Chapter 3

The need to escape the confines of the palace grew until I couldn’t take it any longer and ordered the rest of my meetings for the day to be cancelled. The hammering inside my head abated some as soon as the words left my mouth and I made my way through the hallways.

Where I was going was anybody’s guess, since I wouldn’t be able to truly escape the palace or my trailing guards. But I needed air. . And with that realization, I suddenly just knew the place I wanted to go to.

The entire hundred and eighteenth floor of my palace had been turned into a large park. Domed ceilings created the illusion of day and night. It was caught in perpetual spring, complete with a large lake—fed by a waterfall and filled with fish. Birds cawed, sang, and flew through the crowns of trees that had long been extinct on Pandrax. Small animals scurried through underbrush or across the paved trails leading through a maze of a make-believe forest, centered around the lake.

My guards knew to stay as far back as security allowed, to give me the space I needed to breathe and restore my waning patience in order to make the right decisions for my empire, especially now with the looming threat of the Cryons. One wrong decision could lead to unimaginable events, even war.

The moment I exited the elevator and placed my feet on the first stepping stone leading to the main path, my breathing turned easier, the weight always pressing on my shoulders and my chest lifted some, even the constant knot in my stomach loosened. I took a deep breath. The air here was filled with the sweet fragrance of spring—its trees, bushes, and flowers.

Lost in thought, I wandered over the pebblestone walkways, surrounded by shrubs, flowers, and trees.

Here and there I ran into others, who respectfully stepped out of my way, and depending on gender were either bowing or curtsying. I ignored each one of them, lest our eyes met, which they might see as an encouragement to voice a plea, a request for a favor of some sort or another. If some were disappointed I didn’t speak to them, I didn’t notice as I kept moving.

It would have been in my power to clear this area before I took my stroll, but how could I deny others the same pleasure I sought?

I kept moving and soon the sound of rushing water reached my ears; the waterfall wasn’t far now and I looked up. For the first time since stepping into the park, I truly took in my surroundings.

I stopped and marveled at the beauty of the bluish fern growing underneath a noble viryth tree. I noticed a zyphoran—an eight-winged butterfly—fluttering through the leaves. Each wing gleamed in neon green, outlined with tiny black feathers. How long has it been since I’ve seen one of them? I wondered.

To think that millennia ago my entire planet looked like this, as opposed to such beauty being limited to only a small section of my palace, filled me with… nocc, not sadness exactly, because we had come so far since. Nostalgia? Perhaps, I allowed.

Pandrax had gone through as many evolutions as us Pandraxians. I was glad that we managed to find a balance that allowed some planets to remain the same as they were when we found them, while others supported the technology we needed to defend those worlds.

Still… imagining this beauty all around instead of the millions of buildings we had erected was somewhat unsettling.

With a sigh, I rubbed my chin and moved on. I hadn’t come here to philosophize over things my ancestors had done and which I couldn’t change. I came to find some peace.

And there it was. The waterfall and lake lay right before me in all their splendor, freeing my heart of all constraints as they always did. For a fraction of a click, I considered that perhaps I should have cleared the park for myself. I imagined how wonderful it would feel to strip naked and dip into the lake.

Maybe another day. For now, I would satisfy myself by sitting on my bench in—I stopped and narrowed my eyes. Was that a person sitting on my bench?

I didn’t allow myself many indulgences as the emperor of one of the mightiest powers in the universe, but one of them was this bench, reserved for me. At all times.

An artificial ray of light hit golden hair, making my heart hitch in recognition.

All night and all morning I had tried to forget about the human merrily who had so surprisingly appeared in my chambers yesterday. It seemed Staphor had other things in mind than letting me push her out of my thoughts though, because it had to have been him who placed her in my path just hours later, again.

The merrily was so deep in thought, she never noticed my approach, nor did she acknowledge my shadow as it fell over her, giving me time to study her regal profile.

Her eyes were closed, her head slightly bent backward as if she was absorbing the very essence of her surroundings, trying to find the same peace I sought when I came here.

For just a click I considered leaving her to her meditations, returning the long way back to my chambers instead of relishing in the tranquility of this place—a startling thought.

Something must have given me away though, because she opened her astonishing sapphire eyes and, blinking a few times, stared at me with incomprehension. When she finally puzzled out who I was, she abruptly rose to her feet, searching her memory for how to greet her emperor.

“Don’t fret.” I bestowed a lenient smile on her. “Come, sit.”

I moved forward, she shuffled back. I sat, she stood there, staring at me. I patted the spot next to me on the bench she had just vacated.

“Please,” I added for good measure.

Reluctantly she did, regarding me through the deep pools of her eyes, drawing me in like a hologram.

“Do you come here often?” I asked, since she didn’t seem to want to start a conversation or talk to me or, I allowed, perhaps my presence unnerved her. I was the emperor after all.

“Sometimes,” she replied in a more melodious voice than I remembered from last night. “It’s not forbidden, is it?” She looked around nervously.

I shook my head. “Nocc, this place is for all my subjects to enjoy.”

She flinched slightly as if she disagreed, but didn’t respond.

“You disagree?” I asked amused.

“Well… if by subjects you mean the people who live in the palace, then your statement is correct. But I don’t think all your subjects are allowed in the palace.”

That did give me pause. I didn’t know where her assumption came from, but she was right.

“You have a point. I need to give that some thought.” I nodded.

“I didn’t mean—”

I waved her off. “Nocc, by all means, you were right pointing this out and I will consider it. You make a valid point, this place should be open to everyone to enjoy.”

Her lips curved slightly, giving me a glimpse of dimples forming in both of her cheeks, and I found myself mesmerized by her strange beauty. Her skin appeared pink and soft, tempting me to touch it.

“I trust Lady Natoi was pleased to have her scarf returned?” I asked, because for some reason I didn’t like the silence between us. It gave me too much time to think and consider how much I yearned to find out how soft those dark rosy lips would be, what she would taste like…

“She was,” the merrily answered, and her name came back to me in an instant—Heather. I had tried to push it out of my brain so many times in the last few hours that for a moment I feared I had succeeded.

Her features were as delicate as her body, stirring protective instincts in me.

This time she interrupted the growing silence between us. “This place is very beautiful.”

“I come here to clear my mind. Is this why you sought it out too?”

“In part, Yes. But also, it reminds me of Earth, home.” Her lips twitched, taking on a downward turn I wished I could wipe off.

“You miss your planet, your people,” I observed.

“It probably sounds ungrateful.” She hesitated. “But yes, I do, even though I’m at least safe here.”

I wasn’t immune to her words, or the plight of her and her people. Somebody might have called it hypocritical, because under my command several worlds had been conquered, but there it was. Granted, the indigenous population hadn’t suffered even half as much as Heather’s people did under the Cryons, but I imagined they were as unhappy at being lorded over by us as the humans under the Cryons’ rule.

“It doesn’t sound ungrateful at all,” I assured her. “Missing one’s home isn’t a bad thing.”

Just to keep our amicable conversation going I added, “So your planet looks a lot like this?”

“In some places.” Her head turned to take in the trees, the lake, the waterfall. “Earth has many different environments. We have deserts, forests, beaches, tundras, rocky terrains, grasslands, open steppes, oceans, ice lands…” She drifted off. I wasn’t sure if she was finished counting off all the different landscapes on her planet or ran out of descriptions, it sounded fascinating though.

“Most planets have the same kind of environment covering their entire surface,” I explained. “Some do have oceans and beaches, before forests take over, but curiously I have never heard of one planet offering such a variety.”

“I guess that is what makes Earth so unique. Lady Natoi explained to me that Pandrax consists of many planets, which are all inhabitable within easy distance,” Heather explained.

“Earth doesn’t have any inhabitable planets close by?”

“Define close.” There was the hint of her smile again, nearly knocking me out.

I chuckled at her words. “Good point.”

This time her smile was wide, her eyes found mine, lighting a fire in my chest that took my breath away. My fingers itched to bury into her hair, to pull her close. My lips tingled in anticipation of meeting hers, and it was only thanks to decades of having learned to restrain my desires that I didn’t.

Who was this creature awakening all these emotions in me? The memory of how my temper ebbed around her yesterday returned. What powers did she hold over me?

***

Lady Natoi showed me the palace and park on my first day in Pandrax and it quickly became my favorite place. Despite the alien appearance of the forest and lake, it held enough resemblance to my home planet to soothe my aching heart. Here I could at last find some peace and tranquility. Which I was in dire need of after the debacle last night and a firm talking-to from Lady Natoi this morning.

As if it was my fault that none of the men she introduced me to weren’t my magical mekarry bonds. Not that I was looking that hard, because the idea of some alien dude basically imprinting on me wasn’t something I could get really excited about.

I knew that my existence depended on the Pandraxians’ goodwill, and to an extent Lady Natoi, but I hadn’t asked to be brought here. I even thought I might have been happier had they taken me to the same place most human refugees went to—Asterion. There at least I would have been able to shape my own life without being stared at and objectified by a bunch of alien men. It would have been a lot harder—from everything I heard—but after several weeks here, I thought I would have been ready for it.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t been given a choice in the matter. For whatever reason, several other girls and I were taken from Asterion the moment we landed and brought to Pandrax. Of the twenty girls, two were already bonded to Pandraxians, married and happily running their own households. Much to Lady Natoi’s lamentations. She hadn’t really said it, but I understood that in her society this was some kind of challenge: take in the poor Earth girl and get her mated as soon as possible. It wasn’t my fault that I hadn’t thrown myself as enthusiastically into the pit of men in hopes of finding… what exactly? Mr. Right?

I still thought that was some kind of sick joke.

For years I had thrived on becoming an independent woman, after seeing my mom wither at her domineering husband’s side. When I left for college, she was more a zombie to me than a person. My stomach turned whenever I heard the tinkle of her falsetto laugh, or the clack, clack, clack of her high heels on our polished marble floor, aware that each step caused her new hip to hurt like hell.

She died a couple of years ago during a tummy tuck surgery gone wrong. A blood clot formed, gave her a stroke, and she never even woke from the anesthesia. My father remarried a year later and I haven’t spoken to him since. If there truly is a god, he is rotting in one of the Cryons’ hells right now, I thought vengefully and without pity.

He had cheated on my mom since I was old enough to comprehend what that meant, maybe even sooner, without even trying to be discreet about it like most of the other men in our circles.

To spite him, I studied political science and international relations, set on becoming a diplomat and traveling the world, thinking that with my parentage I was born to be an ambassador or diplomat somewhere.

My father wasn’t all that upset about it. He had hoped I would take over his law firm, but imagining his daughter becoming a senator had stroked his oversized ego just enough. I hadn’t seen any sense in correcting him that I wasn’t going to become a politician.

All that was now water under the bridge I supposed. Fat good a degree in political science and international relations would do me on a different planet. It seemed all I was good for here was to become someone’s mekarry and be pampered for the rest of my life, just like my mother had been. I supposed some fates are hard to escape. A thought that made me almost laugh. Almost. Not much made me laugh nowadays.

So after Lady Natoi’s long sermon this morning on how I was supposed to behave more ladylike and flirt with the men, encourage them, I told her I would go to the park and reflect on my misbehavior, something she strongly encouraged.

“We’ll have another dinner tonight. Hopefully your reflecting will provide you enough insight on how to be a bit more amiable,” Lady Natoi remarked when I left.

Amiable? I had been amiable. I had talked to the father and his two sons. We had talked for three hours while they ogled me and brushed against me so many times it couldn’t be called accidental any longer. Sorry, Lady Natoi, I don’t think you’re going to attain even third place by getting me hitched, I snickered balefully.

I found what I called my bench in the park, because nobody ever sat on it, and stared at the beautiful waterfall and lake. It wasn’t a loud rushing fall, more like a steady stream down the rocky walls, which made it even more soothing.

A pair, of what I named swucks—fowl that looked like a cross between a swan and a duck—majestically swam over the deep magenta-colored water that always gave the impression of the sun setting over it.

Instant peace overcame me and I didn’t hear the emperor approach until he stood right over me, scaring me half to death.

My first instinct was to run, because—as silly as it sounded—I worried he came to finally punish me for my trespass yesterday. No matter how ridiculous the notion was that he would come himself instead of sending armed guards, but that was the first thought that entered my head.

I jumped off the bench, and tried to bow, or sink to my knees or whatever people did when they stood face to face with an emperor, but instead, I barely managed to lower my knees and torso, before he waved my efforts off.

To my surprise, a few minutes later I found myself sitting next to him, engaged in the most civil conversation I had had in a long time. Even if it was a bit stilted at first and I bit my tongue twice because I said something I probably shouldn’t have, I enjoyed his company.

I didn’t entirely forget that he was the emperor, one could hardly forget about that, but I was feeling more relaxed than when Lady Natoi showed me off to her friends.

I had had time to get accustomed to the alien appearance of the Pandraxians, of how their blood vessels lay on the outside of their skin, instead of underneath it, and their metallic shimmer that came in all colors of the rainbow.

So I could honestly say that the emperor was a stunning man. Power didn’t simply emanate from him, it exuded from every fiber of his being. From his regal posture to his muscular body that would have put any weight lifter on Earth to shame. No, scratch that, any competing weight lifter on steroids.

The top of my head barely reached his chest. He had to be over six and a half feet tall, maybe seven, but there was nothing disproportionate about him. Even his long fingers were perfect and, since I’m a sucker for hands, I took a few moments to study his.

His forearms were muscled in just the right way to harmonize with his strong biceps, which were on full display along with his chiseled chest and abs. I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t wearing a shirt when his broad shoulders were covered by a cape. But then again, I didn’t know that much about Pandraxian customs, only that the lord protectors moved about bare chested as well, whereas everybody else wore shirts or a uniform. I wasn’t complaining though, because I had never seen a man with such a ripped chest this close and in person. Only in magazines and on TV.

I wasn’t even sure why I was ogling him like a lovesick teenager ogled her movie idol, but I couldn’t stop either. I swear those pecs were eye magnets.

Not to mention his face. Whenever he stopped his incessant frowning and actually smiled a little, he was downright swoon-worthy with his dimples. His scowl, on the other hand, was utterly terrifying. I swore his teal eyes could freeze someone to stone. Right now though, he wasn’t frowning—he wasn’t really smiling either—but our conversation stayed mostly light. I told him about Earth and what little I knew of our galaxy while he listened interested.

“Trust me, I’m not indifferent to your planet’s plight and the suffering of your people,” he assured me.

“Thank you,” I replied with a weak smile. I wasn’t going to champion Earth’s cause to him, because I was sure smarter people than me had already done so, as his words indicated. “I’m very grateful for all the help you and your empire have already given us and I do understand the difficult position you are in.”

At that, he raised an eyebrow and eyed me warily, “You do?”

“I’m not going to pretend I understand the whole situation,” I amended, “but Lady Natoi and some…” I almost said suitors but nearly bit my tongue off keeping that word out of the conversation. “… others, have filled me in on some aspects of your difficult political situation. Which makes you helping us humans even more honorable in my eyes.”

“Honorable, eh?” His hand moved to rub his neck, and his facial expression turned to what I could only describe as a scolded schoolboy. After all the scowling he had down and his temper fit from last night, the gesture looked endearing as hell.

I swallowed and nodded. “You don’t think so?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure what I think. I feel as if I was bullied into helping your species.” He sent an apologetic grimace my way and I tried not to take his words personally. “First, one of my lord protectors found his mekarry… you’ve been told about the mekarry bond?” he asked, interrupting himself.

Oh boy, had I ever. “I’ve been briefed,” I said with a crooked grin of my own.

“Alright. Good.” He nodded before he continued. “He isn’t just one of my lord protectors, he is one of my two best friends,” he added. “And then my other best friend, none other than my superior commander, bonds with another human merrily.” He sighed. “Plus half his ship’s crew.”

“Is that bad?” I asked carefully, honestly intrigued, because I hadn’t heard the whole story, definitely not from his point of view.

“Nocc.” Daryus stared off toward the waterfall. “Discovering we are still capable of mekarry bonds was exhilarating, but it did put me in a difficult situation.”

I waited until he collected his thoughts and decided how much he wanted to share with me. When he did, it was with a self-deprecating snort. “We hadn’t even realized that we lost the mekarry bond, how frygging ironic is that?”

There were so many emotions in his voice, I was barely able to keep my hand back as it automatically wanted to move to caress his hard bicep in a gesture of sympathy. I didn’t know him well enough yet though, he was a stranger and an emperor at that, and I had no idea what protocol said about me, a refugee, a human, touching him, so I held back.

“To have found it now, with your people, is nothing short of a miracle. The honorable thing to do would be to bring down the full wrath of the imperial fleet on the Cryons and stop their atrocities against your species.”

I read the pain in his eyes for his inability to do so and said quietly, “But you can’t. Because you can’t risk an intergalactic war.”

He looked at me, really looked at me. Our eyes locked and he nodded. “Vra, you understand?”

“I do,” I admitted, even though I called myself a hypocrite, a coward, and some other choice names. Because here I was sitting well-fed, dressed, and—most of all—safe, while other members of my species endured unbelievable hardships and horrors. I had no idea if I would still understand if I was inside one of the rumored torture chambers of the Cryons, or holed up inside a basement, praying the drones wouldn’t find me. But for whatever reason, I was here and not there, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t imagine or even fathom what others were going through.

I could only voice my thoughts on this. “No matter how fair or unfair to the individual, the fact of the matter is that the Cryons would exterminate us if it weren’t for your interference. You may not be able to save every single human, but you are saving the human race.”

His beautiful teal-colored eyes were inscrutable when he replied, “That may be so, but in the meantime hundreds, if not thousands, of our mekarry bonds are suffering, even dying. Thousands of my subjects will never experience the true meaning of a mekarry bond simply because my hands are tied and I cannot come to their defense.”

I cocked my head and realized that this man was in emotional turmoil. I didn’t think I was special, but I also didn’t think he had allowed anybody a peek under his mask like the one he was allowing me. I weighed my words and asked, “This mekarry bond, this has something to do with fate, right?”

“It has everything to do with fate,” he agreed.

“This may sound flippant, but wouldn’t it have been fate that led the Cryons to Earth so that you would discover your mekarry bond?”

I didn’t believe in fate or mekarry bonds, but he obviously did. He had done so much for us that I wanted to give something back, even if it were only words to make him sleep better at night.

When he nodded, I continued, “So wouldn’t it then be prudent to say that fate knows what it is doing and would keep the people meant for a mekarry bond safe? Lead them here to your people?”

He sat perfectly still, his eyes still resting on me took on a faraway look as if his mind had wandered off hundreds of miles.

“I need to consider this,” he finally said, rising. “Thank you.” He took my hand gently and a warm humming spread through my body where we touched, followed by a tremble when his lips brushed against my flesh in an old-fashioned kiss of my hand.

He even bowed slightly before he strode down the pathway, followed by a contingent of so many guards I lost count. How hadn’t I realized that there were so many soldiers hovering in the back? Probably the same way I discounted them now, staring only at Daryus’s back covered by his cape as it moved with every strong stride he took. I had never met a man this handsome. And powerful, my mind reminded me, as if I needed to point it out.

Even now my heart was still beating erratically from being this close to him again. It was hard to discern if it was pumping this hard from anxiety or attraction. Probably a mix of both, I concluded. Kind of like if you meet a movie star you had a crush on for a long time, except this movie star was one of the most powerful men in the universe. He held the fates of trillions of people in his hands, we humans were only a tiny blip on his radar.

That thought was sobering. As soon as I was sure he was gone, I made my way back to Lady Natoi’s suite where I listened distractedly to her lamentations about how I needed to be more open to the men she introduced me to and quit being such a calleio, a word my translator couldn’t find a word in English for, but it boiled down to coldhearted bitch.

I wasn’t sure what she expected from me. Was I supposed to let these men just paw at me? That wasn’t going to happen, and I was close to telling her to go and find herself a different human, that I had had enough and wanted to go home.

But I didn’t have a home anymore, did I?

Like it or not, I depended on Lady Natoi’s goodwill. I had nothing. She had even bought the underwear I wore. Yes, she bought them for me, but she could take it all back, couldn’t she? It was within her power to just throw me out on the streets and there would be nothing I could do about it. Just like there was no place for me to go.

So I listened, nodded, apologized even though the words burned in my throat, and promised to do better. Be better.

“Good merrily,” she praised and petted me on the head. “You’ll see, we’ll find your mekarry soon.”

I made a face behind her back, yearning for some way to support myself to not be dependent on her.

A servant entered through the open doorway. Bowing deeply, he announced, “Pardon the interruption, Lady Natoi, a messenger from the emperor is here.”

She lit up instantly. “A messenger? From the emperor? Well, show him in, fool.” She clapped her hands excitedly.

One of the orange aliens—a Myx, a conquered species whose main purpose in life now was to serve any higher members of the Pandraxian empire—entered, dressed in the imperial livery of green and gold.

“I bring an invitation from the emperor,” the Myx announced just as imperiously as the emperor himself.

“Oh!” Again, Lady Natoi clapped her hands in excitement, nearly jumping up and down. “Please tell His Imperial Highness I’m honored and of course I will be there.”

“I beg your forgiveness, Lady Natoi, but the invitation is not for you. It is for Lady Heather,” the Myx corrected without much emotion.

My heart skipped a beat. Me? My moment of excitement died when I saw the expression of utter envy and disdain on Lady Natoi’s face. Her features turned downward as her eyes assessed me coldly, making me actually shiver. “And just how does the emperor know you?”

“I…” I felt like a deer caught in headlights under her stare, without being able to say why, something in her eyes warned me off. “I accidentally met him yesterday when I retrieved your scarf,” I finally admitted, unwilling to mention the emperor’s and my second encounter at the park earlier.

“Hmm, interesting. And why my dear, have you not mentioned that to me yesterday? Don’t you think it would have been worth a few lines like, ah, let me see”—she pretended to think—“by the way Lady Natoi I ran into the emperor?”

“I’m sorry Lady Natoi, I was a bit distraught,” I said with a faint smile, hoping to endear myself back into her good graces. “And we were in such a rush to meet Sir Naximus and his sons.”

She shook her head. “A fine mess you have gotten yourself into now, a fine mess.”

“Can I tell the emperor you will attend dinner with him tonight?” the messenger inquired, drawing our attention back to him.

“Of course,” Lady Natoi chirped, putting a false mask of excitement on. “Tell His Imperial Highness she will be there.”

The mask stayed on her features until the Myx left, then she returned to her cold stare, directing it at me. “I suppose I will have to dress you and prepare you on the proper etiquette when talking to the emperor.”

Too late, I nearly giggled as my nerves were getting the better of me.