by Lili Zander
“And I’ve caused this, but I don’t know why.”
He looks genuinely bewildered. For a tiny second, I want to tell him that if he doesn’t know what he did, I’m not about to tell him. “Let me give you a clue,” I snap. “You can transform into a dragon.”
He looks even more puzzled. “And you dislike dragons because they’re fearsome and terrifying beasts?
“What? Are you being deliberately obtuse?”
“I assure you, no.” Frustration bites his voice. “One moment, you seemed to like me. The next moment, not as much. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I said or did, and apart from you learning about my ability to shift into a dragon, I can’t think of anything.” He smiles disarmingly. “Either that or the coffee was truly terrible.”
For a second, I find myself responding to that damn smile. Then I mentally smack myself. If he’s banking on the assumption that I’m not going to call him out on being a cheating douchebag, he’s wrong. “Let me jog your memory,” I snarl. I throw his own words back at him. “The Draekons can’t shift, not unless they find their mate. You said that about Mardex, remember?”
Understanding washes over his face. “You think I have a mate? That’s why you’re angry?”
“Of course that’s why I’m angry.” With great difficulty, I resist the urge to punch him in the jaw. Judging from the size of Ruhan, I’ll probably just end up breaking my hand. “I don’t know what Draekons do and don’t do. For all I know, you have no concept of monogamy. But you should have mentioned your mate, because I would have never slept with you had I known about her.”
He grins at me, the absolute prick. “Lani, I don’t have a bondmate. Not now, not ever.”
It’d be worth the broken bones to wipe that stupid smile off his face. “Bullshit.”
“It’s the truth, I promise you.”
The sincerity in his voice is impossible to miss, and for a second, I waver. “So, what, Draekons can’t shift unless they find their mate, but you’re special, and you can?” I roll my eyes. “How stupid do you think I am, Ruhan?”
“I think you’re one of the cleverest people I’ve ever met,” he replies. “Nobody survives three months with the Okaki pirates, but you did. Even when you’re afraid, you don’t lose your head. You think your way out of situations that would cripple most people. I admire you immensely.”
Warm pleasure fills me at his praise. I grit my teeth and steel myself against it. “Spare me the compliments. They’re not going to distract me.”
“That’s not what I was trying to do.” He stares into the distance. “I can shift because…” His voice trails off. “It’s a long story.”
I look around at the endless expanse of desert. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s not as if there are a thousand demands on my time.”
I’ve barely finished my sentence when he picks me up as if I’m as light as a feather and swings me to his right. I squeak in surprise, and he puts me down. “Sandworm trap,” he says in explanation. I turn back at the patch of desert he carried me over and notice the sand there is a dark gray in color, not black. “Sorry. Should have warned you. I’d forgotten about them.”
“Sandworm trap?” My voice is high and shrill. With Ruhan at my side, I’ve been lulled into complacency. I’ve been so busy yelling at him that I’ve forgotten to pay attention to my surroundings. “What exactly is a sandworm trap?”
“Sandworms live under the desert surface. The lighter patches are like quicksand. If you step on it, you’ll get sucked under the surface.”
“Let me guess. And then I’ll get eaten?”
“Yes. Don’t step on them if you can help it, but they’re nothing to worry about. The quicksand is slow-acting, and I’ll pull you out long before you’ll be in real trouble.”
Does nothing perturb this guy? “What’s the long story, Ruhan?”
He hesitates. “My genetic makeup is different from Mardex’s,” he says finally. “The Draekons were the Empire’s soldiers. At the start, they could shift freely, but the scientists wanted to control them. They made them sterile, and they altered their genetic makeup so they would only shift in response to particular stimuli.” He sighs. “Entirely predictably, the gene mutated. Now, the first shift happens when two Draekons recognize their mate.”
I consider his explanation. “You’re saying your genes haven’t mutated, and that’s why you can shift?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Lani.”
There’s no reason to believe him, but I want to believe him anyway. There’s something about Ruhan. When I’m with him, I’m not smart, and I’m not practical. No, I want him too much. I crave him. I might even need him.
And that scares the living daylight out of me.
Then another thought strikes me, something so obvious I can’t believe I didn’t see it right away. I was so lost in my jealous snit that I totally forgot Ruhan has been in stasis for a thousand years. Even if he’d had a mate, she would be dead by now.
Oh God, I am such an idiot.
Okay, this needs to stop. This isn’t me. I’m not jealous, and I’m not shrill. But somehow, one orgasm from Ruhan’s talented fingers, and I’ve changed into the most irrational, clingy, shrill, angst-filled version of myself.
“Do you believe me?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.” I paste a fake smile on my face. “It’s not as if we made any promises to each other. Let’s just get to the nearest town, okay?”
His eyes rest on mine. For a second, I think he’s going to say something else to convince me, and then he nods. “Okay.”
The sun is setting when we see a shimmering wall in the distance. “Drobal,” Ruhan says. He reads details from his tablet. “It’s a small hamlet. About a thousand residents, give or take, according to the last census.”
“All Okaki?”
“Not anymore, no. Drobal is a third Okaki, a third Zorahn, and the rest is a mix from all over. Nestri used to be an Okaki stronghold, but it’s now part of the Empire, which means there’s free movement of people, goods, and services within its boundaries.”
“Do the Okaki resent the invaders?”
“I’m not sure,” he replies. “In my experience, the old rulers, the ones that have lost power, tend to be the most resentful. But the everyday citizen, for the most part, tends to welcome the peace and prosperity that comes with being part of the High Empire.”
We near the shimmering wall. As we get closer, a pair of guards emerge from behind the barrier. One of them is Okaki—his tentacles are a dead giveaway—and the other is a Zorahn woman, I think. Both are wearing armor that shimmers the same way as the wall. They’re both heavily armed, and they give us identical suspicious looks. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” the Okaki snaps.
Until about a year ago, I thought Earth was the only inhabited planet in the galaxy, and humans were the only sentient species. Even though Ruhan has been in stasis for a thousand years, something that shocks me every time I dwell on it, he’s still better equipped to answer the question. At least he’s been on Nestri before.
Sure enough, he knows exactly what to say. “Peace be with you,” he replies pleasantly. “We crashed into the desert.” He gestures behind us in the direction of the shuttle. “One of our companions was wounded. We put him in a stasis chamber to staunch the blood loss. We need a healer to tend to him.”
“You crashed?” the Okaki probes. The Zorahn woman doesn’t say anything, but she continues to point the gun at our faces.
Ruhan nods. “When we entered the atmosphere, we were shot at.” His voice rises in anger. “I told them we had no weapons, that our ship had exploded, and we were in an escape pod, and they attacked us anyway. What’s going on in Nestri, and why are you shooting at an unarmed shuttle?”
I discreetly study Ruhan. The guy is a chameleon. He might be angry about being shot at, but the outrage in his voice is manufactured for the benefit of the two guards.
Also,
Blue’s nowhere to be seen. The spider bot has mysteriously disappeared.
The Zorahn woman sighs. “So, it’s begun,” she says. “And now we are all at risk.” She exchanges a look with the Okaki and lowers her weapon. “My name is Zara. This is Parkim. As to your question about what’s going on, the LoreLords of Nestri are planning to go to war with the Zorahn Empire.” Her voice is grim. “And we will all die because of their folly.”
14
Ruhan
Great. Just fucking great.
As if it weren’t enough being back on Nestri, the damn place has to be on the verge of war.
My thoughts keep circling back to Lani. I want to breathe her in, fill my lungs with her essence. I want to be on the receiving end of one of her sparkling smiles. I want her to wrap her arms around my neck and kiss me, her lips soft with invitation.
But I can’t dwell on any of that right now. The escape pod, even without the hastily patched hole in the hull, isn’t good for interstellar travel. I need a way out of Nestri, and I need it fast, before the Zorahn Empire swarms the sector and shuts down all non-military travel.
“We’ll send out a skimmer for your companion,” Parkim says as he escorts us inside the village. “Our healer, Vostill, is familiar with Zorahn physiology, so he will be in good hands here. Once he’s well, you’ll be moving on from Drobal?”
That’s phrased as a question, but it isn’t really one, not that I can really blame the Okaki for wanting us away from their village. We’re strangers, and the planet seems on the brink of war. These are not the best of times in Nestri.
“I’d like to get to Nestri Prime as soon as possible,” I assure both Parkim and Zara. “And from there, find a shuttle off-world.”
“Don’t we all?” Zara asks bitterly. She looks like she’s on the verge of saying something else, but Parkim puts a tentacle on her arm, and she seems to change her mind. “You can get a meal at Taen’s tavern,” she says instead, pointing to the low and squat building across from us. “He also has rooms that he rents to visitors. Are you in need of credits?”
“Thank you, no.” Under the circumstances, they’ve been remarkably kind. After spending most of the day walking through the desert, I’m more than ready for a cleansing shower and a hot meal, and Lani must want the same. “Shall we?”
There’s only one room available for hire. This morning, I wouldn’t have thought that that would be a problem, but after our earlier conversation, I’m not sure.
I’d been honest with Lani. I’ve never had a mate. I’ve never wanted one, and even if I had, it was something that was always out of reach for me.
But I also hadn’t told her the entire truth. I hadn’t told her I was created in a lab. Under the High Empire’s rigidly hierarchical system, I am worse than Lowborn. I didn’t want to tell her that. This morning, when I had made her coffee, she looked at me as if I was a hero. I wanted her to keep looking at me like that, her eyes shining with happiness.
That’s not the only reason you were silent.
Lani’s from Earth and human customs and traditions are not the same as those of the Zorahn. I have no reason to believe she’d care that I was made in a lab. The real reason I’d glossed past the details about why I could shift without a mate and Mardex couldn’t, was something else.
I am a killer.
I’ve fought in hundreds of wars. I’ve been responsible for thousands of deaths. I’ve spent a lifetime running from the truth of who I am. I’ve resolutely looked to the future, and never dwelt on the past, because the past can wreck me.
“Ruhan?” Lani prompts me. “I’m okay with one bedroom. Are you?”
“Sure.” I am not a good person, and I don’t want to be around when Lani realizes the truth about me. I don’t think I can face her judgment.
Her expression fills with concern. She waits until Taen shows us to the room and departs, and then she turns to me. “No jokes about finding ourselves with only one bed and being forced to cuddle?” she asks quizzically. “Is everything okay?”
Caeron help me, she’s right. It’s not just that we have to share the room. There’s also only one bed. I’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight.
“Yeah, it’s fine.” If she looks at me with disgust in her eyes, it will wreck me. I gesture to the refresher. “Why don’t you wash up? I’m going to take a walk around the village.”
“In other words, you’re going to check out their defenses? Or is Blue doing that already?” Her tone is teasing, but there’s still a trace of concern in her eyes.
That forces a laugh out of me. Lani doesn’t miss much. “You noticed he was missing.”
“He’s a spider the size of a dog, Ruhan. Yes, I notice when he’s missing. Why is he hiding?”
“It’s not easy to get your hands on an Adrashian techbot,” I reply. “Right now, to the people of Drobal, we’re just a pair of travelers. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“The war that Zara mentioned, it has you worried, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” I admit. “I’d like to get out of here before open hostilities break out.”
“It’s not too late?”
“I hope not.” She looks worried, and I give her a reassuring smile. “I’m going to try and contact the others. They’ll get us out of here.”
Get a hold of my brothers, and they’ll help us. It sounds simple, but in truth, it’s much more complicated. We communicate using a secure comm channel, and I had to leave my Adrashian comm behind on Hokatir, along with the Circada.
I walk out of the tavern and head toward the village wall. About a dozen guards patrol the hexagon-shaped perimeter.
With difficulty, I keep from rolling my eyes. The patrols are pointless. Whether Nestri is on the brink of war or not, the Empire’s armies are not going to march into the middle of a desert to subdue a strategically insignificant village of a thousand inhabitants. The armed presence is a placebo, designed to make the residents feel better.
Or is it? If the person in charge of Drobal’s security isn’t an idiot, what are they hoping to achieve?
I set aside my instinctive disdain and ponder the problem. The LoreLords are no match for the Empire. The Zorahn Empire inhabits thousands of planets. The Imperial Navy has an almost infinite supply of warships and soldiers. They will crush the LoreLords into oblivion.
No matter how desperate for lost glory, the Okaki LoreLords have to realize that. They have to know their rebellion has almost no chance of succeeding.
So why try?
A pair of patrolling soldiers march toward me, one Okaki and the other Zorahn, just like Zara and Parkim. It’s a smart tactic. Some commanders will silo their troops—putting all their Okaki into one unit, and all the Zorahn into another, but the optimal strategy for multi-species forces is to mix up the soldiers, for both operational reasons as well as to promote team unity.
And it’s working here. The soldiers are chatting to each other in fluent Oka, their camaraderie obvious. If the rest of Nestri resembles Drobal, the planet is a model of integration.
Ah. That’s it.
I pull up my tablet and access Nestri’s stats. The planet’s population is roughly three billion sentients. One-point-five billion Okaki, one billion Zorahn, and the rest a mixture of assorted other species.
One billion Zorahn. That’s the LoreLords’ secret weapon. The playbook isn’t new, but it’s depressingly effective. They’ll stir up tensions between the species, stoke up public sentiment against the Zorahn. They’ll talk about how they want to take their planet back from the invaders. They’ll frame innocent people for high-profile crimes, and announce they want to eradicate the crime wave. They’ll create food shortages and blame the Zorahn for it.
They’ll brand the Zorahn the ‘other.’
There’s a sick feeling in my stomach. How far will the LoreLords go? Mass deportations wouldn’t serve them well, because as soon as the Zorahn civilians have left Nestri, the Empire will move in. No, they’ll resort to rounding up the Zora
hn into concentration camps.
A billion hostages to keep the High Empire from acting.
What’s the contingency plan? Ru’vi, Spymaster of the Zorahn Empire, is many things, but she isn’t a fool. No, quite to the contrary. She’s terrifyingly competent. Even a thousand years ago, we had tools to counter this sort of xenophobia. We had our own propaganda outlets, and for more extreme situations, the Zoraken assassins would move in.
For obvious reasons, troop movements aren’t stored in the ThoughtVaults. Not a problem; I have Blue. I ping my techbot. “Blue, how many Zoraken are stationed on Nestri?”
“A battalion on the outskirts in Nestri Prime,” the bot responds immediately. “Another battalion in Sotuf. Apart from the two battalions, there are four soldiers that are part of the 49th Squadron.”
“The assassins.” The 49th Squadron reports directly to the Spymaster. Four assassins are a lot. Ru’vi is expecting trouble then.
Worry lances through me. I’ve exposed Lani to danger. This is the last place she should be. I must get her to safety before this situation can get even more unstable.
“Any luck getting hold of Fourth or Kadir?”
“No.” Blue manages to infuse that word with reassurance. He’s learning well. “Do not worry, Ruhan. My records indicate I’ve attempted to hack into 3,456,391 secure systems. I’ve failed just once, and only because the ship I was in blew up around me, severing my connection.”
The bot sounds rankled by his sole failure. “You sure that’s the only reason?” I tease him. “Maybe you came across the one system you couldn’t penetrate.”
