by May Sage
This ship helped with his peace of mind. If the need arose, he could evacuate his people from any base relatively fast and safely. The shields Wench and the rest of his team had built had been forged like the shield around Vratis, blending magic with technology. No weapon could penetrate it, not even anything the Imperials had in their possession.
It was the first time he’d made use of the Dominion. She flew well, faster than expected for a baby of her size and weight.
“You surpassed yourself,” he told Wench, who beamed.
At his side, Evi rolled her eyes. The female had taken an important place at his side over the last few years, and even more so since they’d conquered Vratis.
There was much to the warlord thing—a lot of politics and endless meetings—and his armies had needed a leader entirely focused on it. He’d named Evi without hesitation. Not only because she was bloodthirsty, but because whatever mission he sent her on, regardless of how dangerous it was, she always brought back her entire team. Sometimes, she lost the battle. She never lost a life.
She’d proved herself a better strategist than Kai, subtler, for one.
When he was on board, he still officially led the fleet, but his general made most of the decisions, only coming to him when she was unsure. Which had happened exactly twice.
He… liked her.
Evi was the first person he’d let in. He’d considered taking her to bed when they’d first met—Goddess knew she was appealing enough—but he’d decided against it. Once he fucked a woman, he was done with her. He liked to stay entirely detached; Evi was too important to compromise their relationship that way.
He also started to trust Wench more, noticing that the little boy had turned into an adult male at some point. Young and enthusiastic, but Kai enjoyed his company.
Kai didn’t fail to notice the timing. The ability to feel and let people around him affect him had been entirely foreign to him until recently. Until he’d seen her. Touched her. Her hand. Felt her energy, her power, her love for all things.
Nalini Nova. The female meant for him.
It had been a year since their last meeting. He wondered if she hated him still.
Since that day, he’d played and replayed each of their meetings in his mind. As time passed, he cringed more each time he thought of them.
“Why?” she’d asked. Why did he want her? He recalled her eyes when those words crossed her lips. And then, that look when he replied the most stupid thing he could have told her. “Because you belong here.”
Here. In his cold Vratisian palace. A place she’d been imprisoned, tortured.
Her eyes when he’d said that. He couldn’t stop seeing them, seeing the light leave. Her lip had trembled ever so slightly. She’d taken a step back.
He wouldn’t make that mistake again next time he saw her. And there would be a next time.
She was going to kill the old male someday, and she’d laugh with glee while his entrails spilled out of his stomach.
“Taking a break?” Ian Krane asked, one brow raised. “I said twelve laps. You’re at ten, if I’m not mistaken.”
The stadium she was meant to run around was twenty-four miles in circumference. She’d asked. And then she’d demanded to know if he was insane when he’d demanded that she run it three times before they started training.
That was a year ago. Now, they were at twelve times.
She hated running. With all her little heart.
Krane was, no need to say, leisurely lounging on the side of the track, a book in hand.
Asshole.
She picked up her speed, knowing that if she just jogged around slow like this, he’d demand another lap when she was done. If she was going slower than Nox, who loved to tag along, she was too slow for him.
What really blew was the fact that his stupid-ass, cruel method worked. Her first month on Tejen, he simply had her exercise, forge her frail body into something else, work on her stamina, and already she felt stronger and more settled. Things that had required her concentration before, like moving an object with her mind, came with ease.
After the run, he’d had her training in combat with some of the Tejen natives—Evris who rode dragons for fun and started wrestling before they could walk.
She basically spent a week eating dust, crying, and cursing the name Ian Krane. A year later, she was still eating dust, because, again, her adversaries were that badass. But occasionally, she managed to hold her own—when they were having a bad day or, more than likely, letting her win out of pity.
The real work had started the second month. She understood now how fucking pointless that cage and the shocks of energy coursing through her body had really been. It was not training, just torture.
Training a seer took quiet, peace, and nature. Sitting in silence while listening to the water and extending her mind to it. Seeing it. Predicting its current. Knowing which fish would eat the other one. And then, in the middle of all that, when she was really one with everything around her, Krane hit her with a stick. A simple slap on her hand, not meant to hurt at all. Just… training.
It wasn’t easy because Krane was forcing her to catch glimpses of the future that involved her. Her power was designed to look outward, glance far and wide. After two weeks, she knew when to move her hand to avoid those hits. The following month, instead of a peaceful beach, she was to do the same in a forest full of predators and prey, where nature was busier and more dangerous. It wasn’t Krane and a stick interrupting her then; it was tigers and dragons. She had to avoid their claws or die.
She was still alive, so something must have worked.
The third month, Krane announced, “I think you’re strong enough now. We can get started.”
“What were the last ninety days all about then?” She rolled her eyes.
He grinned. “Making sure you don’t break.”
That had made little sense to her at the time. Later that day, crying out in pain, she understood.
“There’s exactly two reasons why we’re here. The first one is so that you can read these. No one is allowed to take them off-planet or copy them,” Krane said, pointing to the bunch of books he’d placed right in front of her. “And the second one is to train your mind to push against invasion. Any invasion. Even as you sleep, I need you to keep it closed.”
And so, the torment had begun.
“Resist me.”
But she couldn’t. Krane pushed her mind relentlessly, breaching it. Her nose bled, her every muscle ached.
Reading the books wasn’t much better. They were boring. Boring. All had one common denominator: information on psychic bonds. Bonds between mothers and children from the womb. Bonds between wives and husbands. Bonds between friends.
Basically, people were happier when they had a link to someone else. Yay. Great information.
What she would have given for a good old thriller instead.
Kronos had classes that didn’t involve fighting off firebreathers, being psychologically raped on a regular basis, or boring books. Lucky kid.
Still, despite the insane, intense training, Nalini was strangely… happy here. People accepted her. No judgment, no fear, no threat.
There were mages on Tejen. That shocked her; they weren’t killed and hunted like the rest of their kind elsewhere in the galaxy.
Those born with powers were directly overseen by the order of the Wise.
“I don’t get it. Your Council makes the whole galaxy destroy us everywhere – and here, it’s fine?”
Krane sighed. “Each mage born here passes various tests that ensured that they aren’t Darkness, as soon as their powers manifest themselves. It isn’t doable on a larger scale. Here, there’s a maximum of half a dozen mages born each year on the whole planet. We can handle it. I’m not saying the Council made the right decision when they opted to condemn every child with magic, but we certainly couldn’t have trained them all throughout the galaxy like we do here.”
She agreed begrudgingly: the
Wise trained youth on a one-on-one basis. As there were less than two hundred of them in their order, they certainly couldn’t have overseen the entire universe. But Ian was right, that didn’t excuse the Council’s edict. In her opinion there just was no valid reason for killing children.
The Council had little weight on that planet, ruled by its own warlord, a female who welcomed Nalini with open arms. Rani Tharshen wielded magic herself.
“Seers are very rare,” she said. “Although perhaps not in your family.”
An ugly, old wound reared its head at the mention of her family. Nalini brushed it aside every time it flared.
“You’ve missed the solstice,” the warlord had said, welcoming her when they arrived. “It was just yesterday.”
Nalini saw Krane tense behind her. “Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing. We don’t celebrate those things out there,” he pointed upward, toward the skies.
Rani had smiled wickedly. “Well, that should be a treat to you both next year.”
The old male twitched. As soon as the ruler had disappeared, he warned Nalini, “Don’t ask. And we’re getting out of here before the year is out. You don’t want to see a winter solstice here. Trust me on this.”
It had been a year, now, and the solstice was tomorrow. They were supposed to leave today. This was her last training day here. Soon, they’d be back to the real world—their real world, at least, outside of this wonderland bathed in sunlight.
She mostly thought he was talking out of his ass and doing his best to avoid the solstice for some reason, which only served to make her more curious about it. She’d attended various events throughout the year, and damn, they could party here. She’d even learned to dance, unable to resist the music, the sea of bodies undulating with each beat getting under her skin.
How different could it be?
“Very,” he’d replied, when she asked just that.
Which wasn’t a response at all, so she’d gone to ask someone else.
People just giggled and blushed when she mentioned the ceremony, telling her frustrating things like, “You’ll see” and “Don’t miss it.”
She’d argued all month about attending. Krane was adamant that they shouldn’t. But as she happened to be a twenty-five-year-old, grown-ass female, she declared, “Fine, you can go if you’re in a rush. Give me coordinates, and I’ll catch up. I’m staying.”
“That’s a fucking no. Trust me on this, dammit.”
“You told me not to trust you once. I listened.”
He wasn’t giving in, so she’d done the one thing anyone would have and disabled his ship’s hyperdrive. Goddess Light knew it would take the old male more than a day to figure out what was wrong with his ship.
Twenty-One
Solstice
She should have flown far, far away from here.
“What’s happening to me?” Nalini cried, throwing up in the toilet for the sixth time since she’d woken up an hour ago.
The contents of her stomach just wouldn’t stay in, but that was nothing compared to the headache and the way her muscles ached, feeling heavy.
Krane smirked, filing his nails. “I’d say you reap what you sow, or something of the sort, if you didn’t look quite so miserable.” Then he beamed. “Want something to drink? Won’t help, but, hey, might as well stay hydrated.”
She crawled to her bed, feeling like she was going to die.
“Hope you’re enjoying the solstice, by the way.”
She really, really wanted to ask what any of this had to do with the solstice, but Krane was already feeling way too smug.
Kronos pressed a cold compress to her head. That helped for all of three seconds.
Finally, she gave in. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You mean, other than a stubborn streak and too many skills with a wrench? Nothing at all.”
She glared with as much hostility as she could muster.
“That might work better if you didn’t look like a puppy drowned in sweat.”
Krane caved. “Go to the kitchen,” he told Kronos, “and ask them to make a tea for your sister. They know what she needs.”
Once the child had left, he turned to her, still looking quite smug. “This,” said he, “is the start of a millennia-old ceremony celebrated by our kind here. You, and every unattached youth with magic who are currently of age, are giving your power to nature, feeding it for the next year. And once you’re truly, completely depleted, you’re going to have to replenish it. That’s where the party starts. Fear not. The most attractive volunteers, male and female, will be gathered at the festivities tonight. And you will take them, many of them, feeding like one of the beasts we once were.”
She watched him with undiluted horror. “I’ll eat people!”
He laughed hard, slapping his leg. “Goddess Light help you, sweet summer child. No, little lady. You’re gonna fuck people. Enjoy your solstice.”
She stared. Then, whatever was left in her stomach came out right there in her bed.
Eating people might not have been as bad.
Krane explained things to her as she basked in misery, torment, and regret. Talks of energy, replenishing it. Harnessing, he called it. Causing orgasms and feeding off them.
“Why didn’t you drag me out of here.”
A kinder person would have said nothing, but Krane shrugged. “Tried, sugar. You made us stay. Maybe you’ll listen next time.”
Kronos came back with a strange brew that smelled like feet, but, after drinking it, she managed to fall into a deep, dreamless slumber.
When she woke, the sickness had receded some. Her limbs were still weak. So was her mind.
She recalled wishing her powers away in her youth. Wishing that she wasn’t different from other girls out there, just a regular without the visions, the energy. They said be careful what you wish for. She hated it. Truly abhorred being so crippled, broken, vulnerable.
Someone had changed her soiled sheets and cleaned her up sometime while she slept. They’d also left a dress hanging in her bathroom.
Well, if she could call this a dress at all. It was nothing but triangular patches of cloth tied together in the middle, baring the sides of her tummy, and most of her legs, barely holding her breasts.
She winced at her reflection. Everyone else would be wearing the same thing, no doubt; whatever outfit had been laid out for her before a feast fit in with the dress code.
Tonight was about one thing, and they weren’t bothering to hide it.
Nalini was no untouched flower. She’d developed an interest in males pretty late, granted, but she’d done something about it. Touching herself, thinking of the dark eyes of a powerful male she’d met once in her entire life—and okay, seen another couple of times through weird, and weirdly realistic, visions—was too pathetic for words. So, she’d just pulled an attractive warrior who had been looking at her that way into her room soon after her arrival here.
Baz. She’d played with him a handful of times since, when the itch needed scratching. She was leaving, and neither of them were even remotely attached, so they could simply have some harmless fun. He knew what to do with all his body parts, so he served a purpose. She wasn’t against casual sex, but this, this backward, forced fornication no one had even warned her about, was different.
Frustrated and angry—at Krane and everyone else, for not spelling things out properly, but mostly at herself—she burst out of her room and raced down to the party, intending to find Baz and get it over with.
She froze in the great hall.
There was only one city planet-wide, and everyone in it liked to meet for one reason or another once a week at least, so the palace they’d built was of an adequate size. Humongous. And right now, it was entirely filled with naked people. Cocks. Cocks everywhere. And pussies, too, but those were a little less conspicuous.
Only mages were dressed, if the outfits they wore, similar to Nalini’s, could even be called that.
“Nalini, dear.”
<
br /> She closed her mouth and counted to ten in her mind as Rani Tharshen greeted her, taking her forearm.
“Warlord,” she managed to say without yelling, and not even adding one single insult.
“Your first solstice. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed so much energy entering the planet. We’re blessed to have you,” she said, pulling her forward.
“You…” She cleared her throat. “Participate?”
“Oh, yes. I’m not attached,” Rani replied, winking. “And there’s something quite exhilarating in these bestial nights. Come, let us go choose our partners.”
Plural. Krane had already said something of the sort. She winced. “I was going to try to find a guy I know—Baz…” She struggled to remember the name he’d given her on their first meeting. “Uaani.”
Rani laughed. “A good boy, for sure. He won’t do the trick, not tonight. You’d need a dozen like him to return to your full health. No, let me help; I’ve sampled quite a few of the pickings.”
Never mind feeling better, she was going to be sick again all over the warlord’s cut-out robes.
“I can’t—” She winced. “—sleep with a bunch of strangers out of the blue.”
Rani tilted her head, as though trying to understand what she’d said at all. Then she patted her hand, not without kindness.
“I forgot. It has been a long time since my first solstice. Centuries. It’s very strange to a young girl.”
At least someone made sense. Although at twenty-five, she wasn’t as young as the warlord made her feel when she said that.
