The Raiders

by Angelique Anjou

  More thoughtful than angry by the time he decided he’d had enough of the battering, hot water, he shut it off and climbed out, dried himself, dressed, and left his suite. By the time he’d reached the stairs leading down to the great hall he’d completely forgotten his anger. In its place simmered an energy of excitement, of purpose.

  He debated joining the men in the hall briefly. Instead, after a little thought, he summoned Kulle with a motion of his hand when the man looked up and headed to his solar.

  He was seated at his desk when Kulle arrived with a serving boy bearing a tray of food. Surprised but gratified that Kulle had thought to have his breakfast brought up, Drak directed the boy to leave the tray on the corner of his desk and dismissed him.

  “What is your opinion of my woman’s understanding of the mechanicals?”

  Kulle assumed a more comfortable stance since he had not been invited to sit and considered the question carefully. “She seemed very interested in the things there and curious, but it did not seem to me that she understood them. She sat with one and began to take it apart, but then she was diverted by Terl’s comment regarding the short growing season we have and began to discuss something she called a greenhouse. She said that it would enable us to grow food all year.”

  Drak stared at Kulle for several moments in disbelief. “What?”

  Kulle shrugged. “I was skeptical myself. But she said it would be like spring always and the plants would grow.”

  Drak’s lips tightened in irritation. “When did you and Terl plan to inform me of that?” he growled.

  Kulle gaped at him. “You did not say we were to report everything. Only that we were to watch her.” He shifted uncomfortably. “The drawings were on the desk when you arrived and took her away.”

  Drak contained his impatience with an effort and turned his mind to the reason he had summoned Kulle. “You have had time to assess the boys we brought back with us?”

  Kulle blinked, apparently slow to change gears. “Not … not entirely, Sire.”

  Disappointed, Drak considered for several moments and decided that assessment could wait. “You have certainly had time to assess the elder boys. I would like for you to find the brightest among them who does not seem to have either the disposition or inclination to become a warrior and we will see which, if any, can be taught other skills that will be useful to us.”

  Kulle frowned in confusion. “Instead of sending them to the servant’s quarters?”

  “Yes. Instead. That is the sort of thing that anyone can do. It requires very little skill.” He shrugged. “I suppose the cooking does, but otherwise …. We will see if we have young men who can understand the mechanicals and perhaps repair them. Take a few each day when you take Noelle to the vault and we will see if she can teach them anything.

  “According to what Terl told me, she said that she was not trained to do this. It was something she simply enjoyed doing and could do because she was interested. If that is true, then others may also be inclined to learn because it is something they are interested in.”

  Kulle looked unhappy and uncomfortable. “Pardon, my lord, but …. They may destroy the mechanicals.”

  Uneasiness flickered through Drak, but he resolutely dismissed it. “They are not doing us any good at all at this point. They are useless except as curiosities. If they could be fixed we might discover that they are very useful.

  “We will learn who may have an aptitude for this sort of thing and those who do not should be settled with others who have skills that can be taught. If we are to build this thing Noelle has called a greenhouse we will need men with the skills to build it.”

  “It will cut into our army considerably, my lord,” Kulle pointed out hesitantly.

  Drak frowned. “They can still be taught to fight, but if they have no heart for it and no talent they are more in the way in battle than helpful and pretty much useless as anything beyond presenting a target that might divert the enemy from cutting down our finest warriors!

  “As far as that goes, I see no reason why our warriors must be useless for anything beyond fighting, hunting, and eating up our supplies! Tell them I expect them to make themselves useful by cleaning up the mess they have made in the great hall. They can repair the tables and stools they have broken in their brawling while they are at it!”

  Kulle gaped at him. “What are they to do with the … uh … manure and rotting scraps of food when they have collected it?”

  Drak frowned. “Toss it over the wall. I do not want it in the courtyard either.”

  Kulle shifted uncomfortably. “The doors are frozen shut, Sire, and have been for nigh a week now. And there is mayhap five feet of snow in the courtyard.”

  Irritation flickered through Drak. “Then they will dress warmly and start the cleaning there. First you will send men to climb down from the second floor into the courtyard to clear away the snow and break the ice that has frozen the doors. While they are doing that, you can give those inside the task of cleaning up the mess and then they can remove it when the snow has been cleared and the doors opened.”

  Kulle nodded and turned to depart. He paused at the door, however. “When am I to take your woman back to the vault?”

  Drak considered that. “Send someone to my suite with her breakfast. I will take her when she has eaten. In the meanwhile, you can round up the youths for training and then set the men to their tasks.”

  Kulle nodded unhappily and left.

  He was pretty sure the men weren’t going to be any happier than he was about the Prince’s orders and that a good portion of them would end in the brig for insubordination.

  * * * *

  Noelle had expected that Drak would remain angry and insulted and possibly dislike her intensely for her observations regardless of the fact that they’d spent most of the night having sex. She wasn’t surprised, therefore, to discover she was alone when she woke.

  She was relieved, though.

  Not that the sex between them hadn’t been beyond the most wonderful thing she’d ever experienced! But they’d explored their passion pretty damned thoroughly throughout the night and she was exhausted. She was relieved beyond measure that he didn’t expect to spend all day having sex, as well.

  There was a tray of food on the table beside the bed when she limped out of the bathroom sometime later after standing under the near scalding water for upwards of half an hour in the hope that it would beat the soreness from her muscles.

  Her stomach instantly set up a clamor for the food—even though it was far from being the most appetizing that she’d ever seen!

  After dressing quickly, she settled down to eat.

  Drak arrived about the time she finished and she slid an uneasy glance at him. Surprised when she discovered he seemed more thoughtful than angry, she relaxed.

  “Are you ready to return to the vault?”

  Excitement immediately replaced Noelle’s lingering uneasiness. “Yes!” she said, getting up immediately from her seat and searching for the cloak Drak had brought her the day before.

  “You will have helpers today,” Drak said conversationally as they headed toward the rear stairs.

  Surprise flickered through Noelle, but she decided not ask whether Terl would be one of them or not. Drak hadn’t seemed terribly pleased that they were getting along so well with one another. And he seemed to be in a better mood now than he had been the night before. She decided not to say anything that might spoil his good humor and merely nodded.

  She discovered she had a good half dozen helpers.

  She was somewhat taken aback at first, but then decided Terl must have talked to his father about their discussion the day before and he must have approved of it.

  She explained to them that they were going to organize everything according to how likely it seemed to be fixable. The things that seemed beyond help could all be put together toward the back of the room. Those that looked as if they might actually be in working condition already, or close to it,
would be moved to the front and everything else would be arranged back from there from least work needed to most.

  This required that they stop and examine each piece fairly well just to determine the likelihood of fixing it. She wasn’t especially surprised to discover that most of the boys seemed interested in the mechanics—at least to a degree, although some were noticeably more interested than others. It was the sort of thing, in her experience, that had a wide appeal among boys.

  Not that there weren’t plenty of girls, like her, who also found mechanics fascinating, but it seemed boys were more inclined toward it.

  They spent the entire time they were there at that task, but by the time Drak returned to fetch her in the evening they had pretty much examined everything and sorted it and she’d discovered several of the boys seemed to have a real knack with mechanics.

  The following day the boys who’d shown the most promise returned. Those who hadn’t didn’t, but there were new boys to take their place.

  Shrugging, Noelle focused on finishing the sorting and then settled down at the bench to resume the restoration of the piece she’d started the first day. She carefully identified each piece she was able to and explained to the boys that it was of utmost importance to remember the order of disassembly so that you’d be able to reassemble the piece in the opposite order after you’d carefully cleaned everything and checked it for damage. She also pointed out parts that shouldn’t be touched at all since they might be dangerous electronics. She wasn’t certain she’d correctly identified those components, but they looked suspiciously as if they might be something like capacitors and she didn’t want any of them hurt—or worse, killed—by touching the wrong thing.

  Because if she was right and the parts were capacitors they could easily carry enough electrical charge to kill the unskilled and unwary.

  After the first week, her escorts began to vary. Sometimes Drak would arrive to escort down in the morning and sometimes Kulle or Terl. Sometimes Drak would come to collect her in the evening and sometimes she would simply leave with Kulle and/or the boys who’d been working with her.

  Noelle was so wrapped up in her ‘work’ that it was a while before she noticed that the castle was slowly but surely being transformed.

  Very slowly.

  The stench didn’t exactly disappear, but she noticed she wasn’t stepping on nearly as many disgusting things on the way to the table and the animals that generally roamed the hall, squatting to do their business wherever and whenever it suited them, vanished.

  The men weren’t nearly as rowdy and boisterous.

  In fact, they seemed surprising sober and subdued.

  And not terribly happy.

  And Drak seemed preoccupied and brooding by turns.

  Except when he got her into the bedroom.

  Regardless of how much room there still was for improvement, the things that had been done were a very definite improvement over the conditions of before.

  It occurred to Noelle after she’d encountered a few unpleasant looks from some of the men to wonder if it had anything to do with the assessment she’d made to Drak, but she couldn’t imagine he would pay much attention to anything she’d said. Particularly when he’d been so pissed off about her comments.

  The women, she finally noticed, didn’t seem any more fond of her than Drak’s men.

  It made her uneasy, but then she was alien to them. She hadn’t really expected them to feel warm and welcoming toward her.

  And she thought, maybe, the women disliked her because she had the run of the castle after the first couple of weeks and could go where she liked and explore as much as she liked. Of course, she wasn’t exactly allowed to wander alone. Someone generally escorted her if it was only one of the boys she instructed on mechanics.

  Or the little one, Jules. Somehow, he’d made his way to the vault to watch and listen and play at helping. Not that he was much help. He was very young and not as dexterous as the older boys, but he was certainly very willing and eager to learn.

  And to teach. He said very little at first, but once he grew accustomed to her, he relaxed his guard enough to chatter like a little magpie.

  It was from him that she learned more about the customs and history of the people that occupied the twin worlds than from anyone else.

  She also learned that he’d only recently been ‘weaned’ from his mother—the year before—and that he was horribly homesick and hated everything about Aiper, including his father and brothers, and he wanted to go home.

  His homesickness infected her. She hadn’t even realized, before, that she’d gotten used to the colony enough to think of it as home, but she missed all of the people and things familiar to her.

  Beyond that, his situation absolutely horrified her. She’d been appalled before she’d considered that it might actually affect her own life, but when Drak appeared to have reversed his earlier decision not to breed her and seemed to dedicate himself to doing just that she began to feel far less confident that it was beyond his ability to impregnate her.

  What if a child did result from all the sex they had almost nightly now? What if that child was a boy? Apparently, they had no interest in the females except for breeding and never took the girl children, but she didn’t think she could bear it if she had her son torn from her arms as this child had been torn from his mother. It didn’t matter that Drak seemed to treat him well enough. Children needed love! Not to be taught how to be skilled killers!

  She didn’t think she could risk such a thing!

  But how could she prevent it?

  If he did manage to get her pregnant, he would be back in a few years to collect his son if she bore one for him!

  Chapter Thirteen

  Drak hadn’t said she could visit the teller, but he also hadn’t said she couldn’t—and Noelle was careful not to ask in case he forbade it, because she was determined to speak with the man. With her new anxieties over getting pregnant dominating her thoughts, she decided to take the first opportunity to speak to the teller to find out if the things Jules had told her were true or not.

  She needed to know and with Jules to show her the way, she headed out to the treasure room the first time she had the chance to go alone with Jules and then took the route to the teller instead.

  It didn’t take nearly as long to find him as she’d feared.

  He had quarters, it transpired, in the lower regions of the castle not too far from the treasure room.

  It took Noelle a few moments to realize that the reason the teller seemed to look straight through her was because he couldn’t see at all. She was so stunned and horrified all she could think about at first was how the poor man could even survive without his sight, but she discovered he was actually fairly amazing about finding his way around—at least within his own domain. He welcomed them and offered them seats and refreshment before he settled to talk.

  “You are the woman they call the star-child that Drak has taken as his woman?”

  Surprise, an odd sort of happiness, and embarrassment flooded Noelle and vied for dominance. “I’m Noelle,” she responded finally.

  The teller nodded as if he’d known that all along. “What is it that you’ve come to me for?”

  “Drak—Prince Drak told me that you were the … uh … keeper of the history of the people. I’d hoped you would tell me.”

  “We were a great people once—star children ourselves,” he responded sadly. “But that was in the before. In the time of the old ones. We are not children of the stars now. We only have the relics of the past to show that we were once great.”

  “What happened?” Noelle asked.

  The teller settled himself more comfortably. “The Prince has approved the telling?”

  Noelle bit her lip, wrestling with her conscience. She didn’t want to get him in trouble but she was feeling pretty desperate for reassurance. “He didn’t say I couldn’t come. He lets me go most everywhere now and he’s the one that told me about you.”
/>   The teller smiled. “So he didn’t approve.”

  “I didn’t ask him,” Noelle responded a little glumly.

  The man chuckled. “I will make the assumption that he would have forbidden a visit if he did not wish you to know—or would not have mentioned me to start with. We will both hope this will not transpire to be something that will displease him.”

  He fell silent for several minutes, apparently deciding whether to speak at all or where to begin. “I do not know if our sister world belongs with our family or not,” he said after a brief silence. “I’m not certain even the ancestors knew. I do know that she did not have the place she now claims. Something stirred her and she changed her path and, by doing so, she forced Aiper from the path that he had walked throughout the long history of our people.

  “And destruction followed in her wake. There are no records of how many died, but certainly most did. There was only a handful that was left. When they saw that the world that had all but destroyed our world was a green and fertile jewel, they used the ships that had managed to weather the destruction to carry the women and young to safety. And there they stayed while the men returned to try to salvage what could be recovered of our destroyed civilization.”

  Noelle frowned when he stopped, considering everything he’d told her. “That actually makes complete sense. I could see that happening if they were able to get any of the ships going. It would be … sort of like lifeboats or escape pods in a disaster situation, either at sea or in space. To prevent more loss of life among the weak, they would have wanted to take the old and young to a safe place and they would’ve needed the women to nurture the sick and the young. My people would have done that.” Her frown returned. “What confuses me is why it’s still that way. I mean, I got the impression from things I’ve heard that this happened a very long time ago—beyond living memory. Even beyond the memory of the grandparents of the people alive now.”