The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 14.1

"Where is everybody?" Sabrina wondered, looking around.

Darice spun back toward the door as they heard footsteps. The Conservator of the Chamber, an ancient man with an abstracted air, looked at her with disapproval, then turned his gaze on Sabrina. "Lady Sabrina?"

"Yes?" Sabrina said.

"The Guardian will see you now. She is in the rest chamber. Come. I will conduct you."

He did not deign to speak to them again, and they followed him in silence down a short corridor. At the end of it, he stopped and gestured to a wood door; Darice opened it for Sabrina.

It was blessedly warm, and Sabrina shed Aliza's cloak gratefully as she looked around what was obviously an antechamber. A small heat panel glowed in one corner, near the door to the room beyond, which was partly open. Sabrina started toward it just as Selémahs pushed it open. "My lady!" she said softly in welcome. "Good. She has fallen asleep, but I know she wishes to speak to you."

"We haven't much time," Sabrina replied. "Homeworld is demanding our surrender."

Selémahs nodded. "She suspected something of the kind. I will leave you to talk privately."

She stepped into the antechamber, waited while Sabrina walked into the interior room, then closed the door. Sabrina looked around the unexpectedly luxurious room—faded and worn like most places she'd seen on Praxatillus, but still comfortable, obviously meant to house someone of importance. There was a large, canopied bed at the far end, near the heat panel; Sabrina could just make out Mara's long, raven hair shining in the dim light.

She walked over and laid her hand on Mara's shoulder, shaking it gently. "Mara? Wake up, Mara, it's me."

Mara blinked, yawning. "Oh! Sabrina. You look dreadful!"

Sabrina gave a wry frown, glancing down at her stained, torn, crushed white gown, her tattered sash, and the straggly mourning ribbons that had begun the evening as a crisp, elegant cluster. She wouldn't be surprised to find that she'd lost an earring, either, and heaven only knew what her hair was doing and whether the tiara was still there. "It's been a rough night. You look well."

"I'm just tired," Mara said, sitting up. "What's happened?"

"Homeworld has run the Reissians off. Now they're demanding that we surrender to them in the next hour."

Mara sighed. "Tirqwin said they would do something like that."

"Well, I wish he'd've warned me!" Sabrina exclaimed.

Mara smiled and shook her head. "It was only after they helped to defeat the Reissians. I do not think Homeworld would ever have engineered a situation like this, but they recognize an opportunity when they see one."

"I don't want to surrender to anybody, but if we can't defend ourselves, what other options do we have?" Sabrina wondered. "Though I'm tempted to choose the Reissians just to spite Homeworld, I'm pretty sure that would be the wrong choice. Do you think, if we do surrender to Homeworld, our allies would try to liberate us?"

"I doubt it. War with Homeworld is not something to be entered upon lightly," Mara said. "I do not think, once we surrender, that there will be any turning back. So we must not surrender."

"Mara, a good section of Dansestari is already pulverized. Our shield cannot be repaired in less than five hours, at best; our orbital defenses are shot to hell. We do not have the ships or firepower to put up more than a token resistance against the fleet that Homeworld's got up there. None of our allies can get here in an hour, except the Deltarrans, and they're pacifists!"