Free Nightmare Kingdom: A Romance of the Future by Barbara Bartholomew Page B

repeated, “and power. They are not concerned about the traditions that say a female can not be a far speaker. They will do as we say, my sister and I.”
    Claire recognized an incipient problem. Both girls would need to be taken down a notch and reminded that they were only kids. Otherwise, they might be telling her what to do.
    But right now, she’d give them full range. “Get us off this damn planet,” she ordered.
    Adaeze gave a nod. “As you say, Mom.”
    It wasn’t quite that easy. In the first place the approximately forty percent who could communicate mind-to-mind wanted to honor their distinguished visitors. This was, Claire decided, probably the only place in the universe where nobody cared that the far-speakers were girls. They were just glad some kind communication between planets existed and hoped that by ingratiating themselves, they might have a hope of getting off this forsaken world.
    The other  approximately sixty percent either wanted to kill them just for the fun of it because they were not Capron’s prisoners, or were gloating over the very large loot they hoped to gain from the emperor for the return of his family.
    It was not a pleasant position to be in, but Claire hadn’t been empress of the Aremian Empire for fifteen years for nothing. She’d learned the lessons taught by her highly skilled husband.
    She put words in her daughters’ heads and they started telling the telepaths about what was actually going on in the other worlds, how their beloved father was dead and a little boy with only limited skills was on the throne.
    And in her own words Claire told the pathetic creatures that huddled around them close enough to hear her speak what was going to happen to them if they even considered touching a hair on their heads. She explained point by point some of the more unpleasant punishments she could hand out. They weren’t sophisticated people and she was, or had been, their empress. And Claire could be most convincing.
    By nightfall the three of them were housed in the best Capron had to offer, a recently built wooden shack that did less than their cave prison to keep out the cold wind. And they were served large slabs of roasted meat with root vegetables, and her daughters were hungry enough to eat heartily of everything served, even though they had to use their fingers in place of forks and spoons. As for Claire, a life-long vegetarian, she was content with sampling the vegetables and hoping that none of them came down with any kind of stomach disorder.
    They were settling down onto their makeshift beds on the floor when Adaeze suddenly straightened, the look coming to her face that told her mother she was focusing on a significant communication.
    “He’s just standing out there all by himself, yelling “Claire! Claire!” she said aloud.
    “He who? What are you talking about?”
    “The man you call Jamie,” Adaeze responded in a tone of disgust. “That’s a little boy’s name.”
    Claire sat up. “Jamie’s from Earth. You can’t hear him. He can’t hear you.”
    “I can see him through Aremian eyes. They’re watching him and thinking he’s out of his mind.”
    “You said he was alone.”
    “He thinks he is. But our crew is trying to keep an eye on everybody and everything. They don’t understand what’s going on.”
    Jamie was calling for her. Suddenly Claire felt almost fifteen again. Her first instinct was to instruct her daughter to send words through the cruiser crew that she was okay and no longer a prisoner. But then she had a second thought and reclined again on her sleeping mat. “Get some sleep, Adaeze,” she said. “Your sister’s already in dreamland.”
    It wouldn’t do Jamie any harm to worry a little.
     
    Jamie had never felt so frustrated in his life. Claire, his Claire who had sacrificed herself in a relationship with the emperor to safeguard the rest of them, was asking to be allowed to come home. And Kevin Hartley and his supporters were