Stars Forever Black: Book I of the Star Lion Saga by A. L. Bruno

Author:A. L. Bruno [Bruno, A. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-03T22:00:00+00:00

19

Kionel’s Palace

Kionel’s Chambers

Leonathier, Tenasta

15 Sardua 10

“Well?!” The Kionel’s voice echoed like a rifle shot across his chambers. Adelisa jumped, startled, her movements visible to Avindair in the reflection of the early evening chamber windows. Almost before he noticed, she had acquiesced; head down, hands folded palm flat against her abdomen.

“No excuse, Hikasa,” Adelisa managed, her voice small.

The Kionel stepped from behind his desk and strode over to Avindair. He locked eyes with his commandant, his expression a pastiche of fury.

“And you?” the Kionel pressed. “Why did you treat a guest in my own home with such contempt?”

Avindair prepared his reply, his calm borne out of decades of service to the Kionelaite.

“Hikasa,” Avindair started, his voice steady. “We have no idea what this person wants—”

“Which is why we needed to speak to him!” The Kionel wheezed, then coughed, his frail back curved downward as he spasmed.

He’s getting weaker. The unwelcome thought came to Avindair not for the first time.

Adelisa rushed to the Kionel’s side and took him by the arm. Rather than resist, the Kionel allowed his granddaughter to lead him back to his desk chair. He settled as the coughing subsided, his face red, chin speckled by sputum.

“Would you have been this rude to Harmmani?” the Kionel challenged between smaller coughs as he wiped his mouth with a ragged military-issue handkerchief.

“Respectfully,” Avindair replied, “this man is not a world leader.”

The Kionel looked to one side, a sneer pulling at his upper lip. When he turned back to Avindair, his face had deepened to an unhealthy red.

“This man is not of our world, Shishia!” the Kionel stormed. He looked away and coughed again, each spasm shaking his entire body. When he turned back to his commandant and his granddaughter, he looked frailer than either had seen him before. “Why would we treat him with anything less than respect?”

Precisely because he is not of our world! Avindair opened his mouth to say, but Adelisa beat him by a picosecond.

“Our treatment of the Terran—” Adelisa said, stepping forward, her head still low.

“His name is Roberts,” the Kionel interrupted, then coughed again.

“—Roberts,” Adelisa corrected, “is entirely my fault.” She took a moment to choose her words. “I wanted him to understand what it meant to be here, in your presence.” She lowered her head, shamed. “I see now that my methods were injurious.”

The Kionel rocked back in his chair, still coughing, but fixed Adelisa with an unyielding gaze.

“A lenient assessment.” the Kionel replied once his cough had subsided. His eyes narrowed. “Why are you so offended by his knowledge of our ways?”

“Because while he knows much about us, we know nothing of them,” Adelisa answered instantly. “And his arrogance is…” she struggled to find the words, “...off-putting.”

“Off-putting,” the Kionel repeated slowly. “He speaks our language, learns our ways, and that is “off-putting” to you?”

Adelisa looked down again, chagrined.

“If you’d watched and listened during their arrival,” the Kionel pressed, “you would have seen that he is the only one of their crew who even tried to know us.

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