A Way of Honor (Champions of the Crystal Book 2)

Chapter 8: Imposters

In the next moment, they were all standing on Khediva's control deck. Malvarak grinned and said, "Well, I see they did not eat any of you alive."

Tirqwin grimaced, and Scotty laughed and said, "Not yet, anyway! They let Mara and Rina off easy, and they're still tryin' to figure out what to do with Tirq, but me and Haaron are gonna get it."

Haaron sighed. "No one has even said whether we will get to take the oath tomorrow, but I doubt it will be allowed."

Mara frowned. "Haaron, Scotty, you will not be required to take the oath, because your oath of commission serves the same purpose. But as for punishment, well—I am Queen. If my influence cannot save you from having a punishment decreed for you, it can at least prevent the punishment from being carried out."

Haaron shook his head. "A royal pardon will not erase the slur on our names."

"That's true," Scotty said unexpectedly. "Who'd follow a guy who was only allowed to keep his rank because the Queen insisted? And, oh man, Mara, I don't think you wanna go up against Rayland. He's your biggest ally right now, and you need him."

"I need the two of you as well."

"Excuse me," Khediva broke in irritably. "I did not call you here for a social gathering. In fact I find everyone but Tirqwin superfluous."

"Khediva," Tirqwin reproved. "Be polite. We owe everyone here a great deal."

"Tirqwin," Khediva said, "what I have to impart to you is highly secret. The information was only released to me on the explicit understanding that it would not be for general dissemination."

"This isn't general dissemination," Mara said. "Khediva, nobody here would dream of betraying a secret."

"No," Sabrina said, "but we've already caught hell for one secret. Is it necessary to get involved in another? Especially Scotty and Haaron, who haven't even been tried yet!"

Tirqwin considered. "Haaron, if you wish not to be further involved—"

"Do you need me?" Haaron asked.

Tirqwin and Khediva conferred silently. Then Tirqwin said, "Khediva has discovered that your groundcar accident was not an accident. Do you wish to know the truth?"

"Yes."

"Then you will have to know the secret."

"Very well."

"And you, Scotty?"

"Are you kidding?" Scotty said.

"Elusha," Malvarak said, "you are already in trouble with Homeworld. Do not compound your crimes by releasing this information to Praxatillians and their allies."

"They are my allies too," Tirqwin said quietly. "Malvarak, they can only execute me once. But before they do, I will make reasonably sure that Mara and Sabrina and Scotty are safe. I am resolved on that."

"Can you just tell us already?" Scotty yawned. "I'm beat."

"Very well," Khediva sighed. "Long ago, a race—since extinct—attempted to take control of the evolution of part of their population. Some of their people had extraordinary abilities to mimic other creatures. They enhanced this ability so that the mimicking carried down to the cellular level, and then they focused on previously undesirable mental traits to make these creatures extremely susceptible to suggestion. What this race learned, to its horror, was that any telepath in communication with a Protian could take it over completely, imprinting its own will on the Protian. A small group of telepaths used the Protians to wipe out the rest of the race so completely that, to this day, we do not know their name. In time, the Protians escaped, and the Wayfarers gave them sanctuary and hid them away so that they could never again be used as a weapon.