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She turned once more, looking questioningly at me, clutching the scarf to her chest.
“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t say anything about what you overheard here.”
She shook her head. “Cross my heart and hope to die,” she swore in a curious oath.
The door closed behind her. I would have to talk to the guards, but later, right now, my heart was too light. I frowned. Light? I shook my head, it would wait until my usual glum mood returned. Otherwise I would let the guards off too easy for allowing a stranger into my chambers, even if she was a merrily. At the very least they should have followed up and made sure she left my quarters before I got there.
Clutching Lady Natoi’s scarf to my chest I hurried down the hallway, past the guards who threw me curious glances, to the elevators that took me to the lady’s floor. Then down another few corridors straight to her chambers.
“Well finally, it’s about time. Where have you been so long?” Lady Natoi ripped the scarf from my hand.
“I—”
“Never mind that now. Come on, we’re gonna be late.” She pulled on my arm.
“Late?”
“Vra, late. Have you forgotten?” Her voice pitched an octave higher like it usually did when she was annoyed. She shook her head, rolling her eyes as if putting up with me was the biggest chore of her life. “We are to meet Sir Naximus and his sons, Sir Vodin and Sir Savious, tonight for a late dinner.”
Impatiently she shook her head harder. “Oh, you little fool.” She raised her gaze to the sky as if pleading with her god. “Why have I been punished with the universe’s most exasperating human?”
Her eyes fell on me as if seeing me for the first time. “And what in the name of Staphor are you wearing? Have I not bought dresses for you far more appropriate than this?” She fanned herself with her hand. “Come, hurry.”
She pulled me into the rooms she had assigned to me and marched to the wall that held all the hidden shelves stacked with clothing she had purchased for me.
“Here, put this on. Nocc, wait, this one.” She pulled out a violet dress that would bring out my blonde hair. “And for Staphor’s sake, hurry.”
She left the room and I did as bid, hurrying along, running a brush through my hair. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful and make her wait even longer for me than she already had.
I was grateful! I was!
Even though I had never asked for this, I appreciated everything she did for me, even her efforts to introduce me to all her friends and friends’ friends. I suspected she didn’t do it solely out of the goodness of her heart. She wanted to be one of the women who brought a mekarry bond together, as she had pointed out so many times.
Mekarry bond, this time it was me rolling my eyes. Other humans were dying terrible deaths by the thousands and I was being paraded around like an object, like a broodmare. I should have been grateful that I was alive, well fed and taken care of. But my insides still turned at the thought of yet another dinner with her friends, who would stare at me expectantly, waiting to be struck by whatever struck them when they ran into their mekarry, which I gathered was something akin to a soulmate. According to the Pandraxians, it was a bit more than that, but that was all I could imagine right now.
I was still too shell-shocked from the events that brought me here, going from a normal life to being invaded by aliens—aliens I had never believed in. Running for my life and fighting to make it through another day had been a nightmare.
For days I hid out with a group of survivors, always worried a drone would find us. Always hungry—something I had never experienced before, not to this extent.
And then the army suddenly appeared, saved us, fed us, and told us that another alien species, the Pandraxians, had arrived and that they would take us to safety.
I was taken aboard one of their ships and brought here, where I was spoiled and pampered like a vied-over pet. Something that was nothing short of a shock to my system.
Some mornings, while on the run from the Cryons, I woke disoriented, thinking I was in my bed, that all this had only been a bad dream, until I realized that no, it hadn’t been a dream at all, it was reality and I was running for my life. Now when I woke up I was bathed in sweat, thinking I was still running for my life and waking up in a dream, because I couldn’t possibly be safe.
My life now seemed turned upside down again as I recalled my earlier encounter. Just thinking about it still gave me heart palpitations. I could hardly believe that I had been in the Emperor’s private chambers.
When Lady Natoi sent me to fetch her scarf and described where she left it, I didn’t know whose rooms I was about to enter. Granted, the guards in front of it tipped me off that this wasn’t a suite like Lady Natoi’s, that it belonged to somebody higher up on the totem pole, but after I explained my predicament to the guards, they seemed to know Lady Natoi and allowed me to enter without a fuss.
It took me a moment to find the scarf on one of those comfortable bean bag chairs the Pandraxians favored, and which I had grown quite fond of myself, when I heard voices on the outside and the door opening. I barely had time to duck behind a pillar when he entered.
The tallest, most handsome Pandraxian I had seen so far. He looked utterly imposing in his teal, metallic, shimmering skin, the same color as the highlights in his hair. I couldn’t see his eyes from where I stood, but imagined them to be the same shade just like I had observed with the other Pandraxians I met so far.
Why I didn’t come out of my hiding spot is beyond me, but I watched the man walk to the balcony and stare out as if he was mesmerized. I should have made myself known then, but there was something about him that caught my attention and stilled me. Something about him made me not want to disturb him. When he walked in he had looked like a man carrying the weight of the universe on his shoulders, but when he stood there, looking out, I realized this was his moment of peace and I didn’t have the heart to intrude. I figured I would get a chance to sneak out a little while later, but then another Pandraxian arrived, a woman whose name I forgot the moment she called him His Imperial Highness, making me realize where I was and I nearly peed myself. This wasn’t like someone simply entering into someone’s private chambers, this, I realized, would be viewed a little bit more seriously.
I hardly comprehended what the emperor and woman were talking about, because my heart already hammered hard inside my throat, even before Emperor Daryus threw a vase across the room. I had heard about his famous temper tantrums and feared I was about to witness one.
When he first discovered me I was sure he would order my execution on the spot if he wasn’t about to do the deed himself with his raised sword. But then he had turned out to be kind.
