Primary Inversion (Saga of the Skolian Empire) Paperback (34 page)

Then he lay on top of me, his erection pushing the rough
weave of his prison uniform against my bottom. He took hold of my upper thighs,
one hand on each leg, and spread them apart.

Like Tarque.

Combat mode on, my spinal node thought.

“Jaibriol,
STOP
!”

He lifted his body immediately, holding himself up on his
hands. “What’s wrong?”

I rolled onto my back.
Combat mode off.

Mode off, the node answered.

“Sauscony?” Jaibriol had flushed. “What did I do?”

“I—nothing.”
Damn
Tarque. Were those scars going to
follow me forever?

No. I hadn’t spent all those months with a heartbender for
nothing. I wasn’t going to let Tarque do this. I wasn’t going to let him come
back to ruin my life ten years after he had died. Jaibriol and I only had a few
hours left, hours far too precious to waste.

I cupped my hands around Jaibriol’s face and pulled him into
a kiss. His smell wafted around us, even stronger now than before. Masculine.
Intense. I knew the Rhon produced different pheromones than other humans, but
since he was the first Rhon man I had ever made love to, I wasn’t prepared for
the force of it. His scent permeated the air as if it had a substance of its
own, evoking reactions from my body far stronger than I had experienced before.

Jaibriol sat up and put his finger between my breasts,
poking it inside the magnetic seam that kept my jumpsuit closed. As he slid his
hand down my front, the jumpsuit fell open, leaving my skin bare to the cool
air. When he cupped my breasts and rubbed his thumbs over my nipples, they
hardened in response, sticking up like an invitation.

We undressed each other carefully, Jaibriol wincing when his
shirt caught on the scabbed gashes in his back. He dropped my boots over the
side of the bed and the heels clanged against my Jumbler. We slipped under the
covers, between the silken bedspread and the silken sheets, and he stretched
out on top of me, bare skin against bare skin.

I reached down, guiding him—there. As he moved against me, I
closed my eyes, murmuring against his ear, soft, meaningless noises. And
finally we merged into a full Rhon meld, a joining like the one that had come
so much easier to us on Delos. It built as we built, growing fuller, tighter,
stronger—until finally I surged into my peak, the release coming with
unexpected and gratifying intensity.

But it didn’t stop there. Jaibriol was still going, his mind
blended with mine. I kept building with him even after my own body had spent
itself in orgasm. His rising excitement held on to me, pulled us higher and
higher. It grew until I couldn’t bear it any longer. But I couldn’t stop
either. We went higher, higher—and his climax burst over us, wringing our
bodies with spasms that felt so good I stopped thinking altogether.

I didn’t know how long it was before I became aware of the
room again. Jaibriol was lying on top of me, his cheek resting against mine,
his breathing quieting. His sweat trickled off his chest onto my arms. When I
stirred, his head lifted and a second later I felt his lips press against my
closed eyes.

“That was worth waiting for,” he said.

I smiled. “Yes. It was.”

“How long do you think before ... ?”

I opened my eyes. “Before Kurj finds us?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe tonight. Probably sooner. Probably in a few hours.” I
wasn’t sure what Kurj would do when he realized just how thoroughly I had
betrayed him. It wasn’t going to be pretty, though, and I doubted it would be
over quickly.

“Sauscony.” Jaibriol regarded me. “I don’t want them to do
to you what they’ve been doing to me.” He leaned over the side of the bed—and
came back with my Jumbler. He laid it between my breasts and lowered himself
onto me so that the gun made a cold lump between our bodies. Then he took my
finger and set it against the igniter.

I stared at him. “No.”

“We’re going to die anyway. You know that.” His voice
cracked. “And we both know what it’s like to be hurt and hurt until you wonder
how you can endure anymore. I don’t want to die that way. At least like this it
will be in love instead of pain.”

I clenched the gun. I knew he was right, but my instinct for
self-preservation was too strong. I couldn’t do it.

He spoke against my ear. “I can’t fire it. Only you can.”

I nudged off the safety and set my finger on the igniter.
Just one push—

A knock sounded at the door.

I jerked out from under Jaibriol and off the bed so fast
that the covers flew into the air. I moved by reflex, grabbing Jaibriol’s shirt
and yanking it over my head, I didn’t want to face the guards in the
vulnerability of my nakedness. Then I raised the Jumbler and aimed it at the
door.

And when the door opened I almost shot my own father.

He stood watching me,
blinking his violet eyes behind his spectacles. He wore glasses because he didn’t
trust Skolian doctors enough to let them work on his eyes. He still wore his
hair long, in the style of his people, the silver-streaked locks framing his
face and brushing his shoulders. He was a well-built man, not too tall and not
too short, with heart-stopping good looks that the public loved and Kurj found
useful for counteracting his own harsh image.

First he blinked at me.
Then he blinked at Jaibriol, who was sitting naked on the bed. Finally he
turned back to me. He spoke in the language of his own people, which was my
first language. “Are you going to kill me, Sauscony?”

The thought that I
might have hurt him was so upsetting I could hardly speak. I lowered the gun,
clicking on the safety. “No. Never. You know that.”

He walked over to me. “That
was you I felt in the Net last night, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. I hid.”

He still had that look,
as if he didn’t know what to do. “I received a message from Kurj earlier. He
told me to stay here at the palace, where it’s safe. He believes Trader
terrorists have infiltrated the area.” He glanced at Jaibriol, who was pulling
on his pants. Then he turned back at me. “Is that true?”

“No,” I said. “But Kurj thinks it is.”

“I see.” It was
obvious, from his expression, that he didn’t see at all.

Fortunately Jaibriol
stayed on the bed; my father had enough to deal with right now without the
added intimidation of being towered over by the Highton Heir. Outwardly my
father didn’t show much reaction. He just stood there looking at us. But I felt
him grappling with the situation like a wrestler fighting an opponent who far
outweighed him.

He finally spoke again,
this time in Iotic. The language was almost obsolete, used only by scholars and
the uppermost Skolian classes. My father had learned it because it is my mother’s
native language. I guessed he was using it for Jaibriol’s sake; just as I had
learned Highton, Jaibriol had probably learned Iotic.

“Sauscony.” He adjusted
his spectacles. “The man on that bed looks like Jaibriol Qox.”

“He is.”

“The Highton Heir. That Jaibriol Qox.”

“Yes. That one.” I doubted there were any others.

He went over to the bed
and peered at Jaibriol, who had his pants on now. “Why were you sitting naked
on my daughter’s bed?” As Jaibriol opened his mouth, my father said, “No. Never
mind. I don’t think I want to hear the answer.”

I went over to him. “What are you going to do?”

“Do?” My father scowled at me. “Before or after I have heart
failure?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Before, I hope.”

“This isn’t amusing, Sauscony.”

I swallowed. “I guess not.”

He motioned at Jaibriol. “Please explain this to me.”

“I helped him escape.
That’s why Kurj thinks there are Trader terrorists loose on Diesha.”

“Kurj captured Jaibriol Qox? And you freed him?”

I nodded. “After the alarm sounded, the only safe place for
us to come was here.”

“The Imperator’s palace.”

“Yes.”

“And just what prompted this urge of yours to free Jaibriol
Qox?”

I spoke softly. “Touch his mind. Then you’ll understand.”

He didn’t even turn.
But I felt his attention shift to Jaibriol. Although I wasn’t sure Jaibriol
consciously realized what was happening, he still responded, raising his blocks
more by instinct than by intention.

My father’s forehead
creased. He sat in a chair at the table by my bed, no longer looking at either
Jaibriol or me. He concentrated harder—and Jaibriol blocked him again.

So my father withdrew
his mind. Then he came back, changing his approach as if he were trying to
catch a skittish lyrine colt. He pressured Jaibriol here, there, and there,
subtle nudges that came and went so gently Jaibriol probably didn’t even feel
them. As closely connected as I was to Jaibriol now, even I couldn’t follow my
father’s exploration all that well.

But it didn’t work. So
finally my father came questioning to my mind, trying to reach Jaibriol via the
link I already had with him. I let my mind relax, my father flowed into the
link—and stood up so fast that he knocked over his chair. Jaibriol immediately
rose up to his knees, clutching the bedpost as if preparing to jump down and
defend himself. I still didn’t think he realized his barriers had been
penetrated.

My father stared at him. “You aren’t an Aristo.”

Jaibriol answered in perfect Iotic. “Of course I am an
Aristo.”

“No,” my father said. “You aren’t.”

Jaibriol clenched the post
harder. “Are you telling me you don’t consider me your equal?”

My father shook his
head. “No. I’m telling you I think you are like me.”

“Jaibriol.” I sat next
to him on the bed and laid my hand on his leg. “He won’t hurt you.”

He turned to me, his
exhaustion falling like a blanket across my shoulders. Although he didn’t let
go of the post, his grip on it eased enough so that his knuckles were no longer
white.

My father glanced at me. “Does Kurj know he is Rhon?”

“Not yet. But when he finds out, he’ll be certain Jaibriol
came here to break the Skol-Net.”

He turned to Jaibriol. “Did you?”

“No.”

My father considered
him. Then he nodded. That was it. A simple nod. No more questions. No
skepticism. No threats. Nothing. Just a
nod.
I couldn’t believe it.

You wouldn’t be here
with him, like this, if you didn’t trust him, my father thought.

You know, I thought. You’re very different from Kurj.

So your mother tells me.

“I thought she was
going to meet you back at home.” I spoke out loud, realizing how strange our silence
would seem to Jaibriol. “See the grandchildren and all.”

My father pushed his spectacles up his nose. “My plans
changed.”

That didn’t sound like
him. Given the choice of going home and being with my mother, the two things he
most enjoyed doing, or coming to Diesha and being around Kurj, I couldn’t
fathom his choosing Kurj. “Why?”

“I had a convulsion.”

What?
I got off the bed and went over to him. “Aren’t
you following your treatment?”

“Of course. I don’t know why it happened.” He paused. “Actually,
it wasn’t one convulsion. I had several.”

My pulse jumped. “How many?”

“I don’t know. I felt ...
strange. The next that I knew, I was waking up in that little hospital your
mother had built near the village. That offworld doctor made quite a fuss about
it. She said I had a series of generalized tonic-clonic attacks, back to back.
She sent me here. I didn’t want to come but she insisted.” He scowled. “She contacted
Kurj and he sent a ship to get me.”

I took his hands. “Are you all right now?”

“I feel fine. None of the doctors found anything wrong.”

“And you don’t know why you had the seizures?”

“They came just after I
woke up. Probably the nightmare I had, that’s all.” He squeezed my hands. “Stop
looking at me with this worried face. You’re as bad as those doctors.”

I had never heard of a
nightmare giving him epileptic seizures before. “What did you dream?”

“Someone was giving me
shocks with an E-spring. I couldn’t stop it because I was tied down.” He
squinted at me. “It is these machines, Sauscony. I don’t even know names for
half of them. Computers and robots and things. They give me nightmares. But it
means nothing.”

I hardly heard him
finish. One word kept jumping out at me. E-spring. “Who tied you down?”

“I don’t know.” He
waved his hand, dismissing the question. “Old soldiers have such dreams.”

About an E-spring? I hadn’t even realized he knew what it
was.

He had spent most of
his life in what, by Skolian standards, was abject poverty. I doubted there was
anything even resembling an E-spring on the entire planet.

“Had you been talking about E-springs with mother?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. It was nothing, Sauscony.”

“Dreaming about electric shocks is nothing?”

“I dreamed I was being interrogated.”

On the bed behind me, Jaibriol drew in a sharp breath.

Somehow I made my voice stay calm. “Do you remember why?”

My father shrugged. “Someone
kept asking me about my father’s army. About their war plans. I don’t know why
I would dream such a thing. My father died when I was only a few months old.”
He rubbed his wrists, massaging them in the exact same place where, on
Jaibriol, the skin had been ripped raw. “It was so vivid. It felt real, even
after I woke up.”

Had he tapped into
Jaibriol’s interrogation? How? Through Kurj?
Through me?

I knew Kurj. When he
realized what I had done, his hatred would turn on me as well as on Jaibriol.
He would have me questioned thoroughly, as much a punishment for my betrayal as
to find out why I had done it. If Jaibriol’s torture had caused my father so
much distress, what would happen when it was me on that interrogation bench? Despite
my father’s claim that his convulsions were “nothing,” I knew better. If he
were having status epilepticus—back-to-back
grand mal
attacks—while he
was under treatment, he was in a lot more danger than he was willing to admit.

Sauscony.
My father motioned toward Jaibriol.
You
truly want this man?

I made an image of my mother. What would your life be like without
her?

Your mother is not one quarter Highton.

Is what you saw in Jaibriol’s mind so monstrous?

He exhaled. No. Quite the contrary.

He won’t turn on me.

He glanced at Jaibriol,
who was plainly trying to figure out what we were doing, staring at each other
in complete silence, running through a series of hand gestures and facial
expressions as if we were holding a conversation.

My father spoke. “Then
the two of you must ask the Allieds for sanctuary.”

If only life were that simple. “We can’t get off Diesha,” I
said.

“Can’t you have a pilot
fly out here from the starport?” He considered me. “Take the ship to Delos
yourself. No one but the three of us would ever know you had a passenger.”

How did I explain a
planet-wide cordon to a man who understood war in terms of cavalry and foot
troops? “We can’t
get
a ship now, not without clearance from Kurj. And
no way is he going to give it.”

“If I had another
convulsion,” my father said, “you would have to summon a doctor.”

My pulse leapt. “You think you’re going to have another one?”

He smiled slightly. “It could be arranged.”

Ah. That would
certainly
get
someone out here. However much Kurj resented his
stepfather, he still needed him in good shape. “But even if we got a ship, Kurj
will only clear us for planetary travel, perhaps to a hospital on another
continent, somewhere he thinks is safer than here. But he’s not going to let
anyone leave Diesha until he catches Jaibriol.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t leave anyway.”

“I don’t see how.”

“You freed Lord Qox.”

“That was before ISC went on alert. I doubt anyone could get
out now.”

“I’m not asking if anyone can do it. I’m asking if you can.”

I blinked at him. To
say he had never been thrilled with my choice of careers was an understatement.
It rarely occurred to me that he might actually have a high opinion of my
abilities. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Are you willing to try?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then it is decided.”

“It’s not that simple.”
As if there were anything remotely simple about what he had just proposed. “Even
if we get off Diesha—which will be almost impossible—but even if we manage it,
we’ll be running fast and desperate with who knows how many warships after us.
They’ll alert every sentry from here to Delos. No way will we ever make it
there.”

He pushed up his
spectacles. “Then you must already have a place to go when you leave. Somewhere
unknown to ISC or the Traders.”

“If the place is
unknown to ISC, how are you and I going to find it?”

“Perhaps if we ask the Allieds.”

How could I get through
to him? “We can’t ask anyone anything. Communications in and out of Diesha
right now are blocked.”

“Then I will use the Prime line.”

“You can’t.”

“Why not? My understanding is that Kurj’s security systems
won’t report my use of it.”

“They won’t even know.
No more than you would know if either of the other two Triad members used their
Primes. But that’s not the point. You can’t use it for this.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Father, you can’t use
your hotline to the Allied President to ask for help in solving a personal
problem. It’s meant only for crises that threaten galactic stability.”

He spoke quietly. “If
the imminent execution of the Highton and Imperial Heirs doesn’t threaten
galactic stability, I don’t know what does.”

That stopped me. I had
been so caught up in events, I hadn’t had a chance to think through the
ramifications of them all. Our executions would tear apart the Rhon. In the
midst of that chaos, an enraged Ur Qox would throw his military might against
us, seeking vengeance for his son’s death while we were weakened with internal
strife. All our efforts to convince the Allieds that the Rhon and the Assembly
created a just government rather than an unstable dynasty of tyrants would be
for nothing. We would justify their worst fears about us, devastating what
little trust we had managed to build with them.

My father indicated the
table. “You must set up the line for me, Sauscony. I don’t know how to do it.”

I sat down, wondering
if he had any idea how incongruous it was to the rest of us that he powered the
Net and yet couldn’t log into it. He was illiterate, both with written language
and with computers. Sometimes his refusal to learn angered me, other times it
worried me, other times I wondered if he had a learning disability he refused
to acknowledge for fear of appearing even more deficient than he felt already
when faced with my mother’s universe. Psiberspace was his playing field, a
place where he didn’t need to read or write, or to understand how computers
worked. All he had to do was think.