Part 59

Zan stared at Rowena, unable to understand why she was there. His first instinct was that this wasn't Rowena at all - that it was a shapeshifter - but as he reached out with his senses, he knew that it was her. He could feel her. This was no imposter.

He narrowed his eyes, thinking hard.

"Zan," she said quietly. He tried to read her tone. It was simple greeting, however. She was composed, not at all upset, and, in fact, seemed somewhat indifferent to his presence. Zan swallowed. She was not a prisoner. That seemed clear enough.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. He glanced at Khivar, who was watching him, no expression on his face. "What is happening here?"

"She is my wife," Khivar replied for Rowena, when it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything. "Where else would she be but at my side?"

Zan looked at Rowena again. She gazed back steadily, guileless. Zan felt even more perplexed and, now, hurt. He knew he was missing something, but he could not quite put his finger on what it was.

"It is I that you married. I am your wife," Serena snapped, stepping forward. It seemed clear from her tone that she had no idea what was going on either, but that she did not intend to show it.

"You are a clone," Khivar replied coldly. "You are not my wife. You were a proxy, nothing more, nothing less." He reached out, taking Rowena's hand and bringing it to his lips. She allowed it, but her expression did not change. It remained still and implacable.

There was a long moment of silence as Serena digested this. "If you knew - if you knew the truth all along - why did you act so surprised to see me an hour ago? If Rowena was here all along, why did you not just say so?" Her voice started to rise over the course of this, until she sounded slightly hysterical at the end. Zan reached out a hand, placing it on her shoulder, to tell her that he would take over.

"Why have we been brought here?" he asked calmly. He did not again look at Rowena. He would deal with her later. For now, this was between him and Khivar. "What are the terms of your surrender?"

"My surrender?" Khivar let out a short bark of laughter. "Are you joking?"

"You killed Rath, a prince of Valonia, in cold blood, without any justification" Zan replied evenly. "You killed Ava, crown princess of Knosis, as well. You are in no position to call the shots here, Khivar. I am the high king, and you will be brought to justice."

"You are no longer high king," Khivar said quietly. Zan narrowed his eyes. His heart was thudding in his chest as Khivar reached out and hit a button on the table in front of him. A small screen was revealed on the wall behind the king of Sardica. Khivar did not turn his head, but continued to watch Zan. Zan ignored him, shifting his gaze to the screen.

Zan recognized the five figures on the screen immediately. They were the delegates to the Council of the Five Planets, one each for Antar, Sardica, Valonia, Knosis, and Wendar. Zan focused on his father's old friend, Larek, who was Antar's representative. He met Zan's gaze unflinchingly. But Zan could see, even across the many miles of space that separated him from Larek, that the old man was trembling.

It was in that instant that he abruptly understood what was happening. He knew why he had been brought here.

He listened impassively as Larek said what Zan had already deciphered was coming.

"Zan, Prince of Antar, the Council of Five Planets has unanimously voted to remove you from the throne of Antar. The charge of high treason against the system you are sworn to protect has been proven, and has gone unanswered by you. The act which procured this charge was the destruction of the planet of Valonia. Because your heir, Vilandra of Antar, is dead, the next in line is Khivar, King of Sardica. He has jurisdiction to arrest you, and to bring you back to Antar for trial. So it is spoken, so shall it be done."

Zan heard Serena's gasp of outrage next to him, but he did not look at her. Instead he looked at Rowena. She would not meet his gaze. Her chin was raised, but she kept her eyes firmly to the left of his face.

He smiled slightly. He could not help it. He forced himself to wipe it from his face.

Clearing his throat, so as to hide his pride in Rowena, he looked at Khivar. "Very well. You have won."

"Zan!" Serena's shock was evident. "Zan, this is some game. You must know it is! What are you doing?" She grabbed him by the arm, trying to shake him.

He disentangled her small hands gently. "It is no game, Serena. And, even if it is, it is apparent that we have lost. If the council and the king of Sardica choose to allow the shapeshifters to manipulate them, there is no way for me to stop it." He looked back at the screen, where the council was still watching, apparently wanting to bear witness to his arrest. "If the deaths of Rath and Ava are to go unanswered, then I have no choice but to submit. I have no desire to rule over a system that treats innocent life so cavalierly."

Zan glanced at Rowena again. She lowered her eyes, although he knew she had been watching him. He smiled slightly again. "Good luck with that one." He directed this at Khivar, nodding in Rowena's direction. "You will need it."

With that, he moved to the door, and allowed the guards to take him.

Rath was waiting for him in the room to which he was led. Zan could not help the emotion that welled within him at the sight of his general.

"Brother." He moved forward, clasping Rath firmly by the hand. "I am relieved to see you well."

Rath smirked. "That was a neat performance, highness." He nodded at the view-screen behind him, indicating that he had watched the usurpation of Zan's throne upon it. "I was worried that you would not catch on."

"You underestimate me," Zan replied.

"No," Rath replied seriously. "But I did underestimate your trust in my cousin."

Zan smiled slightly at the thought of Rowena. "It is hard to understand it, I suppose."

"Indeed," Rath said.

"How?" Zan asked, because there was really nowhere else to go with that train of thought, being as Rath was uncomfortable discussing Zan's love life. Unless it was a matter of policy, of course. "Where is Ava?" he added, because, of course, if she was present on the ship, she was a liability. The Knosians were in on the plot to disrupt the ruling houses of Antar, Sardica Valonia together after all.

"Ava is under house-arrest, although I am fairly certain that she is not a party to any of this." Rath looked at Zan sternly. "She really does want to marry you. And it would solve the problem of the Knosians, bringing them to our side. If all four planets were aligned against Wendar, the battle would be over before it was started."

"Possibly," Zan replied. "But I am unwilling to trust that at present." He returned to the main subject. "How? How did you pull this off? And how did you get Khivar to agree to it?"

"Rowena did that," Rath said. He sounded admiring. "My cousin has the makings of a true stateswoman. She understands exactly what men want, and how to go about convincing them to do what she wants to get it."

"I know it," Zan admitted wryly. "It is her gift. She understands people."

It is why I love her, he added silently to himself. She is the only person who has ever really understood me. Only she would have taken the gamble that I would trust in her love for me, which was the only way that this plot could have worked.

"What did she promise him?" Zan asked, realizing that he should perhaps be a little worried about it. He would not have blamed Khivar for asking for the moon and stars, but it was more likely that what the king of Sardica wanted was a little closer to home.

"That's the truly amazing thing," Rath said. "She promised him nothing. He only wants to please her." He eyed Zan, his respect obvious. "She is a very great asset to any king, brother. You have chosen wisely."

Zan frowned slightly. He was not entirely convinced that Khivar had not asked anything of Rowena. He would wait to find out what her former betrothed wanted directly from her.

Rath continued his explanation, obviously unaware of Zan's wariness. "My shuttle was intercepted when we passed Sardica, on our way back from Knosis. It was then sent on to Valonia on auto-pilot, where Khivar's fleet awaited it. It was destroyed, but no life was lost."

"Well, thank the stars for that," Zan replied. "So what is the plan now?"

"The goal was to take the clone out of play. Now that you have been arrested and dethroned, the shapeshifters can no longer use the clone to manipulate the council. They will have to use a different tactic."

"Very smart," Zan decided. "They will either have to expose themselves, or the Knosians will have to become their official mouth-piece. The enemy will no longer be hidden. The greatest weapon of the Wendarian - the shadows - has been taken away. Their neutrality will have to be compromised, should they continue with this folly." He paused, then added, "I still want the clone destroyed. And all the technology that was used to create him with it." He knew that this would upset Rowena, but there was no choice. As long as the possibility of clones existed, there would always be someone willing to take advantage of it to further their own ends.

And, yet, Zan could not help a pang. He remembered Serena's comment that she could clone Vilandra. Oh, to have his sister returned to him! And Kara too.

"Obviously," Rath replied. "Rowena will deal with him when she returns to the planet. He is confined to the same cell in which you and Rowena were imprisoned."

Zan frowned at this. He felt a slight shiver descend his spine. He did not like the thought of Rowena facing the clone on her own. "I would speak to her before she returns to Valonia."

"No, Zan. It cannot be," Rath said seriously. "This plan will not work unless the utmost secrecy is maintained. No one can know that I survive, and no one can know that Khivar has staged your arrest. If you see Rowena, suspicions will be aroused."

"I suppose I will have to accept that," Zan said, although he still felt uneasy. "What of Serena? Is she to be told any of this?"

There was a long moment of silence. Rath met his gaze steadily. "Zan, you know what must become of Serena."

Zan blinked. "What? No! She is innocent. I refuse to allow it."

"Zan, there is no choice! All material that could illuminate the cloning process must be destroyed. You just said so yourself. We must eradicate the threat of it, once and for all."

Zan lowered himself into a chair, his heart pounding unsteadily. "Rath…We cannot. It is wrong."

"And cloning is not?" Rath snapped. "It is taking life into our hands. It is not our place."

"She promised to bring back Vivi," Zan whispered. He met Rath's eyes, realizing that he wanted Serena's survival for more reasons than just the Rowena clone's life. Maybe he was not entirely capable of throwing away such technology after all. "My brother, think of it. Your wife could be returned to you."

"No, Zan. You yourself should know that a clone is not the person who has been lost. Serena and Rowena are not the same. You are not the same as your clone. It would not be Vilandra. It would be someone else."

Zan knew that Rath was right, but how could they do it? How could they destroy a complete innocent?

Well, perhaps Serena was not completely innocent, Zan admitted to himself. She had, after all, perpetrated a fraud on Khivar for months. But she was good at heart. She had recognized her mistake. She could be reformed.

It would be wrong not to give her the chance.

"Zan." Zan did not look at Rath. He was too overcome by the implications of what completely destroying the cloning technology meant. It would not all be to the good. They needed to reflect on this further, needed not to act hastily.

"Zan!"

Zan blinked, looked at his friend.

"I understand your compassion. Believe me. I do," Rath said quietly. "I have not trusted Serena, but I do not think she is entirely bad. In fact, I know that she wants to make amends for what she has done to Khivar."

Zan frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Zan, she has been in on this all along. Who do you think arranged the meeting between Khivar and Rowena? Serena admitted the truth to Khivar before she came to you."

"I don't understand." He stared at Rath. "Are you saying that all of the strategy was a ruse?"

Rath sighed. "Yes, brother. After she saw what your clone did to Vi, and Karana, and Jondar, she knew that there was no choice but to rid the system of all the fruits of Rowena's manipulation of the granolith."

Zan's eyes widened. "Including herself," he whispered, disbelieving that any person could be so self-sacrificing.

"Yes," Rath agreed, lowering his gaze. "Including herself."