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  Her back was straight, and she curtseyed deeply. “Empress, I would be forever grateful if you would return my father to me. Sosan Nevic was a good man, and Algiatha is using his soul to power her influence over her lands.”

  “Come up here, Lady.”

  Her guards kept a grip on Algiatha, who was shrieking incoherently.

  Irritated by the noise, Syrella drew her father’s face in light and sent it to hover in front of her grandmother. The light image hypnotized Algiatha, and she was quiet.

  The lady came to the third step and knelt.

  “Secretary?” Syrella asked Ikatti.

  “Countess Shiseera Nevic Alanson, here with her husband, the twentieth Earl of Alanson.” He filled in her details. “Third daughter of Sosan Nevic.”

  “Countess, if I give you your father, will you remain here in the capitol and speak to him tomorrow? His soul is cold, but it still survives whatever she did to it.”

  Tears filled the young woman’s eyes. “I will. I have missed him so. His death was so sudden.”

  Syrella lifted her hand with the stones in it and whispered, “Sosan Nevic, your daughter wants to talk.”

  The central stone flared to life for an instant, and Syrella handed the soul stone to her cousin. “Take care of him, cousin. He has not had a good afterlife.”

  Shiseera smiled through her tears as the stone warmed at her touch, a glow growing stronger with every second. “Thank you, Empress. He has been missed.”

  “Secretary, are there any other Nevics on Vexa right now?”

  “Yes, Empress. One of the current Lord Nevic’s children as well as another married daughter, this time of Resan Nevic.”

  “Good, bring them here and have them claim their dead.” Syrella sat up and disintegrated the drawing that had kept her grandmother occupied. “Algiatha Nevic, I hereby strip you of a title you have no right to. The title and lands all are handed over to your son Forsan. How you convinced him to let you keep the title eludes me, though it may have something to do with you harnessing the soul stones.”

  The murmur and gasp ran through the court. It was considered a blight on your own soul to twist others to your will.

  Algiatha was screaming, and the house guard stepped forward, hauling her away from the throne while she fought them every inch of the way through the throne room.

  Syrella breathed on the two remaining stones, “Resan Nevic, you will be with your children soon.”

  The one that flared up was set to the left. The other had to be Lord Nevic, by process of elimination.

  Sitting upright with her father’s soul stone warming her heart, she smiled at Ikatti. “Secretary, what is next?”

  Chapter Nine

  The suitors had guts, she had to give them that. After watching her boot out her own grandmother, they still lined up to take a shot at fathering her first child, the heir to Vexa.

  Syrella listened politely to each and every one, asking them questions about their bloodlines and families. She watched Dorium’s back, and when there was a particularly handsome and charming candidate, she saw him tense from the back of his calves to the muscles on either side of his neck.

  “Secretary, I believe it is time for lunch. Ladies and lords, please excuse me.” She got to her feet, took her uncle’s and her grandmother’s husband’s stones and left the throne.

  Dorium fell in just behind her, but she could feel that he was seething. Agoth was on point next to Ikatti and Perinio was on her left.

  The moment that the servers had given Perinio all the dishes and he started his work as her food taster, Dorium reached out and took her hand.

  “Yes, Dorium?” She blinked innocently. In all of her daydreams, she had never imagined that they would be in this position where she held all the power.

  “Syrella, would you be my bondmate?”

  Ikatti blinked rapidly, “Empress, it is imperative that you take a noble as husband.”

  She looked at her advisor. “Why?”

  He scowled, “It is tradition.”

  “Tradition also had the emperors raping their way through the servants. It is time to make my bedroom my business.”

  “But he doesn’t have the bloodline, he can’t share power with you.”

  “Nobody has the bloodline but me, Ikatti. It doesn’t matter who fathers my child, as long as I start having them quickly.”

  Ikatti opened his mouth and then closed it as the truth of her words sank in.

  She turned to Dorium, “Will you be able to deal with your role as consort? It will mean long days and nights at my side with little to no power.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I have my own power, and even an empress gets a weekend off now and then.”

  “I think something can be arranged. I have plans to work out the court and mediation systems here, and inviting trainees from Thoola and other Citadels to come and apply their skills will keep a steady supply of talents running through Vexa.”

  Ikatti cleared his throat, but Syrella merely smiled when he said, “You are going to encourage talents?”

  “Of course. I had to spend years of my life away from my family, and I was not there when they began to disappear. That is not a fate I would wish on anyone, and if I can change it, I will.” She put her sincerity into her gaze, and met Dorium’s with her own. She stared at him and felt the delicate tendrils of his mind connect with her.

  She had studied the idea of mind bonds but had never expected to be on the receiving end of one. Syrella confirmed the mental touch with the words, “Yes, Dorium Povix, I will.”

  The tendrils thickened alarmingly, and she laughed as she leaned in to kiss him. He met her halfway, and she hoped that he would do the same for the rest of their lives. It was a chaste kiss, but Agoth got to his feet, raced around the table and hugged them both.

  Perinio was more circumspect, but he shook each of their hands with a huge grin on his face. “Congratulations. He has been talking about you for years.”

  Syrella blushed and arched a brow, “Really? I find that hard to believe.”

  Dorium’s green skin darkened with a blush. “Ever since you assisted me on that session at Drekkiak, you have been the only woman in my thoughts.”

  She had helped a young woman with a toxic touch come to grips with the fact that she was not a monster. It had been hard to keep Dorium away while she counselled Helari, but when she wrapped the young girl in her cloak and helped her over the rocks, she had looked toward the shuttle, and he was standing right in front of her, his gaze locked with hers.

  She had relived that moment a thousand times in her mind but had never imagined that he was doing the same.

  “Ikatti, when can we have a formal bonding ceremony?”

  He scowled. “Technically, you could have one tomorrow. Do you have a dress?”

  She started to laugh but kept hold of Dorium’s hand. “Oh, I have a dress.”

  Dorium frowned. “I don’t know if I want to get bonded on the Day of the Dead.”

  Syrella did what she had seen her mother do so often to her father and stroked the side of his face. “It isn’t a day for the dead, it is a day to speak with those we love and those who loved us. There is nothing I would rather do than have my father with me during my bonding ceremony, but who will perform it?”

  Perinio raised his hand. “I am ordained as a minister in the Alliance.”

  Dorium frowned, “I didn’t know that. What sect?”

  “The Heart of Steel and Fire. I left the order when my other talents came to the fore, but I am still able to perform and register a bonding.”

  Syrella grinned, “Do you have something formal to wear?”

  Dorium looked worried.

  Ikatti sighed, “I can arrange formal wear for the priest and your bondmate. We will have the ceremony at dawn in the throne room if that is acceptable, Your Imperial Highness.”

  Syrella laughed helplessly, “Yes, I suppose it is, and I am getting bonded in the morning.”

 
; Dorium pulled her close, and she experienced the second kiss in her adult life.

  The second kiss?

  Um, yes.

  So, I will have to spend every available moment increasing your exposure to the pleasures of kissing.

  I hope so. I need the practice. She smiled against his lips, and he took her lower lip between his for a moment then released her and backed away.

  “Well, Empress, I believe that we should eat before the food gets cold. You have a full afternoon ahead of you.” Dorium had a smile in his eyes, and she just knew that he was going to keep it in place all afternoon.

  Two hours later, she was facing two more cousins. Gratefully, they took the stones that corresponded to their loved ones, and they bowed their way out of the throne room.

  The rest of her day was spent fidgeting as Dorium kept giving her psychic kisses when she least expected it.

  Her father’s soul stone over her heart began to beat counterpoint to her own, but there was something odd in the beat, a small aftereffect that was a peculiar psychic echo.

  She listened to a few petitions and made some practical decisions for those lords and ladies who simply wanted the empress to preside over their dispute.

  At the end of the session, Ikatti cleared his throat and inclined his head toward the crowd.

  Oh, right, she had to make an announcement. “Tomorrow morning, at dawn, I shall be bonded to the male of my choice. He has already accepted my offer, and we are eager to begin our lives together.”

  Gasps and whispering were running through the room, but she was in no mood to continue her explanation. They would learn his identity soon enough.

  She rose to her feet and walked out of the throne room, Ikatti and her guards surrounding her as she left the confused and frustrated nobles behind. They were not happy that she had not chosen a member of their families, and since there were over nine families who had taken a run at the first day of courtship, she could feel a lot of hostility coming from that crowd.

  Dinner was a quick discussion of the bonding ceremony with a very excited Perinio and a focus on the echoed heartbeat from her father’s soul stone.

  “Empress, are you all right? You seem very pale.” Dorium was searching her mind, but he wasn’t finding any stress.

  “I am feeling a little weak. It is probably too much stress too soon.” She smiled and touched his hand.

  Ikatti raised his eyebrows. “We can delay the bonding if you need it.”

  She smiled, “No. This is what I want, and Dorium is whom I have been thinking of for longer than I can remember. We will bond, I will work in setting up a more effective method for the nobles to bitch at each other and then, I will take some time off to enjoy the pleasures of Vexa.”

  She recalled vaguely that the emperor used to travel to the worlds in his empire, and she had a passing idea that it would be a good thing to resume that travel.

  Well, first things were first. She would see if her father would leave the soul stone, and if he did, she was going to ask him to attend her bonding ceremony in the morning. As she ate her dinner and listened to her companions speak, she smiled. There would be time for everything after tomorrow.

  Chapter Ten

  “Sy. Treasure. Wake up.”

  Syrella came awake and stared at the two glowing images standing next to her bed. A look out her window told her it was false dawn. Three hours until the sun rose, and she had her ceremony.

  Squinting, she reached out and the shorter of the glows took her hand. The figure became more solid in that instant, and she cried out. “Mom?”

  Sobs broke from her chest as her mother tried to hush her, but while she could see the dead, she could not touch them.

  Agoth burst into her bedroom and froze at the image of two glowing figures, one consoling Sy while she tried to get herself under control.

  Syrella waved at him. “Agoth, my bodyguard and member of the Citadel, these are my parents, Syrella the First and Arnos.”

  “I thought that the soul stones only carried one.” He was wary.

  “So did I. How in the seventeen hells did this happen?”

  Arnos frowned, “Don’t curse, treasure. I sewed your mother’s soul stone under my skin so that when I died, we would move to my stone together. I had no idea that my mother would kill me for the energy I would give her.”

  Sy wished she was shocked, but she wasn’t. “I am so glad to see you both, to talk to you both. You can go now, Agoth.”

  He grinned and bowed. “Three hours, Empress.”

  She sighed and waved him off.

  Her parents were staring at her.

  Her mother asked, “Empress?”

  “I am the last of the blood. They had to call upon me.”

  Her father frowned, “How long have you been empress?”

  “Since two days ago. I lived my entire life at the Citadel. I was a student at first, and then, I became an instructor. It was a good life.”

  Her mother smiled, “Will you pick a good partner to father your children?”

  Sy cleared her throat. “I already have. That is what the three-hours comment was about. Three hours until my bonding ceremony in the throne room.”

  Arnos put his hand under her chin and lifted it with the energy of his presence. “Is he a noble?”

  She grinned up at him. “No. Not a Vexar noble. He is a guard from the Citadel, a telepath and a good fighter. He’s also green.”

  Her mother frowned, “There was a young man who was on the ship that picked you up. He was green. Are they related?”

  Syrella tried not to bring her parents down on her, but she nodded, “He is the same one. The moment I saw him, I knew he was the one, and as time went on and we met on assignments, the feeling grew. We kissed for the first time after he proposed yesterday.” She shrugged her shoulders up and hugged herself a little at the memory.

  Her mother laughed and touched her face, her father sighed.

  “So, will you be there?” She bit her lip while she waited.

  Her mother caressed her lip. “Sweetie, don’t bite that lip. Your husband will want it in one piece.”

  Her father snarled. “How old are you now anyway?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “Oh.” He was unable to tell her she was too young.

  She nodded. Her mother had been nineteen when Arnos had swept her off her feet and twenty-one when Syrella junior was born.

  “He’s a good man who puts my needs before his own, and I am going to try with everything in me to not take advantage of that. He will take the position of Imperial Consort of Vexa, and once I put certain measures into place, we will have some time to pretend to be normal.”

  Her father was interested. “What measures?”

  She went into a description of the idea for bringing in Citadel members to act as mediators as well as an official Negotiator in full armour to act on behalf of Vexa when it came to treaties with the Alliance and the Nyal Imperium. Vexa was firmly wedged between titans, so it was in their best interest to have someone negotiating on their behalf.

  “That is a very clever idea, treasure. I do have one thing to ask you off topic. When did my mother die?”

  She blinked and looked up at him. “She didn’t.”

  “Then how did you get my soul stone?”

  “I demanded it, and when she wouldn’t give in, I froze her and stole it. I also returned your half-brothers and her husband to their other relatives. She has been arrested for disrupting the court, but I have yet to decide what I will do with her.”

  “She is dangerous.”

  “I know, Father. She killed you, she killed two of her other sons and most likely her husband after you were gone. I have proof of none of it, because your body is long gone, but she is evil.”

  Her father opened his mouth to speak, but Mai came in and paused. “Pardon me, Ma’am, but it is time to start getting ready. Oh, there are three foreign contingents who are delighted to attend your bonding. They brought gifts a
nd treaties to initially congratulate you on your ascension, but now, the gifts are for your bonding.” She giggled. “Some of the gifts are eating all the flowers in the garden.”

  Curious, Syrella asked, “What are they?”

  “I have never seen anything like them, but they are some kind of small ruminant.”

  Grinning, Sy jumped out of bed.

  Her father asked, “Why the excitement over animals?”

  “When first Mom died and then you died, I had to find something as an affection surrogate. We had goats at the Citadel, and they became my special project. I can brush, wash, feed, milk and generally care for any goat that crosses my path.”

  Her mother was laughing with genuine amusement and her father sat down, confused. “A goat-milking empress.”

  “Arnos, there are worse things for our daughter to be.”

  He shrugged and gathered his spectral wife to him.

  Mai hustled her into the shower, rubbed lotion into her skin and brushed her hair until it shined. The gold gown waited, and Syrella the first was admiring it with touches of her glowing hand.

  Mai set a light brushing of makeup on Sy’s skin that gave her a delicate glow. “And now, my grandfather reclaimed this from the imperial collection for you.”

  Mai left the room, retrieved a huge box from Agoth and placed it in front of Sy. “Perinio has already tested all the contents for toxins.”

  Curious, she opened the box and gasped. Over her shoulder, her mother admired, “I haven’t seen those since the vid of Ukan’s first wife carrying her son for testing at the throne.”

  Sy frowned. “I thought that folk didn’t test randomly.”

  “They don’t. It is only when there might be some doubt of paternity that the child is tested. In your case, the bloodline is assured.” Her mother patted her arm.

  “Thank you, Mother.” She twisted her lips and chuckled.

  Mai gestured to the jewels in the case. “May I?”

  “Of course. Frankly, with so many emperors between now and then, I am shocked that the jewels are still intact.”