The Melier: Home World (Women of Dor Nye Book 2) (7 page)

She
tried
retracing her steps, but apparently she hadn’t been paying enough attention because she was lost in a matter of moments. She ended up in what appeared to be a dimly lit museum, its floor carpeted in plush pale purple.

Milky green statues in various sizes were placed about the immense room, stealing her attention. She got closer, trying to read the names on the plaques and when a
ping
sounded, followed by a holograph of white text popping up in front of the statue, she jumped and yelped. Then she placed a hand on her face, shaking her head while she wondered
why
she was so jittery.

It probably had something to do with how low the lighting of the room was, and littered with Melier sized figures.

It was just a tad creepy.

Her hand fell away and she peered closer to the text. It gave a small history on the statue, including who it was supposed to be, what great deed they did, and why they were being remembered. She moved along, waving her hand over various sculptures, triggering their information to light up.

Nifty.

On she went, learning about past royalty, advisors, scholars, and engineers important enough to hold a place of remembrance within the palace. She took her time, soaking up whatever she could. Since Gi’Ren had confiscated Lenny that morning after she’d been fed, and Lucia doubted she would see either of them until the babe was hungry again, she had nothing but time to herself.

I really am just a cow.

A pretty cow, though.

She giggled to herself and then came upon one
very
strange sculpture in the middle of the room.

Her head tilted to the side and her feet moved her along. Those depicted in the statue were
not
Melier. At least, not fully. When she stopped in front of them she swiped her hand, but nothing happened. Again she swiped and ended up with the same results. She took in their features, moving around the platform that held them up.

A male and a female they were, and Lucia could tell certain features were similar to Melier. The female was six-limbed, very feline with thick, mane-like hair that flowed down her back to pool at the floor, and a tail snuck around her side. Her nose was pronounced, sharp and straight, with flared nostrils, like most Melier, while the male had no nose at all; simply slanted, almond shaped nostrils over a slight hump. He was scaled from head to toe-

“What is the human doing wondering these halls all by herself?”

Lucia squawked and turned around so quickly she tripped over her own feet and down she went, landing hard on her side. It knocked the breath out of her and she groaned at the pain in her hip while she looked up to see
who
was there.

Val’Koy.

He was looking down at her, his eerie pale eyes boring into her face. The chill that ran over her body was almost
painful
, puckering gooseflesh along her skin, and raising the tiny hairs on the back of her neck.

He didn’t observe her with revulsion, but with a creepy intensity, as if he was dissecting her flesh from her bones with his eyes. A mischievous grin tilted his lips as he watched her slowly get back to her feet.

“The
human
has a name. How long were you standing there?” she gasped for air and rubbed at her upper thigh.

“I followed you here,” he said nonchalantly, cocking his head as he continued to
stare
.

Lucia frowned warily, afraid to let her eyes leave him in case he tried anything. “Why?”

More staring.

“You are strange.” His voice was smooth and calculating as he completely disregarded her question. “I have been with many species, but never a
human
.”

To her horror, he scented the air and unlike when Soren did this, it did
not
turn her on. She took a step back and Val’Koy’s pupils danced, widening and shrinking to slivers as if he was preparing for a chase.

“Let’s keep it that way,” she said and took another step back. “Now if you’ll point me in the direction of the suite, I’ll gladly get the hell out of here.”

“I will take you,” and then he turned toward the door without waiting for her to voice her disagreement, like he was used to people just automatically obeying. She supposed that was probably true.

I have to get back to the suite.

Do not follow him!

She fisted her hands at her sides as she followed anyway, against her better judgement, lagging far behind. She learned her lesson about going against the warning of her gut with Quin, and she wasn’t about to let herself stupidly fall into anymore traps.

When Val’Koy stopped at the door and waited for her, she slunk past him, nearly plastering herself to the frame in order to keep as far away from him as possible. He continued to stare at her, and it made her scalp tighten and tingle like he was a hunter about to spring a snare.

****

Soren stared at the report his father handed to him. They had lost another ship to the Treps, another eighteen souls dead to a war that was unfounded.

The muscles in his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth together.

“I will reach out to Emperor Vu’Mal’Su,” he nodded. Swallowing his pride was easy compared to the danger this war posed to his family and their people.

Vu’Mal’Su was
evil
.

“No,” Val’Zun protested. “It will show weakness, and then nothing will satisfy him other than your death. There is nothing more he wants than revenge.”

If that would stop this insanity.

Could he continue sacrificing the lives of soldiers when all of this could be solved by his submission to the emperor? Those soldiers had families too; people who would never see them again. Were their lives worth less than his own, considering he’d created this mess initially?

If he had been more
thorough
and killed every last Trep on that ship, this wouldn’t be happening. If he had erased the security vids, they may not now be at war. If he had been more
thorough
…

Loo-Sha would be dead.

Soren scrubbed a hand over his brow before he looked hard at Val’Zun. “If Loo-Sha accepts you as her mate-”

“No.” Val’Zun’s nostrils flared angrily.

“Then I will put together a team. I will do what I have been trained to do.”

“No.” This time it was his father who rejected his approach.

Soren stared sharply at both of them and bared his teeth with frustration. “Am I to sit on my hands? Let others fight for me, like a coward?”

His father laid a hand upon his shoulder and squeezed. “You are a prince, my son. This is what our soldiers have dedicated their lives to, knowing full well they may die protecting you to do so.”

This was not satisfying to hear. He too had been trained and dedicated his life to protecting the crown, his people, his family. He had been fortunate to survive that failed mission years ago, even if it had brought him grief at the hands of Trepnils.

He was alive.

“I will not stand by while others continue to fall,” Soren finally said as he looked back to the report in his hands.

****

On Val’Koy led Lucia through the halls of the palace and she wondered how the hell she’d wandered so far off course. She began to notice the subtle differences in the attire the guards wore, as they passed many. Very few had the black, shimmery robes and golden belts, like the ones that had escorted them to the palace upon their arrival. Most were wearing a red robe with a bronze belt while the guards closer to their destination were wearing purple robes with silver belts.

She would save her questions for Soren, or someone
other
than Val’Koy. The less she had to talk to him, the better.

As if summoned, she saw Soren and Val’Zun exiting from a door on the far end of the hall they were walking. Immediately she dashed around Val’Koy and ran like a devil was on her heels toward Soren, her arms flung out and once she was close enough, she jumped at him. His arms caught her and swept her to his chest while hers squeezed onto his neck, threatening to
never
let go.

“Loo-Sha,” he whispered. “What is wrong?”

She exhaled loudly while a pair of his hands rubbed over her back, and his lips kissed her shoulder and neck. Val’Zun peered at her face from beside Soren, one of his hands brushing back the curls from her forehead while he too waited for an answer.

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I just missed you.” It wasn’t a lie, she really had. It just so happened, she also wanted to get the hell away from his older brother.

He’s too weird.

Soren began to purr then, making her grin just a little. Her hand reached out and she scratched under Zun’s chin too, helping to wipe his worried expression from his face as his loud purr tumbled forward as well.

“Let us go find Lenny and steal her from Gi’Ren,” Zun suggested.

She giggled, and when she looked back down the hall at Val’Koy, he simply smirked and quietly turned to walk away. Lucia inwardly soured and turned back to Soren and Zun.

They set about hunting down Gi’Ren.

****

The days flitted by and Lucia slowly began to keep to herself. Each night, third meal was spent with the royal family and each night the queen insisted on addressing her, if she addressed her at all, as
‘beast’
. She was no longer
‘the human’
,
‘she’
,
‘it’,
or
‘creature’
; simply
beast
.

Lucia didn’t know why, but even when Gi’Ren and Val’Zun had initially addressed her with those titles when she met them on Dor Nye, they didn’t bother her. When anyone else used them, it felt foul.

Each night Val’Koy insisted on taking pleasure in her discomfort by bringing up things like her
scent,
and other subjects pertaining to her
strange
anatomy, but she continued to show up.

Each night Lucia calmed Soren and Val’Zun down by reiterating this entire thing would take time. Lots of
time
, by the way things were going, but it had only been a week.

A week was not enough to change centuries of ingrained prejudice, no matter how much Lucia wished it was.

The big picture actually depressed her when she thought about it. How the hell was she supposed to change Melierun’s collective mind? It seemed impossible and she was just to a point where she would be
happy
to be on civil terms with the queen, the rest of Melierun be damned.

Most of her time was spent in the princes’ suite and it was hard to avoid all of them, but she managed to most of the time. Soren and Val’Zun would disappear every day to take care of their duties, which she still had yet to find out what those were.

Val’Koy was often gone and she really didn’t care what he was doing or where he was, so long as he wasn’t around her.

The days Gi’Ren
did
steal Lenny, she was alone, doing nothing but pacing the suite and watching Melierun’s news channel. She would usually turn that off too, since half of that time was spent speculating on Prince Val’Ja’s
beastly
mate and her terrible manners.

There had even been a small protest calling for her imprisonment because of how she had disrespected the queen during Soren’s homecoming banquet.

That part actually scared her.

Lucia was too wary of venturing past the suite doors, afraid of running into Val’Koy again or worse, the queen. She highly doubted the queen would hesitate to slit her throat without anyone around to stop her.

The stress of everything was turning Lucia into a scratching, shaky ball of nerves.

When two weeks had passed, she finally figured out how to work Melierun’s odd comms that were really data linking gadgets called
CID
, which stood for
Compact Interactive Device
; something the Melier had actually created and marketed off world.

She got comfortable on a cushion once she was alone again one afternoon and took out the CID.

She pulled apart the two thin, white wands, and a flexible transparent screen stretching between them lit up as it became rigid. She typed in Dor Nye’s coordinates, and then the code for the Herana residence.

The rush of homesickness clawed at Lu’s chest and her stomach flipped when her grams answered the call.

“Oh sweetling, it’s so good to see your face,” she sighed and instantly Lucia burst into tears.

All the frustration that had built up over the last couple weeks and even the time leading up to the journey, it just came pouring out in ugly, snorting sobs. Her grams waited patiently until she was able to form sentences without blubbering incoherently.

“I don’t think I can do this, Grams,” she swallowed and tried to talk. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but it just feels hopeless. The little time I spend outside of this
suite
is spent listening to the queen make snide comments about me, or Lenny, and call me a
beast
.” She took a moment to hack out a few more sobs. “I knew they hated humans, but…”