Page 55 of Infiltration

Lindsey paused before letting herself be embraced. “Uh oh. What are you up to, Mom?”

“Who says I’m up to anything? I’m simply glad to have your company for lunch. Ah, thank you, Bethany.” Tara beamed at the young attendant who brought them a tray of soup, cheese, fruit, and bread. The woman smiled and bowed. She hurried back to the kitchen.

“Mom.” Lindsey gave her a familiar look. It simultaneously amused and exasperated Tara.

“Sit down. Please?” Tara sank onto a floor cushion at one of the cafeteria’s many low tables. Taller versions, with chairs for those who found sitting cross-legged too taxing, lined the window vid-studded walls. Sunlight beamed over the ashram residents eating their midday meals.

Lindsey sat, but she didn’t join her mother in grabbing for the food. She tossed back a chestnut braid…she and Jessica had both adopted the Kalquorian women’s style of long hair. Hers was to her waist. She continued to watch Tara, her brow raised.

“Oh, tomato bisque.” Tara spoke as if she hadn’t known what the menu was. “Nadia makes the best, you know. Vax should ask for the recipe so he can offer it at his restaurants.”

“You know I can tell when you’re in full meddling mode, right? You might as well get to it.”

“I don’t meddle. I act for the good of all concerned.”

“I agree your heart’s almost always in the right place, but you do have a knack for intervening in matters.” A slight smile pulled at Lindsey’s lips.

“How often am I wrong to do so?”

Lindsey laughed. “Very seldom; I’ll give you that. Out with it so I can relax and enjoy my lunch. The bisque does smell amazing.”

Tara beamed. “I have a favor to ask you to pass along to one of your wonderful clanmates.”

“Ah, here it is. Tell me what’s going on.”

* * * *

Yuder stood on the balcony, the breeze blowing his steel hair from his brow. It was his former home he’d come to, the level he’d once shared with Zarl, Tidro, and Irdis.

He stared at the sea. He wasn’t sure why he’d visited the old apartments instead of going to his and Tara’s smaller, cozier quarters. He’d only known it had been this balcony he’d needed to visit, to see the ocean from where his past lived and breathed, where he’d once been a part of the empire’s soul.

I’m a castoff. An outsider, exiled from all I was.

His com went off. He checked it. It was Oiteil’s frequency.

His thumb hovered over the answer key, the purpose he was desperate for a click away.

Chapter Fifteen

You’ve always been a shining example of honor to the empire. Don’t toss it aside…

Yuder’s lips tightened together. Bevau’s deep voice rang in his head. It was Bevau who was now in charge of Kalquor’s security, not Yuder. To respond to Oiteil, to assume a role for purely selfish reasons…was he truly such a man?

Yuder’s thumb moved, silencing the buzz of the com, cutting off the call. He slid the unit in his belt pouch.

He felt hollow, as if a void were eating away at him from the inside. Would he eventually fade to nothing from its relentless gnawing? Who would care beyond Tara?

She was all he had, and he knew she should be more than enough. He loved her as he had his deceased clan, with every mote of his fierce heart. Yet the emptiness, the aching emptiness, wouldn’t depart. He loved, yet the hunger for purpose and duty wouldn’t be sated.

He stared at the sea’s vast and churning field of green.

Yuder remained so long in his former quarters, his Royal Guards checked on him. Roused from his dark contemplations, he told them he’d just been about to leave. He headed to his current home.

A surprise awaited him. Japohn, Lindsey’s Nobek, stood in the corridor, looking like a behemoth statue left behind by an absentminded sculptor. Yuder regarded his visitor with bemusement.

Japohn wasn’t the biggest man he’d encountered, but he came close. Once an awkward, unsure Nobek, he’d become a vision of self-possession. He smiled at Yuder, his expression lighting in real pleasure, rendering his strong, fierce features handsome.

Japohn bowed deeply. “Imperial Father, it’s a delight to see you.”

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