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Chapter Thirteen
Joslynn
Pedranus Seat
Planet Pedranus
“Colin, is everything ready?”
Her steward barely kept pace with Joslynn as she walked steadily to her family seat. It was raining but the umbrella Colin held over her kept the worst of it off.
Joslynn felt the winds from The Jasmine’s takeoff and turned to watch it rise higher and higher until the starship disappeared above the cloud cover. She and Adelina had a moment on the ship, but it had been fleeting. Only time would tell if they’d make any more progress.
As her Princess and Heir, Joslynn had undying faith in Adelina. There was no doubt in her mind that Adelina would succeed – that she would somehow get the Drakesthai to join them after generations of silence.
“Countess?”
Joslynn turned back to her steward and shook her head, realizing he’d spoken. “I apologize, could you please say that again?”
They continued down the path with the servants toward the seat. Everything looked exactly the same, but it felt – empty.
“Most of the cities are already loaded up into starships across the planet. We’ve had to commandeer all of them. There were some protestations, but all owners have complied. It’s the rural areas we need to comb over now. Some of the people in those areas are stubborn.”
Colin waited for her to enter the stone castle and then tossed the umbrella to a lower servant. Joslynn paused just inside the threshold and breathed in the strange, musty scent of home. It was nothing like Draga Terra. She could smell the wood floor, the mineral in the stones, and the vanilla smell of the books lining the walls.
There was even a hint of whiskey on the air, and Joslynn knew it was from Colin. It was his favorite pastime to drink while doing paperwork.
All her senses were heightened, but her sense of smell most of all. The symptoms of pregnancy should have been obvious from the beginning, but it had been the last thing on her mind after she’d spent night and day organizing for the evacuation. And once she’d received the planet they were supposed to live on indefinitely Joslynn had stayed awake all night working with Colin and the dratted time delay on their messages.
It had been what she’d wanted all along – a child and an heir. But now that she had it, Joslynn wasn’t ready.
How was she supposed to care for a babe with her entire life upended? Not to think of the long ten months growing the child in her womb. There was so much danger, so much death. Joslynn didn’t want to bring something so tiny and precious and innocent into such a place.
“Send out a warning,” Joslynn ordered, walking through the halls lit with the warm glow from the sol-lights, fighting against the usual gloom and grey from the weather. “They have three hours to join the caravan. Then we will leave them. The cities and individual homes will be shielded and protected against looters and thieves as much as they can be. If they don’t evacuate they will be alone without resources.”
She stopped at the bottom of the main stairs. The dark brown wood was familiar and warm, but Joslynn felt cold inside. “The Pedranus treasury and trove has been packed up?” she asked.
Colin nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. “Yes, Countess. Half has been buried underground as instructed in the sacred vault. The other half has been loaded onto various starships – all inventoried and accounted for.”
“Good.” She nodded, thinking of the precious stones and metals still in the ground, waiting to be mined. They would have to risk it all for their lives. “I will be in my rooms until it is time to leave. I need to speak to Sirus and rest.”
Because she was so incredibly exhausted despite having had a full night’s sleep.
“Shall I send up some food, Mistress?” Colin looked concerned, but he didn’t press further while the gaggle of servants stood in the foyer, eagerly awaiting orders.
Joslynn tried not to sigh or let her exasperation rise to the surface. The hormones were already affecting her and the amount of people trying to fuss over her was ridiculous. “That would be nice, thank you.”
She couldn’t get to her rooms quickly enough. Talking to Adelina had convinced her she should tell Sirus. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her fiancé to know the news, but Joslynn worried that it would distract him.
Sirus was about to step onto a killing field. He would face creatures from her nightmares and monsters that could control one’s body with their words alone. If he was worried about her or the unborn child then he wouldn’t be able to focus on staying alive.
But Adelina was right. Sirus needed to know. He would never forgive her for keeping such a thing to herself. Their courtship had been rocky because of her need for an heir in the first place.
Joslynn waved her hand over the standing pad before the door. The older tech made her smile. She would have to update everything when they returned. If it was all still standing when they finally made it back.
Her sitting room was large – it was the master suite after all. Couches and chairs and a dining table were all elegantly placed. But Joslynn went to her desk where she did most of her business and tapped her code onto the surface.
The machine powered up and she was able to see everything she kept on both her shreve and her simulcast. Joslynn sat and selected Sirus. The pleasant chime went on and on as it waited for him to pick up the signal on the other end. If her assumption was correct they were still within range of each other for a live vidcast with little to no time delay.
