Starblade (22 page)

Noticeably Sharr relaxed, and then let
Frederika out of his grasp. He had made his point, and then found
himself confronted by an act of singular nobility. Plus he did have
a more joyful bit of news for Frederika. But first, the matter hat
hand. She moved a pace back from the Falcanian whose tail snapped
back and forth while he considered her offer. “Are you certain you
wish to take Mia's place?”

Frederika nodded, resigned with her
choice.

“Very well,” Sharr said.

This time he placed a gentle hand upon her.
For a moment Frederika let herself rest upon him. Even though she
was still angry, she could not help but be attracted to this man
and yet despise him for his brutality. Trying to sort out that
paradox might take a lifetime.

“I do wish to show you something,” Sharr
said.

“What?”

Drakorian Guards entered the room with a
human boy around eight. He had wild hair and a tan Eurasian look.
His eyes were clouded white with blindness.

“That is Mia's brother, Philip,” Frederika
murmured.

Sharr nodded and let her walk to the
boy.

Frederika knelt down and hugged the child.
“Philip,” she said with a slight lilt to her voice. “I'm your
sister's friend, Rika.”

“Mia told me about you.” The boy felt her
face and memorized her features with his hands. “You’re very pretty
like she said.”

“He arrived this morning,” Sharr said by way
of explanation. “My agents retrieved him. In a few hours he’ll see
the world as you and I do. Perhaps even better.”

Frederika lowered her voice so only Sharr
could hear her. “Then you still intend on going through with the
surgery?”

“Do you believe me so cruel?” Sharr Khan
asked. “I would not deny Mia my gift or make another suffer for
someone else's transgression.”

Frederika bit her lip. Sharr could have as
easily taken back his gift. Mia had broken Falcanian law and he
could have denied her brother the surgery. This unexpected
compassion from the Shotar confused Frederika and caused her heart
to flutter.

“May I see Mia?”

“I will have her returned to the nodor.”

“Und,” her accent became thick. “Shall I
then take her place in one of your cells?”

“That will not be necessary.” Sharr took
Frederika's hand feeling her stiffen. “I trust when the time
arrives, you will submit yourself willingly.”

Frederika closed her emerald eyes. Though
even with his compassionate actions, Sharr still intended on going
forward with what was in her mind a savage action. The “civilized”
world did not abide such forms of punishment. But she had made her
choice.

“Rika?” Sharr squeezed her hand. “Will you
submit yourself willingly?”

“I will.”

She crouched, her tri-claw boots ready for
launch. With a battle cry, Sitara jumped and sliced downward with
her vajra. She hit her mark. The bamboo was cleanly cut in half.
She landed on her shock absorbing claw-boots, turned, and slashed
at the hovering advancing multi-armed android.

Unlike the bamboo, the mechanism returned
with its own assault, thrusting its fierce naginata blades at the
Princess who avoided the blows easily. Not because she had set the
automaton to a safe level, but rather she had the superior skills
to compete with a computer mind in combat. She spent much of her
early years learning the arts of Kalari and Kra-Shreik, two
complementary combat forms taught to her by her mother and the
Imperial Strato-General Shuriken Kra. These martial arts made her a
formidable combatant, either bare handed or grasping steel.

At the moment, her mother busied herself in
choosing the fabric for Sitara's wedding ensemble and that she
needed to attend her own fitting soon. The Princess wished her day
of bonding would not become a state occasion, but that was
unavoidable. On a bright note, her upcoming nuptials would at last
deny Urksa any attempted conquest of her and remove any hope he had
to ascend to her father's claw-throne.

Using the pommel of her sword, she tripped
the combat robot. It quickly recovered and lunged at her with its
own naginata only to have it deflected by the clawed edge of
Sitara's Kraris held in her left hand. Like her mother, she was
able to fight with a blade in each hand. Upward the Princess sliced
and bisected the automaton, its torso slit by her blazing blade.
The slit-eyed robot's head looked blankly up at her from its place
on the training mat.

Down on one knee and breathing deeply,
Sitara recovered herself. Her dark braid fell down her back, beads
of sweat moistening her gray sports garb. Supported on her vajra's
hilt, she curled her tail and fanned out her rose-colored wings to
let the heat out of her body.

Clapping filled the training veranda.
“Bravo, sister!”

Violet eyes snapped upward. Sitara was
surprised to see the woman who leaned against the arched doorway of
the combat arena. She returned her vajra to its holster and
resheathed her Kraris.

“Ariel!” Sitara got to her feet and walked
over to hug her twin. “What brings you away from Nani's
palace?”

“I'm here to be your lady-in-waiting,” Ariel
said.

Ariel Persis Drakonis, nearly identical to
her sister in every physical manner, shared her parents' combined
features which resulted in the twins beautiful and predatory looks.
To Sitara, Ariel would be but a mirror image. Where Sitara
concerned herself with mechanics and mathematics her twin busied
herself within the walls of the Valküri Temple to master her orders
scheming ways.

“Father missed you at his birthday,” Sitara
said.

“I couldn’t leave my post,”Ariel sighed.

“Or you didn't want to be reminded about our
little brother.”

Ariel quickly changed the topic. “Things are
very festive in Kuras.”

“I'm sure Nani will be pleased having us all
back.”

“You bet!” Ariel grinned. “We’ve had to
ready the palace for father's arrival. Nani's ordered a state of
celebration, and the local administrators are overwhelmed.”

Sitara laughed. “Funny, I thought Shuriken
was Viceroy!”

Ariel giggled as well. “In this, the wedding
of her first born grandchild, one does not argue with the Grand
Dame of Falcania.”

Their grandmother, Ambika Sen, could be a
formidable woman. Her judgments were not unlike law handed down
from the Dreikatha and no Falcanian or any under their protection
would deny the grand matriarch her wishes.

“It promises to be a grand affair,” Sitara
said dryly.

Frederika watched the Falcanian warriors
erect the whipping bench in the drizzle and fog. Clearly they
intended to invoke fear in the victim as well as make a point to
the other women as they erected the wooden frame in the courtyard.
The rack was constructed in the garden of the dancer's harem was a
stained wooden frame, resembling a large sawhorse covered with
leather and various straps. It stood at the center of the flowered
courtyard, where it was put on display so each of the women might
examine the cruel apparatus for themselves.

The blonde harrumphed, uncrossed her arms,
and turned away from the instrument of her demise. At dawn
tomorrow, she would present herself for the cane. Frederika took
comfort knowing she had spared Mia the pain of the rattan.

Mia glanced at Frederika, her blue eyes
filled with guilt. She was happy to learn her brother had arrived
and even now underwent the operation which would give him sight.
But she felt tremendous guilt that her friend had volunteered to
take her place.

Not saying a word, for there was no need,
Frederika lightly touched Mia's cheek in a sisterly manner to offer
a warm smile.

She had to do something. Frederika made a
resolution to learn what she could strategically about the
Falcanians and bring it back to Oberon for military use. Sharr had
enough trust in her that he would let her wander the palace
unaccompanied. After all, she was the Shotar's favorite at the
moment.

Time to put some of her training to use for
her own people.

As she moved down the hall toward the flight
of stairs that she knew would bring her to Sharr's office two
Falcanian women entered her path. Princess Sitara and a female she
had not seen before were in the midst of a deep discussion. Nearing
the two Frederika realized the other girl must be Sitara’s twin.
They shared an exact countenance.

Sitara looked at her uneasily. For a moment,
it seemed as if the Princess might ignore Frederika, but then the
two Falcanians halted. “I am sorry, Frederika,” Sitara
murmured.

“You've nothing to be sorry for, Sitara.
This is my choice.” Frederika told her with conviction.

“If I knew a way to spare you this I would.”
Grabbing her by the hands Sitara pulled Frederika closer. She knew
the experience of the cane all too well. “It will be painful.”

“I imagine that's the point,” Frederika
said, it sounded more sarcastic than she had intended it to be.

“You’re an honorable woman, Frederika.
Worthy of my father's attentions.” Her tone sounded ceremonial, but
still friendly. “I can see you as a sister. That is why I have
shared so many things with you. Let this not put ill will between
us.”

Frederika forced a smile. “Of course
not.”

She felt her heart strings ache. She also
saw a kindred spirit in Sitara. It was odd they should bond at all
and yet not as unlikely as either girl would think given their
shared origins as products of controlled genetics.

Fog settled thickly across the Island.

Atar Kran was perched on the beachhead while
his men analyzed a debris field. He oversaw the operation from atop
a small outcropping of rock, the fog encasing them in their search.
Fragments scattered the beach that made the white sand look as if
tiles from the golden road were thrown about by a tremendous storm
fiercer than the light rain which fell upon them.

One of his warriors motioned Kran over as
they lifted a large head out of the sand. Its once vibrant green
eyes dark with death. Though he was skeptical from what the queen
had seen in Kheira's mind, Kran had an idea as to whom these bits
of armor had once belonged to.

“Shiertar!” Atar exclaimed.

“What, my lord?” asked the nearest Drakorian
confused.

“Nothing,” Atar lied.

The future Falcanian's appearance remained a
classified matter, even more than the army the Khanate covertly
built. Kran would need to see the Queen and Princess Kheira to
confirm that this shell had once been Shiertar's own.

But Kran was much more preoccupied with the
thought about whom or what could have killed this superior being?
Obviously something as superior as it had been. The notion of some
unknown future warrior wandering Vanguard did not sit well with the
Shrai-Bashir.

Kheira walked on the beach and shook her
head sadly. She recognized Shiertar's parts and pieces scattered
among the sand.

“Your Highness,” Atar called, surprised to
see the girl among his soldiers.

She looked over at him. Her illuminated face
told the Drakorian commander she knew something about what had
occurred here.

Kheira noticed the guards who held aloft
Shiertar's head. She gasped at the sight and put her hand over her
mouth. Her lip quivered, almost on the edge of tears.

“Princess, do you know what took place
here?” Asked Atar.

She took a deep breath, working up the
ability to answer. “I felt something.”

“Felt what?”

“The Shadow. Sent by the Great Eye, it
transported here and destroyed him.” Kheira explained to Atar,
though she could tell by the look on his face that he did not fully
accept this idea of the time travel.

“Are you sure that he's dead?” Atar Kran
examined a piece of the burnished alloy. “This is just his armor.
Surely if he was as advanced as he claimed, he could survive
outside of it.”

“No, Atar. He is dead, his light consumed by
the darkness. Shiertar sacrificed himself, becoming a target so the
All Seeing Eye could not find me.”

Not long after the discovery of Shiertar's
remains a contingent of the Queen's Valküri fell upon the Drakorian
Guard investigation, they soon took all the evidence of Shiertar’s
presence into custody. The armor would not be seen again by anyone
outside of a small circle for centuries to come.

Frederika moved down the hall and it didn't
take long to reach Sharr's office. Luckily there were no Drakorian
in sight. There was no reason to guard an empty room after all.
Besides, if anyone asked why she was there, she would say that she
hoped to find the Shotar.

Frederika glanced around for security
cameras. There were none to be seen, but that didn't mean they
weren't there. Pushing on a switch, the ovular doors slid into the
wall. Frederika entered and moved behind Sharr's opulently carved
desk. Again Aria's picture confronted her. She wondered how Nadia
felt about the girl’s image beside the Queen's own and his many
daughters.

The flat screen of the Shotar's computer
glowed with an image of the Falcanian Phoenix. Touching the
keyboard, she was pleased to find that Sharr had left his system
on, but password protected.

What password would Sharr use to protect his
system? She typed in both the Queen's names but was denied access.
She frowned. That should have been it. Frederika shook her head and
tried some other names.

She glanced at the picture of the human
female again.

She typed A-R-I-A.

The system unlocked.

Now her only problem was she couldn't read
Falcanian.

There were folders labeled with Falcanian
calligraphy arranged on the screen. Opening one folder, she
discovered some writing, poetry in English and Falcanian.
Interesting, but not strategically helpful to her cause.