"Find anything?" murmured Zykes.
"Genealogies," Elshet answered, "nothing to suggest what happened to my cousin."
"What the hell was she doing with family trees in the middle of the night?"
"To the abyss if I know. Wait a minute. . .what have we here?"
The princess was referring to a section of pages that did not fit the ledger she was holding, they had obviously been ripped from another text, and they were in a different hand writing.
"Is that the Queen's script?" the captain asked.
"No, I don't think so, although it is familiar. . .Benjal's!"
"What is it?"
"More genealogies." Elshet read further, "human genealogies! Where did he get these?"
"If they are human, I assume he got them from Earth."
"No you don't understand. This here," she pointed, "is Uncle Jiane. This is his family tree."
"So. . ."
"Uncle Jiane lived on Freth, which was destroyed by Zarcon when he was just a little boy. He was to young to be taken as a slave and so grew up in a refugee camp. With the fall of Doom and then the Drule Empire, Uncle Jiane tried to track down his family, but they apparently had not survived. He has no idea who his parents were, much less this sort of extended family."
"So where did these pages come from?"
"I have no idea. A powerful magic-user, like Aunt Merla or Haggar, could uncover information like this, but it would take time and effort, and blood from a descendant."
Zykes stared down at the paper, "You said this is Benjal's writing, correct? Well, he is a descendant."
"That's true, but he's no witch. Anyway, what purpose could he have for tracking down his father's family; it's all unimportant history now."
"Uh, huh. But what since does any of this make?"
Just then sound coming from the hall pulled the two away from the text. Elshet recognized the voice of Dyanna, leader of the Dwarflings. Captain Zykes ran to the door and summoned the girls into the room.
"Where did you go!" he shouted, "how could you all desert your posts like that. Because of your actions a Royal Princess is missing. I will see to it that each of you suffers for the rest of your life--"
"What are you all doing, half-naked, in my bed chamber?"
"Yeleth!" Elshet squealed and threw her arms around her cousin. "We didn't know what happened to you."
"I went to the wash room, that's what happened to me."
"I'm sorry, your highness," Zykes flushed, "but when the Dwarflings deserted their posts, we thought the worst."
Dyanna rebelled, "we have never, in over five decades deserted our posts, we were ordered to leave by the Princess, and told to return in half an hour, which just ended."
Elshet turned to her cousin, who was glaring at the floor. "I see," she said, "well done, Dwarflings, you may go now. And clean the gruatten off the floors!"
Captain Zykes turned to his lover, "I don't understand. You ordered the Dwarflings away, whatever for?"
"Not I, Captain. The other princess, and I think I know why."
"Well, do you mind filling me in? Because I am completely confused."
"You may go now, Captain." Elshet said, "await me in my chamber." And mentally she added *Go my love, if this is what I think it is, there is little you can do here*
When the door closed behind the man, Elshet turned to her cousin, "you sent the Dwarflings away, why?"
"I needed some privacy."
"To do what? What did you need to do that involved binding your mother's and my powers?"
"It wasn't," she faltered and then recovered, "it wasn't your powers I was trying to bind, it was my own."
Elshet shook her head, "you don't have any powers."
Yeleth looked sour. "You never miss the opportunity to rub my face in it, do you? Yes, I know that. But, I always hope; and I found this spell, and it looked so easy, so simple, that I thought. . . I thought I could cast it. So I spread the gruatten, so that I could get the inflections of the spell down without actually harming anything, and I sent the Dwarflings away so they couldn't report to mother, and I started practicing."
Elshet had to admit, it was a good answer. She would have believed it, except for the way her cousin's downcast eyes glinted, except for the fact that the gruatten was outside hers and Merla's door, not Yeleth's, and above all because it wasn't spell-books they found, but genealogies. Still, it was a very convincing lie, especially because Elshet wanted to believe it.
"Not bad, how about my version. It goes something like this: you're chronicling genealogies, for-God-knows-what-purpose, and you somehow discover that your brother has your father's history as well. He won't give it to you, because it's not something he's even suppose to have, so you decide to sneak in
and take his copy. The Dwarflings would prevent you from this, so you send them away, then you block our telepathy so we can't contact the Dwarflings to see what the matter is. Am I any closer?"
Yeleth just glared.
Elshet sighed, "of course I'm going to tell my aunt. But for now I want you to give me the pages that you stole from your brother, and tell me why they were so important."
Silently, the younger woman stole over to the tome and took out the torn pages. She handed them to her cousin defiantly. One look at her face told Elshet that she wasn't going to get anything more out of her, and one quick mental jab told her that Yeleth's shields were in place. She considered a deep mental probe past the shields, but that would take time and effort that she didn't have in the middle of the night. Best let the Queen handle it in the morning; still, she should at least know about it now.
*Aunt? Aunt Merla?*
*What. . .what is it?* came the sleep-slurred reply.
Briefly Elshet explained the actions of her cousin; and, though she wasn't sure why, but she felt the need to leave out the knowledge of Benjal's genealogies.
*And you chastised her, without coming to me?* the Queen asked.
*Well, yes. I was there after all, and you weren't*
*You should not have, you should have woken me. You know how difficult it is for her to take criticism, especially from you.*
Elshet practically exploded *Well perhaps, but sooner or latter she is going to just have to get over it. I'll one day be the Queen, and she had better be ready to take both criticism and orders from me by then. I'll not be as patient with her sullen defiance as you are.*
*I'll speak to her in the morning* and abruptly, the Queen broke the connection.
Elshet hid the pages amongst her things before returning to bed. Fortunately, the captain was already asleep, and she had no need to explain things to him, as well.
Merla leaned against her sleeping husband and ran her fingers through his greying hair. Although Jiane was actually five years her junior, time weighed more heavily on humans than on Kailethians; and her looked old enough to have sired her. In twenty more years, he could be her grandfather, and in forty years, he'll be dead. And she'd still be a relatively young woman, and alone.
This knowledge had been with them for five years, since she first started noticing the grey in his hair, but they hadn't spoken of it. Merla sighed deeply, she had hoped to abdicate the throne in favor of her
niece, so she could spend more of the quickly escaping years with her husband and sons; but the girl repeatedly showed her weaknesses as a ruler.
Elshet was intelligent, without a doubt, but she had never been given formal training as a queen, and so lack wisdom. Although Elshet was correct when it came to Yeleth, a future ruler should be more understanding of her people's flaws, and show more empathy when correcting them. And now, Merla knew that if she relinquished the throne for the princess, Elshet's first action would be to aid Ursan; shifting the delicate balance of power on Kaileth towards General Kiy and Captain Misa.
The Queen did not believe for a minute the General's talk of honor and loyalty, but if Kaileth went to war, as commander of the military, Kiy would be more powerful than the Royal House. Technically, of course, Jiane commanded the military; but most of the officers resented taking orders from a mere human pilot, and would quickly shift their loyalties to Kiy and Misa. On the loyalty of the Dwarflings and Captain Zykes and his regiment, Merla could depend, but she was unsure of all others. No, the military could not be given any more power now.
Kaileth needed its Queen, even more now than during all the years of war, and Merla could not be selfish enough to deny them that.
Chapter 2
Princess Irmos, Head of House Daing, and one of the most powerful spell casters on Kaileth shifted impatiently through the various charts and papers laid out before her, and yawned. They were copies of Benjal's various family trees, important to her, vital to the success of her plans, but hardly exciting reading.
A knock on her door and one of the her personal assistants, rendered both deaf and dumb from various sorceries to ensure they would never be able to betray her, entered the room. They envelop in the eunuchs hand was the one she had been waiting for: the final page stolen and copied by Yeleth's dainty-unwittingly traitorous - hand. As Irmos opened the seal, the young man bowed as deeply as he could, and backed from the room.
The question that obsessed Irmos was why the young princess Yeleth should possess no magical powers. Everyone in Merla's court just assumed it was because Jaine was a human; but that just didn't make any sense! Diluted Kailethians had been born to the noble houses before - Ambassador Tellara was a half-breed Drule, and she possessed full capacity for magic; no it
must be some special weakness, some fault inherent in Jiane's bloodline-something Irmos
hoped to exploit.
Benjal, the fool, had not only been so kind as to provide the research but he had even worked up the probability of accuracy for each bloodline. The most likely (86%) was that Jaine came from a long line of blacksmiths somewhere in the Azure quadrant. Still, that would not explain Yeleth's lack of power; but perhaps this one would. . .
Irmos tossed the paper on to the floor in disgust - the probability of accuracy was only 5%, not even worth her time to read. Still, on second thought, the Princess prided herself on her thoroughness and she bent over to study the document.
And there was her answer.
As clear as day, Jaine's family was from a lost branch of the Royal House of Arus, the same line that had produced King Alfor and all the Lost Mages - the ones who created the accursed Voltron. Magical power springing from a well so pure and untainted that it refused to mix with the Kailethian power, which drew its strength from somewhat darker sources. Merla miscarried three daughters, an event almost unheard of in this day of science and sorcery, but had no trouble producing sons. In sons, there was no conflict of power, but the wars of magic had torn the infant girls apart.
Of course, all this was mere speculation, but it fit. . . There was one way to know for sure, Irmos quickly began to pen an invitation for the Princess Yeleth.
Benjal was napping when his arm, extended over the edge of his bunk above Hirim's, experienced the most peculiar sensation. It was cold and tingling; Benjal woke in annoyance, he hated when his extremities fell asleep! Cracking an eye, he saw that his fingers were not asleep but that Kielila was blowing on them and tickling them. Hirim and Rella stood behind, trying to
keep themselves from laughing. It never seemed to bother Hirim to keep two girlfriends--one for when he was at the Academy, and one for home.
Benjal rolled over, apparently in his sleep, and prayed they would go away, they didn't, of course. And eventually Hirim, who quickly got bored with the subtle approach, pushed his shoulder and said, "Hey, Ben! Wake up! Me and the girls are going over to the Amusement Center in Yeleth City, and we want you to come with us. . .especially Kielila," he hinted.
The young lady in question blushed appropriately and giggled. Great just what he needed-silly, giggling girls, loud, toneless, music, Hirim, and nauseating rides. And the worst thing was that they were trying to be nice.
Benjal pushed himself up on his elbows and groaned, "I'm not feeling to good, Hir. I really can't, I've got like the Drulian flu or something."
Kielila pretended to be jealous, "Hey, have you been kissing some Drulian girls to get that? If I find out that you have mister, I'll..."
"No, Kie," Benjal rasped, "I'm just not..." He broke into a spasm of feigned sneezes and coughs.
Thing was, Benjal actually kind of liked Kielila, but he found his brother's treatment of women atrocious, and didn't want to be around him. Besides, there was always this nagging and probably untrue feeling in the back of his heard that she was only with him for some sort of charity date.
Hirim and the girls backed away perceptibly. Although the common Drulian flu (named because everything Drule was considered bad, not because it actually came from their empire. Drules don't catch colds) was not fatal; contracting it could put a damper on there weekend plans.
"Well, um, sorry Benj," his brother said, "you stay here and rest up and um. . ."
Benjal nodded in fake exhaustion, while the trio left quietly.
A few minutes later, the knock on his door convinced Benjal that his brother and Co. were back so he summoned up a voice laden with agony and croaked, "Yes, what is it?"
The voice that came through the door was female, and deeper than either Rella's of Kielila's. "Benjal! What's going on? Are you all right?"
Elshet. Damn. Benjal momentarily toyed with the idea of lying to her as well, but it didn't really appeal to him much, besides, if she thought he was sick, she'd probably have to come in and see it she could get him anything.
So he jumped of his bunk and went to the door. He opened it to the Princess's worried face. "Nothing," he smiled, "I was faking the flu to keep Hirim and his friends away." He backed off and gestured with his arm to the messy apartment. Then allowed his voice to falsetto, "step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly."
Elshet chuckled at the use of one of her aunt's favorite expressions, and seated herself on what might have been a chair, but it's shape was lost under all the dirty clothes strewn upon it.
"What can I do for you cousin?" the young man asked, in his best court manner. "Is it about what we discussed earlier?"
"Actually, it's not, no. It's about your sister."
"Yes, I heard she caused some disturbance last night. Mother spoke with her this morning and I haven't seen her around since." His voice hardened, "but I don't want any part in what's not my business. If you want to gossip, I suggest you go find Hirim. He and his friends are taking the next transport to Yeleth city. If you run you could still catch them."
"Yes, I know. They stopped by and asked if I wanted to come along. My denial was a bit more polite than yours."
The Princess chewed her lip before continuing. "But I think this belongs to you." And she allowed the papers to flutter in his lap.
Benjal didn't need to open them to recognize what they were. he searched his cousin's blank face for a reaction.
"Do you mind explaining yourself?" she asked.
Benjal evidently found what he was looking for, because he nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off hers. "Sure, but this may take some time, would you like something to drink?"
"Coffee would be nice."
Benjal nodded an motioned to a tray set precariously near the edge of the chamber's table. Silently, the tray rose and positioned itself so that it hovered slightly over the Princess's lap.
She stared at him, "h-how did you do that?"
*Do what cousin?*
Elshet jumped up, upsetting the tray and its beverages all over the twins clothes and personal effects. Neither of the two even noticed.
She pressed her hands to her ears and whispered, "but you can't, oh, you can't."
"Cousin, please, let me explain."
She nodded and sat down.
Benjal told his story simply, with no elaborations; his audience was to captivated to interrupt much and so he completed the tale in little over half an hour.
". . .so you understand, when at fifteen I started to develop these. . .powers, I had to leave Kaileth before someone found me out. The most lenient punishment I could have expected as a magic-using male here was exile. The Academy seemed the best escape. And while I was there I did the research on my father's family; attempting to explain why I might be the way I am." The Prince concluded.
"And this is what you discovered?"
"Well, this and four other potential family trees. The problem is that father was a child when he lived on Freth, and he'd been injured during the attack. When the Alliance found him, he was too young or too hurt to know his own name, or possibly he blocked it out of his mind, to avoid the memory of his parents being taken as slaves.
He was named Jaine by the social worker who took him to the refugee camp, but no one knows who he really is."
"But you do?"
Benjal shook his head, "not exactly. According to the records from the colony on Freth there were six male children five years old at the time of the attack. One has definitely been claimed by his family, one is my father, but the others must have been killed during the attack. He could be any of the five."
"So what are these percentages?"
"Difficult to go through right now, but through various calculations those are the probabilities of the bloodline. Here," he said, going to a ledger, "these are the other four. As you can see, the likelihood is that my father's family were blacksmiths. Except for one thing. . ."
"The magic," Elshet finished.
"The magic." her cousin agreed. "I don't know. Men are forbidden from learning occult lore, and that is why I need your help. The only genealogy with any reference to magic is the one my dear sister stole last night; I assume you read it?"
Elshet nodded.
"Well, tempting as the idea of being a descendant of the ruling family in Arus is," the Prince's voice was heavily laden with sarcasm, "in all likelihood I am not. So my question to you is: is there absolutely no way for a man to develop Kailethian powers?"
The Princess considered and responded slowly, "none."
"Not even through some weird genetic human thing?"
Elshet smiled, "not even then. If it were so, do you thing any of the women in power would allow Merla to marry a human or a Drule? No, I think you are going to have to accept the alternative."
The young man slumped into his seat, his head in his head held in despair, "what, that I am a child of our nation's enemies? Do you think that so easy for me to accept?"
"Enemies no longer," the Princess said as she took his hand, "and never to be enemies again, if I have a say in anything. The universe is changing, Benj, and for the better. Eventually I won't matter who you parents are but who you yourself is."
The Prince smiled, "thinking about Tirion again? Keep it up and Zykes'll start to get jealous."
Elshet flashed him a glare that completely relieved him. There had been annoyance, irritation, and impatience in that look, but no affection or embarrassment. The Crown Princess was not, as Hirim believed, falling in love with Lotor's son. Hirim thought the idea romantic, but it had filled his brother with fear for his cousin's safety. Not because he distrusted Ursan's Prince, at least, no more than he distrusted all strangers, but because it would complicate issues - to say the least.
Something his cousin said drew him out of his reverie. "What was that?" he asked.
"I said this brings into question Yeleth's power."
"My sister has no powers."
"That's what we've always assumed, but if Yeleth is a repository of Royal blood from both Kaileth and Arus she may, in fact, be. . ."
". . .a being of enormous energies." Princess Irmos said. "A repository for cosmic and occult power such has never before been."
General Kiy looked skeptical, "Are you sure? Why has she never demonstrated any magical capacity?"
Irmos sneered, "you have no background in these things. The forces within her are at war. The purer energies in her veins exert all there force in preventing the darker powers from gaining hold, and vice versa. She is working magic, constantly, but we never notice because it occurs entirely within her body."
"Nice theory, but how can you be sure?"
"The test I ran when I breakfasted with her is without a doubt. I think it is time that we revise or plan."
"To what?" the General raised an eyebrow.
Irmos sighed, putting it in terms even a man would understand. "We planed on using the young Princess as a figurehead for our own take-over; having her challenge Elshet to a magical duel, my powers working through her, after you disposed of the Queen. Right?"
The man nodded.
"Fine. But why make her a figurehead when she can be a living weapon? And why wait when she could win a challenge--on her own--now?"
"But wait! I thought you said that she cannot access her powers, now you say she can?"
"By midnight tonight she will. She trusts me, considers me a friend. When I told her today, that I could awaken her own magical powers within her she would have given me anything," she smiled. "Even her soul."
"And you took it?"
The woman shrugged, "more or less. You see, the forces within her war against each other because they are essentially opposites: good and evil. On the higher planes of existence that is how things are. But in this realm, there is no good without evil and no evil without even the barest trace of good; all in varying shades of grey. And so life is a perpetual balance; I merely tipped the balance within Yeleth towards the direction I wanted."
"And I suppose I can guess which way that was," Kiy said. But all this begs one question: How?"
"I have brought the girl before the Great Power; the same one which corrupted Haggar the Good into that old crone who served Zarcon. The child doesn't know that, of course; she only knows that she will finally have the magic denied to her since her birth by a jealous cousin and the mother who favored her."
"Ugh! Will the girl become some sort of a hag?"
Irmos laughed, "why, do you already have intentions in Yeleth's regard? Might I remind you that my daughter is your wife, and that I put up with you philandering around with Misa only because it benefits our cause? But to answer your question, no, the Princess will retain her beauty--she may look a little less human and a bit more Kailethian, but no real change."
"Anyway, General, I want you to begin your part in our deal tonight. There is another reason for haste--Yeleth's brother may decide to tell his father and mother about his possible Royal decent. It doesn't seem like the boy to brag, but you never know. And if he does that, Merla is no fool, and the implications for her daughter will be as obvious to her as they were for
me."
Kiy started for the door, but as he reached it, he called over his shoulder, "you're wrong about one thing, you know."
Irmos's eyes narrowed, "and what, pray tell, is that?"
"There being no pure evil in these world, you forgot about yourself."
As the General left the room he could hear Irmos's pleased laughter following him.
Chapter 3
Elshet and Benjal got to Merla as soon as they could, but she is not an easy woman to get a hold of, especially not after a two-week long departure from the affaires of state.
If was difficult to justify themselves without telling anyone what they had to tell the Queen, and they couldn't do that because the only proof they had was Benjal's magical ability; for which there was a good chance he could be shot on sight--Royal Prince or no Royal Prince. Finally they managed to convince Ambassador Tellara that their business with the Queen was urgent enough to warrant intruding on the council.
As she led them along to the audience chamber, Tellara was in rare high spirits, chatting incessantly about how well the Alliance Council had gone for them. Apparently, with the human nobles so distracted by denying the demands of Ursan, they had completely forgotten about preventing Kaileth's requests; and Tellara prophesied a good year for the people.
For the most part, Benjal ignored her. But Elshet stung at the knowledge of Kaileth benefitting from Ursan's loss. If anyone had looked at the Crown Princess's determined chin and eyes filled with resolution to make things right, they might have noticed that for the first time in her life Elshet was starting to look like a Queen.
Jaine and Merla looked up angrily at the children for interrupting them, but agreed to dismiss council for a brief recession while they heard what had to be said.
After the final dignitary left, throwing a glance of gratitude to Benjal for the unexpected reprieve, the Queen said sharply, "all right you two, what is all this about?"
"Aunt," Elshet began, "First will you cast a seeing over your eyes?"
"A seeing?" Merla was floored, "what in the name of the abyss does my being able to distinguish magic have to do with anything?"
Benjal entreated, "please Mother, you will understand. You know neither Elshet nor I would waste either your time or your power."
Jaine started to stop his wife, a seeing was a complicated spell that would drain much of Merla's energy for the rest of the day; it was unlikely that they could finish council afterwards. "Can't this wait, son?" he asked.
The young man merely shook his head.
The Queen raised her eyebrows in puzzlement but concentrated on the words. When she opened her eyes, everything had an unusual aura to it, as though it gave off waves of color and energy; which, in the sense of the greater cosmos, it did. She felt her own power, cold, like a green ice; the life energy of her husband, a deep ocean blue, her son's blood red energy, and her niece's rich aqua; even the insects in the air declared their life before her, each a slightly subtle shade different--because no two living things had the same power.
Without warning, Elshet's aura flared up and was wreathed briefly in a black fire as she cast a spell. A simple one of summoning and the book from Merla's lap resided in Elshet's hand. The Queen was more than a bit annoyed, had the Prince and Princess disrupted council for a simple color show?
