Book 12

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Chapter 1

WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

      "There. Right there, yes, standing beside the curtain."

     High Commander Tybalt Draycie pointed a finger toward the shivering drapes of the dais, but he'd missed her again, damn it! Ty swore to lay eyes upon her again if he ever possessed two minutes of time uncalled for by duty!

      More like the gates to Hadenrod! They seemed too blissful.

      The crowd packed into the throne room swelled with dignitaries in every nook, resisted any big movement. Pygrian hats of every loud color dotted the room, blocking the advantage of Ty’s height. The heat of the gathering was horrendous, and he expected to see an outbreak of fainting among the alien Pygrians, used to an icy climate compared to Rhonta’s steamy terrain.

      "Citizens of ConsulateRhonta." Old King Dimitar drew a labored breath. Ty noticed his uncle’s thinness. "As you know, our fair Rhonta and neighboring Pygras have been at war for many generations." The room ripped into a dissatisfied murmur, then hushed.

      Ty and his friend took over an empty corner of the betrothal announcement ceremony and held their ground against the throng of diplomats. Though the room tensed with the centuries-old xenophobia between the two races, things were under control.

      "Quiet, like the last minute before chaos," Kade whispered.

      "Quiet is good," Ty muttered back, his hands fisted. "Think peace, talk peace, live peace, words straight from the prince's mouth. That, and to endure nearly everything these no-account, grass-eating, miserable Pygrian clods hand us."

      Ty pressed the communicator to his ear to hear better the reports from the security teams set around the building, and he scanned his vista for various matters of crowd control and safety. He gave a musical smirk to spot the inequity of one feast table booming with the meat of many hunted animals, and another bar at the other side of the hall garnered with a boring spread of foliage for the pasty-faced vegetarian Pygrians. It was like their race had lost a bet with Nature, and must now be punished with herbivorism.

      Who’d’ve guessed the weak Pygrians and the war-loving Rhontaians would one day stand in the same room faking pleasantries as disgruntled in-laws? How Prince Joren planned to pull this off was beyond Ty's comprehension.

      The king droned on, "... And so, my son Joren ..." Ty doubted His Majesty could have scowled out his first-born’s name with more distaste, "will marry Princess Lala of Pygras."

      Amid lackluster applause, the young couple struggled to put the princess on her feet, then they presented themselves, Her Highness within days of giving birth to Joren's first son. Both conspirators glowed despite the silent shame the crowd hurled at them. Only a blind man couldn't see their contented smiles, the joyful clasp of their white-knuckled hands. It said, It's you and me against two worlds.

      Ty thought to fake a wretch for the humor of it.

      "Green Robe, did you say?" his friend asked, thumbing through the flight manifest. Draycie nodded.

      "You could’ve seen any one of ten different Green Robes, Draycie," Kade Quil complained. "They’re the personal attendants and protectors of the Shardonei, the Pygrian royal family."

      Ty groaned, running his hands through his unruly hair. "If Joren felt compelled to defy law and marry an alien, why did she have to be Pygrian?"

      Kade groaned, sounding disturbed over the problem, his eyes combing lists. "Joren’s punishment is built-in. Even if we eliminate the Black Watch who wishes to see him hanged for his choice of brides, the Consulate plans to eat him alive."

      Joren needed a harsh correction, for sure. Ty whined, "Surely there’s some form of torment awaiting him in the afterlife for this. A Pygrian."

      Kade issued a mocking laugh. "You'd thrill to get under their green robes!"

      "Mine would not be love, you dolt."

      Ty leaned around a column, working to take account of his men stationed at every pressure point of the room, then he swept his line of sight to get another peek at the green-robed woman, but she was nowhere to be found. Too bad. His earlier peek of her disembarking from the royal landrover had held promise. Tar-black and glossy hair dancing above her hips. The smooth motion of her breasts as she moved. The memory of the split of her green robe revealing lovely white legs as she walked lingered in his mind.

      Sigh. What do they wear under those robes anyway? Ty amused himself with the memory. Okay, just one more look at her, and she’ll fade from his mind. If he ever found her again.

      Ty cursed the tall hats in his way.

      "No," he hissed to his friend, "the Pygrians couldn’t wear a decent gray nor a basic battle green, tan, or black. They must wear purple, yellow, blue, and orange! Why orange?" he wanted to shout aloud.

      "Let it go," chided Kade, keeping his roving eyes on everything around him but the ceremony. "Your girl will probably be here for a time. I don't see the Green Robes leaving until the princess is settled."

      Ty forced a breath from his lungs and rolled his eyes in frustration. "Who knows Joren’s game plan? Who knows his next move? We should know, but don’t. We used to know everything. Now Joren keeps us in the dark."

      Kade looked up to the stage. "She’s not a bad-looking girl at all."

      Ty cast his sight to the Pygrian princess and couldn't help but notice that, though Lala was big as a bareeti, she was quite a pretty girl from afar. None sane could argue that Joren’s princess-toy possessed luxurious waves of silver-blonde hair he must love spread over his chest. She had flawless white skin and carried the glow of pregnancy. When she spoke to the Rhontaians to offer her friendship, she displayed a warm voice flavored with the uppercrust accent her schoolmaster must’ve cultivated since her youth.

      Yeah, Ty gave himself a mental kick, the princess was alright on the eyes, for sure. Of course, he’d already heard the girl wasn’t much in the brains department, but what man needed a smart woman, anyway?

      "For a Pygrian," he sneered, with no small amount of malice for the aliens. "The girl must have been stupid to have sex with her very worst enemy."

      "Perhaps Joren had assaulted her ..." Then both Ty and Kade shook their heads, and Kade decided, "Nah, too unlike Joren."

      "Besides, the smiles," Ty pointed out. "Assault never produces smiles like that. Smiles definitely rule out assault."

      "It’s enough to make a grown man ill."

      "... and it is my hope and the hope of Pygras," the old king's voice was now a dreadful monotone, "that this new child will unite our two warring worlds. I know that each of you will" -cough- "accept Lady Lala ..."

      "That's Princess Lala!" boomed a thundery voice from the right of King Dimitar. The king of Pygras sniffed indignantly at the faux paus, having already made no-bones about his daughter’s innocence being spoiled by Rhonta’s invading prince.

      Dimitar winced. "Of course, your pardon."

      Ty elbowed Kade. "Look at the dolt. Joren looks as though his favorite concubine has been cloned into triplets!"

      Both officers sent their hands to their own chins, each stroking his regulation beard. "We hadn't thought of that. We should’ve thought of that."

      Kade swatted the idea away. "Too late. Says he loves her."

      Ty tilted his head sideways, thinking his brain had heard wrong. "Joren said that?" he whispered in a low grunt. "He said he loved her? He doesn’t know her!"

      "As I was saying, please give Princess Lala your regard. Good eve to all," the old king finally wound it up, to Ty’s and Kade’s reliefs.

      The audience observed the customary silence as all the royalty filed out of the auditorium. Ty could feel the weight easing from his shoulders with the exit of each high birth.

      "Their hats are too big," High Commander Draycie growled to his friend, when the buzz of the exiting crowd would cover their conversation. "How can a man wear such a gaudy, overbearing thing on his head?"

      Kade shook his copper-topped head again, cracked his wolf’s grin. "You didn’t read the profile on these people, did you now? Mandatory reading, Ty."

      "I don't need a profile." Ty shook a fist out of view. "I have fifteen years' experience fighting these Pygrian dogs. Few know more on the subject of Pygras’s strengths and weaknesses."

      "Yes, my friend, but you know nothing of the people."

      "There is nothing about these people I want to know," Ty replied tartly.

      He focused on his Academy buddy, diving into Quil’s soul, a place Ty knew to be black for Pygras. "Do your duty for the Crown, but don’t pretend with me that you don’t hate them as well as I do."

      Kade chuckled again, then pointed over Ty's shoulder. "Hate them all, except that little green-robed Pygrian woman over there, the one with the 'long black hair like threads of the night’, as I believe you said sooooo poetically."

      The familiar words snatched Ty from his brooding mood, and he turned to see the crowd parting. There she was, a fairy without wings, directing other Green Robes to their duties. Long legs, glossy black hair bouncing with her every gesture. Glowing skin unkissed by the sun. A feast of femininity calling Ty's name. He felt drawn to her outside his own will.

      In a few smooth moves, Ty put himself behind her, listened in on the conversation she held with a young one of her kind.

      "Don’t worry so, Nasda. Rhonta is no longer our enemy, and the men in uniform are not to be feared. They’ll soon be our friends. Sleep in Cerridwena's room tonight," she suggested with a calming smile. Her fingers rose to sweep a lock of brown hair from the child’s weepy eyes. "You may join the princess and me tomorrow night in ours."

      This did seem to comfort the homesick sprite, and the adolescent took off to seek her room.

      "How kind of you," Ty couldn't keep from saying in his deep bass voice behind her and very far up.

      Apparently shocked to hear a voice so close to her, the Green Robe spun around and plowed into his big body. When she followed his uniform buttons up to his face, she froze, her horror obvious in huge pink eyes!

      Ty set her gently at arm's length, watching her strange glare and terrified reaction. "I'm sorry if I’ve frightened you, maiden. Why do you teach your children not to fear, then do so yourself?"

      The green-robed woman surveyed the whole of him. Though he towered over her, her shoulders in his hands, he hadn't harmed her, had even spoken to her civilly.

      "Hel-lo," Ty spoke slowly, thinking her unable to understand his language through his accent, "my name is Ty-balt Dray-"

      His greeting met a raking pink anger and a slap across his face before an audience of dignitaries.

      "Never touch me again, you Rhontaian beast!" she shouted, then the little tornado twisted from his light grip and performed a contemptuous stalking away.

      Stunned at the thought of Joren hearing a twisted version of what had just taken place, Ty barely heard his friend's approach, barely felt the commending pat on the back.

      "Congratulations, buddy," Kade teased, with devilish glee. "Nice first impression, must be right on track with this one. I thought I heard chaos coming."

***