Under By Treaty (SciFi Romance) (16 page)

An hour
went by the same way. Then several hours. The rest of the day and then the night passed slowly; a Qui in pain every bit as intense as a euphoric Qui at the pinnacle of culmination. When Sonil finally exhausted her sorrow, Jaden rocked her to sleep with only their shared body warmth to hold the freezing night at bay.

He felt
traumatized. Sonil’s devastation had beaten him. All he could do was offer love and comfort. What he couldn’t do was kill her, even for Earth. He had made his choice, even if he burned in Hell for it.

*****

The Qui awoke to the cold light of day, drained of anger and empty of the need for retribution. Jaden lay beside her. He looked shattered, his lashes dark against his skin grey with cold. Forming one wing, Sonil extended it over his naked body. Other than a shiver, he did not move.

She lay
quietly, wondering where to go from here. One thought stood out above all others. Jaden had asked if there was another way, and then had chosen her over Earth.

It made her think
. Was his treachery so terrible?

She could not hold his actions against
the General Jaden she had met on Earth. In many ways it was a genius ploy in his fight against the K’lahn. His betrayal had come later, after culmination. But Jaden said he had struggled, changed his mind. Did she believe him? Was it enough? He’d refused to kill her, even to save Earth. She had wanted his devotion and last night he had offered it unconditionally.

A
trade agreement between Earth and Trexan wasn’t the end of the Qui Galactic Empire. Opening up the Empire to new ways was her intention. Tradition was all fine and good, until it strangled growth. Maybe there
was
another way.

A
third way.

She
sat up and touched his arm. “Jaden.”

His eyes opened. They
found hers and he launched up looking surprised to discover her wing around him. “Sonil? Are you okay?”

“
I’ve been thinking… about what to do next.”

“I
’m sorry, Sonil. I messed up bad.”

The
despair in his eyes struck her hard. He understood the consequences of his choice and she could see now it was killing him.

“I took you out of your culture and demanded you accept mine.”

He sighed. “We were screwed from the start.”

She frowned.
“That is what I said.”

Jaden’s
crooked smile softened her heart. She loved his smile. It was time to put him out of his misery. “I won’t destroy Earth, Jaden, but I do need to deal with these alliances.”

C
onfusion crossed his face. She watched him adjust his thinking and enjoyed the hope dawning across his face.

“
Earth is safe?”

“Yes
, Earth is safe.”

Tears wet his eyes. H
is body began to shake. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Sonil
took his trembling hands in hers. “I will have to remove that implant.”

He blinked at that. His head tilted. “I’m hoping that means you want me to stay.” She could see his confidence rising.

“No.” she added,
“
What I want isn’t the issue. I must do what is best for the Qui and there is no place at court for an unruly consort. I have decided you will return home.” Just saying the words gave Sonil a strange sense of peace. This was the honorable path to take.

Jaden
, in contrast, seemed dumbstruck. He withdrew his hand. “If I return home, that would be the end, the end of us.”

She nodded solemnly, unsure if she could speak without choking on the fear blooming in her gut.
The thought of letting him go terrified her.

“What if I don’t want to leave? Isn’t there another alternative? Surely there’s a way we can stay together without all these rules and traditions fucking us up!”

“I am the Qui, Jaden. You are in my world. The only way you can remain in the court of the Qui is as my consort. Your training was not without purpose and I can only protect you so much. Can you live with that?”

He interlaced their fingers together, his eyes burning with his emotion. “You’re returning me choice, Sonil, then asking me to choose between my heart and enslavement? I choose you! I chose you over Earth. But
if you’re asking me to choose to be a slave for the rest of my life, then no. It goes against everything I am.”

“I understand.”

“So force me to stay! Don’t give me this choice!”

“You are not the man I culminated with. I sensed this, ignored my instincts, and put my empire in peril. The Court of the Qui permits your presence as property of the Qui. To remain as my consort would require you to live as I trained you, as my personal property, and the property of my family. It is impossible.”

“Your brother Fitor seemed to think you had the power to change tradition,” his expression clouded, “specifically the one about sharing my ass with any Qui who fancied a quick fuck.”

Sonil grinned. The General was back without a doubt, and she could not find the will to beat the rebel out of him. “While my brothers will grant me some latitude regarding your ass,” she pinched his butt, “I can’t rewrite centuries of Qui royal procedure.
There is no precedent at court for an outsider to sit beside the Qui. When I offered you the position of consort, I gave you the highest honor. I have never taken a consort, although many planets sent me their tributes for consideration…”

“Many? You’re telling me you have a lineup of men
willing to be your slave for life? Men willing to be subjected to your brothers every whim?”

She nodded again, unable to hide her sadness when Jaden shook his head
. The distance between them widened with every word.

His mouth tightened.
“If you’ve really studied Earth culture you’d know we have never been a species to accept slavery. Enslavement inspires revolt and bloodshed. Wars have been fought and thousands have died over the issue of slavery. Being your property is not something that sits well with me, or any human being.”

Sonil had nothing more to say. If he could not accept t
he conditions of a consort role then he had no place in her life or her court.

He grabbed her hands again, the intensity of his eyes h
olding her rapt. “Sonil, I have given you everything I have – my obedience, my love, my devotion, my commission as a General. Is that not enough?

“
It is all I ask.” She would not mislead him. “Of any consort who serves me.”

Tears accompanied his sharp intake of breath. “
I would happily serve at your side for the rest of my life, as a true mate, an equal, a husband. Not as a slave. Not as your property.”

His
face blurred as the heat of Sonil’s sorrow reminded her again that a Qui ruled by a weeping heart had no place on the throne.  “Then the choice is made. Go home, Jaden. You do not belong in my world. Humans and Qui are not compatible. Our cultures are too different.”

The pain in her chest was like nothing she had ever felt. The man cutting her heart to shreds, choking off her ability to breathe, leaned into her with a hug. She didn’t need to hear
his words. Jaden was bidding her farewell.

*****

Sonil stood at the window of her private dining room, blind to the majestic beauty of her planet. Several days had passed since Jaden left the Qui world and his parting request still echoed in her mind.

I need your fastest interstellar cruiser, there’s no time to waste
.

She had watched him closely for a clue to his inner thoughts, testing the air for the scents of his pheromones. His need to leave her in haste stirred a heartache that was surprisingly sharp, so intense it blotted out all else in her world. Jaden’s betrayal had hurt, yet that one night of unbearable pain was a mere shadow of the agony that had engulfed her since Jaden flew out of her life.

Court became a tedious trial and she began to make excuses to her brothers and her mother. Her brothers had wisely agreed to handle matters for her temporarily. Neither said a word in contest, not her brothers. Her mother’s fury refused to be quieted.

So Sonil banished K’rista from her sight. 

After two nights apart from her mother, Sonil summoned the strength to confront her. The sound of doors crashing open announced her mother’s arrival. Sonil turned, steeling her heart as K’rista swept into Sonil’s private rooms, her wings quivering with rage.

“I warned you,” her mother raged. “
I could smell it all over the creature. Look what he’s done to you, Honored Qui, the supreme ruler of a galaxy. You’ve been reduced to a self-pitying child for days, so absorbed in your grief you ignore your duties. The human has deprived us of our Empress. Earth should be erased from cosmic history for their tribute’s betrayal.”

“The error was mine. Humanity knows nothing of our court, of the empire. They only know of our warships and soldiers. Jaden showed humans are surprisingly adaptable, far more intelligent than you’d expect from a primate.
They are worthy adversaries, Mother.”

“Your evasion does you discredit
, Sonestra. You are blinded by foolish sentiment for the creature. He is of an inferior species, incapable of true loyalty, incapable of the sacrifice and surrender the Qui must demand by right.”

“Perhaps
, it matters not. You are right in one respect. I cannot shirk my duties any longer. I am capable of sacrificing my own happiness for the Qui. I am capable of true loyalty. I will cut this man from my heart if that is what the Qui requires. You would be wise to mark this moment, Mother, for if I am strong enough to survive the loss of one who meant so much in my life, then I am certainly strong enough to survive your loss as well. I demand loyalty from my subjects as is my right. All of them.”

Sonil’s solemn threat hung between them
. K’rista’s scales lifted from undisguised indignation. Sonil returned her challenge with flexing talons.

H
er mother stepped back out of physical range and dropped to one knee. “Yes, my Qui, you are indeed strong. Forgive my intrusion into your affairs, I meant no challenge.”

Sonil nodded in silent acceptance of the apology and he
r mother retreated quickly, leaving Sonil in peace once more. Rising to her feet, Sonil moved to her window and looked out in the direction of Yets Peak, the suns flooding the gardens with golden light.

If only the pain of her loneliness could be
vanquished so easily.

*****

Jaden spent a week returning to Earth via a Qui
Tri
class cruiser, a stream-lined vessel built for traversing the stars as fast as K’lahn technology allowed. The ship warped space at three times the hyper speed of the fastest Earth ship ever built.

He wished there was a way to snag the specs off the
Tri
class design, but the systems would not give him access to engineering. He burned up his hours scouring the ship’s database for anything he could find on Qui mating rituals, history, culture, and etiquette, building on the knowledge Sonil’s training had drummed into him.

It was an exhaustive exercise in learning the entire history of
a race that had built an empire spanning well over two hundred worlds and spread across the galaxy. His quest for a loophole in Qui tradition held back the depths of depression squeezing his guts day by day.

The
farther his distance from Sonil the more her loss weighed on his soul. The closer he got to Earth the more he feared his return and the result of his research only intensified his pain.

Hours from Earth, Jaden rested his forehead on his arm in defeat.

Sonil had spoken the truth. She may have a penchant for unspeakable cruelty, but Jaden could not doubt her honor or her honesty. There was no precedent for mating Qui with non-Qui races. The only way an alien species was allowed access behind the walls of the Court was for diplomatic matters of state, or as a consort – property of the Qui, enjoyed at the royal family’s leisure.

An alarm sounded.
When a K’lahn voice demanded he identify himself, his ships’ communication system automatically broadcast Sonil’s coded message to the approaching K’lahn ship.

Jaden listened to
Sonil ordering the K’lahn commander of the intercepting vessel to repatriate her prize ship and escort Jaden safely to Earth. Within minutes his ship jolted as the intercepting cruiser took remote control of all systems.

Jaden pushed back from the console and paced the tiny confines of his ship,
broken by the sound of her voice. The bittersweet truth stuck in his craw. No consort in the history of the empire had ever risen to a higher position, and no consort had ever been granted freedom until Sonil freed Jaden. Sonil had pushed the boundaries of court propriety simply letting him leave her side. And, she’d all but admitted she had no interest in other consorts, not yet.