Starfall: A Starstruck Novel (7 page)

Mr. O frowned. “It’s conceivable Morag helped to persuade him to such a sensible course, Excellency, but ‘brainwash’ is rather a strong term.”

“Is it? She had those Mind Healers messing with him—”
 

I broke off. None of them knew about the one private omni conversation Rigel and I had managed after his grandmother snatched him away.
 

She and Mr. O had only convinced Rigel to go with her by insisting it would be the best thing for
me
. Had his grandmother and her Mind Healer buddies taken that a step further, insisting a memory wipe would also be to my advantage?
 

During our very last conversation, though, Rigel had
sworn
he’d never let them undo our bond, no matter what. Another broken promise…

Mr. O was talking about my schedule again but I barely heard him. My mind was too busy vacillating between fury at Morag Teague and renewed pain at Rigel’s betrayal.
 

“…since no one else is authorized to attend those meetings in your stead. Unless you’ve given more thought to the matter of naming a Regent?”

With an effort, I shook free of my agonized thoughts to focus on his words. “With the schedule I’ve had the past two days? I’ve barely had time to breathe.”
 

Though he hid it well, I sensed his disappointment. He really did want me to appoint him. But then Mrs. O would come to Mars and I’d be even less likely to ever return to Earth and see Rigel again. If there was even the slightest chance he hadn’t made that choice completely of his own free will…

Still, I couldn’t imagine getting to know any of the other Regent candidates as well as I already knew Mr. O. And anyone else qualified would probably feel as strongly as he did about me staying in Nuath. Why was I even hesitating?

“I’ll try to make a decision soon,” I promised. “I’ll review those videos and go over all the names right after I work on the, uh, Grentl thing.”

*
   
*
   
*

That evening I left the Palace for the very first time since getting Acclaimed, to attend a gala reception being thrown by half a dozen Royals who were celebrating their recent return to Nuath after several years of “exile” on Earth—at least, that’s how they worded it on the invitation Mr. O’Gara forwarded to me.
 

“This evening should be a bit livelier than what you’ve had to endure so far,” he assured me, seeming more relaxed than I’d seen him since leaving Indiana. “The O’Derrys used to be famous for their parties and I can guarantee there’ll be music.”

He was right. The venue turned out to be a glittering ballroom on the second floor of the Culture Ministry building, decorated by displays of Nuathan art representing the past two thousand-plus years. I examined the paintings on the walls and the sculptures on pedestals with interest, since the earliest ones, in particular, were dramatically different from any classical or even ancient art I’d seen in books on Earth.
 

And, as Mr. O had promised, there was music. Much of it sounded distinctly Irish—upbeat tunes with fiddles and flutes—but some pieces reminded me more of African or maybe Arabian stuff. I didn’t have enough musical background to guess any better than that but I enjoyed it—or would have, if I hadn’t kept remembering Morag Teague’s nasty public statement and imagining all the other guests pitying me.
 

At one point, when Mr. O wasn’t watching, Sean managed to slip me a glass of
spakriga,
Nuath’s answer to champagne.
 

“Just don’t tell my dad,” he cautioned, his bright blue eyes twinkling mischievously. “I figured after the past couple of days you could stand to relax and loosen up a little, eh?”

No kidding! Undeterred by Cormac’s frown, I downed it quickly, before Mr. O could see me and confiscate it. Bubbly and slightly sweet, it only made me sputter a little.

“Mm, it’s really good,” I exaggerated, since Sean was clearly waiting for my reaction. Not that I’d ever had anything else alcoholic to compare it to.
 

The
spakriga
did relax me, I realized a short time later. Mr. O’Gara was back at my elbow, guiding me toward or away from certain people, depending on whether he thought they were ones I needed to talk to or avoid. I found myself smiling a bit more easily and answering a bit more freely than usual—probably no bad thing.

Near the end of the evening, though, the music started to seem too loud and my responses to people grew shorter and more stilted. As my artificially high spirits soured, I became angrier than ever at Rigel for what he’d done to me, and at his grandmother for talking him into it, then telling the world.
 

I was especially pissed at Gordon Nolan. He was more at fault than anyone, since without his interference there never would have been a scandal in the first place and Rigel would still be my Bodyguard. Now that I was Sovereign, maybe I could somehow make Gordon pay—and I was in just the mood to do it. Not that I’d seen him since the day I was Installed.

“Guess Gordon didn’t have the guts to come tonight,” I snarked to Mr. O and Sean, glancing around the big room. My head was starting to ache slightly, probably from that stupid glass of
spakriga.

Nola O’Derry, our hostess, overheard me and laughed. “Ah, Excellency, I did hear you and Gordon Nolan had a bit of a falling out. Not that I blame you. Unpleasant man. Shifty eyes. But you needn’t worry he’ll cross your path again anytime soon. He left this morning for Earth aboard the
Luminosity.
No doubt he thought his prospects better there than here, now you’ve assumed your rightful role.”

She wandered away, still chuckling—clearly she’d had a
lot
more
spakriga
than I had—but I stared after her, my mouth hanging open.

“This morning?” I rounded on Mr. O. “The
Luminosity
left this
morning?
”
 

“I, ah, haven’t been following the launch schedules, but apparently so.” I sensed way more discomfort from him than showed outwardly. “But even had I known—”

“You wouldn’t have told me? Why?” But even before he answered, I knew.

“What would have been the point, Excellency?” He kept his voice low. “It would only have upset you again, to no purpose. Rigel made his choice, and it was a wise one. The sooner you can resign yourself to that, the better.”

“Easy for you to say,” I whispered fiercely, belatedly realizing people were starting to stare. “
You’re
not the one who has to—”

He made an urgent motion to quiet me, then signaled to Cormac to summon our limo. “This is not the place for such a discussion, Excellency. We should make our goodbyes.”

*
   
*
   
*

By the time we were all in the hover-limo for the short trip back to the Palace, my first shock had faded somewhat, though my anger remained.
 

“Okay, maybe now you can tell me why you never mentioned Rigel was still here in Nuath as recently as
this morning
when his last message to me said he was already gone. And don’t tell me you didn’t know.” It had been totally obvious he was lying about that, even if I didn’t quite have Mrs. O’s lie-detector ability.

Mr. O inclined his head. “Very well. Yes, I knew. But surely, had Rigel wanted
you
to know, he would have told you himself? No doubt he said what he did so that you wouldn’t try to stop him when he knew he was making the right choice.”

“But—” I stopped, my gut twisting painfully as the truth of his words sank in. When Rigel recorded that awful goodbye message, he
must
have known he wouldn’t be leaving until days after I received it. He also must have realized that if I knew, I’d go straight to the hospital in Pryderi to demand he stay in Nuath and have his memory restored. And he didn’t want that. Didn’t want
me.

I sank back in my seat, tears of hurt and fury prickling my eyes, but I refused to let them escape. I was Sovereign now and I was
not
going to cry in front of anyone, not even the O’Garas. Molly and Sean both looked sympathetic, but were they, really? Not until we were pulling into the garage beneath the Palace did I have enough control of my own feelings to probe anyone else’s.

Mr. O’s were what I expected—still that grim sense of purpose. Molly was as sorry for me as she looked. But Sean…Sean was broadcasting even more inexplicable guilt than he had a couple of nights ago, when he’d defended Rigel against my first surge of anger. He’d told me he felt bad he’d been so hard on Rigel, but now I thought I knew the real reason.

“You knew too, didn’t you?” I asked him as we made our way through mostly-deserted passageways to the Royal wing of the Palace. “That Rigel hadn’t really left yet?”

“What? No! I swear I didn’t.
I
would have told you if I’d known.” Sean frowned at his father.

“I’m sure Sean had no idea,” Mr O affirmed smoothly. “In any event, the point is now moot.”
 

Because Rigel was finally gone beyond recall. No wonder his grandmother’s statement hadn’t been broadcast until today. It also explained why Mr. O had seemed so much more relaxed tonight.

Before turning down the hallway leading to his and Sean’s quarters, Mr. O paused. “Excellency, as I may be spending less time at your side over the next day or two, it occurs to me that I should have your omni security code, in order to forward any urgent messages.”

I blinked. I’d all but forgotten about my omni this past week, I’d been so busy. Of course, with Eric Eagan dead and Rigel gone, no one could have called me on it anyway. They were the only ones I’d ever given my secret code to.

“You did set up a security code, didn’t you?” Mr. O prompted.

“Yes. It’s…cornfield.” Just saying it made my heart hurt, remembering the special times Rigel and I had spent in our hidden clearing there. Special times that were also gone forever.

Mr. O tapped the code into his omni. “If you’ll synch your omni with mine, any updates I make to your schedule will instantly be available to you.”

“Um…”

“I can show you how,” Sean volunteered with another disgruntled look at his father. “I’ll be there in a few, okay, Dad?”

Mr. O sent a searching look at Sean and then at me before nodding. “Very well, but don’t be too long. Even with her lighter schedule, the Sovereign should get an early start on that, ah, matter we discussed earlier.”

Sean, Molly, Cormac and I continued to my apartments without a word. I was still trying to get my hurt and anger under control so I wouldn’t lash out at any of them, since they hadn’t done anything to deserve that.
 

As soon as we were inside with the door shut, Sean turned to me apologetically. “M, I’m really sorry. I didn’t know about the
Luminosity
not leaving till today, but I—”

I cut him off. “Come on. I’ll get my omni so you can show me how to synch it.” Tears were threatening again and I didn’t think I could hold them back much longer. I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, so I could be alone.

Leaving the others to follow me or not, I went into my bedroom and yanked open the drawer of my nightstand. The omni was near the back, behind my lip moisturizer and a packet of tissues, where it had been since the morning after I was Installed. The morning I’d received Rigel’s final message.

I’d change that stupid password tomorrow, I decided. It was time to face up to the fact that the past was the past and couldn’t be changed. Time to move forward. Maybe I’d use a Nuathan word this time, something with no connection to my old life on Earth at all…
 

Glancing down at the omni in my hand, I noticed the message indicator blinking.

“That’s weird. I have a message, and it’s from some name I don’t even recognize. How did they get my code?”
 

“Play it,” Molly suggested. “See what it is.”

Shrugging, I punched up the message. And nearly dropped the omni when Rigel—
Rigel
—started talking.

“M, I really hope this gets to you.” His voice was low, urgent. “I’ve been hoping for a chance to contact you, because I don’t know what they’ve told you or are planning to tell you. Whatever it is, don’t believe them. I’m sending this from an omni I swiped off a desk at this hospital place. I’ve been here for days now, ever since they brought me here for that memory extraction they made you agree to.

“They’ve apparently decided I’m some huge security risk because I know about the Grentl but they won’t tell me what they plan to do about it. Maybe wipe my memory or even kill me, like they nearly did in Montana, I don’t know.
 

“Since they won’t want to piss you off, especially now that you’re Sovereign, they might try to tell you this was all my idea or something like that, but it’s not true! I love you, M, and would never,
ever
let them erase that from my life! I’m just worried they’ll— Oh, crap, someone’s coming. Gotta go. I’ll try to—”

His voice cut off like he’d been interrupted—or caught.
 

Mouth open, I stared at the omni, my mind seething with questions…and sudden hope.

I whirled to face the others. “Did you hear that? How—? They must have
forced
him to record that horrible video message, must have drugged him or something.”

“Then maybe he didn’t really—” Molly began excitedly, when Sean interrupted her.

“Oh, crap. M, I’m really, really sorry. I’ve been thinking all along I should tell you, and I was
just
about to, I swear. You have to believe me!”

“Tell me what? That you really did know Rigel was still in Nuath, and that they were still doing awful things to him?”

“No! I wasn’t lying about that. I had no idea he was still on Mars. But I did suspect something might be…off. I didn’t say anything sooner because I wasn’t sure, but now…”

“What, Sean? What did you suspect?”

He swallowed visibly. “That video message Rigel sent. Did you…I mean, do you still have it? It might be easier to show you than explain.”