Broken Wings by Viola Grace Page A

support her until they reached a quiet study. He guided her into a chair, and he murmured something about refreshments before he left her alone.
    A man came in and sat next to her, his wings flaring out behind the back of the split chair he occupied. “My son has asked me to keep the crowds from you, Specialist.”
    “Thank you, Lord Akhiera.”
    Astien’s father had dark brown hair, amused eyes and the same features as his son, down to the midnight wings.
    “My question is why do you need to be kept away if you were just another visitor to the Decla colony?”
    “I lived there.”
    He tsked and tilted his head. “You and I know that there were no aliens on Decla at the time of settlement, and the only way you could have been born there was if you were one of the original colonists’ children. You are an Enjel.”
    Poppy was vibrating with tension on her shoulder.
    Minerva looked at him. “Who are you going to tell?”
    He shrugged. “No one. I was there when the roster was created and the colonists were tested. You have your father’s smile and your mother’s ability to think on her feet.”
    He stood and bowed, “Welcome to Jela, Lady Nhu.”
    She blinked as he settled back down. “The lack of wings didn’t confuse you?”
    “Yes, but I have checked into the medical reports of the battle. There was an amputation of both wings performed on a young woman who left against medical advice and bullied her way into a mech.”
    She looked into the fire. “I didn’t bully.”
    “Why were there mechs designed for regular bipeds?”
    “The Tival had a small settlement outside our gates. They were the first to die.” She kept herself cold. She could get through this.
    “The records and witnesses said that you left the colony with the mech and kept it moving until help arrived.”
    She snorted and looked at him with eyes that didn’t see him. “Help for them. I would have destroyed them all if the Guard hadn’t arrived. How have you seen those reports?”
    “I am a minister of the exterior. It is my business to know about our people in the stars. I am sorry for your loss.”
    She nodded and swallowed. “Thank you, but many others were lost that day.”
    “You are an interesting young woman. I can see why Astien is interested in you.”
    Minerva was surprised. “He is interested in many women, or they are interested in him. There is always a crowd around when he is out in the open from what I have observed.”
    “He has his father’s good looks.”
    She was surprised into laughing.
    “And his mother’s pheromones. Women might chase him, but you are the first he has not run from, and yes, I know that disguising you as his lover was his way to stop his mother from giving him hints as to which women he should begin courting.”
    Minerva inclined her head. “He is very pretty, but it has only been weeks since I saw my family killed, nearly died and then went on a rampage. I need time.”
    “He will give it to you, but do not mistake his lack of aggression for a lack of persistence.”
    It was the best advice she had been given in her life.
     
    Their trip back to Ohkhan was quiet. Poppy kept her calm when the memories of the attack had her waking up in a cold sweat.
    When they returned to the base, Astien kissed her hand and smiled. “Keep working on the sculpture. I will be in and out of the base for the next few months and don’t want you to lose the progress you have made.”
    He left her, and she took Poppy back to her quarters where the statues of her family had been placed, on the side table where the sun gleamed on them.
    She touched the faces of her parents, and she sobbed. Time might heal all wounds but it did not hurry.
     
    The days took on a pattern. Mornings with Kibor, and afternoons with everything that took her fancy. She spent one day a week with the psychic sculpture, learned clothing design, cooking for survival and a few other random skills.
    When Astien was in the Citadel, they met and