Arda: The Captain's Fancy

by Annie Windsor

  Elise’s mouth came unhinged. When she at last gathered her wits, she managed a graceful, “Thank you, though I don’t understand.”

  “In time you will, Ban’ania.” Hoth rose slowly, keeping his head lowered slightly in deference. “We will have more discussion when the Barung is defeated.”

  With that, he turned back to his entourage, but gestured for the Legio to remain with Elise. The five red-robed warriors took up positions around her without question or change in expression.

  Elise’s expression, however, changed several times, from confusion, to fear, to a touch of amusement as Georgia inspected the Legio, shaking her head. Akad kept a warning hand on Georgia’s wrist, as did Krysta. Darkyn knew they were in psi-link, and that his shanna was giving Georgia a history on the Kaeradi and their fearsome telempathic power.

  One by one, the different races and peoples took up positions in the welcoming yard. Darkyn watched them all, occasionally looking skyward, to the stars where the Barung pulsed malevolently.

  Was it closer?

  Did the formless evil understand what they were doing here on Uhr, conspiring to bring the might of the galaxy against it, using a plan conceived thousands of stellar years before?

  Once more the crowd gave a murmur of surprise and interest.

  Bringing up the rear of the procession from the air strip were a group of beings that could only be described as ethereal. Most had deep black or stunning white hair, while a few had shining auburn tresses that spilled to their hips and thighs. They were tall even by Ardani standards, but not slight—well-built and well-proportioned—and physically perfect. Their clothing, of all basic colors and hues, had a loose, flowing style. The men wore tunics and breeches, while the women were scarcely clad at all, but seemingly more of pride and comfort with their bodies than a statement of sexuality or sexual servitude. The fabrics they wore sparkled like their flesh and eyes, like the very air around them. Their chests, mostly visible through the threads of loose-fitting garments or body girdles, bore tattoos of a sun, a moon, and a star.

  Darkyn felt a lift in his pa. Such energy! Could these be the telekinets of old Perth, who had so long sheltered on Earth? No one knew for certain how many were left, or the power they yet wielded. Judging by his instincts, Darkyn thought that power remained intense, indeed.

  A woman with red-streaked raven hair and deeply slanted green eyes broke to the front of the group. Air shimmered about her, and Darkyn felt a rush of surprise as wings emerged from her back and unfurled behind her.

  This was the proof his teachings told him to look for, the sure truth that these were Perth’s descendents.

  When the woman saw his nod of acceptance, her wings folded, then retracted until they disappeared entirely.

  “I am Arygain,” the woman said with an air both regal like the Kaeradi but infinitely haughty. “We heard your summons, and we come as representatives of Perth, the destroyed world. Though we respect your leadership, none but the child of Myrddin, raised far forward from her time, may command our loyalty. Is she here?”

  “Gods,” Akad muttered from behind Darkyn.

  For his own part, Darkyn felt only muted surprise. Once the bloodline of Elise had been revealed, he had suspected this possibility about Elise’s “cousin.”

  “Georgia Tul’Mar,” he called in his Ta’s voice, hoping she would respond to the form of his authority, irrespective of its substance. “Will you come forward to stand with your blood-family?”

  For once without comment, Georgia did as she was asked. When she reached Darkyn’s side, she murmured, “Did she say Merlyn? Like, Merlyn the magician, from King Arthur’s time?”

  “Daughter of Myrddin,” Arygain intoned, ignoring Georgia’s confusion. “Child of Perth, Child of Avalon, Child of Arda. How would you have us?”

  Darkyn sensed the one hundred inappropriate retorts that flew through Georgia’s consciousness and elbowed her discreetly.

  “I—uh.” Georgia coughed, then pointed to an opening in the crowd, next to Elise and her surrounding Legio. “I would have you, er, there. Beside me.”

  Akad released a breath of relief as the survivors of Perth followed their surprised leader to the designated spot.

  The crowd had composed itself, and at last seemed complete but for the Ardani leaders, who would arrive unwillingly and all too soon.

  Darkyn’s throat tightened. Typically, he had no doubt in his own skill and ability, but the fate of his People, the peoples of all the galaxy, rode on his decisions and persuasiveness. He felt suddenly small in the face of so much import, and wondered at his own sanity to take on such a task.

  I did not take it on. It was appointed to me eons ago. I was born to this, just as Elise and Georgia Tul’Mar, beyond my consent or knowledge.

  The bone-grating tiredness of the past few days threatened to weaken the force of his presentation, and he felt shame that Elise and Georgia were accepting their roles with aplomb while he, Ta’Tonna Kon’pa, wavered.

  A surge of strength startled him, and he felt the deep physical and mental contact of his brother—and then his shanna. Krysta moved to stand beside him, taking his hand in hers. She bared her psi-self to him then, offering her love and poise so openly that it made him want to take her into the cabin and plant his cock deep in her sweet, fertile essence.

  For a moment, Darkyn closed his eyes, using years of training to master the sudden rush of blood from his head to his swelling staff. Elise and Georgia joined in the psi-contact, momentarily embarrassed, then interested in his arousal.

  Would that there were time to explore this more completely, Krysta psi-spoke in a teasing, knowing tone.

  Darkyn thought he might explode. It took all he possessed to rein himself in and return to his role as leader of The People and this most important pao.

  “Greetings, all,” he said with the most forceful voice he could muster. “Welcome to Uhr, to the Blessed City. We are at pao, under the eyes of all the gods and all the goddesses. Henceforth, we will make no violence toward anyone but our true enemy, the Barung.”

  Krysta waited for the murmurs of the crowd to die down before she sent a piece of her consciousness in search of her headstrong brothers. With her newly tapped psi-strength, this fraction of her awareness sailed easily above the heads of the pao attendants, and higher, to ride with Guardian in her endless patrol, then higher still. Off of Uhr. Into orbit around the moon.

  She found them shortly, cursing and raging, trapped on their ships by psi-power they could not comprehend. On the landing strip back on Uhr, a group of The People had joined hands. Using their combined mental strengths, they rendered the instruments and devices of Arda’s Royal Fleet completely useless. One by one, ships other than Fari’s Lorelei and Ki’s Astoria went dormant. Their crews fell into a harmless but profound sleep, and The People protected their orbits and safety.

  My sha’s tribe could have crushed Arda’s storied forces any time, Krysta told herself with final certainty, feeling a new depth of respect for her mate and the peaceful methods he had thus far chosen to make his point to her brothers. She also wondered at a people so powerful who kept themselves so completely removed from the daily politics of the universe. Like the Kaeradi and the survivors of Perth’s destruction, The People could have assumed domination of the Galactic Council and any or all of its worlds, on psi-talent alone.

  It isn’t their way, she realized. If I’m to be joined to my mate and to my sisters-by-marriage with their newly discovered blood allegiances, it can’t be mine any longer.

  She turned her attention to Ki, who had ceased to rail against the binding psi-forces he clearly could not fight. Fari, of course, continued to rage. She could see things so clearly now, the beauty and paradise of Arda, and yet the dangerous, growing arrogance that had led them to this juncture. For all their natural ways, and despite the blessing of pa, they had started to become disconnected from the basic heartbeat of the universe.

  Oh, my brothers. The three of us have
so much to learn. Will you be willing, or will I lose you?

  Sadness washed over her, and the force of her emotion flowed outward, touching Ki and Fari. She saw the emotion speak to them like no words could have done. Their faces softened. Almost as one mind, they reached back for her, pouring a ragged, grateful joy into their connection.

  My sister, came Fari’s plaintive call. I feared you were lost.

  I have missed you, Ki’s psi-voice rumbled.

  Krysta let loose her love for them then, watching it wrap around them and soothe them. She understood now that as the only female of equal status in their lives before they so recently found their mates, she was priestess to them as much as Akad had been priest. She had become both sister and mother, and they looked to her to light paths when all other options eluded them.

  Another fact crystallized in her mind, then. That leaders, even such powerful and competent leaders as Fari and Ki and even her own sha, should never be treated as gods or even near-gods. They were in fact human and human only, and the people they led shared their blind spots. Akad’s role, that of gently showing such blind spots of spirit and self-discipline, had never been more obvious to her.

  I know you will be confused and uncertain, Krysta psi-spoke, careful to keep her new and powerful mind-voice at a whisper to spare their sanity. You must trust me now as you’ve never trusted anyone, with your lives, with the lives of your mates, and all of Arda in the balance. Will you do this?

  Oddly, it was Fari who didn’t hesitate. Yes, Sister. I would give all of my breath and blood at your asking.

  Ki took longer, and his psi-voice was colder and more removed. I will trust you. Do not make me regret it.

  Krysta withdrew from her link with them slowly, carefully. “They are ready,” she told Akad. “As ready as they can be.”

  The priest nodded, careful not to interfere with Darkyn’s ongoing address to the crowd as he sent the psi-instruction to transport the Tul’Mar brothers and their entourage to the surface of Uhr.

  Chapter 13

  With the pao formally invoked and greetings exchanged, Darkyn granted a brief respite for rest, freshening, and morning nourishment. This break occurred as the landing strip guards, Brand included, escorted Ki and Fari Tul’Mar and about thirty of Krysta’s Home Guard down the path, through the milling participants.

  Darkyn received his two former foes along with four of their select guards in the large front room of his hut. He felt tense, standing between Akad and Krysta, possible traitors in the esteem of the Tul’Mar brothers. Elise waited along the far wall with her Legio, who shadowed her movements like wolves shadow prey.

  Georgia was beside her, accompanied by her own guard of three of the eerie telekinets. Darkyn thought that he wouldn’t much like to tangle with the three towering red-haired men. They had Georgia’s fighting temper and the feral, hungry smile of the legendary Perth’s greatest leader, Myrddin. These were a desperation-tempered people, who had nothing to lose and centuries of reinforced vengeance as their only motive. They wouldn’t hesitate to maim or murder on Georgia’s command, Darkyn had no doubt. He only hoped Georgia Tul’Mar realized this and didn’t speak rashly. Judging from the anxious edge to her typically confident countenance, he thought she had some idea.

  As Ki and Fari entered with two members of the Home Guard flanking each of them, their expressions flattened and their eyes glinted with wariness. Almost immediately, Darkyn felt the warm, welcome psi-connection of his shanna.

  Be gentle, my love. For me. They are stripped bare of all they know, and all they treasure.

  Truth, Akad agreed.

  Darkyn gave no response as Elise and Georgia’s thoughts turned toward the danger of attempting to initiate the brothers into their link. Surely, with the newfound unified strength they had discovered in reviving Krysta, they could do this. They had to do it.

  The brothers halted, glaring first at Darkyn, Krysta, and Akad, then turning wounded gazes to their shannas.

  “What is this?” Ki asked Elise in a quiet, deadly voice. “We had a bond of trust. After the fiasco of your cousin’s rescue and the speeder crash that almost took your life, you told me you would never leave me again.”

  “Do I look like I’ve left you?” Elise’s impatience lashed like a whip, and Darkyn saw Ki’s shoulders slump momentarily. He felt a sudden, new, and deep kinship to the man, having recently learned what it felt like when a woman held such power over heart, mind, and soul. “I’m on Arda’s moon, for God’s sake, not off in some distant star system risking my life. I came here because I thought Krysta needed me. You wouldn’t have done less.”

  Ki’s expression softened. He started for his shanna, only to be blocked by the five Legio, who seemed to disappear and materialize in new positions, so quickly did they move.

  “Be still,” Elise commanded, and Darkyn heard the force of Kaerad’s dignity and the strength of an Ardani Lorelei, a wild tribal leader of old, in her instruction.

  So did the Legio. They froze in place, not so much as blinking.

  “This man is my mate and husband,” Elise said forcefully. “Whatever you think you’re supposed to do, you will never again stand between my sha and me. If he chooses to march straight over here and snap my neck in two, you won’t lift a finger to stop him, or a fist in vengeance. Are we clear?”

  The Legio nodded as one, but Darkyn saw the look in their eyes. If Ki ever did choose to harm his shanna, this strange, mystical fighting force would never stop hunting him until they tore him apart with bare hands and teeth.

  “Leave us now,” Elise instructed. “Wait outside. I don’t need to be guarded from my own family.”

  The slightest of hesitations showed the doubt of the Legio, but they flowed out the door like a red river, leaving a layer of wolfen growls in the air behind them. Simultaneously, Ki dismissed the four Home Guard protectors, who kept a respectful distance from the Kaeradi as they left the hut. In moments, he had his woman in his arms, kissing her, joining with her in the psi-ways he understood.

  I don’t grasp who they are, really, no, Elise was saying to her mate. Or why they think they have to protect me…

  Fari eyed the intimidating protectors around Georgia, but they seemed less suspicious than the Legio. Probably because they were less attuned to the thousand emotions surging in the air between sha and shanna. Or perhaps because they were more carnal beings, accustomed to the freewheeling bonds of the flesh.

  Whatever the reason, they simply stepped back as he claimed his bride with a fierce, deep kiss. As her protectors departed the cabin, Georgia welcomed her mate with a steamy groan, and there seemed to be no mistrust or confusion between them at all.

  Darkyn ground his teeth against the rush of sensuality and arousal flowing out of the two reunions. Akad let out a soft groan, and Darkyn sensed his a’mun twin’s frustrated arousal, yet felt slightly separate from it.

  For his own part, he turned to Krysta and kissed her to relieve some of the unbearable tension. Her lips felt like wet, welcoming heaven as his cock became a throbbing misery against her belly. The exposed pa on their chests crackled as it touched and blended.

  In olden times, a family rutting would have commenced immediately, with sex and food and music, blissful satisfaction and release extending for hours, perhaps days. This was their proper circle of pleasure, yes. The six of them. Elise, Georgia, Krysta, the Tul’Mar brothers, and him. Akad was related to the circle, but not a part of it. Darkyn could sense all of this as surely as he could sense the Barung.

  But these men will never accept me. They will never welcome me as a brother, or willingly share with me what they hold dear.

  “Be wary.” Akad’s firm grip on Darkyn’s shoulders brought him back to the immediacy of the present. “The mating fervor is yet fresh, and could easily be rekindled. We have no time or space for that now.”

  Indeed, the mind-boggling arousal was surging, surging, surging, pushing upward and threatening Darkyn’s stability. He pulled back fr
om his hallas though his fondest wish was to strip her from her jumpsuit and take her deep and hard and fast, here, now, irrespective of who accepted him as family and who did not. Releasing her and stepping away, he said, “I want it clear that I don’t hold Krysta against her will. My shanna, my hallas, stays by her own choice, and she has since the first days of her time on Uhr.”

  Fari let go of Georgia, and before anyone could speak, he grabbed his sister and held her tight against him, kissing her head. “Krysta. Ah, gods. You look wonderful to my eyes.”

  The more reserved Ki approached and took his turn at embracing her. “Are you truly mated to this—?”

  Elise cleared her throat.

  Ki frowned. “This man?” he finished lamely.

  “Darkyn Weil is my sha,” Krysta replied with a note of pride that made Darkyn stand straighter. “Stone to my fire, and my match and mate in every sense of the word. He is the man I’ve waited for, and the man you’ve misunderstood and underestimated.”

  Ki’s frown deepened. “As dear as you are to me, that’s for me to judge, Sister.”

  Krysta took a deep breath and seized her brother’s hand. “Then judge, Ki. Reach into my mind and judge.”

  Her brother’s trepidation tried to push her out of his thoughts, but Krysta forced her way into his mental patterns, beliefs, and perceptions.

  Darkyn ground his teeth as his consciousness followed hers. This sort of intimacy—especially with any man beyond his brother—would never be his choice. Yet, if instinct saw true, this was their only shot at a successful pao. At survival.

  In the dim reaches of Darkyn’s awareness, he saw Georgia reach for her mate both physically and mentally, and saw Fari’s unquestioning acceptance.

  Gods, thank you. Darkyn closed his eyes. Some little piece of this might be easier than I thought.