Frrar

by Layla Nash

  Maisy concentrated on her breathing. “There’s an Alliance hospital close to here, or at least I think there is. The one in Centauri. It’s a large facility but generally under-used, and will be connected to all the Alliance medical databases.”

  Faros didn’t react or even blink, still staring at his son as the small, thin chest rose and fell.

  She cleared her throat. “I have a deal for you.”

  His head turned slowly to consider her, but he still didn’t speak.

  So Maisy did, as fast as she could, until the words tumbled out of her mouth almost too quickly to decipher. “Get us to that hospital, secure it so no one can interrupt me, and let me get into those databases. If the Alliance has a cure, I’ll be able to find it. Once I have the data, we can either recreate or steal the antidote or treatment. You’ll know for sure whether he can be cured. I just need to be at the hospital for thirty minutes, maybe an hour, and I think I can save him.”

  Faros’s eyes narrowed as he studied her for a long silence, then he cleared his throat. “What’s the deal, then?”

  “Give the weapons to the rebels,” she said. “Don’t give them to the Alliance. Do that, get me to the hospital, and I’ll save your son.”

  She really, really hoped the Alliance had a treatment for whatever Faryl had, because if they didn’t... Faros would probably kill her and Frrar alike.

  He took a deep breath and looked back at his son. “If you fail, the weapons and my brother go to the Alliance. Understood?”

  “Yes.” Maisy held her gaze steady on him, for once not afraid or nervous in his presence. She could do this. She could save him, or she’d die trying. If it came down to it, the Alliance probably wanted her more than Frrar, so she could always trade herself to free the Xaravian. He’d no doubt refuse, but Maisy knew how to convince Alliance officers of almost anything. That was how she ended up on the Sraibur, after all.

  Her hands didn’t even shake as she held out her arm in the traditional Xaravian deal-sealing gesture. “Agreed. When I save your son, you cancel the deal with the Alliance and hand the weapons over to the rebels. No more double deals or betrayals.”

  “Agreed.” Faros abruptly shook her arm, his grip strong enough she thought her bones would bend, and he turned on his heel to summon one of his crew using the communicator near the door. “Chart a new course. Alliance hospital in Centauri, immediately. All speed. Prepare to board and hold the hospital for one hour.”

  Silence followed, then a flood of Xaravian filled the room. Maisy held her breath as Faros’s expression darkened. He uttered what could have only been a curse and stormed out, his spikes and scales rattling as they turned crimson.

  She stared at the closed door, her heart sinking as she heard the outer locks engage, then she turned back to Faryl to watch him breathe and adjust the machines that kept him alive. She had to save him, and not just because it meant saving the rebels. Her heart had grown enough to include him in it, and she couldn’t stand the idea of Faryl being sacrificed for politics or piracy or anything.

  Chapter 26

  Frrar

  Frrar still struggled to create a process to dump the cargo when noise in the hall alerted him to something going on. The ship shuddered and slowed, and as he skidded back to the navigation panel, he watched as someone else realigned the coordinates to somewhere in the Centauri sector. Frrar held his breath. So Faros knew. Someone on the crew knew that he’d tampered with the navigation. Which meant...

  The doors to engineering flew open, dented with the force of Faros’s entry, and Frrar dropped into a crouch as he prepared to fight to the death. He couldn’t let the pirates give those weapons to the Alliance. He wouldn’t.

  Faros threw a cart of tools out of the way and launched at him, snarling. “How dare you interfere with my ship? You’ll kill my son.”

  Frrar met him halfway and heaved his brother over his shoulder, sending the captain flying into a centrifuge. “You’re killing him with your stupid stubbornness, just like you killed Saeva.”

  “She died having him,” Faros said. He drew the dagger from his belt and held it ready, his scales a red so dark it looked almost black.

  “Because you got her pregnant, even knowing she was not strong enough to survive it.” Frrar found his own knife where he’d hidden it and prepared to kill his brother. Finally. After all these years, after all the anger and grief, he’d be able to right the wrongs Faros did to Saeva. “She knew she couldn’t survive it. She knew it. And you had to just take and take and take.”

  Faros’s eyes narrowed. “She couldn’t have known. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Frrar ignored the commotion of the crew moving slowly into the engineering bay. They wouldn’t interfere with the fight, not if it meant dishonoring their leader, though Frrar had little faith they would allow him to kill his brother without consequence. He bared his teeth at Faros.

  “That’s why she ended our relationship. She wanted to give me children and every doctor said it would kill her. But you—you selfish bastard. You took for yourself what she couldn’t give, and it killed her.”

  His brother’s voice strangled in his throat. “She didn’t tell me. She didn’t tell me, damn it.”

  Frrar had heard enough. He lunged and the tip of his knife caught his brother’s side, tearing into the uniform and drawing a hint of blood even through the scales. Faros roared and tackled him, and they rolled through the engineering bay, crashing into machinery and breaking everything they ran into. The second mate, Wyzak, shouted for them to stop before they destroyed the ship, but the words moved past Frrar without real meaning.

  He could avenge Saeva’s death, finally. Then he could take Faryl and Maisy away and protect them on Xarav, or find a better place for them to live than a pirate ship. He pinned Faros and set his arm against his brother’s throat, trying to drive the breath from his body. “You’ll pay for her life with your own.”

  It might have been his imagination, but Faros didn’t struggle or fight back. Something in his eyes had faded, as if he finally admitted to himself that he had in fact killed Saeva. Frrar bared his teeth in triumph and snarled Saeva’s name over and over.

  Something collided with his back and knocked him aside, then Nokx and Wyzak dragged him off Faros. The captain got to his feet, wiping blood and spit from his face, and punched Frrar with all his strength. Frrar’s ears rang and it felt like half his jaw ripped off. He still couldn’t focus well as Faros dragged him through the ship, but Frrar managed to spit, “Coward, letting your men end the fight for you. You always were and always will be a damn coward. You’ve sullied our name, our family’s honor.”

  “We’ll see,” Faros growled. He paused, slapped his hand against the wall, and an escape hatch opened.

  “What are you doing?” Maisy demanded, wiggling through the half-open sick bay doors. “What…why are you—?”

  Wyzak went toward her to restrain her as Frrar started fighting. Faros, along with half his crew, crammed Frrar into the tiny escape pod. Frrar fought panic as well as the pirates; they were in the middle of deep space and a dangerous sector. He could be picked up by Alliance cruisers or other pirates or slavers, or he could die alone in the pod as it sped through space. “Don’t do this, you fucking sandsnake.”

  Maisy screamed as Faros shoved the hatch closed and locked it, and Frrar stared at his brother in horror through the tiny window as Faros pulled the release and the pod detached from the Sraibur. Frrar almost thought he could hear Maisy’s screams through the sealed pod and the ship itself, even if he knew it was impossible. But he saw her face as she clawed her way to the viewing port where the pod had been, tears streaking her cheeks and beating her hands on the window as if it would bring him back. The Sraibur disappeared from view far too quickly, but the image of Maisy’s desperate anger, her panic, her grief... That would stay with him forever.

  Chapter 27

  Maisy

  Maisy screamed until her throat burned, beatin
g on the ship’s bulkhead as the pod drifted away, and she almost didn’t notice that Wyzak stopped restraining her and instead helped keep her on her feet. The pirates all looked stunned, most with pale orange scales as they stared at their captain and where the escape pod had been. Faros wore only an impassive mask, his cheek and eye swelling from what must have been a fight, and faced her as if nothing had happened. “Why did you leave sick bay?”

  She stared at him in disbelief. She’d heard the commotion and shouting, and used one of the tricks she’d learned to escape the Galaxos sick bay after the doors kept malfunctioning to open the locked door and slide into the corridor—just in time to see the pirates manhandling Frrar into the escape pod.

  When she couldn’t speak, Faros reached for her arm.

  Maisy lashed out and took Wyzak by surprise, so she slipped free enough to slam both of her fists into Faros’s chest and throat and face. At least that time the captain noticed the blows, grunting as he fended her off, but Maisy wasn’t about to stop until she made him bleed. He’d killed his brother. Killed Frrar in the worst way imaginable—consigned him to a slow, lonely death in a tiny capsule as it sped through empty, empty space. Alone. Suffocating one breath at a time. With no radio or hope for rescue.

  “You heartless bastard. You cowardly sandsnake. I hate you. I hate you.” She threw in some of the vilest curses she’d learned from being on the Galaxos, gratified when the Xaravians all blinked in surprise.

  Wyzak finally caught her around the waist and hauled her back, though Maisy thought he’d taken his time to let her whale on the captain a little. Faros, a little more battered and bloody, didn’t look impressed. “Put her back in sick bay.”

  “No,” Maisy snapped. She kicked out at Faros and elbowed Wyzak, wanting them all to know that she wasn’t going to stand by meekly anymore. Not another damn second. “I’m going back to my quarters. Faryl is stable and will be fine. I don’t want to see your fucking face ever again. I’ll return to sick bay when you’re not there. Get the hell away from me.”

  “You’re in no position to make demands,” he said, and for once he sounded tired.

  “Your son is still sick,” Maisy said as coldly as she could manage. She hoped he didn’t test her resolve, because she couldn’t punish Faryl for having a complete bastard as a father. “And so far I’m the only one on this ship that can keep him alive long enough to reach that hospital. And I’m the only one who can find the cure once we get there. So, actually, I’m in a pretty damn good position to make demands.”

  Faros shook his head, eyes flat. “You wouldn’t let him die.”

  “You’re not willing to take that chance,” she hissed. Wyzak’s grip tightened on her arms until Maisy knew she’d be bruised from shoulder to wrist. “Are you? You just killed my…my…my mate, you son of a bitch. You just killed your brother. Heartless piece of trash. Get away from me.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw for an eternity before he glanced at Wyzak. “Put her in her quarters. Lock the doors and post a guard. We arrive at the hospital in thirty minutes. Make sure she’s ready to go.”

  Maisy clenched her jaw until a headache ignited behind her eyes. She didn’t know if Frrar was her mate, or even what that meant or felt like, but the raw wound in her heart from his tormented death left her with only half her soul. Half her heart, half her courage. She didn’t realize how much she needed him to give her courage until he wasn’t there. She could stand on her own, had been doing so for years, but... it was really nice to have someone else to lean against for once.

  Even if he had no sense of adventure and liked checklists way too much.

  She hiccupped and a slight sob escaped as she drooped in Wyzak’s grip and he hauled her to her quarters. The door to Frrar’s room was still ajar; she couldn’t look at it without her guts twisting in desperate, disbelieving panic. It couldn’t have been just that morning that they’d lain tangled together in his bed. It wasn’t enough time. It wasn’t. She needed more of him.

  Wyzak took a deep breath as he studied her through the doorway once more, then shook his head. “You will survive this.”

  It was meant to be comforting, she assumed, but instead it just reminded her that Frrar wouldn’t survive it. She collapsed on her bunk and covered her face, unable to see another Xaravian a moment longer, and listened for the door and lock to clang shut between her and the rest of the ship.

  She wanted to wallow. Maisy wanted to grieve and wail and scream in fury at the world. But she didn’t have time for that. Frrar could still be alive, and if he’d managed to somehow alert the Galaxos or other rebels in the area of the Sraibur’s plans, then there was a chance—a miniscule chance—that the Galaxos would be close enough to find Frrar before his oxygen ran out.

  Maisy dug through her bag until she found the small communicator Jess gave her. Her fingers shook as she fiddled with the lid and some buttons, a few dials... She couldn’t remember the combination. Her hands shook until she almost dropped it, and Maisy closed her eyes to take a steadying breath. She wouldn’t have more than one chance to make it work, so she had to make the contact worth it. She was Frrar’s only chance to survive his brother’s betrayal.

  She took a deep breath and tried again, whispering Jess’s instructions under her breath as she did so, and finally the thing whirred and clicked and then opened up to display a hologram screen. Maisy dug her nails into her thigh to keep from panicking as the thing changed colors but no one responded to the hailing.

  And then—something crackled and Jess’s voice reached her from very far away. “Maisy? Is everything okay?”

  “No,” Maisy said. Her voice cracked and she struggled to hold the tears at bay. “It’s bad. They put Frrar in an escape pod and launched him off the ship. You have to come and find him, to help him before he runs out of air. Please, Jess. Wherever you are, the ship has to come. The Sraibur has weapons they’re going to sell to the Alliance and—”

  “Slow down,” Jess said. She sounded far too calm and cheerful. “That’s a lot of info, babe. I’ve got your location from the commo box, so we’re changing course right now to intercept. We’ll scan the sector for the escape pod and try to pick him up, or send the Hawking after him. What’s this about weapons?”

  Maisy pinched the bridge of her nose against the headache and lowered her voice. “The ship attacked a transporter and took its cargo. When Frrar investigated it, he found out the cargo was full of weapons, something that the rebels can’t defend against. Faros says he’s going to give the weapons back to the Alliance in exchange for medical treatment for his son. We can’t let the Alliance get those weapons, Jess, we can’t. It’ll mean—”

  “I know,” Jess said. Maisy could almost imagine her steady gaze and relaxed-but-ready stance, like she could spring into action any moment. “I’m tracking. Trazzak is alerting the rest of the rebels. Do you know where the Sraibur is headed? Maybe we can—”

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Maisy froze; she hadn’t even heard the door open since she’d been so focused on Jess’s voice. Faros strode into the room and grabbed the communicator, throwing it to the floor and crushing it under his boot until it was nothing but shards of plastic and metal. The captain grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. “Who were you talking to? Where did you get that device?”

  “I alerted the Galaxos,” she said. Maisy swung her free arm at him. “They’re coming for you, along with the rest of the rebellion. They know about the weapons and the hospital and everything. You’re so screwed. They’re going to find Frrar and he’ll kill you for what you did.”

  Faros grabbed the back of her neck and marched her out of the room and down to sick bay once more. “You don’t know what you’re doing, little Earther. You have no idea what you’re dealing with here. I meant to apologize to you, to tell you I regretted my actions, but what would be the use in pretending you have a drop of sense in that ridiculous soft head of yours?”

  “You’ll regret this,” Ma
isy said. It wasn’t even a threat anymore—it was the truth. The future. As close to guaranteed as she knew. “You’ll pay for this and it’ll haunt you the rest of your days.”

  “Then I’d better make it worth it,” Faros said. He checked something on his arm, where a comms packet showed him something, then headed for the door. “We’ll be at the hospital shortly. You’d better hold up your end of the bargain, Earther, or you’ll follow Frrar into space.”

  She picked up a regeneration pod and hurled it at his retreating back. Somehow he ducked in enough time that it missed his head, but at least it clipped his shoulder and made the jackass flinch. The Xaravian disappeared and the door locked once more. She leaned against one of the beds as she stared at the repaired—and locked—panel that had allowed her first escape. She sank slowly to the floor as hopelessness began to creep over her. She could save Faryl, she knew that, but what would stop Faros from giving the weapons to the Alliance anyway for a hefty payday? And once Faryl was healthy, what would keep Faros from sending her to the Alliance so he could collect the bounty on her?

  Maisy pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. She didn’t have time to cry. She could mourn Frrar and all those possibilities later. She didn’t have much time to prepare for the next few hours, but she needed a plan and some backup options in case things didn’t go as anyone planned. She took a deep breath and pushed to her feet. Time to get to work.

  Chapter 28

  Frrar

  Frrar controlled his breathing even as desperation drove him to suck in great gulps of air. He activated beacons and tried the makeshift radio he rigged up from the various signaling devices on the pod, but to no avail. Nothing else moved in space around him as the pod sped into nowhere; even the controls for steering and slowing the pod had been disabled.