She couldn’t bear to examine his implication too closely, yet her trust in Miklos was stronger than ever. ‘This woman was someone you also cared for,” she said.
“She was my sister, Lady Kori Galatea Challinor.”
“I’m sorry. I know what it is to lose family.”
“I still hope that Kori’s work, and her husband’s, was not in vain. What has happened today encourages that hope.” He set his hand on her shoulder. “If anything in the universe can bridge the gulf between opposing forces, it is love.” He smiled as if at his own romantic folly. “My people will escort you back to the ship. Good-bye, Captain.”
“Safetide, Lord Miklos.” She bowed with deep respect and joined Gajda and Mains. Their dispassionate presence kept her emotions well in check until she boarded the shuttle for the Pegasus.
Crew took one look at her face and wisely declined to question her. She gave a sketchy report to Adumbe, asked him to brief her officers, and considered his suggestions about possible cargo to carry back to the Nine Worlds. Then she retired to her quarters and stretched out on the bunk with Archie, her thoughts in such turmoil that she couldn’t hold on to any one of them long enough to examine it.
Her door buzzed sometime later, and Kord entered at her invitation. “Adumbe asked me to deliver this to you, Captain,” he said formally, though his eyes gave away his concern. “It just arrived from Lord Miklos Challinor.”
She jumped from the bunk, snatching the message cube from his hand. She opened it impatiently and read the dispatch.
A second reading and then a third were required before she was certain that she understood correctly. Lord Miklos had almost gone too far, and yet she wasn’t offended. How had he come to understand so well? Or was there some other purpose behind his generosity?
“Good news, Little Mother?”
She had almost forgotten that Kord was still in her cabin. “I’ve been… called back to the palace,” she said. “I’ll probably be gone overnight.”
“Should I accompany you?”
“No. It will be perfectly safe. Adumbe can prepare to move out sometime tomorrow with whatever cargo we can acquire and load by then.”
“Is everything well with Ronan, and with you?”
She met his gaze. “Lord Miklos has taken personal interest in Ronan’s case, and I trust him.” She smiled. “I know that look, my friend. I can’t let you remain here with him—I need you on the Pegasus.”
Kord inclined his head, though he wasn’t happy. He would consider leaving his brother on Persephone to be nearly as bad as abandoning Ronan to the Dharmans. Cynara knew the difference, but she was no happier than he was.
That made this last night all the more precious.
Lord Miklos’s message didn’t require a reply. She checked in with Adumbe and the woman he had assigned as temporary cargomaster before taking the shuttle back down to the surface. The sun was setting in glorious gold over the city, catching the pearlescent gleam of its towers.
They said that the streets of Persephone proper were safe enough for a child to walk at midnight. Cynara caught a public cab to the foot of the Acropolis and walked up the steep stairway, ignoring the escalators installed for the less vigorous. At the perimeter walls she presented the pass Miklos had sent with his message and was ushered through without hindrance.
Six more times she passed through security checkpoints until she was within the palace proper. There a guard offered escort to the guest wing that contained the address Miklos had provided. They walked through night-scented grottos, crossed an elegant artificial stream, and entered an annex of guest apartments with patios overlooking the garden. As open as it seemed, Cynara didn’t doubt that escape from this place would be near impossible.
The guard left her at a door identical to all the others in the wing, decorated much like the more public portions of the palace she had seen before.
She hesitated, suddenly afraid. Surely Ronan knew to expect her. Miklos would have warned him.
Warned him, indeed. Did Ronan want this? Would he have preferred the simple farewell they had shared in Miklos’s office?