Thread: The Space Between The Stars (A Corsair/Mim Adventure)

It was an effort not to recoil as they took one another's hands. Not that, she was sure, he was any more pleased to be here she'd caught the look in his eye, the flicker of surprise and disgust as she'd stepped forward. His hands were dry and thin and felt like she would break them if she squeezed hard enough. Yusra had difficulty looking up at her betrothed, instead choosing to glance again over his shoulder at the Pleidan in his party. Ambassador Carter wrapped a delicate chain of platinum around their hands and Yusra could have sworn it was iron shackles taking her into bondage, and in all the wrong sorts of ways. Surely this was all some horrible nightmare. Surely Adjatay, when he said he loved her, meant he loved her more than to force her to share this primitive, sickly mzungu prince's bed. Yusra didn't listen to Carter's words but to the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears. For the throne, she told herself. Bomani was right. I set myself up as queen of half the galaxy if I do this. It's all for the throne. It sounded like a lie even without saying it aloud, but it was all she had at the moment, really. The reception was some quiet, sterile affair with bland food and weak drink. Yusra made a beeline for the Pleidan who had accompanied the Hyadeans, intent not only on charming him but also on satisfying her own curiosity as to why he had taken up with them. Was he a fugitive? A spy? A prisoner of war? Any one of those answers was intriguing. Nearly halfway to him, though, she was waylaid by Adjatay and guided toward her betrothed. After the ceremony the Queen Mother and Queen Consort had stuck by her sides to ensure she couldn't slip off, and now it was big brother's turn. She grit her teeth so hard she was surprised they didn't break as he took her arm and guided her toward the prince. Prince John! Adjatay was polite enough, able to feign genuine pleasure at their meeting. His Stellaran--a Russian-English creole used as a common language throughout the Stellar Union, derived from an Old Earth pidgin commonly used on the ISS and, at first, the original Martian colony--was only lightly accented. It only made the hatred boil in Yusra's gut, to hear him speaking Stellaran the way they did on Mars, trying to sound like them instead of the proud prince of Betelgeuse he ought to be. But the hatred was masked behind a polite smile as he put a hand on her back to guide her forward, toward her fiance. May I present my sister, Princess Yusra, warden of the Eastern Milky Way. You two didn't exactly get to know each other beforehand, so I thought a more official introduction to be in order. A pleasure to finally meet you, Prince John. Her accent was unlike that of her South Sudanese ancestors, but at least it was better than Martian and truer to her own language, her own people. Yusra shook his hand and resisted the urge--the instinct really--to wipe it on her dress as though he had some disease, or as though his touch alone could suck the pigmentation from her skin. Adjatay, looking pleased, kissed her temple. I'll just leave you two to it, he said cheerfully, giving her a look behind the prince's back before going off to find his own wives. My brother is extremely proud of this arrangement, she said, groping for some small-talk topic. She never had been good at that. I know the details of the ceremony itself are still being hammered out, but when do you think we ought to do the scarification ritual? Tonight, perhaps, to allow for as much time to heal as possible? Scarification was a traditional denotation of a married status, the ceremony a mark of devotion to their spouse. Each line of scars--the X pattern with the vertical line through the center--represented one spouse. In general among the common people men were the only ones allowed to have more than one wife and to take lovers. Rules were, as they always had been, bent for aristocracy and royalty, and it was not uncommon for noble women to take lovers and for royal women to take more than one husband. These husbands however, just as the multiple wives of commoners, were expected to remain faithful to the princess or queen they had married royalty transcended gender in these cases, and the same went for women fortunate enough to marry a prince or a queen. When a spouse died, scarification of the face was a part of the grieving ritual and funeral ceremony. I know it is a long way, she said, deliberately misinterpreting his look of shock. She knew mzungu didn't scarify, and that was one of the many reasons they were weak in battle they couldn't take pain. But you may stay in our palace as long as you please. Even the whole recovery time, if you find you are unable to travel. It is, after all, one of the most important parts of getting married. Yusra offered a warm smile, as though nothing would make her happier. In truth, nothing would make her happier than if he got an infection after the ritual and died, calling the whole thing off.