Chapter Twenty Seven
Sardius Stretches His Bones
Back in the Crescent Bell Palace, Jenna sat on her divan she had dubbed her throne because it was where she sat on the regular when her force field stopped anyone from coming anywhere close to her. Being in the same place all the time kept everyone safe.
To Jenna’s surprise, Sardius was not personally dealing with the removal of Harlee from the Rainmaker Palace. He got Rold on the screen, while Jenna merely sat in the background.
“Hello, Mr. Xant,” he began pleasantly, with his two feet planted on the ground in a way that was only common for military personnel. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I’m Sardius Veritacalus.”
The old weapon dealer grumbled, obviously annoyed that he wasn’t speaking to Jenna. “No. I’ve never heard of you.”
Sardius was unphased. “I’m the Chief of Security on the floating palaces and I’m Jenna’s fiance, soon to take the position of her first husband. Thank you for lending us your castle on the River Moons. We really enjoyed it. The next time you think of sending us somewhere where no one will ever find us, you should try sending us to a place where no one will ever find us. Due to the unfriendly nature of your last visit, and the little present you left us, you will not be allowed back, not even to visit your son until we’ve had a chance to have peace talks.”
“Peace talks?” Rold asked, rolling his unlit cigar thoughtfully between his fingers.
“We’re not considering your portal prank an act of war. That’s lucky.”
“Is it?” Rold said gruffly, waving for his cigar to be lit by a leggy brunette he had on call just out of camera view.
Sardius watched him but did not look at the girl. He kept his eyes on Rold. Once the girl was off camera, Sardius continued. “You are an intelligent man with an intelligent son. Why are you allowing yourself to be swept up with people who want to use you and ruin your reputation? The AAMC are not the only people who can pay your bills and they aren’t the ones housing your son.”
Rold’s face changed. The cigar didn’t fall out of his mouth, but it threatened to.
It had clearly not occurred to the old space dog that the AAMC was not holding his son hostage, but Jenna was. There were only two ways to remove a diplomatic appointment. Either their crown had to be slurped off by an Octavian the size of a skyscraper or they had to be killed. The threat that someone would hurt his son while he was with Jenna had never occurred to him.
Instead of mentioning Scion, Rold went for the money. It saved his pride to do so. “Who could pay my bills?”
“You know that the Octavians have better resources than the Adamis. You also have access to a ton of tech that could be used for things other than war. I think you could stand to have some private diplomatic talks of your own,” Sardius offered pleasantly. “Perhaps we could arrange for you to meet with Jenna and a few members of the Octavian Council sometime after this last incident has cooled?”
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Rold looked away from Sardius, clearly running numbers in his head. “When?”
“Later. When Jenna has quorum,” Sardius said, his voice soft like flower petals and hard like steel.
“Quorum?”
“Yeah, she’s close.”
That was the moment that Jenna decided to do something she realized would be profoundly helpful. She needed to show Rold that she wasn’t having a problem with her force field. Undoubtedly, he knew something about it. What he knew exactly was a bit hazy to Jenna, but she needed to show him that she had control of it.
She stood up and came up behind Sardius, coiling her arm around his shoulder.
Someone who didn’t understand anything about Jenna’s force field problem would interpret the motion quite differently. The way she moved, the way she approached Sardius, the way she touched him was just like the brunette who lit Rold’s cigar. Except it was quite different because Jenna was not a side-piece. She was an intergalactic diplomatic figure that was getting under the skin of the AAMC.
She represented a key into the world of Octavian resources. Would Rold refuse every offered alliance?
Rold closed his mouth, swallowed, and then opened his mouth to ask, “When is Harlee being delivered to me.”
“She’ll be there in under an hour. She’s just having her post-boxing match bumps treated,” Sardius said evenly.
“Then Scion has refused to marry her?” Rold asked pensively.
“I refused to let him marry her,” Sardius said with his arms crossed across the solid bones of his chest. “I’m having her deported. She represents a threat to the security of the floating palaces because of your little prank.” It was hardly a prank having them shot off to the Xypher Zone, but Sardius wasn’t letting anything bother him. “Jenna will probably want to thank you for that when you return. She picked up a very interesting souvenir.” Then he turned back to Rold. “If you would like to reintroduce the idea of Scion marrying Harlee, it will have to wait until we’ve had those peace talks I mentioned. We’re not trying to start a war with you, but you guys keep thumping us when you think we’re not looking. You can’t expect us to tolerate it indefinitely.”
“Listen, you little cockroach,” Rold said, taking a solid puff of his cigar and allowing the smoke to surround his head. “If you think the little fleet you have surrounding Octavia Prime is something that could stop me if I came back with my–”
Sardius interrupted him. “You misunderstand. This force is merely to protect Jenna. If you came back and started a fight here, how would you fare against the Octavian army?”
Rold glared at him.
Sardius laughed. “You don’t even know how many ships they have or where they are because if you scan an Octavian planet, their ships look just like the bottom of the ocean. What do you really know about the Octavians? Let’s count. They have better ships than yours and they don’t believe killing is unethical. That’s two. I can think of one more. They love Jenna. Back off for now and stop threatening me. You have nothing and I have better things to do,” he took Jenna’s hand in his and kissed it.
The look on Rold’s face was bitter with annoyance.
“I’ll contact you for a meeting when Jenna has reached quorum,” Sardius said before cutting the communication manually.
Jenna shivered. “That freaked me out. You seem fine though.”
“Of course I’m fine. What the hell was that guy going to threaten me with? I had my leg cut off and eaten by a man who hated me and I wasn’t all that concerned. I was banking on it. Rold isn’t like Don Leo, and just like Scion, he can be seduced by a friendly relationship with you. He’s looking for an escape route. Like I said, he’s being used by someone, and having to return with such paltry results might put him (and Harlee) in a very tough spot. I’d hope they were okay, but I don’t hope that anyone will be okay, except you,” he said, kissing Jenna’s hand again.
She was just getting into the fun of looking into his eyes, feeling his skin under hers, when he abruptly dropped her hand and started striding away.
“Where are you going?” she asked, running after him.
He turned around. “I have a million things to do. I’ll be back tonight. I gotta do my job and protect you while you sleep.” He winked at her and disappeared around a corner.