Chapter 49. Kinsmen

"Finally!" Akane exclaimed. She was out of bed in a blink and tearing through the spacious and handsomely adorned front room with another. "If Aina wakes up you deal with her, Turles! I will be back soon!"

"No problem, Captain!" Turles called after her with a chuckle.

Akane practically shot out of the solar, her exhaustion gone with her worries. She rushed through the hallways of the majestic top level of the palace a mere crimson blur to the servants that had stayed their duties to watch her race past. What an outrage! The future Queen had no business running around like that! Where ever were her manners? And whatever would the King say if he saw?

Akane only barked with laughter at their stunned faces. This future Queen was running alright. Running like mad. This future Queen was no lady. This future Queen was never going to be a lady. She was a warrior and warriors had no patience for good manners.

She didn't bother to use the steps and dove down the stairs to the level below with one marvellous and skilled dash, landing on the lower of the two royal floors, the place where the throne room and council chamber were amongst other halls for the more formal occasions. The floor she just jumped down from was the private floor of the King and his family. She made for the square with its grand arches and balcony that saw out over the square of the guest floor below and this time Akane didn't even pass the stairs leading down.

Gasps of shock and outrage accompanied her when she leapt over the balustrade and plummeted to the lower level. She landed on her haunches amidst the crowded square and the whispers told her that word had finally travelled past the King's floors. The fierce looking woman with the scars on her face and the crimson battle suit that sometimes came to confer with Tragus at the foot of the stairs to the royal floors had not been given much notice before. She had looked to be a concubine of The Great Vegeta with that mark beneath her left eye, her skin tone branded her a savage, and that scowl and those ugly scars made her unpleasant to look at in any case. They had been wrong to ignore her, they understood that now. The marred woman in crimson was none other than their future Queen.

Coming from her haunches Akane was met by the incredulous looks of the present lords and consort who had left their chambers to confer amongst themselves on the public square. The only man that wasn't surprised by her entry was Tragus. He had sent for her to inform her of her brother's arrival like he promised so he already knew she was coming. He had also gotten used to her brutish disposition by now. It wasn't yet decided whether he appreciated it, but it certainly did not suprise him anymore. The man stood in his usual spot at the foot of the stairs watching Akane with his own distorted, scarred mask.

He indicated the hallway to his left with his chin and Akane followed his directions after a curt nod of thanks. The throng of nobility parted before her in a flurry of rich mantles, the bustle of their earlier conversations brought to a silence of disdain as well as astonishment for the conduct of their future Queen. Akane gave no notice as she found her brother coming on through the hallway Tragus had indicated.

"Biran!" she hollered.

Her brother staggered when he found her right under his nose in mere seconds, his fell dark eyes widened in surprise. The speed she now possessed was never before witnessed by the revived Saiyajins. It seemed to take her brother a while to recognise her and when he did, a warm smile that reminded her of her father, came to his face.

"You look well, sister." Biran said as he leaned in to touch her forehead with his own so that they could exchange scents.

Akane couldn't forbear throwing her arms around his neck and clinging to him in an embrace tight enough to squeeze the air out of him. "Biran, you prat. I missed you so much."

"The suns blind me, Akane. What is with you?" Biran asked with audible difficulty, the hug still robbing him from breath. He didn't understand what had gotten into his little sister for she had not shown this kind of affection since she was a five year old girl.

Akane regained herself and cut him loose.

Biran reached out to touch the pink streak that cut across from temple to forehead on her face.

"That is a fierce scar, sister. It would have made mother very proud." he snickered. "Remember when you got that one at your mouth? Blood, was she chuffed. And father was almost in tears because he found it such a waste of your face."

Akane snickered as well. She did remember and she knew for a fact that her mother took delight in the many scars she bore. She had said as much when Akane strayed into the Undying Fields for that brief period. Akane took pride in her scars as well, even if some of them, like the one on her temple, were remainders of her life with Cold. They were her war decorations and she cherished every single one of them.

Biran looked as handsome as she remembered him. Not very tall due to his mother's genetics, yet strong and muscular, his dark attire and armour stately like his conduct. The young lord of Bethar was impressive to behold, just like their father had been in his days. He was also very tanned, as if he had spent a lot of time out in the suns.

Akane glared up at her brother with disapproval on her face. "What, for the love of battle, could have taken you so long to get here?"

"I wasn't in Bethar when the message came." Biran explained. "I spent the past moons with our mother's tribe to prepare for the Lord Frieza's coming. We have been trying to unite all the tribes for the coming battle and I can say that it proved to be one hell of a task. The grudges of tribes men truly are for life. I only just returned."

That explained the dark bronze of his skin. Biran stepped aside and Akane's eyes fell on two men she hadn't yet noticed as they hung back further down the hallway. She readily perceived them to be tribes men from the South with their dangerous, savage exterior, sunbaked skin and leather, scant attire. Biran took her by the arm to lead her to them and the fierce men eyed her with deadly stillness when she and her brother halted in front of them.

Biran indicated the shorter man with a black gloved hand. The tribes man was slight but taut, a balled fist of strained tendons, permanently poised to strike. His long, dark red hair was adorned with the colourfully dyed finger bones of his many victims and he wore an impressive chain of shrivelled ears around his neck.

"This is Ansgar, Chieftain of the Shield Smasher tribe and our mother-brother." Biran introduced him.

"Blood of my blood." the glowering man hissed in greeting.

Akane accepted the forearm the Chieftain presented her with and he took hers in turn as she gripped it with her hand. His arm shake was as lethal as the cold fire in his black eyes. It was the same fire that had been in her mother's eyes and shone in those of her brother when he was roused. He looked like his own brother as well. The one that had given Akane the cord with the single ear after her trials.

"You were not forgotten after your rites. Stuffing the pride down the throat of your assailant. The spirit of my sister is strong in you." the Chieftain said and there was pride on his tanned face when he examined her. "The blood of lords holds no sway over that of the Shield Smashers. You might not share the skin of our fair sex, you are a woman of the tribes if ever I laid eyes on one."

"Pale as a lord's hairy arse she is." the other tribes man said with a booming voice. He shoved his arm roughly under Akane's nose for her to take.

Akane wasn't half as pale as the other nobility on the guest floor and she wasn't very pleased with being compared to a lord's hairy arse either, but tribes men had a talent for being crude. The mouth she had inherited from her mother proved that. She gave no voice to her rebuttal. All she did was stare, taken aback by the familiar looks of this man. She recognized his marred features immediately, although his sons weren't quite so bronzed by the suns of Vegetasei like he was, his Earthgrown son especially. The man's black hair was a perfect copy of the wild mane of both Turles and Kakarot and it was kept out of his face by a red bandana.

Akane shook the arm the man had offered saying: "You are Turles' father."

"I am Bardock of the Tall Hands. First Warrior Chief of our tribe." the tall tribes man said in his booming voice and it was clear that he wasn't boasting. He was merely stating lethal facts.

Akane noticed she was still holding his arm and set him loose. "Turles served under my command for many years. You should take pride in him. He has proven his worth in the field countless times and he is an excellent warrior."

"I did not say I take no pride, lassie." Bardock said unmoved.

The man had balls, Akane had to give him that. "You are too bold, tribes man. My skin may be lighter than you fancy, but I assure you that I am apt as any woman in my mother's tribe to rip out your bleeding tongue for calling me lassie." she snarled.

Bardock shared a look of savage approval with the glowering Chieftain at his side and said: "High Chief Ansgar speaks true words, the fire burns bright in you."

Biran was laughing heartily. "My sweet sister, your years have made you more unpleasant than I anticipated. You are your mother's daughter indeed. I expected being a concubine to the King might have helped make you softer. It must be due to your reinstatement in the forces that you are this crude."

Akane was having a hard time with the gap between their timelines. Her brother spoke of events that were so long past for her that she hardly understood what he was talking about. She wasn't in the forces anymore, neither was she a concubine to any king, old or new. She was the mate of the new King. The future Queen. She wasn't given the time to come up with whichever of the previous fact she wanted to convey to her brother first because they were joined in the hallway by a very pompous looking lord with an oiled black beard and tail that made Akane's whole skin feel greasy by only looking at it.

"My Princess. It is such an honour to finally meet you." the pompous Lord said with an elaborate knee bend and throwing his black mantle out with a swoosh. He did not care to introduce himself, surely because he was vain enough to think the whole world knew who he was, and when he rose again he got right to business.

"I would be much obliged if you could pass on my gratitude to the King for his most generous hospitality. My lady wife and I are taken with the chambers we have been granted in the west wing for our stay."

"I wouldn't know how, sir. I have no idea who you are." Akane said to the lord with all the restraint she could manage.

She had no use for the chivalry of this smarmy git. Like her mother and as it turned out also her mate, she had little patience for the courtesies of nobility. Only the respect of warriors had worth to her. That was the honour and recognition she wanted to receive. Not the respect for empty titles of noble rank, not even the title of Princess or Queen. The Saiyajins were a warrior race, and nobility had come to forget this while they sat feasting in their halls with servants at their beck and call, growing lazy and weak and unable to even wipe their own hairy arses. Now that was a disgrace, not Akane running through the halls of the palace and using her body for the physical exertion it was made for.

Akane had never grasped how right her mother had been about the frailty of the noble born. Her own father had not abandoned his warrior aspirations. The Lord of Bethar had not spent his days feasting in his halls. He had been the master at arms of Bethar and had trained every one of his men himself. That was the only reason why her mother had fallen for the lord and chosen to leave her tribe for him.

The pompous lord didn't look like he was the master at arms of his men. His slender body looked soft and slack and his battle power felt repulsively undeveloped. He had not entered a field of battle once in his luxurious life. Even his chin was weak. That was probably why he had that disgusting oiled beard. To mask his weakness. He was an insult to her senses.

"I am…"

Akane cut across the pompous lord in clipped tones: "If you please, I am in the middle of a conversation with my brother. Tragus will be glad to bring any words of thanks to your King for you."

The pompous lord grew rigid and red in the face with outrage, his oiled beard twitching in poorly disguised anger. This was something the tribes men found very enjoyable and they shook with coarse laughter, Bardock's booming and that of Chieftain Ansgar harsh and hissing.

Biran was gawping from Akane to the pompous lord and back with eyes big as coins. "You are plighted to The Young Vegeta? You are to become the Queen?"

"When I have been formally introduced." Akane maundered.

She was busy chancing a look over the shoulder of the pompous lord that seemed rooted to the spot in his indignation of being ignored so thoroughly by the future Queen and the young Lord of Bethar, not to mention being laughed at by those two savages from the South. It was as Akane feared. On the square ahead more lords and ladies were stirring now that the first lord had taken the lead in approaching her. With the King unavailable, his mate was the second best person to try and come in good favour with. If she didn't get out of there fast, she would be barraged with questions about the King and solicitations to her own address. Anything to get into the King's favour.

"I need to get the hell out before these bleeding lords are all over me, Biran." she said to her brother. "Will you come with me to the King's solar? You simply must see my kitten."

Biran only nodded, his eyes still looking ready to pop out of his head.

The Chieftain that was her mother-brother let out another raw laugh. "A Queen that does not wish to confer with her hounds is the kind this planet needs. Perhaps some if it will rub off on our King in time, eh Bardock?"

Akane did not tell Ansgar that her mate needed nothing rubbed off on him because the pompous lord had yet to unfreeze from the spot at her side where he stood blistering. She wasn't going to do anything that would make her mate's rule harder. Instead she took Biran by the wrist and pulled him along towards the square. She grinned at what she heard Bardock reply to the Chieftain in his booming voice.

"Perhaps High Chief. It is clear that the young King has both sense and courage to take one of our fair sex for his woman, even if she is pale as a lord's hairy arse. Any man with a stance to match hers is a man I will be glad to serve."

"You will not be disappointed, tribes man." Akane threw over her shoulder. "I will send Turles down to meet you. And your other son Kakarot, might I happen across him."

"Kakarot." Bardock muttered to himself. "I always knew that the lad would return one day." He flashed Akane another one of his fierce grins.

Akane mirrored it briefly and focused to where she was going again. She ignored the incessant bids for attention from the lords and ladies when she crossed the square with her brother and fled up the stairs, passing a rather amused Tragus.

One thing Akane knew for certain. She would rather be imprisoned in the solar with a whole horde of kittens throwing wobblers than having the freedom to confer with one lord.