"Madam Bausalu?"

"Yes, Lant?"

"I need a bodyguard."

Lady Bausalu wen Delanau looked away from the computer screen with a small frown. Looking up at her from where he knelt on the floor was Lant'ien Ruvuah, boy mage whose powers she bound. "What do you mean, you need a bodyguard?" she asked, surprised. Lant'ien rarely asked for anything at all, much less something as odd as a bodyguard.

"Just exactly what I said. I need a bodyguard, a good one."

Lady Bausalu, one of the few part-humans from Lant'ien's own homeworld and kingdom on Star City, knew something about the past of her charge, ward, and prisoner-- more than anyone else on the space station did. Others, those she'd had to negotiate with three years ago to earn them citizenship and safety on the floating city, knew only that he was bound and imprisoned of his own volition, for his own safety, and per his parents' wishes, and his older sister was bound and imprisoned elsewhere in the Nexus because she was dangerous. She didn't need to know Lant'ien's history to know why, she just had to stand beside him and feel the sense of his magic. Or, perhaps more appropriately, the gift that was his lack of magic. Or, in his case, curse.

"Why ever would you need a bodyguard, Lant?" she asked, puzzled. "No one is here to hurt you, even if they could."

"I just need one. Please, Madam Bausalu...."

"All right, I can ask... but if you don't have a valid reason, then I might be refused."

There was silence for a moment as Lant'ien slowly thought this over. Because Bausalu kept his powers bound, it was like a part of himself was missing, and so he tended to be slow. According to the boy himself, it was well worth the price he paid. "I can pay someone," he finally said with a nod. "I have enough for that, don't I?"

"Well, yes," Bausalu nodded thoughtfully. The boy actually had a small fortune left over from his former home and standing in society, before he'd been sent away, him and his sister. Bausalu remembered that, because even then, she was one of the few with the power, born and bred to that power, to keep his abilities sheathed and harmless within him. "But I would still like to know why you think you need protection. It's hard to prepare for something when you don't know anything about it."

Lant'ien chewed on a dark lip, looking anxiously to one side as he thought. "My sister," he said at last. "I think my sister is going to make trouble."

"Make trouble," Bausalu repeated with a blink and a little chill. The last time Ky'ipa "made trouble" had been when she and her brother had left their homeworld for good, when they were to be separated because she never failed to "make trouble" when her brother was anywhere near. That "trouble" had nearly destroyed the city they were to leave and the ship they were to leave in.

"Yes...." From the tone of his voice, Lant'ien was remembering the same thing.

Dragging herself out of memory and the faint sense of dread at the idea, Bausalu shook her head. "Your sister can't get to you, Lant; she's bound up even more strongly than you are. I can check on her for you, if you like, though." Ky'ipa's binder was a good friend, an old friend. All of the Delanau binder students knew each other; there were so few of them, it was nearly impossible not to.

"That would be a good idea, maybe," Lant'ien agreed with a slow nod and a blink. "But I would still like a bodyguard."

"I'll look into that, too," Bausalu promised.

"As soon as you can?"

"Today."

" ... All right. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Lant."

Lant'ien climbed to his feet, smiled wanly at his keeper, and drifted off back to his books. Bausalu watched him for a moment as he settled back down again amidst writings varied in subject and medium: a few were books-on-computer-- hand-held viewing screens with digital books loaded into them-- some were the traditional paperback or hardback, one or two were old scrolls, and there was even a massive tome or two. She had no idea where he got them all, or what they were all about, but they kept him occupied and interested when he could have been doing nothing but staring blankly at the walls. As long as he could occupy himself, Bausalu didn't have to try and keep him occupied, herself; trying to keep the attention of a bound child was difficult at best, if he didn't want to focus.

Shaking her head at her distraction, Bausalu turned back to the computer. She had an email to write, to the Ministry of Security, to request protection for her charge.

"Oh, and Madam Bausalu?"

"Yes, Lant?"

"Make sure there's a xenodragon or two, too."

Bausalu stared over at Lant'ien, who appeared to be focused on one of his books. " ... A xenodragon?"

"Yes, please. Or two."

Well. If Lant'ien thought he needed protection, in the form of xenodragons, who was Bausalu to contradict him? "All right, Lant."

"Thank you."

And Bausalu, bemused, started composing the email.

Chapter Three

Back to Lant'ien - Back to Ky'ipa

Back