Into Darkness by Patricia Scholes
Tadessa danced awhile with her father, in silence, because she had no idea what to say.
“I notice you are feeling betrayed,” he said.
“Yes.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“All young women feel this for a time. But as your father, it is my responsibility to find the best match for you, which I have. There is no one of higher status than Prince Salettin ba Tir.”
“You sold me to him.”
“I suppose you can interpret what a father must do that way. Did you really believe I would leave you unmarried?”
She had.
“Chalatta, there is more you need to know. I wish this were as simple as a father caring for his unmarried daughter. The emperor’s son was looking for a wife before he ever left his home world. When the High Emperor promoted Orvinet to the position of Emperor of Nevia II, ba Tir offered his remaining unmarried son the chance reign with him. Although Prince Salettin was not swayed by that offer, he was enticed by his choice of a planet filled with the daughters of leading families, any one of them available for his choosing.”
“He could just take anyone he wanted, without asking?”
“An Emperor’s son does not need to ask permission from anyone to take any woman to wife, not even the permission of her father.”
He hesitated as if his next statement would be difficult. “When he was a year out, Prince Salettin required the holographs and the biographies of all the daughters of reigning and high status families. That list contained almost two hundred names. I never thought you had a chance. You were too young, which I emphasized in our frequent communications. He looked at your physical age, not your physical maturity. When he indicated his interest in you, I insisted he sign an addendum that required him to spend time with the daughters of the other families first. After he landed, he complied, and did spend time with other young women. But he still insisted that all contracts, except for the final wedding contract, be signed before he landed. You became his legal wife mooncycles before he ever reached this planet, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.”
“But the wedding contract hasn’t been signed, has it?”
“The wedding contract finalizes the exchanges of wealth and title. It does nothing else.”
“Father…”
“Chalatta, I need to tell you something else. “You are a Xantis Tey now, his people. They expect you to become one of them in thought as well as in action.”
“In thought?”
“Yes. They will expect you to think like they do. They have a proven system that changes the way an ‘Outsider,’ their word for anyone not born into their culture, thinks about him or herself, as well as how they think about everything and everyone else.”
“A proven system? It always works? They can’t know how I think.”
“They can, and they will change you. I would have preferred that almost any other species had been chosen to rule this planet. When this dance finishes, I will hand you over to your husband.”
“Father…”
“I have one request, if you are able, Princess ba Tir.”
Her heart fluttered. What was he saying?
“Keep your Krindarwee heritage close to your heart. Do not let them change that, above all else. If you are able, find a place in your mind to keep that one thing safe.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I hope you will, and within the next few seconds, because from my association with you, I have discovered that the Krindarwee do not change, and the future of your people may depend…”
Salettin did not wait for her father to finish. He nodded to the General and took her away.
She stared at Salettin, attempting to pull on a thread to help her understand how she could become engaged without finding out, but all his thoughts were on her.
Xantis Tey, she reminded herself. Their rulers used mind control, she remembered reading. She wondered what that meant. Were they all like his father who believed he had the right to invade a mind without asking? A flash of panic followed. In an eye blink, she hid all knowledge of her people in an unreachable place deep within her mind and shielded it with a film of random thoughts of no importance.
“What was that?” Salettin asked. “I felt a moment of fear.”
“I… I don’t know what it means to be one of your people. Your father intruded where he didn’t belong. I was afraid you were the same.”
I will teach you, he said, pleased she had asked. You need not fear me. He let her feel his assurance.
“By the way, thank you for sharing your mother’s retreat with me. That is an extraordinary place. As busy as she is, I’m sure it’s necessary.”
“It is.”
She felt his hands on her body through her gown, and realized that he believed they belonged there as they explored her back through the fabric. Did they?
“I’m sure you enjoyed the times you were able to have breakfast with her.”
“As if I’ll never breakfast with her again?” She laughed.
He smiled at her, his eyes holding her as if he couldn’t get enough. “I am infatuated with you,” he said. “So much that I have a pet name for you. Chala. In my tongue it means ‘My Delight,’ for you have delighted me beyond measure.”
Before she considered challenging his statement, she accepted the name. In that single breath she became his delight, his Chala. Any other names she might have had vanished in the next second. Salettin’s name for her seemed to fit in a special place in her heart where she was his cherished and chosen wife.
Chala stared back at Prince Salettin in wonder as thought after thought seemed to enter her mind and settle there before she a chance to examine any of them.
He smiled at her, holding his lips beside her ear. I am pleased you want to be one of us.
Do I?
Don’t you? Am I not feeling your desire to learn all about us?
Yes. Did she? Wasn’t there some kind of a warning that she should be wary? But if there was, she couldn’t find it.
She pulled back so she could see him better. He was not a boy, she realized, even though he had presented her with a kind of boyish charm all day.
“I want you to know how much I appreciate you not making a scene this evening.”
“What else could I have done? Does a place exist where I am not sold to the highest bidder? You got what you wanted, as did my father.” Except that her father warned her about…something.
He shook his head in dismay. “It’s not like that, Chala. You were adopted into a high-ranking family, which made you available to me. Of all the other women on this planet, I chose you. In return, you receive an empire.”
She blinked back tears. She didn’t want an empire.
He touched a tear that escaped. “You’ll grow into your position. You’re young yet.”
How would she grow into her position? Chala had never wanted to run away more.
“Did you appreciate my bridal gift? Emree and Raeta are very rare. I can see their talents are not being wasted on you.” He spun her away from him until her skirts swirled away from her body, revealing her legs halfway up her thighs. She burned with embarrassment.
He pulled her back so that his one hand stroked her shoulder, and the next slid down her side from her underarm to her waist. No one danced like this!
“You can’t just give people to someone,” she said, trying not to sound as breathless as she felt.
“Of course I can. I purchased them on Trellon Six for my bride, whoever she might be, knowing I would be able to choose from a whole planet of beauties. Emree and Raeta are Duswani. I doubt there are ten thousand Duswani left in the whole empire. They don’t really breed very well in captivity, so the Emperor of Trellon Six is planning to release a number of them back into the wild, hoping to harvest a few every so often. None, though, are as gifted a
s Emree and Raeta as personal maids. I was lucky to find them.”
“Lucky,” she said.
“Yes. They know exactly what I want for you. You are indeed beautiful!”
She had nothing to say. She pulled thread after thread, discovering bits and pieces, but nothing that gave a clue as to what he planned. Yet she felt connected to him somehow, but couldn’t explain how she could connect with this stranger, a person who believed he could take someone without asking, Emree, Raeta. Herself.
The dancing lasted the whole night. He kept her in his arms, not releasing her until six-hundred the next morning, although dawn in this northland was still hours away.
He escorted her to the elevator, but entered the wrong code.
“My suite is on the top floor, Salettin.”
“No longer.”
“No, you can’t have moved me away from my family and my things.” Her protest sounded feeble.
“All your needs will be met,” he assured her.
She stared at him.
We’re connected now, he said with a disarming smile, as is right for a husband with his wife.
She remembered the things hidden in the pockets of her coat, but kept the thought behind her shield.
Your shield is unnecessary between us, planting a kiss on her lips as the elevator doors opened, where he handed her over to a couple of his guards. When he left, it was as if he took his support with him. She felt very tired all at once.
The guards led her down the hall, and opened a door for her, but she paid no attention. All she wanted was to get some sleep.
When she reached her suite, the two new maids, who had prepared her for this evening, greeted her.
“It is time for us to get the Princess ready for bed,” Emree said as she began unbuttoning her dress.
“I can get myself ready for bed.”
Emree squeaked in distress. “Is the Princess displeased with me? Oh, if the Princess is displeased and she tells her husband…”
“He will sell us. He is a good master. We do not want to be sold. The Princess cannot be displeased.”
“Oh, for the sake of the Ancients. I’m not going to tell my lord Salettin that I want him to sell you.” My lord Salettin?
Emree chittered in gratitude as she continued to undress her charge down to her skin. She handed the naked princess to Raeta who guided her into a large, deep tub filled with foamy water, and bathed her. Much like before, her hands stroked private places, bringing Chala to a pleasure she never knew existed. After drying her, she helped her onto a table in one of the other rooms.
The new Princess experienced her first full-body massage. It put her right to sleep. She never felt them pull a transparent nightgown over her head or place her into her bed.
You are Xantis Tey now, her lord Salettin said into her mind during her first dream. You are safe with your people.
My people are… The thought escaped into a hidden place.
18
the hidden place
“I notice you are feeling betrayed,” he said.
“Yes.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“All young women feel this for a time. But as your father, it is my responsibility to find the best match for you, which I have. There is no one of higher status than Prince Salettin ba Tir.”
“You sold me to him.”
“I suppose you can interpret what a father must do that way. Did you really believe I would leave you unmarried?”
She had.
“Chalatta, there is more you need to know. I wish this were as simple as a father caring for his unmarried daughter. The emperor’s son was looking for a wife before he ever left his home world. When the High Emperor promoted Orvinet to the position of Emperor of Nevia II, ba Tir offered his remaining unmarried son the chance reign with him. Although Prince Salettin was not swayed by that offer, he was enticed by his choice of a planet filled with the daughters of leading families, any one of them available for his choosing.”
“He could just take anyone he wanted, without asking?”
“An Emperor’s son does not need to ask permission from anyone to take any woman to wife, not even the permission of her father.”
He hesitated as if his next statement would be difficult. “When he was a year out, Prince Salettin required the holographs and the biographies of all the daughters of reigning and high status families. That list contained almost two hundred names. I never thought you had a chance. You were too young, which I emphasized in our frequent communications. He looked at your physical age, not your physical maturity. When he indicated his interest in you, I insisted he sign an addendum that required him to spend time with the daughters of the other families first. After he landed, he complied, and did spend time with other young women. But he still insisted that all contracts, except for the final wedding contract, be signed before he landed. You became his legal wife mooncycles before he ever reached this planet, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.”
“But the wedding contract hasn’t been signed, has it?”
“The wedding contract finalizes the exchanges of wealth and title. It does nothing else.”
“Father…”
“Chalatta, I need to tell you something else. “You are a Xantis Tey now, his people. They expect you to become one of them in thought as well as in action.”
“In thought?”
“Yes. They will expect you to think like they do. They have a proven system that changes the way an ‘Outsider,’ their word for anyone not born into their culture, thinks about him or herself, as well as how they think about everything and everyone else.”
“A proven system? It always works? They can’t know how I think.”
“They can, and they will change you. I would have preferred that almost any other species had been chosen to rule this planet. When this dance finishes, I will hand you over to your husband.”
“Father…”
“I have one request, if you are able, Princess ba Tir.”
Her heart fluttered. What was he saying?
“Keep your Krindarwee heritage close to your heart. Do not let them change that, above all else. If you are able, find a place in your mind to keep that one thing safe.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I hope you will, and within the next few seconds, because from my association with you, I have discovered that the Krindarwee do not change, and the future of your people may depend…”
Salettin did not wait for her father to finish. He nodded to the General and took her away.
She stared at Salettin, attempting to pull on a thread to help her understand how she could become engaged without finding out, but all his thoughts were on her.
Xantis Tey, she reminded herself. Their rulers used mind control, she remembered reading. She wondered what that meant. Were they all like his father who believed he had the right to invade a mind without asking? A flash of panic followed. In an eye blink, she hid all knowledge of her people in an unreachable place deep within her mind and shielded it with a film of random thoughts of no importance.
“What was that?” Salettin asked. “I felt a moment of fear.”
“I… I don’t know what it means to be one of your people. Your father intruded where he didn’t belong. I was afraid you were the same.”
I will teach you, he said, pleased she had asked. You need not fear me. He let her feel his assurance.
“By the way, thank you for sharing your mother’s retreat with me. That is an extraordinary place. As busy as she is, I’m sure it’s necessary.”
“It is.”
She felt his hands on her body through her gown, and realized that he believed they belonged there as they explored her back through the fabric. Did they?
“I’m sure you enjoyed the times you were able to have breakfast with her.”
“As if I’ll never breakfast with her again?” She laughed.
He smiled at her, his eyes holding her as if he couldn’t get enough. “I am infatuated with you,” he said. “So much that I have a pet name for you. Chala. In my tongue it means ‘My Delight,’ for you have delighted me beyond measure.”
Before she considered challenging his statement, she accepted the name. In that single breath she became his delight, his Chala. Any other names she might have had vanished in the next second. Salettin’s name for her seemed to fit in a special place in her heart where she was his cherished and chosen wife.
Chala stared back at Prince Salettin in wonder as thought after thought seemed to enter her mind and settle there before she a chance to examine any of them.
He smiled at her, holding his lips beside her ear. I am pleased you want to be one of us.
Do I?
Don’t you? Am I not feeling your desire to learn all about us?
Yes. Did she? Wasn’t there some kind of a warning that she should be wary? But if there was, she couldn’t find it.
She pulled back so she could see him better. He was not a boy, she realized, even though he had presented her with a kind of boyish charm all day.
“I want you to know how much I appreciate you not making a scene this evening.”
“What else could I have done? Does a place exist where I am not sold to the highest bidder? You got what you wanted, as did my father.” Except that her father warned her about…something.
He shook his head in dismay. “It’s not like that, Chala. You were adopted into a high-ranking family, which made you available to me. Of all the other women on this planet, I chose you. In return, you receive an empire.”
She blinked back tears. She didn’t want an empire.
He touched a tear that escaped. “You’ll grow into your position. You’re young yet.”
How would she grow into her position? Chala had never wanted to run away more.
“Did you appreciate my bridal gift? Emree and Raeta are very rare. I can see their talents are not being wasted on you.” He spun her away from him until her skirts swirled away from her body, revealing her legs halfway up her thighs. She burned with embarrassment.
He pulled her back so that his one hand stroked her shoulder, and the next slid down her side from her underarm to her waist. No one danced like this!
“You can’t just give people to someone,” she said, trying not to sound as breathless as she felt.
“Of course I can. I purchased them on Trellon Six for my bride, whoever she might be, knowing I would be able to choose from a whole planet of beauties. Emree and Raeta are Duswani. I doubt there are ten thousand Duswani left in the whole empire. They don’t really breed very well in captivity, so the Emperor of Trellon Six is planning to release a number of them back into the wild, hoping to harvest a few every so often. None, though, are as gifted a
“Lucky,” she said.
“Yes. They know exactly what I want for you. You are indeed beautiful!”
She had nothing to say. She pulled thread after thread, discovering bits and pieces, but nothing that gave a clue as to what he planned. Yet she felt connected to him somehow, but couldn’t explain how she could connect with this stranger, a person who believed he could take someone without asking, Emree, Raeta. Herself.
The dancing lasted the whole night. He kept her in his arms, not releasing her until six-hundred the next morning, although dawn in this northland was still hours away.
He escorted her to the elevator, but entered the wrong code.
“My suite is on the top floor, Salettin.”
“No longer.”
“No, you can’t have moved me away from my family and my things.” Her protest sounded feeble.
“All your needs will be met,” he assured her.
She stared at him.
We’re connected now, he said with a disarming smile, as is right for a husband with his wife.
She remembered the things hidden in the pockets of her coat, but kept the thought behind her shield.
Your shield is unnecessary between us, planting a kiss on her lips as the elevator doors opened, where he handed her over to a couple of his guards. When he left, it was as if he took his support with him. She felt very tired all at once.
The guards led her down the hall, and opened a door for her, but she paid no attention. All she wanted was to get some sleep.
When she reached her suite, the two new maids, who had prepared her for this evening, greeted her.
“It is time for us to get the Princess ready for bed,” Emree said as she began unbuttoning her dress.
“I can get myself ready for bed.”
Emree squeaked in distress. “Is the Princess displeased with me? Oh, if the Princess is displeased and she tells her husband…”
“He will sell us. He is a good master. We do not want to be sold. The Princess cannot be displeased.”
“Oh, for the sake of the Ancients. I’m not going to tell my lord Salettin that I want him to sell you.” My lord Salettin?
Emree chittered in gratitude as she continued to undress her charge down to her skin. She handed the naked princess to Raeta who guided her into a large, deep tub filled with foamy water, and bathed her. Much like before, her hands stroked private places, bringing Chala to a pleasure she never knew existed. After drying her, she helped her onto a table in one of the other rooms.
The new Princess experienced her first full-body massage. It put her right to sleep. She never felt them pull a transparent nightgown over her head or place her into her bed.
You are Xantis Tey now, her lord Salettin said into her mind during her first dream. You are safe with your people.
My people are… The thought escaped into a hidden place.
18
the hidden place