ishka this, and Ishka that. He holds no significance; nothing more than a simple guard! But
you
,” she seethed, her nostrils flaring with every shuddery, angered breath inhaled. “To think that you could come to
our
world, live amongst
our
people. The sheer audacity to think you would ever be welcome here is laughable!”

Clicking, menacing growls permeated the room, sending wary shivers up Lucia’s spine, but her focus was too shocked to fasten on anything except Gi’Calla’s hostility.

“Why Val’Ja ever mated a lowly, spineless creature will always evade me, and then to
breed
with one too.”

She swiped her right arms through the air to gesture at Lenny, but her enraged gaze never left Lucia.

“The mere sight of that whiney little
wretch
disgusts me.”

“That is
enough
!” Gi’Moy bellowed, shaking Lu from her shock stricken trance. 

Lucia looked around to see with relief that she wasn’t the only one taken aback by Gi’Calla’s outburst. She glanced at the faces of the family she had begun to think she could trust.

“I…” Lu stammered. She was absolutely floored that someone
within
the royal family could hate her so much as to want to have her killed.

“I should have just done it myself to begin with,” Gi’Calla simmered, disregarding the queens command. “Just
die
already!”

Horrified, Lucia jerked away, plastering herself to the back of her chair as Gi’Calla grabbed a knife from the table and lunged at her, only to be intercepted by a snarling Gi’Ren, who expertly knocked the blade from her hand before forcefully slamming her faced down onto the table. He pinned her there with one meaty fist around the back of her neck as she yowled and snapped her teeth at him.

Once more Gi’Moy spoke, her voice cold and authoritative. It almost made the hairs on her neck stand up.

“What you have said, is this truth?” Though her tone was frosty, her eyes bespoke betrayal on a bone deep level. “You endangered your family, the
people
, the whole of Melierun,” her voice rose as she continued. “You have grossly deceived everyone, and used your position to be dishonorable.”

The queen’s shoulders tremored as if she was thoroughly disgusted, but her lips quivered as she realized her own offspring, whom she held dear to her heart, had defiled the crown, their family, and the people, in her pursuit of prejudice.

“Words cannot describe the repulsion I feel, to know that my own blood was capable of inciting such vulnerability to those she was born to protect.”

Gi’Calla stopped fighting against Gi’Ren, and panted with exertion.

“You
shame
me,” Gi’Moy said gravely.

Quietly, Gi’Moy looked across at Lucia, and then back to Gi’Calla. Raising her hand she made a small motion and two of her personal guards fell into place beside her.

“Take Princess Gi’Calla to her suite. She is not to leave until I have given the order.”

Ren released her, and she stood and turned to leave as the guards fell in line behind her, hands on weapons.

Silence gripped the room, the surprise holding everyone hostage.

Several moments passed as the remaining dinner companions slowly reanimated, shaking themselves of the startling discovery.

Every attempt on her life…

Gi’Calla.

Lucia didn’t understand. The princess wanted to be
friends
with her. She had been kind, if a little reserved, whenever they interacted. How was it possible she would go to such lengths as to allow the
Treps
, their enemy, to invade, all in hopes they would kill
her
.

It was
extreme
.

Beyond
extreme.

All of it had been lies. Her offer of friendship, her interest in Dor Nye, or anything to do with humans; it was all a sham.

Chapter 22

The next week was a blur, as the weight of what was truly happening, sunk in. The palace was a chaotic mess once news spread Gi’Calla was under guard while an investigation was conducted. Many individuals, guards especially, were interrogated about the princess.

Civilly, thankfully. No one was whipping confessions from them.

Lucia was a jumble of emotions. She felt relief that the threat on her life was no more,
hopefully
, but angry, saddened, and surprised the entire time it had been Gi’Calla, and the lengths she’d gone to achieve her goal.

One of Lenny’s claws scratched Lu’s arm, snapping her out of her silent contemplation. A tiny welt began to rise, and she gently grasped the younglings’ hand, eyeing her little fingers.

“I just clipped these last night,” she said incredulously, the opaque white claws lengthening just a little more under her gaze as Lenny giggled like it was funny.

I’m afraid of what her ‘terrible two’s’ will look like.

Say goodbye to the upholstery.

****

To his surprise, two guards outside of the one who confessed to shooting Ishka, had already come forth, admitting they were propositioned by his sister. They confessed they had been given the option to accept or decline the proposal, but had been demoted from princes’ guard to general palace security.

Soren had never thought to question their demotion, as he trusted all of his siblings.

“Shameful,” Val’Zun growled under his breath as they both watched things unfold during the small tribunal. His hostile gaze was fixated on their sister.

Gi’Calla stood proudly, though her face was expertly void of expression; the trained look of a future queen.

Soren’s frame of mind was unexpectedly serene, though.

Loo-Sha is safe
, he inwardly sighed while his gaze moved from his sister to his small mate standing beside him. His upper right hand reached up to stroke the soft curls atop her head. The silken tresses weren’t as springy as they had been upon first meeting her. With their length that now reached the middle of her back, the weight stretched the locks. They were now loose spirals that he often wrapped around his fingers in the middle of the night as she slept.

To his immense pleasure, she still had not yet cut them.

Lucia looked up at Val’Zun, stroking his hand in an effort to calm him as her other hand slipped into his. The petite, warm brown skinned fingers tried their best to lace through Soren’s, and his lips twitched at this.

“Speak,” his mother directed at Gi’Calla from her throne as the gathering of palace inhabitants, and advisors watched on. “It is your only chance to do so.”

Eyes landed upon his sister, including his own, as the room waited to know why the crowned princess had conspired against the mate of her brothers, and their progeny, endangering the entire planet she was groomed to protect.

“I will say,” Gi’Calla began, breathing evenly after she glanced toward Lucia. She only looked away once more when he and Val’Zun growled lowly in their chests. “I am only regretful my actions failed, and inadvertently resulted in the death of others. I do not regret my efforts to put an end to the
abomination
Val’Ja has fathered, nor the creature that birthed it.”

She said this in such an earnest manner, as if what she had done was out of
duty
to the crown.

“I was protecting the bloodline, our people, my family,” she confessed, and clasped both sets of hands together in front of her. “I would do it again, and continue to do so, until the threat was removed. Their union is
wrong
.”

The hall was silent, and Soren had the notion people were torn between loyalty to his sister, and disgust at the mess she had made.

He was only disgusted.

No longer did he trust Gi’Calla. Even if she had apologized, been truly sorrowful, he would not
trust
her around his mate and youngling.

Each individual in the hall, the sea of various colored males and females of his people, waited for the queen, who had been quiet for long moments, to speak.

“Your actions have been
dishonorable
,” she said with frosty authority. “I am
ashamed
, and saddened, not only in you… but myself.”

To the shock of everyone in attendance, including his own, the queen looked to Lucia, then Re’Len who was in Sola’s arms.

“I have believed humans to be lesser creatures, as did my mother before me, as do our people, in reflection. We have been wrong,” she sighed, her attention turning back to Gi’Calla, and then sweeping the crowd. “
I
have been wrong.”

The murmurs rose to a cacophony of mixed conversations, exclamations, and appalled gasps that the queen would make such an admission, risking the possibility of appearing
weak
.

“Silence,” she said, the crowd quieting quickly, as she then went on to explain in detail, the events the night of the invasion and the time following that, from Lucia saving her life, to the plan his mate had hatched which resulted in the war with the Trepnils coming to an end.

“I apologize,” she said sincerely, looking to Lucia. “For the unwelcome atmosphere I, and others before me, have created in regard to humans. And I thank you, for all you have done, despite the adversity.”

He looked down to his mate, noticing the slight tremor that vibrated her body in what he assumed was shock. She dipped her chin in acknowledgment a few seconds later.

“I strip you of your title, Gi’Calla,” his mother went on, looking down upon his sister. She raised her voice slightly to speak above the buzz of the crowd. “You have shown you will be unfit to lead the people. You have conspired repeatedly in treasonous activities to harm a member of the royal family.”

“This is ridiculous-” Gi’Calla began but was cut off.

“You will not
speak
,” his mother’s tone was seething, though her composure was unbroken. Again, the silence reigned, and the heavy tension of the room made him feel as if his ears were going to pop.

“You, and others, know the penalty for
treason
.”

Gi’Calla would die.

****

“Are you feeling alright?” Lu asked Ishka, who had finally woken. Her small hand tapped the back of his gently. It had been another two days after the tribunal before the guard had finally come round.

“I am doing well, Princess,” he half smiled, the drugs making him look a little dopey.

She was still getting used to being called that, even after all this time of being on Melierun.

“I’m glad to hear it,” she responded.

On they talked, even if slowly. He was finally able to tell her what he’d been wanting to the night he had stepped in front of a bullet for her. Gi’Calla had approached him, just as she had the other guards, but the former princess had already placed a guard in his stead to do the job; the one who pulled the trigger.

She told him of her decision to appoint him as her permanent guard, and she hoped he was okay with that. Even while the queen had publically apologized to her, and Gi’Calla was locked up until… well she didn’t want to think about that.

Even after all of that, Melier folk were torn between loyalty to Gi’Calla, who they thought they would someday call
queen
, and readjusting their view of humans.

Lucia understood. Not entirely, but she understood how a lifetime of ingrained prejudice would take time to get over, and work through.

Hate changed a person, and the people would have to figure out how to reverse that for themselves. All she could do was wait, be herself, and try her hardest to continue on with her partners, and youngling.

She felt blessed to have
some
Melier’s in her corner. She had her mates, their brothers, Tuzon, Sola, Ishka, and now Gi’Moy and Val’Qa. Lu never needed the whole of Dor Nye to like her to feel loved, so why would she need Melierun in order to feel that way?

She didn’t.

But Lu was confident, eventually, they would come to like her, and view her as one of
them
.

Later on, she smiled at Lenny while she plucked blades of the strange orange grass and brought them to her, like they were new, unique treasures. MoMo sniffed each blade as if he had to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous after Lenny plucked it.

They were in what had quickly become their favorite spot in the garden, enjoying the mid-morning. The lavender sky above was clear as could be, not a cloud in sight.

Of course, the heat was a little much, but the fresh air was worth the suffering. If she stayed in the shady part of the clearing, it wasn’t so bad.

Lenny had inherited the ability to regulate her body temperature from Soren, so Lu didn’t have to worry about the babe overheating under the suns she loved so much.

Val’Koy, who was normally wise cracking, sat on the far side of the clearing in one of the loungers. He appeared to be reading, though Lu wasn’t sure if it was an act.

Ever since Gi’Calla’s outburst from third meal, he’d been a bit withdrawn. She figured it was due to the impending death of his twin.

Lucia’s smile fell at one corner as the dark cloud of that thought moved over her.

In the same moment, she noticed Gi’Moy go by on the pathway skirting the clearing, on her daily walk. She said she would be just a minute to her partners, but they were too wrapped up in their debate of military training methods to take much notice.

Lu gathered Lenny up in her arms and headed after Gi’Moy.

It took a minute to catch up to the queen, with how long her strides were when walking, but Lucia made a noise to catch her attention once she was close enough.

Gi’Moy stopped, turning slightly to wait for Lu to reach her.

“Hello,” the queen greeted.

“Hi,” she responded, smiling. “I didn’t want to interrupt, but I was hoping to talk…”

Gi’Moy dipped her chin, and gestured for Lu to walk with her while they spoke. She slowed her pace to better match hers.

They walked in silence for quite some time, both watching Lenny as she tried to reach and touch every plant or statue they passed.

It’s now or never…

“When is Gi’Calla’s… execution?”

The queen didn’t even flinch, which made Lu wonder if she was expecting her to ask.

“One week from today.”

Lu didn’t realize it would be so soon.

“Re’Len,” Gi’Moy stopped walking and turned to face her and the youngling. “She will be the next queen.”

“W-what?” she stuttered, slightly horrified. Images of rioting flashed through her mind’s eye. “No.”

“Do not worry,” she said serenely, as if she had accepted the fact her daughter would be killed and a new successor put in her stead.

“How could I not?” she asked, her brows knitting together. “She may never be fully accepted as part of the people just as she is, let alone as
their queen
.”

Gi’Moy’s eyes squinted kindly while her mouth kicked into a very small smile. One of her claws hands stroked Lenny’s arm, and the babe began purring. To her surprise, and that of the queen, the youngling reached out for her grandmother.

Gi’Moy looked at Lucia, as if asking if it was alright to hold her.

She gave a single nod, holding Lenny toward her.

For a short span, the two stared at each other in examination. Lenny touched the queen’s cheek, then the scales on her exposed shoulder while the queen looked upon her with fondness in her expression.

“When Re’Len ascends,” she said softly, eyes never leaving the babe. “The people will be ready for her.”

Hands touched upon her back, and shoulders as Soren and Zun came up behind her. They both laid kisses upon her temples, their eyes proud, encouraging, and assured, which calmed Lu slightly.

There would be time to discuss the matter, so she bit back her response and just tried to enjoy the new beginning.

The new beginning where Lenny’s grandparents openly accepted her into their family.

And then the three of them continued on the pathway with Gi’Moy, her soft laughs mingling with Lenny’s purring while they all watched the future queen of Melierun squeal with delight at all the life around her.