Page 60 of Into The Rift

We were headed home. My home, anyway—I knew Niko wasn’t totally thrilled at the prospect of a life on Tygeria, and I certainly couldn’t blame him. I wasn’t looking forward to facing the music myself, as Blake would say—though come to think of it, there never was any music I ever heard. Whenever I questioned Blake on things like that, though, he told me I was ridiculously literal, just like my father before me.

Speaking of my parents, I knew I’d be in for it when they caught up with me, but I had devised a plan for that. One that I hoped would ensure Niko’s safety too, if he agreed to go along with it. But first we had to get back to my home galaxy. Not exactly a sure thing, but I’d always known that. If we could make it though, I thought we should find out if Itaka had been released back to her king and had made her way home. If so, we’d set a course for her planet. I recalled Blake telling me it was in a star cluster in our own galaxy. Her husband was King Anton, and the star cluster was called the Colandus 50. I hoped Niko would know the exact planet she lived on in that cluster.

Of course, that wasn’t the only consideration. I still had to tell Niko my plan for us. I decided to wait until after we traveled through the wormhole successfully.

Assuming, of course, that we actually did.

Epilogue

Jago

You’ll have guessed by now that we did make it back out of that wormhole and out of the rift. I was able to finish writing my version of my adventures, though I admit I didn’t get it done until months afterward. I had plenty of time to do that, cooling my heels on the planet Claey, which we found in the maze of the Colandus-50 star cluster, as advertised.

Queen Itaka didn’t want to let us leave once we arrived, especially when she learned that I wanted to return to Tygeria. She said King Davos, who I had to remind her was my grandfather, had been absolutely furious when he discovered that I had helped Niko to escape, and Niko had repaid my kindness by kidnapping me. She didn’t trust him not to injure me or Niko or put him in prison.

I tried to tell her he’d never hurt me, but I wasn’t sure about Niko. I’d forgiven Niko long ago for kidnapping me, but apparently, my family had not. She did finally come around and agree with the plan I’d come up with, though she said it was really risky.

I guess I should just say that my plan was to marry Niko in an actual, religious type ceremony, and just as soon as possible. I thought that would finally give me the autonomy I had been seeking for so long, and my family surely wouldn’t execute my husband. Probably not, anyway. Besides, I loved him and wanted to marry him more than anything.

It might even appease Blake, who was bound to be angry. I had left him in a bad spot—or I should say Niko had when he took me hostage.

However, Niko had done what he set out to do—killed the Pton emperor and saved hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of lives—and though Niko had kidnapped me, he had agreed to marry me too, and that should count for something.

After all, Davos didn’t have a lot of moral high ground to talk when it came to forced marriages. And Niko had considered his planet to be at war with Tygeria. I was his enemy, in a way, so the circumstances weren’t all that different. We’d even brought the striker back in fairly good shape, considering the distance it had traveled, with only a few dings here and there.

That was my argument and I thought it was a fairly good one. I’d have a problem keeping Niko quiet, though, who kept saying he didn’t give a damn what Davos or anybody else thought. He didn’t need permission to take a mate, and it was nobody’s business but ours.

I begged him not to say that to my father, Renard, but he was making no such promises.

Itaka flatly refused to let us leave for Tygeria though, and Niko agreed with her. But at least he wasn’t arguing about getting married. He even agreed to invite the family to our wedding—for my sake, he grudgingly said—and I had to content myself with that.

It took over three months to make all the arrangements, and by that time, my father Renard was fit to be tied. Itaka’s king sent my parents a large “groom price” which consisted of a cask of jewels, gold and precious stones.

My omak told me on a private call that they had received it, and though my father gave it to charity, he admitted that it showed proper respect, acknowledged that we had saved a lot of lives by killing the evil emperor, and he’d calmed down a bit. He’d been mollified enough by the gift that he had agreed to walk me down the aisle, though there would be no talk of “giving me away to anybody,” he’d insisted.

I was still afraid he might make a scene.

Anyway, it looked as if there would be a large, angry crowd of Tygerians at the wedding, sitting on my side of the temple. My grandparents, all the uncles and their mates, and my various cousins had all said they’d attend.

I didn’t actually see my family until the day of the wedding. I was letting Itaka run the show, and she said it was forbidden in her religion for me not to be sequestered. Niko laughed when I told him and said she didn’t even have a religion, but I didn’t want to get on her bad side.

I thought Blake was still annoyed with me, or otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken no for an answer, but even he stayed away. Only Rakkur came to see me as soon as he arrived on the planet, defying Itaka’s orders. I was so glad to see him, I hugged him for maybe a full minute or two.

He laughed and pushed me away, shaking his finger in my face. “You’ve got a lot of people mad at you, and a lot of explaining to do.”

“I know, but at least everybody came, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. Probably just in case a fight started, so they could get in on it.” He laughed at my expression. “Don’t worry. That fierce husband of yours looks like he can handle himself. And I don’t really think anyone will start a fight with Queen Itaka around. She may be little, but she looks tough.”

I wasn’t too sure about that, and it left me feeling nervous. “What do you think? Should I go talk to my omak and Blake?”

“I think they’ll come to you before the wedding. Write out a quick note inviting them, and I’ll take it to them.”

I scrambled to do just that and dashed off a few lines telling them I loved them and was hoping they were happy for me. I assured them I was happy to be marrying Niko, and I wanted them to get to know him. And that it wasn’t my idea not to see them before the wedding. I folded it up and gave it to Rakkur, who turned to leave.

“Wait, tell me about the babies.”

He smiled. “Oh, they’re both gorgeous. Fat and sassy. They totally have Tariq wrapped around their little fingers. You’ll have to visit soon and see them again.”

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