Madaxa's Heir

Chapter 2: Sleight of Hand

Chapter 2: Sleight of Hand

Tamaiko and a skeleton crew, including Shaba, remained on the Kadaugan in its geostationary orbit to perform routine servicing and maintain readiness to make a speedy departure if necessary. The Chenjerai took their places and escorted Rial aboard the waiting shuttle.

Matautia was not an advanced world, and the battered old space vehicle rattled and shook Kia’s bones as they descended toward the surface, but she hardly noticed. Her brain was stuck on repeat. I’m going to have a baby. After their fight—her fingers tracing the red mark on Rial’s cheek as she apologized—he held her for a long time, unwilling to release her. After a while, she needed the bathroom and he reluctantly let her go. He instructed Nagavi, the team commander, to give the governor an excuse and tell him to send the shuttle early the following morning.

Kia's mind still churned. Now Cheydii’s congratulation made sense. Knowing Rial, she couldn’t help but wonder how much of the situation he’d engineered. He planned everything; a survival technique born out of the need to retain a little freedom in the face of his father’s restrictive control. Life with Rial was never dull, but Kia often found herself gnashing her teeth in frustration. She was pressed into the seat as the shuttle plunged through Matautia’s turbulent atmosphere, and the view shown on a vidscreen set high on the wall in front of them showed vast tracts of burnt ochre desert hurtling toward them at an alarming rate.

Kia sat beside Nagavi and behind Rial, who sat in the seat of honor—someone had hastily ripped out every other seat in the front row to give his chair the impression of importance.

Rial turned and spoke to Nagavi, keeping his voice low. “If this shuttle is an indication of the state of Matautia’s economy, I understand why the governor is eager to offer us a base for a trade agreement with the empire.”

“Yes,” the commander responded, the lines around his keen pale blue eyes creasing as he smiled, “I imagine the emperor has included some very favorable terms for himself.”

“Kia, are you okay?” Rial inquired, turning further around in his seat, his eye glancing down to her midriff.

“She’s quiet,” Nagavi commented.

“I’m fine. I’m thinking,” Kia grunted.

Rial told her that after Teyrn conquered the planet Falaichte, he discovered their scientists had worked on developing and adapting nanobots to eradicate disease in the human body. His precipitous scorched earth policy of conquest had, however, destroyed the laboratory and killed most of the researchers working on the project. One researcher, a woman, had remained alive; and although Teyrn’s efforts resulted in Rial, the emperor’s experiments killed his mother.

Kia knew Rial would do everything possible to prevent his father from finding out she was pregnant, but what would that mean for her? Continuing as part of his team of personal guards was out of the question. Where did that leave her? She sighed and glanced out of the window again, her eyes widening as a wide belt of luxuriantly green newly terraformed jungle replaced the mottled red-brown desert.

The rickety spacecraft slowed and the rattling and creaking diminished as they approached the spaceport. Like Emankora, her home planet, this world had rich mineral resources the emperor needed, but judging by the few shuttles parked in the arrival and departure bays, its economic development was slower.

“Chenjerai, helmets on,” ordered Nagavi as the rattling engines quietened.

Thoughts of her own situation vanished and her training kicked in. Kia put her personal concerns aside and focused on her job—protecting Rial.

Six dark green uniformed, black-helmeted Chenjerai preceded Rial. Kia and Nagavi, followed by eight more guards, exited after him into the blazing Matautian midday sun.

For a brief instant, the heat penetrated Kia’s suit and sweat beads formed on her forehead, neck and the small of her back, then the suit adjusted and a cool layer of air enveloped her. As she walked behind Rial’s tall broad-shouldered figure, she scanned her helmet’s three hundred and sixty-degree screen searching for unusual movement patterns. On the first occasion she’d worn the helmet, she could hardly walk as her gaze flicked between the image projected on the screen and what she witnessed with her eyes, but these days she could shift effortlessly from the reality of her immediate surroundings to scanning the panoramic layout.

Today, as often happened whenever the royal heir arrived somewhere, the simple expedient of banning everyone from the spaceport minimized risks, and the shuttles spotted from the air stood in their bays like silent sentinels. Nonetheless, the thought skimmed Kia’s mind that if someone did want to remove Teyrn's heir, they would be far more devious than sending an assassin with a hand weapon—maybe using a programmed personal missile. She scanned the pale blue sky but saw nothing. Their loud rattling descent had sent even the birds into hiding.

The governor, Iyafin Qeveris, was a tall thin woman with a pinched mouth in a purple and gold robe decorated with a large shiny medallion accompanied by a small army of lesser officials.

Kia tuned out the obsequious bowing and scraping and false honeyed words of greeting as she checked the faces and subtle body language, alert to any potential threat. But the official welcome went as planned. The Kadaugan’s database would have alerted them immediately if an unregistered face was among the welcome party. Within minutes she followed Rial into an ancient motor vehicle, and the cavalcade of elaborate armored vehicles escorting him into the capital rumbled into motion.

Visiting different worlds was one perk of being a Chenjerai as well as the friendship and loyalty she’d found among his tightly knit personal guard unit; not to mention having access to the opulence and power of the entire Nadil-Kuradi Empire, but before the imperial forces crushed her father’s rebellion, interstellar travel had never been on her radar. Now, as the convoy left the arrow of a road through the lush jungle and arrived at the capital, Ondasun, she avidly drank in the sights of the city.

Once they passed the outer suburbs where high white walls and guarded gates protected the wealthy and entered the city proper, men and women wearing long colorful robes packed the streets, and those who glanced at their procession quickly averted their gaze. The buildings were a mixture of the latest architectural styles, and Kia spotted an elegant white dodecagon that appeared to defy the laws of gravity, but there were also extensive districts with narrow streets crammed with ramshackle single-story houses and markets. Rich and poor lived cheek by jowl, and the inhabitants of Matautia were a mixed bunch with skin tones ranging from light to almost as dark as Farih and Ilo and hair that varied between pale ash blond to blue-black.

Kia turned away from the bright kaleidoscope outside the vehicle. “Who are the Naofa Soturi?” she asked.

Rial raised an eyebrow. “Are you aware Matautia was almost entirely a desert? The original incentive we offered them to achieve our first trade agreement was access to the science of terraforming. There are tours available, and if we had time, I could show you the most recent changes and we could fly over the active volcanic mountains in the south.”

“Thanks for the travelogue, O great and mighty one, but my question was, who are the Naofa Soturi?”

Nagavi snickered.

“Ah. You’ve been listening to gossip.”

Kia glared, but her displeasure was lost on him as her helmet hid her expression. His reaction informed her he had the answer, arousing her curiosity even more; she would find out despite his dismissal.

The morning passed with an official welcoming ceremony at the governor’s palace and a grand lunch with everyone who was anyone in the Matautian hierarchy. All the participants eagerly partook of the delicacies on offer, half the time observing their neighbors and the other half surreptitiously eyeing Rial.

Kia had attended plenty of these ceremonies and she was no longer awestruck by the ostentatious displays intended to impress Rial. But her position as Rial’s consort wasn’t a secret, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to the envious judgmental looks cast her way.

*

“How are you feeling?” Rial propped himself up on one elbow as he relaxed on the imposing bed in the lavish suite Qeveris had provided for them. He examined Kia lying next to him, his gaze moving down to her belly.

“For a royal guest, I guess this bed is as good as any we’ve been given,” Kia answered. “The marble tiles in the bathroom are pretty. Importing them must be costly.” A warm night breeze wafted exotic scents in through the open balcony doors. “What’s the name of the flower—”

“That isn’t what I meant, and well you know it.” He placed his hand on her belly and spread his fingers, something he’d done several times when they were alone as if he needed to reassure himself of something.

“You’ve asked me the same question every half hour today. Having a baby isn’t a disease. And, as I’ve answered you on every occasion, I’m fine.”

“Cheydii confirmed you’re five and a half weeks into the pregnancy.”

“Yes. I was there during the examination.” Cheydii had given her a more advanced medscan this morning.

He pulled her to him and buried his face in her hair. “I would do anything to have you with me, but to ensure your and our child’s safety, I must send you away.”

Kia didn’t answer. She’d figured as much and reckoned he wouldn’t consult her in his arrangements. Their relationship hadn’t followed a conventional path, and accepting that he’d fallen in love with her and she with him hadn’t been the easiest change in her life; but she fought surrendering control of every decision whenever she could. “What about after the baby’s born? What then? I’m not giving up my child.”

“You were at Tajriba. You watched what he did to me and what he created there. Can you imagine what my father would do if he learned he had a second chance at developing a replacement for his aging body?”

Kia shuddered. “We destroyed the lab and the clones on Tajriba, and Doctor Onde’s dead.”

“You think my father doesn’t have detailed copies of that madman’s research?” He sat up cross-legged on the bed and faced her, his mouth a thin line and his eyes narrowed. “He hasn’t found anyone to replace the good doctor yet, but given the motivation, he’d find someone.”

Teyrn was infertile and, despite availing himself of the latest scientific advancements, the emperor had only conceived one son, making Rial an irreplaceable asset. Knowing his son possessed nanobots, Rial’s early life had been spent as a lab experiment while a research scientist used his blood to create clones. If Doctor Onde had been successful, Teyrn would have had his consciousness transferred to a clone and cryopreserved Rial’s body for further use.

“I’m making arrangements for your protection, but not everything’s in place yet.” His voice was curt.

“So you can’t tell me because knowing would be dangerous for me?”

He nodded, looking not in the least bit repentant.

“You suck at this relationship stuff. Couples are supposed to share.”

“I share myself with you, Kia, and I’ve never done that with anyone else. Sending you away when all I want is to have you by my side when you’re carrying my child is the hardest thing. Here’s the deal: I’ll continue with my arrangements, and if you come up with an alternative, I’ll consider it. Keeping you both safe is what’s important.”

She understood that in this, as with many other arrangements, he would make the decisions; she had no other choice. She’d been appalled by what she witnessed on Tajriba and recognized that if she disappeared without a reasonable excuse, they’d rouse Teyrn’s suspicions. She snuggled up to him and sighed.

He curled around her, pulling her into his chest. “You are the most precious thing in the universe to me,” he said, his breath warm against her neck. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep you both safe. Now, here’s the plan.”