Vast reaches of emptiness between nearly lawless stations, dangerous jumpoints, and the occasional star system, Rim duty was enough to drive anyone crazy. But she welcomed the emptiness of space and the loneliness of her own thoughts after this humiliation.
She’d been on this patrol for over a week with nothing to report. Then this.
A jit’suku battle cruiser had appeared as if from out of nowhere, and blasted her before she could even get a message out. He’d been lying in wait behind an asteroid. Lisbet had known to be cautious, but honestly, her thoughts had been elsewhere. As soon as she spotted the giant ship lumbering out from behind cover of the asteroid, it had already been too late. Her signals bounced back – jammed. A moment later, a blanket of weapons fire appeared on her screens – sent the distance between the two ships in all her possible trajectories. She was blown already, and she knew it.
Popping her canopy and stranding herself in the middle of nowhere in the emergency pod had been her only choice. Not a great one, but there’d been no other way to get clear of all the incoming fire. The bastard giving orders on that battle cruiser hadn’t been taking any chances that she’d get clear and report back. He’d thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her and she hadn’t stood a chance.
“Human, this is Captain Fedroval of the battle cruiser Fedroval’s Legacy. Warrior to warrior, I give you the choice. Would you prefer the fast death of missile fire or the slow death of suffocation when your air runs out?”
For a moment, Lisbet thought of ignoring the short-range communication from the cruiser. He was still blocking her long-range transmitter, but he’d allowed her enough bandwidth to broadcast to his ship. Big of him. Damned jit’suku bastard.
“How do you know I’m not the advance scout of a much larger force? Could be my battalion is on my heels and will pick me up after they blow you to kingdom come.” Oh, how she wished that were true. She’d get a lot of satisfaction right now at seeing the jit’suku ship blown into a million pieces.
There was a slight delay in the answer she’d expected would come back right away. He probably knew she was bluffing. If he’d been hiding out behind that asteroid for any length of time, he had to know hers was merely a patrol craft on a regular route.
“Who is this? What is your name, rank and gender?”
He sounded mad now, for some reason she couldn’t imagine. And why would he ask her gender? That seemed odd in the extreme. But she’d play along. She’d be alone out here for a long while – if he let her live after this encounter – and she was going to have a lot of time, alone with her thoughts, before her air ran out. Might as well talk to someone while she had company, even if he was a damned jit.
“Lieutenant Lisbet Duncan of Earth. And I’m female, not that it should matter to you. I’m a qualified pilot who graduated top of my class from pilot training.”
While there had always been a lot more males drawn to military life than females, Lisbet wasn’t too much of an oddity. Many women had the natural skills needed to fly shuttles and other spacecraft. She was unique in that she’d requested fighter duty. She liked shooting at things and would’ve tried for a gunner position on one of the big battleships if she hadn’t qualified as a pilot.
“Prepare for retrieval.” The order was brusque and his harsh voice sounded even angrier.
“Now just wait a damn minute!”
A moment later she saw two small craft launch from the battleship and head straight for her. The bastards were going to pick up her pod. She was going to be a prisoner of war.
Dammit!
Although… it was probably better than dying alone in the vastness of space. At least if they picked her up, she might have a chance to do some damage to them before she died. She didn’t like the idea of being tortured, but she’d trained for it, like all the other pilots, and thought she was mostly prepared. She didn’t know much anyway. She wasn’t privy to any battle strategies or troop deployment information. She only knew her current mission and those she’d been on previously. Not much of value to the jit’suku empire.
Sure enough, the two craft flanked her and deployed sturdy microfilament netting that encompassed her pod. As soon as she was secure, they flew her back toward the cruiser. The ship was even larger than she’d thought. It had the latest in jit technology, from what she could see of its outboard arrays. This was no battered old warhorse. This ship was battle ready and gleaming, though she could see a few spots where repairs had been made after engagements with human forces, no doubt.
The two patrol craft deposited her inside a gleaming hangar bay, bumping her only once as they set her down. The nets retracted and they parked on either side of her ship. She waited patiently inside her pod, gathering what little information she could. Her instruments told her the hangar bay was pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and she saw big jit’suku men working on various craft parked nearby without breathing gear.
The hangar bay had a giant force field at one end, keeping the air in. Nice. On human battleships, the hangar bays were kept at zero atmosphere. Pilots loaded into the canopies above and were dropped down and secured to the fuselages below via a small chamber that was sealed and then evacuated of its precious air before opening to the hangar deck below.
The pilots who had caught her pod climbed out of their cockpits and moved closer to investigate. One made a sign for her to pop her lid and she shook her head, refusing. They went on like this for a few minutes, arguing via sign language through the window until suddenly everyone on the flight deck jumped to attention.
At the far end of the long deck, Lisbet could see a giant of a man – even among the very large jit’suku warriors – coming toward her at a fast pace. He looked absolutely furious. And handsome.
Damn. Why did she have to notice how handsome he was? She should be completely immune to men after what she’d been through. But this guy – this angry guy – flipped her switches in all the right ways.
He grabbed a piece of equipment as he went, nearly tearing it out of a tech’s hands. It had to be magnetic because it clamped onto her canopy the moment he touched the device to her hull. He held something on a wire up to his mouth and suddenly his voice boomed through her internal speakers.
“Stop playing games and come out of there now or I’ll have you cut out.”
Lisbet sighed. She’d have to open the hatch sooner or later. She admitted, if only to herself, that she was scared. These jit’suku were all massive and everyone she could see so far was male. She had no idea what they had in mind for her, but she wasn’t looking forward to finding out. Still, she couldn’t hide in here forever. The time had come to take her punishment. Whatever that might entail.
Releasing the hatch, the canopy popped with a hiss of equalizing air. Whirring gears indicated the hatch was rolling up and back the way it had been designed to do. As it cleared, she got her first really good look at the glowering man with the captain’s insignia on his uniform.
Oh, boy. The captain himself had come down to get her. No wonder the crew had all jumped at his entrance. Lisbet wondered what she’d done to rate the captain’s attention.
Pushing herself out of the seat, she stood within the canopy. She should have been taller than anyone on the deck from where she was, but she hadn’t counted on these giant jit’suku.
The captain’s eyes met hers and time stood still for a breathless moment.
His eyes were dark. The dark of space with a hint of golden brown that made them somehow warm. His molten gaze would have been inviting in another setting. As it was, she could see the flare of gold in his gaze as his expression tightened.
He held out one impatient hand and she took it before she could think better of it. He assisted her in the big step over the canopy lip and down onto the deck of the cruiser. She was truly in enemy territory now. Goddess help her.
We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from Bianca D’Arc’s first book set in the critically acclaimed, award winning Dragon Knights series…
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Maiden Flight
by
Bianca D’Arc
Copyright 2006 Bianca D'Arc. All Rights Reserved.
Chatper One
Belora tracked the stag through the forest. Carefully chosen for this hunt, the stag was older, past the prime of his life, and would feed her small family of two for more than a month if she and her mother used it wisely. On silent feet, she followed him down to the water, a small trickle of stream that fed into the huge lake beyond.
Taking careful aim with her bow, Belora offered up a silent prayer of hope and thanks to the Mother of All and to the spirit of the stag that would give its life so that she and her mother could live. She loosed the arrow, watching it sail home to her target, embedding itself deep in the stag’s heart. Her aim was true.
As expected, the stag ran off, pumping away the last of its life in a desperate attempt to escape. She followed, saddened by the poor creature’s flight but knowing it must be so. The old stag ran into a clearing, flailing wildly. He was nearing his end, she knew, and again she prayed to the Mother of All that it would be swift.
The stag faltered in its running stride, a shadow seeming to pass over from above. A moment later, the stag was gone, clasped tightly in the talons of a magnificent dragon winging away toward the far end of the small clearing.
Belora took off as fast as her tired feet would carry her, following the dragon who had stolen her prize.
Coming out of his swooping dive, the dragon pinned the stag's quivering body between the long talons of his right foreleg. He’d made a clean kill, stabbing the beast through the heart with his sharp-edged digit even before lifting it into the air. It struggled for a few moments more, then lay dead in his grasp. The dragon rejoiced in the skillful kill, chortling smoke into the air above him.
He came to a neat landing at the far end of the small clearing and dropped the dead stag to the ground with satisfaction. That was when he noticed the little stick protruding from the other side of the beast. It was an arrow. Drat.
"Oh no, you don't!"
The irate, high pitched human voice made the dragon shift his gaze upward to look quizzically at the small female now facing him with her hands perched in tight fists on her hips. A longbow was slung over her shoulder.
"I shot that stag well before you swooped down and picked him up. He's my kill. What's more, he will feed me and my mother for a month or more. For you, he's just a snack! You leave him be. He’s mine."
She shook with indignant anger and it was truly a sight to behold. Luminous green eyes sparkled in her pretty, flushed face. She seemed to have no fear of him, mighty dragon that he was, with blood on his talons and fire in his belly. She clearly had courage, and it impressed him. Few humans, much less small females, dared to deal with dragons directly.
He could feel her anger, and a rudimentary channel of thought opened between her mind and his. She was one of the rare humans then, who could communicate with his kind. This intrigued him even more, and one thought kept running through his mind—Gareth had to see this.
“What's your name, pretty one?” The dragon spoke directly into Belora’s mind, surprising her a bit, but her mother had told her stories about the dragon she’d known as a child. Belora knew dragons communicated with humans mind to mind. It was part of their ancient magic.
"I’m Belora." She renewed her forceful stance. She could not let this dragon sense any fear. She needed that stag. "Will you yield the stag to me?"
“Why are you not afraid of my kind? Do you know dragons?”
That wasn’t an answer, but she supposed she should at least be polite. Her mother had taught her the etiquette required when dealing with dragons.
"Not I, sir. My mother knew a dragon once though. She told me about your kind." Belora knew she had to convince him soon. The longer this dragged on, the more likely he was to haul her before some tribunal for poaching. "So what about the stag?"
“From where I stand, it was my talon that made the kill. Not your puny arrow. But you have a good argument. I'll give you that.”
The dragon moved closer to her as she fumed in response, but she didn’t realize she was being set up until it was much too late. While she argued with him, the dragon moved closer still, until he had the stag wrapped in the talons on one huge foreleg and she was much too close to the other. As she realized her mistake, he swooped in and made his move.
He reached out quicker than thought and snapped the padded digits of his left foreleg around her waist, trapping her arms inside the cage his wickedly sharp talons made around her. She screamed in frustration and more than a bit of fear. The dragon only chuckled.
“Don't worry, little one.” His voice was gentle in her mind, as if trying to calm her.
The dragon beat his huge wings two or three times and then they were airborne. She couldn’t help the little yelp of fright that escaped as her feet left the ground. He could easily open his claw and drop her to the ground far below. That would solve his problem quite easily, she thought with growing horror.
But dragons were supposed to be noble creatures! In all the tales she’d heard about them, she’d never heard of one going to such lengths to toy with a human before. They were mankind’s friends, not enemies, and they weren’t supposed to go around snatching up maidens only to hurtle them to their deaths.
As they gained altitude and he did not release her to die a nasty and painful death, she began to calm. She was held in one front claw, the slain deer in the other. She looked around and realized she had never seen such a beautiful sight. The view from above was breathtaking. She could see the huge mountain lake as they approached it, and if she craned her neck to look behind, she could see the forest canopy, green and fertile, hiding the secrets of the creatures that lived within.
She and her mother lived there, under the thick cover of trees, and had for many years. It was their haven, their home. Nothing as magical as this had ever happened to Belora, living isolated in the forest, and she decided to enjoy this moment out of time, flying high above the world. She would likely never have the chance again, for it was rare that a dragon transported a human that was not their knight partner. She knew that from the stories and legends the old ones told of knights and dragons. Even her mother—who had been friends with a dragon in her youth—had never flown with one. It was a rare and magical experience.
“Do you like the view, little one?”
“It’s beautiful!” Belora had to shout to be heard over the racing wind.
The dragon chuckled, thoughtfully directing the stream of smoke out behind him and away from her. She realized from the gesture that he was well used to being around humans and carrying them as he flew, but she guessed he didn’t carry too many in his claws. The legends all said knights rode on the backs of their dragon partners.
“Where are you taking me?” She pulled her attention from the gorgeous vista long enough to question her predicament. If he was taking her to a tribunal, she was in big trouble. She’d rather know now if she would be facing arrest when they landed.
“Fear not, little one. I said you had a good case for the stag. We will let the knight decide.”
They cruised over the edge of the large mountain lake. The water sparkled below as the dragon dropped lower. A moist breeze off the water teased her senses.
"What knight?" That didn’t sound good.
Rather than calming her fears, the news that there was a knight in the area only made things worse. She’d been poaching, plain and simple. Mere peasants weren't allowed to kill the deer to feed their families, but the dragons were welcome to them as a snack at any time.
“That knight,” the dragon thought back at her. It took her a moment to understand his meaning, but when she looked down and just ahead of their path, she saw a sleek male body cutting through the waters of the lake. He swam like a fish or like one of the great sea creatures she had heard stories about. She found herself distracted by the sun gleaming off the powerful muscles of his arms
as he sliced through the water, heading for shore. Something about the man’s hard body pulled at her most feminine core, though she was inexperienced with men, in general.
“I am Kelvan and that’s Gareth, my knight.”
Please note: All the books in the Dragon Knights series will be re-released, one per month starting in August of 2012, building up to the release of the newest book, Keeper of the Flame, in February 2013. Join the adventure today!
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter One
Bianca D'Arc Page 13
