Queen of the Savages - Complete by Lisa Lace Page B

for destroying part of his criminal enterprise.
    Rev was praised as the hero who saved his brother from imprisonment at the hands of pirates, and Tev was praised for his bravery in infiltrating such a dangerous den of bandits.
    No one mentioned that as a result of Rev and Tev's actions the pirates let loose a rain of airborne destruction on Kerdos killing thousands, including the entire royal family.
    No one mentioned Tracy.
    In all of this, Tracy was nearly ignored by everyone except Rev, her attendant As-Sali, and the doctors who examined her.
    She had to stop thinking about this. Her search results finally flickered onto the screen.
    Aligned Worlds Government (AWG) — The Aligned Worlds Government is comprised of three branches. The Legislative Branch consists of the Council of Nine and the Aligned Worlds Congress. The Judicial Branch includes the AW Court System, the Enforcement Wing, and the last remnants of the former royal rulers, colloquially called the Vacant Throne.
    This last bit sounded interesting. Click.
    The Vacant Throne is a symbol of the defunct royal line, the Moc-Noton. This hereditary line failed to produce a royal heir three hundred standard years ago, leaving the throne of the Aligned Worlds empty. The charter of the AWG was written one thousand standard years previously and is the foundation of Aligned Worlds rule and law. Rather than dissolve the charter and the Aligned Worlds government, the throne is allowed to remain vacant.
    The passage sparked Tracy's curiosity. They let a throne stay vacant? On Earth, there were still kings and queens even though royalty had lost its prominence. Even if the rulers were deposed, their children in exile would still have claims to the throne.
    She spoke into the tablet to perform her next search. Though her language implants allowed her to read Galactic Standard, she couldn't write it. The palace doctors explained that the ability to write words was different than speaking them.
    They were amazed she could read as well as speak through the translators. It seemed human brains were organized differently from most other sentient species.
    Though she was called "my lady" and treated like royalty by some, one thing she did not appreciate was being treated like a lab rat by the Kerdos doctors. They marveled over everything from her red blood to how Rev's mating bite didn't addict her. They poked and prodded her so much that even Rev was losing his patience with them.
    One thing she appreciated about Rev was his protection. His screaming after a particularly long session with the doctors kept them away for days. The memory of Rev's fit of temper directed at the well-meaning medical staff put a smile on Tracy's lips.
    She glanced up at the timepiece, a natural one made of sand and rocks. She didn't know how it worked but it was beautiful and awed her each time.
    Kerdos was full of the aesthetics of rocks and plants artistically arranged inside and outside of the palace. Even the stone veranda that lined the left hand wall of Rev and Tracy's room had many plants arranged in pleasing patterns and colors.
    It was too bad that half of the palace was destroyed in the pirates' attack. The dichotomy of beauty and destruction illustrated the current tension in the palace.
    Rev was late. This was another sign that his meetings weren't going well. Again. Tracy had tried hard to understand the politics of the Kerdos people, but the information net was full of gaps of things people thought were common knowledge.
    But Tracy wasn't from Kerdos so she didn't know, and she was getting frustrated. She ran many searches during the day trying to understand Rev's people and her new society.
    Tracy ran another search on the Vacant Throne, speaking her questions to the computer. The search presented different categories: conspiracies, prophecies, and the line of succession.
    "Conspiracies," she said.
    Though unproven, certain groups have proposed that the failure of the Moc-Noton to produce an