by Roxie Ray
No one had believed my story for so long that sometimes even I doubted that it had really happened.
But then, I heard it. That cold, deep, metallic voice that punctured my sleep and dragged me back into the waking world as soon as it hit my ears.
“Alyse.”
My eyes snapped open. My chest heaved with panic. For a moment, I was sure that it was just sleep paralysis, because I couldn’t move.
But then, I felt the needle slide back out of my neck. When my eyes flickered to the side, he was there.
It was him.
He loomed over me, that same evil that had lurked in my garden all those years ago. But he wasn’t hidden in the darkness any longer. Now, he was so close, I could see the polished bone of his horns. The deep red of his skin, dark like dried blood. As his lips hovered over mine, I could even smell iron on his breath.
“I told you I would return for you,” he hissed against my lips. His eyes were unblinking, black all the way through. “When we first met, you were too young to be my queen and too stubborn to be molded to my liking. But now, you are old enough to bear my children. To be my bride.” He smiled an awful smile. “You will come with me now. Someday, you will even come to love me. And then, you will take your place at my side as my queen—just as I promised so long ago.”
When his lips brushed against mine, they were so icy cold that I was desperate to pull away. But there was nowhere to pull away to. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t escape. He placed his hand on my chest, black claws dragging possessively over my skin, and for a moment I couldn’t even breathe.
Then, whatever he had just injected me with hit my mind and the world faded out into a darkness so deep, I feared that I’d never see light ever again.
2
Nion
I hefted my ax up and sliced it across the horizon, blotting out the sunrise. The final stroke landed and finally felled the tree that I had been working on since first light.
Sweat beaded my brow, and my muscles ached from the exertion. Normally, none of this would have taxed me, but while my time in the infirmary had cost me none of my endurance, it had stolen a little of my strength. I pushed through the pain and tipped the tree over with the toe of my boot. It crashed to the soft grass and dried nettles of the clearing, proof that I was not entirely useless quite yet.
I let the sweat pour down my neck and back as I set about chopping the tree to firewood. My every movement tugged at the dressing on my side and the stitches beneath it—but I paid them little mind. In the capital, perhaps I would have gotten away with recovering from my wounds in luxury, but here in the little village that I had been raised in, there was no time for sipping broth and waiting for someone else to finish the work that needed to be done. I had earned my stitches in defense of the palace, but I was no high lord, no prince, no king. I was Nion of House Nothing. If I had to tear my wounds open once to prepare my mother’s home for the oncoming winter before I left in service to our people again, then I would do so happily.
“Nion!” My mother’s voice cut through the clearing as I chopped the last bit of wood into a manageable-sized log. The chicklings scattered from the trees at the sound of her voice. Already, I could hear her bustling through her garden to come in search of me. “Nion, did I not tell you to—”
“Stay put?” I heaved the ax up onto my shoulder and placed my boot proudly on a piece of wood. With these, her fireplace would stay lit through the snows. It was not much, but it was the least I could do while I enjoyed the last of my leave. “You worry too much, Mother. I am fine.”
Mother burst through the edge of the clearing. Her green hair, now paled with age, was in a disarray. She tugged her robe around her tightly as she glowered in my direction.
“Fine?” she spat. She moved toward me at a march and jabbed her finger at my dressing. Pain erupted where she had touched—but that, too, I bit back. “Look at the state of you, Nion! All this, for a little wood?”
All this, for a little wood. I forced down a chuckle. That was the tale of my mother’s entire life. My father had left her to care for my brother and me on her own not long after my birth. But it was a cruel joke to laugh at—and when I glanced down at the dressing, I could see she had a point.
Blood bloomed across the white expanse of my bandages. It was not bad—I was mostly healed now—but it was enough that I was certain had Healer Adskow, or worse Lady Bria, seen it, they would have dragged me back to the infirmary by my ear.
“It is nothing,” I said, turning away to retrieve my shirt. The cloth was coarse and low-quality, but the stitching on it was impeccable. Many things had been said about my mother since my father’s departure, but none could say he had left her for a lack of sewing skill. “I will have the healers attend to it when I return to the ship.”
“You should not be returning at all,” Mother chided. “There is a place for you here, you ridiculous boy. You can stay here. Heal here. And then, when you are finished, you may chop as much wood for me as you like.”
I opened my mouth to argue but stopped when I saw the pain in her eyes.
I knew well the true reason she did not wish for me to return to my military duty. It was the same reason that she had forbade me from joining the service to begin with when I came of age.
“I will return as soon as I can, Mother. I always do.”
“Always in pieces.” She kicked at the hunks of log at our feet. “They return you to me no different than this firewood.”
I pulled my shirt over my head, hiding my wince behind the fabric. When it was on once more, I took her by the shoulders and kissed her forehead.
“You need not worry about me,” I told her. “I am not Hyian. His fate is not mine. And perhaps this time when I return, I will return with vengeance for him as well.”
That should have put a smile on her face, but I was not surprised when it failed to. Instead, when she drew away, she turned her head to spit into the dirt.
“Vengeance. I do not need that, Nion.” She crossed her arms over her stomach and shook her head. “If you must go, you know I cannot stop you. But if you return to me with anything, it had best be you, whole this time—and, preferably, with a wife and child.”
“You know that there are no Lunarian women for peasants like me, Mother,” I said with a sly smile. It was clever of her to shift gears in such a manner. Clever, but ultimately useless. “Even the common girls are being wed to lords and princes these days. I fear your wishes for a grandchild are no closer to being fulfilled than your wish for me to stay.”
“Do not think I have not heard of these human females you and your warlords have been rescuing.” This time, when she poked me, she aimed for the center of my chest—which I was grateful for. “I saw the first, the Lady Bree-ah, when she was presented at the capital. And the Lady Soy-air—”
“Sawyer, Mother,” I corrected her with a laugh.
“—there has been much talk of her, even through the villages of late.” Mother arched a green eyebrow. “They say these humans are beautiful things. Good for breeding, too.” She turned her chin up and nodded sharply. “If you must go, then I see no reason why you cannot return with one of your own. Risking your neck for vengeance, I will not stand for—but for a bride…that, I can at least understand.”
“There will be no bride for me, Mother.” I shook my head as I made my way back to her hut. It was a cozy little thing, made of cobblestone and a thatched roof. Nothing like the palaces that Kloran and Haelian had been able to offer to their own mates. “The high lords and princes will claim every human female we bring back to our planet, and then the lesser lords and merchants after that. These humans may be ridiculous creatures, but not so ridiculous, I think, to fall in love with a lowly soldier with only a hut and an overbearing mother to his name.”
Behind me, my mother swatted the back of my head with her hand. “Overbearing? Pah!”
I turned to grin at her. “Overbearing—and sweet, too. Loving. Kind. A mother who will be much
missed until I can return.”
Though she frowned as she did it, Mother nodded and sighed. “Then at least let me wish for the day when you are not called to leave again, Nion. It is not right, that you are risking your life for these females, just so that all these gilded princes can make them into brides.”
“I fight to protect you, Mother.” I wrapped her up in my arms, and slowly, she returned the hug. “You know that.”
“You fight to avenge a boy who has been dead for so long, I struggle to remember his face sometimes,” she whispered, clucking with disdain against my shoulder. “But if you must fight, my son, you had best win. I have already buried one son. I do not wish to bury another.”
I held her for longer, perhaps, than I should have. But where I could not promise her that I would not fall in battle—no warrior could truly swear against that—I could at least let her hug me for long enough that, if I did fall, she would have something to remember me by.
I knew the stakes of what I fought for. I understood what must occur. Either I would return someday with justice for Hyian…or someday, I would not return at all.
That evening, I loaded up on the ship with the rest of the grunts. In passing, I caught sight of Haelian and Kloran. They each gave me a nod of respect. Neither of them looked happy to be returning to their places on the ship, but after the assault on the palace, I understood why they had made the decision.
Kloran had a wife now, Bria, and a young cub and with another on the way. Haelian had his own mate, Sawyer. When she had visited me in the infirmary before I was released, she had mentioned enjoying the taste of gilly-fruit now. For the average human, I recalled, the gilly-fruits were sour and displeasing, but for females who carried half-Lunarian cubs, the taste turned sweet and delicious. I had not missed the sight of the marriage bracelet on her wrist, either. Though I was sure that both Haelian and Kloran loathed the idea of leaving their pregnant mates, I also knew how much was at stake.
Scarcely more than half a moon cycle ago, a Rutharian ship had entered Lunarian airspace unchallenged. It had landed in the courtyards of our own grand palace in the capital. The palace guards had abandoned not only Sawyer, Bria, and Kloran’s cub, but all the other servants within the palace as well. Had it not been for our small band of trusted forces, there was no telling what damage the Rutharians could have done on Lunarian ground. The lives that could have been lost that day still stirred fire in my veins every time I thought back to it.
And it all could have been prevented. Should have been prevented. Lunaria had defenses against such things that should have been activated long before the Rutharians cleared our atmosphere. The palace guards should never have left their positions.
Kloran’s own intelligence agent, Apex, had been the first to confirm what we had long feared.
There was a traitor within our midst. Perhaps more than one. And unless we found them, as well as eradicated the last of the Rutharians from the galaxies, no warrior, female, or cub would truly be safe.
“How is your war-wound, Nion?” Gallix, the Avant Lupinia’s pilot, nudged me in my ribs as we passed each other in the ship’s inner corridors. “The Rutharians have not stopped you yet, I see.”
“As sore as you will be as soon as I beat you in our next game of dibyak, you old scoundrel.” I grinned and took my knocks with pride. Among the men of the high houses and their mates, I had to be more reserved—but with Gallix and the other warriors, I could speak as casually and freely as I liked. “Have you seen Apex lurking around the ship yet? I thought I might see if our resident specter had any updates on where we are headed now—and to what end.”
“Same end as always, my friend.” From behind me, Gallix’s navigator, Ronan, thumped me on the back of the head with one of his four arms then locked my arms behind my back with two of his others. “Rescue human females and watch them fall in love with our dashing officers. At this rate, perhaps even Leonix will lay claim to one before you or I have a chance.”
We wrestled briefly, the way we had in the fighting pits when we were but cubs. Ronan’s four arms gave him an advantage in close combat, but even healing from my wounds as I was, I was still faster than him. Slipperier, too. I broke free of his hold and had him in a headlock of my own while Gallix roared with laughter, the ideal audience for such roughhousing, before the soft scent of perfume washed over all of us.
Then, all three of us were greeted with hard, sharp thumps to the heads.
“Shape up, cublings,” Leonix barked at us. Her voice was sharp and commanding, tinged with the more educated accent that all members of the high houses shared. But when I finally released Ronan and straightened, I could see fondness in her eyes. “At this rate, I would not blame the human females if they chose me over you lunkheads. If you three were the only choices they had…”
“Poor Leonix. I always knew you were the jealous type.” Gallix grinned at our lieutenant, the only Lunarian female aboard the ship. “These human females may have seduced your cousins with ease, but I promise you, not all Lunarian males are so easily swayed. Just know that you are always welcome in my bunk.”
Leonix raised an eyebrow at Gallix, then flicked him hard enough between the eyes to make him stumble back, blinking wildly. Now, it was Ronan and I who were snickering away.
“If I chose you to mate with, I fear we would never breed at all,” she said to Gallix matter-of-factly. “From the way I hear it, your bunk was so sticky with your own seed that when the work-slaves found it, they tried to renegotiate their contracts rather than spend the rest of their days scrubbing it clean. Are you certain there is even still enough seed in your balls to be making such offers?”
Gallix’s scowl made Ronan and I howl even louder. I would have welcomed the laughter even more, though, if it had not made my wounds ache so badly.
“Nion,” Leonix said, turning to me. The concern in her eyes told me she must have noticed a trace of pain on my face. She cocked her head to draw me away from Gallix and Ronan. Even when we were out of earshot, she kept her voice low. “Are you certain you are ready to continue on with this mission?”
“Of course,” I said with determination. The wound at my side ached, true, but all wounds did. Besides, it was mostly healed now. As I had already proven in my tussle with Ronan, it would not slow me down. “I appreciate your concern, Leonix, but—”
She held up her hand and gave me a stern look. “I am concerned for more than just your wound, Nion. I know what this mission means to you. Rescuing these human females is not all that is on your mind as we proceed. Do not try to pretend otherwise.”
“I would not dare.” I clenched my jaw in annoyance. It was one thing to be treated with concern because of my wounds, but another thing entirely to be called up on my motives. “Avenging my brother’s death is only part of my cause, Lieutenant. It is secondary to my devotion to our mission at large, but I do not think that a desire to see Rutharian blood spilled is necessarily a bad thing right now. Is it?”
“No,” Leonix agreed. “But I do not wish for it to cloud your judgment. And I fear this new mission will be more difficult than the last time you boarded a Rutharian ship.” Her eyes glinted with seriousness. “They know what we are after now. This time, they will likely know that we are coming.”
“I understand,” I said with a nod. “My judgment and my conscience are both clear.”
Even if the soundness of my judgment concerned Leonix, it had never been of any concern to me. My motives were simple. Precise. And best of all, I was passionate about seeing them through.
Determine the identities of any traitors amongst our ranks.
Rescue any human females being held captive by the Rutharian hordes.
And take as many Rutharians out along the way as possible. Until I had eliminated not only the berserker who had murdered my brother, but their entire race along with him.
“Good.” Leonix held my gaze for a moment, then returned my nod. “Then I suppose I will see you once our next battle is
won.”
“With a pretty human female in my arms and my claws smeared with Rutharian blood,” I agreed. But before she could leave, I caught her arm. “Have you seen Apex, by the way? He visited me while I was in the infirmary. And I would…” I scowled, uncertain of whether I should alert Leonix of what he had told me then. She and I had been friends ever since I had joined the ranks of the warriors aboard the Avant Lupinia, but many Lunarian females were unhappy with the new influx of human females on Lunarian soil. Apex’s last words to me had been heavy ones.
We did not know anymore who among our warriors we could and could not trust.
“I would like to speak with him,” I finished lamely.
Leonix’s eyes flashed yellow with surprise for a moment before they faded back to their normal purple hue. “I have not seen him, no. But if I do, I will tell him that you are looking for him.” She shrugged. “I would not count on it, though. You know how the specters are. If they were easy to spot, we would call them something else.”
We parted and I made my way to my bunk. It was an annoyance that I could not locate Apex to ask him if he had any more news on potential traitors in our midst, but Leonix was correct. The specters—Lunaria’s elite force of intelligence agents—were not known for being simple to find.
I would have to search him out more thoroughly some other time. For now, I needed to gear up—sharpen my blade and do my best to clear my head.
There would be time enough for searching out traitors after our next battle was won.
3
Alyse
Every night, I prayed that he wouldn’t come for me.
