“I understand,” Archon replied. “But there is a trade off to be made here.”
“Name it.”
“I can leave you here, with them. You can have a full life, among your own kind, with your own people. Or…”
“Or?”
“Or you can come with me. Visit them from time to time, but be my bride. Bear my infant, the heir to the throne of Archaeus.”
“You want that with me?”
“I think there is nobody better suited to me in all existence. I think fate brought us together, and fate will see us through.”
“That’s almost poetic.”
“It is poetic,” he agreed. “I love you, Iris.”
He loved her? The truth was that she loved him too. Far more than good sense allowed, far more than morality, or propriety. She had every reason to hate him, and yet love had always been so close to hate…”
“Marry him,” her father said. “Marry him so I can take this blasted smock off…”
“Marry the king who burned our village and destroyed our lives?”
“That’s just the sort of thing kings do,” her father said. “They can’t help themselves.”
Iris sensed an opportunity to get everybody what they wanted. She turned to Archon with a glint in her eye.
“I will be your bride, on one condition.”
“Anything.”
“That is not a wise word for a male of your stature to say to a female of mine,” Iris smiled.
Chapter 24
The royal hall was in an uproar.
Archon’s return had not been anticipated. The king had simply swept in, tossed the courtiers who had been taking turns sitting on his throne aside, and settled in with a strange female on his knee.
Caught between bowing, scraping, and apologizing, none of the nobles present seemed to know what to do with themselves. This was very unorthodox. Usually a king would provide a great deal more notice to his poor timid subjects when it came to his presence.
Kings were not expected to show up in the royal court, except on special occasions. As far as anybody knew, nobody had been notified of such a special occasion. It was all very irregular.
And yet, they could hardly say anything, could they? The king had every right to be precisely where he was. The female seemed to have garnered his favor, which sent a second ripple of confusion about the place. The king had refused to take a mate from one of the twenty-four highly mutated and prized tribes, and yet he was making his presence known with a common human?
The palace gossips were at risk of spraining their tongues. They could hardly wait to get out into the halls and tell everybody passing by what was going on, but they couldn’t, because it was forbidden to leave the presence of a king without the king’s express permission.
Archon stood up, lifting Iris to her feet, and addressed the gathered souls without bothering with a greeting.
“I have chosen my mate. I have blessed her with my seed. She will bear my fruit, and our lineage will rule over Archaeus for a very long time to come.”
His words caused an outrage, which in this case meant the sound of a thousand gasps happening all at once. Shock. Horror. Anger. Denial. They all filled the room, bouncing from mouth to mouth and gaze to gaze.
“Sire,” one particular noble who Archon did not like, and whose name he could not remember, decided to say. “She is human. She cannot pass on the scaling of the Energon. She has no link to the past, no place in the present, and certainly she has no future fate besides. Forget this scrap of meat and bones and choose one of the females who deserves your seed.”
“This is the only female who has matched wits with me,” Archon replied. “The only woman in all existence capable of standing up to me.”
“It’s true,” Iris agreed. “I always tell him when he is being a complete knobhead.”
“Indeed.”
“A human female has no right to speak to the king of Archaeus in such a way. She should be thrashed for her insolence.”
“Of course she should be. And she is. Often. I can do it now, if you like.”
He grabbed her by the back of the head, his long fingers curling in her locks, and pulled her down over his thighs. The throne of Archaeus had seen many such scenes in its time. This, so far, was tame.
He tore the dress from the woman who would be his bride, presenting her naked as all royal brides had been since the beginning of time, or at least, official records.
Iris let out an obliging shriek of dismay as she was made bare. Her cheeks were flushed bright red, as was her neck and the upper section of her chest between her breasts. Archon rather enjoyed the results of embarrassment on the human form. Color changing was not entirely uncommon among the many variations of his people, but not like this, this flushing hue of ruddy red blooming across the most sensitive parts of her body.