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Whenever I went to the garden, I took the exact same route.
“Can I help you?”
I whirled around to see an extremely tall four-armed woman regarding me. She had two eyes in her face and another two on antennas atop her bald head. The antennas angled toward me, giving me the impression I was being studied intently.
“I, uh, might be lost,” I admitted.
“It’s easy to get lost around here.” Her antennas relaxed, and she flashed a smile so friendly, it put me at ease.
“No kidding. And the murals don’t help.” I gestured at the wall, the picture having already morphed. Same scene, but the perspective had shifted, making it look different yet again.
Perspective mattered in art and in life. Two people viewing the same situation from different perspectives would reach different conclusions.
“I don’t encounter many humans,” she said, and I realized she was speaking Terran Universal. At the palace, only Nadir and a few royals could speak my language. There were so many alien languages, standard translators included only the most common ones. Terran Universal, a meld of a dozen former Earth languages, wasn’t spoken anywhere but on New Terra.
“You’re one of Holly’s friends.” The woman’s smile widened. “You must be…Kat?”
Maybe because she spoke my language or she seemed so nice, I liked her immediately.
“Yes, I am,” I said, and recalled how I’d flounced out of the dining room. Why did I get so defensive? My friends are trying to prevent me from getting hurt. I am a little gullible. My brother loved to play practical jokes, and I had fallen for his pranks every time. I should listen to my friends. They’re more experienced and worldly than me.
They had the benefit of an objective perspective. What if I was only seeing what I wanted to see? What if they were right? I thought I knew Prince Lomax, but, in truth, we’d only met recently. What if he could be dangerous?
“Are you lost again?” Nadir spoke from behind me. I turned around to find the king’s chief advisor and Millie’s bond-mate regarding me with an amused expression. His gaze shifted beyond my shoulder to the woman, and then he returned his attention to me.
My face heated with embarrassment. This wasn’t the first time Nadir had found me when I’d been lost. “Yes.”
He chuckled, but not meanly. Since hooking up with Millie, he’d become much less austere, more approachable. Nicer. He’d never been mean, but I’d sensed he’d been judging us and found us lacking. Not anymore. Because of Millie, he’d become a better person. All he’d needed was somebody in his corner sticking up for him.
“Are you headed to your chamber? I’ll escort you,” he offered.
“All right.” I turned to say goodbye to the woman, but she’d vanished.
“What did the LOP officer say to you?” he asked.
“She was LOP?” Duh. Now I recognized the purple uniform. “No wonder she knew my name.”
“She did? What did she say her name was?”
“She didn’t get a chance to. We’d just met, and then you showed up. But she was very nice.”
His lips twitched. “That doesn’t sound like the LOP.”
I snapped my fingers. “I’ll bet she’s Lomax’s deprogrammer!” He must have mentioned me and spoken well of me for her to have been so friendly. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled me. Vestiges of doubt vanished into the ether. He is innocent.
Nadir stopped outside a room I recognized as my own. “Here you are,” he said. “Home safe and sound.”
Sheepish, I thanked him. “One of these days, I’ll learn my way around.” In actuality, I wouldn’t be at the palace long enough to figure it out. With the deprogrammer in residence, Lomax was on his way to recovery. Soon he’d be acquitted of all crimes, and I’d be sent back to New Terra.
I entered my suite.
Home safe and sound. Except my real home was on New Terra. Only now it didn’t feel like home anymore. I belonged with Lomax.
Chapter Four
Lomax
Seeher scowled at her screen then at me. “You’re daydreaming again.”
