[u]Part 24[/u]
Kate watched Alex pace the length of the motel room impatiently, his hands clasped behind his back. He had a frown on his face, his eyes were glued to the floor and at one point she actually thought she heard him mumbling to himself.
"Are you okay?" She finally asked softly, grimacing when his head snapped up and his glare was abruptly directed at her.
"Why is this taking so long?" He demanded as he came to a halt. His expression was not modifying itself. He really seemed angry at [I]her[/I], although he certainly knew that she had absolutely nothing to do with Nicholas having kidnapped Isabel. She and Will were just as baffled by their general's behavior as Zan and the others. "I thought your brother had instant communication with the troll?"
Kate stood, sighing. "I don't know Alex. I'm sorry."
They had come back to the motel from the Crashdown so that Will could use his transmitter to contact Nicholas. She and Alex had left Kate's brother alone in his room to speak privately with the Skin leader. She had seen that Alex had wanted to stay to listen, but Will had told him that until he knew exactly where Nicholas was holed up, it was best that the general not know that Alex was with them. They didn't want any delays.
Because from the way Isabel had looked in the message Nicholas had left for Max, it seemed unlikely that time was on the other girl's side. As much as Kate and Will were finding it hard to believe, their most trusted ally was torturing that girl and in [I]their[/I] name.
And, as much as she didn't want to admit it to Alex now, Kate wasn't even sure that Nicholas would tell them anything. If he had gone so far out on a limb without Will's permission, then the Skin was getting desperate. He might use Isabel for what he could get from her - namely the location of the granolith - and then he would dispose of her. Because, in the end, Vilandra of Antar, in whatever form she presently inhabited, was still their enemy as long as she was loyal to Zan. They could not be sure that Nicholas would not hurt Isabel Evans in the end.
It was why they [I]had[/I] to find Nicholas as soon as possible. Things were going well between Zan and Will. In spite of what she remembered, Kate was really beginning to believe that maybe they weren't supposed to be enemies anymore - that maybe they truly could make a new start and rebuild their system together.
But if something happened to Isabel.There would be no hope at all.
Alex was rubbing the back of his neck, obviously becoming increasingly upset. "Why is this taking so long?" He repeated, not really talking to her at all anymore. He collapsed into the chair beside the T.V., stared at her for a long moment. "Who is Nicholas to you guys anyway? If we're being forced to wait, the least I can do for my friends is get information."
Kate flinched slightly at his tone. The way he said [I]friends[/I], he really seemed to be trying to drive home the point that he didn't particularly consider her to be one of them. "He's Khivar's general. He was sent after our ship to look after us."
"Why wasn't he sent [I]with[/I] your ship?" Alex asked. "Wouldn't that have made more sense?"
"We were cloned by our enemies," Kate explained. "We were just lucky that Nicholas found us before we came out of the pods or we might have grown up with them, having no idea who they really were to us."
"Doesn't it seem kind of weird to you that the same enemies who killed you cloned you? Why would they do such a thing?"
"To control us," Kate replied quietly. "Jack, Ro and I were already dead at home. By sending us with Zan and the others, they wanted us to grow up as Khivar's enemies, thus weakening him and strengthening Zan when he made an attempt to take back the throne."
Alex scratched his head. "So why clone Khivar too? Because that's who Will is, isn't it? I mean, no one has flat-out said so to me, but it's been implied." He paused, frowned again. Kate could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "But you just said that you, Jack and Rowena were already dead. What about Khivar?" He didn't really seem to be asking her though. It was more like he was working out the problem himself, like he couldn't entirely trust her to tell him the truth.
It hurt. She wondered at it. He was making it increasingly clear that his loyalties had never been in doubt, no matter what he had told her the day before. Since they had found out that Isabel had been captured, the jig had been up. He had been working for Max and the others all along. He [I]shouldn't[/I] trust her.
And, yet, she still wanted to tell him the truth. She did not want him to keep looking at her like that - like she was [I]his[/I] enemy now.
"Khivar - the [I]first[/I] Khivar - is still alive," she blurted out before she could stop herself. She almost slapped her hands over her mouth. What was she [I]doing?[/I] Somehow she had known it would be a mistake to bring Alex with them. It was a bad move to bring the one person whose opinion she cared about in the other group. Because, as much as she believed that Max was Zan as he had once been, she could still not entirely trust him. Michael and Tess were both unimportant in the grand scheme of her relationship with the other four square. She had never been close to Rath or Ava.
For some reason though, Alex Whitman had affected her from the first time she had met him. And she had thought that she had touched him in some way too. But since they had found out about Vilandra, that was clearly all over.
She hadn't had any idea that Alex and Isabel were so close.
And why she cared at the moment when she had just told Alex the one thing he should not know, she could not explain to even herself.
His mouth was presently hanging open as he stared at her in dismay. "What?" He finally managed to force out, sounding slightly strangled.
"Khivar never died," Kate said, knowing that there was no going back now. "Will is his clone, but the original still lives. It's he who is sitting on the throne of Antar and it was he who sent Nicholas after us."
"And it will be [I]that[/I] Khivar who will attack the Earth fourteen years from now and end it," Alex said, shaking his head in horror. "It's all beginning to make sense now. It was the one part of this I just didn't get. How if Max's enemy was on the planet all along, why would he destroy it? Because he'd be committing suicide in the process."
Kate had frozen at the part about "ending the Earth" however. "What are you talking about?" She whispered.
Alex's expression softened for the first time since they had left the Crashdown. "Sorry. I forgot you didn't know about that." He paused, seemed to be searching for the easiest way to explain what he meant. "Liz and Max haven't exactly been getting along lately," he began. Kate nodded, remembered how she hadn't understood the tension that she had witnessed between Max and Liz. If they were so madly in love, as Liz's proclamations and Kate's earlier connection with Max had seemed to indicate, why all the drama? She was unsure how this had anything to do with the end of the world though. "It all started when Max found out that he's supposed to be with Tess, but it got [I]much[/I] worse a few weeks ago when Max caught Liz in bed with Kyle."
Kate felt her eyes widen. Alex noticed and grinned wryly. "It sounds a bit like a soap opera, doesn't it?"
"How could she do that?" Kate asked. "That is totally unlike Rowena, to do something like that!"
"It's not like Liz either," Alex agreed. "But Max caught them and he stopped trying to get back together with her. I only found out about all of this yesterday as a matter of fact. All any of the rest of us knew was that Max was basically a zombie and Liz was like manic crazy." He paused, shaking his head, as though he was still coming to terms with all of it himself. "Anyway, she finally broke down and admitted that she did it to drive Max to Tess. Because Max had come back from fourteen years in the future to tell her that if Tess and Max weren't together, the world would end - that Tess would leave town and they wouldn't be strong enough to repel the attack from their enemies when it came."
Kate brought a hand to her mouth, shocked. "Poor Liz! I don't understand though. How did Max come back from the future?"
"Apparently they modified the granolith," Alex shrugged. Kate perked up in spite of herself at the mention of the granolith. Alex seemed to notice because he raised a hand and said, "I don't know how they used it or where it is, so don't even bother asking. I wouldn't tell you anyway."
Kate hadn't thought he would, but her reaction had been spontaneous. She sighed. "And you think that was Khivar attacking the Earth?"
"Who else would it be?" Alex asked, narrowing his eyes. "They don't have [I]more[/I] enemies out there, do they?"
"Not as far as I know, although with Zan, it's impossible to say for sure." She answered him off-handedly, still feeling dazed. The very idea of her brother, in any incarnation, being responsible for the destruction of a planet.It was completely beyond her comprehension, particularly after his horror about what Zan had done to Valonia. But, on the other hand, she had absolutely no idea how all the deaths he had been forced to endure might have affected him. She couldn't say for certain that it wouldn't be possible.
And that scared her. A lot. Because without her faith that Khivar was the rightful king of Antar, where would she be? Everything she and her brother were fighting for would be for nothing.
Alex was scowling again. "Okay, can we just stop with all the cryptic comments? Can you just tell me what happened back then?"
Kate allowed herself to fall back on the bed, feeling inexplicably weary. "I can, but I don't even know if I'm remembering any of it right anymore." She sat up as abruptly. Now where had [I]that[/I] come from? What was he, her confessor? She hadn't even realized that she was really having doubts about her own memory until the words had fallen from her lips.
She met Alex's eyes. His expression had softened again as he finally seemed to recognize her confusion. "This is all just as hard for you as it is for them, isn't it?" He finally asked softly when the silence stretched between them for what felt like eternity.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," she admitted, unable to deny it any longer. "I know what I remember, but I also know what I saw when Max and I connected." She paused, then added, "I also don't believe that you would be friends with people you didn't trust completely. I don't know why I think that, or what it means, because I know that [I]they're[/I] your real friends, not me, and that you're only here because of them anyway." Kate looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm trying to understand how we can be so wrong. I'm trying to really remember because I know you want me to."
There was another long pause. Kate felt the bed sink beside her, realized that Alex had come to join her there. "Why do you care what I want?" He finally asked. "You should care for your own sake."
She snorted slightly, turned to look at him. "Don't you get that it's [I]easier[/I] for me to just call them my enemies? That's it's what I've always done and it's what I really want to keep doing? I don't like questioning everything I've been raised to believe. And, yet, I am."
"Why?" Alex asked, his dark eyes meeting hers. He seemed truly perplexed, like he really didn't understand. Kate scowled at him. What was the matter with him? Did she have to hit him over the head with it?
"Because I care what you think of me!" She exclaimed in exasperation.
Alex blinked. "Oh." Pause. "Okay." His gaze remained locked with hers. "Whatever you tell me, it's not going to change what I think of you," he continued quietly. "I do believe that you had nothing to do with what happened to Isabel. I'm sorry I made you feel like I thought you did."
"I'm really sorry she's been hurt Alex," Kate said. "You have to believe that." She looked down at her hands, then added quickly, "She's really important to you, isn't she?"
"Yeah. She is." She closed her eyes, was no longer surprised when it hurt to hear it. Because she was no longer denying it to him, she could no longer deny it to herself either. She liked Alex far more than she should. And it did hurt to know that he didn't feel the same. "She's my friend and, well, I sort of feel responsible for what happened."
Kate's head came up and she stared at him. "How can you possibly be responsible?"
"We had a fight," Alex replied. "She was out alone because of me."
"That's ridiculous!" Kate scoffed. "How could you have known what was going to happen?"
Alex shrugged, looked away. She realized that she wasn't going to convince him that he was wrong so she decided to let it go for the moment. She decided to try and take his mind off of it. "What do you want me to tell you specifically?"
"I don't know. Everything?" Alex grinned, obviously trying to forget why exactly they were sitting here in the first place. She could see the lines of tension around his eyes as he tried not to think about what Nicholas might be doing to Isabel at that exact moment. "Start at the beginning. When did you first meet Zan?"
Kate smiled slightly. "Vilandra and I went to school together on Antar. He visited her often and we became friends." If the memories she had of those early days with Zan did prove to be false, she knew that she would be disappointed. He had been kind to her in a way she was unused to from men of such power and influence. While she and Khivar had developed a close relationship as adults, as children he had little use for her, merely seeing her as an annoyance, as was the way with older brothers. But Zan had never treated Vilandra as anything less than his equal and it had been a revelation to Kate - or Karana as she had been at the time. It was why she had been so devastated by how much Zan changed later in life - so much so that even his sister had turned against him. When Karana had heard that Vilandra had changed sides, it was only then that she had truly believed that he was capable of the treachery of which Khivar had accused him.
"I may have even had a crush on him for a while," she admitted now, as she recalled how upset she had been when she had first heard of his betrothal to Ava from Vilandra. Vi had been upset as well and it was only later that it had dawned on her that Zan was unhappy with the match. "But he treated me like a younger sister."
"When did things change?" Alex asked, encouraging her to continue.
"Vilandra and I finished our schooling and I went home with her because Khivar was unable to send anyone for me right away. He was preoccupied with a dispute my planet was arguing with Knosis. I'm pretty sure it was over trade rights. I wasn't really into politics until after the war started." Kate shrugged. "The high king on Antar, Zan's father, sent him to Valonia, where my brother had agreed to meet with the king of Knosis to clear the air, Zan acting as mediator. While he was gone, Zan's father died and when Zan came back to claim the throne." She trailed off, frowning. "I don't know.he was [I]different.[/I] The next thing I knew, he sent me home and when I landed on Sardica, I was told that Zan had declared war on us. The following year, the Antarian sky forces destroyed Valonia. It was awful. I had been trying to get in touch with either Zan or Vilandra to parlay for peace, but they refused to meet with me."
She looked at Alex, who was listening intently. "So something happened on Valonia to change Zan," he finally said. He met Kate's eyes. "Do you think any of this had to do with Rowena? Could she be what drove the wedge between Sardica and Antar?"
Kate shook her head. "I don't see how."
"What if Zan met your brother's wife at the trade conference and wanted her for himself?" Alex suggested.
"Why wouldn't my brother have told me that?" Kate asked. "He always said he had no idea what Zan wanted from him. He even sent Rowena to plea a truce with Zan. Khivar never would have put her in Zan's hands if that's what the whole thing was about." Kate's mouth fell open abruptly, as the truth suddenly dawned on her. "Oh my God. How could I not have realized this? Of course that's what it was. She was the only one Zan would talk to - in her capacity as Queen of Valonia he said, but of course that wasn't it."
"And the reason that Khivar didn't tell you was that he didn't know. Rowena never told him," Alex finished neatly.
Kate stared at him. "But it still doesn't explain why Zan changed Alex. Even if Rowena rejected him, he never would have reacted that way - by destroying her entire planet. Not the Zan I knew."
Alex appeared deep in thought. "You know, I'm beginning to wonder if absolutely [I]everyone[/I] was being played. You brother, Zan, Rowena, Vilandra.everyone."
"But by who?" Kate asked, searching her mind frantically. "Knosis was allied with Antar through Zan's marriage to Ava. They were small and unimportant anyway. And Wendar was also on Zan's side."
Just as the door to the room opened, she raised her eyes and met Alex's.
"I finally reached him," Will said as he entered the room. "He's being really weird. He wouldn't admit to me that he had Vilandra."
Kate heard him, but continued to stare at Alex, watched the same thought occur to him that she had just had. She shook her head, disbelieving that the answer had been right at her fingertips all along - well, at least since Isabel had been taken captive without permission from Will.
It was the only thing that made sense after all.
"Nicholas," she and Alex both said at the same time.
Her very own people had somehow betrayed them.
Kate watched Alex pace the length of the motel room impatiently, his hands clasped behind his back. He had a frown on his face, his eyes were glued to the floor and at one point she actually thought she heard him mumbling to himself.
"Are you okay?" She finally asked softly, grimacing when his head snapped up and his glare was abruptly directed at her.
"Why is this taking so long?" He demanded as he came to a halt. His expression was not modifying itself. He really seemed angry at [I]her[/I], although he certainly knew that she had absolutely nothing to do with Nicholas having kidnapped Isabel. She and Will were just as baffled by their general's behavior as Zan and the others. "I thought your brother had instant communication with the troll?"
Kate stood, sighing. "I don't know Alex. I'm sorry."
They had come back to the motel from the Crashdown so that Will could use his transmitter to contact Nicholas. She and Alex had left Kate's brother alone in his room to speak privately with the Skin leader. She had seen that Alex had wanted to stay to listen, but Will had told him that until he knew exactly where Nicholas was holed up, it was best that the general not know that Alex was with them. They didn't want any delays.
Because from the way Isabel had looked in the message Nicholas had left for Max, it seemed unlikely that time was on the other girl's side. As much as Kate and Will were finding it hard to believe, their most trusted ally was torturing that girl and in [I]their[/I] name.
And, as much as she didn't want to admit it to Alex now, Kate wasn't even sure that Nicholas would tell them anything. If he had gone so far out on a limb without Will's permission, then the Skin was getting desperate. He might use Isabel for what he could get from her - namely the location of the granolith - and then he would dispose of her. Because, in the end, Vilandra of Antar, in whatever form she presently inhabited, was still their enemy as long as she was loyal to Zan. They could not be sure that Nicholas would not hurt Isabel Evans in the end.
It was why they [I]had[/I] to find Nicholas as soon as possible. Things were going well between Zan and Will. In spite of what she remembered, Kate was really beginning to believe that maybe they weren't supposed to be enemies anymore - that maybe they truly could make a new start and rebuild their system together.
But if something happened to Isabel.There would be no hope at all.
Alex was rubbing the back of his neck, obviously becoming increasingly upset. "Why is this taking so long?" He repeated, not really talking to her at all anymore. He collapsed into the chair beside the T.V., stared at her for a long moment. "Who is Nicholas to you guys anyway? If we're being forced to wait, the least I can do for my friends is get information."
Kate flinched slightly at his tone. The way he said [I]friends[/I], he really seemed to be trying to drive home the point that he didn't particularly consider her to be one of them. "He's Khivar's general. He was sent after our ship to look after us."
"Why wasn't he sent [I]with[/I] your ship?" Alex asked. "Wouldn't that have made more sense?"
"We were cloned by our enemies," Kate explained. "We were just lucky that Nicholas found us before we came out of the pods or we might have grown up with them, having no idea who they really were to us."
"Doesn't it seem kind of weird to you that the same enemies who killed you cloned you? Why would they do such a thing?"
"To control us," Kate replied quietly. "Jack, Ro and I were already dead at home. By sending us with Zan and the others, they wanted us to grow up as Khivar's enemies, thus weakening him and strengthening Zan when he made an attempt to take back the throne."
Alex scratched his head. "So why clone Khivar too? Because that's who Will is, isn't it? I mean, no one has flat-out said so to me, but it's been implied." He paused, frowned again. Kate could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "But you just said that you, Jack and Rowena were already dead. What about Khivar?" He didn't really seem to be asking her though. It was more like he was working out the problem himself, like he couldn't entirely trust her to tell him the truth.
It hurt. She wondered at it. He was making it increasingly clear that his loyalties had never been in doubt, no matter what he had told her the day before. Since they had found out that Isabel had been captured, the jig had been up. He had been working for Max and the others all along. He [I]shouldn't[/I] trust her.
And, yet, she still wanted to tell him the truth. She did not want him to keep looking at her like that - like she was [I]his[/I] enemy now.
"Khivar - the [I]first[/I] Khivar - is still alive," she blurted out before she could stop herself. She almost slapped her hands over her mouth. What was she [I]doing?[/I] Somehow she had known it would be a mistake to bring Alex with them. It was a bad move to bring the one person whose opinion she cared about in the other group. Because, as much as she believed that Max was Zan as he had once been, she could still not entirely trust him. Michael and Tess were both unimportant in the grand scheme of her relationship with the other four square. She had never been close to Rath or Ava.
For some reason though, Alex Whitman had affected her from the first time she had met him. And she had thought that she had touched him in some way too. But since they had found out about Vilandra, that was clearly all over.
She hadn't had any idea that Alex and Isabel were so close.
And why she cared at the moment when she had just told Alex the one thing he should not know, she could not explain to even herself.
His mouth was presently hanging open as he stared at her in dismay. "What?" He finally managed to force out, sounding slightly strangled.
"Khivar never died," Kate said, knowing that there was no going back now. "Will is his clone, but the original still lives. It's he who is sitting on the throne of Antar and it was he who sent Nicholas after us."
"And it will be [I]that[/I] Khivar who will attack the Earth fourteen years from now and end it," Alex said, shaking his head in horror. "It's all beginning to make sense now. It was the one part of this I just didn't get. How if Max's enemy was on the planet all along, why would he destroy it? Because he'd be committing suicide in the process."
Kate had frozen at the part about "ending the Earth" however. "What are you talking about?" She whispered.
Alex's expression softened for the first time since they had left the Crashdown. "Sorry. I forgot you didn't know about that." He paused, seemed to be searching for the easiest way to explain what he meant. "Liz and Max haven't exactly been getting along lately," he began. Kate nodded, remembered how she hadn't understood the tension that she had witnessed between Max and Liz. If they were so madly in love, as Liz's proclamations and Kate's earlier connection with Max had seemed to indicate, why all the drama? She was unsure how this had anything to do with the end of the world though. "It all started when Max found out that he's supposed to be with Tess, but it got [I]much[/I] worse a few weeks ago when Max caught Liz in bed with Kyle."
Kate felt her eyes widen. Alex noticed and grinned wryly. "It sounds a bit like a soap opera, doesn't it?"
"How could she do that?" Kate asked. "That is totally unlike Rowena, to do something like that!"
"It's not like Liz either," Alex agreed. "But Max caught them and he stopped trying to get back together with her. I only found out about all of this yesterday as a matter of fact. All any of the rest of us knew was that Max was basically a zombie and Liz was like manic crazy." He paused, shaking his head, as though he was still coming to terms with all of it himself. "Anyway, she finally broke down and admitted that she did it to drive Max to Tess. Because Max had come back from fourteen years in the future to tell her that if Tess and Max weren't together, the world would end - that Tess would leave town and they wouldn't be strong enough to repel the attack from their enemies when it came."
Kate brought a hand to her mouth, shocked. "Poor Liz! I don't understand though. How did Max come back from the future?"
"Apparently they modified the granolith," Alex shrugged. Kate perked up in spite of herself at the mention of the granolith. Alex seemed to notice because he raised a hand and said, "I don't know how they used it or where it is, so don't even bother asking. I wouldn't tell you anyway."
Kate hadn't thought he would, but her reaction had been spontaneous. She sighed. "And you think that was Khivar attacking the Earth?"
"Who else would it be?" Alex asked, narrowing his eyes. "They don't have [I]more[/I] enemies out there, do they?"
"Not as far as I know, although with Zan, it's impossible to say for sure." She answered him off-handedly, still feeling dazed. The very idea of her brother, in any incarnation, being responsible for the destruction of a planet.It was completely beyond her comprehension, particularly after his horror about what Zan had done to Valonia. But, on the other hand, she had absolutely no idea how all the deaths he had been forced to endure might have affected him. She couldn't say for certain that it wouldn't be possible.
And that scared her. A lot. Because without her faith that Khivar was the rightful king of Antar, where would she be? Everything she and her brother were fighting for would be for nothing.
Alex was scowling again. "Okay, can we just stop with all the cryptic comments? Can you just tell me what happened back then?"
Kate allowed herself to fall back on the bed, feeling inexplicably weary. "I can, but I don't even know if I'm remembering any of it right anymore." She sat up as abruptly. Now where had [I]that[/I] come from? What was he, her confessor? She hadn't even realized that she was really having doubts about her own memory until the words had fallen from her lips.
She met Alex's eyes. His expression had softened again as he finally seemed to recognize her confusion. "This is all just as hard for you as it is for them, isn't it?" He finally asked softly when the silence stretched between them for what felt like eternity.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," she admitted, unable to deny it any longer. "I know what I remember, but I also know what I saw when Max and I connected." She paused, then added, "I also don't believe that you would be friends with people you didn't trust completely. I don't know why I think that, or what it means, because I know that [I]they're[/I] your real friends, not me, and that you're only here because of them anyway." Kate looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm trying to understand how we can be so wrong. I'm trying to really remember because I know you want me to."
There was another long pause. Kate felt the bed sink beside her, realized that Alex had come to join her there. "Why do you care what I want?" He finally asked. "You should care for your own sake."
She snorted slightly, turned to look at him. "Don't you get that it's [I]easier[/I] for me to just call them my enemies? That's it's what I've always done and it's what I really want to keep doing? I don't like questioning everything I've been raised to believe. And, yet, I am."
"Why?" Alex asked, his dark eyes meeting hers. He seemed truly perplexed, like he really didn't understand. Kate scowled at him. What was the matter with him? Did she have to hit him over the head with it?
"Because I care what you think of me!" She exclaimed in exasperation.
Alex blinked. "Oh." Pause. "Okay." His gaze remained locked with hers. "Whatever you tell me, it's not going to change what I think of you," he continued quietly. "I do believe that you had nothing to do with what happened to Isabel. I'm sorry I made you feel like I thought you did."
"I'm really sorry she's been hurt Alex," Kate said. "You have to believe that." She looked down at her hands, then added quickly, "She's really important to you, isn't she?"
"Yeah. She is." She closed her eyes, was no longer surprised when it hurt to hear it. Because she was no longer denying it to him, she could no longer deny it to herself either. She liked Alex far more than she should. And it did hurt to know that he didn't feel the same. "She's my friend and, well, I sort of feel responsible for what happened."
Kate's head came up and she stared at him. "How can you possibly be responsible?"
"We had a fight," Alex replied. "She was out alone because of me."
"That's ridiculous!" Kate scoffed. "How could you have known what was going to happen?"
Alex shrugged, looked away. She realized that she wasn't going to convince him that he was wrong so she decided to let it go for the moment. She decided to try and take his mind off of it. "What do you want me to tell you specifically?"
"I don't know. Everything?" Alex grinned, obviously trying to forget why exactly they were sitting here in the first place. She could see the lines of tension around his eyes as he tried not to think about what Nicholas might be doing to Isabel at that exact moment. "Start at the beginning. When did you first meet Zan?"
Kate smiled slightly. "Vilandra and I went to school together on Antar. He visited her often and we became friends." If the memories she had of those early days with Zan did prove to be false, she knew that she would be disappointed. He had been kind to her in a way she was unused to from men of such power and influence. While she and Khivar had developed a close relationship as adults, as children he had little use for her, merely seeing her as an annoyance, as was the way with older brothers. But Zan had never treated Vilandra as anything less than his equal and it had been a revelation to Kate - or Karana as she had been at the time. It was why she had been so devastated by how much Zan changed later in life - so much so that even his sister had turned against him. When Karana had heard that Vilandra had changed sides, it was only then that she had truly believed that he was capable of the treachery of which Khivar had accused him.
"I may have even had a crush on him for a while," she admitted now, as she recalled how upset she had been when she had first heard of his betrothal to Ava from Vilandra. Vi had been upset as well and it was only later that it had dawned on her that Zan was unhappy with the match. "But he treated me like a younger sister."
"When did things change?" Alex asked, encouraging her to continue.
"Vilandra and I finished our schooling and I went home with her because Khivar was unable to send anyone for me right away. He was preoccupied with a dispute my planet was arguing with Knosis. I'm pretty sure it was over trade rights. I wasn't really into politics until after the war started." Kate shrugged. "The high king on Antar, Zan's father, sent him to Valonia, where my brother had agreed to meet with the king of Knosis to clear the air, Zan acting as mediator. While he was gone, Zan's father died and when Zan came back to claim the throne." She trailed off, frowning. "I don't know.he was [I]different.[/I] The next thing I knew, he sent me home and when I landed on Sardica, I was told that Zan had declared war on us. The following year, the Antarian sky forces destroyed Valonia. It was awful. I had been trying to get in touch with either Zan or Vilandra to parlay for peace, but they refused to meet with me."
She looked at Alex, who was listening intently. "So something happened on Valonia to change Zan," he finally said. He met Kate's eyes. "Do you think any of this had to do with Rowena? Could she be what drove the wedge between Sardica and Antar?"
Kate shook her head. "I don't see how."
"What if Zan met your brother's wife at the trade conference and wanted her for himself?" Alex suggested.
"Why wouldn't my brother have told me that?" Kate asked. "He always said he had no idea what Zan wanted from him. He even sent Rowena to plea a truce with Zan. Khivar never would have put her in Zan's hands if that's what the whole thing was about." Kate's mouth fell open abruptly, as the truth suddenly dawned on her. "Oh my God. How could I not have realized this? Of course that's what it was. She was the only one Zan would talk to - in her capacity as Queen of Valonia he said, but of course that wasn't it."
"And the reason that Khivar didn't tell you was that he didn't know. Rowena never told him," Alex finished neatly.
Kate stared at him. "But it still doesn't explain why Zan changed Alex. Even if Rowena rejected him, he never would have reacted that way - by destroying her entire planet. Not the Zan I knew."
Alex appeared deep in thought. "You know, I'm beginning to wonder if absolutely [I]everyone[/I] was being played. You brother, Zan, Rowena, Vilandra.everyone."
"But by who?" Kate asked, searching her mind frantically. "Knosis was allied with Antar through Zan's marriage to Ava. They were small and unimportant anyway. And Wendar was also on Zan's side."
Just as the door to the room opened, she raised her eyes and met Alex's.
"I finally reached him," Will said as he entered the room. "He's being really weird. He wouldn't admit to me that he had Vilandra."
Kate heard him, but continued to stare at Alex, watched the same thought occur to him that she had just had. She shook her head, disbelieving that the answer had been right at her fingertips all along - well, at least since Isabel had been taken captive without permission from Will.
It was the only thing that made sense after all.
"Nicholas," she and Alex both said at the same time.
Her very own people had somehow betrayed them.