Page 15 of The Intergalactic Duke's Inconvenient Engagement
And she’d be ready for whatever came next, whether that was a spaceship, a black hole, or a strangely enticing alien duke.
***
Retreating to the stateroom off the bridge that he’d commandeered for his use during the tour, Raz placed a comm link to his mother at the duchy’s planetary seat.
The dowager duchess had always been a power in Azthronos,even when his father was alive. But where his sire had been brash and beloved, his mother operated behind the scenes. He thought now that if she’d been more assertive, maybe their finances wouldn’t be so precarious. Since she had clear ideas for righting the duchy’s fiscal position, he was willing to hear her.
Even if it involved a bit of privateering…
A month ago, he’d still been numbed fromwatching his sire dispersed to eternity without having a chance to say the words that roiled inside him when his mother had sat him down and explained the actual financial circumstances of his inheritance.
“A solar system duchy with your name on it,” she said. “And more debt than you have honor titles.”
He sputtered. “But Father was a great man, beloved—”
“Yes, yes,” she agreed impatiently.“His Grace, Aezlo Ralez Thorkonos, late Duke of Azthronos, Blood Champion of Reh, Avatar of Leronos, God of Fortuity, mighty commander of theGrandiloquenceon her celebrated pilgrimages around his adoring realm.” With her brow furrowed but chin set, her gaze went unfocused, as if seeing past him to some distant galaxy of regret, grief, and resolve. “The man never met a galactic credit he couldn’tspend.”
“Then why…” He faltered, hearing the childish entreaty in his voice, a wistful sound he’d vowed never to let whine from his lips again. “Why did you send me away?”
“To learn what the previous Dukes of Azthronos refused to see: beloved doesn’t pay the bills.”
At the time, sleep-deprived and sorrowing, he’d shouted at her, blamed her cold-heartedness for his father’s death, his own longabsence, the faltering fate of the Azthronos duchy. She’d listened to his tantrum with her head cocked, and only then had he noticed the hollowness in her cheeks and between the bones on the backs of her hands, the shadows in her eyes deeper yet. And he’d sunk to his knees in front of her. Not weeping. His eyes had been still burning from the myriad stars that had streaked past the viewports ofall the ships he had requisitioned to get back home.
Her thin hand on the back of his head had fallen like a blood champion’s sword, light and devastating. “You’re here now. And you are Duke of Azthronos. Don’t larf this up, my dear son.”
And so he’d found himself touring the Azthronos system (five planets and twenty moons inhabited by eleven billion Azthronites, all of whom he was now responsiblefor), inspecting the resources (a legacy asteroid mining system that hadn’t been updated in a century and a haphazard tourism industry focused on the pastoral pleasures of the middle planet, specifically the potent psychedelic properties of the same flower distilled into ghost-mead) and reviewing the system’s debts (a figure significantly higher than the number of Azthronites with an inordinatenumber of zeroes after it and only slightly offset by the aforementioned resources) for which he was also now responsible.
The staggering duty was one he’d been born for, sent away for—and only now fully appreciated.
It was enough to drive even a duke to despair.
Unless he was forced to sell his dreadnaught flagship for quick funds, and then he’d bewalkingto despair. Or floating, since hewas currently touring Azthronos space.
The tour had left him at the edge of the Thorkonos Galaxy right when the call had come about the imprisoned Blackworm’s unsanctioned station.
Prime salvage, his mother had said.
He’d been appalled. “Are we space pirates now?”
“The peerage have always been pirates, boy,” she’d snapped back. “How do you think we got what we have? Now go save those poorsurvivors. And then save our duchy.”
Thinking of the Earthers he had just saved, he took a calming breath as he waited for the comm link to connect.
Though it was early morning on the coast of Azthronos’s second largest landmass where the ducal estate was located, she accepted his call immediately. She smiled at him, her blue eyes crinkling. Behind her, the floor-to-ceiling windows were open,framing the tidy courtyard garden with its sculpted hedges nurtured to year-round blooming under the protective energy dome. “You rescued the Earth girls. And you looked very heroic doing so. I’m delighted.”
He grimaced. “Do you have a spy on my ship?”
“I’m the Dowager Duchess of Azthronos. I have spies everywhere. And I’m your mother. So yes.” She waved one hand dismissively. “Public interestis piquing. We’ve already booked three conferences at the south coast resort. We even had a call from the Octiron Corp about recording a segment about the Duke of Azthronos and the Black Hole Brides.”
This time he blanched. “Is that what Octiron is calling them? The Black Hole Brides. As if the Earthers chose to be abducted. Although I suppose that fits Octiron’s usual antics. They produce thattrashy—and dangerous—Great Space Race reality show.”
“Indeed,” she said blandly. “Very popular.”
Maybe he wasn’t interested in listening to all her ideas… Moving on, he asked, “Did your spy also tell you about the station? It was running on autopilot and most of the systems were shut down or functioning on minimal power. Hardly better than abandoned.” Except for Rayna and the other Earther females.“But the structure is in acceptable shape and should bring in a tidy sum. Considering the questionable provenance and unsavory previous ownership, I imagine we won’t have any appreciable challenge to our salvage claim.”
She pursued her lips over a sip of pixberry tea. “About that…”
He stiffened. “What?”