The Iron Admiral: Deception (34 page)

Xanthor put undulating tentacles on her shoulder. “You were so sure. You would not have believed me because you didn’t want to.”

She sighed, deep and from the heart. “I guess I’ve learned that there’s no point in blaming anyone but me for the gulf between us when Papa died. I’m so sorry. But I’ve accepted it.” Yes, and forgiven herself, perhaps. Just a little. She shook her shoulders, shaking off the past. “What’s been happening, Xanthor?”

Time passed as Allysha and Xanthor’s family traded stories. She told them about the ptorix decorations in the old mine.

“I brought you these,” she said, placing the bag into Xanthor’s swaying top tentacles. “From Tisyphor.”

Xanthor pulled out the carefully wrapped items one-by-one; the books and theghabra , exclaiming with pleasure. “They are truly beautiful, every one.”

He left the diary until last. He opened the book in reverential fashion, read a few pages and sighed. “I will do my best to find those who should have them. I thank you most deeply.”

The mere thought of the contents of the diary brought back memories of the laboratory, the ghastly howls of the dying ptorix. Her fault. She’d been too trusting of Jarrad. Still, that was the past. The future would have its own challenges.

“I hope you can find Fyysor’s family,” she said. “If not, they should go the University.”

“Be assured I will do my best.”

Butcher’s entrance saved her from any further introspection. He bowed his head briefly at the ptorix then turned to Allysha. ‘We’ve finished.”

Her heart hammered. She’d never been so nervous, ever. First a divorce, and then a marriage.

Saahren stood with Suldan Bentrax and Marratrax, towering over them. The golden bars on his shoulders and the triple lanyard strung across his breast glowed in the soft light. He beckoned her to him, a sparkle in his dark eyes.

“Meet Suldan Bentrax.”

She bowed, fingers interlaced. “Lord Suldan.”

“You are Professor Marten’s daughter,” Bentrax said in burred Standard.

“Yes, Lord Suldan.”

His fingers swirled gently. “I attended some of your father’s classes.”

She nodded, swallowing the emotion that welled unbidden.I’m sorry, Papa. She did so hope he would approve this time.

“I have heard of your courage. At Brjyl and at Shernish University and again at the GPR laboratory.”

His eyes swirled through blue and green and yellow. Then he twined his tentacles together and rocked toward her. “I thank you for all Qerrans.”

Wow. The Suldan’s gesture was the sort of obeisance he would give to the Khophir. Her, Allysha Marten.

Saahren saved her from having to speak. He glanced over at Butcher. “Fetch the prisoner.”

Butcher directed a nod to the Chief Under Officer in charge of Saahren’s escort. He left the room with two men. Sean?

The hint of a smile lurked around Saahren’s lips. He took her upper arm and guided her to a table against the wall. An ornate paper document lay there, with an old-fashioned pen.

“Your divorce paper.” He pointed at a line at the bottom. “Sign here.”

His eyes met hers. Thoughts tumbled through her brain. No joy, no sadness; perhaps just relief that it was finally over. And maybe a little bit of apprehension about what would happen next.

He cleared his throat and nodded at the document, the words unsaid. Sign.

She signed her name on the line.

She turned as footsteps echoed. The two troopers had Sean between them, disguised of course and yet still recognizable. He looked well enough, except for the blossoming bruises on his right cheek and throat,

but he flicked nervous eyes at Saahren.

“The divorce papers, O’Reilly. Sign here.” Saahren pointed a rigid finger.

Sean flashed a glance at her, throat muscles working. To her surprise, he said nothing, simply signed.

She frowned. No smart-mouthed remarks? No snide comments about sharing assets?

He straightened up and stared at her for a long moment, as if he was going to say something. In the end, he just gave her a slight nod and a jerk of a smile. She almost heard the unsaid words. Goodbye and good luck.

“I’ve signed. You said I could go,” Sean muttered, his eyes on Saahren.

“Chief, escort this…” he waved his fingers, “…to the door.”

Sean stiffened as the troopers approached. “No need. I can see myself out.”

Saahren’s brow arched. “I want to be sure you don’t leave with anything that doesn’t belong to you.”

She watched Sean walk away between the troopers. Out of the door, out of her life. “You won’t hurt him?”

“I promised.” He took her hand and smiled. One of Suldan Bentrax’s assistants picked up the document from the table and took it to the Suldan, who looked at it and nodded. The assistant applied a seal.

Ambassador Marratrax turned to Saahren. “The divorce is final. We can proceed with the ceremony whenever you wish.”

“Good.” Saahren took a step forward, drawing Allysha along with him. “Professor Xanthor?”

Tentacles undulating, Xanthor presented Saahren with an ornately tooled box. He opened it and showed Allysha the contents. Two beautiful, ornate wedding bands.

“I asked the Lord Admiral if I might have the honor of making them for you,” Xanthor said.

She heard his quiet pride. Making jewelry was Xanthor’s hobby and he’d excelled himself. The rings were plaited platinum, gold and iron ore, designed for humans, not ptorix. They were simple and beautiful. Everybody had known about this wedding long before she had. And here she was, about to be married to one of the most senior men in the Confederacy hierarchy. She sighed.

Saahren’s eyebrows shot up. He took her hand, her right in his left, and kissed it. “Allysha?”

She smiled at him. “Memories. I’m ready.” She squeezed his hand. “Honestly.”

The tension drained. “We can proceed, Lord Suldan.”

Bentrax spoke the words of the marriage ceremony in Ptorix. Marratrax translated, Xanthor, Ceta, Farex and Bartok stood solemnly by as witnesses. Her mind in a whirl, Allysha barely heard the words.

She answered mechanically. She hadn’t even had time to think about it. She’d been divorced for—what?—two minutes? Saahren slipped the ring onto her finger.

The Suldan declared the ritual complete. Saahren stared down at her, deep into her heart, her soul. “My wife,” he murmured. “I feared this would never happen.”

Butcher cleared his throat. “Aren’t you going to kiss the bride?”

Saahren grinned and slipped his arms around her. “What a good idea.”

She sighed and put her arms around his neck as his lips found hers.

At last the media people had taken enough pictures. Saahren and his wife, Saahren and Bentrax, Saahren, Allysha and Xanthor’s family. It was as close as anyone could get to a ptorix-human marriage and Saahren was at pains to make sure both sides were aware of the implications. Bentrax, of course, understood as soon as he’d suggested to the ptorix leader that the marriage ritual should be conducted here.

“Best make your farewells, Allysha,” Saahren said. “It’s time we returned toArcturus .”

She nodded and joined her ptorix friends for a last fond embrace. Bentrax and Marratrax moved quietly beside Saahren. He looked between them into whirling blue eyes tinged with violet. “Bronx has disposed of O’Reilly,” said Marratrax. “I expect we will find his body in the Ull quite soon. Do you wish to be advised?”

Dead already. And he hadn’t broken his promise to Allysha. A quiet suggestion to Bentrax that Bronx may be interested to know when O’Reilly was to be released and what he looked like, that was all. With a man like that, he’d always known he wouldn’t have to act himself. If Bronx hadn’t carried out the sentence, somebody else would have. “Yes. Please convey the news to my adjutant. I appreciate your offer. Very much.”

Allysha returned to him, radiant and lovely. And his. The grin spread across his face again. They walked together between the ptorix guard back to the shuttle.

She stared at the ring on her finger and then up at him. “I can’t believe I’m married.”

He chuckled. “You are, believe me.”

“That was wonderful to have Xanthor present. But it would have been nice to have my team there. And I expect some of your officers like Captain Pedder and Admiral Valperez will be a bit put out.”

He squeezed her hand as the shuttle took off. “There will be other ceremonies. The Fleet will want some sort of event in Malmos. And my mother will never forgive me if I don’t submit to a proper marriage ritual on Ceres.”

Her wonderful green eyes narrowed. “I won’t have to wear a native costume, will I?”

He laughed. “No. I’ll wear my uniform and you can wear whatever you like.” His mother would try, but it wasn’t going to happen.

The shuttle slowed and shaped to land, slipping gently between the walls of the hangar bay.

“This way please, Sir, Ma’am,” Butcher said.

Saahren caught his eye and the adjutant grinned. “You didn’t mean to keep it a secret, did you?”

A full ship parade. Thousands of fleet crew and troops stood arrayed in full dress uniform. They filled the parade arena, rank upon rank of black uniforms, their officers in white, all facing a wide corridor that stretched up the center to a stage where the ship’s admirals and captains waited.

****

Saahren put his arm around her, a reassuring pressure at her waist. “This is for us.” He started forward.

Admiral Valperez stepped to the podium.

“A number of you have wondered what this parade is about. Well, I’m happy… no, delighted… to announce the marriage of Grand Admiral Saahren to his beautiful lady, Allysha Marten. The ceremony was conducted by the Suldan of Qerra two hours ago.”

As they walked past each unit, it was called to attention by its commander; if they were troopers they presented arms. It was like a wave rolling forward with their advance. She hardly noticed the faces.

Saahren’s arm steadied her, calmed her nerves. She’d have to get used to this. She glanced up at him and he smiled, fond and intimate, happier than she’d ever seen him.

SenComm Ernshaw caught her eye. Beyond him stood Anna and Sirikit, Todd and Hassan. Anna’s face glowed with barely suppressed delight.

“Chaka,” Allysha murmured, “may I?”

He stopped. “SenComm Ernshaw, release your officers.”

Ernshaw gave the order. While he himself stepped forward to shake Saahren’s hand, Anna crushed Allysha in a hug. “Congratulations. Oh, you look wonderful. What a beautiful dress.”

Sirikit joined in to admire the dress and the ring, and Hassan gave her a swift hug and a fond kiss on the cheek. Todd stood where he was, mashing his lips.

Allysha felt sorry for him. She hadn’t realized, hadn’t understood until Saahren had told her. For a moment his blue eyes met hers and she saw his loss, his final disappointment. His eyes dropped. She glanced at Saahren. No triumph, no smugness, no jealousy. He hadn’t reacted to Todd at all, simply stood, tall and erect, an indulgent smile on his lips, watching her.

“Don’t worry about Todd,” Anna whispered. “We tried to tell him but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Allysha?” Saahren held out his hand to her.

“I’ll catch up with you when I can,” Allysha murmured to Anna as the three of them stepped back into the parade.

They reached the podium at last, to a round of congratulations, kisses and handshakes. Saahren took the general salute then had the parade stand easy.

“I have already thanked you, all of you, for your efforts over the past few days, mourned with you the colleagues we have lost, celebrated a victory. Today, down there in the Carnessan capital, we paved the way for an alliance between the Confederacy and the Qerran Suldanate, an alliance which will help to restore peace and prosperity to this part of our Galaxy.

“The battle of Carnessa will go down in history as a great triumph. But I confess that for me, it is eclipsed by my personal triumph, where my lovely lady has finally agreed to be my life’s partner.” He took Allysha’s hand and pulled her to stand beside him. “I thought for a time that I’d lost her forever. All of you and all the officers on this podium, me included, we all owe this lady our lives. She was prepared to die that we might live. I am fortunate indeed that now was not her time.”

He smiled down at her.

“Now then, Grand Admirals do, eventually, hear all the gossip. To those of you who cannot understand what I see in her—ask your male, heterosexual friends. If you are male and heterosexual and you still can’t see it, you have my everlasting sympathy and I urge you to visit the medical center for an eye test.”

A susurrus of chuckles.

“For those of you who participated in the betting on when I would… ah… succeed, twenty three hundred hours yesterday should be close enough to establish a winner.”

Laughter bubbled through the audience and from the senior officers gathered around her while Allysha blushed. She was sure someone behind her muttered, “I’ll bet that wasn’t the first time.”

The parade ended.

Allysha, Saahren and the senior officers repaired to the senior officers’ mess. Toasts were proposed and drunk.

“And now, Chaka, would you please tell us what’s going on? Where was Allysha thatSpartan could deliver her toArcturus ? And what about this death ray affair the GPR developed?” Valperez said.

Allysha leaned into Saahren’s shoulder. She didn’t want to talk about it. He seemed to understand.

When he finished explaining, a hush filled the room. They all seemed to be looking at her.

“So the message you received in the command room before the battle—that was Allysha?” Valperez asked.

“Yes.” A tremor crossed Saahren’s face, instantly repressed. “By that time, Allysha was outside.”

“But he didn’t know that.” She spoke softly, dreamily. For a moment she was back there in space, orbiting Isabella, contemplating the end of her life. “I thought of getting away later, an impossible last resort. He thought I’d be there when the ship destroyed the base.”