by Vi Voxley
"That's not fair," Ashley said at once. "And I won't be some kind of a madam, convincing them that it's okay to accept the life you offer us."
"Fair," Zar repeated. "You are about to see what's fair and what isn't on this ship. If I have to tell you one more time to move, Ashley, I will drag you to the meeting and you can decide how dignified that is."
She came along without a word in response. Zar knew he'd only spoken the truth, but the victory felt hollow.
13
Zar
Goria Hall was named after the last harbinger to lead the Foront.
Zar had named it. His pretext had been to honor the memory of the man who'd led Nayanors in several very successful raids, bringing thousands and thousands of females to Luminos.
The real reason was much more prosaic. Unlike Brions, arguably the most powerful warrior race in the galaxy, Nayanors didn't believe honor had anything to do with leading an army. Like the mighty Brion generals, Nayanor harbingers ran their ships with power and strength as their main weapons.
Zar had named the hall after Goria, because warriors had long memories. Most of the men he saw standing in a rough half-circle before him had been present when he'd killed Goria. Zar had even delayed washing the blood off the floor for a few hours, so those who harbored any dreams of challenging him had a chance to see why not to.
After that day, he'd held every important meeting in the Goria Hall. Any man who thought to speak up against him had to know they were likely going to pay for it with their lives.
It was a mercy, in a way. It wasn't the job of the harbinger to look after his men, to hold their hand as they waged war. He did, however, resent pointless bloodletting among Nayanors. There was plenty of it on Luminos, but Zar preferred to run a clean ship. Any feuds were nipped in the bud.
There were always going to be days like today, as well.
Ashley stood by his side, looking damnably gorgeous. She had the good sense to keep her clever little mouth shut before his warriors, which made Zar glad. He had already killed a warrior for her and he was about to kill more. The harbinger didn't intend to take it further than that.
"This is Ashley, my fated mate," he told the gathered officers, seeing several of them raise their heads to see better. "I brought her here so she could see the ways of her new people and so that you could see her. Back away now, female. There will be blood and I don't want any of that on you."
She seemed reluctant to leave him in a hall of Nayanors, or possibly she was worried. The look in her beautiful eyes was fearful for sure.
Ashley retreated behind him, to a safe distance, but not a step closer to his warriors. That was a smart move.
Zar turned back to the gathered officers.
"We approach Luminos with good speed," he said. "Before we arrive, I want to clear something up. Yesterday, some of you were present to see my mate manage to get three other females into an escape pod and trigger it before she could be stopped. More so, you saw me let the pod go. I know some of you don't agree with my decision.
"I want those men to step forward."
No one moved. Zar hadn't expected them to. His harsh, dark eyes scanned the gathered crowd, searching for the men instead. He didn't try to cover the truth from anyone. At least one of them had to die and he knew there were several. Hopefully they had the good sense to leave the matter be after Zar sent one of them to the afterlife before his time.
"Harbinger," one of the officers spoke up.
Zar recognized one of the men who'd rushed to the loading bay with him after the alarm sounded. His memory provided a name, too, which he generally didn't bother to learn.
Dessom.
"I was in the bay," the man said, stepping forward, looking like he knew quite well what it meant. "I saw you let the pod with the females go. Why, Harbinger? Was it because your mate asked for it, because I heard her plead with you?
"To listen to a female is not what we expect from our harbinger."
Zar could practically hear the words rush to Ashley's lips, so he answered before she could bring more trouble upon him.
"I told the men to step forward, not to question me. I owe no one here any explanations on how I run my ship. Anyone else?"
That got several more to step ahead and draw their swords or whatever weapons they favored. Behind him, Zar could hear Ashley gasp. He guessed he could see why she would be worried. All four men facing him were officers, strong and powerfully built.
The officer of the watch hadn't moved. Zar guessed he had to learn his name after all, if the man showed enough good sense to know it wasn't a good idea to challenge his methods.
Captain Roagh, his second-in-command, looked positively bored. Zar felt himself grinning. He knew he'd favored the man for good reason. Unlike the rest of the assholes he had to deal with, Roagh rarely let himself be troubled by details such as losing as little as three females.
Of course, now they were going to be four officers short. Zar had no doubt there would be bloody duels later to see who promoted themselves to the position.
"Hurry up, Zar," Roagh said, with barely any decorum and no titles. "I would like to go and see the females, search for my own mate. End this charade and we can all get to what's important. I bet you'd like to get that sweet piece of ass back to bed too."
Zar agreed wholeheartedly.
He pulled his two-handed sword from the sheath, watching as the officers in front of him braced themselves. One or two suddenly seemed to leave their bravado behind and remember who they had just challenged. The other two portrayed no good sense in the face of their demise.
"I'm going to have to rename Goria Hall," Zar said, walking forward. "I like the shortness of it, though. Very catchy. Besides, in a few minutes, no one will care what your names were."
Roagh laughed. Others were aware they were still on thin ice. A harbinger didn't need a reason to clean house, Zar was merely known as a merciful and understanding creature, for a Nayanor.
"Come," he beckoned his opponents. "One or four, it makes no difference to me."
The officers charged.
Zar took the sword in one hand, lowering the gigantic blade as he waited calmly, a smirk on his lips. His uncaring demeanor was a trick, of course, one the idiots should have seen coming. The first made the mistake of swinging right at him, hoping to decapitate Zar before he ever got the chance to take a step. The sword the man carried was almost as tall as Zar's, but the blade was nowhere near as wide.
Zar blocked the blow at once, the sword in his hand moving so fast the man never saw it coming before his advance was halted.
Knowing he had mere seconds before the others caught up, Zar reached out and grabbed a hold of the man's long silvery ponytail. The shock was visible on the man's face as Zar wrapped his hand around it and pulled. The man stumbled while Zar moved to block another death blow, twisting out of the way, dragging the warrior along with him. He dodged out of the way of the other two, taking the moment to cut his victim's throat.
He'd never approved of long hair on a warrior. What kind of a stupidity was that, to provide the enemy such an easy target?
Zar noticed he'd been careless. His sword's massive blade had cut almost through the man's head. With a violent yank, he ripped the head off its shoulders. Out of the corner of his eye, Zar saw Ashley turn her head away in horror.
Good. This is not the part she needs to watch.
With the head still in his hand, Zar turned to the others whose attack had slowed somewhat after the gruesome death of the first.
"A teaching opportunity," Zar growled to the spectators. "Vanity like his will make you a headless corpse."
Untangling his hand, Zar threw the head at the three remaining warriors. Two wiser ones jumped out of the way. The third made the mistake of jumping back as if the head could somehow hurt him. Instead, Zar's sword cut through the air as he himself twisted between the strikes of the other two. The fool managed to block his blow but by then Zar was on him. The line of the off
icers behind the man quickly parted in two to let them through.
Zar heard the blow coming before he sensed it in any other way. The truth he'd relayed to Ashley was proven when with inhuman reflexes, Zar turned to face the treacherous fuck.
Speaking of Ashley, her scream echoed through the air. Zar had no time to look her way, but the fear was plain in his mate's beautiful voice.
"To my back?" Zar roared at one of the officers behind. "Congratulations. You could have saved your pitiful life with that blow, but now I'll make sure you never see the north and the afterlife!"
"Harbinger –” the apology began and ended.
Fury drove Zar's blade as he grabbed his sword with both hands and struck. The bastard had been so distracted by his blow failing that he didn't even get the chance to bring up a blade in his defense.
Zar's sword cut straight through him, spraying the officers standing too close with warm blood. He watched the two halves drop to the floor before turning to his initial victim again. The man was back in the center of the room, quickly speaking to the other survivor.
Ashley's face was pale. Zar guessed she wasn't used to seeing justice being dealt out the Nayanor way.
"Turn away," he told her. "Females don't have to deal with bloodshed."
She didn't.
"I'll watch," Ashley said. "I will see what happens to you, no matter what."
Zar grinned, nodding.
"Have it your way," he said.
The remaining two officers attacked as one. The plan was good, he saw that immediately. One with a long sword resembling his and the other with two sharp, short glaives, they aimed to catch him between them, unable to block both. The difference of weapons made it even more difficult to take down both before they reached him.
The easy way would have been to back away and keep them in front of him, but against men like those, Zar refused to take even one step back. He let them come, holding his sword loosely on guard.
When they were nearly upon him, the harbinger turned to the one carrying the long sword as fast as any creature of blood and flesh could. His blade whirred through the air, stopping the sword coming for him. Putting his entire strength behind the blow, Zar pushed the man to stumble backwards.
The tips of the glaives were nearly touching his armor when Zar turned to the man wielding them, punching him in the face with a backhand blow. His armored elbow clearly broke the officer's nose but Zar was already moving away. The other one was back, the sword raised above his head. Zar dodged under it, his sword slicing a bloody line across his chest plate.
Leaving him there to die, Zar turned on his heels to the man with the broken nose and struck his sword through him before he could stand again.
Blood coated the floor, much like it had when Goria had died.
Zar didn't think he needed to make an example of them in the same way. They didn't deserve the honor of him being concerned for them. Goria alone had been a bigger challenge to him, more danger to his life.
"Take them away," he ordered. "Three to the cold, to wait for burial on Luminos. Throw the fourth one out of the airlock."
Men rushed to obey him. The officer of the watch and Roagh approached him.
Zar looked at Ashley instead. His mate was observing the corpses being dragged away with silent horror in her eyes. A part of him regretted bringing her to see the fighting, but there had been no choice. He needed to instill her image in the eyes of his officers, so they would know not to touch her. And the place of a fated mate was by his side.
"Harbinger," the officer of the watch said.
Reluctantly, Zar looked away from Ashley.
"Your name," he replied, making it a question.
"Gados, sir," the man said, looking uncharacteristically worried. "I wanted to ask if you wanted to make any changes to the bridge crew?"
Zar scoffed, amused. The tone of Gados' voice said he'd learned his lesson.
"If I did, I'd tell you," he replied. "Leave us."
With a salute, Gados was gone and Roagh approached, still appearing bored.
"What is it, Roagh?" Zar asked.
"I was wondering if perhaps you wanted to share your reasoning with me after all," Roagh said carelessly.
"Let me repeat what I told him then," Zar said, nodding to Gados leaving the hall. "If I did, I'd tell you."
"Fair enough," Roagh replied, shrugging. "I wanted to let you know we've been hailed."
Zar's mood darkened at once.
"The Reaper?" he asked.
Roagh nodded.
Zar thought quickly. The Reaper was a Nayanor warlord, the most violent and most powerful of those who never left the planet. He'd been expecting the Lord of the Black Hall to hail, but not so soon.
Someone had told The Reaper about the females, damn them.
"You are off to see the females?" Zar asked. "Take Ashley with you. I will let her try her hand at calming the females down."
"Another idea of yours?" Roagh asked innocently, but there was a spark in his eyes that told Zar he had a possible confrontation coming with his second-in-command after all.
"Hers," he replied. "I agreed she can be helpful to us. Take her to the females."
"I will," Roagh replied, adding then:
"I hope you know what you are doing, Zar. The Reaper will not be as understanding as I am."
"I don't need his understanding," Zar snapped.
Roagh nodded.
"Yes, yes, you're very powerful and scary, I know. I just wonder if you'll be as confident in yourself when The Reaper takes his revenge and leaves the people of your domain to die during the long night."
14
Ashley
The stench of blood was strong in her nostrils.
There was simply no escape from it. The only thing Ashley wanted was to get away from that room. Luckily it seemed that was going to happen when Zar returned to her with a man she thought she'd glimpsed on the screens of the station.
"Ashley, this is Captain Roagh," Zar told her, looking much grimmer than he had before the meeting. "He will take you to the females. Remember what I told you. If he reports you started any trouble, it will be your last visit."
"Yes, you told me," Ashley said. "You don't have to make every sentence a threat, you know?"
Zar gestured to the blood and pieces of warriors on the ground.
"You tell me," he said. "Don't I?"
Ashley didn't reply. The dead were all Nayanors, men who could no longer hurt and raid, but it had still been terrible to see them die like that.
The look in Zar's eyes bothered her as well. Something was wrong, but Ashley didn't think it was the right time to press that. The eyes of the Nayanor captain were regarding her with intensity she didn't like one bit.
"He won't hurt you," Zar added before turning away. "Bring her back to my quarters, Roagh."
"I will," the captain replied, not turning the gaze of his deep blue eyes from her. "Come, female."
"My name is Ashley," she said when the warrior led her from the blood-coated hall.
"So Zar said, yes," Roagh replied as they walked through hallways and corridors, going down if she felt it correctly.
"You can call me by my name then," Ashley said as if her point needed to be made more obvious. "Female is so... dehumanizing."
Roagh stopped and turned back to her. The warrior towered over her like most Nayanors did and looking into his dark eyes, Ashley suddenly remembered he wasn't Zar. The harbinger let her get away with a bit of spunk because she was his fated.
Roagh looked more like a raider as she'd known them before yesterday when Zar began to make her doubt she understood everything. Now, looking at the captain and feeling very alone all of a sudden, Ashley began to think that perhaps Zar was an exception.
"From the moment I saw you, I knew you were trouble," the captain told her. "Zar knows it too, but as you saw yesterday, he can't do anything about it. The bond is making him weak to you and while you may think that's good for you, let me
correct that.
"First, tell me, do you think we're all idiots here?"
Ashley didn't answer, but when Roagh kept staring at her, she realized it hadn't been a rhetorical question.
"No," she said.
"Then why do you act like that?" Roagh asked. "You seem to think we don't know we are taking you all to our world against your will. As if we're deaf to your screaming, blind to the tears."
"Why do it then?" Ashley blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Why?" the captain asked and the uncaring glint in his eyes told her just how different he was from Zar. "Because we must and we can. If you were dying of thirst, would you not take water you can see? Anyone would. The bigger the thirst, the more they would do. Lie, steal, kill.
"Females are what we need and you are what we take."
Before Ashley could argue, he raised a hand and she quieted, knowing Roagh wouldn't allow her to talk back.
"That said," the captain went on. "We don't expect you to be happy about it. Your happiness isn't what we need. If some of you can make yourselves get used to our way of living, then good, but we will not change for you and it's hopeless to think we will.
"So let me warn you, female. You think you did something good yesterday, saving those females. Three, wasn't it? Already five lives have been taken for that and I guarantee there will be more. Zar's a proud man, you see. I'm telling this to you because I can't say it to him. Zar's my friend and I fear he may have just killed himself and everyone around him for your pretty eyes and tight pussy."
You're a fucking asshole, you know that?
What Roagh said next truly robbed Ashley of words, though.
"The man Zar just went to talk to, he would never hear you out. If you had been The Reaper's mate, he would have beaten you to a pulp for what you did. Possibly cut your tendons so you could never have walked again. A pussy is the only thing a man like him needs from a female and you don't need to get out of bed to give him sons.
