“Goddess Eternal!” I heard the Sovereign breathe somewhere to the right of me. “Look at this! Has anyone ever seen a pet from a primitive species with Mental Abilities before?”
“No, Your Majesty!” The guards all sounded frightened. “Gods, she’s every bit as strong as an Overlord!” I heard one of them mumble.
“Stronger, even,” another one answered. “She actually drew blood!”
“Someone must stop her before she kills Gra’multh,” the Sovereign said. “There will be civil war if he dies like this! There’s already enough unrest between the Northern and Southern Continents as it is.”
All the guards shuffled their feet, but none of them seemed to want to come near me. And in the meantime, Gra’multh’s face was turning from gray to purple to black.
“Mer-cy!” he choked again, and finally he was looking at me. “Please…I beg you!”
“No!” I snapped, still cradling Sir’s head in my lap. “No, you killed him, so now you’re going to die too! You’re getting exactly what you deserve!”
It was the Sovereign herself who finally approached me as all her guards hung back. She came down off her huge golden throne and knelt on the ground beside me.
“Little one?” she murmured tentatively. “I know you’re upset, but can you listen to me?”
I cut my eyes in her direction, though I kept my attention on Gra’multh, who was lying on his side on the golden floor by now, with his full-black eyes bugging out of his head. I had to keep my concentration up in order to make the Mental rope I was using solid.
“What do you want?” I demanded tersely. “I don’t care what you say, I’m going to kill him! He used that Mind-Controlled pet of his to kill Sir so now he’s going to die, too!”
“But—” the Sovereign began.
“And I don’t care what you do with me afterwards either,” I continued recklessly, interrupting her. “Nothing matters to me if Sir is dead. I…” I choked on the words. “I loved him! And that bastard killed him—so you can torture me and kill me if you want to, but not before I kill Gra’multh first!”
“I understand how you feel,” the Sovereign murmured gently. “Really, I do, little one. But I think there’s a chance your Master might not be dead. Only no one can get to him to help him while you’re still wearing the dueling band because no one will dare to come near the two of you.”
“What?” I looked down at Sir, startled. “But…he’s been stabbed through the heart!”
“Only his secondary heart,” the Sovereign told me. “We Korrigons actually have three hearts—the primary one located on the right side of the chest, the secondary one on the left side, and we have a tertiary heart in our abdomen. We can live without one of them—that’s why we have two more as backups.”
“Really?” I looked at her with wet eyes. “That…that’s really weird.”
The Sovereign gave me a little smile.
“I’m sure I would find your anatomy strange, too. But the fact is, if we can get Sir Barinthian to the House of Healing in time, he may still be saved. But you must let go of Sir Gra’multh so the Healers can get to your Master.”
I frowned at her suspiciously.
“What about my galaxy—the Milky Way? I mean, the Goddess’s Cloak? Are you still going to let Gra’multh take it over if I let him go?”
She shook her head.
“You’ve won the duelandthe right to keep your galaxy intact, little one. I give you my royal word as Sovereign of Korrigon Four that my people will not touch The Goddess’s Cloak.”
This made me feel a little better, though I was still pretty upset about Sir. But just then, something else happened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something waving at me.
Turning my head, I saw that it was Sir’scandalla. The long, gray tail had somehow wiggled its way out from under his supine body and it was waving urgently, as though it was trying to signal me.
“Oh, look!” I exclaimed, pointing to it. “Sir’s tail—hiscandalla!It’s telling me he’s not dead!”
“See, I told you he was still alive,” the Sovereign said, giving me a smile. “If you’ll just let Sir Gra’multh go, I will call my personal healer to attend to your Master right away.”
“All right, but Gra’multhshouldn’tget away with what he did,” I said, frowning. “He was using Mind-Control on that pet of his—that’s what made her try to assassinate Sir. He was losing the duel, so he cheated.”
The Sovereign nodded gravely.
“There will be severe repercussions for his actions—you have my royal word,” she promised. “But if he dies by the hand of the pet of the Overlord of the Northern Continent, my entire planet will be thrown into civil war.” She gave me a pleading look and her face looked extremely vulnerable. “I’m a very young Sovereign—I only ascended the Golden Throne of Ten Thousand Steps last year, when my big sister was killed. I just…I really don’t think I can deal with that right now.”