Page 30

Chapter Thirty

Z exx walked beside Linnea through the thinning market crowd, their shoulders occasionally brushing despite the careful distance they tried to maintain. He was torn between his growing desire to trust her completely and the instinct, honed through generations of conflict, that cautioned against trusting any Crestek too much. Even her.

A fruit vendor called out his final prices of the day, the sweet scent of overripe berries wafting toward them as they passed. The smell triggered an unexpected wave of homesickness—not for the scent itself, which they rarely encountered in the desert, but for the clean, pure aromas of his home. The smoky tang of the communal fire at dusk. The rich aroma of sizzling flatbread. The pungent musk of jebel fur after a day's travel.

What would it be like to take Linnea back there? To the towering palms that provided swaying shade from the twin suns, the crystal-clear pool that reflected the brilliant night sky? She would be safe there, protected by the entire clan. No treacherous advisors, no plotting council members, no need to hide what they felt for each other.

The fantasy was so vivid he could almost feel the warm sand beneath his feet instead of the cold stone of the Crestek city. Almost smell the night-blooming flowers that ringed the oasis instead of the mingled odors of too many bodies pressed together.

But such thoughts were as fleeting as sunrise dew. Linnea was chancellor of the Cresteks, bound to her city and her people by duty as surely as he was bound to his.

"We're almost there," K’Nar murmured, breaking his reverie as the tower's imposing silhouette loomed before them. Guards stood at attention on either side of the massive entrance, their expressions carefully neutral as they approached.

He could sense Linnea gathering herself beside him, straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin as she prepared to resume the mantle of chancellor. The transformation fascinated him—how she could shift from the woman who had frantically searched the city for him to the composed leader of an entire people in the space of a heartbeat.

"Chancellor," one of the guards acknowledged with a bow as they passed, his eyes flicking curiously to him and then away.

The relative quiet of the tower's interior was a relief after the noise of the market, the stone walls muffling the sounds from outside and creating a pocket of stillness. He drew a deep breath, preparing to finally speak openly with Linnea about everything—the plotters within her council, the resistance members in the alley, the growing danger to them both.

But they had barely crossed the entrance hall when two figures hurried toward them from the direction of the spiraling ramp. He recognized them immediately—Vellen and Taal, the very advisors he had overheard plotting against Linnea.

"Chancellor," Vellen called, his face a mask of concern that might have fooled him had he not known better. "Thank the stars you've returned. There's an urgent matter requiring your immediate attention."

Taal's gaze settled on him, his eyes narrowing slightly. "A matter of internal security," he added pointedly.

Linnea glanced between her advisors and Zexx, a flicker of unease passing across her features before she composed them once more. "Of course," she said, her voice steady. "Ambassador, if you'll excuse us?"

He wanted to refuse, to insist on staying by her side, to expose these traitors for what they were. But the pleading look she gave him—a brief, desperate glance that begged him to understand—stayed his tongue. They were playing a dangerous game, and confronting her advisors directly would only expose their hand.

"Chancellor," he replied formally, inclining his head in acknowledgment. The distance between them felt like miles rather than the mere feet that separated them physically.

"We'll confer later," she assured him, though whether she was addressing the ambassador or the man she took to her bed each night was impossible to tell.

He watched her walk away with the two men he now knew to be her enemies, every instinct screaming at him to stop her, to protect her. But he remained where he stood, a silent observer as she disappeared up the spiraling ramp with Vellen and Taal flanking her like executioners escorting a prisoner.

K’Nar lingered behind, glancing at his departing chancellor before turning to Zexx. His unremarkable face, which he had always dismissed as bland and servile, now held a shrewd intelligence he had failed to notice before.

"A word, Ambassador," he said quietly, drawing him aside to a recessed alcove where they wouldn't be overheard by the guards.

He bristled at the presumption, unused to taking orders from anyone but Kyrana or his warrior captains. “If this is about—“

K’Nar gripped his arm with surprising strength for one of his slight build. "Be careful," he hissed, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Is that a threat?" Zexx demanded, tensing beneath his touch.

His fingers tightened. "It's a warning. Be more careful than you have been." His gaze bored into his with an intensity that belied his mild appearance. "Both your lives depend on it."

The words hit him like a blow to the chest. There it was—confirmation of what he had already suspected. Their secret wasn't so secret after all.

"How long have you known?" he asked, not bothering to deny his implication.

A ghost of a smile touched his lips. "Since the night of the reception. Maybe longer. Perhaps from the moment you arrived." Then his expression sobered. "But I'm not the only one with eyes, Ambassador. And not all who watch are as discreet—or as loyal to the chancellor—as I am."

Zexx studied him, searching for any hint of deception or ulterior motive. His empathic abilities, growing stronger by the day, detected only sincerity and a deep concern for Linnea's wellbeing.

"Why tell me this?" he asked. "Why not report what you know to the council?"

K’Nar glanced up the ramp where Linnea had disappeared with her advisors. "Because I serve the chancellor, not the council. Because I've known her since she was a junior member fighting to be heard in a room full of males who dismissed her. Because I've never seen her as alive as she's been since you arrived." He released his arm. "And because I believe the peace between our peoples is our only hope for survival. I believe in resisting those who would break the peace."

The pointed words stunned Zexx into silence. Was the unassuming adjunct one of the closely placed allies the Cresteks in the alley had meant? Before he could ask, a guard strode past them and K’Nar stepped away, putting appropriate distance between them.

"You should join them.” Zexx jerked his head up, knowing he could not ask questions now. "She needs allies in that room."

K’Nar nodded, but before turning to go, he whispered, "Be vigilant, Ambassador. The walls have ears, and not all of them belong to friends." With that cryptic warning, he hurried after his chancellor.

Zexx remained in the alcove for several moments, processing everything that had happened. The encounter with the resistance members in the alley. Linnea finding him despite the vastness of the city. K’Nar's unexpected alliance. And now, Linnea closeted with the very men who plotted her downfall.

If K’Nar was right, and he believed he was, he and Linnea had been playing with fire and were about to get badly burned.