by C. R Corbin
The King's Captive (Rialan Kings Book 2)
by C.R Corbin
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter One
These sights always tired him.
He had been marching through human territory, it was inevitable before he would come to an end sooner or later. If only father was here to see this, to see him gloriously conquer the rest of the land that he had set his eyes upon. If only he didn't have to share it.
If only if it had been someone else other than him. Anyone else would have suited him except for his brother, having to constantly hold the reigns of the fool tired him out.
But then again, that was family wasn't it? Learning to deal with someone you were born with, someone who was drastically different than you in many ways.
"Looks like we got a rout." Mutters his general as they marched forward, both of them walking through the battlefield, it was deserted for the most part, with the exception of the bodies that were here. Both Rialan and humans, although there were far more humans here of course.
"Was there really this much?" asked the king disbelievingly.
"I'm sure there was my lord...They didn't accept the terms of surrender."
Koigo scowled and tightened his fists, he didn't want it to end like this.
His father had been involved in a war against a human general on a moon that was in the orbit of a neighbouring planet of theirs. The humans had arrived there some years back and laid claim to it. Of course there were Rialans here, people that lived here originally as migrant workers, but they were soon assimilated with the humans that had arrived. This of course resulted in quite a bit of tension and eventually...well things came to a head as the humans laid claim to these lands.
Too bad the Rialans refused to cede it.
The war had been going on for so long that it didn't really matter who controlled what at this point. The humans and the Rialans had been engaged in this back and forth for stars know how long and it was finally over. The Rialans had won. It was somewhat shameful considering the fact that they were an actual race of warriors whereas the humans...were not.
He walked through the valley, gazing amongst the bodies with a shudder. He had offered them peace and they had stubbornly refused him. He was not his father, he was far stronger than his father in both body and mind and he would not show mercy to anyone that snubbed him in such a manner. It was almost insulting, their resistance. But he took no pleasure in slaying them, he took no pleasure in surveying the battlefield like this.
"My lord, we should get your wound looked at." Observed his personal guard. Yaki was not someone that was to leave things up to chance.
The king however, was one such man.
He scowls at the suggestion, he felt a duty to his men to survey the fields to see if any of them were still living. He had a duty to retrieve them and return them home, it was his job as king to ensure that such matters were attended to and he would not shirk them.
Unlike his brother.
Simply thinking about his counterpart made him want to burst with rage. The fool had wasted the lives of so many men in pursuit of some long forgotten glory that only he prioritized. The casualties were immense and it was only through the brutality that he had displayed against the humans that he was able to secure a victory.
The things that he did were barbaric, however his segment of the population loved him and there was little that Koigo could do to alleviate the symptoms of his rule. Doing anything would surely result in a war breaking out between the two of them and that was not what father would want, nor was that the way of the Rialans.
And besides, it would surely kill everyone on their planet if they were to fight.
"I hear something." Observed Yaki.
Koigo' ears perked up, he looked around, moving his head around to get a glimpse of the sounds that were apparently coming from his left. It was faint but he heard it after Yaki pointed it out. It was a gentle little call from far away, a low moan that shouldn't have been there.
The other search parties had scattered and Koigo and his guard were the only Rialans around this area, for a moment some joy swelled within their hearts at the thought of one of their men surviving. Their figures step along the horizon, the red sun shone down on their bodies with its impressive heat as the savannah beneath their boots collected with blood, wild beasts with many wings touched down amongst the bodies and began to peck away at the corpses, only dissuaded by the timely swing of a passing king.
"It doesn't sound like..." observed Yaki, Koigo eyed him for a bit before looking away and shaking his head.
It had to be, it had to be one of theirs. No way a human could survive this sort of slaughter.
But most of the bodies were human.
And the tone was not nearly deep enough, Rialans rarely moaned outside of pleasurable undertakings. Usually it would be a growl or a roar.
But this sound was gentle, like a small brook dashing over some rocks.
It was driving the king mad.
Somewhere within him that sound began to probe at him, it began to toy with the strings of his soul and he wasn't sure why. Was it sorrow? Was he feeling sorrow with regards to the war? The battle? Or was this just some illusion.
Bah, he didn't have time to feel sorry, the important thing was that he had got what he had come for, half of the moon's surface.
And that was all that he cared about.
He tightens his green hands, those gold eyes of his brighten as they neared the source of the call. Yaki makes sure to ready his spear and Koigo lifts up his blade as well, aiming it directly at the spot on the ground from which the call was coming.
To their surprise it wasn't a Rialan.
It wasn't even a man.
The call was coming from a human woman, laying there in a pile of bodies, soot covering her face and dried blood coating her nails.
And before either of them could gather themselves she sprung at them.
#
CHAPTER TWO
She had enlisted as a way to make her family proud, after all the only thing that was left of it was her mother.
Her father had fought in the wars and had instilled in her a great pride. She would never surrender to the Rialan forces that had invaded her homeworld, she would never back down from a challenge no matter how foreboding it might have seemed. And she would always muster the nerve to come back stronger than ever if she was knocked down.
He died about 7 years ago when she was only 18.
That solidified the idea of becoming a warrior in her mind.
And so she trained, she trained until she was outpacing many of her contemporaries, until she was no longer satisfied with herself. She trained until she nearly collapsed from exhaustion and still it had not been enough.
She had fallen.
Her army had failed.
They had taken her moon.
She wanted to cry out in anger and smack a punching bag in fury over what had happened. Had they not been prepared? How h
ad a war that had been going on for nearly a hundred years end up this way? How had they failed to reach their goal.
She didn't know, she wanted to kick herself, she wanted to reprimand the generals and everyone fighting today.
But they were dead.
She was in a sea of dead people.
She felt herself down to check if there were any injuries at first, there was nothing that was threatening, only a throbbing headache that was consuming her. The last thing that she had remembered before falling unconscious was her contingent of forces hiding behind a boulder while being hammered with arrows and spears from the other side. It was only when something akin to a grenade was thrown at them did they begin to flee. Her squad mates for that day didn't make it and thus she was left under their remains. They had blocked most of the shrapnel and she was untouched save for one bit that was in her thigh, but it barely bothered her.
If anything she was more troubled by the sheer amount of death that was around her.
In the distance she could hear something, the mutterings of two men, the language was Rialan, her translator had told her. She readies her weapon in case they came close, her fingers rest on the dial for her gun and she pulls it back until it was at the perfect setting. She peaked out from the body that she was underneath, they were getting closer and closer. Her hands tightened around the cool metal until the two men had come close enough.
"It was from this direction?" one of them asked, presumably the higher ranked one as his armor was far more extravagant than his companions.
The other man nods, "I'm pretty sure of it my king."
"Well no use in idling about, let's look for it."
She holds her breath, hoping that they would simply pass over her. Beads of sweat begin to dribble down her cheek as she watches them listen and cock their heads in an attempt to receive some sort of signal. She shivered. How could she have been so foolish? Why had she made all of that noise earlier?!
Now she was about to be caught and executed!
She was a fool!
"Wait I think I hear something." Said the king, he circled around the area where he had thought he had heard someone breathing. It was from a small pile of corpses, his face suddenly lit up as he reached his hand towards the first body.
And then was nearly fried by a blaster shot if he had not jumped out of the way in time.
"Bastard!" called out a human as they ran forth, from the looks of it they were quite smaller than the average soldier and was very, very intent on taking him down.
The soldier continued to fire blaster shots at him as he weaved back and forth, dodging them all until he had managed to get a hand on them and slam them into the ground. Sprouts of muddied and bloodied water rise up and splash against his already grimy armor and onto the face of this survivor. The slam had been forceful enough to jangle their helmet off, it rolled into another puddle as the king was left to stare at just who he had slammed.
This woman...she was....
"How dare you attack the king? Human scum." Growled out Yaki as he dragged the girl towards him and aimed his blade at her. The curved edge was so close to her throat, she swallowed and gazed at him fearfully, but the king knew better.
She was reaching for the knife that was in a pocket on her thigh.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Koigo advised her as he grabbed her hand gently and shook his head, she growled at him and tugged her arm away before the two Rialans looked to one another, sighing in disbelief.
"A human...a human actually made it." Remarked Yaki.
Koigo shook his head, "I was hoping that it would be one of our own."
The human girl frowned, it was hard not to feel a little embarrassed since her attack had failed so spectacularly. It was another matter to be talked down to and devalued while she was right in front of the men having the conversation.
She just hoped that the rumors of being taken as some sort of sex slave were not true, she didn't need that to be the end of her military career.
"What should we do with her?" Yaki asked the King.
He shrugged, "What we always do, take her to the refugee camp."
She swallowed, she didn't like her chances there but then again, her chances were pretty much in the crapper anywhere she went with them.
She shut her eyes and began to silently cry, thinking that neither of the two men were paying much attention to her. She would allow herself this emotional release. Unbeknownst to her, the king saw every tear, and for a brief moment, he shared in her grief.
#
CHAPTER THREE
The march back to camp had been rather uneventful.
She had dredged along, responding to any questions with only a glare or perhaps a spit if she was feeling particularly angry, well one spit. She must have looked like some dirty human animal to them both so she didn’t mind if they thought of her as uncouth or savage.
Usually they ignored her, when she had spat on them then the second in command had said something and almost threaten to strike her but it never happened.
“Don’t, just ignore it Yaki.” Stated the king.
He looked at him incredulously, “Why?”
“Because we’re already covered in blood and grime, a little spiteful spit won’t do anything, just tie something over her mouth.”
And that was how she found herself with a gag in her mouth.
The cloth that they had used had been surprisingly clean, the leader of the two had been rather generous in that regard and had given her some respite. Still, she wished she could have killed the man back there. From the sounds of it he was rather important to the whole war effort.
But alas, she was disgraced, a soldier that couldn’t even die properly.
She had her hands tied and walked along at a small distance behind them, constantly being dragged forward by this string that the leader held. They were listening for any signs of life on the battlefield, any signs of surviving comrades that they might be able to pick up on. Sure enough there was nothing, the only thing that they had found that day was her.
The king currently had his own small tumultuous emotional conflict brewing within him as he dragged along the woman that he had recognized as being…well his. There was no doubt that his senses had gone off the moment that he had seen her. But the idea of him, a king, taking in a human woman into his keep when he had his brother to fend with…no, he couldn’t risk it.
Even if this might be his only chance to have his mate in his entire lifetime he could not take that risk with his brother breathing down his throat.
They were nearly back at camp, he could see the plumes of smoke in the distance as well as the smell of freshly grilled meats and vegetables. He sighed in relief as he watched the horizon, they had walked the worst of the battlefield and could walk without their feet being drenched in blood and mud now.
They were home.
“You should rest, you’ve been through a lot.” Muttered Yaki as he rested a hand on the shoulder of the king.
Koigo merely shook his head, “It wasn’t too bad, the battle was fairly easy-“
Just then he felt something tackle his back.
He stumbled forward a bit and looked behind him to see the human woman on the floor, nursing her shoulder after she had tackled him. He didn’t know whether to commend her for her bravery or demean and strike her for her stupidity. Or both. He merely looked her over and let out a long sigh.
“Do you really think you’re going to get anywhere with us acting that way? You’re going to get killed sooner or later.”
She keeps her mouth shut and turns away, almost pouting in a sense. He had to admit that it was a bit…charming. But he would not let this woman blind him from what he had to teach her.
After all, she was going to be sent away, there was no way that he could keep her near and she had to blend in as a result so the sooner she stopped acting like this the better.
“Come on let’s go.” He states and tugs on the string but she doesn’t
move.
Yaki scowls and draws his sword before aiming the tip of it at the girl, “Move this instant!”
She looks at him and sighs before the blade begins to inch closer to her face, it was almost directly in front of her eye. She nods and gets to her feet, Yaki lets out a small growl as she begins to follow them once again and this time he stands right beside her instead of beside the king.
“You make a move and you’re a dead woman.” He states and she rolled her eyes.
The two got within the outskirts of the camp and suddenly the human girl got an idea of just how powerful the man that was escorting her really was. Soldiers began to congregate around him and cheer and only a few seconds into his arrival did she realize who she was.
The king.
She had just been walking with one of the kings of Limura.
She could hardly believe it.
The men stare at her curiously and begin to gossip amongst themselves as soon as the pair had entered. They discussed whether she was going to serve as a servant or even worse, a prostitute. If she had the capacity to she would have broken out of her bonds and charged the men but she was reduced to this, a laughing stalk.
It was shameful.
“Come girl, just a little longer.” Stated the king when it became clear that she was lagging behind. Yaki gives her a little push and she turns to threaten him but the moment that she did a knife was at her throat and she shivered in surprise at the sight of it.
“You make a move you die.” He repeated and she huffed before falling back into line.
The camp was, needless to say, massive. It was more like a small city with the variety of ships parked about. The tents themselves were made of this strange red fiber that she had never seen before with silver trimmings. Every single one of the tents was cylindrical in shape, as was likely the custom of the Rialan forces. With every step forward she took she began to realize why they had won the battle. They were far better equipped than the human side ever was and their forces looked healthier.
Their weapons were better.