“You still regard the shaauri as your people.”
“I cannot escape my humanity. This Captain D’Accorso has taught me.”
“Are you offering to act as a mediator and ambassador for the Concordat?”
To leave Cynara. To be parted from her for months, years, time unmeasured.
To preserve what they both loved.
“If you would trust me in such a capacity.”
Damon glanced at Cynara, who was deep in conversation with Adumbe. “We would have to petition the Archon, and you’d be required to face the scrutiny of our Kinsmen. But Captain D’Accorso’s recommendation would be very highly regarded.” He hesitated. “You don’t want to leave her.”
Ronan was unable to answer. He looked around the bridge, crewmen and women busy at their stations, conversations filled with amazement and hope, Cynara in the center of it as she was meant to be. This was her world, these her true people.
Damon had not asked if Cynara would leave her ship to go with him, back to the shaauri. He understood too well.
“She is captain of the Pegasus,” Ronan said at last. “Once, because of another man’s madness, she doubted her right and fitness to command this vessel. Those doubts are gone.” He smiled, though his face felt rigid as a mask. “This is the Path to which she was born, and the greatest wish of her heart. She has no need of assistance.”
“Even though she loves you?”
He almost denied it. She had been his lifemate for a time, when necessity had compelled the bond. She had never asked that their mating of convenience be made permanent.
“Captain D’Accorso has seen the best and worst of shaauri-ja,” he said. “She has an understanding of shaauri language and culture, and knows that there is much the two species share. She can speak for them among humans, as I can speak for humanity among shaauri.”
“Will the shaauri accept such an arrangement?”
‘That, too, must be presented to A’Aho-Kei’hon-vekki and debated among the Lines and Clans. It will not happen quickly. But shaauri admire boldness in the face of impossible odds. My presence, and that of Arhan and its allies, may smooth the path.”
“And the Kinsmen?”
“Proof of Kinsman treachery against shaauri-ja will be, as humans say it, a ‘mixed blessing.’ But the Lines will know that the Concordat also wished to expose the Kinsmen as enemies to all.”
“You can’t do this alone, Ronan, even if they don’t kill you for your trouble.”
“Eventually other humans must come as negotiators, those who have properly learned shaauri ways. And only if the Concordat is willing to make concessions that may run counter to human convention and belief.”
“I have some very interesting information that may incline the Concordat to set aside old grudges.” Cynara joined them, resting her hands on Damon’s and Ronan’s shoulders as if they were old, easy companions.
But Damon could not begin to feel what Ronan felt—admiration, respect, love beyond any for teacher or friend. He understood the significance of her words. “When VelRauthi and his subordinates probed you on the bridge—”
“—I returned the favor and discovered that you weren’t the only Kinsman agent in the Concordat. Your assignment to assassinate the Archon was the most formidable, but at least a dozen other agents were positioned to carry out similar political murders on other worlds as soon as word of the Archon’s death reached them. All together, these would have had a profound impact on the Concordat as a whole.”
“How could they have breached our security?” Damon demanded. “We took every precaution against Kinsman infiltration.”
“That I don’t know,” Cynara said, “but I’ll give their locations to you and the Archon’s intelligence service so that you can arrest and question them.”
Damon pulled a pocket recorder from his suit. “I must ask that you begin at once, Captain, in the event these agents decide to act on their own.”
“Of course, Lord Damon. And I’m sure you’ll be a most enthusiastic proponent of our new peace effort.”
“Blackmail, Captain?”
“Mutual advantage. Surely your unique abilities can detect the future benefits in a permanent peace?”
“You may have noted that my abilities are not reliable,” Damon said with a hint of his former rancor. “I saw Ronan dead, and he survived.” He addressed Ronan with a twisted smile. “I misjudged you in every way.”