by Ashley West
"No," Silvia said. "I know you won't be able to, but Comman thinks—”
"Comman thinks," Kain broke in. "What does he think? Tell me what he thinks." He was aware that he was edging towards hysteria, but he was otherwise helpless to stop it.
"He thinks you need a change of scenery. I'm starting to agree."
He sighed, head tipped back. "You're both probably right, but I don't want to leave him."
"Litta can handle it."
They both looked over to see Litta standing close to the Prince's side, clear that she had no intentions of moving any time soon.
"She can," Kain agreed. "But my place is with him. I have to be with him through this. I can't...I can't let him fail. Not after all this."
"You can be with him and still take a break, Kain. I promise this isn't about me wanting you to choose me over him. I just want you to be okay."
He reached for her hand and held it, giving her grateful eyes. "I want all of this to be okay," he said. "Stay here with me?" He couldn't, in good conscience, leave. Not when things were such a mess. But Silvia made him feel calmer and more able to handle this, so he wanted her by his side.
She smiled and leaned down to kiss his cheek before settling herself in beside him.
Chapter Ten: Improvisation
Caldo swore loudly and kicked over the table that was in front of him. It had been laden with refreshments, drinks and food and the like, and when he kicked it, they all went crashing to the floor. The mess was satisfying, to say the least, and he clicked his fingers, motioning for someone to come and clean it up.
He hated Earth. He hated how hard the creatures who were stuck on this miserable planet tried so hard to replicate the seedy cantinas and back rooms of better planets. Portitia's was one such cantina, and Caldo was in it now, listening to the crooning of a Falafax woman and watching two others dance provocatively around her, their see through clothing leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.
Any other time, his eyes would have been locked on their mottled grey skin and four breasts, but now he had other things on his mind. Namely how Sandigo was going to kill him.
Caldo had talked a big game. He had laid out a plan that seemed foolproof. Everyone knew the new ruler of Jontira was a weakling. He couldn't fight and the people tolerated him at best. It should have been no trouble at all to have his people's powers taken away and kill the prince. Some of them might have even thanked him for going to the trouble of removing a leader that they didn't believe in. Sandigo had seemed pleased enough, at least he'd told Caldo to proceed, and Caldo had done so, sure that he could do this better than even Sandigo himself could.
And now this. It was all starting to unravel around him, and he didn't know what to do about it. He hadn't expected the Prince to have such a loyal guard on his side, and he hadn't expected the one he'd been able to convince to default to be so useless.
It was turning out to be much harder than he was expecting to pull this off, but he wasn't out of options yet.
He had his creatures, his trusty venmoras, and he had his bluffs. And...now that it occurred to him, he was in a seedy cantina full of people who might have enough of a grudge against certain kinds of authority to be useful to him.
Opportunity was everywhere.
Caldo got up from his table and went over to the bar, leaning against it with one of his four elbows. "Excuse me," he said to the Garseeli man behind the bar in flawless Garsee. "I wonder if you can help me."
The bartender looked surprised. "Might can. Depends on what you want," he answered in the same language.
Caldo grinned. "Do you know if anyone here is looking for work?"
A snort was his answer. "Who isn't? It's not so easy to find things we can do here on Earth," he said. "Businesses like this one pop up all the time, but it's not as lucrative as it would be if we could mingle with the humans, you know?"
"Of course, of course. I completely understand. Well, I'm from another planet, small one, you won't have heard of it, and it just so happens that I need a job done, and it pays very well."
"How well?" the man asked, narrowing his eyes.
He was right to be suspicious, of course. Taking odd jobs from strangers was probably how most of these people had ended up on Earth in the first place. The planet was neutral ground, but it was also both refuge and penal colony for those who had been sent away from their own planets.
Still, Caldo was pretty sure he could count on greed to help him, even if he couldn't count on anything else.
He made up a number on the spot, confident that most of the poor fools who would agree to help would be dead before the confrontation was over and the rest of them would be easy enough to dodge.
The bartender gave a low whistle and looked him over once more. "You have that kind of credit?" he asked.
Caldo nodded. "For this job? Yes."
If he were smart, the bartender would have asked for some kind of proof or collateral, but instead he just smiled, showing off that Garseeli mouth of sharp teeth that made Caldo want to shudder. "I'll get you your people," he said. "Come back tomorrow night."
Excellent. It was always nice to find good help. "Thank you," Caldo said, inclining his head. "I knew I'd be able to depend on the people here."
He ordered another drink and then went back to his seat, leaning back and sipping at it while he let his eyes roam over the patrons of the cantina, wondering which of them would be interested enough to show up.
They were a scrappy bunch, that was evident, though there was some real muscle in there as well. He could see someone who he was pretty sure was a Mandrogon in the corner, big as three of him put together, and if he had a couple of those on his side, even the rock headed Jontirans wouldn't be able to do much damage.
No, it wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.
Chapter Eleven: Fracture
For a few days after everything had blown up, things were quiet. The peace talks had started again, and Comman actually seemed to be making progress. He had come clean about the traitor in his ranks and actually talked to the other dignitaries about the struggles he'd been facing when it came to his people.
Kain was impressed, to be honest. Opening oneself up like that couldn't be easy, but he saw first- hand what it did to make the others trust him. Slowly, the talks started turning from fear to something more productive, and he could see the hope in Comman's eyes.
Silvia was also present at most of these meetings over that few days. She knew that Kain wasn't going to leave Comman alone, and to be honest, she was curious about how these things worked. Sometimes Kain found his two charges with their heads bent together, talking faster than he could follow about who knew what. It was nice that they got along, but Kain had the distinct worry that if the two of them tried to take over the world together, they would succeed.
The one dark spot in all of this was the death of Lennos. Kain had left him alive for a reason, but Lennos had taken matters into his own hands and apparently had decided that he couldn't take the shame of going back to his family as a traitor. He'd been found dead in his cell, clearly from taking his own life.
It bothered Kain that it had come to that, and while Comman was making plans to change things for their people, Kain made plans to change things for Comman. He deserved more from those whom he paid to protect him, and when they got back to Jontira, Kain was going to make sure he got it.
One night after the talks, Silvia insisted on taking them out for dinner.
"To celebrate that things are going so well," she said, smiling at Kain and Comman. "In spite of everything, progress is being made, and there haven't been any other attacks. I think we can call that a reason to eat a nice meal."
Comman had smiled and agreed in his polite way, and if Comman was going, there was no way Kain wasn't, even if he had been trying to think of a way to get Silvia alone for nearly two days now.
It was hard seeing her this much and not having the time to touch and kiss her the way he wanted to. S
he looked as tempting as she always did, watching the talks with intent eyes or pressing her pen to her full lips, and sometimes Kain caught himself watching her instead of the room.
She was a terrible distraction when it came to doing his job, but he wasn't going to ask her to leave. Not when it was so nice to have her around. He didn't know much longer they were going to be on Earth, and the day when they would have to go their separate ways was probably approaching quickly.
Neither of them had talked about it. He didn't know what she wanted from this or from him, and he supposed that he didn't know what he wanted from her, either. What he did know was that he was never going to find anyone else like her, and it made his chest ache to think of never seeing her again.
He was fairly sure Comman knew that, too. Sometimes the Prince gave him these knowing looks, and there had been a lot of talk about how things were going to change when they got back.
"I hope you know that I value you, Kain," he'd said one night. "Not only as my guard, but as my friend. And I want you to be happy. No matter what that looks like." He'd given him a significant look after that, but hadn't said any more. Still, Kain knew what it was about. He was receiving tacit permission to stay here if he wanted.
He'd thought about it, that much was true, but he knew he couldn't do it. Earth would never be his home. It wasn't the planet he cared about, but Silvia, and he didn't think he could stay here just for her.
Which made him feel awful inside, but there it was.
Either way, they all went out to dinner. Comman dressed up, and Kain was in his usual attire: comfortable clothes that he could move in so that if they were attacked he wasn't hampered by a dress tunic or something. Silvia looked ravishing in a red dress that showed off her legs and chest to remarkable effect.
Kain could see Comman smirking as they went inside the restaurant, but he didn't even care. She looked amazing, and he took her arm and pulled her chair out for her when they got inside.
"Such a gentleman," she said, winking at him in a way that promised mischief later. And oh, Kain couldn't wait for that. Maybe he could leave Litta in charge for a bit. He trusted her to keep an eye on things while he was otherwise engaged.
While Silvia explained something about the food to Comman, Kain spared a moment to think about Silvia on Jontira. He thought about her spread out on her back in his bed, her hair fanned over the pillows, the way the sheets would crumple under her skin.
He thought about her back arching and the look she'd get in her eyes when he came in from training, sweaty and disheveled, and so pleased to see her waiting there for him. He thought about how he'd take her right there, with the sweat still slick on his body, muscles singing with exertion, her singing from pleasure. He thought about her being his.
"Kain?"
Silvia's voice saying his name jarred him out of his thoughts, and he blinked and looked at her amused face. "Hm?"
"Daydreaming?"
"Just thinking."
She gave him a look that was full of promise, and he returned it gladly. "Did you have any questions about the food?" Silvia wanted to know.
Kain smirked at her. "No, I know what I want to eat."
They made it all the way through the meal without incident, though with much flirting between Kain and Silvia. Silvia wanted to pay for the meal, but Comman insisted, and Silvia decided it would be bad manners to argue with a Prince.
They all left the restaurant feeling full and pleased, so of course that was when the trouble started.
Kain liked to think that he was good at following his instincts. Even with Silvia in that dress and his eyes on her, as they headed for the door and his body started humming in that way that meant trouble was ahead, he paid attention to it.
"Wait," he said softly, and he put out an arm to stop Silvia and Comman from walking through the door, putting himself in front of them and taking the first step out.
It was a good thing, too. There was a shattering scream from a woman across the street and then six of those creatures that Kain was really getting very tired of came barreling down the street towards them.
Though they didn't seem to want anything to do with the others on the street, the humans scattered, screaming and yelling and clambering over each other in a mass of pandemonium as they tried to get out of the way.
The noise just seemed to get the creatures even more riled up, and they growled and snapped their jaws as they advanced.
"Get behind me," Kain said to his charges, and his tone brooked no argument. "Now."
He didn't fancy these odds at all. There were six creatures, two people he had to protect, and a handful of others that he didn't want to see hurt either. And only one of him.
Truth be told, he was getting too used to summoning his hammer from under the asphalt, and it took a fraction of the time to do it this time. For good measure he coated his forearms in gravel and smaller stones, forming rock shields that would keep the creatures from biting him while he fought. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they broke the skin.
And then he launched himself into the fray.
Comman and Silvia seemed to be staying together, which was good, and they were working to get the rest of the people out of the way, keeping them out of range of the fight.
That was good. This was going to get messy.
He'd bet on his skills against most enemies, but it was easy to get outnumbered and surrounded when you were so heavily outnumbered and surrounded. The creatures growled and snapped at him, and Kain let his training take over.
The hammer was heavy, but he moved it with grace and speed, cutting one of the creatures off mid lunge with a blow to the face that had bones cracking and an eerie howl ripping from the creature's mouth. It fell back just in time for Kain to spin and punch another one in the face, just before two more came at him, making him have to swing the hammer in a wide arc.
"Look out!" someone cried, and Kain ducked just in time for one of them to go flying over his head and crashing into the glass window of the restaurant they'd just left. The glass shattered and everyone inside screamed in surprise and then the chaos just got worse.
It was hard to do this with so much confusion. He was trying to keep an eye on Comman and Silvia, trying to keep the creatures from getting any of the humans and trying to keep them from getting him, as well.
One of the creatures slipped through his guard, and it was by the grace of the Creators that Kain managed to get his arm up in time to keep the thing from lunging and snapping at his face. Its teeth shattered on the rock armor, and it howled and fell back.
He hadn't managed to kill a single one of them yet, and he was breathing heavily already. People were streaming around the fight, running for their cars and trying to get out of the way.
"Kain!"
His head snapped around and he saw Comman and Silvia, close, but far enough away that they seemed to be safe. Thank the Hills for that. "You can do this," Comman said. "Focus."
"Easy for you to say," Kain mumbled, but he did as he was told, focusing his power. He avoided doing this in strange places because it seemed rude to alter the ground of a place you were unfamiliar with and that was unfamiliar with you, but there wasn't much choice.
He pulled the armor back from one hand and stretched the hand out, calling to the power stored in the planet. It was slow to answer, as it was rarely, if ever, called on, but it woke with a shudder and came to his bidding.
Three identical chasms opened in the street where they were fighting, taking down three of the creatures easily. They dropped into the ground and Kain clenched his hand quickly, crushing them and closing the rifts he'd opened.
Now there were only three of the things left, and they would be easier to take down.
Two of them fell to the hammer in quick succession, and when he found the other one, it was advancing on a human man who hadn't gotten out of the way in time. Kain swore and took off after it, but before he'd even gotten close, the creature had the man's a
rm in his mouth and was biting down hard.
The man screamed, the people around him screamed, and Kain ran faster. He hit the creature hard, sending it flying away from its victim and then he advanced, crushing it with a mighty blow.
Once the thing was dead for sure, Kain turned back to the man, who was watching him with wide, fearful eyes. Kain sighed. "You'll want to get that seen to," he said. "And soon. I think those things are venomous."
Comman was immensely proud of Kain. Those odds had not been favorable, and yet he had triumphed. No humans were dead, and they would get help for the one who was injured soon enough. The creatures had been dispatched, and unless another wave of them came running down the road, they had a moment to relax.
He was too restless to breathe easily, though. These things were being sent after him, after all, and it made him heartsick to think of putting others in danger. Silvia was close to him, still, and he turned to her, seeing the fear in her eyes. "I am sorry," he murmured. "This is my fault."
"No, it's not," she said back. "This is that Caldo guy's fault. Because he's an idiot."
"You'll want to watch what you say, girlie."
From out of the shadows stepped a man that Comman had never seen before. He was rail thin and looked sharp around the edges, and Comman thought 'knife' as soon as he saw him. He had dark, quick eyes, and had on dark clothing, so it was no wonder that he had blended into the darkness, especially with all the chaos.
"Who are you?" Comman asked, drawing himself up. He was a prince, and he would not cower.
"My name's not important," he said. "Thing is, I think Caldo's pretty good. S'not nice to hear people saying mean things about someone who pays so well."
Comman sighed as understanding flooded through him. "You're a mercenary," he said. "Caldo didn't have enough people, so he went and hired more."
"Smart move, wouldn't you say?"
Comman turned, and there was Caldo himself, coming up behind them. Being closed in like that felt bad, but Comman kept his cool. Kain would notice and come to their aid soon enough.
