Starfall: A Starstruck Novel (10 page)

When I was done, I faced Sean again. “Now, how do I get to Earth myself? Your dad probably
can
convince all the ship captains not to take me, just like he said. Maybe if I play up the Grentl threat, convince them all that we need to get as many people off Mars as possible during this launch window—including me? It’s not like we know what the Grentl are planning yet.”
 

“Dad will say that’s all the more reason for you to stay in Nuath, so you can deal with them. Since nobody else can,” Sean pointed out.
 

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I’ve had a
chance
to ‘deal with them’ yet, your dad has been keeping me so busy. Maybe he hasn’t only been afraid of what I’d learn about Rigel? Doesn’t it strike you as weird he’s been so focused on all this government stuff, considering the possible threat from the Grentl hanging over us?”

Sean grimaced. “Dad’s been all about getting Faxon out and rebuilding Nuath’s government for as long as I can remember. It’s what kept him going all those years we had to pretend to be Ags, taking all the crap Faxon’s supporters dished out, watching our Royal friends get dragged off. Now he’s finally in a position to do what he’s always wanted to.”
 

“Maybe if I have him arrested before he can get word out—”

Molly gasped and I turned to look at her. “I’m sorry, Molly. But I need to know, right now, if you’re with me or against me. Are you going to warn your dad about this?”

Though her lower lip quivered, she shook her head. “No. I still can’t believe he’d do something like this, but… Even if he thought he was acting for the best, it wasn’t right. Doing that to Rigel, then lying to you about it? No. I’m on your side, M. I promise. But…I really don’t want you to hurt my dad.”

Rather than make a promise I wasn’t necessarily willing to keep, I just said, “Thanks, Molly. I know this is really hard for you, and I’m sorry. You never deserved to be put in this kind of position.”

She managed a tremulous smile. “Neither did you. What are you going to do next?”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure what my best, safest course would be—for Rigel
or
for me. I desperately needed advice, but the person I’d relied on most was Mr. O—the
last
one I could trust now. And while Sean
might
have my best interests at heart, Mr. O was his father. Besides, Sean didn’t have enough experience to—

Of course! The answer was so obvious, I nearly slapped myself in the forehead.

“I need some time alone to think. Sean, tell your dad I’m doing, um, Grentl stuff. It’s probably better if I don’t see him again for a little while, know what I mean?”

“Yeah. It won’t be easy for me to act normal around him, either, but maybe I can find out more without tipping him off.” With one last, searching look that broadcast both worry for me and anger at his dad, Sean left.

“I’ll be in my room,” I told Molly. “Why don’t you…I don’t know, watch a movie or something? Get your mind off things for a while.”

Her smile was halfhearted, but she nodded. “I’ll try.”

Shutting myself in my room, I quickly retrieved my Scepter. “
Chartlann rochtana
.”

A second later, my grandfather, Leontine, stood before me. “Emileia. You have more questions?”

“I do—but they’re kind of tricky ones. There are people, um, close to me that I can no longer trust. But they’re pretty powerful in Nuath. Together, they probably have more influence than I do, and they definitely have lots more experience. Before I found out how they betrayed me, they were the people I was mainly relying on for advice. Now…I need yours.”

“Of course.” His holographic brow creased in apparent concern. “Do you believe yourself to be in danger from them?”

I bit my lip, considering. “Maybe not physical danger, but I’m worried if I confront them, expose what they’ve done, they might—I don’t know, stage a coup or have me declared unfit or incompetent or something. And there
is
someone else they might hurt if I’m not careful.”

“I see. Are you aware of the various Palace security measures available to the Sovereign? All can be accessed from here, without anyone else the wiser. Only twice in Nuathan history have they been necessary, but they were put in place for just such an eventuality, should allies become enemies.”

“Then…why didn’t they work against Faxon?” I couldn’t help asking.

Leontine looked thoughtful, which I’d realized by now meant he was searching the Archive. “It appears I did not have enough warning to put the measures into place. I have no record of what happened after my final Archive entry, but based on the tenor of Nuathan politics at the time, I would guess that I was either assassinated in some public place, outside the Palace, or by a Palace insider I’d had no reason to suspect and therefore guard myself against.”

Hearing him mention his own murder so calmly weirded me out, but his theory made sense. I at least had the advantage of
knowing
who my enemies were. “Okay, what do I do? How can I keep them from sending word to Earth to hurt my…my friend, or from somehow rendering me powerless?”

“The simplest and most logical solution is to confine them all to the Palace itself and restrict their communications. That should limit their ability to act against you in any significant way. In addition, I recommend you enable your personal fail-safe security system, should it transpire that you are physically threatened after all.”

“What’s that?”

“It was put in place during Sovereign Tiernan’s time, when an ambitious member of his Advisory Council turned against him and sought power of his own. When the system is active, a trigger word spoken anywhere inside the Palace proper will immediately create a stasis field within a twenty foot radius of your person.”
 

He proceeded to show me how to activate that system, then walked me through setting up my trigger word, which would only work with my own voice imprint. Since it needed to be a word I wouldn’t use accidentally, I went with “arboretum,” a place with even more happy Rigel memories than the cornfield.

Once that was done, Leontine explained how, once I had all my traitors here in the Palace, I could keep them from sending messages to Earth or even elsewhere in Nuath. After another half-hour’s conversation with my grandfather, I felt satisfied I’d covered every base I could think of.

“Thank you. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to have you right here for advice like this when I need it.”

Leontine’s smile was fatherly—or, I guess, grandfatherly. “It is my pleasure, Emileia, and indeed my very purpose. Should you ever need advice of a more personal nature, I hope you will not hesitate to seek it from my mother, Aerleas. She was justly revered for her great wisdom in matters of both state and of the heart.”

Even though I knew he was a recorded hologram, I felt myself blushing. Apparently Leontine had figured out more from me than I’d realized. “That’s, um, really good to know. I’ll remember that. Talk to you soon, okay?”

At his nod, I deactivated the Archive. Shaking off the pang I always felt when my grandfather’s image vanished, I stowed the Scepter back in its cubby, already planning my next move.

I emerged from my bedroom to find Molly watching some gardening show on the main vidscreen.
 

“Molly, do you mind pausing that? I have a call to make.”

Though she was clearly curious, she immediately complied. I didn’t take time to explain, not wanting to lose the tiniest bit of my resolve. Instead, I brought up the call function and punched up the contacts for Mr. O, Devyn and Nels. I considered including Morag Teague but decided against it. Not only wasn’t she a particular threat, but she’d already ensured her own punishment by irrevocably alienating her only family.

“I’d like you all to meet me at the Palace in Conference Room Three at one o’clock. It’s extremely important. Thank you.” I hit “send,” then turned to Molly. “That gives us half an hour to grab some lunch.”

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, her eyes wide with worry. “But…what was that about? What are you going to do?”

“You said you were with me, right? I’m not planning to hurt your dad, if that’s what you’re worried about, but I’m also not going to let him or the others hurt Rigel any more than they already have. Or me, either. Just trust me, okay?”

Swallowing, she nodded. “Of course. Forgive me. I should never have questioned—”

“No, Molly, it’s fine. Don’t go all formal on me. I’ll explain everything later, to you and to Sean. So, lunch? Just a sandwich for me. And some tea.”

Looking only slightly relieved, she hurried to the recombinator and a moment later I was scarfing down a turkey and swiss sandwich while I continued to compose a script in my head for the coming confrontation.
 

The vidscreen pinged three times while we ate, each one a confirmation from the three men I’d summoned. None asked for details, which was good, since I had no intention of sharing any ahead of time.

At three minutes till one, I left for the conference room, telling Molly she could finish watching her show. Cormac, of course, came with me. “I doubt it will be necessary, but I’d like you to, um, stay alert during this meeting,” I told him as we walked. “Just in case.”

“Always, Excellency.” His voice was impersonally professional, but I could sense his curiosity, nearly equal to Molly’s earlier.

All three men were already waiting in Conference Room Three when I arrived. They rose and bowed to me in unison, their expressions eager. Mr. O spoke first.

“Well? Have you learned more about the Grentl and their intentions? Sean told me—”

“Sean told you what I asked him to tell you. But that’s not why I’ve summoned you all here.” With a glance at Cormac, who had his back to the only door, I said clearly, “Security setting alpha.”
 

Nels and Devyn exchanged a startled glance and Mr. O’Gara frowned. “How did you—? I mean, why did you feel that was necessary?”

“Just a precaution.” I smiled, but it probably wasn’t a very reassuring smile. “I know what you three—and Gordon and Morag Teague—did to Rigel, and that the message he supposedly sent me was fake. Since you’ve all demonstrated your willingness to ignore Nuathan law and ethics, as well as your loyalty to me, in pursuit of your own ends, I’m not taking any chances.”

“What?” Nels exclaimed. “Who—? I had nothing to do with any false messages, Excellency, I assure you.”

I pinned him with a glare. “But did you agree that Rigel’s memory should be erased and that I should be told he did it voluntarily?”

He shifted uneasily from foot to foot. “I was, er, persuaded that course would be best—safest—for Nuath. But beyond that one discussion, I wasn’t involved in any of the particulars.”

“What we did
was
for the good of Nuath,” Devyn declared, standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. O now. “Quinn pointed out that it was by far the safest thing to do, for all concerned, and I—all of us—concurred. Once you told young Stuart about the Grentl, it was the only possible course open to us.”

“Yes, Excellency, do try to look at this rationally.” Mr. O’Gara put on the fatherly expression he’d used so often with me—and which I’d always believed sincere. “I know you must be terribly upset, but we had the welfare of all Nuathans to consider.”

“Don’t talk to me about ‘welfare’ or ‘best courses,’” I snapped. “You stole a year of an innocent boy’s life and then
lied
to me about it! I don’t believe you even considered any other course before deciding this one was ‘best.’ It may have been the most
convenient
, especially for you, but no way was it
best.
After watching that memory extraction, you had to know full well Rigel wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Grentl. This was about getting him away from
me,
permanently. Wasn’t it?” I directed that question at Mr. O but he refused to flinch.

“I won’t deny that was a consideration, Excellency. Your maintaining any sort of relationship with Rigel Stuart had the potential to undermine your authority as Sovereign, just as it interfered with your Acclamation. The people of Nuath—”

“Oh, spare me your lofty speeches! You were scared. Scared of what the Grentl would do if I didn’t stop them, scared that Rigel might somehow distract me from that, scared that if he and I were together it would mess with all your sacred Royal traditions that say I’m supposed to be with Sean. Scared that once I was Sovereign you wouldn’t be
able
to keep us apart anymore. Why else would you erase every memory he ever had of
me
, not just of the Grentl? And why else would you have had Devyn and Gordon create that awful video to convince me it was all Rigel’s idea, then go on about how noble it was?”

Devyn made a gesture of protest. “I believed and still believe that what Quinn proposed was indeed noble. It allowed you to do what was necessary to prevent the destruction of Nuath while at the same time removing a potentially serious security risk.”

“It wasn’t
noble
.” I spat the word. “It was
evil
. Rigel is a sixteen-year-old boy who’d committed no crime, yet you wiped his memory and exiled him to Earth without any kind of trial, without even telling him—or me—what you planned to do! Even violent criminals have more rights than that under Nuathan law. What you did to Rigel,” I said directly to Mr. O, “was exactly what Faxon did to your daughter Elana. He probably insisted he was acting for the good of Nuath, too.”

Mr. O’Gara opened his mouth, no doubt to issue a denial, then closed it again, the color slowly draining from his face. For the first time, I sensed uncertainty from him, perhaps even a tinge of horror, as he absorbed the parallel—one he’d apparently missed until this moment.
 

The others seemed not to notice.

“What…what do you plan to do?” Nels’s voice shook noticeably, while Devyn still appeared completely unapologetic.

Standing a little straighter, I lifted my chin and looked each of them directly in the eye. “None of you will leave the Palace until such time as I see fit to allow it. You can arrange to have personal items brought here for your comfort, but no unscreened messages will be sent to anyone in Nuath or on Earth. And you will assist me in getting to Earth myself, on the very next ship, if possible.”