Ford was tired and headachy when he left his quarters, so he didn't sense Malvarak's presence on the control deck until he nearly ran into him. "Ah. I trust you rested well?" he said.
"Yes, thank you, Majesty. And you?"
"Tolerably. I will be glad to touch a planet's surface again. Are we nearly there?"
"We are approaching orbit. Are you sure you want to go down, Your Majesty? We hardly have a proper security detail for you."
"Kesta wants to see it, and I want to go with her," Ford replied. "Otherwise it's hardly worth our trouble to have come here, is it?"
"But she must be leaning toward staying with you," Malvarak smirked. "Or was that a good-bye?"
"What passes between us is not your concern," Ford snapped. "Do not trouble me with your thoughts on the subject unless you want me to go in and remove them myself. It will not be a pleasant process!"
"There is no need to descend to threats, Your Majesty. I merely meant to assuage any...concern you might feel on the matter."
"When I want your reassurance, I will ask for it."
Malvarak bowed. "Do you wish to take the controls, Your Majesty?"
"Yes." Ford took over the main console and checked the readouts. A few moments later he moved the ship smoothly into orbit, and shortly thereafter Sabrina appeared on the control deck. Ford was tired enough that her disguise as Kestabriani was not as strong as before; Malvarak looked at her lighter hair and darker complexion with narrowed eyes but did not comment.
"Ready, my dear?" Ford asked, offering her his arm. She took it, and they went into the transport capsule. "Malvarak, hold the ship in orbit until we return."
"I would rather come with you to personally ensure your safety," Malvarak said.
"And I would rather have you stay with the ship," Ford retorted.
"An escort will meet you when you arrive," Malvarak said, bowing to the inevitable.
"Thank you," Ford said, closing the capsule door. When he opened it again, it was to a lovely vista of amber grasslands, with a copse of small reddish trees in the distance.
"It's beautiful," Sabrina said, taking a deep breath. "It almost smells like Earth."
Ford was looking around with more purpose. "I wonder where our escort is?"
"I hope they get permanently lost," Sabrina said firmly. "Let's walk."
They set off through the tall grass, which whispered around them. After a moment, Ford said, "You're not still angry with me, I hope?"
"I realize you didn't set out to make me relive that," she replied slowly. "But if you ever have occasion to rummage through my memories again, I'd appreciate it if you'd avoid the ones I have locked away."
"It wasn't working. I needed something with strong emotional resonance."
"So you thought it'd be a good idea to make me relive Rayland's murder?"
"Ssh!" Ford hissed, looking around. "I wish you'd let your guard down so we didn't have to speak aloud."
"I'm not letting you back in my head ever again, if I can help it." Sabrina set her jaw, still looking straight ahead. She swallowed, then said in a softer voice, "Aside from how traumatic it was for me, I always hoped Scotty would never know how horrible it was. If that worked at all, I no longer have even that comfort."
"We'd better hope it worked, or Scotty will have much bigger problems than a new memory," Ford reminded her grimly. "Malvarak has a plan for me, and he must have some means for controlling or perhaps submerging my true personality. He has to realize the Pharon crystal resonance will wear off eventually. If we don't defeat him before we're ensconced in Reissian space, we may well end up causing a war."
"I have yet to hear a good plan for how we're going to prevent that."
"I was hoping for escape. But it doesn't seem likely, does it?"
"What's Plan B? Murder/suicide pact?"
"It only has to be the murder part if you're the one acting," Ford pointed out.
"And then go home to face your parents? No thank you. I have had quite enough of—what's that noise?"
"There's someone—" Ford began, then grabbed Sabrina's shoulders and pushed her to one side. An energy bolt sizzled through the space where her head had been. "Shards!" He turned toward the source of the shot, and his hands began to glow.
"Ford, no!" Sabrina cried, reaching for him. The energy crackling around his body threw her off, and she caught her breath in shock just as another blast slammed into her back. She drew a breath that smelled of charred flesh, and fell forward into Ford's side as she lost consciousness.
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"Thank you for checking, Commander," Tirqwin said to Mukryilla's perplexed image on the wallscreen. "We will hold for Lord Leran."
"Scotty is stable?" Mukryilla asked.
"Yes, for now."
"I've notified Her Majesty. She should be here—ah." Mukryilla stepped sideways out of view as Mara came onscreen.
"This was supposed to be a retrieval mission. You were not supposed to take casualties!" Mara said, frowning.
"I would not call them casualties," Tirqwin replied. "But we are still not sure what happened, to either of them."
"You'd best come home," Mara said. "I can straighten out Aurora, and then she can tell us what she found in Scotty."
"We never did find a useful direction to go in, so that makes as much sense as anything else," Tirqwin said. "Oh, we have a passenger aboard, dear. You will like her. She is one of Sabrina's friends."
Mara spread her hands helplessly. "We'll have to set up a special bureaucracy for immigration from Earth at this rate. Who is it?"
"Cynthia Grayson. She's a doctor—"
"Sabrina used to tell me about her, when I was young. I'll look forward to meeting her. Do be nice to her, Tirqwin. One Earthwoman cannot possibly cause you as much trouble as two Devons and a princess." Mara smiled faintly. She glanced offscreen. "Ah, Leran. Do you have Aurora there, Tirqwin?"
"One moment." Tirqwin paused, and Khediva summoned Cynthia and Aurora to the control deck. Aurora was hunched over as if in pain, and Cynthia was half-carrying, half-dragging her.
Leran called his daughter's name repeatedly, to no effect. Finally he looked at Mara, who said, "Tirqwin, make best possible speed to Praxatillus. We'll be waiting. I'll sort out Aurora through the Crystal if I have to." To Leran, she said, "She will be fine. I've seen this sort of thing before. You may assist in Giandrah, if you wish."
"Yes," he said hoarsely. "Her mother and I both will."
"See you shortly," Tirqwin said, cutting the transmission. He regarded Aurora with concern. "Do you think you should sedate her?"
"It might be kinder," Cynthia said. "If Khediva thinks it's safe."
"I see no reason not to," Khediva said. "Take her back to the infirmary, Cynthia, and I will show you what to do as soon as we are underway."
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Sabrina woke to strange antiseptic smells and an uncomfortably bright room. Stifling a groan, she squinted around her, trying to make out her surroundings and remember how she had come here. The faintest movement toward sitting up made her back ignite with blazing pain, and she cried out involuntarily.
"It will be best if you remain still," Malvarak's voice said. "They're still working up the correct match for synthetic skin. That was a very bad hit you took. Don't worry, you're safe now. Your escort caught up with you just in time. The people who attacked you are dead."
She grimaced, biting her lip to keep from saying Ford's name, only dimly remembering why she shouldn't. "What about...the Emperor?"
"He is resting. He wasn't damaged, but he's exhausted."
Sabrina fought to open her eyes so she could assess Malvarak's truthfulness. He was staring down at her disapprovingly, but he didn't seem irritated, so she gathered that his plans had not been seriously affected by whatever had happened.
"You really must learn not to outstrip your security detail," Malvarak scolded gently. "It was all we could do to keep the Emperor from laying waste to the entire region in retaliation for your injury. Think of what you might be responsible for if this were to happen again."
Sabrina swallowed a retort with difficulty and turned her face away.
"No need for playacting," Malvarak said. "I can tell it's you, Sabrina. So let me speak plainly: we need you to keep the Emperor under control. You saw what he's capable of on Pharo. Whatever plan you're hatching, I want you to consider this. He's too dangerous to be loose. All our kinsman were right. Say you do escape, and then land on some backwater planet where someone tries to rob you. He'd likely take out an entire city. Do you want to be responsible for that?"
"You're a fine one to talk of responsibility," she said, finding it a relief to switch back to Praxatillian. "You started this mess. Ford would never have been within parsecs of Pharo in his life if you hadn't been playing around there."
"Even I could not predict Homeworld would be foolhardy enough to send him, of all people, after me. I rather thought it would be his father." He smiled. "That might have been truly amusing."
"Bastard," Sabrina sighed wearily.
"Let me put it to you this way, since you don't seem to be convinced by my very logical argument. If you don't cooperate with me, I'll tell the Reissians who you are. They aren't people to let bygones be bygones, you know. The assassination order on you was never rescinded. I've checked."
Sabrina began breathing harder as she realized where she must be. "I'm...aboard their ship?"
"Oh yes, my dear." Malvarak's smile grew wider. "They've no reason so far to suspect you are of any importance whatsoever. I can change that with a few words. Think carefully about that before you speak again."
She closed her eyes, her fists clenching automatically. "Whatever you're planning...you won't hurt Ford?"
"I'm certainly incapable of hurting him. It's why I've kept you around," Malvarak replied.
"I'm not going to...I'm not going to betray my oaths," Sabrina managed to say, trying to keep from hyperventilating.
"Feel free to act as your conscience dictates, my dear. The Reissians can be quite inventive assassins when not constrained by operations in hostile territory. I've heard that it sometimes takes years for their targets to die. With your magnificent will, I imagine you would hang on for quite some time, hoping for rescue that would never be forthcoming."
"You can't do anything to me while Ford is so powerful," Sabrina hissed. "He won't let you."
"He's not conscious at the moment. I can arrange for it to remain that way until my purposes are served."
"And then how will you control him?" Sabrina challenged.
"Maybe I won't need to. I could let him destroy this planet in vengeance for your supposed death...it would serve my ultimate purpose just as well. Planets suddenly exploding are sure to catch the attention of the Guardian. Personally I prefer the elegance of a surprise Reissian attack, but I'm not overly particular about the catalyst."
"You...you want to take on Mara? You're crazy, Malvarak."
"Oh my dear, I can't take her on. The Emperor, on the other hand, is the only person in the galaxy who conceivably threatens her. And now that there is an Inheritor...well, who knows what may happen?"
"You're insane! Ford will never attack his own mother!"
"He's not entirely Ford any longer, though, is he? What might this poor, confused young man do, needing to avenge your death? Wouldn't the woman in whose service you died make a logical target? Think of how he will feel when he finds out that you were tasked with looking after him, keeping him from harm...throwing yourself in front of an assassin's weapon to save him. Oh, it will be heartbreaking to give him such news...how we searched for you endlessly while he recovered, only to find that you had not survived the horrible tortures the natives visited upon you. How his mother had told you not to come back without him...."
"You are the most vile excuse for a lifeform it has been my misfortune to meet," Sabrina ground out.
"From you, that's quite a compliment. Rest now, my dear. I feel sure we can find a way to coexist without subjecting you to needless suffering. I suspect your sojourn on Earth may have taught you pragmatism; use it. Blind loyalty will only get you killed. And if you die, Ford loses the last link to his true identity. The choices you make right now will affect the galaxy for centuries to come." He patted her hand. "I'll see about getting you a painkiller now that we're done chatting. You seem in distress."
Sabrina lay very still and willed her head not to explode. If she had wielded even a microscopic amount of Ford's power, Malvarak would have had a very large hole in his back as he turned. The sight of him walking away, smugly intact, was enough to make her want to scream in frustration and rage.
A Reissian doctor loomed over her, and she gave a gasp of fright as something cold touched her neck. She fought the encroaching darkness, and lost.