sincere. “I know you must be terribly upset, but we had the welfare of all Nuathans to consider.”
“Don’t talk to me about ‘welfare’ or ‘best courses,’” I snapped. “You stole a year of an innocent boy’s life and then lied to me about it! I don’t believe you even considered any other course before deciding this one was ‘best.’ It may have been the most convenient , especially for you, but no way was it best. After watching that memory extraction, you had to know full well Rigel wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Grentl. This was about getting him away from me, permanently. Wasn’t it?” I directed that question at Mr. O but he refused to flinch.
“I won’t deny that was a consideration, Excellency. Your maintaining any sort of relationship with Rigel Stuart had the potential to undermine your authority as Sovereign, just as it interfered with your Acclamation. The people of Nuath—”
“Oh, spare me your lofty speeches! You were scared. Scared of what the Grentl would do if I didn’t stop them, scared that Rigel might somehow distract me from that, scared that if he and I were together it would mess with all your sacred Royal traditions that say I’m supposed to be with Sean. Scared that once I was Sovereign you wouldn’t be able to keep us apart anymore. Why else would you erase every memory he ever had of me , not just of the Grentl? And why else would you have had Devyn and Gordon create that awful video to convince me it was all Rigel’s idea, then go on about how noble it was?”
Devyn made a gesture of protest. “I believed and still believe that what Quinn proposed was indeed noble. It allowed you to do what was necessary to prevent the destruction of Nuath while at the same time removing a potentially serious security risk.”
“It wasn’t noble .” I spat the word. “It was evil . Rigel is a sixteen-year-old boy who’d committed no crime, yet you wiped his memory and exiled him to Earth without any kind of trial, without even telling him—or me—what you planned to do! Even violent criminals have more rights than that under Nuathan law. What you did to Rigel,” I said directly to Mr. O, “was exactly what Faxon did to your daughter Elana. He probably insisted he was acting for the good of Nuath, too.”
Mr. O’Gara opened his mouth, no doubt to issue a denial, then closed it again, the color slowly draining from his face. For the first time, I sensed uncertainty from him, perhaps even a tinge of horror, as he absorbed the parallel—one he’d apparently missed until this moment.
The others seemed not to notice.
“What…what do you plan to do?” Nels’s voice shook noticeably, while Devyn still appeared completely unapologetic.
Standing a little straighter, I lifted my chin and looked each of them directly in the eye. “None of you will leave the Palace until such time as I see fit to allow it. You can arrange to have personal items brought here for your comfort, but no unscreened messages will be sent to anyone in Nuath or on Earth. And you will assist me in getting to Earth myself, on the very next ship, if possible.”
“This is absurd, Excellency,” Devyn immediately protested. “You can’t possibly mean to keep us all prisoner here. And how will a proper government be restored if you abandon Nuath with no alternate leadership in place?”
“Not to mention the issue of the Grentl,” Nels added, looking positively scared now. “Remember, they said they’re coming and we still don’t know when, or what they plan to do when they get here, or…or anything. And you’re the only one who can find that out or maybe stop them, like you did before. Please! You can’t just—”
“Calm down, Nels,” Devyn advised him. “Of course she can’t. Excellency, I find it hard to believe that you would abandon your own people to possible anarchy and the threat of annihilation by the Grentl, simply to rejoin your boyfriend. Surely the Sovereign
“Don’t talk to me about ‘welfare’ or ‘best courses,’” I snapped. “You stole a year of an innocent boy’s life and then lied to me about it! I don’t believe you even considered any other course before deciding this one was ‘best.’ It may have been the most convenient , especially for you, but no way was it best. After watching that memory extraction, you had to know full well Rigel wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Grentl. This was about getting him away from me, permanently. Wasn’t it?” I directed that question at Mr. O but he refused to flinch.
“I won’t deny that was a consideration, Excellency. Your maintaining any sort of relationship with Rigel Stuart had the potential to undermine your authority as Sovereign, just as it interfered with your Acclamation. The people of Nuath—”
“Oh, spare me your lofty speeches! You were scared. Scared of what the Grentl would do if I didn’t stop them, scared that Rigel might somehow distract me from that, scared that if he and I were together it would mess with all your sacred Royal traditions that say I’m supposed to be with Sean. Scared that once I was Sovereign you wouldn’t be able to keep us apart anymore. Why else would you erase every memory he ever had of me , not just of the Grentl? And why else would you have had Devyn and Gordon create that awful video to convince me it was all Rigel’s idea, then go on about how noble it was?”
Devyn made a gesture of protest. “I believed and still believe that what Quinn proposed was indeed noble. It allowed you to do what was necessary to prevent the destruction of Nuath while at the same time removing a potentially serious security risk.”
“It wasn’t noble .” I spat the word. “It was evil . Rigel is a sixteen-year-old boy who’d committed no crime, yet you wiped his memory and exiled him to Earth without any kind of trial, without even telling him—or me—what you planned to do! Even violent criminals have more rights than that under Nuathan law. What you did to Rigel,” I said directly to Mr. O, “was exactly what Faxon did to your daughter Elana. He probably insisted he was acting for the good of Nuath, too.”
Mr. O’Gara opened his mouth, no doubt to issue a denial, then closed it again, the color slowly draining from his face. For the first time, I sensed uncertainty from him, perhaps even a tinge of horror, as he absorbed the parallel—one he’d apparently missed until this moment.
The others seemed not to notice.
“What…what do you plan to do?” Nels’s voice shook noticeably, while Devyn still appeared completely unapologetic.
Standing a little straighter, I lifted my chin and looked each of them directly in the eye. “None of you will leave the Palace until such time as I see fit to allow it. You can arrange to have personal items brought here for your comfort, but no unscreened messages will be sent to anyone in Nuath or on Earth. And you will assist me in getting to Earth myself, on the very next ship, if possible.”
“This is absurd, Excellency,” Devyn immediately protested. “You can’t possibly mean to keep us all prisoner here. And how will a proper government be restored if you abandon Nuath with no alternate leadership in place?”
“Not to mention the issue of the Grentl,” Nels added, looking positively scared now. “Remember, they said they’re coming and we still don’t know when, or what they plan to do when they get here, or…or anything. And you’re the only one who can find that out or maybe stop them, like you did before. Please! You can’t just—”
“Calm down, Nels,” Devyn advised him. “Of course she can’t. Excellency, I find it hard to believe that you would abandon your own people to possible anarchy and the threat of annihilation by the Grentl, simply to rejoin your boyfriend. Surely the Sovereign
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