“So do I. In fact I was thinking, maybe we should get away from here, even for a few hours. I would like to show you Karal. All my favourite places.”
“The Dressel Forest?”
“Yes. The migration begins in the next few days. By then I should be caught up with everything. We can take off in the cruiser. It means extra work when we come back, but it would be nice not to be the Hier Ruler for a few days.”
“I’m sure the planet won’t fall apart without you here.”
“Do you think I make too much of my role as the leader of Karal?” He kissed her neck, breathing in her scent.
“No. But I know no matter what your job, you need time off.”
“Then we will leave in two days. By then I will have sent Ishk to Earth and I can leave Torac in charge. There will be no danger of a revolt then.”
He got out of bed and grabbed his clothes. “I will be back as early as I can tonight.”
“If I’m not here, I’ll be painting.”
“Until then, Vanessa.” And he opened the door, walking out into the corridor, leaving her to place her hand on the warm spot where his body had been. She closed her eyes, wanting to sleep. But before she had chance, there was a knock at the door.
“Okil,” she breathed. He was early, and she didn’t know if she wanted another adventure, she wanted to spend the day painting. Still, she didn’t want to be rude. Grabbing her clothes, she was dressed by the time the next knock resounded on the door.
Hurrying to open it, she was surprised to see it wasn’t Okil; it was one of the palace guards. “I have come to escort you, human.”
“Escort me where,” she asked, a flicker of fear crossing her mind. Something was off. “Is Lytril all right?”
“I am here on the orders of the Hier Ruler.” He stood back and motioned for her to follow.
“Where are we going?” she asked, looking around, but there was no one else in the hallway.
“The Hier Ruler passed sentence and I am here to carry it out.”
She went to move back into the room, but he was too fast, he grabbed her arm and propelled her forward.
“Let me go,” she shouted, but he took her forward resolutely. “Where are we going?”
However, he didn’t answer. Only when they reached a big hall with a large upright post in the centre did she really feel fear. He took her to it and tied her hands above her head. Then another man appeared. He had the same robe on as Lytril wore when he left to go to the council.
Her legs shook. The man who had brought her here picked up a whip. It crackled with electricity.
“I am witness to the punishment handed down by our Hier Ruler,” the council member said.
“I don’t understand. What punishment? I have done nothing wrong.”
“Rahcol?”
“When you were not in your rooms last night the Hier Ruler sentenced you to ten lashes.”
“No,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. How could he? Then the first lash of the whip struck her, doing no damage to her clothes, but setting her nervous system on fire. By the third lash, she felt nothing; she was in sweet, sweet oblivion.
Chapter Twenty Three – Lytril
“Lytril!” Torac burst in to where the Hier Ruler was going over the last of the papers he needed to catch up on. All though he wasn’t really concentrating, he was thinking of all the places he was going to take Vanessa, and all of the things he was going to show her. He wanted her to fall in love with his planet, he wanted her to paint until her heart was healed, the colours part of her life once more.
“Torac, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Vanessa.”
He was up out of his seat, following Torac out into the hallway, knowing how bad it must be. The normally cool and calm Hier Commander was sprinting down the hallway, back towards Vanessa’s rooms, his colours exploding across his skin.
As they burst in, Okil was seated on the bed next to her, a stricken look on his face. Vanessa was face down on the bed, her breathing shallow, and he could feel her pain, it reached out, dug its sharp claws into his mind, and dragged through it, until he wanted to scream and shout his emotions off once more. But he didn’t. Whatever had happened, he knew it was his fault, because betrayal laced her emotions.
“What happened?”
“One of the guards told me that Vanessa had been taken to be whipped,” Torac said.
“Whipped,” Lytril repeated, his face pale, the absence of colour a sign of his complete shock. “By whose order?”
Okil looked up from Vanessa’s side, his eyes meeting Torac’s. In the end, the Hier Commander spoke. “Yours, Lytril.”
“What?” he whispered and then he remembered his words. “No. No, I never meant it.”
“But you did say it?”
“Yes, when I couldn’t find her. But I said it to myself. No one el … se. No, he took me at my word?” Lytril shook his head. “Why?”
“Ishk,” Okil said plainly and looked back at Vanessa with disgust. “One of the guards went to him, unsure whether you gave an order or not.”
“Why ask Ishk?” Lytril said, his eyes raking Vanessa’s body. He went to her and sat on the opposite side to Okil. “Did you bring her here?”
“Yes,” Okil said. “I would not take her anywhere else without your permission.”
Lytril heard the undertone of his voice. “I did not order this. I said it in temper, not as an order. I will have this guard whipped until he loses consciousness. How could he take it upon himself?”
“That’s just it, Lytril. He is a from Ishk’s province, his father was a farmer. He trusted Ishk, so when he was unsure of your words he went to him for advice.”
“And Ishk was more than willing to hurt her … to hurt me.”
“Yes.”
Lytril placed his hands on Vanessa’s shoulders and allowed his comfort and love to flow into her. “I am so sorry, Vanessa.”
In his pain at causing this hurt to Vanessa, he could only think of revenge against Ishk. But Torac stopped him, when he rose from the bed.
“You must help Vanessa. Ishk will wait. He has a trip to Earth to contend with. Make him go, and make things more difficult for him to return.” Torac met Lytril squarely in the eye. “This is not the time for revenge.”
Lytril nodded. “Okil, will you go ahead to the hospital and have them prepare a chamber for Vanessa. They will be able to heal her body.” But he knew the mental scars would take a long time to heal. He feared he had lost her; her love would evaporate and he would go back to being an emotionless shell.
Ishk would have no idea that rather than damaging the relationship between Vanessa and Lytril, this had hardened the Hier Ruler, confirming his belief that for the sake of their next generation, Karal needed to change.
Chapter Twenty Four – Vanessa
“Vanessa.” His hands touched her skin, and she tried not to flinch. Instead, she lay still, letting his emotions sweep over her; they were all she could feel now. Her own had gone, abandoned her. That must be the most ironic thing of all. That in trying to change him, she had lost herself.
When he said her name again, she turned to look at him, still surprised that there was no pain in her back. He told her they had put her in a chamber similar to a decon’ room on the space station, and this had healed her. But it had also taken something from her.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“You still need to eat.”
“Why?”
“Because you will waste away.”
And why does that matter?
Obediently she accepted the fruit from him and ate it. As she chewed, Okil came into the room; he spoke quietly to Lytril and then left. She should perhaps show an interest in what they talked about, it was probably to do with her, most conversations were. But she was too busy drowning in apathy.
“Come, the cruiser is ready.” Lytril came and put his hand under her arm, lifting her up to stan
d, his emotion a brilliant bright flash in her mind. As if her heart was trying to beat again, but as soon as he removed his hand she flatlined.
Because it was easier than refusing, she went with him. They left the tower, going out into the clean air, but it held no joy for her. Nothing did anymore. Obediently she got into the seat next to Lytril, and thanked Okil for buckling her seat belt and then sat back unseeing as they took off, leaving the tower behind.
“Okil packed your paints, in case you want to use them.”
“I am not intending to,” she said. Why would she?
He sat in silence as they flew higher into the air, she could almost feel his concern. She knew if she put her hand on his, then she would feel his remorse, but she was tired of it. Tired of having to cope with his feelings, when the nothingness was so much easier.
Ahead, a large forest loomed, green, verdant and full of life. It grew in her vision and she knew she should feel something. He was bringing her here for a reason. That was it, because of the picture she painted, and the meaning it held for him. Yes, the painting of him and his son. He had promised they would come here. She should tell him she no longer cared, that he needn’t have taken time out from his busy schedule for her.
But that would take effort, and that was something she didn’t have. In the hours after they had healed her, even the will to breathe had been too much. So why should she care about trees?
They flew lower, the cruiser slowly landing on a road, which led to the foot of the trees. There he stopped, helping her out of her seat and then hefting a pack onto his back.
“Come. To see the floveris, we have to climb along the river bank.”
She followed obediently, slipping once, her foot slipping into the cold water. It was freezing and she pulled her foot out quickly. He looked at her, hopeful, expectant, but she simply carried on walking, the water slopping around in her shoe.
Higher they climbed, and then the first bird flew over her head. He looked up smiling, while she kept walking, just wanting to get to their destination so that they could rest. She was tired, always too tired.
“Vanessa,” he said, and he reached for her hand. Immediately, her emotions awoke. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go.
“You said you would never force yourself on me.”
“This is for your own good.” He tightened his grip, and she felt his sense of wonder. She fought it, but eventually she had to accept it. Then she looked up to see what he was seeing, the thing that was making him happy. There, over her head was a flock of birds, so bright, so many, so free.
“They are beautiful,” she said and she smiled with his joy. Thousands upon thousands flew over them, the gap in the trees where they stood, filled as though with a vibrant, colourful cloud. The noise grew as some settled in the trees above their heads. “So they are not dying out, I take it?”
“No,” he said grinning at her. Then sadness crossed his face and blue was vivid on his skin. She felt her mood change too, but then he breathed in and elevated his mood so that she was happy once more. “Come on. We’ll go a little higher, and then we can sit and watch them.”
He didn’t let her go, didn’t let her slip back into the darkness. And she clung to him, because only now did she feel the loss. What life would there be if she couldn’t feel joy, happiness or love? As they climbed, she looked out across the tops of the trees, which filled the valley below them. So much life and she wished her father could have seen this, could have experienced what she was seeing.
The familiar sadness tried to break through the joy he was sending to her, and her brain was confused. Jumbled-up emotions all vying for their place. How could she think of her father and not feel sadness? Lytril’s emotions weren’t hers.
When he stopped, she nearly walked into him. The expression in his face told her he felt something. Felt her. “Vanessa. Tell me what you are thinking?”
“That my father would have loved to see this planet.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Sad that he died in such a hopeless way. Trying to save trees.” She looked inside herself. “And angry that he left me.”
“Is that how you feel towards me? Angry because of what happened to you?”
She looked at him, her eyes shining bright. “Yes.”
“Because I was responsible for what the guard did?”
“Yes.” Her voice choked, and she wanted to feel anger, not to have it swamped by his happiness. Pulling away, she let it out. The beat of her heart increasing as the pain he had caused her swept through her, consuming her. “Why? You are so damn superior. As though your species has never got anything wrong.”
“I never said that.”
“But it’s the way you behave, towards humans. Towards me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, but instead of looking sorry, he simply looked happy.
“Then act it.” She spat the words at him.
“You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, Vanessa Roderick, Especially when you are angry. And watching you, it makes me happy. Say what you want, call me what you want, but to have you back, so full of passion, means more than this whole world.” He spread out his hands. “I would give up everything for you. And now I see that humans are like the floveris. They need a place in this universe, because you bring passion and emotions to life.”
“You’ve gone crazy,” she said, looking at him as though she had never known him before in her life. This Lytril was a being she had never met before.
“No. I’ve woken up. You have woken me from a deep slumber. It won’t be easy. But I want us to plant a seed together. Like the one your father planted and nurtured. But this seed is an idea. That my people and yours can work together, to save us both.”
She frowned. “Do you really mean that?”
“Yes.” He came to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him. “When you were gone. I caught a glimpse of what I must be like to you. I know that on Earth, they think Karalians are emotionless. That was just the way we were taught to be. Now we have a chance to change. Will you help me, Vanessa?”
She smiled, kissing him on the lips. Lytril cupped her cheek in his hand, returning her kiss, deepening it until other sensations stirred in her. She wanted to make love to him right here, under the trees, while above them the floveris migrated. Maybe they could make it work. She didn’t know. But the fact he was willing to try was enough for her.
“I will help you, Lytril,” she said smiling, feeling the joy in her heart as the colours flowed across his skin. “But one thing you should know. The seed never germinated, it never grew.”
“But the painting. The one of the apple tree.”
She frowned, looking confused, and then she remembered. “That … that was just a tree from my dreams. It was never real.”
As he kissed her, she only hoped that the same would not be true for their dream, of their species working together to save each other.
*
The End
Coming soon - Ishk’s story. Will he survive his trip to Earth?
Or will Lytril exact his revenge?
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The elder dragons have predicted that Trinity will conceive the new dragon child tonight. So she mates with ShanRohit under the full moon.
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Power: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 3) Page 9
