Kragyn (Farseek Warrior Series Book 1)

by Clarissa Lake

  Finally, the tunnel opened into a large room with several passageways leading out of it.

  “With all these tunnels, it would be easy to get turned around in here,” Reanne said, gazing around.

  “That’s why we are going to leave our light rocks here to mark our tunnel.”

  There were piles of light rocks near the largest of the tunnel and pieces of pushcarts strewn around. Those were too large to navigate the narrow part of their tunnel, though one had a wheel on it.

  “I think it might be that big passageway over there.” Kragyn pointed and started to cross the room in that direction. Reanne fell into step beside him.

  Walking down the tunnel for several minutes, or a couple centi-spans, they came to another large room that branched off in a few other directions. There were more piles of the greenish light-rocks and some more broken carts. A couple were smaller ones that might be useful if they had wheels.

  “There.” Reanne pointed to a pair of wheels sticking up near the far wall.

  Glancing around the room, there were four other openings, but all smaller than the one they came from. Satisfied that there would be no mistaking the way back, Kragyn said, “let’s go take a look.”

  It was a wheel assembly with two wheels and an axle attached to a frame that was flat on top. It looked like it might have been for one of the smaller carts they’d seen in various stages of disrepair.

  Reanne squatted beside it and turned it over. The flat plate on top had four holes big enough to put her index finger through and tapped for bolts. “I think we could strap one of the pallets on to it and pile a few on top?”

  “We can sure try it.”

  “Now, if I had a drill, a screwdriver, a wrench, and some nuts and bolts, I could probably fix one of the carts.”

  “But we don’t.”

  “Strapping it is.” Reanne started to pick it up, but it was heavier than it looked.

  Kragyn took it from her and carried it by the axel in one hand like it weighed nothing. She smiled up at him. All those impressive muscles were not just for show.

  When they got it to the mouth of their cave in the light of day, Reanne was surprised to find what she’d thought was rust was just dirt caked on it. She thought stainless steel, at least some kind of metal alloy with similar properties.

  Sure, they could have lived without the little garden patch, but it gave them something else to do besides sex and training. Not that she had any complaints about either, especially not the sex.

  Reanne was so completely attracted to him, that all it took was a look to make her body crave him. As her train of thought diverged, she felt her need of him rising. It could also have become a conditioned response.

  After garden chores and training, they went to the bathing pool because they’d worked up a sweat. Reanne knew by the way he looked at her it wouldn’t be just a bath. Then afterward, they would have another round before they went to sleep for the day. Sometimes, it was entirely spontaneous and quick. They didn’t even undress all the way.

  Kragyn would pull her into his arms from behind so she could feel his erection against her buttocks. He would nuzzle her neck and massage her breasts under her shirt. Then he would reach below and unfasten her pants and either bend her over the bench or against the wall and take her from behind hard and fast.

  This time, Kragyn didn’t seem in a hurry to get to the main event. He framed her face in his hands and took his time kissing her and probing her mouth with his tongue in a slow sensual dance with hers. Before the kiss ended, Reanne’s whole body clamored for his touch. But there was no hurry because half the pleasure was in the anticipation.

  He pulled her against him so his erection pressed against her belly and her breasts were squeezed tight against his chest. As he kissed her again, his hand cupped her buttocks and lifted her up, so her mons was pressed against his cock.

  She was so aroused by then that she came before they had taken any clothes off. But that hardly quenched her desire for him. Reanne wrapped her legs around him, and he carried her down the path to the bathing pool.

  Kragyn set her on her feet and gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it up and off over her head. “Gods, you are so beautiful,” he murmured, tracing her taut nipples with his fingers. He cupped his hands over them and kneaded them for a time watching her face as he did.

  He bent his head to kiss her again, squeezing her nipples tightly between two fingers while he flicked the tips with his thumbs. Reanne moaned as the sensations went straight to her core. She was wet for him already, and she reached for the waist of his trousers to free his cock so she could caress it.

  He only took that for a short time before pulling off his shirt then opening the closure on Reanne’s pants. When they were both naked, Kragyn stepped into the pool and helped Reanne over the edge. They stood admiring each other for several moments, then he took her in his arms for another long passionate kiss.

  His hands went to the juncture of her thighs, and he slid a finger into her slick channel, brushing her clit as he did. She moaned and murmured his name. Kragyn knew she was ready to take his cock, but he seemed to want to tease her some more before he fucked her. He kissed and nibbled his way down her body, sucking her engorged nipples at length. He kissed all over her front all the way to her mons while she stood quivering as she let him have his way. Every touch and every kiss set off a riot of delicious sensations surging through her body and making her pussy throb with desire.

  That was where he planted his last kiss as he sat down in the water. He drew her down on top of him so she straddled his hips and his engorged cock slid easily into her silken tunnel. Once they were joined, he leaned her back in the water to suck on her nipples again. As he did, her pussy clenched on his cock, but he wasn’t ready to begin thrusting in an out of her yet.

  Instead, he reached between them and rubbed her clit while sucking her nipples until she came again. He groaned as she hugged his cock inside her and jerked in his arms with the contractions of her orgasm.

  When she quieted, he pulled her against him, chest to chest, and kissed her as he started to fuck her, slowly at first, then faster and harder.

  Reanne loved it, loved him. Though he didn’t say the word, he loved her with his body always attentive to her pleasure as well as his own. Other times, he would give her a look of pure, unspoken love. She never doubted where she stood with him. They had become best friends as well as lovers.

  Reanne was sure that their bond was the one thing that would get them through in their life on the prison planet.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A few rotations later, on an evening when Kragyn was not expected at the pit, they rose early enough before sunset to walk to the village in search of the materials they needed to fence the garden patch. It was also an evening for the outdoor market in the village square.

  Kragyn had gone a few times, but Reanne had never been. He thought it would be a nice change for them. They might just find someone who had scavenged something useful for building the fence.

  Though, when they got there, he wasn’t so sure it was such a great plan. The patrons of the open-air market were almost all male, and he didn’t like the way they leered at Reanne. As they walked through and looked at the merchants’ wares, he held Reanne close with his hand at her waist.

  Kragyn brought some protein bars in his backpack to trade if they found anything they could use. They had obtained a coil of wire Reanne thought might work to fasten the wheel chassis to a pallet. Four protein bars was a little steep, but they had plenty.

  All while they strolled through the midway, Kragyn felt they were being watched.

  “Some of these guys give me the creeps,” she whispered.

  “And I don’t like the way they look at you,” he whispered back. There were three together that were in a huddle talking and glancing at them. “I think we should leave.”

  They turned around together heading back the way they had come. Kragyn continuously glanced a
round to see if they were followed. But he knew they could circle around ahead of them and cut them off. He didn’t recognize any of them from the pit, so he doubted they would give him much trouble. Few fought in the pit that could match Kragyn’s skill.

  They decided to go to the landing pad at a jog. This was not Kragyn’s regular route back to the mine caves, so he hoped they had lost them. As they approached, a fair sized pile of pallets was visible on the far side of the landing pad away from the gates. There was also an assortment of plastic shipping boxes like the ones Kragyn used to wash and store his dishes.

  They already had a stack of them from his winnings at the pit. The metal pallets were sturdy with the slats close enough to keep all but the smallest skitter from getting through to the plants.

  “Keep watching around us,” Kragyn warned as they skirted the fence to get to the pallets. “I haven’t seen anyone, but I have this edgy feeling that they are there.”

  Most of the pallets were in good condition. Usually, they would be recycled, but no Sargan would risk landing just to get them. It would have been too dangerous for some metal pallets. It was after all a prison planet.

  Kragyn had just picked a pallet from the top of the pile when the first goon showed himself. He wasn’t one of Bardo’s. They knew better than to mess with him. Four more approached them.

  With a muttered curse, Kragyn changed his hold on the pallet to use as a weapon as they approached. The one was obviously going for Reanne. She was what they wanted. The other four came after him.

  Kragyn smashed the pallet into two of them, knocking both to the ground then turned and kicked the third in the head. In those short seconds, the fifth man grabbed Reanne in a hold she knew well as Kragyn had drilled her over and over on it. She had finally put him on the ground when he applied it.

  The fourth man hung back as Kragyn downed the other three. He apparently thought maybe taking the Farseek warrior on wasn’t such a great idea. Two of them got to their feet and took another run at Kragyn. The third was down for the count. One, two and four tried to rush him.

  Kragyn executed a series of punches and kicks so fast they didn’t know what hit them. When he turned to help Reanne, she had her attacker down and kicked him in the balls. Kragyn grinned at her proudly. All their attackers were down, so he grabbed another pallet off the pile and held his hand out to Reanne.

  They jogged away together until they ran out of road at the edge of the village. Kragyn stopped to check behind them, but no one had followed. He put his arm around Reanne’s shoulders and pulled her close in a one-armed hug, kissing her on the forehead.

  “You did great, solmatu,” he assured her.

  “You don’t think stomping his balls was overkill?”

  “Not considering what they had in mind for you. Not even a couple more for good measure would have been overkill.”

  “They weren’t even worth killing,” he said. “They were not trained warriors.”

  “No, just would-be rapists.”

  “You think I should have killed them?” Kragyn said with a slight frown.

  “No,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve seen you fight enough to know, you could have taken them all without help. It wasn’t necessary to kill them for us to escape.”

  “We won’t be going to the market again. With so few women and so many men, it’s not safe. We can go for the rest of the pallets we need earlier in the day,” he said and started walking again, holding her close at his side. “Almost no one goes to the landing pad between drops. Going into the village was the mistake.”

  “Some of those people were pretty scary. But except for their suspicious behavior, the guys that came after us weren’t who I thought might.”

  “That’s because the scary ones were Bardo’s thugs. They know better.”

  They walked the rest of the way in silence except for the sound of their footfalls. At the entrance of their cave, Kragyn dropped the pallet against the side, then seized Reanne and wrapped her in his arms, pressing his cheek against her hair. He hugged her so tight it was almost hard to breathe, but she hugged him back as he seemed to need it.

  “I would have killed them all if they had hurt you,” he growled. “My solmatu, my beloved solmatu.”

  It took about twenty rotations for them to get all they needed for the fence and to assemble it. A couple rotations after that, Kragyn and Reanne, replanted the garden. They went back to watering it every day and double checked the fencing almost every rotation to make sure that the skitters could not get in.

  New plants pushed through the soil about fifteen rotations later. Then when Kragyn discovered more seed packets in one of his prizes, he suggested planting some of them outside of the garden so the skitters would eat those plants instead of the ones in the garden. Soon they could harvest fresh greens and root vegetables every few days. It was a small thing, but it was something they had accomplished that no one else in the mine caves had done.

  Rotations passed for Kragyn and Reanne in the routine they’d gradually established. After the day they were confronted by those goons who tried to take Reanne they kept mostly to themselves, only going to the village on nights Kragyn chose to fight in the pit. He won most of his matches, but he lost a couple that left him painfully bruised and battered for a few days.

  None of his injuries were severe, and they didn’t stop his daily training sessions with Reanne. He drilled her relentlessly on the defensive moves to break away from an attacker. He continued to teach her fehiatu the Uatu warrior style of martial arts. Pleased with her progress, Kragyn advanced to carefully sparring with her.

  They first practiced in slow motion, then sparred in slow motion while he instructed her. Sometimes, it was playful and fun so that they teased and laughed together. But even those times they would eventually get serious and work on the training.

  After Kragyn told Bardo about the goons that tried to take Reanne, he said to let one of his men know if they needed anything at the open market. Bardo agreed they were probably newbies. Anyone who had seen Kragyn fight didn’t want to be on the receiving end. Most were not stupid enough to try to take his mate from him.

  Shuttles came and went, but still, no other Farseekans arrived. Each time Kragyn waited, and none arrived, his disappointment was tempered by relief that his fellow Farseekans were not sharing his sentence in this gods’ forsaken place. On the other hand, had he not been on Julconi, he might not have met his precious solmatu.

  Everything changed late one night when they were walking home from the fights, they saw a bright light in the sky. It moved like a spaceship coming in for a landing, descending to land somewhere in the hills not far from their mining cave home. As Kragyn watched and listened.

  He knew that sound! He had heard it many times before, battle weary and worn, glad to return to his tiny cabin on Dreadnaught Four. Though it might not be from Dread Four, there was no mistaking the sound of a Farseekan Dreadnaught shuttle. Logically, he knew they hadn’t exactly come for him personally, but it didn’t matter. They had come!

  Chapter Fifteen

  .

  “What is it, Kray?”

  “My people, that’s a Farseekan shuttle. They’ve come, baby and we’re getting off this damn planet!”

  “Oh, my God!” Reanne exclaimed stepping up her pace to keep up with him as he hurried toward the spot where it appeared the ship would descend.

  Finally, they came around the final rise that blocked their view of the landing spot just in time to see it descend and settle on the ground. It was the only flat spot in the vicinity big enough to accommodate the troop shuttle.

  Kragyn waited until the engines shut down before he led Reanne with him toward the shuttle door. He stopped just far enough away so the loading ramp wouldn’t hit them as it was lowered. They stood there waiting. Kragyn knew their sensors would tell them he was there.

  Minutes passed before the ramp slowly lowered and light flooded out from the interior. “Identify yourself!” a familiar voi
ce commanded.

  “Lieutenant Commander Kragyn Vermaktu,” he replied, “and my solmatu Reanne Winter from Earth.”

  “Kragyn, my friend!” the other man exclaimed. “It’s Pazel Degatu.”

  The other man holstered his hand weapon and hurried down the ramp to embrace Kragyn. “I knew when they didn’t find you on Farseek, you had to be out here somewhere. I should have known you would be in prison. You are far too ornery to be a slave.”

  “Gods, Pazel. I sure never expected to see you, here.” When the hugging and back patting finished, they stepped back staring at each other, still hardly believing they had found each other after nearly two and a half years.

  “Who else of our people are here?” Pazel asked.

  “No one in this area, but a lot of people who don’t really belong here. I’m sure there are some of our people on the other continents.”

  “That’s why we are here. To find our people and take them home. We’ve landed shuttles on every continent, and we’ve got twelve rotations to locate them for evacuation. We will take anyone you deem worthy.”

  “At most that would be forty people, productive people who don’t prey on others. Most of the people on this continent have killed people. For some of us, it was kill or be killed.”

  “Come on inside,” Pazel said. “What brings you out here in the darkness?”

  “I heard the engines as you were coming in to land. I’ve heard that sound so many times I knew it was one of ours.” Kragyn said as he followed Pazel up the ramp with Reanne at his side.

  It was one of the large troop shuttles that could hold both cargo and passengers with sleeping space for twelve. Pazel led Kragyn and Reanne into the lounge. Eight of the other eleven people in Pazel’s team were relaxing on foldout chairs. They were members of Kragyn’s squad before he had been abducted.

  “Look who I found outside in this gods’ forsaken place,” the lieutenant said without prelude. Pazel had been his second in command.