Part 22 (1/2)

”Oh, Princess.” She cut me off, took my hand, and pressed it against her ample bosom. ”Thank you. May the Princ.i.p.alities always guide you. I have placed requests for months, but Malax kept saying it was enough. I knew it wasn't, because my daughter tells me in excruciating detail what the minions need.”

”She has no special powers?”

Ka.s.set chuckled. ”She does, but she's what you call an activist. She and her friends work with the minions to better their lives.”

I frowned. ”By doing what?”

”I don't know. She refuses to discuss anything with me because, according to her, I am part of the problem.” She sighed. ”She doesn't understand that I answer to Malax, who answers to your father.”

”I'll talk to my father.”

”That's wonderful,” she said in an upbeat voice. ”We'll need to increase our budget to buy more. The fresh fruits we have right now might not be enough for a week-”

”Then let them last three days. Where do we get our fruit and vegetables?”

”We've grown our own since arriving here, but it's not enough, so we buy from Hawaii and other parts of the US.”

According to my tutor, Mount Hermon Island was somewhere in the Pacific. ”We have orchards here on the island?”

She nodded. ”On the east side of the island.”

I hadn't completely explored the other side of the island, just the beach. ”Who does the planting, the tending, and the harvesting?”

Ka.s.set hesitated, then said slowly, ”Minions.”

Yet they weren't getting enough to eat. Oh, my father was going to hear an earful. ”Give them what they need for now.”

The ten volunteers were about to leave when Lady Nemea arrived. The gleam in her eyes said I wasn't going to like whatever she said next.

”Your father wants to see you, Princess Lilith,” Lady Nemea said.

”Where is he?”

”In the throne room.”

The last couple of weeks, I'd become very good at finding the energies of those closest to me. I searched for my father's. It amazed me how bright and red his energy was. Was mine like his? Some people had yellow, others orange energies. The minions' were bright and white. Father?

You pinged me earlier. What's going on?

I'm helping our people and I wanted you to know about it before you hear it from someone else.

A chuckle. Good.

Can you join us on Rocky Beach?

Silence.

Father?

I'll be there. He sounded wary.

”He's coming to the beach,” I said. Lady Nemea didn't hide her surprise, and the minions' fear was equally easy to read. ”It's okay,” I rea.s.sured them. ”Take the crates to the beach.”

PART II.

LILITH THE LEADER.

-12-.

Lady Nemea and the guards followed us back to Rocky Beach. Lottius and Katia helped hand out fruit while I talked to the elders. They had a list of complaints, minor and major. Some minions took their share home, while others sat and munched.

Lottius, Katia, and I joined them. Lady Nemea and the guards didn't. She was such a buzzkill. I ignored her long-suffering expression as laughter and excited chatter filled the air. I soaked it all in.

No more thoughts about the Guardians and what they'd stolen from me. No more thoughts about making them pay. I glanced around, exchanging smiles. These were my people, my concern, not the Guardians. I found out that Seraph's mother was called Ziminair and that her father, Anzu, was a day laborer in the fields.

I searched for Green Eyes, but he hadn't returned. I couldn't feel him, either. It was hard to explain how the mere thought of him sent my pulse racing. I had a serious crush on the guy. Probably more than a crush, but the situation was hopeless. My father would find me a mate, and minions weren't qualified.

Silence spread across the beach like a giant wave. I turned and grinned. Father had arrived. Minions went down on their knees. Even Lottius and Katia joined them. I guessed I should be nervous about interfering in matters that didn't concern me again, but I wasn't. This was the right thing to do.

”May the Princ.i.p.alities guide you, Lord Valafar” followed him as he walked past the people. He paused to pat heads and shoulders, ask about family members. Some reached out to touch him as he pa.s.sed them. From their reaction and emotions, they revered him.

I waved. ”Over here.”

”May the Princ.i.p.alities guide you, sire,” the elders said when he reached us.

”Thank you.” Then he turned to me. ”Daughter.”

”I'm happy you came,” I said, offering him an apple.

He smiled and took it. ”I'll always come when you need me.”

I grinned and patted the sand. ”Want to sit?”

He looked around, face expressionless. I don't think so.

It shows that you are one of us, Father.

I am one of you, he said stressing ”am”. Someone appeared with a chair for him. The guards stayed standing.

No one offered me a chair, I griped.

That's because you're not our leader yet.

Yet? Did that mean he meant to step down? I didn't want to think about that now. ”Sit, please,” I told the guards. ”Grab some fruit.”

They acknowledged my words with a nod, but they didn't take me up on the offer. Instead, they studied everyone and the horizon as though they expected Guardians to pop up from the sea of harmless minions or from the water.