The Twisted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 3)

Chapter 1.1

"Don't you dare lay this at our door!" Sabrina shouted. "If you can't take it, then admit it, but don't say you do it for our sake! None of us has asked to be let off the hook, and none of us will!"

"Am I supposed to wait until one or all of you are dead at my feet to act?" he shouted back.

"And how do you think we are all going to feel if you chose to die so we can live?" Sabrina retorted. "How is that any better, except maybe for you?"

"Sabrina, they are going to get me anyway, the way things are," Tirqwin said, calming. "It is only a matter of time. You know that as well as I do. I simply would rather die first, so that Mara will not be left alone. You know that when I die she will need you and Scotty if she is to have any sanity left."

"Oh, why is it always about death?" Sabrina cried, holding out her hands beseechingly. "Why are we always talking about death? Why can't we ever have a chance at life? Mara has lost almost everybody she ever cared about, and so have I. We are all orphans, Tirqwin, that's why we have to hang on to each other. It's why you can't go. If you do, it's not only death again, but betrayal. I felt so abandoned and betrayed when my parents died in that stupid car wreck. Don't do that to Mara. There's got to be another way, some way that we can let you go but keep you safe."

"But what way?" Tirqwin said, his voice echoing her desperation. "Even if Praxatillus' military were strong enough to do so, I would never agree to an escort or a garrison aboard Khediva. The terms of the marriage contract explicitly state that Khediva and I are not to be tampered with by Realm forces. It is the only reason Homeworld has not launched a full-scale attack and made good on their declaration of war."

"I know that," Sabrina said wearily, rubbing at her face. She sank into a chair. "There has to be a way. You have to go; there's no arguing that."

"Mara is arguing it, even to herself," Tirqwin said. "She knows I would be safer away from here—we would all be safer if Khediva and I left. But she cannot bring herself to admit it."

"It's not so much that she can't bear you to go, as that she can't bear you to go without her," Sabrina sighed.

Tirqwin stared at her as if she'd said something enlightening. "It is not as though we would be cut off from each other," he said.

"But you could be," Sabrina said. "Homeworld knows about the link. They would certainly target it before they tried anything. That's what Mara's afraid of—that you'll go out there somewhere, run into trouble, and she'll know it but not be able to get to you. What a nightmare. Tirqwin, you can't blame her for being afraid of that."

"No, I do not blame her for being afraid," he said. "I am. That does not make this situation any more tenable."

"No," Sabrina said. "I guess it doesn't. Well." She stood up and paced across the room. "Okay. Let's take this logically, from the top."

She paused as she realized Tirqwin was looking at the doorway, and glanced over to see Mara there, calm and dry-eyed. The couple looked at each other for a moment, then moved to embrace each other tightly. When they pulled back, it was only to share a kiss.

Sabrina was just looking around for the best, most discreet way out of the room when they separated and turned to her. Mara smiled and said, "I am sorry, my friend. I...I know I have come perilously close to violating my oath never to misuse your service by requiring this of you for so long. It is just that I have not been able to see what else I could do. What else I had the courage to face. But I cannot, any more than Tirqwin, bear to have your blood spilt to prolong this situation. It is time, and past time, we faced it and decided how to escape it."

Sabrina smiled, but her expression was wry. "I am going to ask Selémahs what her secret is. I could never bring you to your senses that fast."

Mara shook her head. "It was not Selémahs. It was Tirqwin. He has had an idea while he was talking to you. I think it is the key."

"You have?" Sabrina asked in surprise, raising her eyebrows at Tirqwin.

He was staring down at Mara in puzzlement, then exasperation. "It will not do, Mara. You know it will not."

"We will make it," she replied. "Sabrina, check my logic on this. If Tirqwin cannot stay, and I cannot bear him to go without me, then the only possible solution is for me to go with him."

Sabrina gasped. "Mara—you're the Queen. You can't just go off—"

"It is logical, is it not?" Mara demanded.

"Yes, but—but—it doesn't take everything into account! You can't go! You don't even have an heir."

"There is my uncle Rayland."

"Who is too old to have children!" Sabrina retorted. "Mara, if you even suggested this to the Council of Ministers, they would have kittens!"

"I am also the Guardian. No Guardian has ever died without bearing an Inheritor first. I will be able to predict my death," Mara said. "There need be no fears of my unexpected demise. If I go with Tirqwin, I can protect him and Khediva, and set my own mind at rest. I will simply have to leave someone in charge here whom I can trust."

Sabrina sat down again. It wasn't any use arguing; she could feel that Mara had taken the problem out of her hands and would not give it back again. Whatever happened now would happen without her involvement. She struggled to squelch her feeling of powerlessness, and the resentment of being, after all, a servant. She supposed she never really had been in complete control of her life before taking her oath of service, but now she had to give up even the pretense of it. Having long been self-sufficient, she was having serious trouble making the adjustment.

Tirqwin was looking flabbergasted. "Mara—"

"It is the ideal solution. The only solution," Mara said. "Admit it."

Tirqwin considered, for a long time. Then he said, "If you can make the Praxatillians agree, and find someone in whose hands you are willing to leave everything, then...for a time...perhaps until we can make some kind of truce with Homeworld...." He paused. "But I cannot ask it of you. I must not."

"You haven't. But I shall do it, just the same," Mara said. "Sabrina? Do I have your support?"

What do you need it for? It's the Prime Minister, and First Chair Imari, you'll have to argue with! "Yes, I suppose, if you can find a regent that people will accept."

"I think I shall," Mara said.

"Well then," Sabrina said. "Does this mean Scotty and I are coming with you?"

Tirqwin frowned, shooting a suspicious look at Mara, who was shaking her head. "Scotty will remain here and continue his military training. And you, Mistress of my Household...no, I shall need you here. Tirqwin and I will go by ourselves. It will be something of a honeymoon." She smiled. "The one we never thought to have."

"On the run from a hostile government?" Sabrina said incredulously.

Mara shrugged, then grinned. "We are not, as you have said so often, an ordinary couple."