A choked laugh from Rah ended quickly, and several murmurs swept around the chambers like a wave.
“We were not sure you were really alive, Princess Shilah, the Senate meant no disrespect. Of course, we would not dream to recognize any claim made by Prince Quan if this council had irrevocable proof that the Symonrah bloodline lives,” High Priestess, Elizabeth G’undar said from the far left of the chamber.
Prince Quan’s expression of mild amusement did not change, but he flowed gracefully to his feet, and stepped away from the seat, lowering himself into a highchair on the next level of the chamber.
Shilah sat, and Kala took the seat to her left. Rah did not take his place but positioned himself above her, as if he was a bodyguard.
The high priestess continued, “The Senate has been called to assembly to answer the charge that Princess Shilah is not fit to rule the kingdom of Dyxriah. Prince Quan has put forth that the Symonrah line has—”
Shilah laughed, low and softly, but it was enough to arrest everyone attention on her. “That is not the agenda for this meeting, high priestess.”
There was a niggling sense of wrongness Shilah could not put her fingers on. Though the Prince and his supporters had willingly appeared before the Senate, something warned her that all was not as it seemed. But what? She couldn’t anticipate it. The Senate comprised all the ruling Princes, Princesses, the High Priestess and her chief acolytes, and the Barons who made and administered the laws of their kingdom. As a unified body through voting, they would be the ones to determine the fate of Prince Quan. If it was up to her, Shilah might have ordered immediate banishment to one of the exiled planets. In their kingdom when a peer of the realm committed a crime, they could only be judged by fellow peers in the Senate who would give them a chance to defend themselves.
She fully expected the judgment of exile, for the crimes he had committed against her family was one of the most heinous. Since the division of the three kingdoms more than two thousand years ago, there had been no fight by a usurper to oust a ruler from their throne. The laws of inheritance had been created, and he had broken seven tenets with his cruel actions. If only a penalty of death could be levied against a prince. Shilah stood. “Prince Quan tried to take over Dxyriah by circumventing the law. That is all that should matter today,” she said, holding the eyes of the Senate. “If Prince Quan wanted to challenge my rule, he should have shown his proof that I am an unfit ruler and a new head of the monarchy was needed, then demand a trial by combat if I refused. He did neither. He acted like a sniveling coward and took the lives of innocent people under my protection. I demand justice, and the Senate will render it today.”
She glanced around the Senate, assessing their reception to her impassioned plea. Rah nodded approvingly from where he stood, and Kala offered a smile of support. Shilah moved down a few steps toward the wide-open floor of the Senate. “Prince Quan orchestrated an attack on my coronation three months and eight days ago. He murdered fifty-eight of our people in his senseless quest. I am the witness to his atrocity, and my sister, Princess Kala is also witness. You will hear our testimony in full, of how he stormed the gates of our sacred temple with his bands of assassins, you will hear how he hunted my sister and me through the underground caves, and you will find him guilty.”
Prince Quan clapped mockingly, stood, and descended a few steps while looking across the Senate.
“The princess has tried to remind you that you are from Dxyriah and I am from Arcadia. The princess forgets we are all Serangites. We are one people, one race, who have been cruelly divided through the archaic bloodline laws. The Symonrah family proved they were not open to a different way of thinking for the inclusion of all Serangites.”
Several princes of the Senate nodded, glancing at each other, their expressions she did not understand. She inhaled, freezing as with her heightened senses she smelled a fragrance she could not identify. It tasted bitter.
Deceit.
The dark whisper deep inside felt as if it came from someone else. And she searched along the thread to find it quiet. It had been her newly enhanced senses at work alone. Her awareness seemed to sharpen with every breath she took, along with knowledge of each beating heart. Shilah studied the members of their Senate, trying to discern whose loyalty she might rely on. It was not logical to try and read their thoughts. That was an illegal act, and she was here defending the law which needed to be upheld.
The Prince’s voice rang with power and conviction as he snapped, “We’ve become cowards. Once we traveled the stars, our borders were opened for trading, slavers docked in our ports, and we sold the best of technologies throughout the galaxies. We had a prime fleet of ships, we conquered and had colonies off-planet. What do we have now? Nothing! We deceive ourselves that we are in the Golden Age. We are a weak planet that fears the powers we were given. With my rule, we will become all that we should be. We will be Serange, and no longer a three-monarch triumvirate! A Na’Vita is rising, and, where is she? Exiled from our planet by your brother, living a life of poverty and degradation as the personal slave to the Titan King. Our people in exile are more powerful and revered than us, and this is palatable to you? To Dxyriah, to O’andor?”
“You are power hungry and delusional, Prince Quan,” Shilah snapped coldly. “We have laws that you’ve broken. You may have hidden your psychic print, but I know you murdered a ruling Prince of Dxyriah, my brother, and preen as if those cowardly actions have no consequences. As ruler of Arcadia, you are not exempt from Dyxriah’s justice. The last Na’Vita ruled with tyranny, and we have the unedited stream records of his senseless slaughter of over one hundred thousand of our people. Men, women, children who were innocent of any crimes. Our world had been lawless, working with slavers, and mercenaries from off planet as our Na’Vita king sought to consolidate more power. Is that the rule you would wish to return the three kingdoms of Serange to? Are you so misguided you cannot see the laws have given peace to our kingdoms and our lands have flourished? Instead of warring with other planets, the brightest minds turned to develop our world, and now we have medical units that can cure diseases, reverse the aging process of our people and regenerate body parts. We have buildings that rival the greatest architecture of the galaxies. Our people have thrived and evolved, and your self-serving ideology and ambitions will not take us back to the dark times!”
“Our people?” he murmured caustically, power humming through the air around him. “I’ve been tracking the exiles, they number in the thousands, Princess. And they wander aimlessly without a home, a planet to call their own, a people, a culture to connect with. Some are enslaved for their powers by other worlds, and they have no one to defend and liberate them for they have no people! That is what these bigoted laws have done to our people.”
“They were given a choice!” she snapped, glaring at Prince Quan. “They chose exile!”
“Not much of choice. A life without a family, without love. Is it different from an exile to another planet?”
Her heart trembled. “It is just as cold and harsh, but our views on the law does not give us impunity to challenge it with murder and disgrace which you have done, Prince Quan. I judge you guilty of the crime of murdering fifty-eight souls of the castle, and I request the Senate to approve the trial.”
Prince Quan laughed and flowed closer. “Do you believe this is why the Senate has gathered, Princess Shilah? Do you believe that popinjay by your side had the power to command the princes of the land to gather at his request?” There was a wealth of knowledge behind those cold eyes. “No…it was done by my request.”
To her left, Prince Novar stiffened.
“If you wish to challenge me, Prince Quan, I accept.”
A cold smile curved his lips, as he too moved down several steps. “Do you now?”
“Yes. I am impure,” she said softly.
The Senate chamber blanketed with a startled silence. She waved her hands, and the empty chair to the left levitated and swept across the room. Kala’s face was white, her eyes wide with terror.
“An Alpha in the telekinesis genesis. I know the solitary life I face with my declaration. I must submit to the law or choose exile. I believe so strongly in the laws enforced to protect our kingdoms, I declare my status to the Senate. I do not sit on the sidelines, not imagining the fate or the hardship those who are impure experience. But I have watched the recordings of our history and the long, brutal fights of the Rebellion wars. I have seen children littering our streets, their throats crushed, their eyes filled with the horrors of their deaths. We have seen the evidence, and it is our duty as the rulers of Dxyriah to keep the bloodlines separate and never allow such consolidation of powers again into our land. It is our duty,” she said fiercely, spinning around, meeting the eyes of the princes and princesses of her kingdom.
“Well, this should be easy then, for with such a revelation she is not your next ruler,” Prince Quan said coldly.
A prince rose up, a silent wraith, blade in hand. Shilah frowned and before she could question his actions, he slashed, and blood spurted from her throat. The entire scene was surreal, an unimaginable nightmare of violence and gore and screams echoing from the gallery. “What are you—”
She stumbled, leaning against a high chair, gripping her throat. If not for the blood of her Darkan lover running through her veins, she would be bleeding to death. She could feel the flesh in her throat knitting from the inside, checking the flow of blood.