"Please, don't tell Fes," Ilvan whined. "Or Edan."

"I won't. I'll let Reah tell them herself."

"We thought you were taking care of her," Radolf moaned to Gavril.

"She never asked me for a damned thing. I would have given her whatever she wanted if she'd asked. I thought Dee's was doing well enough that she didn't have to ask."

"It was," Dee had seen the records for himself. "There was enough there to keep her in clothing and give her better housing, as well as many other things."

"Come. We will do transfers immediately, and send these on their way. And you will never do harm again." Compulsion was thick in Gavin's voice.

"Nice, Dad," Gavril nodded at his father.

"Will you see me to the space station?" Ry hefted one bag over his shoulder and pulled the other behind him.

"Do you think I wouldn't?" I bit my lip, trying not to cry. Ry had come to be an anchor for me, and now he was leaving.

"Baby, don't look like that," Ry moved to dump his bags on the floor.

"No, honey, you have to go or you'll miss the ship." We both knew he'd be folding away the moment he was locked inside his private compartment. I was still worried that anything and everything connected to Stellar Winds was bugged. Zendeval, too, had pretended sympathy when Ry turned in his notice, citing a family emergency on Le-Ath Veronis. Supposedly, his terminally ill grandfather lived there. That's what the official records showed for Ry Windle, anyway.

Watch out for Zendeval and anyone else, Ry cautioned as we walked toward the elevator.

I will, I reached out and rubbed Ry's back. I'm so happy for you. You'll be King, honey. Just as you should be.

Lendill stared at the two who stood inside his office. He'd never seen Ildevar Wyyld's assistant, Willem Drifft, in the company of the Larentii Archivist, Nefrigar. "Is there something I can do for you?" Lendill dropped his briefcase onto the desk. He and Norian had met with several high-ranking officials from ac [cia>

"We were just looking at Reah's awards," Willem observed, studying one stating that Reah had been instrumental in destroying the Drakus seed trade nearly thirty years before.

"These seem so trivial, in exchange for the actual accomplishment," Nefrigar said. He was sitting on the corner of Lendill's desk; otherwise his head nearly brushed the ceiling.

"Reah hasn't ever received enough compensation for her work," Lendill agreed.

"Or for giving her life," Willem pointed out.

"She still doesn't know she was brought back from the dead by the Wise Ones, and I wish you wouldn't tell her, I think it would upset her," Lendill frowned at his uninvited guests.

"We know this," Nefrigar said stiffly.

"Yes. I should realize that the Larentii would know before anyone else." Lendill's voice was filled with irritation.

"You are angry because we cannot interfere with the difficulties you are experiencing." Nefrigar's voice was even and unruffled.

"Got it in one," Lendill pointed a finger at the Larentii.

"Lendill, do not upset yourself," Nefrigar placed a hand on Lendill's shoulder. "Things will go as they will. If you need some time, I can bring you to the Larentii homeworld and you may browse through the archives. Few besides Larentii have ever been invited there."

"I don't have time," Lendill grumped.

"I bend time just as well as any of my kind. I can bring you back before you left, if you wish it."

"You'd let me touch the records?"

"Many of them are voice activated, so touch would not be necessary. Everything else is placed in stasis, so your hands will do no harm."

"I'll think about it," Lendill sighed. "Right now, I have records of my own to get through."

"As you wish it," Nefrigar nodded and disappeared.

"Lendill, doesn't our race have something to say about missed opportunities?" Willem lifted an eyebrow at the Vice-Director of the ASD.

"I'll regret it, I know," Lendill grimaced and pulled out his comp-vid to check on the latest pirate attacks.

"Almost eight million credits." Erland handed the records to Ry, who was going through records of his own regarding Ilvan and Radolf's embezzlement. Wylend hadn't come himself to speak with Ry. Instead, he'd asked Erland to show Ry what was happening with Karathia at the moment. Records of every Karathian citizen working off-world littered Rylend's new desk, but Erland had chosen to show him the figures he and Lissa gleaned from six embezzled accounts.

Ry had been given Wyatt's old suite; it had only been cleaned and refurbished recently. Ry figured that someone would let him know if Wyatt's ghost inhabited it. Wyatt likely was happy to get away—he'd never wanted to be heir.

"They took so much from Reah," Ry blew out a breath at the figures on Erland's comp-vid.

"It's in the restaurant account now, and I asked Grant and Heathe to go through all [o t/p> this to make sure sufficient taxes are paid. Don't need the Alliance Tax Service breathing down Reah's neck."

"Especially since she didn't know how much they took."

"We left them enough to rent on Surnath, but everybody's watching them, now. They won't be able to squeak without Lendill knowing. We handed the information to him yesterday. He wanted to arrest them, but Lissa talked him out of it."

"Reah didn't want that," Ry agreed, sorting through paper documents. "Didn't Em-pah ever learn to use a comp-vid?"

"Doesn't like them, but he knows how," Erland said. "You have to realize he's been King for more than six thousand years. Comp-vids weren't always around, you know."

"And there'll be something different if I'm King that long," Ry agreed.

"Yes." Erland smiled.

"We're having difficulty getting gishi fruit," Perdil growled the moment he walked into the pastry kitchen.

"Why? The fruit should be in season now," I said. I would know; I figured the northern grove on Kifirin was ready to be harvested.

"I'll look into the matter," Perdil stalked out of the kitchen. I had enough fruit to make two more batches of ice cream. Wanting to smile (the ruse was likely working—pirates didn't want nannas or wheat) I went about my business instead.

"Stop fretting. Did you get the errand done?"

"No," Perdil was in a growling mood and almost didn't bear talking to. "He managed to slip away from both the guards. Rylend Windle was more elusive than we thought and boarded the ship before we could stop him."

"Doesn't matter, if he comes back, we'll have him then. Meanwhile, the way is clear, wouldn't you say?" Zendeval Rjjn sounded happy, while Perdil was in the worst of moods.

"You won't be smiling if Ned demands ice cream; he eats more of it than should be allowed."

"Are you going to stop him?"

"Me? Not on your life."

"See? You complain to me, but you'll be as smooth as butter with anything my cousin wants."

"So would you," Perdil growled again.

"Yes, but things are looking particularly well for me at the moment. I may get what I want with little or no trouble."

"And I'm telling you now to learn manners and finesse. This one isn't like the others."

"Are you offering lessons?"

"Hmmph." Perdil walked out of Zendeval's office.

"Aunt Glinda, what was Great-Grandmother Belarok like?" Lara fingered the brooch that Glinda gave her. Glinda had given Lara and Kara jewelry owned by Queen Belarok for wedding presents. Glinda was glad Eldevik had settled down after the claiming. She'd been worried that Reah would come and fight with him over his treatment of Lara in the claiming.

"My mother was gentle and loving," Glinda smiled. "As was my father. They were so proud to have a da [ to wiughter, I think, and I was a little spoiled while they still lived."

"Did they ever take you off-world?" Kara asked. Her gift had been a bracelet.

"Very few times. Father always had four High Demons around us if we traveled anywhere. Mother wasn't able to skip. She said something about it, once—said there was a reason that she couldn't really discuss. She wasn't happy with my father about it, either."

"Why? Why couldn't she skip?"

"She said something about the stupid suppressor, I think. Whatever that meant. She never went into detail, and I was too young to ask. I wasn't supposed to be able to skip when I was eight and nobody had bothered to train me. When the palace was attacked by my oldest brother, I got my trial by fire, skipping away because I was so frightened. I landed in a garbage heap somewhere in Veshtul, and a comesula business owner thought I was one of their children and shouted at me for getting my clothes dirty."

"You didn't run to one of them and tell them what was happening?"

"Kara, I was eight and I'd just seen the most horrible thing ever. My mother and my aunt were raped by High Demons and they died that way. They couldn't skip away because of whatever it was that stopped them. It ended up killing them, I think. The fact that I could skip at such a young age saved my life. I lived among the comesuli for several years until your grandfather came looking for me. He trained me after that. We still have little respect for one another."

"That is not true," Gardevik Rath walked into the room, giving each of his granddaughters a peck on the cheek.

"Do you know what it was that kept grandmother Belarok from skipping away when she was attacked?" Kara looked at Garde.

"That." Garde's voice was flat.

"I don't know what it was," Glinda said. "I think mother called it a suppressor once. But she only said it once."

"They were designed by a now-dead race," Garde sighed. "As a means of control. Lendevik wanted a way to keep the females at home and under his thumb. He had one of those tiny gadgets shot into the collarbone," he pointed to his shoulder at the right spot. "It kept them from skipping away. Controls were available, too, for mindspeech and other things, but he never used those. Lord Nedevik refused outright to have one implanted in his mate. He and Lendevik seldom saw eye to eye on those things. Nedevik wanted to help Le-Ath Veronis when it was attacked by Ra'Ak many turns ago. Lendevik didn't. Le-Ath Veronis fell; we ended up with the comesuli and none of the vampires."