by Celeste Raye
Footsteps sounded on the ground. His body went tense and rigid in his hands went to his weapons. A voice came across the wind. “Hold your weapons.”
He spun, fast weapons already at the ready and drawn. His voice was thick. “You tell me to hold? You are treading on rebel territory, and yet you come to me and say to hold my weapons from your flesh?”
The man regarding him took a slow step forward. A small beam of moonlight laid a stray finger across that man’s face. A face that Blade knew well because it was so like his own. Chiseled features, full lips, black hair, and high cheekbones. The man stepped forward again, moving easily despite his slow pace. His voice was low and calm. “Yes, I do. If for no other reason but for the fact that we are brothers.”
Blade snorted. “You are the son of the woman that my father betrayed his vows to my mother with. You are no brother to me. You are also a Federation officer, and so you are my enemy. What sort of irrationality would put you here in the sight of my weapon fire, Drake?”
Drake flashed him a broad smile. “You speak as if you would like to kill me.”
Blade admitted, “I have thought about it several times in my life.”
Drake shrugged. The gesture lifted one shoulder and dropped it again in a slow rolling motion. “I can understand that. I’d be a liar if I didn’t say I thought about killing you a few times in my life. That time you and your friends held me down and tried to drown me in the well was one of them.”
Blades eyebrows rose. “You had that coming.”
Drake snorted softly. “Because I bested you in a game and made you feel embarrassed?”
Blade said, “No, because you compared yourself to my father and the fact that that was a game that he won most often of anyone.”
Drake advanced again, just a single step. “Our father. You forget that. He is our father.”
Blades throat closed. “Was. He died earlier this very day. We set his body to burn in the way of the warriors of times past.”
Drake sighed. “I know. Before he died, he managed to send me a message saying that his death was imminent and that I must come.”
Blade said, “To do what? To try to figure out what we are doing so that you can run back to your commanding officers and give them information that would prevent us from moving forward with this war?”
Drake spoke softly, his voice hissing between his teeth. “How do you think that our father managed to keep you alive for so long? How do you think that you truly escaped more than once when he was across the universe from you, and there were Federation ships ranged all around you? Did you truly believe you had outflown them all? Do you not remember that time that there were two Federation ships, one a small single craft and one a warship?”
Blade did remember that. He studied Drake’s face carefully. “How could I forget it? I thought I was dead for sure.”
Drake said, “The only reason that you are not is because I was the person in that small craft. I fired upon the Federation ship, aiming for its weakest spot. I hit it and took it down so that you could escape. I know that you thought oh, an overeager pilot just accidentally shot down a Federation warship in its haste to kill me off. That is not what happened. It was deliberate. It was done to save you.”
Blades mouth hung ajar. “You are lying.”
Drake said, “I wish I were. I had friends on that ship.”
Blade did not holster his weapons. “You still have not explained to me what the hell it is you want.”
Drake said, “I don’t know if he had time to relay to you his last message.”
Blade said, “If you mean the riddle that he tossed out about Tralam, then yes. It made absolutely no sense, and it does nothing to help either side. Go back to your warship. There are still, as you can see, people here that you can kill.”
Drake said, “I am no longer part of the Federation. When our father died, and you left your hiding place, all of my reasons for being within the Federation died as well.”
Blade said, “Do not come here and try to trick me with your bullshit.”
Drake said, “Trick you? I should kill you right here and now just for that. Our father forced me to be your keeper since the day you stormed out of the house and declared yourself a rebel and an outlaw. My entire adult life has been spent cleaning up behind your messes and keeping you from being captured and killed. To do that I had to be a part of the Federation. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Blade shook his head. “I do not believe you.”
Drake said, “You do not have to believe me. What you do have to do is let me show you the way to the Speakers door.”
Everything went dark in his vision. Blade staggered a few steps and leaned even harder against the tree. His hands, still clutching his weapons, fell limply by his sides. His mouth worked, but only a thin croak admitted forth.
Drake said, “I see you are shocked. Of course you are. Nobody believes it’s real. But it is real. I have been there.”
Blade shook his head, “That’s not possible.”
Drake said, “Oh, but it is. I could not gain entry, of course, but when our father relayed to me the particular talents of many in your group, I knew that it was possible to enter.”
Tara’s words floated back to him again. The whole thing was so surreal that all Blade could do was lean against the tree and survey his half-brother. The half-brother that he had never liked or trusted. The brother who had been born several years after Blade had been born and the half-brother that his father had always seemed to prefer over him. There was a lot of bitterness and resentment between the two because of that, and Blade knew that part of his distrust for Drake came from that, from being overlooked by their father.
More footsteps sounded. The Revants; Talon, Renall, Marik, and Jeval all stood there. Behind them stood Jenny, Jessica, Margie, and Tara.
Tara stepped forward, a weapon blaster in her hands. She spoke quietly, “Who are you and why are you here?”
Drake spoke. “I am his brother. He would never admit that, but it’s true. And I am here to take you to Tralam. You should know that we’re probably all going to die. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re all going to die.”
Jessica said, “Do you know that ever since I was taken from a slaver ship, just about every man I have met has told me that he’s pretty sure we are all going to die?”
Margie said, “Men. Always believing the worst.”
Talon said, “I can’t believe you just said that.”
Jenny put in, mildly, “I think they’re right. I mean, death is the great equalizer. It lets nobody escape.”
Drake threw up his hands. For a moment, Blade felt a bit of spiteful satisfaction at the flash of bewilderment on Drake’s features. He also felt a streak of sympathy. He had been in that position, and he didn’t envy Drake for being in it just then.
Tara stepped forward. Her hair burned like fire and Blade’s heart pounded hard as he looked at her. She was his. His and he wanted to be there for her, to be alive with her. To be with her until the entire world blew apart, and the universe too.
Tara asked, “Why Tralam? What’s there?”
Drake shook his head, “I don’t know what’s there or why we have to go. I just know that our father believed that if we could enter, we could break the very heart and mind of the Federation from within the walls there.”
Talon stepped closer. His weapons gleamed. “Why would he think that?”
Drake sighed. “He did not tell me all. He had intel, something he found. I don’t know what it was because he destroyed it and would not tell me all of it. He just said, when he decided to turn all the way to this side, that if he fell, that going there would be the way to save this universe from destruction and darkness.”
Margie said, “There’s fairly melodramatic.”
Tara said, “He didn’t trust you. Did he?”
Drake’s features were outlined by the moon again. A thin sliver of pain laced his voice. “No. He never did. I was not his favorit
e son, but his favorite son, the one he would have trusted to tell what he had found, had gone to the other side, and by the time they reconnected, Father was not sure that son would understand. So he told me part. I wish he had told me more.”
The world turned upside down. Blade stood there, confused and uncertain for the first time in his adult life. Trusting Drake was stupid. Believing in an old tale that was probably not even true was stupider yet.
Believing that he was his father’s favorite son was the dumbest thing he could do—ever. His father had disowned him.
But had he?
Had he really? He had kept him alive. Had risked his own life and the life of his other son to keep him alive and now there was this mission, this mission that he did not trust in and did not believe in but seemed to be the only thing that his father had ever asked of him in return for all that he had done.
How could he say no to going?
And how could he risk so much by going when there was so little intel and no answer to so many questions about the why of the mission?
He said, “How do we know that we can trust you?”
Jeval stepped forward. His hands came out, and he captured Drake’s face between them. Drake’s mouth opened and his hands came up in a fighter stance, but then they dropped limply. Drake went to his knees, his face blank in his mouth hanging agape as he stared upward into Jeval’s face.
A pause, pregnant and heavily weighted, sprung up but then it shattered when Jeval stepped backward with Drake’s mouth working and his hands battering at the air for his face. Drake slumped forward, completely unconscious. Blade stared from his half-brother to the Revant.
He got out the words, “What is it? What did you see within his mind?”
Jeval looked at him. Blood ran from one of Jeval’s nostrils, and his face was saggy. An expression of sheer and utter terror coated his features. “The Speakers door. It is real. And he knows where it is.”
Chapter 12 - Blade
Blade’s hands ran over her skin, starting up desire. Tara caught her breath, her body arcing upward slightly as his mouth fastened to her nipples and tugged them gently into his mouth. His tongue ran across the surfaces of her nipples as they tightened to a pebble-hard texture under his not too gentle ministrations.
The feel of his body on top of hers, one of his tightly muscled thighs pressed up against her crotch, and his free hand tangled deeply into her hair, all mingled together to create desire so heated it felt like she was being dipped in fire.
Her legs spread a little further, and her lower body moved, her bottom leaving the grass and dirt and her pussy pressing against that thigh of his. She rubbed against it, moving up and down in long slow strokes that made her clit tingle and her breath catch.
Blade’s mouth left her nipples and captured her lips in a kiss so demanding that she could barely breathe and didn’t care if she never did again.
He positioned himself above her, his hand guiding his swollen member to her slippery outer lips. He rubbed the head of his cock into the slick oils there and then used those oils to lubricate the hard and fast thrust of his prick into her tight tunnel.
The feel of him, hot and hard thick long, filled her senses. His mouth was still on hers, and his fingernails left small, burning trails in her scalp as he tugged her head upward so that he could ravish her lips further.
Passion exploded through her body as his hips worked, thrusting him deeper within her dripping inner folds. He withdrew, and she felt an immediate sense of loss. Then he pistoned his hips forward again and that sense of being filled until she could not be filled anymore came back, titillating her senses and making low moans break from her lips.
Her legs wrapped around his waist, her heels locking tightly together as she sought to keep him closer to her. The smell of their sex and sweat met her nostrils, an aphrodisiac that was so heady it edged her closer to an orgasm with every second. Blade slid his fingers between their bodies and manipulated her clit, adding a fresh layer of sensation to their lovemaking that tipped her right into climax.
Her cry rose and rose again as the first waves of fluid gushed from her body, covering his cock as he pushed past her constricting and loosening walls to the very end of her ability to contain his enormous girth and length. Aftershocks came hard on the heels of that orgasm, sending shivers all up and down her spine and making her cry out yet again.
She felt the jerking of his member inside her swollen walls, a signal he was close to his own climax. His head burrowed into the hollow between her neck and shoulder. His breath came in hard and ragged gasps as he moved faster still, pinning her to the ground with his weight as he rode out his own need to the very end.
He braced himself above her with one hand as his body went rigid. His organ pulsed and throbbed inside her and his sticky, heated seed splashed over her walls and mingled with her own juices.
They lay there like that, neither of them speaking for long moments. Blade withdrew from her slowly, his member flaccid now. He left a thin dribble of fluid across her upper thigh as he rolled carefully away from her and then pulled her into the shelter of his strong arms. He spoke into her hair. “How did you know?”
She let her fingers rest against the perspiration-damp skin of his broad chest. “I didn’t really. I just… Promise me you won’t laugh?”
His fingers tilted her chin so that she was looking into his eyes. His face wore a serious expression. “I would never laugh at you.”
She said, “I used to pilfer the standing library. I know it was wrong. The books there are sacred. They are made of paper, you know.”
Blade dragged in a breath. “The Newport library is among the finest in the universe. And yes, the books are sacred because paper does not exist like that anymore. What do you mean you pilfered them?”
Her face burned. “I would not have you think me a thief.”
The expression on his face turned to one of amusement. “You steal priceless books, and you would not be called a thief?”
Her defenses came up, and she spoke tartly. “I always put them back.”
The look of shock and awe on his face made giggles erupt from her lips. “You don’t have to look at me like that!”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Let me get this right. First, you stole priceless books from the Newport freestanding library, one of the most heavily guarded places in the universe, and then you put them back?”
She nodded. “I only wanted to read them.”
He said, “I would never call you a thief. That’s a skill that goes beyond simple thievery. I know people who would give anything to have the kind of skill it takes just to be able to remove one from the library, much less the skill it must’ve taken to put it back without it being noticed. How did you manage that?”
She snuggled in closer. “I always took them at the end of the day and I always returned them at opening. Before they had a chance to check every exhibit. I read them in a single night.”
His laughter was both hearty and free. “Every time I think I know you well, and every time I think I know everything about you, you tell me something new. But that doesn’t explain how you knew about all of us sort of being fated to be together.”
She traced the shape of his nipples with one finger. To her delight, his nipples tightened and hardened beneath her touch. “The library had these books, very ancient. They spoke of the old days. Or maybe they were just books that people from the old days wrote about days even older. I’m not sure. But in those books, people always had to go on some sort of quest to find things. And somehow or another, the people who were necessary for that quest to succeed always just seemed to turn up.”
“I see. Actually, I don’t see, but I can see how you would’ve said that now.” His hand captured her fingers but didn’t move them away from his nipple. “I’m afraid that this is just some foolish errand that will do nothing but take us away from where we are needed most.”
She shook her head. “We all know that the
Federation is currently firing upon other planets. They’ve been beaten here and they’re in full retreat. Even if they do return here to fight, there are plenty of ground troops and aircraft troops here. They can make do without us for a little while.”
His hand stroked across the top of her head, smoothing her hair. “We?”
“Where you go, I go.”
He said, “The general consensus is that we will all die.”
She nodded. “The general consensus is that we will all die in this war. Might as well go on a quest. Either way, we will probably die. The quest might just help us save some that we might not have saved otherwise.”
His tone turned gentle. “You are a remarkable woman. Do you know that?”
She sighed and rested her cheek against his chest. The sound of his heartbeat, steady and comforting, filled her ear. “I don’t. And I don’t think I’m that remarkable either. I just want to live. Everything I do is just so I can live. But I don’t want to just live. I want to be alive and with you. I want us to have something beyond this war, but I’m horribly afraid this is all that we will ever have of time together. War.”
He spoke softly. “I seem to recall Talon saying something similar not so long ago during the conversation that I had with him. It seems that we all want more than this and the only thing standing in our way is the Federation. Even after the Federation falls, there will probably still be civil war among planets as people try to take power. We may never know a time of actual peace.”
Her chest rose and fell, meeting his as he breathed in tandem with her. “I know. And I wonder, will we have children? If we do, will they survive long enough to see peace? Will we survive long enough to see peace? It scares me, thinking that we might not.”
“It scares me too.”
The words startled her. She looked at him again, trying to read his face, but it had gone impassive and unreadable. “I would not believe you are frightened of anything.”
He said, “At one point, that was probably true. At one point, I did not care at all if I lived or if I died. But then you came along and healed my heart. My broken heart was the largest wound I had ever sustained it in my entire life. You made me want to live. You made me want to love. Made me feel alive again and I’m grateful for that, but along with that comes the knowledge that the life I had before you, after her death, was meaningless. I was only living to die and now that I want to live, it seems like there’s not enough time. So yes, that frightens me.”
