by M. Garnet
Quill took a deep breath, inhaling her female scent. “Mine, look out at the ocean that controls our planet.” He watched her strong profile when she turned to see the froth on top of some black waves. “Why do you think the Gods and Fates gave this planet so much water when almost all the habitable worlds in the universe starve for this life giving liquid? Especially a world that has been given a power supplement not found anywhere else?”
“Someone gave this one planet too much. But I don’t know why. It just happened.”
“Yes.” He nodded as she turned back at him when he spoke firmer. “It just happens.”
Minel stopped and looked at him. Now she talked seriously. “Sire, you are so wrong. We aren’t meant to be together.”
“Call me Quill, please.”
She actually reached out and touched his chest, preferring to look there and not up at his face. There was a faint touch of color across the waters. Was that the sun finally coming across the horizon?
“Quill, you don’t know who I am and what I have done. Not only that, there is no way we could ever be together. We don’t live in the same universe. You are Royal. You are going to have or may even now have many concubines. You are often offered the daughters of many high officials from other worlds. Eventually you will be expected to marry someone that will tie together your world with some other. There will be great celebrations and everyone will look forward to the next generation. There is no place for me to live in that scenario. I would wither and die, loving you and watching you with other females.”
Gods, she couldn’t believe she had laid out her heart to him. She did want him more than she had ever wanted any living being. She wanted the one individual that she could never have.
Quill could feel the emotions rolling from her. He regretted loosing the contact when she pulled her hand from his chest. Her words hit so deep within him. How did he counteract these stabs?
“There are ways. My mother is a slave and my fathers did not take any brides. There was a huge section set aside for concubines that they never visited and they were all given great gifts and offered freedom or a choice for their future. Some of them still remain here, but most have gone off world. A courtesan could easily sit at my side.”
There was silence except for the workers behind them. One of the workers was a little closer and his light was reflected in her eyes. Quill saw the moisture there that she fought to hide. She would not cry.
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I could use the advice of an Inter Commander even if she came from an enemy.”
Quill turned to the force field and watched the dawn. The light was being pushed aside as a storm came across the ocean. He took a deep breath, feeling the strength that the planet gave him when his ocean brought him a storm. He wasn’t sure why he was given a storm at this moment, but he always believed the storms were there for his need and use.
He turned to her. “I will never force you in any way. Yet, will you let me kiss you?” For some reason, he felt the storm might have eased her fears of their positions.
She didn’t hesitate, as she was the one to step forward, into his arms. She felt him envelope her in his strong arms and tall body. She let him take control of her mouth, as he tasted her. In exchange she could taste him, a bit of wine then the unusual taste of sea and male. She forgot to breath and he brought the heat to her body in all the right places.
At last he drew back his head and his strange crystal eyes were matching the storm that was moving in toward the cavern.
He let her draw back, leaving her heat and her taste and her smell on his body. He would take that with him until he convinced her to meet with him again. This was going to be a long courtship.
Finally she left and he felt the storm. He finally felt what the storm was trying to tell him. Danger.
Chapter Twenty-Four
One war ended….
Quill left the rendezvous area, moving in a normal manner to join his Elite Guard. He felt out with the storm powers and knew the killer was very close. He didn’t stop walking away from the digging site, but he realized that the killer was right there, digging in the rocks. The killer had seen him or more important, the killer had seen Mine.
“Captain.” Quill spoke quietly to one of his guards as they walked. “Use you com unit and send out a general appeal for the Assassin. I need him immediately.”
They walked another ten steps when a shadow in a billowing cape dropped down in front of them, holding onto a thin wire. The guards took positions, some on one knee, weapons in all directions and two with their backs to the Heir.
“Relax, Captain, this is the answer to our call.” Quill assured his guard with a tilted head.
Bogdan did a small bow. “I see your guards are doing a better job of covering a larger area.”
Quill smiled. “Still, an Assassin could kill their Leader right in their middle. There is some things one can’t prevent. Walk with me, dark one.”
They moved around the piles of debris that was being sorted so carefully.
Quill pointed to a small pile of stones that some children were shifting thru a screen. They were under a floating light as the storm was bringing darkness from outside, but the children were giggling as one found a small coin.
“This entire cave is precious to our many families. We hunt with care, first for the living and then the dead. Now we hunt for items that might be important, perhaps not in value in some market, but important in memory to families. See the male who is now turning in a long knife?”
The tall hooded head looked over at the collection table.
Quill turned his back to that workers group. “I know, even though the knife is long it is not impressive. But in the hands of a killer, well…”
Over the shoulder of the Heir, Bogdan studied the male dressed completely in the digging clothing. It would be difficult to identify the person within that dirty, dust covered outfit.
“Proof?” The whispered voice of the Assassin was meant only for Quill’s ears.
“I can wait and watch him, and catch him after we see him kill another, or we can go on the instincts that the storm out there gives me. For a small while, we will watch while I plan.”
“And if he forces our hand, Sire?”
Quill nodded. “He dies, it is war.”
****
It is strange how the fates work, affecting three different individuals to bring their downfall when they knew they were on the verge of success and not aware of each other.
One of the individuals who had a great hatred for the world of GigasVnee was the religious leader, Senior Omega Priest. He felt that the wealth of that one planet would support his need to spread their beliefs through out the inhabited worlds within this sector of the universe.
He smiled as he saw himself, humbly sitting at the top of the untold worlds and uncountable people that would be praying twice every day to the same Gods that he believed were the real Gods. They would pay tribute to him as their religious leader.
Still, so far his plans had been pushed aside. His own people had not quite come forward in religious fervor from the five planets and moons to join in the war with the other governments that attacked GigasVnee.
Then his Gods sent him a sign that he needed. At any other time, a sun imploding and forming a small black hole was unusual and interesting. But this was one that hadn’t been predicted and watched by scientists. For Senior Omega Priest, it destroyed a large contingent of satellites that had been deployed in that area.
The reason was that there were large asteroid belts, heavy with metals that could be easily mined. The area was being used to build weapons and ships and belonged to enemies of Senior Omega Priest’s religious group.
The cries for help and the reports from the few ships that escaped the pull of the catastrophe spread throughout his worship areas. Now he had something to play on and draw his constituents together to once more attack the storm planet, before those two twins returned.
He wo
uld gather the largest flotilla ever put together and he would lead it. He drove his crew mercilessly to bring forward every ship that could join in this assault.
He needed to leave immediately and he was taking a special statue sent to him by the arrogant son of the evil twins and a sinful slut. He would take it back to that planet to prove a point.
His ships were finally ready and they were moving out, collecting more as the word of the sign from the Gods spread. It was time to strike against the evil. He felt such a strong acceptance of the word of this sign, that he was in a great ship, surrounded by guard ships, leading the force.
On the Warrior Planet that always planned for war, Arb walked the halls seeing no one. If one was smart, you made sure that you hid well when the leader Arb was traveling with frowns and heavy boots through his halls.
He had come from watching the challenge fights in his personal coliseum. In the past he never ordered attendance. He had entered to sit in his large black metal chair and was shocked to see many seats empty.
He would show his lazy, disrespectful warrior families. He had an enemy that he wanted to conquer. He had made a mistake of tying himself with several coalition governments when they went against GigasVnee.
He had used his war knowledge and pulled his ships further back when the green bubble weapon had destroyed so many, as it spread out from the storm planet. His reason for keeping his large ships back was to let the others take the brunt of the planet’s weapons, missiles and any beaming devices.
This would allow him and his staff to discover what type of weapons could be made from someone who had untapped reserves of the Threads. No one understood the green bubble of death. His own researchers and scientist still couldn’t explain it.
Arb’s anger never overrode his intelligence. He wanted to kill all of his scientists, but he didn’t. He needed them, so they lived and studied, watching replays of the green bubble eating up the ships and then just dissipating.
They did give him their only finding that there was a limit as to the distance the weapon could travel from the center of GigasVnee. If that was correct, there was a safe distance he could maintain above the storm planet.
He slammed his fist on the call announcer on his stone desk and at once his Generals were to be heard running down the hall to come to his attendance.
“Gather our armada. We are going to claim that planet and use all that wealth to make more war ships, so that everyone will fear us.” Arb turned and grabbed the beautiful sword that had rested behind him. He raised it above his head.
“I will take this back to that bastard who sent it to me. I will use it to cut off the head of that effeminate male and end the decision once and for all of who deserves those Threads.
He moved for the next few periods into a moon above his home planet, where he could watch with pride the armada being pulled together in the darkness of outer space.
Soon he would be in a great silver ship, leading the charge to arrive just outside the possible touch of that green bubble. In deep space, the color and shape of ships had no real impact on their use or progress. So the needle nosed silver ship of Arb’s was just an ego showpiece. It couldn’t land on any planet and wouldn’t be able to get close enough to any gravity body to be seen by the unaided eye.
Arb was warned of some unusual space disturbance due to radiation burst from an imploding sun creating a small black hole. Arb instructed his techs to take steps for additional cloaks for all communication.
Chapter Twenty-Five
This War Ends….
The Assassin was not thinking of his name as Bogdan at this time. He was completely the Assassin now. He had made sure his female was safely tucked away with a weapon and many layers of guards.
He was spending all his time between the Slave/Queen and a worker at the damage sight on the main floor of the Royal Cavern. The Royal Lady was easy to protect. Her son had finally convinced her that it was for the good of her people that she not be attack by the killer within the city.
Loralei was strong willed, but she was not a fool. She would be the perfect tool that would injure the Twins if she were held or killed. With this knowledge she stayed within her quarters or with the Commander or her Advisor.
The Assassin was aware of this, but still he watched and made sure. There were always weak points within the city and individuals who might take advantage of them. After all, it was a yellow dressed delivery steward that had almost killed the Commander’s female.
At this point he relied on the Commander and the Advisor for her safety and he searched her areas. He checked and rechecked each of the individuals that might reach her for any reason and watched the Elite Guard outside any door where she was staying.
He was satisfied, as he had destroyed or blocked several unusual areas that had not been crawled through in centuries. In one of these he found a small green amulet on a tired leather thong that he intended to give to the Son. Was this another of the Twin Fathers’ gifts?
Now he also had more time, not just her sleep time, to investigate the digging worker. After only a short time of observing, his keen training allowed him to identify the male.
This male slept in a tent at the work site with others. He ate and washed with others and passed his dishes and cups immediately into the disposals. His uniforms were always buried under others and taken with the groups to be processed and cleaned in one large bunch.
This killer was cunning and skilled. Getting a DNA sample was not going to be easy. The Assassin smiled, as he crouched on a thin wire in the darkness above the damaged area. It was exactly what assassins were created for and more.
As the killer slept, so light that he knew he would wake if any of the others in the tent moved, a shadow passed. It didn’t wake him, as the floating lights created shadows against the thin tent material.
The next time the Heir decided to walk on the main floor to inspect the repairs on some of older large ships, the Elite Guards were getting use to the surprise of the appearance of the Assassin. The black cape swirled around the tall figure as he dropped down from above with an actual announcement.
“Beware.” It was barely above a whisper, but it did allow the guards to take a protective stance. “Good response.”
Quill chuckled. “Are you training my guards, Assassin?”
The Assassin nodded and did a short bow. “I come bearing gifts.” He held out a hand that contained the amulet and a clear package holding a tiny long strip of a small paper tissue. The tissue was biodegradable and used mostly in the med centers. It held a lot of what looked like dark dust.
First the Son took the amulet and closed his long fingers around it. He bowed his head, closing his eyes and absorbing the feel of the power within. Finally he looked up at his strange friend.
“This is another gift from my fathers to be used as needed. Now what is that dirty thing?”
“It is the proof of the identity of the killer.”
The Elite Guards heard the Heir let out a deep sigh, even through they had moved away to give the two tall males privacy.
Quill looked out at the distant force field. “Two such great gifts. What do I give you in return? I can’t think of anything. Perhaps I can ask my mother to end the contract. Would that be sufficient?”
“No, I don’t want released. Besides, gifts between friends are just that, gifts. There is no expectation of returns. Please let us continue to help each other. Somewhere I will need to come to you and I want to feel you will help me without obligation, but with concern.”
Quill heard the words all the way to his heart. He didn’t have many friends. Oh, he knew some had feelings for him and many wanted to protect him, but that was different. Here was a male as unusual as he was and a friend. Friend, it was a strange word with so much meaning, equal to lover. That brought Quill’s thoughts to Mine.
Quill put the worn leather of the amulet over his head and felt the pulse of the green against his chest. He turned and motioned to one of the gua
rds. “See that this gets to the med area. I need the DNA tested immediately. Wait for the results and call me before you even start back.”
The soldier brought his fist to his chest and jogged off with his prize within his shirt.
The Assassin looked up at the dark high cavern. “Will you arrest him now?”
“No, I will wait for the proof. Go, I know you have Assassin things to do, and Bogdan, thank you.”
The Assassin went up into the darkness and decided he would like to take another look at the worker in this damaged area. With all his training he was surprised that he could not find the killer. If it had been anyone else, he would have doubted the results, but with all his knowledge, the male had slipped his noose.
For the next couple of turnings of the planet, dark and light, Quill was forced to fill in for his mother in order to keep her safe. On this day he was in a busy command center with Commander Sachim, waiting for their Advisor.
The young techs were all interested in a new small dark hole caused by an imploding sun. It was too far away to be of any importance to this particular system. Still it was rare and something they wanted to study and discuss over their break.
Advisor DeArmond came in smiling, as he held the hand of a little girl in the uniform of a trainee.
Sachim looked over and smiled. “Well Dee, I see having my own assistant has made you want one of your own.”
Dee smiled down at the sweet young female. “I would love to keep her, but she told me she had to return to school as soon as she gave a message to the Heir.”
The Commander always on alert, stopped Quill from approaching the child. “Hello, sweet one. Who gave you the message.”
The child looked up bewildered. She still hung onto Dee’s hand. He nodded at her, indicating it was okay to speak to the military man.
