In Command, page 9
He looked back at me. “I’ll be fine. Promise.” He brushed a quick kiss on my cheek, and then he turned to the crowd and held up his hand.
The humming stopped freakily fast.
Lorne spoke in clear Aunare, and the gathered crowd laughed.
Damn it. What was he saying?
I patted my pockets, but no translator. I closed my eyes and tried to remember where I’d left it.
By the bathroom sink. Idiot. I’d forgotten it in the dish beside the bathroom sink for the meeting and then didn’t think about it again.
Oh well. Too late now.
A voice cleared behind me.
Eshrin held out his hand, but his eyes never stopped scanning the crowd. He kept holding out his hand, until I looked at it. On his palm was a tiny device.
My translator.
Eshrin really needed a raise. He was doing a great job. “Thank you. You’re amazing.” I snatched the translator from his hand and popped the device into my ear. I pressed my fingertip against it for three seconds, and the little ding-dong-dang sounded.
The device was controlled by my line of sight and would pick up anything anyone was saying. So far, distance hadn’t been an issue.
As the translator activated, the sound around me muffled in that ear, the signal that it was going to start actively translating.
I stared at some of the onlookers.
“She looks so regal next to the king.”
“I don’t know how someone so small could do what she did. Protecting the city like that?”
That didn’t sound bad. Was showing up somewhere all I needed to do to get their approval? If so, then maybe just doing the interview and answering Himani’s questions would be enough to win over everyone else?
“She doesn’t seem like a queen.”
“What is she wearing?”
Ugh. Really? This was why I hated translators.
And damn it. I’d gone for the nicer pants and a silky tank-blouse that Almya insisted on instead of the leggings and loose sweater that I’d wanted to wear after my workout. Now I wished I’d gone with what I wanted because apparently no matter what I wore, it would be the wrong thing. I couldn’t please everyone and trying would only make me hate them all.
I’d promised Lorne that I would win over everyone, and for a second, I’d thought maybe it wasn’t going to be that hard. But it was and I had no idea how to keep from breaking my promise.
Lorne started speaking again, and I aimed my gaze at him. The translation kicked in a fraction of a second later.
“—are here to have a bit of an evening away from our duties. I know that you have questions and concerns about what might be coming in terms of SpaceTech, but from one person to another, I would ask you to please let us have a normal night out. Amihanna hasn’t gotten to enjoy Ta’shena, and that’s a shame. Ra’mi is one of my favorite spots, and I’m quite excited to show it to her.” He looked back at me and winked. “I think I can even get her to taste the a’mian.”
The people laughed, and I knew I’d missed a joke. I didn’t know what a’mian was, but the translator didn’t have a word in English to translate it into. From the smirk on Lorne’s face, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to find out what a’mian was. It was going to be gross for sure.
God. He was as bad as the kitchen staff.
“We’ll stand here for a moment while you take pictures, and then I would truly appreciate the chance to share one of my favorite spots with my mirror soul, as any of you would do on one of your dates.”
Mirror soul.
Shalshasa.
That’s one word I didn’t need translated. That’s what we were.
I still didn’t fully understand it, but I knew that I felt better when Lorne was around. I needed him more and more every day, and it was almost as if he’d woven himself through my soul.
Lorne motioned me forward to stand beside him in front of the guards. It took me a second to start moving, but as soon as I got close enough, he tucked me into his side. We stood there, posing like that together, while the people got their pictures. I was pretty sure the pained smile I’d pasted on my face was going to make the pictures turn out a special kind of awful, but it was the best I could do.
After a moment, he turned to his guard, and as they stepped forward, the crowd actually parted to make room. I’d been so sure that they wouldn’t let us through, but they did without the guards needing to step in and make them. Which showed how much the people respected Lorne. They wanted him to have a night off.
It was surprising to me, but I wasn’t sure why. It’s not like I had any experience with being in public on Sel’Ani before. If SpaceTech’s leaders were out and about, I wasn’t sure I would’ve recognized them—clearly I hadn’t recognized Jason Murtaugh when he walked into the diner—but I was usually too busy trying to avoid them to even look closely at their faces. I couldn’t imagine a mob like this around Earth’s leaders without it turning dangerous.
But this was different. This was Sel’Ani. And Lorne was the High King.
We grew closer to the market entrance, and Lorne stepped onto the light floor. He tugged me forward, but I couldn’t seem to move. All I could do was stare at the floor.
The light was like a very translucent misty color and completely transparent. Even knowing that people were on it and completely safe, it was hard to take that first step onto the path. I had to do it, but it seemed like I’d fall to my death if I tried to walk on it.
And yet, I knew I had to do it anyway.
I swallowed down the fear. I’d done so many worse things. At least this wasn’t lava and I wasn’t in a suit and my lungs weren’t going to burn from the heat in the air.
I could do this.
I heard a far off laugh, and I looked down to the next level. Two children were playing a game of chase around some tables.
I was being ridiculous. If this was safe enough for children to play on, then I really, seriously could do this.
I took a step.
My stomach dropped to my feet. I knew I wouldn’t fall down a thousand feet to my death, but I couldn’t make my brain believe that. I must’ve made a sound as I moved because I heard some laughing from around me.
I was being stupid—maybe—but it didn’t look like anything was there to catch my fall except a beam of light. Which wouldn’t do anything to stop a death plummet.
Except the light had a spongy texture.
I stared down at the faintly tinted blue light. Completely flipping out on how frosty it was. I bounced a few times and turned to Lorne. “What is it?”
He leaned down close to me. “Magic,” he whispered in my ear.
A surprised laugh slipped free. “Shut up.” I shoved him, but he didn’t really move. “What is it?”
He was grinning at me when he stepped back. “Honestly, it might as well be magic. I don’t understand how it works. That’s for the architecture and physics Aunare bloodlines, but as far as I know, this is the only structure of its kind.”
“It’s honestly amazing.” I took another step, and then another.
Instead of crowding around our wall of guards, the people who had been watching us started to disperse slowly back into the market. The noise around me grew louder as people picked up their conversations, heading to different vendors selling wares and food, and playing with their friends and family.
I expected most of them to follow us, but it was as if their fascination with us was suddenly over.
“They’re not going to follow us?” I asked Lorne.
He looked down at me as we walked holding hands. “I know that you have a lot of mistrust with the Aunare, but we aren’t horrible. By speaking to them and letting them know what we were doing here, I satisfied their curiosity. I let them take their pictures so that they can have memories of us being here, which earned us some space. They won’t follow us to take our pictures. At least the majority of them won’t. They have their own lives and plans for the night.”
“Even with both of us here?” Lorne had been here before, so maybe he was old news. But I hadn’t been to Ra’mi before. “I know I’m a bit of an unknown, and not exactly liked.”
“Honestly, I was worried that it might go differently tonight, and to some extent that’s true. It is going a little differently.”
Lorne motioned around us, and I took a second look. People were moving on, but they were also sneaking looks at us. “Normally they wouldn’t be doing that,” he said.
Okay. It was just my own experience with mobs that tainted what I expected, and I was happy to be wrong. “Everyone is watching, but they’ll give us space to have a date.” I wanted confirmation that I was understanding correctly.
“Exactly. Which is what I’d hoped for.”
I wasn’t sure what I expected, but not this. “I’m not really used to being out in public, but I don’t really feel unsafe. It’s weird.” I didn’t even really mind that people were watching.
“That’s a good thing—a really good thing—because you are safe.”
“Yeah.” But it was still weird for me.
I kept scanning the crowd, but my translator was kicking in and out. It was more than a little disorienting, not to mention annoying. I took the device out and tucked it away in my pocket as we moved to a set of light stairs and down to the next level.
Smells drifted up to us, and my stomach grumbled.
Lorne tugged me faster. “Come on. I can’t stand the sound of your hunger. We need to fix that first. There’s a food stall just down this way that’s my favorite. The chef’s cooking isn’t quite as good as Nori’s, but there are a few treats that I think you’ll enjoy.”
“No tricks, though. No way am I trying the a’mian, whatever that is.”
Lorne laughed, and a little kid darted up to us, waved, and then darted back to his mother, who was looking embarrassed. Her skin was glowing slightly as she whispered in sharp Aunare to the boy.
I waved at them as we kept walking, and she bowed her head saying something I couldn’t understand.
“She’s apologizing,” Lorne said to me before nodding to the mother.
I didn’t like that. He hadn’t done anything wrong. “Tell her not to be too upset with him. Bravery is something to be admired, and I actually like kids.” A child’s innocence didn’t last long on Earth, but whenever I saw it, I equally envied it and wanted to protect it—and them—fiercely.
Lorne grinned as if I’d done something to make him proud, which was dumb. I hadn’t done anything, and his look made me uncomfortable. He spoke quickly to the mom, and then we started moving again. I busied myself with staring at all of the stalls we were passing.
The food stalls circled this level of the market. Hundreds of short tables with benches on either side took up the center of the floor. We walked past so many of them, and at more than a few, the food they were serving looked good and smelled even better. I wasn’t sure where he was leading me, but I was going to give him a few minutes.
Except I was starving. So maybe it’d be only one minute.
I opened my mouth to tell Lorne to quit dragging me around and get me some food already, but he stopped walking. I stared at the stall with a line that was nearly twenty people deep, easily the longest line so far. We were so far from the stall that I couldn’t even see what they were serving. There was a bright red awning over the stall with swirling dark blue Aunare script across it. The menu off to the side didn’t even have pictures, which meant it was no help.
His spot was definitely the most popular, which meant it had to be the best, but I was starving.
My stomach growled again, and I pressed my fist against it to make the ache stop. “This line will take forever. Can’t we go to one of the other stalls? Say one without a million people in line? Like one of the thirty million other stalls we passed?”
“Wait over there.” Lorne motioned to one of the empty tables. “And try to be patient.”
“You were the one who took away my bag of ba’na on the trip over here,” I muttered mostly to myself because Lorne and Ashino were already striding to the front of the line.
Someone moved up beside me, and I glanced over to see Eshrin. “He’s going to cut?”
I’d never cut a line in my life. It just felt so wrong to put myself in front of so many people that had been obviously waiting for longer than I had. I’d been in lines that wrapped around buildings and went for blocks hoping that by the time I got to the front, they’d have food or shelter or something left for me and my mom.
They usually didn’t, and sometimes we went hungry and slept outside, but I never cut. Not ever.
“Should I yell at him to come back? I can wait. Really.”
Eshrin shrugged. “He’s the High King. He doesn’t have to wait, especially if you’re hungry.”
Sure, he was High King, but that shouldn’t mean that he got to cut. “He doesn’t need to do that. I’m hungry, but honestly, I’ve been much hungrier before. On Earth, I went days without food and…” I slowly stopped talking when Eshrin’s skin flashed brighter.
Whoops.
Now I’d made it awkward, and I was pretty sure if I went after Lorne to tell him not to cut, I’d be starting something I didn’t want to.
“He’s our king.” Eshrin’s words were tight and angry, and I was pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with Lorne. “No one will mind. In fact, if he didn’t, people would be upset.”
Upset? That sounded a little over the top to me. “Why?”
“Because it’s an honor to be able to help the High King when he spends his days making sure that all of us are safe. It’s not every day that a normal person gets to do something for the High King. Waiting a minute longer isn’t a huge burden for them, especially when it’s a way for them to show their thanks. No one will be angry that he went to the front. So relax. He’ll be back in a moment.”
“Okay,” I said softly.
I really was hungry. The ba’na was high in calories due to the sugar, but that meant that it burned off quickly.
Lorne moved through the crowd at the stall, and I kept expecting people to get mad that he was cutting. But as soon as people saw him, they moved out of his way. No one seemed to be annoyed or put out by it.
Fine. If it was only me with the problem, then I would have to let it go.
While I stood beside the tables, I looked around the market—scanning for anyone that could be a threat and tried to be patient as my stomach slowly ate itself, but then my eye caught on a vid screen across the way from me. My fingers touched the translator in my pocket before I had a second to think about it, but I stopped myself before pulling it out.
This was our night off, but I couldn’t look away.
Footage of Earth filled the screens. The vids from Earth got smaller to make room for two Aunare women arguing. Something must’ve happened with SpaceTech, and I knew it was probably a good thing that I’d left the translator in my pocket. Time seemed to slow as I watched the screen move to images of Earther streets. I wasn’t sure what city that was, but it wasn’t Albuquerque.
There was a fight on the street, and suddenly, I felt homesick.
It was insane. I shouldn’t feel homesick. Especially not when there was violence and unrest there. Earth was beyond dangerous for me—especially now that everyone knew what I looked like and who I was—but it was home. If something was happening there, it felt like I should be there to do something.
Maybe I needed to reach out to the Crew again. Roan hadn’t heard back yet, but maybe if I tried something else, some other channel, another board, something. I just wanted to know that they were okay.
“What’s wrong?” Lorne asked as he walked up to us.
“Nothing.” And there really was nothing wrong. Or there shouldn’t have been. I was safe and so far away from whatever was going on back home, but when I looked at the screen again, it felt like I was ignoring something.
It was stupid. I knew it was stupid, and so I pushed it away. “Nothing’s wrong.” This time I said it with confidence. “I’m good.” Because I was here with Lorne, on a date, waiting for food, having a nice night in the most amazing place. How could I be anything other than happy?
A man in an apron approached us with a basket of food that smelled amazing. He said something to Lorne and handed the basket over with his arms extended and head bowed.
Lorne took it and said something softly back with a smile. Knowing Lorne, he was giving some kind of compliment. I didn’t have to understand his words to know that.
And I guessed that meant it was my turn to look at him with pride.
I knew all too well what bad rulers looked like, and Lorne was nothing of the sort. Even if he had cut the line, he was a fantastic king. A king of the people. A king that his people would love, not fear. Seeing him out in public only drove that fact home a little more.
I was in awe of him and the ease that he had as he chatted softly with the chef while everyone looked on. I’d never felt that comfortable. It wasn’t my fault. If things had been different, I might have the same ease as he did, but then I wouldn’t be who I was today.
I was proud of who I’d become in order to survive, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t wish to grow into something better. Lorne made me want that for myself. To be better.
The chef pressed a fist to his heart, and then rushed back to his stall, with all the waiting hungry people.
Lorne motioned to the tables with the baskets in his hands. “Let’s find a place to sit and eat.”
“Finally.” I hoped more food was coming because one basket of food wasn’t going to be enough. Especially if he wanted any of it.
The guards moved quickly—some forming a loose wall around us as we chose a table, while the rest stood back a little—patrolling the area and protecting our exits.
I usually didn’t love having so many guards, but I had to admit that having them there made me able to let go just a little bit. Just enough to meet Lorne’s eyes and focus on our date.
I sat on one of the benches, and Lorne sat across from me, patiently watching me, waiting for me to relax.
