The pff pff of phaserifles was advancing closer. Taking out the complex’s guard unit wasn’t proving as straightforward as she’d hoped. Had she overestimated the capabilities of the Chenjerai or underestimated the guards’ fighting abilities? She was thankful they were on the other side of the enclosure even if the route was tougher.
As they approached the periphery of the landing site, Kia paused, studying the sleek lines of the flagship’s hull lighting up and dappled in color whenever a pulse beam struck a target. “Hold up for a second, Rial, I’ve got to put my helmet on,” she hissed. “I need to see if anyone’s out there before we cross open ground.” She propped him against a tree trunk, unhooked her helmet, lifted it—and froze as she felt the barrel of a plasgun against the side of her head.
“Over here, sir,” the owner of the weapon called.
Kia spun, ducked, yanked the soldier to her, trapping his arm next to her body, swept her other elbow up, slammed his chin, kneed him in the groin, jerked the gun out of his grip, and struck him hard in the throat with the butt of his own weapon. He crumpled to the ground.
She had to move Rial; the others the man had spoken to would close in on her soon. If there were enough of them, they’d surround her and Rial—in their place, that’s what she would do. She grabbed Rial’s arm and took his weight. He was barely conscious, and she half carried, half dragged him toward the landing field. She was taking a chance, but her choices were vanishing by the second. Reaching for her helmet, she cursed. She had been in too much of a rush to push ahead and had dropped it during the scuffle. Rial grunted something, and she put her hand over his mouth, put her lips to his ear. “Shh, we have to be quiet.”
Pulse laser beams continued to light up the night sky in flashes of gaudy primary colors and gave enough light to see the landing field was clear. The flagship squatted, waiting, at the far end. The pff pff of phaserifles and skirmishes had retreated. A final assessment; nobody in sight. “Come on,” she whispered, stepping out from the protective brushwood.
“Stop right there.” A ring of black-helmeted, black-armored men melted out of the trees and surrounded them. The voice was soft, but Kia heard the lethal intent. “Bring the prince. My apologies, my Lord, the emperor requires your presence. Make it easy for yourself and surrender. I’m sure you’d prefer to travel unrestrained.”
Kia could feel the tension humming in Rial’s body. He wasn’t yet strong enough to fight. Letting her attention move from the speaker to encompass the entire group, she stepped in front of him, reached behind and grabbed a handful of his tunic, pulling him close. “The Heir’s instructions are to return to his flagship. Stand aside.” She didn’t think they’d believe her, but she’d try and bluff them.
The assailants raised their weapons. “The prince’s consort, isn’t it?” The leader didn’t wait for a reply. “We answer to the emperor, and his orders supersede those of his son. Take him.”
“You’re taking it upon yourself to break the emperor’s promise to his son?” Where were the Chenjerai? If she could delay Rial’s capture by a few minutes, maybe the team would find them. “Because if you are, you will earn the undying enmity of Lord Rialoir, and he will not forgive you.”
The same emotionless voice answered, “The emperor has decided he wants his son back under his immediate control. The Heir will be doing nothing without his father’s express permission, and these are his orders. Stand aside, Consort.”
Kia raised her chin. “You’ll get to him over my dead body.”
“As you wish. The emperor will be glad to be rid of you anyway.”
Kia caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and jolted back—but not quick enough. She screamed as the point of a crossbow bolt shattered her collar bone. Blazing spears of agonizing pain shot through her body as she crumpled forward, Rial’s roar of rage accompanying her down into nothingness. She regained consciousness with his arm around her waist, pressing her to his chest, his palm tight on her neck, holding the source of the scorching pain in place. She shivered as a pulse beam sent daggers of psychedelic colors into her brain, blacked out, and came to with her eyes streaming. She wanted to tell them to take the bolt out—it was burning her— but all that came out was a strangled gurgle. Why was Rial moving? He was making it worse. She heard voices yelling, death screams, phaserifles going off, more pulse beams sending shards of pain into her brain, more explosions and chaos and, at last, fell into pain-free oblivion.
As the flagship hung over the planet, Rial sat at the weapons control panel in the command center. His skin had lost its deathlike transparency, and the nanobots were repairing the damage; but the toll on his body was clear, and it would take a bit longer before he returned to full health.
Kia sat next to him. Since she woke in the medunit with a large cell rejuvenation patch on her neck twelve hours after Cheydii and Nagavi had removed the crossbow bolt, he hadn’t let her out of his sight. He acted as if she were an illusion or a dream, and if she disappeared he’d wake back in a nightmare without her.
On his other side, Tamaiko sat in the pilot’s chair; and squished into the room behind them were Nagavi and the entire team, including the half a dozen Chenjerai who’d suffered injuries, none of which were, fortunately, life-threatening. They waited and watched aware of how much this moment meant to Rial.
“Incoming call from Gorau,” Tamaiko announced.
The rebel leader’s face cracked into a broad smile when he saw Rial. “My congratulations to your commander and your team on winning your freedom. Would you like to do the honors, Lord Rial?”
“I would love to, and I’m in your debt, my friend. We are ready at last to set the next stage in motion. My win is your win.”
“Once you’re done I’ll blast it with a particle beam—to make sure.”
“Playing with your new toys, you mean, but you’re welcome. I’ll be in touch. Thank you, Gorau.”
Tamaiko brought up a close-up view of the laboratory on the screen. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said.
Rial lined up his target, looked at Kia and the assembled Chenjerai before pressing the release button. A flower of brilliant white light bloomed, expanding as the pulse beam hit the laboratory, annihilating the building and surrounding area in a cloud of dust and rubble.
A raucous roar erupted from the team followed by cries of approval when a dozen more explosions mushroomed as Gorau obliterated a vast swathe of the surrounding jungle.
“No traces of human life,” Tamaiko stated.
“I must send my dear father the sad news.” Rial smiled at Kia. “Instinct will tell him I was behind this, and it’ll drive him mad because he won’t know how we managed it or be able to prove anything. A bonus is the deaths of his assassins, which I cannot mention. I’ll use the pretext that the Kadaugan took some damage and needs repairs before we can return to Xarunta. Naturally, I will, out of duty and love for his highness, the emperor, make some effort to trace those nasty rebels. What do you think, Nagavi?”
“It gladdens my heart that you’ve returned to us, and it shall be as you wish.” The two men exchanged a look, their affection obvious. “You and Kia should rest. We’ll handle the ship.”
“Great idea and everyone else rests, too. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Rial’s eyes twinkled at Kia.
“Or the day after,” Toinen joked as they exited.
“Where are we going next?” Kia snuggled up to Rial, digesting the fact that he was free of his father’s control and back on the flagship lying beside her.
He hugged her so tight that she pounded his back until he released her. “Thank you for rescuing me, but I can’t believe how close I came to losing you. I never want to let you out of my sight. And if I haven’t told you already, you are my angel.” He rubbed his cheek over her head. “Your hair is growing. Much better,” he squeezed her once more. “Nagavi said the plan was yours, and you made everyone crazy making sure they understood what to do.”
“Care and attention to detail re
duce the chances of failure,” she quoted, narrowing her eyes at him. “Who are these assassins?”
“I’m glad your studies are paying off, and these so-called assassins are another group of implanted soldiers who have no choice but to do the emperor’s bidding. They prove themselves by assassinating their own families—his idea of a loyalty test.” He kissed her forehead. “It was painful being separated from you. I wasn’t aware that loving somebody could hurt this much. Every time I regained consciousness, all I could see was your face. You gave me courage.”
She reached up and ran her fingers over his stubbled head. “Rest easy, you’ll never have to endure that cruelty again. We’ll make new memories together. Happier ones. You haven’t answered my question about where we’re going.”
“Be patient. It’s a surprise.”
“Nothing agitates me more than to be told to be patient.”
“I have noticed you get annoyed anytime anyone tells you to do almost anything.” He held her to him, his fingers tracing a line down her spine.
“You’ll pay for that remark,” she retorted, “but as you’re a hapless case at the moment, I won’t take advantage of your weakened condition.”
“You're demanding more gifts? I’ve chosen a woman who will never be satisfied!” He planted a kiss on her lips.
“Remember this, Prince Rialoir, soon-to-be destroyer of the Nadil-Kuradi Empire, I chose you.”
Chapter Eighteen: A Surprise.
They landed in the middle of nowhere. Kia walked away from the Vargsi and stared at the flat grassland stretching to the horizon, breathing in the sweet-smelling earth for the first time since Tajriba. The fuzzy tips of the tall orange-brown grasses rippled, stroked by the fresh breeze blowing across the vast prairie. Behind her majestic snow-capped granite peaks of a mountain range loomed high and forbidding.
“Now can you reveal where we are?” Kia demanded.
After leaving Tajriba, the Kadaugan had flown to Ylväs Suq, where Rial left Cheydii and Annen in charge of the Chenjerai under the guise of seeing to essential repairs and maintenance while Kia, Rial and Nagavi boarded a small space cruiser.
The Vargsi was sleek and twice as fast as Rial’s flagship with far more weaponry than the ship’s data stated. It also contained a suite for Rial, several cabins, a mini-medunit with the standard stasis chamber—a necessity seeing as how often they ran into trouble, and a replica of the command center on the Kadaugan, except for the size.
Kia was no longer surprised at the wealth Rial possessed. How much of it was his own personal fortune or the empire’s, she didn’t know or care. She was happy that they, and the entire team, had emerged from the fight at Tajriba unscathed and with the laboratory destroyed. The scar from the crossbow injury had disappeared, thanks to the nanobots, though she had occasional flashbacks of the moment it had struck her, and was immensely grateful it had missed her carotid artery. It was the closest to death she’d been since the mine collapse.
The Vargsi took ten days to reach their destination. They could have managed the journey in half the time, but Rial insisted they avoid the direct route via a wormhole because his father’s agents wouldn’t be able to track them.
“What do you think?” he waved an expansive arm at the grasslands and the mountains.
Kia shaded her eyes and turned three hundred and sixty degrees. “Empty. I prefer it warmer, but the grass is pretty and those mountains are… well, mountainous. Is it too much to tell me why we’ve traveled all the way to this place?” Her voice was plaintive with aggrievement and irritation. During the entire trip, Rial had refused to divulge their destination despite her wheedling, cajoling, and sulks.
“This is Falaichte.”
“Ah! Your mother’s home.”
Rial nodded. “Yes, and we’ve come because there are people I want to introduce you to and whom I’d like to meet you.”
“Okay.” Kia looked around. “Mmm… Are they invisible?”
“Transport will arrive soon.” He waved a casual hand in the direction of the mountains. “We have a few days of travel afterward.”
“Is this another of your surprises?”
“You’re far too suspicious,” he quirked an eyebrow at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“This habit of not telling me what’s going on will drive me mad.”
“You have been rather grumpy lately.”
She thumped his shoulder. “I’ll be more than cranky if you’re not careful.”
The transport, a dot in the distance, took a long time to arrive; and as it drew nearer Kia understood why. Someone sat astride a strange looking four-legged animal leading three more similar creatures laden with bags and roped together in a line. From the way the person was dressed—a long brown robe with a hood—she couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
When the cavalcade was close enough, she saw the rider was female, but it was the animals that fascinated and horrified her. Although clearly domesticated, the beasts were taller than her, had elongated jaws, high ears that twitched, barrel-shaped chests, narrow hindquarters, legs that narrowed to cloven hoofs, and were of similar sizes, but their coats were of different shades of brown and gray.
Before modern transports became the norm in Emankora, people had used peridacals for transporting ores from the mines to Sestris before shipping them north for refining. Traders had ridden long convoys of the six-legged wide muscular beasts for centuries, but nowadays the animals were bred for their gold and orange spotted hides, which made perfect weatherproof clothing for those living in the northern wetter climate. People in Sestris had kept birds and little furry ngerus as pets who were tiny compared to these animals.
The rider sat on a thick woven blanket, guiding and controlling the beast with a rope tied around its jaws.
As the animal halted, Kia shifted behind Rial, but he grasped her upper arm, pulling her forward. “Your place is beside me, not behind me as if we’re from some unenlightened culture,” he said.
“Fine,” she muttered, “I was making sure you were in front of me if any of those things decided we'd taste good.”
Rial burst out laughing. “Those ‘things’ are called horses, and they’re herbivores and, unlike my dragoi hounds, which are also indigenous to this world, are easily domesticated.”
Kia’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment. “Thanks for the reminder, and have I said how irritating this not telling me anything is.”
The woman halted in front of them, lifted a leg over the animal’s neck and slid to the ground, throwing back her hood as she landed. She beamed at them. She was older than Kia had originally thought, and her thick chestnut plait was feathered with gray. “Colceathrar! I am pleased you made it.” She threw her arms around Rial, hugging him tight before offering him a courteous bow.
“Teina, this is Kia, my consort. Kia, this is Teina, my cousin.”
Kia’s eyes widened. Another piece of information he could have told her but hadn’t bothered to.
Teina didn’t hesitate but clasped Kia to her chest in a close embrace, then stood back and studied her. “I’m honored to meet you,” she said.
Kia was touched at the genuine warmth in the words. Rial’s world was awash with surprises. “The honor is mine,” she responded.
“She is exquisite. Ambuya is happy for you both. Where’s the old fella?” Teina inquired.
“Nagavi! Finish up, we’re leaving,” Rial called.
A minute later, Nagavi materialized, his face lighting up when he spotted Teina. He handed Kia a miniature device. “Press the red button.”
She looked at him.
“Go on.”
She pressed it and nothing happened. “What’s it supposed to do?”
“Where’s the Vargsi?” he asked.
Kia turned around. The ship had disappeared.
Rial snickered.
Kia pressed the button, and the sleek lines of the spaceship shimmered into sight.
“My father’s researchers are close
to discovering a similar cloaking mechanism, but theirs isn’t as advanced as this one.” Rial took the device, reactivated the cloak, and the vessel disappeared from sight.
Kia’s intuition warned her these disclosures were merely the beginning of what was shaping up to be a day of revelations. “Do we have to ride those things?”
“Your enthusiasm is endearing.” Rial grinned. “It doesn’t take more than a day or two to get the hang of it.”
Teina informed them that as it was late spring, the passes were clear of snow and ice, and once Kia adapted to the rhythm of the horse’s gait, she welcomed the freedom the mountains offered. They traveled for three days, higher and higher, following narrow trails that would have taken them many more days to cover without the horses. The blankets and thick fleeced cloaks Teina had brought for them provided comfortable protection against the cold.
Surrounded by high ice and snow-covered jagged peaks, and with the silence broken by the hunting calls of broad-winged predators flying overhead and the rise and fall of the wind sighing and moaning through ravines, Kia could feel her spirit healing for the first time since her life had turned upside down.
“Tomorrow we arrive at our destination,” Rial informed her as they huddled in front of a compact heat lamp in a cave big enough for them and the animals, watching Nagavi take out packs of self-heating food while Teinen saw to the horses.
“Hmmph,” Kia retorted.
“Let the lad have his fun,” Nagavi told her.
Rial had recovered from his ordeal at the laboratory. His hair, a soft golden fuzz, was growing in, and his strength had returned. “I admit, I am very much enjoying teaching her to be patient,” Rial added, leaning forward and warming his hands, a brazen look in his eye as his glance slid her way. “When she’s mastered that lesson, submission is next.”
Awakening Defiance: (The Saoirse Saga Book 2) Page 16
