Chapter Nineteen- Arrival on Shansire

Psalm 10:9- "[The wicked] lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless."

The princess had accessed the system from on Hidon.

Klane's dumbfounded mind frantically raced with the implications of this discovery. His niece had been in the system. She had seen everything.

Had she seen his business transaction with Malaar Pharmaceutical? But no, those were *his* files, accessible only with his password.

Nonetheless, he called up the files and cursed when he found Tielle's signature all over them. Apparently she had override codes; Partini had trusted his daughter more than his brother.

Even through his fury, Klane smiled. His brother, in that aspect, had been right. But he hadn't distrusted Klane enough, as his now-comatose state illustrated.

Still, now Klane's plans were in great jeopardy. Would Tielle be able to realize what she had seen? Would she realize its implications?

Klane thought of his redheaded niece; brash, impulsive, stubborn, but unfortunately also very intelligent. She had managed to escape Fareari, avoid his agents throughout the entire galaxy, and then sneak onto Hidon right past Faihn's nose.

He had underestimated her intelligence even, a mistake that was proving to be devastating. She was fearless; she would try to find some way of retaliating against him.

Klane dismissed that thought as soon as it occurred to him; what could she do to him? Nothing. She had no legal authority over him, even if her father *was* incapacitated, and certainly would not come over to Ziex to get him. That would not be what she was concerned with.

Oh no; she would be concerned with getting the Sofran from Malaar.

Well, Klane couldn't have that. *He* was going to liberate Hidon, once his foolish brother was dead.

With a wicked smile that emphasized the malevolence in his hard eyes, Klane contacted Malaar.

** Just as Tielle was beginning to realize the immensity and implications of what she was going to do, she reached Shansire's atmosphere. Opening a link to the groundside spaceport, she debated whether or not to reveal who she was and pull rank that way to get to talk to King Hael.

But a better idea came to her, and when a voice crackled into her cockpit, asking who she was, she replied, "My name is Ella Raynani, and I have just escaped from Hidon. I need to speak to His Majesty King Hael."

The voice seemed surprised at her words. "You said you escaped from *Hidon*?"

"Affirmative. Things are deteriorating there, and the Farearians didn't notice me leave."

"I can authorize your landing but you *may not leave your shuttle.* Repeat, you may not leave your shuttle. Coming from Hidon, you may be carrying the epidemic."

Tielle sighed. "Affirmative. Transmit landing coordinates."

He rambled off the series of numbers and quadrants, after which Tielle asked, "Will I be able to speak to King Hael?"

"He is on the way to the spaceport now."

** King Hael was waiting for Tielle as she landed and disembarked from the shuttle. Immediately, the king backed away from her. "You must be quarantined! You can't just walk out here- you might be carrying the disease!"

The king's bodyguards converged on Tielle, and she yelled out to the king, "The disease is transmitted through fluids, not through contact with others! It is not contagious!"

The king directed his guards to release her, and asked, "How can you be certain?"

"Because I know the bacteria that causes the disease; it is called Embyrionaic mayri."

"How do you-" Hael began, but Tielle cut him off. "It is not important, Your Highness. What is important is that you take me with you to your palace, where I will explain everything."

Hael eyed her, no doubt wondering from where her gall came, and asked, "Who are you?"

Tielle had wondered if he would recognize her, but was relieved that he hadn't. Then when Ella Raynani was discovered missing on Hidon, she would not be connected to Princess Tielle Satine. "I am Princess Tielle Satine of Hidon."

"What!" Hael exclaimed and stepped closer to the princess to look at her more closely. "How can this be? I don't believe it." "Do," Tielle said firmly, tiring of wasting anymore time. "I have been on the run all this time, but now come out of hiding to tell you that I need your help. I know how to stop the epidemic on Hidon, and have nowhere else to turn. Klane is a traitor; he orchestrated both this epidemic and the deaths of all my siblings. I will of course deal with him later, but for now I need to get the antidote for Em may, which is on Malaar."

Apparently deciding from her brusque, no-nonsense manner that she was indeed the princess, Hael gestured for them to go to his 'car and for her to continue talking.

"But just possessing the antidote will not be enough; I need someone to oversee the administration of it. I know such a person, on Surlow-" Hael raised his eyebrows at the mention of the notorious planet but said nothing, "but do not want to waste time going there to get her."

"Can you not just contact her or send for her?" Hael interceded. "Is there any need to go there in person?"

"Yes, there is," Tielle replied shortly, irritated at being interrupted. "She is a former slave and is wanted. To contact her through normal channels would alert the authorities of her whereabouts and jeopardize her. Thus, I need someone who knows where she lives to go and get her.

"The only other person who could do that is on Diresh, and I will need to contact him there."

"Diresh?" Hael repeated incredulously as they boarded the 'car. Tielle prepared to fight panic but realized that her fear of hover-cars were gone, replaced instead by a rage at her uncle. It was a startling realization, and it took her a moment to refocus on what Hael was saying. "Who is on Diresh?"

"Chayden P'ashara."

"P'ashara? Isn't that Faihn's name?"

"Yes. Chayden is Faihn's son."

"What?" Hael burst at this news. "What are you thinking, to trust a Farearian? And a member of the royal family, no less? You can't contact him! He will betray you! No Farearian is anything better than a pagan monster!"

Tielle closed her eyes and remembered when she had thought the same. But something, somewhere, had changed..

It had been that moment when Arilana had died and Tielle had fallen into Chayden's arms. There the comfort that he had given her, an enemy prisoner, had broken down the barriers and opened her heart to him.. Tielle frowned. Arilana's death. After which she had read her Holy Books (where were her Holy Books? Still on Diresh? Hidon? Where had she forgotten them?) and come to the conclusion that hatred was wrong and that she had to forgive.

Forgive even Klane?

Yes. Even her sadistic uncle who had ruined billions of lives, including hers.

She sighed. That would take some work.

Hael was still ranting about Tielle's foolishness in thinking she could trust a Farearian, and Tielle stirred from her reverie and summoned her arrogant, quick tongue. "You make judgments without hearing all the facts. The fact is that I would trust Chayden P'ashara with my life, and have many times in the past. It is he who rescued me from execution on Fareari, even though it meant he was disowned for it. When you disdain him, you disdain me, and I will hear no more against him, from you or anyone else."

Chayden. she suddenly remembered something. He *had* told her he loved her, once, after she had woken up in the prison's infirmary. Why had she forgotten that? *How* had she forgotten that, with her photographic memory? He *did* love her! He did!

And she loved him.

Suddenly, she didn't care what would happen to Shansire-Hidon relations if she broke off her engagement with Kall and said to King Hael, who had been shocked into silence, "I cannot marry your son."

He gave a look of extreme confusion. "What do you mean? Didn't you receive his message?"

"His message?" Now Tielle was confused and feeling more than just a bit stupid. "What message?"

"I guess you didn't. It said he wanted to break of the engagement."

"He did?" Tielle thought that it was probable that no one else in history had ever been so happy about a broken engagement. "He doesn't want to marry me?"

She considered how her glee that she didn't have to marry Kall must appear to his father and started laughing. "I mean, it's not that he's not a good guy, it's just-" she couldn't speak anymore; laughter had taken over her.

"First thing you do when we get to the palace is have a nap," Hael declared, spurring Tielle on to laughing even more.