The Iron Altar Series Box Set One: Books 1 to 3

by Casey Lea

  “Do they have any quarrel with you?”

  “Plenty,” Jace growled and Amber steeled herself before stepping forward.

  “That was true. Once. In the old worlds, before the frost came. Now they're fellow survivors and we have greater concerns than past grudges.”

  Jace and Misty both spun to look at her. “Grudges?”

  Amber hugged herself tight and managed not to back away. It was vital they understand. This was no time for old enmities, not when all life in their galaxy hung by a strand. However, before she could find any words a soft chime sounded.

  “The saved males are aboard. Zyl will direct them here. Will they attack without provocation?”

  Zariss chose to look at Amber and she let her arms flop to her sides. “The younger one is impulsive. Talk to Nikareon, the older, and this can be controlled.” She turned to face Jace and Misty. “If we let it.”

  Jace's face twisted and he strode forward to stand beside Zariss, watching the nest entrance. “This bastard murdered my baby brother and maimed my love. Don't expect any mercy from me.”

  Zariss looked coldly down at his companion. “That is a grave blood debt and I understand your anger. Such sins demand payment and I do not expect mercy from you. However, right now, I expect control from you. We have greater risks than these Beserks and you will keep the peace aboard my pregnant wife.”

  Jace swallowed visibly and looked away from Zariss' expanding pupils. He twisted back to face Misty. “He's right. We can't fight inside Zyl. Please, Mist. Put the knife away.”

  Misty's lips tightened and paled, but she flipped the blade back up into her com. “Fine. I wouldn't want you to roll around inside your girlfriend anyway. She might get even more pregnant.”

  “What?” a hushed voice asked and everyone looked at Falkyn. He pushed himself carefully to his feet and straightened his shoulders. “What do you mean pregnant? Who's pregnant?”

  Amber stepped to help him, but stopped after a single stride. He was steady on his feet and his social frond face was back in place, calm and professional. Their eyes met and his forehead furrowed. She saw the pain then and looked quickly away.

  “Zyl-tarxidoss is with child,” she explained, all cool professionalism. “The t'ssaa mother ships are actually the reptile's female form. They undergo metamorphosis in a chrysalis. It takes a decade for them to pupate, rather than the single year needed for a male to change into adult form.” A shadow fell over Amber, but she ignored it to rub her temples. “Don't loom over me, Zariss. It's annoying and unnecessary. The BGP leaders know all about your people's divergent maturation. It's most clever and we've been slowly trying to develop such use of a chrysalis-phase in other species. The childhood environment triggers changes during pupation that accelerate evolution hugely. It’s epigenetics at its most extreme.”

  Amber opened her eyes to smile up at the slack-jawed t'ssaa. “So now you know that even though your little archeological trick deceived others, the BGP has long known of your unusual reproductive strategy. When I heard of Jace's strange dream, I guessed what had actually happened. I'm fascinated to learn that the cross breeding worked. How many eggs were fertilized?”

  Ten, Zyl purred into her head and Amber smiled. How wondrous-

  “May we enter?” an unwelcome voice asked. “Without being drakking skewered?” It was the younger Beserk whose blonde head ducked around the edge of the door. “Please.” His arm followed his head and he released his com. The thick gold bracelet snapped open and fell to the felt-like floor with a thud. “We come in peace and repentance and all that guano.”

  “It's bullshit alright,” Jace agreed heatedly, but instead of taking offense the Beserk offered a shrug.

  “True enough, in the recent past, but that's now as well behind me as my ass. I was travelling to find you, then do the drakking hugs and kisses thing. Seems we're brothers. Name's Zak, but it used to be Devyn, back when we shared a womb-with-a-view. Of each other.”

  There was complete silence. Amber realized she was holding her breath and it escaped as a tortured wheeze. The Beserk sidled into the room, dragging a figure that was slumped against him. “Sorry about the abrupt intro, but I need help. Please.” He lowered Nikareon and the unconscious Beserk crumpled to the ground.

  Amber was at his side in an instant. A cushion of energy rose from Zyl’s floor to wrap around the patient, before lifting him to Amber’s height. She was briefly aware of Jace standing frozen behind her, but then all her attention was diverted to the scan results from her com. “Not good. The vitals are poor and cold damage is extensive. The frostbite has reached the torso and there are signs of necrosis in the limbs. He needs medical resuscitation of individual cells.”

  “Drak.” A warm hand curled around her upper arm, but the pressure was gentle. “Can you do that? You're a doctor right?”

  “Yes, I can help, but whether I can save him is still in doubt. I need to race to fix the damage done before his system shuts down completely.” She looked up at Zak, while her com drew energy from Zyl for the healing. “How did you know I had medical training?”

  “Process of elimination that didn't involve the bowel. You're not a warrior and you don't dress like a whore, so that leaves a brain. You ran to help, so I figured a medical brain, or else someone with a drakking kinky thing for corpses.”

  “Ah, right. The first one.”

  “How can I help?”

  “Try begging the gods,” Amber suggested tartly and instantly regretted it. The boy did seem sadly attached to his kidnapper. He also sounded as rough as any prodigal son could ever be, so calming him was probably recommended. “Watch what I do and try to copy it on the far side of his body. Be as precise as you can and don’t move on to fresh tissue until the cells behind have responded.” She turned back to Nikareon and a magnified image of his damaged body appeared. She dived straight in, excising and then reinitializing, encouraging healthy cell division and pruning damaged tissue. She was briefly distracted by Zariss in the background, interrogating Misty and Jace.

  “I need to check my young,” he told them. “Can I trust you here? Will you put aside justice for now?”

  Amber heard the couple’s muttered agreement, but only distantly, as she fell into the rhythm of healing. The flow of fresh energy and the tug of dying flesh urged her on. She lost all sense of time and it was only when she worked toward the far arm that she finally paused. The shoulder... no, the entire limb was healthy. It had been completely fixed and the blood flowed freely through it. How?

  Amber stepped back, pushing hair away from her sweaty brow to stare at Zak. He was working on one of Nikareon's legs. The inexperienced youngster was rebuilding the knee, despite the fact that the only joint he had seen her heal was an elbow. His movements were sure and his mind incredibly quick. Where those excisions more exact than hers? They were certainly faster. She turned back to her work and the cells flew through her com at a desperate tempo.

  Amber just managed to finish her half of Nikareon's body before Zak stepped away on his side. She leaned over and checked his work with a frown. “You've done such before.”

  “Shit all. It's most times the reverse. Slicing and drakking dicing.”

  “You've a talent.”

  “Yeah, for the slice and dice. I know.”

  “A talent for healing.”

  Zak looked up in quick surprise and then snorted. “Guano.”

  “Truth.”

  Zak shook his head impatiently and looked back to Nikareon. “His vitals are still as high as an addict in a balloon. The fossil will recover, right?” His frond twitched and Amber felt a brief touch of his fear for his father. Well, that was surely disturbing. She was distracted by the faint sound of footsteps behind her and glanced up at Jace. He was staring at Nikareon with an unreadable expression.

  “We've been making more voice-only com calls,” he told her. “The word's spreading not to accept holo messages, or go near iced ships.” His eyes narrowed and his gaze shifted to Za
k. “The DNA checks out. Seems the Beserk used to be my twin, before Nikareon tampered. So. I guess we are related.”

  Zak moved slowly around Nikareon’s feet and the two faced each other. Their wings spread simultaneously, stretching to touch each wall. They both crossed their arms, to form perfect mirror images and then scowled.

  Zak rocked forward on the balls of his feet, emphasizing his slight height advantage. “Not the whole hearted, help-yourself-to-my-everything welcome I dreamt of,” he said and there was another moment of silent study, before Zak sniffed. “You're too drakking pretty to be my brother.”

  “Are you coming on to me?”

  “You wish.”

  Nikareon stirred, then groaned, claiming everyone's attention. Amber turned back, just as he tried to rise and instead rolled from his medfield. He hit the floor with a thud and a curse. “Gods, my head. I’ve... got to stop... combining old hookers and cheap wine.”

  Zak sniggered. “Needs to be the other way round, you senile old gat.”

  Nikareon grunted in response. “My brain is murdering me.” His gaze shifted to Amber and she moved briskly to kneel by his head and check his vital signs. She expected him to ask for pain relief, but after staring up at her for a long and awkward moment he looked back to Zak. “Warn the family,” he gasped and the younger male crouched at his side.

  “Already done, Patri. The others have lifted and know to avoid everyone.”

  Nikareon closed his eyes and licked his lips. “Good. Get me on my feet,” he ordered Amber. “My children need me.”

  “A noble sentiment,” she snapped and stopped when she realized it was. How strange. She must have misunderstood. “You can’t help anyone yet and when you can, we need to stop this thing at its source. Then we’ll all be safe. So lie still and let me fix you.”

  The Beserk kept his eyes shut, but smiled. “I do enjoy a bossy healer. And I understand. My various body parts are in your hands, Doc.”

  “What a revolting thought,” Amber muttered. “Enough to stop me practising medicine.”

  However, she leaned over her patient and went back to work. They were going to need every fighter they could get and healing the Beserk was a welcome distraction. It didn’t stop her hands trembling when she touched him, but at least it slowed her pulse, which was crazed, because she wasn’t truly angry at him. She’d known many selfish, violent males in her lives and he was no different, yet her heart accelerated every time he glanced at her, which was annoying. And perplexing and scary and something she had no time for. Amber rocked back on her heels and jumped upright to step away. “He’s done.”

  Nikareon raised an arm and Zak gripped his hand to help him up. He rose slowly, but smoothly, with his gaze fixed on Amber. “Thanks, lovely lady,” he said and offered a friendly smile. “Although my head already misses being clamped between your thighs.”

  “Take care,” Amber warned. “If you'd prefer it back in the void that can be done.”

  “Not at all,” Nikareon protested, before bowing deeply and almost falling on his face. Zak had to grab the back of his tunic and haul him upright, but the Beserk gave Amber another warm smile. “The company here is much lovelier than Zak. My thanks to you and my promise of a future favour that I hope to fulfil right now. I know where to find someone you’re doubtless seeking.”

  Amber sent an urgent query through her fronds, but before Nikareon could answer, Jace moved to stand in front of him. The two locked gazes and the youngster placed his hands on his hips. Nikareon studied him warily, then said, “Red hair, blue eyes, kres fronds and extreme hostility. Jace IceFlight I assume. Please excuse my lack of greeting before, but it's been some years since we met and you were smaller then.”

  “I'm plenty big enough now.”

  Nikareon's smile never faltered. “But sadly you're very busy. Searching for someone? Your mother perhaps?”

  Jace balled his hands into fists against his hips, but held himself rigidly in place. “What makes you ask?”

  “She was travelling with us, honey,” Zak answered, pushing between the pair to stand toe-to-toe with his brother. “She wanted a reunion of her little chicks. Happy families. Blah blah.”

  Jace stood utterly still, his face expressionless. “Where is she?”

  Zak shrugged. “Did a runner. Grabbed the shuttle and took off through the nearest orifice. The drakking ice was already all over her though. I doubt she fled far.”

  Jace shook his head. “She didn't flee at all.” Zak snorted, but Jace crowded closer still. “No way. She didn't run.”

  “Like a lover caught with a Beserk's spouse.”

  “No. You don't know her at all. She’d never leave you just to save herself, and there's no way she'd be dumb enough to draw the ice with her. She did it deliberately. She sacrificed herself for you.”

  “Sacrifice, my pallid ass. The gat was shaking-”

  Jace's fist connected squarely with Zak's jaw and instantly everything was pandemonium. The two boys rolled on the ground, hammering each other with fists and feet, while Misty threw herself on Zak's back and Nikareon wrapped himself around her in turn. Falkyn waded in, trying to pull the outer layer of fighters free, but both Misty and Nik held on grimly.

  “STOP.” Amber used her com's full power and the result shocked even her. Her voice was a thunder that made the walls shudder and contract around them. The fight stopped, with fists and wings still raised to strike. Amber's voice was hoarse, but she pushed her words at the group twisted on the floor. “People are dying. People we love and whole worlds with them. It's up to us to help. This...” she swung her arm over the pile of bodies on the floor, “this is not helping.”

  Five shocked faces stared briefly up at her, before Zariss sprinted from the link to pluck Nikareon to his feet. He swung Misty upright next and left the brothers to untangle themselves. They did so with some shoving and, in Zak's case, plentiful cursing. Once on their feet, Darsey’s sons furled their wings and backed slowly away from each other. Jace and Zak left two blood trails that dripped to opposite sides of the nest.

  “I can't believe you bit me,” Jace snarled, slapping a regen strip along the line of his jaw.

  Zak smirked with bloody lips. “Be grateful it wasn't your soft little throat, honey.”

  Falkyn stepped in between them before Jace could move and then eyeballed both of his brothers. “We've no time for this.”

  Zak crossed his arms and scowled. “Anyway, he bit me too.”

  “Did not,” Jace denied, but Zak turned his head to show a curve of small puncture wounds around his outer ear. They were matched by five bloodied crescents close to his eye and Jace started to laugh.

  “Nice one, Mist. Teeth and nails.”

  Zak swung to face Misty, who was studying her fingertips with a smile.

  “Fangs and whore's claws,” he sneered. “What have you got between your thighs? A drakking bear trap?”

  “You'll never know.”

  “Certainly not,” Nikareon snapped, “since Misty is your sister.”

  “What?” everyone except Amber asked.

  “Only in part,” she pointed out, while Jace turned away clutching his head. “Misty has a few genes that Nikareon gave to both her and Zak. So they do share a small slice of Beserk DNA, but that's all.”

  “Enough to make me patri to you both though,” Nikareon observed happily. “Don't fear, you'll all share equally in my will.”

  “Let's check that with an early reading,” Misty snarled, and jetted hard into the Beserk, her wings still folded along her spine. The impact lifted Nikareon off his feet and they both flew backward. Straight into Zariss, who caught them and then grabbed each by an ear.

  “Ow,” Misty complained, but managed not to struggle.

  Zariss gave them a small shake and his voice was very clear. “There will be no more fighting aboard my ship. Any who break this rule will no longer be aboard my ship. Do you understand?”

  There was a soft chorus of agreement and he release
d his captives. Nikareon scrubbed happily at his ear. “I love it when you play rough, dahling.”

  However, Zariss raised a hand, while Jace and Amber straightened at the voice in their heads. “Quiet,” Zariss ordered, “my ship has scanned something odd on long-range sensors.”

  Most odd, Zyl agreed into three minds and an image of what she was seeing appeared around the nest. There.

  An area of darkness was highlighted on the display and they all peered at apparently empty space. Another view appeared beside it, before anyone could ask what they were missing.

  “This is what that area recently looked like,” Zariss explained. In the second visual a galaxy was present - a shining spiral, all gauze and glitter.

  Amber blinked and looked between the two. One empty and blank, the other with a pinwheel brightening its centre. “It's gone,” she whispered. “An entire galaxy is gone.”

  Both images grew, becoming fuzzy, but something appeared in the darker vision. It looked like a dim reflection of the missing galaxy. The stars were still there, but no longer shining with their own light. Instead they glittered dimly, hardly to be seen. Their internal fire was gone, so that all they could do was reflect other light sources. They now shone like balls of foil, or...

  “Ice,” Amber grated. “They're buried in ice. But this must have happened ages past. How distant is that galaxy? How many light years?”

  “Over a hundred million,” Zariss said and silence returned, until another pair of holograms appeared. “From further away. A blank space where there used to be a galaxy. There seem to be hints of reflection there too. This ice plague, it must be ancient.”

  Amber dropped to the floor without noticing her fall. The world around her was irrelevant. It had no power against the weight of her guilt, because her attempt to save herself from one predator had delivered them all to another.

  This was entirely her fault and she had only herself to blame. This was the result of trying to avoid responsibility. She could almost hear the sad click of her father’s tongue at such selfishness.