The Gallant (Star Legend Book 3)

by J. J. Green

  It was about the time she was due to return with that day’s catch.

  Hans shifted a little to ease his aching muscles.

  Was that her? A smallish boat was heading for the harbor, its engine loud despite the distance.

  It was her.

  He stood and lifted the strap of his bag over his head so it sat across his chest. After several days living rough, he stank. He hated being dirty almost as much as he hated being hungry and thirsty and having nowhere comfortable to sleep. But perhaps his situation was about to change.

  When the boat had softly bumped into the harbor wall and the woman had climbed out to secure it with loops of rope, Hans stepped from his hiding place.

  Checking that no one was looking his way, he crossed the stone quayside and went up to her. She was bending over a cleat. She saw his shoes first. Her gaze traveled up his body to his face. She stared at him blankly.

  Good. She hadn’t recognized him from the posters.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for someone to take me... I’ll be frank. I need a boat to take me out of the Caribbean. But if that’s too far for your liking, passage to another island would be sufficient.”

  The woman straightened up and put a hand on her hip. She glanced behind her and all around before replying, “You talking to me?”

  “Yes. I can pay, of course, though not in creds. Gold. These days, I’d say that was a more reliable currency, wouldn’t you?”

  “You want me to what?”

  “I’d like for you to take me off Jamaica. Now. I know you’ve only just brought in your catch, but I can compensate you for whatever it’s worth.” His nerves were starting to get to him. If they continued talking much longer, someone was bound to wonder what was happening and come over to find out.

  “If the answer’s no, that’s fine, but I need you to decide.”

  She held eye contact with him, unblinking.

  “I can see I’ve taken up enough of your time,” said Hans, turning.

  “No, no, no,” she objected. “Where you going? I’m still thinking.”

  Tense with stress, he faced her again.

  “You wanna get off t’ island?”

  “I do,” he agreed, adding unnecessarily, “That’s exactly what I want.”

  “Hey, Hester!” someone shouted. “You have a good day?”

  Ignoring the man, she said to Hans, “Watchyu waiting for? Come aboard.” She began to unhitch the ropes.

  Paradoxically, a fresh outpouring of sweat coated him as he relaxed, finally assured he would escape. He grabbed the bow of the boat for security and swung a leg over the side.

  “Wait a minute,” said Hester. “I wanna see that gold ’for we set off.”

  “No problem.” Hans dug into his pocket and produced the three solid gold antique coins he’d put there to avoid revealing his hoard.

  Hester’s eyebrows rose and she held out her hand, palm upward. Hans placed one of the coins on it. She bit the shiny metal and inspected the dent while Hans had the strangest feeling he was in a holodrama. After tucking the coin into a strip of cloth wrapped around her waist, she continued to untie the rope.

  “Who’s tat fella?” her acquaintance asked, coming closer. He was a tall fellow in his later years, more bones and skin than meat, and gap-toothed. “He your boyfriend? I’m jealous.”

  Hester replied in Patois, telling him to shut up and mind his own business.

  Hans sat in the stern of the boat and watched, concerned the newcomer would attract more attention and someone might recognize him.

  The man didn’t leave, however. His expression switched from mild curiosity and amusement to a keener interest. Narrowing his eyes, he scrutinized Hans, who wished he could flip over the side of the boat like a scuba diver. But there was nothing he could do except wait for his ride to finish completing her slow preparations to leave.

  She was done. She climbed into her vessel with surprising nimbleness for her age and started the engine.

  The old man on the quay beckoned the other fishermen and invited them to come and see Hester’s new boyfriend. He sounded like he was joking, but Hans detected a layer of suspicion and excitement beneath his words.

  Hester piloted her boat in a curve, taking them out to sea.

  Her gaze on the water, she shouted over the noisy engine, “You’re that man in the posters, right?”

  His chest tightened. “I...er...”

  There was no point in denying it. Hester had guessed the truth, yet she was helping him anyway.

  “I am,” he said. “I hope that isn’t a problem.”

  She thrust out her lower lip as she considered.

  “No, it don’t matter,” she said in the end. “I mind my business and no one else’s. It’s the best way.” She smiled a lazy smile.

  Hans did a double take. Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out a photograph and looked at it before regarding Hester again.

  “Tell me,” he said, “do you have any children?”

  “No, I been single all my life. Why you asking?”

  “It’s not important.”

  He watched the green island shrinking as the boat drew away.

  A ship’s engine noisier than Hester’s attracted his attention in the opposite direction. A gleaming white ship was parting the waves, sea foam streaming from her prow.

  An Alliance battleship.

  The Jamaican Resistance had caved and accepted BA help. In return, they’d given up their country’s independence.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It was dusk, three days after midsummer, and Wright was watching Merlin as he settled down crossed-legged on a high hilltop. The alien closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Meanwhile, Arthur wandered to a drop and stood at the edge, hand on sword hilt.

  Wright would have objected to the alien’s decision to go to this exposed location, but they were in the middle of nowhere. Despite their high elevation, no buildings were visible as far as the eye could see and they hadn’t encountered another soul since yesterday morning when they’d spied someone riding a trail bike in the distance.

  Ellis would be coming back from the festival and they had to find her before she passed them on her way to the Preseli Hills hideout. In the vast tracts of wild, mountainous countryside it seemed an impossible feat, but Merlin appeared confident they would do it. He’d mentioned something about ‘patterns converging’ and things ‘playing out’.

  Arthur had simply accepted the alien’s pronouncements and followed him like a shaggy dog—a dog that could turn vicious in the right circumstances. Wright had felt powerless to do anything else except go along too. He did hope they could find Ellis, though he hated the prospect of persuading her to return with him to the Gallant and carry out Merlin’s plan. It would be good to see her again.

  He found an area of flat outcrop and sat on it, wondering how long the alien would take to home in on Ellis, if that was what he was doing. He could be communicating with his extra-terrestrial masters for all anyone knew, sending them a message that said Earth civilizations were so busy warring with each other the planet was ripe for taking.

  He rubbed the top of his head. At that lofty position, the wind blew strong and cool, finding every entry point in his clothes. To pass the time, he opened his pack and checked his supplies. Another couple of days of food was all that remained. Water was easy to find but they would start feeling hungry soon. Arthur had supplemented their diet with rabbits, but he hadn’t had time to trap many and the animals had no fat and little meat on them. It was a good thing the alien ate nothing.

  After watching the darkening landscape for twenty minutes, he grew cold and stiff. He stood up and stretched. Merlin hadn’t changed position, but Arthur had disappeared. Wright walked to the drop and peered over it. He couldn’t see any sign of the king among the rough scrub that clung to the steep slope.

  “I think I may have found her.”

  Wright nearly leapt off the precipice. “Don’t sneak
up on me like that!” he scolded Merlin, whose soft voice he’d heard next to his ear.

  “But we’ll have to be quick,” the alien went on as if Wright hadn’t spoken. “She’s already passed us, and she’ll be hard to see in the dark.”

  “Great. Where’s Arthur?”

  As he spoke, the king’s figure appeared striding into sight at the other end of the hilltop. “Do you have her, Merlin? I spied out an obvious route through the hills. We’ve been making things hard for ourselves, taking a difficult path.”

  “Excellent,” the alien replied. “Do you see what I mean now about patterns converging, Major?”

  Wright grunted a response.

  “We need to descend this way,” Arthur said.

  They followed a thread-like trail down the high hill, made even harder to discern by the rapid failing of the light. It was a starry night, but the moon hadn’t risen yet. Merlin went first, setting a rapid pace. Wright wondered how far they had to go to catch up to Ellis and what he would say if they did find her somehow.

  At the foot of the hill Arthur took the lead and walked no less quickly than Merlin. Wright was last in the line of three, as had become the norm over the days they had spent together. He struggled a little to keep up, partly because he was already tired from the day’s trek, and partly because reluctance was dragging at his feet.

  They traversed the valley, passing the hills on each side. Wright began to lose his sense of time passing. His world narrowed down to the almost-invisible track, the two men ahead of him, and the slowly wheeling stars above. Every so often Arthur would call out things like, This way and I think we go left here but otherwise no one spoke.

  Then Wright heard Merlin mutter, “I hope we haven’t missed her.” A moment later he said, louder, “Arthur, are you sure we haven’t lost our way?”

  “I don’t think so,” came the king’s reply. “Should we stop and shout for her? The hills will carry the echo, and I doubt there are any enemies about.”

  “No,” said Wright. “It’s too dangerous, even out here. I say we continue walking. She might be nowhere near—”

  “Major Wright?” asked a soft, female voice.

  Someone stepped out from the shadows between rocks on the side of the trail.

  “Taylan!” Arthur exclaimed. “We found you at last.”

  He stepped closer to her, but she shrank from his approach and took a small detour around him to reach Wright. “I heard people coming down the track. I never guessed it would be you.”

  “Ellis.” His first impulse was to hug her but that wouldn’t be appropriate. Also, she was hunched over. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really. What are you all doing? And how the hell did you find me? Has Colbourn been tracking my implant?”

  “No, that wouldn’t be safe.”

  “You’re telling me!”

  “Are you...” Wright peered at her face, half-hidden by her hood. “Have you been hurt?”

  “Yeah, but you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here. Have you really come all this way just to find me?”

  “It’ll take a while to explain. Let’s make camp somewhere and I’ll lay it out for you.”

  Ellis looked at Arthur and Merlin, appearing uncertain. She clearly hadn’t forgotten her changed impression of the king, and she’d never liked the alien. Wright realized she hadn’t revealed herself until after he’d spoken, though she must have recognized all their voices. She wouldn’t have come out of her hiding place if it had been only the other two.

  “Can’t you give me the short version?” she asked.

  Merlin wants you to help us try to kill the Dwyr again.

  That was the short version, but if he told her that, she’d probably unleash the same response she’d given Colbourn via comm. “I’d prefer it if we could talk for a while. Do you need food? We have some to share, though it’s not much.”

  “I have plenty of food.” She sighed, and he caught a flash of cool gray eyes meeting his gaze. “All right. I suppose it won’t hurt to hear you out.”

  AS THEY WALKED TO FIND a spot suitable to spend the night, Wright noticed Taylan was moving as though she was in pain. Then, when they sat down together he got a better look at her face.

  He gasped.

  The right-hand side of it was blistered, swollen, and weeping, and her right eye was only partially open. And though he couldn’t see well under her hood, it seemed her hair on that side had been burned to her scalp.

  “What happened to you?”

  “That’s another long explanation. Let’s do yours first.”

  “Taylan, you must be in pain,” said Arthur. “Let Merlin heal you before we talk.”

  She hesitated. “No, I’ll be okay.”

  “Those are third-degree burns, Ellis,” said Wright. “If you don’t have them treated they’ll get infected. I don’t know how you can walk around with an injury like that.”

  She gave a slight smile, and he understood he’d put on his ‘major’ voice.

  “I want to hear what you have to say,” she said.

  He silently cursed, though he couldn’t blame her for insisting. He had a feeling the moment he told her Merlin’s plan, that would be the last he would see of her.

  “Okay, but hear me out before you come to a decision. And even if you don’t like what I have to say, promise me you’ll stay with us tonight and let us help you.”

  “No, I’m not promising anything.” She glanced at Merlin and Arthur.

  Oh well. He’d tried his best.

  He told her about the proposal to cloak the Gallant and approach the Dwyr’s flagship with the intention of boarding it and assassinating her. He left out the part about it being Merlin’s idea. There was no point in making it even more likely that Ellis would refuse.

  To his surprise, she didn’t immediately say no.

  Another thing struck him: she clearly hadn’t found her children. He was sure she wouldn’t have undertaken the attempt to sabotage the Crusader’s festival if that had been the case.

  “What happened at the midsummer celebration?” he asked.

  “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “It didn’t work out?”

  Ignoring his question, she said, “This plan of yours, I’m prepared to consider it, but on one condition.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Kala was determined to not make the same mistake twice. She’d asked the Belladonna’s chief medical officer to supply her with sedatives, claiming she found it hard to sleep. That had been easy. Crushing up a couple of the tablets and mixing them into Perran’s evening drink had been harder, but she’d managed it without him or Morgan noticing. The drug would take effect slowly, but once her son was asleep, he wouldn’t wake for another seven or eight hours, no matter what.

  By then, she hoped to be far from her usurper’s sphere of influence.

  All she needed was for the rest of her efforts over the last couple of weeks to bear fruit.

  Luckily, Morgan hadn’t restricted her movements around the ship or removed her security access. Perhaps she underestimated Kala or was uninterested in how things worked aboard the starship.

  Lying in bed waiting for the hours to pass was the hardest part. Kala’s muscles ached with tension. This might be her only and final chance to outwit Morgan. If she failed, who knew what the woman would do in retaliation this time around? But what choice did she have? She couldn’t live under another’s rule. She’d spent her entire life ensuring she was the one with the power, the one in control. She couldn’t allow another to stand in her way. Her entire being rebelled against the notion.

  It was time.

  As she had before on her first attempt to leave, she rose and went silently to Perran’s cabin. She’d worked out the best route for avoiding other people. She mostly trusted her crew, who seemed to remain loyal to her whenever Morgan wasn’t around, but she couldn’t take even the smallest risk.

  Perran lay with his mouth open, sleeping heavily. She
didn’t waste time gathering any of his belongings. He would probably complain about it when he woke up but she would find a way to mollify him. Enduring his anger and disappointment when he realized she’d taken him away from Morgan was a small price to pay for their freedom from the tyrant.

  She uncovered him and slipped her arms under his sleeping form. With some difficulty, she lifted him and put him over her shoulder to help support his weight. It had been several years since she’d carried him like this. The feeling brought back happy memories of him as a small boy, when he’d been young enough to sit on her lap and cuddle her.

  Something in her heart seemed to twist and she found herself swallowing tears.

  She would not allow that bitch to take her son from her.

  His cabin door slid aside and she carried him into the passageway.

  Selecting and preparing the crew members who would help her had been a long and difficult process. First, she had to approach the person in question while Morgan was not around. This had proven hard to do because Morgan had insisted they spent most of their time together. Not that she’d continued to instruct Kala in the skills she possessed. No, that privilege was now reserved for Perran only. Instead, Morgan had seemed to take a special pleasure in forcing her to attend her son’s lessons and witness a process that was now off limits to her.

  Consequently, she’d spent little time alone.

  Next, she’d had to subtly question them to assess whether they would be able or willing to help her. This had been where she’d feared things going wrong the most. All it would have taken was one of the people she’d approached to tell Morgan what she was attempting, and she would have found herself back in the brig, or worse.

  Then, she’d put together the steps of her escape and relayed the information to the trusted individuals. The harrowing procedure had taken weeks.