Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future Read online

  It was the romantic dream of a boy who had spent his first years wandering, often abandoned by quixotic parents who lived more for drugs and drink that gave the illusion of happiness then for life itself.

  It hadn’t happened. And maybe because of that first instant lightning-struck time when he and Claire had first met at fifteen, ready to fall in love as all were at that age, the longing for her had become his own personal illusion, a kaleidoscope of emotions he didn’t care to examine.

  The hours loomed long ahead of him. The voyage had just started and he’d already run out of words. It seemed a man who was possibly facing the last days of his life, heading into a danger that didn’t seem to offer much in the way of positive endings, should be able to do better at savoring the moments than this.

  He followed Claire to what he supposed would be his room, but when he stepped inside he knew these luxurious quarters had to be the imperial suite. “This is where you live,” he said, feeling even more like an awkward kid.

  She shook her head. “It’s the guest suite. I thought we would stay here.”

  “Oh,” he said, looking around at the soft blues and lavenders of the room, the rich polished wood of the furnishings and was reminded that her guests would have been Gare aristos, accustomed to the best in everything.

  “Unless you would prefer greater privacy,” she suggested delicately.

  He dropped his travel bag unceremoniously on the floor and pulled her into his arms, looking down into a face that was even more lovely than he’d remembered. The ice blue eyes met his with unquestioning confidence. Claire Shiray, the girl from Chicago who had become a Gare empress, looked at him as though he were the whole world and more.

  “No,” he said. “Privacy isn’t what I’m looking to find.” And then he kissed her and memories of empires and danger faded from his mind so that nothing mattered but this exact moment in time.

  The first thing Claire thought when she awakened was how glad she was that neither of her daughters cold read her mind. Oh, they said that wasn’t what happened, that it was more like talking without audible sounds then peeking into someone’s brain, but she’d seen them at work and suspected they picked up a whole lot more than the owner of that brain intended.

  Adaeze and Lillianne were different, something new, off the charts. Who could know what their abilities were. But they couldn’t get even a drip of info from an Earther mind and she was thankful for that.

  Jamie still lay deep in sleep and she took advantage of that to study his face. He had a long face with a decided chin, lean cheeks that showed high cheekbones, a nose that looked like it might have broken once or twice, a broad forehead that led up to an abundance of slightly wavy hair, worn longer than when she’d first met him.

  Even though he still showed the signs of suffering from his injury, he still somehow gave a sense of strength under restraint. Just from looking at him, you knew he would fight if he had to, for what mattered to him, but that he would never fight just for the fun of it the way some men did.

  She tried never to compare him and Mathiah, it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Like most of the Gare, Mathiah had been tall enough to be considered almost a giant back on Earth. He’d been bald, his body hairless. Among the Gare only women had hair and not much of it at that. He had been the product of hundreds of generations of genetic engineering, her husband, and his features could hardly have been perfect. He was very good looking, even by Earther standards.

  And she’d come to care for him. They’d been the closest of companions so that when he began to be ill two years ago, withdrawing into the pain and delusion of his illness, she had felt so alone.

  During the years of their marriage, she had tried not to think of Jamie, not because it would be disloyal, but because of the aching longing it brought. But her dreams had always betrayed her. Months might go by, but then she would have one of those dreams where they were in each other’s arms, sinking deep into kisses and more. She’d tell herself she couldn’t help what she dreamed, but for days she’d go around dissatisfied and irritated, feeling somehow cheated.

  The trouble was that she and Jamie had met too young, not ready for the intensity of feeling that had sparked then. She remembered hearing how a wild bird baby would attach to the first creature it saw as its mother, bonding for life. Her love for Jamie had been like that. She’d been only fifteen when she first met him, but she’d bonded to him so that from then on he was hers and stood always between her and any other love.

  When she realized his lashes had lifted and he was looking at her with those dark eyes, she smiled and moved closer, taking a kiss from his warm mouth.

  They were in a microcosm of contentment during those days of travel. Jamie no longer found it hard to talk to her. In fact, there wasn’t time enough to hear all she had to say or to tell her all he needed to reveal.

  Each evening the ship’s medic, a middle-aged woman with a thoughtful face, who had been chosen by Adaeze as communicant with her mother, came to them to reveal the news from Sanctuary.

  Then they broke away from the idyll and were not just lovers discovering each other, but parents, friends, citizens of their world. Adaeze told her mother that a ship had attempted orbit around the planet she called Blood, had been warned off and retreated. She was glad she hadn’t been forced to blow it up.

  They were all well. Charlie was bossy and tried to tell her what to do, but this was nothing she couldn’t handle. That man from New London, the one who thought he ran things, had come over in a crude land vehicle and tried to take over, but he’d brought the woman named Karen with him and between her, Isaiah and Mack, she had loyal followers. Oh, and old George had joined them as well. She liked old George.

  Claire would have smiled at the egotism of this daughter of hers, except it wasn’t really funny. Adaeze had been raised as an imperial princess. Naturally she thought she was supposed to be central authority.

  This thirteen-year-old girl could only be contained for so long, her mother knew.

  Adaeze wished her mother well and, even though Claire knew she could see through the medic’s eyes, that Jamie was with her, she didn’t mention him or give him any message.

  That silence told her that Adaeze wasn’t feeling any better about the potential relationship between her and her old friend.

  The last part of the message was relayed from Lillianne. Her younger daughter said she was homesick for her and that she was to hurry back to them as fast as she could.

  Claire would have liked to send messages from Jamie to his cohorts, but decided that the better part of wisdom was not to do so. After all, Adaeze was only a youngster and if they pushed her beyond her emotional limits, she might withdraw her assistance and then where would they be?

  She could hardly reach across space and threaten discipline to either of her daughters.

  She sent her love to both girls and then allowed the medic to retire.

  It took a few minutes of casual conversation before they were able to push away the outside world, but after that they were able to draw back into the cocoon of what she was beginning to think of as their honeymoon.

  Surely they had a right to this much considering that most likely they were approaching their own deaths, either blasted out of space by the Gare space force as they approached Aremia, or killed in an attempt to rescue Isaiah’s pretty little daughter.

  Either way, this was their time alone, a few blessed days together before they risked everything.

  So far they had avoided any talk of the future, but this morning as they breakfasted on hot breads and fruits totally unfamiliar to him, Jamie brought up the subject. “Where are we going to live, New London and that damned governor’s house?”

  Claire laughed, a tinkling sound that reminded him of their youth. He hadn’t heard her laugh many times, but he’d always liked the sound. “Sounds like you have already chosen,” she said.

  “Well, if we’re going to boss the planet, then we get our choice of lan
dscape. That castle’s too fancy for me, but New London feels like home.”

  “Not to me,” she teased. “It’s full of Earthers.”

  “The best kind of people.” He grinned. “Give or take a Kevin Hartley or two.”

  “And a Karen Russell.”

  “Hey, nothing wrong with Karen. Mack thinks the world of her.”

  She got up from her chair and went over to curl up in his lap like a kitten cuddling. “I’m pleased for Mack,” she whispered. “And I don’t want to think about what lies ahead. I just want to live in today, right in this moment.”

  “We’re going to win through on this. We’ll go home. You see if we don’t.”

  Delicately she raked her fingers over his larger ones. “I’m not so afraid of dying. It’s being caught that scares me. You don’t know what Mellisande can be like.”

  “That’s the empress’s name.”

  “I’m the empress, or at least I was. She was only the dowager and I guess now that Mathiah’s gone she’s the dowager-dowager, while I’m just the dowager.”

  “Hey! You’re Claire Ward.”

  “You’re so old-fashioned, my love.” She reached up to kiss him and what with his response the kiss went on so long that by the time it was finished, he had forgotten what they were talking about.

  TWENTY-ONE

  As they approached Aremia, the mood on board ship changed. The medic began reporting at odd hours as Adaeze became more anxious. Even though that young woman always gave advance warning she was coming with a message, the sense of being alone together vanished.

  Claire paid several visits to the control room while Jamie, left alone in their rooms or at the viewer lookout, had little idea of what discussions took place between her and the crew. When she came back, she didn’t want to talk about that subject. Instead she got him to tell her more stories about Gran, Grandpa and his little sister Marti back in Oklahoma.

  “It sounds so unbelievably hokey,” she commented as he concluded his latest account. “You’ve got to be making this stuff up.”

  “Gospel truth,” he raised one hand as though to swear. “Word of a Ward.”

  “And that’s supposed to mean something to me.”

  He pretended to be hurt. “You know you can trust me, Claire.”

  She gave him a quick kiss. “Always,” she assured him, then laughed so he didn’t know if she was serious or not.

  Their perfect accord of the last few days was disturbed. He didn’t know if it was because their journey was coming to an end or because of the advice she was getting from the ship’s crew and captain.

  “You need an update,” she announced abruptly. “It’s not that I’ve intended to keep things from you, but I needed time to absorb what Adaeze was telling me. But you’ve got to know everything while we still have time to turn back.”

  “Go back without Alice?”

  She shrugged. “It’s your call. Adaeze has been in contact with her grandmother. Without actually saying so, she has given Mellisande the impression that both she and her sister are on board the Princess Adaeze and are returning to her custody. This should get us through docking and onto the planet.”

  “And after that, the old empress discovers that her granddaughters are not on board, but that it’s only you and me?”

  Claire nodded.

  “And then what happens?”

  “We, or rather my girls, are to be greeted with a public reception so whatever she does, it will be in front of everybody and broadcast on the vids. My daughter thinks I will be safe enough as Mellisande would rather I die privately and quietly with no blame attached to her. Mathiah was much beloved by his people and they most likely wouldn’t take kindly to seeing his mother kill his wife, the woman he named as regent.”

  Jamie leaned back in his chair. The last few days had gone a long way toward healing him of injuries physical and emotion, but now he began to feel the familiar ache on his right side. “We just hope the woman’s rational enough to figure all this out.”

  “Rational?” Claire’s mouth quirked in what was now quite a smile. “My mother-in-law? You must be kidding.”

  He took a sip of iced coffee. “So your position is precarious.”

  “We knew that all along. What I’m worried about is how you stand. On Aremia they aren’t as friendly toward Earthers as people on Sanctuary. She could have you shot on sight and most of the onlookers wouldn’t think any more about it than if she’d squashed a puppy.”

  “Hey! I really like dogs. Back on the farm we had this Collie who was close to human. In fact, he probably outranked most of them.” He swallowed another sip. “Wish we had a dog at New London. The kids would love it.”

  She reached over to grab his shoulders and give him a little shake. The gesture was so gentle it didn’t even jar his nearly recovered wound. “Wake up, Jamie. I just said she might kill you. We’ve got to come up with another plan.”

  He pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been thinking for days and haven’t come up with anything else that would get us on planet with a chance to save Alice. And much as I love that little girl, this has more important ramifications. The people of New London need to show they can recover one of their own. Without Alice, they hold nothing over us. We’re free.”

  She kissed him slowly, slowly, winning him over with her love. “You don’t understand. You’re not in my position. I can risk myself, but Jamie I’m not willing to risk you.”

  “We risk each other,” he said softly, knowing she was right and he could say this because there was real reason to believe she would survive. And clever as she was, he felt reasonably confident she would manage to escape with Alice. “This is our chance, Claire. The empire is in disarray and we have an opportunity to claim a stake on independence. Thanks to your sweet little daughter, our people are in control of the world that was originally granted them by the Gare. And no matter whether we continue on or go back, we could still die.”

  She was hard to convince, but by the time they went to bed, she had agreed not to give orders turning the ship back to Sanctuary.

  The next morning she seemed more confident and Jamie, knowing the time before landing was now limited to hours, tried to think of ways to enhance his chance of staying alive. “You could treat me as your servant,” he finally suggested.

  “They’d think that meant I’d brought you along as a paramour,” she returned with distaste.

  “You mean you didn’t?” he asked with mock surprise.

  She gave him a shove. “You don’t get it, you idiot. To the people of Aremia, the wife of the late emperor is practically a holy object.”

  “In other ways they’d feel about our relationship much as your daughter does.”

  She didn’t respond, but seemed deep in thought. He waited to let her fully examine whatever was going on in her mind. “I have an idea, but you won’t like it.”

  “Spit it out anyway.”

  “I don’t spit out words. You don’t have to be insulting just because I’m no telepath.”

  “You mean you can’t read my mind?” He leered at her.

  “Anybody can read your mind, what little there is of it.”

  The teasing would have led to a kiss under other circumstances, but they both knew that time for such byplay was limited. They were facing serious circumstances.

  Her face hardened into tight lines, her large eyes solemn as she met his. “Adaeze could send word to the empress that you are catere, sent to serve the needs of the little emperor. She can imply that we’re trying to buy our way into favor. Mellisande would like that.”

  “I thought they only used kids.”

  She shook her head. “They prefer youngsters because they are more resilient and have a better survival rate, but anybody with the right blood type can be catere. And we know you have the right blood type.”

  “As do you,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Sure I do and her imperial highness, the dowager empress of the Gare and the empire of Aremia tho
ught of that long ago. That’s one of the reasons my daughters fled Aremia. Of course, it’s forbidden to turn the widow of the revered emperor into catere for another individual, but these are desperate times.”

  She waited for his objection, but he had none to make. Distasteful as this plan was to him, it seemed the best possibility for survival. “Tell Adaeze to set it up,” he agreed.

  She left the suite and he assumed it was because she felt she had a better chance of convincing her daughter if he wasn’t in her range of vision. The Princess Adaeze had a mind of her own and keeping him alive would not be high on her agenda.

  When she came back, nodding to him that everything was planned, he had one more suggestion. He lifted one of the silken roses from a bowl on the table and presented it to her. “The captain of a ship can do weddings,” he said, “at least that’s the way it is on Earth. I read about it when I was a kid back home. Though Gran felt that only a reverend could do the job.”

  She caught on immediately. “I have no idea if that has legal standing in the empire,” she said, her cheeks suddenly pink. “Are you asking me to marry you, Jamie Ward?”

  He touched the silken petals of the flower she had not taken from him. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re already husband and wife, committed to each other forever.”

  “Or until landing,” she quipped, “You know the ‘til death does us part’ could come real quickly.”

  “I’m totally serious, Claire.”

  She took her flower. “I know you are, but it’s not that easy.”

  “You mean because of the way your daughter feels about me?”

  “Because it is illegal in the Aremian Empire for any man to wed a dowager empress. It’s considered treason and is punishable by a really horrible death.”

  “You’re young yet, they just expect you to stay single for the rest of your life?”

  “At least they didn’t make me jump on the funeral pyre.”