by Marie Dry
“You do not speak to him,” her captor said. The knave did not even sound out of breath from all this running.
“Do not tell me oof—” He’d jumped again. “You did that on purpose,” she accused. This time, when she managed to lift her head off his back and look for Sir Robert, he was only a small dot in the distance. “No,” she moaned. Despair flooded her. Could this day get any worse?
He ran up the mountain and she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed. No one heard her prayers, and she feared she was about to see hell and confront the devil. Would he be a creature of reason?
By the time her captor set her down on her feet, every bone in her body ached. His large hands slid from her ankle over her legs, to grip her waist. She gasped when he briefly touched her behind before setting her down. She slapped at his hands. “Knave!”
Melisende forced her trembling legs to hold her weight. They stood high up on the mountain, on a smooth ledge that she judged to be about fifty feet long. She lifted her chin and stepped back from him. At the castle, she hadn’t had time to notice his appearance beyond the fact that he looked like a demon. Now she noticed his green-and-gold skin and his bald head with the strange protrusion from the top of his skull to his forehead. Was it a horn? He towered over her, and had muscles bigger than the bravest knight. In spite of his fearsome looks, he had a compelling beauty, probably so that he could seduce innocent folk.
He grated out something in demonish, and the mountain in front of them turned silver.
Melisende crossed herself. She was doomed. They’d reached the portal to hell. “Please let me go.” She was ashamed of pleading, had promised herself never to do it again, that day when her mother had told her she was to stay at the abbey.
He turned to face her and her throat closed, as if he’d dug his claws into it. As she watched, horrified, slivers, like blood-red embroidery threads, slowly wound through the black of his irises. “I killed an Eduki for you.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t know what it means.”
He switched to his evil language, and the silver mountain parted the way the Red Sea had parted for Moses.
Melisende’s heart beat so fast, she couldn’t breathe deep enough. Her fingers clutching the cross trembled so much, she feared she’d drop it.
He held out a large, green-and-gold hand. The tips of his fingers had sharp, vicious-looking claws. Seeing them extend and retract had been horrific. “Come.”
Melisende wanted to hide her own hands behind her back, but she didn’t have any choice but to place her trembling hand in his. His claws engulfed her, rough and as warm as the fires in hell against her skin.
Corbleu, she was about to enter the portal to hell, holding the claw of either the devil himself, or one of his minions.
Chapter Three
“Come.” He pulled her inside the mountain that gleamed silver in the light. She couldn’t see where the light came from. No candles burned and the mountain had swallowed them, no exit behind them anymore.
“S’il vous plaît, let me go, demon,” Melisende pleaded, pulling back, but that claw had her in the strong grip of a hand not of this earth.
“You will not be harmed,” he said, but she didn’t find his words reassuring, at all.
She clutched her book of equations and her cross. Shouldn’t hell be red? With fires blazing and people screaming their repentance in a desperate plea to stop their torture?
Everywhere she looked, she saw silver. Silver walls, silver floor. She looked up. Even the ceiling shone silver. They were inside the mountain, but unlike a cave, there were no jagged edges. It was like standing in a perfect shiny box. “What is this place?”
“It is our dwelling, and will also be the headquarters for Zyrgin Europe when we reach the twenty-fifth century.”
“I do not understand.” She tried to think of a rational explanation for all this, but she had no reference. Surely he didn’t think he could live centuries into the future?
“In time, you will.” He took her arm, carefully, as if she’d break. Where he touched her, her skin burned. “Come and look at the dwelling I made for you.” His chest puffed out and Melisende swallowed. He was proud of the place he’d made for her in hell? Her legs threatened to give way beneath her. He’d called her ‘breeder’, and she knew exactly what that meant. Even marrying an ignorant oaf like Sir Robert was preferable to being a breeder in hell. She shuddered at the thought.
Not knowing what else to do, she allowed him to lead her through the large room and down a long, narrow tunnel. He had to walk slightly in front of her. She calculated the dimensions of this tunnel. “Did you make it this small for defense purposes? Against humans or other ungodly creatures?”
“It is standard procedure.” The look he gave her was almost approving.
She had no idea what that meant. Before she could ask him to explain, they came to a small, silver room, as perfectly square as the previous one. Melisende awed at the richly embroidered tapestries and furnishings. They could be in a great house instead of deep inside a mountain.
“I have made a superior dwelling for you.” He motioned around the space that resembled the sumptuous room of a castle. “It does not stink.”
She frowned up at him. He was obsessed with smell. “Sir Robert’s castle did not stink.” Except that it had. Melisende had cleaned her own cell at the abbey with boiling water and fresh herbs every week. She’d been considered odd, and bathing every day had not helped.
“You are the only human in this century who seems to take regular baths.” He pulled her close against his hard and very warm body. His head lowered as if he was about to kiss her, and Melisende didn’t know what she’d do if he did. For the longest moment, his face hovered near hers.
He took a deep breath and lifted his head, and she could’ve cried with relief. He pulled her through a gleaming silver passage, the edges straight and smooth. Another wall parted, and they entered another room. She swallowed. A large bed, covered with a huge, luxurious pelt dyed a rich purple, stood in the middle of the cavernous space.
Melisende stared around her. “Corbleu, it is the bed chamber of a lady.” How was this possible? Her whole life, she’d only had a simple bed to lie on, and a cold stone floor to kneel on for prayer. “For me?” she whispered, but no sound emerged from her lips.
He walked to the bed and picked up the purple pelt. “I hunted the biggest Eduki I could find, and defeated him with my bare hands. Now you are my breeder, we will do the first knowing.”
He dumped the pelt into her arms and she staggered under the weight and dropped it. His eyes narrowed. Melisende stumbled away from him. “What is this ‘first knowing’?” The words alone struck terror into her heart.
He showed her his teeth, and not for the first time she wished she was as other women. She’d be able to faint and maybe induce some sympathy. It might save her from being ravished. “We will spend many hours in the sleeping place, and I will learn your body,” he told her.
Melisende had always been considered a sturdy woman. She’d been told she was too large for a woman, and her family would struggle to make a good match for her. Looking up at this demon, feeling small and vulnerable next to him, was not as pleasant an experience as she’d thought it would be. Feeling small and delicate in a room dominated by a large bed and a demon calling her a ‘breeder’, would’ve threatened to induce a faint if she was a less sturdy woman.
“No,” she whispered.
She was doomed.
Chapter Four
Melisende’s lips trembled again. That sign of her fear stopped Zain from picking her up and putting her on the bed. It was the most difficult thing he’d ever done. He wanted to do the first knowing with her more than he wanted conquest in battle.
“What will ease your fear, my breeder?” He frowned when she flinched and took more steps away from him.
“Do not be afraid, female. I will allow you time before we do the first knowing.” She didn’t look grateful for
the reprieve. “Until you are ready, we will kiss.” When she didn’t protest, he quickly added. “Every day.”
He slowly drew her into his arms, smiling to reassure her. She flinched, but didn’t struggle. Zain pressed his lips against hers, carefully. He should’ve asked Zurian how to kiss without hurting her with his teeth. Her soft, trembling lips reminded him of the rose flowers found here on Earth. This moment, feeling her against him, kissing her, made the long, lonely century he’d spent waiting for her worthwhile.
She pushed his chest with her hands. Enormous eyes stared up at him. Did that mean she had enjoyed the kiss?
“You shouldn’t do that. The church is clear on not consorting with animals,” she told him.
He lifted her with his hands under her arms, held her so that they were face to face. “I am not an animal.”
She swung her legs, trying to kick him, making odd squealing noises. He ignored all of it to make his point.
“I am not an animal or demon. Humans in the twenty-fifth century call us aliens because we come from the stars. I am a Zyrgin warrior.” That should be a simple enough explanation. He lowered her carefully to the floor.
Her eyes rounded and she stopped trying to kick him. “A Star Warrior,” she whispered.
She shook her head and her midnight hair moved like Aurelian silk around her face and shoulders. “That is nonsense. Even the great Thales of Miletus discounted the possibility of life on other planets.”
He stepped toward her, battling the urge to manifest his sword. There would be time enough to find this woumber and cut him into pieces. “Who is this Thales?”
Her eyes shone. She gestured with her hands, as if this woumber were larger than life. “He was the greatest man that ever lived. His knowledge of math and the planets was superior.” She tilted her chin, as if daring him to speak against her human hero.
Zain needed to find this Thales and teach him not to try to impress a warrior’s breeder. “I have greater knowledge of math and the stars. You will cease talking about this human.” He accessed his database and relaxed. The human had lived centuries ago. “Much of what he hypothesised was wrong.”
“Do not dare malign him.” Her eyes had pretty sparks when she was angry. “One day, I will walk in his footsteps. I will go to Egypt and Greece, and my eyes will see the wonders he experienced.” She said it as if daring him to contradict her. He didn’t know human females, but there was something tragic in her words. As if she was trying to convince herself more than him.
Now that he knew the human had died centuries ago, Zain didn’t care if his breeder thought the Greek a genius. “How did you learn about this Thales?” This century didn’t allow females any schooling. From what he’d seen, the men didn’t have much education either.
“I read about him in the scrolls I found at the abbey.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “You are not to speak of the scrolls to anyone.”
Humans were destructive, and he had orders to preserve all knowledge. After the fall of the human computers, now centuries into his future, much knowledge had become lost. A cunning thought occurred to him. The long dead Thales couldn’t do this for her. “I will bring you all the scrolls in the abbey.” He knew she was tempted. She even leaned towards him. But she shook her head.
She sighed, longing in her eyes. “No, it is not possible.”
For a Zyrgin warrior, nothing was impossible. He’d surprise her and gift her with those scrolls, and she’d be so grateful. Maybe she’d even want to do the first knowing with him. A warrior could hope.
She touched the woven rug with the tip of her shoe. Her head down, she gave him a quick glance, before she looked down at her shoe again.
“Why do you keep calling me ‘breeder’?”
Zain heard the fear she tried to hide from him. He’d talked to Zurian about human breeders before he’d volunteered for this assignment. He knew what to say. “On my planet, we call our wives breeders. It is a term of great respect.”
***
Melisende smoothed her hair, that had come loose, and squared her shoulders. His explanation calmed her worst fears, but that didn’t mean she was about to become his breeder. “Why me?” The nuns had told her she’d be condemned for her unfeminine ways. For reading when she should be embroidering. Maybe they’d been right all this time. “What made you choose me?”
He looked her up and down, his black eyes glittering. “I heard Sir Robert was to wed a tall woman, with a beautiful name, who had the habit of reading and bathing every day. I knew you belonged to me.” He flashed a fang. “I decided to take you for my breeder, even when I saw your shortness.”
“My shortness?” After years of towering over everyone around her, and being ridiculed for it, now this Star Warrior called her short?
“I also hoped for a better battle to win you from that ugly human with the ridiculous hair.”
“Sir Robert’s hair is perfect.” Unfortunately, that was true. “What is your name, Star Warrior? You did not introduce yourself before you kidnapped me.”
He flashed those teeth again, and she flinched. It made him look truly demonic. Could he be smiling when he did that? “I am called Zain.”
“I like Star Warrior more. Even if it is impossible to go to the stars,” she said, pointedly.
“I am from the stars, from the planet Zyrgin, specifically.” He cocked his head in that odd habit of his. “Did your scrolls teach you that the earth is round?”
***
Melisende stared at him, indignation in every line of her body. Zain enjoyed each expression; each word she said to him dispelled his loneliness. “Do not be ridiculous. The world is a flat disk floating in a body of water, exactly as Thales of Miletus discovered centuries ago.”
He should’ve gone back in time and killed that woumber, before he could write on scrolls and impress Zain’s breeder with false knowledge.
He crossed his arms. “The earth is round and it orbits around the sun.”
“Orbit? You mean it circles the sun?” She laughed, almost doubling over. “That is so funny. I suppose you have a reason for this farfetched theory?”
“We came to earth from our planet in a space ship. And I know the shape of the earth, because I saw it from space.”
She laughed even harder, her beauty shining like an earth diamond, even when she laughed at him. “Do you take me for a fool? A ship cannot travel to the stars.”
“Ours can.”
She didn’t seem to hear him, her laughter faded and she frowned. “If you truly travelled from the stars by boat, you must have ended up in the waters your planet floats in. You ventured too close to the edge of the bowl of water your planet floats in and you spilled over the edge and fell into Earth.”
Zain barely contained his mirth at that odd reasoning. Speaking to her was very entertaining. The centuries would pass quickly while he had these strange conversations.
She tapped her forefinger against her chin. “That must be why you did not fall to your death. The water broke your fall.” Even as she told him her odd theory, he could see that intelligent brain of hers computing and not coming to the right conclusions.
“Why didn’t we smother without air between the two planets?” he asked.
She stared at him, her forehead crinkling. “There is no air between planets?” Her eyes widened until they looked like Natalie’s dinner plates.
“No. When you leave the atmosphere, the area surrounding the planet, there is nothing to breathe in.” He wouldn’t even begin talking about high altitudes and thinning air. Or gravity.
Zain gave a voice command to the computer he’d installed to call up the image of Earth and it hovered between them.
Melisende looked ready to run, and yet fascinated. “What magic is this?” She made to touch the image with a trembling hand, and then hesitated.
“It is safe to touch. A machine made the image, and I store it in another machine and bring it out when I want to look at it.” He’d never
realized how difficult it would be to describe computers to someone living in primitive times.
That jewel gaze cut to his. “Teach me.”
In that moment Zain knew he’d won his breeder.
***
That had been a week ago. Each night he slept alone, outside the door of their sleeping place. Whenever she became fearful, he showed her something that engaged her brilliant mind. He’d briefly left her alone to collect the scrolls at the abbey. Her lips smiling in that odd human way, she’d thanked him with eyes glittering. She watched him when he used the equipment, and she learned new concepts at an astonishing pace for a human of this century. He also suspected she had an eidetic memory. When she wanted to win an argument, she’d quoted scrolls she’d read, word for word.
Zain returned from patrolling the mountain. He did this every day because he didn’t want humans near his cave.
He found her in the entrance to the bathroom. Zain leaned his back against the wall and watched as she walked in and out of the doorway, trying to catch the sliding door unaware. In spite of her considerable intelligence, her medieval mindset taught her anything that moved on its own had to be alive. A few days ago, he’d found her trying to coax the people in his recordings to come out of the ‘machine’. With an unintelligible mutter and a glare at the door, she stalked into the bathroom.
Zain halted the door with a command. She didn’t see or hear him, but stared at the door that had retreated back into the wall. After a while, she shrugged and went to the bath. She disappeared from his view, but he heard her undress. Like it did every time he saw or even heard her do something, his body demanded the first knowing. Every night, while he guarded her, he imagined what the first knowing would be like. Melisende came into view again. She slid into the hot water with such a look of pleasure, moaning softly, his body reacted. His warrior penis ached for her.
