"How much?" I asked. Well, I thought I should know how much they were willing to pay to do away with me.
"Fifty million," Erland sighed. "This means that with all contributors, the Black brotherhood has been offered at least four times that much."
"So they're probably pooling their money." I sat back in my chair and rubbed my forehead. "And the nutcases that come here and try to climb the wall may be trying to get to me so they can claim the biggest jackpot ever."
"Unfortunate, but true," Adam agreed. Well, the objections I'd raised about making this a gambling planet and open to space travel had certainly come home to roost.
"Lissa, you are welcome to come to Kifirin," Garde said. "Jayd and Glinda have already offered."
"Lissa should not have to leave her world. I made this for her. Others are taking it over, now, although she raised her objections in the beginning." Kifirin wasn't happy with the current situation; I could see that right away.
Lissa, I didn't know this would come, Adam apologized mentally.
None of us did, I sent back to him. When I raised my objections, it had been because I didn't want the peace of Le-Ath Veronis interrupted.
"I will file this report with the Alliance," Thurlow had a handheld computer out and was tapping away on the screen. He copied my security team on the message, too. They were going to have a security pow-wow right after this impromptu meeting. That was fine; I had a couple of things I wanted to do myself.
* * *
"Corent, how are things working out for you?" I found him walking among the apple trees, putting his hands on this trunk or that. I envied him at that moment—walking through the orchards with no price on his head, no meetings to attend, no missing child, no puzzlement over how that child had been taken to begin with—he might miss Redbird, but he'd offered to come. I hadn't forced the issue. Today, his hair was a bright blue, reflecting the sky over our heads.
"Things are very well, here; the comesuli have a great respect for the land and the trees." I nodded at his assessment—Roff had it, too, when he'd been one of them. I wondered again where he was.
"Are you happy with your home?" He'd been given a small home for himself, and payment for his work—Kyler and Davan had taken care of it. He and the comesuli had access to computers and vid screens, too, and could either go to one of the cities to buy clothing and luxuries or order them on computer.
"I am happy with my home. I am learning new things as well, and that pleases me."
"Well, we're about to build more schools on this side," I said. "With all the pregnant comesuli we have, we'll need them in a couple of years."
"The children are a joy," he actually smiled when he said it. "There were few births among my kind." I nodded, not mentioning the real reason we were standing there, having our conversation. "I did not expect to be visited by you, or treated as an honored guest," he went on. "And I wish to ask you where the Indis-Banuu came from."
"Indis-Banuu?" I asked, puzzled.
"The light-gathering crystal. Indis-Banuu means holder of the sun in my language. It is with sadness that I admit we drained most of what we had and destroyed some of it in the taking of your child. We could not get the sun to recharge nearly half of what we had on Vionn." Well, there it was. I wanted to weep at his admission. I worked to put it out of my mind.
"Oh. That stuff," I said as cheerfully as I could. "That came from Surnath. The crystal just litters the ground, there."
"There is such a world?" Corent drew in a sharp breath.
"Well, yeah," I shrugged. I had no idea why that excited him so much.
"Is there more here, that you are not using?" he asked. "I can use it to help trees and plants grow." Now I knew how they'd taken useless land and turned it into a garden. The crystal held sunlight and operated as a focus for their power. They'd used it to kidnap Toff, too.
"I don't know," I replied to his question. "If there's not, I'll get some for you if that's what you want." I didn't get any bad vibes from him—he wasn't planning to misuse the stuff.
"I do want some, if it's no trouble."
"I'll see you get it. Let me know if you need anything else. You're not in prison, you know. As long as you follow the laws here, you're as free as anyone else."
"I'll try to remember that. How should I address you, when I see you again?" he asked when I turned to leave.
"You can call me Lissa, unless you prefer something else. Bear in mind if you use profanity instead of my name, some of my mates may take exception."
"You would allow me to use your name?" He gave me a puzzled look.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I would imagine I am not in good grace, at the moment." Corent hung his head.
"You didn't cause this mess on your own. If you hadn't volunteered to come, I would have left you where you were."
"I understand that. Now."
I nodded to him and folded away before I started crying again. Toff wasn't coming home to me. I had to get used to that.
* * *
"Child, are you well?" Tiearan waited for Lissa to disappear before making himself known to Corent. "Your mother worries."
"Father, did you hear what she said to me?"
"No, child. Was she abusive?"
"No, Father. The opposite, actually. She treats me kindly, as do the comesuli. They have not been informed why I am here. They treat me as one of them. The Queen has offered to bring me Indis-Banuu—which they use here to help supply power. I do not understand this at all."
"Do you have a place to stay?" Tiearan studied Corent's face.
"I do. Come, I will show you." Corent led Tiearan toward his home.
* * *
"Brenten, while I understand that you were protecting Wyatt, I fail to understand why you did this to Lissa." Amara held her sleeping son in her arms while she watched Griffin. He stood near a window in Merrill's old manor house in Kent, looking over the well-kept lawn surrounding the house. "Surely there was some other way. If she learns of this, you may as well forget you have a daughter."
"She has trouble recognizing me as her father anyway."
"Brenten, is this my husband talking, or someone who merely attempts to justify himself?"
"The switching of the bracelets is only a part of this," Griffin turned to face Amara. "I have rationalized my acts in the past. Often congratulated myself on making things come out in the best way possible, by sacrificing this one or that. I keep telling myself it is for the greater good. Yes, it causes me superficial pain, but that is all. I couldn't face this pain, Amara. I couldn't handle having my son taken away from us like that," He shook his head.