Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection

by Kerry Adrienne

  Neither of us would get our way tonight.

  Chapter 14

  Terra

  I wasn’t scared. The way Jidden grabbed my arm and dragged me back down the corridor told me I should be, but I wasn’t.

  I didn’t care that Jidden caught me. My only regret was that I hadn’t slit Kalij’s throat beforehand. I wouldn’t have made it quick. I would have let the blade linger, the way the bruises lingered across Lucina’s body.

  It’s not like they were going to kill me. I was a woman. To the Surtu, I was sacred. They wouldn’t punish me. They wouldn’t punish any of us. We were already being taken as hostages, betrayed by our leaders, and forced to face the possibility that, one by one, we would all be light bonded to a Surtu man.

  Except possibly me. Jidden cared for me, but he still cared for his career more.

  “What is a light bond?” I demanded when he pulled me into his office.

  He let go of my arm, unamused. “I’ll ask the questions,” he snapped.

  “No, you’ll answer them,” I said, confronting him. “You haven’t won this war yet. You’re not in charge. I’m sick of all the secrecy and evasion. If my women are meant to be light bonded to your men, then we deserve to know what the hell we’re getting into.”

  I had him. He looked down, gathering his thoughts.

  “Surtu are beings of light as well as flesh,” he said. “So are humans. You don’t know it yet because you can’t control yourselves. We can use our minds to control the atoms in our body, to become like light or to stabilize into physical form. You don’t have the same control over your body, but you have the ability change. We’ve seen it. During a light bonding ceremony, a couple alters into light together. It’s a transcendental experience, uniting mates together forever.”

  “And is such a light bond always required before mating?”

  “If you’re asking if I’ve broken some moral code by sleeping with you, I haven’t. All the soldiers here have known Surtu women. But many of those women are barren after fighting the disease. A light bond is required for a human mate because the children are healthier when parents conceive them. Healthy children are what my people need.”

  I remembered Captain Fore telling me something similar. “How does the light bond work for humans if we don’t know anything about it?”

  “When a Surtu man shares a light bond with a human woman, he alters her state for her, turning her into light. It’s brief but powerful.”

  “It sounds beautiful when you describe it,” I told him. “But it’s not. Nothing about this light bond is wholesome if a male forces into it against her will. Let Lucina go. Call off the ceremony tomorrow.”

  I was trying to appeal to his inner depths.

  “I won’t,” he said, returning to his cold indifference. “This is why we’re here – to mate. The ceremony will go ahead.”

  “Then you’ve just sentenced your first woman to death,” I warned. “Her soul can’t survive it.”

  “She’ll have to try,” he replied. He was unmoved.

  I was no longer angry at myself. He was the focus of my rage. “I never should have told you to claim me. It was a mistake.”

  He moved behind his desk and allowed space to build between us. “You should return to Lucina,” he said, refusing to acknowledge me further. “She needs your support right now but don’t think about running. I’ve strengthened the patrol around her quarters.”

  We’ll see, I thought to myself.

  When I returned to Lucina, she was with Gallia, and she was a lot calmer than before. Her sobs had stopped, and she seemed almost hopeful.

  “I failed.” It was heartbreaking to tell her. Lucina was the last person I wanted to fail. “But Kalij has been ordered to stay away. If we–”

  “It’s okay,” Gallia said, cutting me off. “She’s ready.”

  “I am,” Lucina assured me, a wisp of a smile turning her lips. “I’m ready to show Kalij everything I have to offer.”

  “I don’t understand,” I stammered, stunned at Lucina’s transformation.

  “You’re not meant to,” Gallia answered for her. “Just let it be.”

  Lucina smoothed out the tangles of her blonde hair. “It’s okay.”

  “All right,” I said softly, throwing my hands into the air. “I don’t know what this is, but I won’t intervene.”

  “You’ve been such a good friend,” Lucina said, taking my hand. “Thank you.”

  Her praise should have comforted me, but it left me unsettled. It was like watching a tree grow upside down. “Is there anything you need?” I asked.

  “Just you with me, by my side. Stay here tonight. It’ll be like when we were little girls. Who says adult women can’t have slumber parties?” She turned to Gallia. “I want you both to stay.”

  I didn’t think it was possible, but Gallia looked embarrassed. “I’ve never been to a slumber party before,” she admitted.

  The night wasn’t much of a party, and there was very little slumbering. We stayed up chatting about our lives on Earth, of what we’d go back to if we won the war. I didn’t see myself staying in the desert with my parents. My brother already took care of them. I would likely head north to the winter plains where the big cities were. The liberty of living in a city would be comforting after so much discipline on the Fortuna.

  “You wouldn’t remain in the military?” Gallia asked, appalled. “All your training will go to waste.”

  “This is what I trained for,” I reminded her. “This war. I never thought we’d be the generation to fight it. I always thought that after my service to the Fortuna, I’d return to Earth and do some good in the world.”

  “But you are doing good in the world. You’re one of the best we have,” Galled claimed. “You’re spectacular.”

  It was a rare compliment, gifted on a strange night that pulled our emotions out of us. I was touched, but I didn’t agree with Gallia. “If you knew everything, you wouldn’t think so,” I said. “I keep failing.”

  “Failing?” Lucina was incredulous. “At the eleventh hour, you were thrown into the role of Commander. With no preparation, it fell on you to meet the Surtu and learn of their intentions. A lesser woman would have caved from the pressure. You haven’t failed.”

  “I agree,” Gallia said. “By taking on my responsibilities, you’ve allowed me to stay undercover in the kitchen. Your position was temporary and for show. You were never going to succeed, and yet somehow you have.”

  “How?” I argued. “How have I succeeded?”

  “You stayed alive,” Lucina said.

  “And you learned valuable information,” Gallia added. “Like the fact that the Surtu ships can connect into one, and that they abide by a hierarchy, and that their race is near extinction. Every scrap of information is an advantage.”

  I couldn’t see what they saw. “But it’s so little.”

  Gallia sighed and looked up at the stars. “When you’re fighting an unknown enemy, a little is a lot. Stay true, Terra. You’re doing well.”

  “Isn’t this great?” Lucina chirped, watching as a meteor shot across the sky. “We should have done more stuff like this before the Surtu arrived.”

  “You never told us what you’ll do once we win the war,” Gallia said. “I’ll stay in the military. Terra will go be a rogue angel. What will you do?”

  I already knew the answer. Since we were girls, Lucina wanted to teach little ones and start a family of her own. But that was not the answer she gave.

  “We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” she said. “Then I’ll tell you.”

  The Surtu delivered a uniform for Lucina early in the morning. It was dark blue, stiff, and lacked any embellishments.

  That was a good thing. The last thing Lucina needed was a white dress with flowers in her hair.

  We weren’t at a celebration. It was an insult to all of humanity.

  A knock on the door signaled it was time to leave for the Grand Hall where Kalij was waiting.
/>   “Are you sure you can go through with this?” I asked Lucina one last time.

  “Positive,” she said. She possessed a strange and awkward confidence. “I can do it.”

  Knowing she’d made her decision, I opened the door. I was annoyed to find Jidden standing on the other side.

  “I had to make sure you didn’t run off in the middle of the night,” he said.

  I assumed he was joking, but I wasn’t in the mood. “I take it you’re officiating.”

  “No,” he answered, taking a step back as he realized he’d receive no warmth from me. “I’m not. I’m going to miss the ceremony. I have a call to take.”

  “You have a lot of calls.”

  “We’re at war, remember?”

  With nothing left to say, I let Lucina take the lead, resisting the urge to pull her back as we made our way to the Grand Hall. It was no secret what was happening. The women of the Fortuna looked upon Lucina with pity, but they saluted her properly as we passed, honoring her.

  We entered the Grand Hall, greeted by a handful of soldiers who waited for us. There was no decor, but none was needed. The Grand Hall was magnificent on its own with marble flooring and colonnades. The tiling on the walls formed a mosaic of all of Earth’s natural wonders – the rainforests and the white-capped mountains.

  Until today, it had been one of my favorite places on the Fortuna, second only to the gardens. Now it felt like enemy headquarters.

  At the front of the hall was Kalij with his dirty red hair and a smug smile. I didn’t know how Lucina could act so brave when destiny stood before her looking so terrible.

  I soon found out.

  Lucina went to meet Kalij. He reached his hand out to her, but she did not accept the hand of the Depraved. Moving quickly, she let a hidden dagger drop from her sleeve, and she plunged it into his chest. Kalij stumbled backward, clawing at the dagger.

  Instantly, two guards grabbed Lucina’s arms, but she hardly noticed. Pleased with herself, she smiled broadly, a smile she’d learned from Bellona, the smile of an assassin.

  Gallia ran to her.

  It’s should have been over. Lucina did what I could not.

  But it wasn’t over. While I watched with frightened awe, a light shone from Kalij like a bright rage. He pulled the dagger from his chest as the light healed him, mending his wound like an invisible seamstress.

  When the light disappeared, only his rage remained.

  “Can you see?” he bellowed, waving the dagger in the air. “We can’t be defeated. We are your destiny.”

  To my horror, he turned to Gallia. “You,” he seethed. “You with your eyes like green poison. You convinced her to do this. She would never have thought of this on her own.”

  Gallia stood tall and refused to be intimidated. She said nothing.

  Twirling the dagger in his hand, he stepped closer to her. “I can survive this,” he said, flashing the dagger at her. “Can you?” he asked, and he stabbed her in the heart.

  “No!” Lucina screamed as Gallia fell in front of her. She struggled against the soldiers who held her.

  I have to get Jidden, I thought, trying not to crack into pieces as Gallia bled to death on the marble floor. He can save her, the way he saved me.

  But I didn’t get a chance to leave.

  “And you, Commander of bitches,” Kalij yelled, removing the dagger from Gallia’s heart. He stared deeply into my eyes.

  “You’re next.”

  Chapter 15

  Terra

  “No!” Lucina Whitmore cried, struggling against the soldiers who held her arms. At her feet lay Gallia, blood pouring from her heart where Kalij had stabbed her.

  The Surtu could heal themselves. They were beings of light as well as the flesh, but the light seemed to be the higher power within them, allowing them to heal both their bodies and others.

  Jidden could save Gallia. I needed to get to Jidden – my alien lover.

  But I could not. He was in another part of the space station on a call and Kalij blocked my way, flaunting a dagger in front of me. The tip of the blade was stained with Gallia’s blood.

  “You lied to me, Commander,” Kalij hissed. “You told me you had light bonded with a Surtu man, but you didn’t. Do you think I’m an idiot?”

  Yes, I wanted to say, but I knew better. Frantically, I looked around at the handful of other soldiers in the room. “Someone save her!” I shouted, pointing at Gallia, not caring if it set Kalij off. “Claim her if you have to, but save her.”

  No one moved. Kalij laughed. It made me sick. “They won’t betray me for you. Now beg, Commander. Beg for your life.”

  I wouldn’t beg, and he knew it. I followed Gallia’s example. I would face the same fate she did.

  I straightened my shoulders and held my head high, allowing the disdain I felt towards the dirty redhead to radiate from me like the blast from the nuke that almost destroyed the Fortuna.

  “Very well,” he said, pleased. “You made your choice.”

  He flicked his wrist, ready to strike me down, but he wavered when Jidden – the Lead Officer in charge of the siege on the Fortuna – burst into the hall.

  Apparently, not all the soldiers were loyal to Kalij. One of them must have snuck out to summon Jidden.

  “Enough, Kalij!” Jidden ordered. “Let her go!”

  I was far from saved. I saw the wild look in Kalij’s eyes. He was going to kill me, regardless of who was in the room.

  Jidden must have seen it too. He threw his hand out in front of him, and the dagger twisted out of Kalij’s grasp as if handled by an unknown puppet master.

  It was a power I never knew the Surtu had. What else could they do, and how would we defeat them? They had masked it well from their enemies. When the dagger clattered to the floor, I quickly kicked it towards Jidden, and then I elbowed Kalij in the face, feeling his nose crack.

  It was not like me to get joy from violence, but hurting Kalij in any way possible satisfied a dark part of me.

  “Seize him!” Jidden yelled as a troop of soldiers stormed into the Grand Hall. “Seize them all.”

  Except for Kalij, the other men in the hall surrendered quietly. Kalij was having none of it. “What of my light bonding ceremony?” he demanded, turning his attention to Lucina, who had collapsed at Gallia’s side, weeping. “She belongs to me. I’ve claimed her.”

  Ignoring him, Jidden went to Gallia. He set his hand over heart. A bright light momentarily blazed across the hall then disappeared, taking my hope with it.

  Gallia did not move.

  I didn’t think Jidden was capable of regret until he looked at me with an unspoken sorrow. Gallia was dead. There was no bringing her back.

  I went to her slowly, in shock. Sitting on the floor next to Jidden, I didn’t care that Gallia’s blood stained the knees of my white jumpsuit. I smoothed away a piece of her raven-black hair, hoping that there was a special kind of heaven for women who sacrificed themselves as bravely as Gallia.

  Devastated, Lucina threw herself into my arms, and I held her.

  “There will be no light bonding ceremony today,” Jidden announced, loud and definite.

  “You can’t do that!” Kalij screamed, inciting a cluster of guards to surround him as if they were trapping a beast in his cage. “It’s my right! Captain Fore gave his permission.”

  “Captain Fore will agree with my decision,” Jidden said, standing to confront Kalij. “The life of a human woman is worth more than the life of a soldier. We are at the risk of extinction. You betrayed your people, Kalij. The Captain will punish you accordingly.”

  “You are mine!” Kalij yelled to Lucina as the guards escorted him out of the hall. “I will come back for you! We will be light bonded! I should have taken you when I had the chance!”

  After Kalij had left, Lucina shuddered in my arms.

  “Are you okay?” Jidden asked me, his tone much softer than when he had spoken to his men.

  “No,” I said, looking at Gallia.
“I’m not.”

  He addressed the soldiers once more. “This will be a day of mourning,” he declared. “We will mourn for the woman and the Surtu children she would have borne. And the children they would have borne. And the children they would have borne. Especially their daughters. The greed of one man will destroy an entire line of our people.”

  “What will happen to Gallia?” I asked, remembering the way the Surtu sent off their dead – by summoning a light that took their bodies. It was beautiful and powerful, but it was not what Gallia would have wanted. She was loyal to her people. She had died for them and given her life to the Fortuna to protect them.

  She would want an Earth burial.

  Jidden understood this without me having to tell him. “She will be placed within your temple. You may mourn her as you like.”

  “We bury our dead,” I told him. “If someone dies while they are in space, their body is sent home to be laid to rest.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, sounding uncertain. “After today, I doubt Earth will accept any ships from the Fortuna, not even a cargo ship.”

  “What does that mean?” I challenged.

  He didn’t answer.

  Chapter 16

  Jidden

  What had we become?

  This was not the Surtu way. We were honorable soldiers. We killed to serve a purpose, not kill out of self-indulgence.

  At least, not in the time of my father. My father had been honorable, a well-respected soldier. That was why the military was eager to take me when he died. He had served my people well. But he was only a soldier, like me. Promotions in the military didn’t come easy.

  The men at the top were in an elite club. They didn’t share their power with just anyone.