The Royal Yot by Renee Duke

Author:Renee Duke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: a gathering of aliens, royal assassins, reluctant royals, trials of being royal, noblesse oblige come what may, fairy magic, space saboteurs
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Not having a clear direction did not keep me, and Dad, and Patsy, from trying to find one when we convened in my quarters to indulge in further speculation a short time later, accompanied by invited guests, Dorie, Riley, Ky, Chi, and Zialle and her brothers. M’Rath and R’Simma had something else to do, and none of my other attendants were around either, so it was just the ten of us.

Even that many left Boris and Rufus spoiled for choice as to whose lap to sit on, but before they could decide, Ky took Snowball out of his backpack and my fickle felines abandoned all of us in favour of playing with her.

“I didn’t know you had Snowball with you,” I said as the chuzza started rolling around so Boris and Rufus could chase her. “She stayed really quiet.”

“I told her, if she did, I’d let her rocket around afterwards.”

“And, of course, she understands your every word,” said my father, who never believed me when I claimed the same about my pets.

“Of course.”

“You were quite quiet at the meeting too,” I said to Dorie.

“I could think of little to contribute, save my assessment of Dagrin.”

“Same with us. We didn’t come up with much,” said Zialle.

“Nor did the Skorgans,” I replied.

“Nothing unusual in that. They tend to favour actions over words.”

“The Alfarans didn’t say anything at all,” said Patsy.

Zialle gave her a bemused look. “How could they? There weren’t any there.”

“Two were. Two winged ones, hovering in a corner. Weren’t they invited?”

“I don’t think so,” said Riley, “but that wouldn’t have kept them from coming if they wanted to. Though notoriously antisocial themselves, Alfaran rules of etiquette don’t prohibit them from barging into places uninvited—especially if they think they should have been invited. I can’t say I noticed them, but they’re small enough to have zipped in without anyone noticing.”

I hadn’t noticed them, and neither had anyone else. Just Patsy, who got a bit huffy when I suggested she’d made it up to get attention because she hadn’t put forth any opinions at the meeting either.

“High Chancellor Bavtos was quite vocal, though,” said Zarrith. “He must have been giving this a lot of thought.”

“I expect he has,” said Zialle. “A military man like him would welcome any chance to think about something besides keeping his pathetic excuse for a reoc on task.”

“Unless...” I started.

“Unless what?”

“Unless he wants to take attention away from himself by pointing the finger at someone else. First the Xinthuvans, then Dagrin.”

Zialle frowned. “Hmm. Yes. He was pretty quick to worm his way into that airlock confab in order to find out how much they all knew.”

“And wanted to be kept informed,” I said. “Shaloki’s the only royal Bezral has. Having the planet represented by the likes of him must be a blow to Bavtos’s military pride. But I shouldn’t think it’s enough of one that he’d be willing to kill him amidst some not-quite-fatal attacks on other people.”

“No,” said Zeran. “Military pride’s probably the only thing keeping Bavtos from killing Shaloki.

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