My Kingdom Come Book 2: The Beast Inside (On hold)

Chapter 1: The Beast Inside

667 standard years after the signing of the Alliance treaty

Hathu fingers tightened around the datapad as he scanned over the message again, doing his best to commit every nuance to memory.

'Happy birthday Hathu. I remember the field. The day you ran out to the hunt. I wish we could talk like that again, you're old enough now. I hope you're well.'

Then there was the rest of the message, coded so that only Hathu could read it.

'The emperor sides with father. We were taught to fear the enemy, I never thought it would be the beast inside. I need to get my children out, at least 50 of them. You promised to be my warrior. Contact prince Jahon, he'll help us. For cover say that I am begging you to come home to rejoin us. Contact me back with travel details at-' there followed a frequency, a scrambling code and a set of dates.

"Well?" General Kahn snapped.

Hathu looked up dispassionately, he scanned the faces around him. Kahn, Jediah, ambassador Rey, and a Shoiga ambassador all watched him back with varying degrees of tension in their faces. Am I doing the right thing?

It was the one question he never seemed to be able to answer to his own satisfaction.

The idea that the emperor was aiding Nediz would have seemed laughable to him a few years ago, but after living in the capitol, seeing the way the nobles lived and treated their slaves, seeing how many government officials only cared about increasing their own wealth and pleasure, it was believable. Besides, why would Deetha lie to him?

She abandon me.

But what choice did she have? Her husband was as deep into Nediz's conspiracy as Nediz was himself. She had young children to protect. At least she had tried to warn Hathu when his life was in danger. 

Hathu had thought over his options many times since he had first seen Deetha's message, he didn't know what else he could do but play along until he had better information.

"It's from my sister, Deetha. She's begging me to come home, to rejoin the cause. There's a frequency and signal location to call her back on and a scrambling code as well as a set of dates to call her back within. I think she wants to time my return as a surprise for Nediz, for his birthday."

Kahn's eyes snapped to ambassador Rey. "Is he telling the truth?"

The ambassador turned his long narrow face towards the general, his huge round eyes blinking slowly. "You know that Hathu always has an air of withholding information, general. However it is not higher now than it has been at any other time. He has a great deal of hostility towards you and Ambassador Farkas, but I sense no malicious intent."

Kahn scowled.

"I trust him." Jediah said. "Why would Hathu lie to us about this? He gains nothing."

Kahn's scowl deepened. He walked to the door and tapped on it. The door opened. "Take Fons back to his cell."

The door opened wider and a prison guard walked in. He came over and unlocked Hathu's cuffs from the table. Hathu let the guard take the datapad from him.

"Where's my slave?"

"He's still drinking the sun," Jedith answered absently, he looked as if he were deep in thought.

The guard jerked roughly at Hathu's chains and Hathu got up out of his chair. "Jed, please look out for him. Don't let anyone hurt him."

Jediah's eyes snapped up to meet Hathu's. He gave a nod. "Of course, Hathu."