by Bailey Dark
Zaya slowly smiled. Maybe even the real Zaya believed it. I hoped so.
I wondered if I had overpowered them with the mind control, if the people of Vailstor were more susceptible to it, or if I had just done it for too long to them. Why was I not able to relinquish Tellison? No matter, I didn’t want Zaya to be brain-fried. I needed to get her to safety, and the safest place for her right now was with me. I would figure out where she needed to go after I helped heal her from her mental fog, which would hopefully not take too long…
She would likely be pissed… Rightfully so… But, I could handle that.
I held her hand and led her onto one of the game trails as heavier chunks of snow began to fall. Now, we just had to go find shelter in the dark redwoods of the Vailstor forest.
Four
Axis
“Any word from Commander Cartari yet?” I asked Bravo Ilisa as I entered the command room.
Ilisa shook her head, fair brown hair shaking loose from her strict ponytail around her moon-shaped face. I frowned. It had been four days. Four days since Cartari had landed on Vailstor and his last communication.
“Better not have gotten caught up with some girl along the way…” I grumbled under my breath. I looked up at the monitors, knowing to anyone looking, it seemed my black eyes might be lasering holes through the screens. My concern would be quite evident, fists clenching at my side, teeth grinding, face a bit flushed. Princess Ceritha was out on one of the scouting vessels, trying to obtain new information about a very skittish, and slightly hostile, pod of dolgons who were still infected with the blue flu. They were particularly averse to being reached by telepathy with the Curans, but Ceritha would convince them, I was sure of it. She was brilliant that way.
Cartari was brilliant, also, and he would surely complete his mission as scheduled, either to get General Blatson to agree to the new deal for the calasis mineral to supply the laser cannons, or we already had a new general, a woman named Truloy, scouted to put in his place. She seemed much more amiable and open to the Curan alliance… And she was second in line, ready to take over if Blatson happened to “have an accident”, or lose in a duel. And Cartari would win any duel that he might engage in, without a doubt. I was counting on his negotiation skills to win the day, first and foremost though. It was one reason I had agreed to send him on this mission, even though he was essentially my right-hand man for all matters of the Bristola Oceans. He really needed a break from the Seawards Special Operations Unit and a break from Command in general. An assassin/emissary mission was a smooth enough transition and interesting engagement for him, but… Had something gone wrong?
“Ilisa, I want you to organize a small troop. Five of our best who can navigate Vailstor, remember it’s a snow planet, harsh terrain. It will be aimed toward reconnaissance. Potentially retrieval and rescue. Prepare them to leave tomorrow. I will give the word if I haven’t heard from Cartari by then. I want you to lead the mission.”
Ilisa saluted. “Yes, Commander. Confirmed. I will consider the assignment carefully and have the names to you shortly for your approval.”
“Good.” I looked out to the oceans through the control room’s mock window video screen. While it could be that Cartari was blowing off steam with a girl, it was more likely that he had been captured somehow. I had a bad feeling about it…
Come on, Cartari… Get on that comm and tell me you’re okay…
One more day. I would give him one more day. Then I was sending troops after him.
Five
Zaya
The comforting heat of flames wavered against my skin, the soft fur of an animal’s coat flickered its strands against my cheeks with a rush of wind as a chill swept in from an open door. I struggled to open my eyes. Cartari, the charzbos, was standing in the doorway, framed by whipping wind, moonlight, and soft flakes of flurried snow. His silhouette shook, freeing himself from the cold and snow, stepping into the cabin and shutting the door with a huff.
The warmth welled in the cabin and he turned to me, his face glowing red as the fire to my left illuminated his gorgeous, freckled, Curan face.
We are a team… I will follow you… I will stay with you… The words came unbidden to my mind, but were a comfort, a soothing litany, as if they were the most important words I could think, the words of safety and security that defined my world. Where did they come from…?
I reached my hand out to him, as if my own will didn’t control it. The charzbos unsheathed his hands from his leather gloves, then took my hand and held it in his, rubbing it softly, warming the chill from my fingers.
The charzbos placed his hand on my brow, feeling first my forehead, then my cheeks, then my neck. His hand was cool, sending a shiver down my spine. He placed a cloth on my forehead.
“Keep this on your head, okay?”
The cloth smelled faintly like lavender, peppermint, and cloistin oil. What was the cloistin for? Was I sick? What had happened?
I struggled to sit up. He pushed me gently back into my fur comforter, which I realized was really just a black and red cloak and a mound of towels.
“You have to lay back and sleep, Zaya. Rest your brain.”
“We are a team… I trust you. I will stay with you.” The words sounded foreign, coming to my lips, but as if spoken by someone else. I shook my head, holding my temples tight in my hand, warning bells ringing, my chest tightening, my eyes swirling with tears, as I fought the sensation of something else in my brain, something from the outside… Something not me.
“You’re okay, Zaya.” Cartari sat down next to me and gripped my shoulders, soothing my hair gently. “You are safe with me. We are safe from the storm in here. We will head north once you’re feeling better. I have to meet with a man there.”
I looked at him sharply, tears choking my throat, flung from my eyes, my fingernails raking his arms. “No! Don’t take me to him! I’m trusting you!”
My head was suddenly filled with a gentle push of tenderness and I was soothed. I lay back down in the robes and relaxed. “Don’t take me to him… I’m safe with you… We are a team. I escaped from him… I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back. I trust you.”
“Don’t worry, Zaya. I won’t take you back to whoever you’re running from. You just stay with me. I will keep you safe.”
Cartari placed his hand on my forehead and I relaxed into heavy breathing, the fur rubbing my cheeks, the flames hot and sweet on my skin, and I slipped into a dream where I imagined his kiss on my lips and his body pressing into mine. His hands tangled in my hair, his words whispered into my ear, soothing me, enchanting me into the deepest dreams of desire. I shifted in the fur cloak and imagined his hands roaming down my body, memorizing my curves, fingertips tracing the way my nipples pressed into perfect peaks when he teased them, pinching them, exploring as he traced a line down my stomach with roving kisses, fingertips clutching at my clothes. His hands were sure and strong, inviting...
I drifted into a delirious sleep. The charzbos was sweet and safe and mine. He was on my team. He would keep me safe.
Six
Cartari
We were fortunate to stumble upon the little cabin just as the storm’s gale really broke loose. The wind had begun to rip through my coat, so I was sure it was tearing through the thinner lining of Zaya’s royal cloak, even though the mind-controlled daze she still appeared to lost in hid any recognition of cold, pain, or fear.
The cabin was tucked back in a redwoods grove, swamped in snow, and was well built, heavily insulated, solid chinking, with a small woodshed right beside it that held not only an ample supply of dry wood for the fireplace, but some preserved fruit and vegetables to add to the supplies I had bought in the market. We were set for food for a few days, at least. There was an even larger shed further back, but I decided to leave that to explore once the storm had settled.
I positioned Zaya next to the fireplace, covering her with the cloak and making her comfy on every towel and blanket I could find
in the cabin which appeared to not have been visited in quite a while, and built a roaring fire. She was in a delirious daze, and kept muttering how she trusted me, would stay with me, but “don’t take her back” and saying “don’t let them find me.” I wondered what I had stumbled into by hitching my wagon to her star…
When there was a slight break in the gale, I decided to venture out to the shed that was set further back. I trudged through the foot of snow that had fallen and lugged at the door to get it open, ducking as snow fell from its eave. It was nice and dry on the inside, the roof holding a testament to the architect of the shed. I smiled with delight. It was a rightful armory inside. I grabbed up a few of the knives and a sword, along with a bow and a quiver full of arrows. I wondered if Zaya had any skills with weapons, other than her body… a shiver went through me as I imagined those fine lines. It had been awhile since I had known a loving touch… The battle with Alpha Jase in the south of Farian for the Emerona Empire and then directly following against the pirates on the Bristola Oceans had made for many a lonely night. Command was lonely and didn’t leave much time for a dating life.
Zaya was certainly a gorgeous beauty… Just my type. I had had to carry her much of the trek from the city in the storm and snow. Her body was light and athletic, limber to swing around over rocks and through snow drifts. But, she was more a burden than anything at this point. Granted, a burden I had made, with my haphazard mind control… I scowled at myself in the dim light of the shed.
I was obligated to her now. I had to make sure she was safe. She might die if I didn’t bring her back to her own faculties. She certainly wasn’t capable of taking care of herself in this condition. I had seen the poor state of Tellison, the guard… Besides, I was curious about her.
It would be worth it to carry these weapons with us. Who knew what we might stumble across as we made our way to Blaston’s military base in the north, which is where I was certain he was encamped at this time.
I trudged back to the cabin just as the wind started to shriek again.
Zaya was sitting up when I entered. Her eyes appeared a little clearer than they had for the past two days of our entrenchment in the cabin’s safety against the storm. She rubbed her head and looked at me blearily. Even with the glaze across them, it was amazing how beautiful their color was, that true turquoise green that made my pale green look like pea soup.
“Hello, Cartari, my guardian… Will you protect me from him?” She smiled at me and rubbed her temples, shaking her head, a flurry of confusion drawing her gorgeous features into a scowl. She extended her hand to me, then pulled it back quickly. She jerked her head to one side, then smiled at me again, then shook herself. I sighed, sad to watch the inward fight. She was battling against the messages I had Willed. The supreme desire to feel free and to trust me, to feel safe and part of a team with me, to bond herself to me without any doubt and unconditionally, and then her true, skeptical self that knew that thought came from without her. She was battling, she was rebelling, trying to cast off the remaining tendrils of my Will and understand what had happened.
I hadn’t realized my Will would impact her so harshly. I took off my coat and hung it on the wall. I poured myself some water and handed her some as well, melted from the snow outside. She drank tentatively, then finished the whole glass.
“Thank you. I trust you.”
The words had become a mantra. She had said them many times in her delirious sleep. I was starting to get tired of them; I knew she didn’t mean them. I had put that feeling in there… The mental battle must be intense… Horrifying… Her eyes were starting to sparkle with tears that she couldn’t understand and couldn’t control.
“Cartari… Come to me…” Zaya tried to stand up and stumbled. I rushed to catch her. She held tightly to me, her fingertips running up my forearms, my biceps, curving up my shoulders. I had held her in the snow in the days before, as we made our way against the storm to reach this cabin, but that had been just to keep her upright in her dazed state. This was different, and a fire burned inside me. Her body pressed against me. Her legs moved into me, one of them sliding up my thigh, hugging my leg, wrapping around my hamstring and pulling me in tighter. Her fingers crawled into my hair, tickles of tapping massages against my scalp, making me involuntarily moan and close my eyes. She brushed her large breasts against my chest and I could feel my cock swelling in my pants. She ran one of her fingers along my jawline and touched my half-open mouth gently, pulling out my lip.
“Don’t take me to him, Cartari,” she breathed, her lips getting closer to mine. My hands gripped her, my fingers kneading into her tiny waist. My heart was beating fast, my breath coming short. Her dark hair brushed against my cheek. It smelled like the lavender and peppermint cloth I had been putting on her forehead. I nuzzled into her a moment, imagining what it would be like to hold her… This is wrong. She is still delirious, still under my mind control. She is likely just responding to what I secretly want.
I leaned into her, wanting her to kiss me. I wanted it so bad… She could feel it, she was leaning in… I knew that she was just feeling my desire and wanting to obey me, still linked through the mental bond… “I trust you… Keep me safe, Cartari… Don’t give me back to Blatson…”
I blinked and shoved back from her sharply. “What?”
The spell was broken. She stepped back, her eyes welling with tears, her hands going to her temples, she sank to her knees. She clenched her teeth and stared at the ground. “I don’t understand!” She screamed against the storm roaring outside. She crawled back to the blankets and collapsed in them, sobbing into the cloak.
I stared at her, frowning. She had said the General’s name. She was running from Blatson. Had I said Blatson’s name before? I couldn’t recall, but I didn’t think so… Had she keyed into my thoughts somehow and just latched into that one? Was it delirium? Was she really running from the exact same person that I was set to make a deal with for the sake of Farian?
I stared at her where she lay in the covers, body shaking. Her tears were breaking my heart, but I was unable to do anything to calm them. I was dumbfounded. After a little while, she fell asleep and I readjusted the lavender, peppermint, and cloistin cloth on her head. That would soothe her, I hoped. She would break my bond soon. It couldn’t last much longer. She was clearly strong-willed.
I stared at the flames licking the log’s bark, shaving it down to the bones of the wood and devastating its life-force, draining it to ash. The storm screamed late into the night. It was bound to be a big one. We were going to be trapped here for awhile.
I looked back at the sleeping beauty. I wondered what other startling news she might ramble before she was fully one hundred percent. I vowed not to take advantage of her vulnerable state, the state I had accidentally forced her into. I would wait until she was better. I would ask my questions then.
Seven
Axis
I could sense Ceritha walking up behind me before she even spoke. While the electricity between us when we touched had waned a little, it still ignited unbelievably when we opened ourselves to each other telepathically, or when we made love. The thing that hadn’t changed, and I didn’t think ever would, was the sixth sense we shared toward each other’s presence. I knew where she was at all times. I wondered if it were the same for Kajo with Daphne, for Jase with Vania. For any Destins who had existed with each other for all time. It was a great Curan legend, the Destin connection, and I was fortunate to have found mine in another Curan, in my beautiful, spirited, redheaded Princess Ceritha of Serpul.
Ceritha placed her hand in mine and squeezed it, watching the rays of oranges, reds, yellows, and purples shade into the sunset with me silently. A firefin burst through the water, his silhouette in the sun a piece of art I could paint with my eyes closed. I had not returned to my duties as a Spec Ops Commander and doubted I ever would: I was a Prince of the Bristola Oceans. It was my duty to rule this kingdom, my warrior scientist Princess beside me.
> “Are you worried about Cartari?”
“We were able to access his ship’s monitor finally, and there’s been no activity near his spaceship. The garage he rented to store it has a month’s lease, so there will be no reason for anyone to even check its container for another three weeks.”
“Ilisa and her crew will land on Vailstor in five days. They will find him.”
“It is alarming that he has not found a way to contact me.”
“He could have lost his handy comm, and we already knew that Vailstor was not the most technologically advanced colony. They may not have a transystem communication device. He may have been separated from his ship and decided to go forward with the mission, regardless. Cartari is very capable. I am sure he is okay.”
Ceritha soothed back my hair and looked deep into my eyes. She opened her mind to me and let a spike of our Destin connection flow through me, igniting my every cell with an echoing burst of electricity that reverberated and made me shiver. I smiled at her. She was right. There was no reason to catastrophize. Ilisa had taken a solid troop of five soldiers, who would be a benefit to the mission with General Blatson, regardless. If Cartari had somehow been derailed, captured, or killed, they would find out, and take the suitable action. They would complete the mission.
I sighed and leaned into my Destin. I kissed her and smiled at the setting sun, its rays sparking a message of hope over my aquamarine waters. Cartari would soon be found and be given aid. I just hoped that, whatever he was going through, Ilisa and her crew made it in time to help.
Eight
Zaya
I stirred against the cloaks and blankets, my arms and legs seeming to come back to life before my brain was fully active. I clutched the blankets to my face, trying to get my bearings. My hair was matted to the side of my face, from sweat, I thought. And tears… I remembered sobbing, and rubbed at my cheeks where there were surely tear trails tracking through the grime of days in prison and this little cabin, wherever we were. The storm still sounded loud and furious, rattling the glass panes of the three small windows, and whipping an occasional draft through the bottom slice of space at the doorway.
