Practicing the forms Subat had taught her had become a form of meditation for Sabine, as they were for Subat as well, and she desperately felt the need for some mental quiet to begin finding a way to deal with her feelings about Kristoff. The present situation she found herself in should have been, in hindsight, completely foreseeable. She could be honest enough with herself in the silences of her mind to admit she was wildly attracted to Kristof, yet that attraction could not be allowed to develop.
As the Queen of Purannis, Sabine reminded herself, it would be highly inappropriate for her to have relations with the smuggler. She knew that while she ruled the Protectorate, any relationship she entered into must be for the benefit of the Protectorate, as Stephan had repeatedly told her during some of his more tedious lessons. She couldn’t just have a fling, either; she must wed whoever she ended up with as was the custom of her people. Her husband would therefore be a high lord of the Protectorate in order to firm up alliances, or a high lord of a neighboring empire in order to create new alliances. There was no benefit to the Protectorate in her choosing a smuggler as a husband or consort, not that it would be accepted by her people anyway, or was even what she wanted. She’d only known the man for a few days, so to even be thinking about such things seemed insane to her.
Sabine was also honest enough with herself to realize that while she found Kristof’s rough and tumble demeanor enchanting and attractive, but there was also a dangerous side to him that she feared. Kristof’s lifestyle almost guaranteed that he had killed people in the past, as well as committing other unsavory acts, to be sure. And yet Subat trusted Kristof. Also, Kristof had been arrested for smuggling food past the blockade on Bonibus in order to feed the starving citizens, she reminded herself, which hardly characterized him as a hardened criminal.
Subat had trusted Kristof with her life, despite being complicit in the death of his own daughter, which also had to account for much. The man was certainly a dichotomy of conflicting traits, and such instability would not serve the Protectorate, even if such a pairing were permitted Sabine again reminded herself. Perhaps if she told herself that enough times, she thought, it would sink in and she could end this pointless train of thought that had plagued her since they’d left the Sanctuary.
Pushing Kristof from her thoughts, Sabine focused on her forms. The martial arts that Subat had taught her were very fluid and elegant, and she was easily able to lose herself in their performance. Each move flowed into the next in progression that focused her mind down to a single point, driving out all of the conflicting emotions that plagued her. She followed each series with a more difficult one, losing herself in the exercise as she often did.
Sabine became so entranced with the forms that she didn’t even feel the ship’s deck lurch slightly as they began their journey into the Devil’s Eyes. Her attention remained laser focused on each move so that her mind could not become clouded with thoughts again. In time she began to find a little peace of mind as she began the routine again and allowed her mind to go completely blank for the first time in days.
~*~
~11~
Max descended that ladder to the second deck as Kristof followed. Kristof checked the recharging station’s settings as Max secured himself into his recharging station’s cradle. While he checked to make sure the unit would not reawaken Max while still inside the Devil’s Eyes, the android gave Kristof a long, penetrating look.
“Don’t fuck things up while I’m shut down,” Max stated bluntly.
“Chill out, Max. I can fly this ship almost as well as you can, and the auto pilot has things for the next four days anyway,” Kristof responded lightly.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Max shot back, his gaze still intense. “I like Sabine, don’t get me wrong. Whatever it is you feel for that girl, and her for you, will only bring you both pain. Your worlds are not compatible.”
“I know,” Kristof said, his voice barely above a whisper. He reached over and flipped the switches that simultaneously switched Max off and engaged the charging station. The android was an asshole, Kristof thought to himself, and too insightful by far. Max had clearly picked up on Kristof’s inner turmoil, as well as Sabine’s.
As he left Max’s bunk, Kristof could see Sabine in the hold below practicing her forms. They had clearly been learned from Subat. Kristof had learned the Forms of Se’Ti from Anasha, who had learned them from her father, and the forms that Sabine performed below were the same. Kristof had been greatly impressed with Sabine’s skill the day before as they had sparred. Watching her practice now, he could see how skilled she was with the forms. Her body glided smoothly from move to move, no motion wasted, no strike going too far or too strong.
Kristof’s thought drifted back through the past to Anasha, his wife and Subat’s daughter. It came to him again that Sabine reminded him of Anasha in many ways. They both had that fierce inner fire to hold their own, the same willfulness combined with stunning intelligence and beauty. Had Sabine’s hair been blond instead of dark, verging on being black, she would have almost been a spitting image of Anasha. Kristof couldn’t deny that it was all of these traits that had made Subat consider her a surrogate daughter, and which made Kristof’s situation with her so confusing. Kristof silently cursed Subat for putting him in this position. Surely the man would have known the conflict Kristof would feel around Sabine, yet the man had declared that Kristof might find some peace. Nothing about the present situation felt peaceful to Kristof.
As always happened when he thought of Anasha, his thoughts inevitably turned to that fateful day on Bonibus. Anasha had heard about the blockade and tariffs on Bonibus, and how people were starving to death. It had been because of her that Kristof had borrowed a ship to smuggle food to Bonibus with after the captain of the Star Fox had refused to help. He hadn’t had time to make sure the ship was sound, however. Anasha was adamant about getting the supplies to the people on Bonibus immediately, though she would not say why even another hour’s delay was too long for her.
The mission had been going well, and they would have been fine had one of the sublight engines not picked a bad time to blow an external power conduit. The explosion caught the attention of one of the frigates in the blockade, and the frigate had immediately opened fire. Clovani warships typically shot first and asked questions later, which was what they had done that day rather than trying to capture the crippled freighter. The wounded freighter took two hits which knocked out two of the ships three remaining engines and sent them plunging towards Bonibus’s surface. Kristof had fought mightily with the controls to save the ship, but they had crashed violently in the streets of one of Bonibus’s commercial districts.
When Kristof had regained consciousness, he had found what was left of the freighter in flames. In the copilot’s seat beside him, Anasha sat limply; the console in front of her mangled and impaled in her stomach. Before he got to her he had known she was dead, but he tried desperately to free her anyway. Security androids found him there and dragged him away shortly before the freighter exploded in an oily fireball that he could still see clearly in his mind today.
The next three years had been spent in Bonibus’s prison, with no reprieve this time from his father’s connections, not that Kristof had cared at that point. He would have most likely spent the rest of his life there in a cell had the blockade not ended and the people of Bonibus been returned to their own rule. The people of Bonibus hailed him as a hero for attempting to assist them during the blockade, but Kristof no longer cared. Anasha was gone and he no longer cared to live.
It was Subat who had found him on Bonibus and forced him out of his spiraling, drunken depression. Kristof had known little about Anasha’s father beyond the fact that the man had never liked him, and yet he wasn’t surprised that the man had been able to find him. He had fully expected Subat to kill him for Anasha’s death, in fact he had hoped for it. Subat hadn’t been so merciful, however.
Subat took Kristof to a warehouse in Bo
nibus’s now devastated commercial district and forced him to sober up and pick up the pieces of his life. He accused Kristof of dishonoring Anasha’s memory with his drunken despair, and stated that if he truly intended to honor the memory of his daughter, then Kristof would from that day forth work towards the greater good and one day he would be called upon to repay the debt owed for Anasha’s death.
Kristof had managed to sober up and returned to his smugglers ways, but as directed he would only take jobs that served a greater good. While with the Star Fox, he urged the captain to take jobs smuggling weapons to rebels fighting against the Clovani Empire, or food and supplies to besieged worlds being crushed under the rule of the Empire. And when he finally returned to Bonibus and the warehouse Subat had left for him, he had found the Wraith waiting for him and he continued on in the tradition of helping those in need.
All of these thoughts flashed through Kristof’s head as he watched Sabine below. He could see Anasha’s fire in her, and knew much of that came from Subat’s influence. It wasn’t hard to know why Subat cared for her like a daughter, and why Subat had called on Kristof to fulfill his debt at last. Perhaps the old man thought this was a way for Kristof to redeem himself in his own eyes. He vowed to himself then and there to not dishonor Subat; that no matter how much he may desire Sabine, he would do the job and no more.
The matter settled in his mind, Kristof turned and climbed back up to the cockpit to watch over the entry into the rift between the Devil’s Eyes. It wasn’t truly necessary, but it would give him something to distract his mind. As he climbed, he didn’t notice that Sabine had finished her practice and was watching him intently as he climbed above, her eyes heated and her breath labored from her practice. He didn’t see the same struggles going on behind her eyes as she too tried to come to terms with feeling beyond her control.
~*~
~12~
The first day of the passage went quietly. Sabine and Kristof kept mostly to themselves as they struggled with their own thoughts. By that evening, though, they were both eager for conversation and sat together to share a meal in the ship’s small communal area. The communal area contained a table and chairs and had once been an ornate conference room in the ship’s original configuration. Little of the room’s original charm remained, however.
Sabine was surprised to find that Kristof was a fair cook as he made them a light dinner. They talked of small, trivial things as he cooked, neither eager to delve into deeper matters. Both feared finding themselves face to face with the emotions that had plagued them both since their meeting days before. Sabine found the intensity of her feelings somewhat alarming, especially given all of the emotional shocks she had received lately.
“How is it you and Max came to be partners?” Sabine asked curiously as she watched Kristof cook. “He doesn’t exactly seem like the smuggler type.”
“Max was part of the Star Fox’s crew,” Kristof told her as he passed her a plate of food. “Captain Frosh had bought him for some extra muscle. We became friends while I served onboard, and when I left I purchased him from Captain Frosh. The bastard cost me quite a bit, too. I suppose he was worth it, though.”
Sabine laughed at Kristof’s comment as the discussion went on. So long as the conversation stayed on simple topics, she felt she could maintain her control around this man. The topic soon turned to what would happen for Sabine once they reached Purannis.
“I’m not looking forward to being back at court,” Sabine admitted ruefully. “Being at court growing up was not fun for me. I never seemed to fit in there. All of those buxom noble ladies with their courtly manners and fancy dresses always made me feel like some uncouth hick from the outer territories.”
Kristof turned and gave her trim, athletic body a long appraising look that made her blush before saying, “Why in the world would you ever want to fit in with all of those noble cows that continually graze on their empty platitudes in court and never accomplish a damn thing?”
Sabine laughed wildly at the absurd image his comment created in her mind of cows dressed up in all of the court’s finery. While wildly inappropriate, there was also some truth to his words. The royal court often was a useless body that accomplished little. In recent centuries the Prime Minister and the People’s Senate often conducted most of the day to day work of the Protectorate.
“You’re terrible. And here I thought Subat was blunt,” Sabine said, still giggling. “I guess I was wrong.”
Kristof’s face grew serious again at the mention of Subat. “Subat can be plenty blunt when he needs to,” Kristof replied mysteriously.
“That he can,” Sabine said, noticing the change in Kristof’s mood. “I remember one time he punched the pilot of my personal ship in the face when the pilot said something disrespectful about me behind my back. I thought the man would bleed to death through his nose before the medic finally got it stopped.”
Kristof laugh, the mood once again light.
“That sounds like Subat, alright,” Kristof agreed with a smile. “I’ve felt a few of those blunt blows myself over the years.”
“When you were married to his daughter?” Sabine asked, and instantly regretted the question when she saw the pain flash through his eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s ok,” Kristof said after a long moment. “I wasn’t aware you knew the history between Subat and myself is all.”
“I read your file when I first learned of this mission,” Sabine replied simply. “Both the official and unofficial ones. Subat has never talked about her, but I made the connection when I saw her name.”
“I see. Yes, Subat was not happy about my relationship with his daughter. He thought I wasn’t good enough for her. His methods to try and discourage me were, as you say, blunt.” Kristof laughed at the memory. “I guess he warmed to me eventually, or so I tried to tell myself, at least until Bonibus anyway.”
Kristof turned away and resumed cooking in silence. Sabine silently cursed herself for bringing up what were obviously painful memories. She should have known better but had gotten caught up in the conversation and hadn’t thought before she’d spoken. They were also dangerously close to talking about the things she was trying so hard not to think about. The mention of his previous relationship had put them on dangerous ground.
“Subat has a mean streak,” Kristof said suddenly, his back still turned to her. “He should have killed me when he found me on Bonibus, but he forced me to live instead.”
On an impulse she didn’t truly understand, as if it had come from somewhere other than herself, Sabine rose and hugged Kristof from behind. She felt his body stiffen and tremble in her arms. She was about to release him, thinking she had somehow hurt him, when he turned in her arms and looked down at her. There was such an intensity in his eyes like she’d never seen before, a desperate need and desire barely held in check.
Suddenly, all of the rationalizations Sabine had come to as to why she could not be with this man were forgotten as she felt Kristof’s fierce eyes bore into hers, and that inner weakness she’d felt from the first moment she’d seen him returned in full force. She felt herself tremble slightly as she stood there, her body pressed tightly against his. Struggling with the effort, she sought something to say to rescue the moment. Even as she was about to speak, she felt his arms embrace her, has hands grabbing her shoulders. For a moment she thought he meant to push her away and part of her was pained at the thought.
“I…” Sabine started to say, but words quickly failed her as she felt Kristof’s hands slide off her shoulders and down her back, pulling her tighter to him. She tried to find her voice again, but his eyes seemed to compel her closer even as his hands travelled down her back to grasp her ass tightly, his breath hot and heavy against her neck.
Sabine’s breath began to come in heavy gasps as she pressed herself tighter against Kristof, the feel of his hands on her ass breaking a dam of feelings inside her that she’d never known existed before. Part of w
hat she felt was fear at was about to happen since she’d never been with a man before, but she could no longer resist what she was feeling for this particular man. Rational thought became overwhelmed by an enormous desire.
Finally, she whispered the only words left to her.
“Take me.”
~*~
~13~
Kristof awoke several hours later and stared at the ceiling through the dim light of his cabin. Sabine lay with her head on his chest and her leg draped across his. The feeling of her nude body against his as she slept had him aroused again, but he tried to push the feeling away. His thoughts were a violent storm of conflicting emotions, and if she awoke now he would succumb to them all too easily as he had earlier.
All of Kristof’s carefully thought out reasons why he should have resisted his desire for Sabine had blown away like sand in a tornado when she had wrapped her arms around him. Kristof knew she had only meant to comfort him after dredging up painful memories, but that simple contact had overtaken both of them. When he had looked down into her eyes, all he could feel and think of was that he desired this woman as he’d desired no one since Anasha. The feel of her slim body beneath his hands had been electric, and when she’s whispered ‘Take me’, the dams that held all of their desires in check had ruptured.
What followed had been a blur of animal instinct as Kristof had lifted Sabine and she had wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to his cabin. For all of her fierceness on the training mat the day before, once her clothes had come off she had become very submissive and eager for him to take what he wanted from her. He remembered that sense of prey-like weakness he had seen in her eyes so many times, and his lust took on a predatory quality as he devoured her body. With his hands and his mouth he had ravaged her, her cries of desire urging him on and on.
The Smuggler's Ascension Page 6
