Stars & Ashes

by Teagan Kearney

  “You’re fine,” he said, dropping her leg. “Fiata, down.”

  As the creature stepped off her, Lord Rial grabbed her upper arm, and she gasped as he jerked her to her feet. “What—” The words died in her mouth as he turned her around and yanked the back of her tunic up. “No skin broken. Well done, Fiata,” he said. Gripping her upper arm, he marched off, pulling her with him.

  Resentment flushed through her at the scornful way he was treating her, but she bit her lip. She wasn’t going to say anything that could agitate him even more.

  The pack of huge energetic dragoi bounded behind them, playfully nipping and snarling at each other.

  He walked fast, too fast, and she was forced to run to keep up with him, but he showed no patience and snapped at her if she slowed. If she stumbled, he dragged her along. He was making it very clear how angry he was with her.

  “Lord Rial.”

  He ignored her.

  She spoke a little louder. “Lord Rial? I’m sorry.” Even to herself, she sounded pathetic.

  He halted and turned to face her.

  She quailed at the furious look on his face.

  He shook her, not hard enough to hurt, but her head bobbed back and forward. “What did you think you were doing?” he hissed.

  “I… I fell, and the headband was damaged, and… and…”

  “And what? You sent a prayer of thanks to your goddess for giving you an opportunity you couldn’t resist?”

  He didn’t need to insult her beliefs. “I didn’t plan it, but if I’m a slave, it’s…” she swallowed and took a deep breath. “It’s my duty to escape.” She stared defiantly at the insignia on his uniform.

  “Your duty to escape! If you weren’t so unaware of the dangers you expose yourself to that would be funny. If you’re a slave, it’s your duty to do as ordered or else you’re punished. You’re a twenty-three-year-old woman, not a child attending the first day of school who wants to stay at home. Kia,” he gave an exasperated sigh, but when he continued, his voice had lost its aggressive edge. “You have nothing and no one, and believe it or not, I’m trying to protect you, but you’re making it difficult. I am concerned for your welfare, and I’m your best chance of staying alive, so stop fighting me.”

  How considerate of him to remind her of her pitiable circumstances. But he was right, she was alone. However, she’d be honest and refuse to make a promise she couldn’t keep. “I’ll try.”

  “Is that the best you can offer?”

  She looked up at him, but his expression was no longer full of raw anger. “You’re hurting my arm. Could you let go of me?”

  He didn’t apologize or release her arm but relaxed his hold. “Is there anything else you’d like?”

  The heat rose in her cheeks under his scrutiny. “No.” She would have loved a long cold refreshing drink of water but wasn’t going to test the limits of his patience. “Thank you,” she added, hating how weak and useless she sounded.

  After hiking for a while, one of the animals startled her by licking her fingers. The creature came up to her waist, and its jet black eyes, lolling red tongue, and razor sharp fangs longer than her hand, made her more than nervous. She drew closer to Lord Rial.

  “Are you afraid of them?”

  “Yes. They’re enormous and really scary.”

  He seized her hand and held it out to the hound.

  She tried to pull away, but he’d imprisoned her wrist and shushed her.

  “Fiata, this is a friend,” he instructed the animal. “Allow him to taste you,” he told her.

  She did her best not to recoil as the beast’s rough tongue licked her palm, leaving a layer of glistening drool.

  “Enough,” he ordered, and the hound retreated. “He’s the leader of the pack, and they have a telepathic link, therefore they will all consider you the same way he does. This also means if you try this caper again, they’ll be able to track your scent with ease. On the bright side, they won’t eat you.” He took her arm again, and they moved off.

  What was wrong with him? First he was incensed and shaking her, then he was telling the hounds she was a friend, although there were definite drawbacks to the latter. She was in a world where she didn’t know the rules, no one would tell her what they were, but everyone expected her to do what they wanted without protest.

  “When equipment breaks down, you stay where you are until assistance arrives. Understood?”

  She nodded, then remembered how persnickety he’d been on the previous occasion he’d asked her to agree to something. “Yes, I understand, and I will obey.” The last bit popped out before she could control her tongue.

  “Don’t be cheeky.”

  “I can’t win, can I? I assumed you wanted obedience.”

  “I don’t want a robot.”

  No, she thought, you want a willing slave, but refrained from responding in case she tipped him back into an antagonistic mood again. She gritted her teeth. A reasonable master was an improvement on an infuriated one.

  Kia heard voices as they neared the landing area. Oh, no. She’d have to face Nagavi. She sighed. This day was going from bad to worse.

  “Fiata,” Rial called the dragoi to him and ruffled the brute’s ears. “Hunt. Feed,” he instructed, and the pack of dragoi raced off, slipping into the forest.

  Nagavi, Annen, and the drone pilot looked up as Lord Rial strode into the clearing, his hand still gripping Kia’s arm. Nagavi broke away from the other two and met them far enough away that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard.

  “Her headband broke, and she got lost,” Rial told him.

  Nagavi fired a look at her that should have incinerated her on the spot. “Is that the story we’re telling?”

  Lord Rial grinned. “Yes, it’ll do.” He gave her a little shake. “Won’t it?”

  She stared at her boots. “Yes, Lord Rial.”

  “Okay.” He let go of her arm and shoved her in the direction of the flit. “Get on board.”

  She stumbled at the unexpected push and glowered at him, but he’d turned away, confident she would obey his instructions, and was speaking with Nagavi. As she marched toward the aircraft she reflected on how he’d kept hold of her arm the entire way, ready to prevent any escape attempt she might make. As if she’d try with the dragoi sniffing at her heels. What did he think she was? He treated her like an animal, herding her here and there. She hated him and mentally stabbed an image of Nagavi before the implant reacted.

  The two other candidates waiting inside the little aircraft, Jalux and Ohiko, a thin dark intense man, watched Kia collapse onto the seat.

  Focused on getting as far away as possible, she’d ignored the bruises from the fall, and pushed herself hard before Lord Rial and his pack of monsters appeared, after which her brain had stopped working altogether. She was sweaty, bruised from the fall and when she’d hit the tree, the muscles in her thighs and calves trembled, her vision was blurry, and she closed her eyes as reaction set in. She couldn’t have cared less if the Emperor Teyrn himself appeared and offered to escort her on a personal tour of his realm.

  “What happened to you?” Jalux looked as rough as Kia.

  She might as well tell them the official version before Nagavi said something to embarrass her. “I fell down a hill, the vidscreen broke, I got lost, and—”

  “You too?” Jalux exclaimed.

  “What?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t fall. The screen stopped working, and I had to wait until everyone had returned before Annen fetched me.” He studied her. “Ah. Lord Rial found you, didn’t he?”

  “No, it was the dragoi. Not my happiest moment.”

  “Lord Rial’s land extends for hundreds of miles, and guard drones regularly sweep the areas. You are aware they kill any unauthorized human, aren’t you?”

  Kia swallowed.

  “Are the hounds as savage as everyone says?” Jalux asked with too much enthusiasm.

  She had much to learn about this new world. What had
she been thinking? She’d acted on instinct, listened to her heart, and dramatically failed to achieve anything except show she couldn’t be trusted. She sighed. “I’m tired, Jalux, and not answering your questions.”

  When she clambered out of the flit, her physical aches and pains had faded—maybe she shouldn’t completely disregard the advantages of the nanobots? The psychological sting was slower to recede. The price demanded of her for his unwanted gift was disturbingly high.

  After lunch, Nagavi gave another pep-talk and congratulated Red on her win that morning.

  Red swelled with the praise and nodded.

  “Never let the lack of size or apparent strength of your opponent deceive you,” he continued. He didn’t mention Kia and Jalux’s late return.

  The afternoon was an eye-opener for Kia. A separate facility accessed through the rear of the gym contained a row of simulator booths. Suppressing memories of the morning’s disaster, she sat in a darkened booth, listening to Nagavi’s voice loud on the comlink in her ear.

  “Lord Rial’s fleet comprises 100 ships each with 1,000 men aboard. These 10,000 men are under his direct command, and more men and ships are available if needed, for example, battlestar cruisers which carry 10,000 men. Twenty of these men are his Chenjerai who accompany him everywhere.”

  Kia wondered if she’d end up as a menial servant in the Heir’s extensive entourage if she failed to enter the ranks of the elite guards. It would be a more comfortable life than the mines—providing she could stay under his radar while she devised a plan to eliminate him.

  “I’m sorry if I’m boring you, Kia. Please feel free to withdraw from this program and return to where you came from anytime.”

  Nagavi’s sarcasm hurt. He was well aware they wouldn’t permit her to go home to Sestris, and who would want to revisit the hell of Jahanamu? Why keep making the same threat? It wasn’t as if she was likely to forget her recent experiences. She swallowed the hard lump lodged in her chest—the losses she’d not yet grieved for, the humiliating remarks whenever she glanced left or right or anywhere they didn’t approve of—and focused. She would show them. She would show them all.

  “Lord Rial has his own flagship, smaller than a class two battleship, but with added weaponry, engine adjustments for speed, streamlined cabin space for his guards to have their own bunkrooms, a lounge for meetings etc., and carries four class ones. Lord Rial is an accomplished pilot. For those of you unfamiliar with the empire’s fleet, class ones are small, highly maneuverable two-seater fighters designed for close combat. They’re for landings, sorties, or defense of larger craft. They're known as GKCs, which stands for great killing capacity. We call them gokas. In this afternoon’s simulation, you’ll become familiar with the piloting and use of weaponry in these little beauties. Study the layout on your holoscreen. This is the control panel you will have in front of you when you fly a goka.”

  The one mechanical device Kia had driven was the family skeet, a simple solar-powered land vehicle. One day her father had taken her to an empty stretch of road outside Sestris, along with Jared in the back seat. He’d put her in the driving seat, started the vehicle in automatic, then switched to manual override, and told her to drive. She’d driven the skeet down the black ribbon of a road for over half an hour with the vast flat red desert stretching either side under a pale yellow white sun in a bright lavender sky. At ten years old, she’d been proud of her achievement and forgotten her father’s instruction not to tell her mother. She blinked away a tear. Her memories were precious gems to take out and polish in private. Days were for adjusting to this new life, and however difficult it was, Jahanamu had been far worse.

  Kia didn’t enjoy the next hour. Cheydii ended up standing by her shoulder giving her step-by-step instructions until she could keep the spacecraft going in a straight line. In contrast, she needed no help during the following session when the candidates progressed through a series of simulated attacks, using the gokas’s weapons to defend the ship. Although it took a short while to familiarize herself with the weapon control system, once she had the hang of it, she didn’t stop until the holoscreen displayed an explosion with a neon yellow flashing sign that proclaimed ‘Congratulations! You’ve won!’

  When Nagavi announced the results of the afternoon’s exercise, Kia wasn’t the worst pilot, though she was in the lower third, and she achieved the highest number of hits in the weapons practice by twice anyone else’s score.

  “I wouldn’t mind having you as my partner when we use the battle simulators,” Red told her on their way out after Nagavi had dismissed them for the day. Red had achieved the highest score as a pilot. “We’d make a great team. They could call us red and gold.”

  “Battle simulations?” Kia queried.

  “They’re actual gokas, but fitted up with holovids that simulate past battles. I’ve heard they’re real fun.”

  “Fun?”

  “Yeah, imagine blasting that superior smug look off Tamaiko’s face with one of those zappy things.”

  “If you mean hitting him with a sonar vaporizer, that appeals. What do you mean by gold? I get the red reference, but my hair’s white.”

  Red raised an eyebrow. “Have you looked in the mirror lately? Listen, do you have comunits where you’re from?”

  “My planet isn’t that uncivilized.” Kia tried not to sound indignant or offended. She touched her hair. She hadn’t seen herself in a mirror for… since that day in Sestris. Slaves in the mines had no need of them, and there were none in the barracks. The reflection she’d caught of herself in the gym window hadn’t shown her hair color.

  “C’mon then let’s go before the others get there. You can send a message to your folks.”

  Before Kia could answer, Tamaiko elbowed her out of the way.

  “How is Lord Rial’s little pet today?” He tossed the remark over his shoulder as he strode past them out of the gymnasium.

  What was he talking about? Lord Rial’s pet? She’d kill them all starting with Tamaiko and finishing with the Heir himself. She squished any embers of resentment for the latter. Imagining the tall arrogant blond as a tiny insect, she mushed him into the ground with her big boots. “I’d love to be your gunner,” she informed Red.

  “Great, that a deal, and don’t worry about him,” Red said dismissively, “he’s taking his frustration at today’s low scores out on you. Nagavi heard him saying the same thing yesterday and said if he made that remark again, he’d sew his mouth shut and send him home.”

  Although Tamaiko had been near the top in the pilot category, Red was superior. His score as a gunner had been half Kia’s.

  “Just because Lord Rial saw my… that… episode yesterday, it doesn’t make me his pet.” Kia’s voice rose.

  “Shh,” Red hushed her. “Agreed. It’s not because the Heir saw what happened, it’s because he rushed over, picked you up and carried you to the hospital himself. Nagavi tried to take you off him, but he was having none of it.”

  “Oh.” The new experience in the simulations this afternoon had driven everything else from her mind, but after Red’s words, the morning’s disastrous episode reared its dismal head. Why hadn’t he let her die in the cave-in? Instead, everywhere she turned, there he was.

  Chapter Ten: Action and Reaction

  Red grabbed Kia’s flight suit out of her hand and thrust her own at Kia. “Here, we’re swapping suits. No one will notice the name tags. This is our ultimate battle simulation session, the Finals are the day after tomorrow, and I’ve got a plan to boost our finishing score.”

  Kia’s eyes narrowed.

  “Look, we’re on track for the highest score this week. You even beat Ingen the previous time we were here. We’re of similar height and build, though you are leaner, and it won’t show under these overalls.”

  “You’re willing to cheat?”

  “I wouldn’t call it cheating. It’s being inventive, creative, and bending the rules shows initiative. I’m proving that I’ll do anything to be a
Chenjerai. Besides, you’re very competitive, and don’t pretend you’re not ’cause I been watching you all week—”

  “Everyone’s been watching every breath everyone else has taken this week. I swear there isn’t a move any of us can make but somebody hasn’t anticipated it.”

  “But you want it bad.”

  “Sure, but are you willing to risk Nagavi finding out?”

  Red shrugged. “Even if he does, he likes you.”

  Kia snorted.

  Red leaned in and whispered. “If we succeed, do you think the Heir will sleep with either of us?”

  “What?” Kia gaped at her friend as if she'd grown horns. “What are you talking about?” An image of the Heir’s face, straining to halt the force field as it attempted to drive its way through her body, jumped into her mind. She banished it.

  “Well, he can’t marry without the emperor’s permission, and it's rumored he usually has a consort or two, although he hasn’t chosen a partner since his previous consort died in that mining accident. It’s alleged that was an attempt on his life. You didn’t know?”

  Kia ignored the comment about the mines. Her plan was to get close to the Heir, but not that close. That would make things far too complicated and messy. She pulled on Red’s flight suit to hide the heat in her cheeks. “Not about the consort bit.”

  “Did they find you in a religious community? You know, one of those cut off from the universe?”

  “I lived in a normal city with normal people. At least—” She let the sentence die. At least until the empire’s soldiers arrived, but she wasn’t ready to share her past with anyone not even Red.