by S. E. Smith
“Madas is with her mate,” Jazin said sliding his hand down to snare her fingers between his own. “She was wounded but the Tearnat healer has already released her. Dakar has also been released and Jarmen can heal himself.”
“I liked him,” Star said as they left the starship. “He was just a sweetheart and if not for him and Madas, we would never have known that you were still alive.”
Jazin's fingers tightened jealously around Star's slender ones briefly before he let out his breath. “I can never repay him for his help. I had been left chained to the wall with weights attached to each arm. It was only a matter of time before I could no longer hold them and it would have grievously wounded me to the point that not even the Fast Patch could have helped me.”
Star tucked her head as tears burned her eyes. Tears of sorrow for the pain Jazin had to endure but there were mostly tears of rage at the man who had inflicted it. If she ever got the chance to kill Tai Tek she would do so without a second thought. She would never, ever let him hurt Jazin again.
“I will never let him hurt you again either,” Jazin said stopping in the middle of the landing bay and turning her toward him. Her softly mumbled vow reminding him that he was not the only one that Tai Tek had harmed. “He will not be given another chance to harm my family. We will hunt him down. I will no longer wait for him to strike next.”
“I agree,” Ajaska said harshly as he studied his youngest son. Pride and respect for the warrior he had grown into shone from his eyes.
“Ajaska!” Star cried out happily.
Ajaska's laughter echoed through the landing bay causing the warriors working there to stop and smile as the tiny female warrior flew into his open arms with an infectious laugh. She giggled as he tossed her up into the air and caught her again. She held onto his broad shoulders and gave him a kiss on his cheek earning a low growl of warning from Jazin. Ajaska laughed again at his son's show of possessive jealousy.
“If you were not so young and mated to my own son I would claim you as my mate. As it is, I am proud to call you my little daughter,” Ajaska chuckled as he set her back onto her feet.
Jazin reached out pulling her back into his arms the moment she was free. “You'll have to find your own mate, father,” he answered with a reluctant smile.
“From what I heard, he had three of them at one time,” Torak responded.
“Torak!” River scolded fiercely. “You shouldn't be telling about that.”
Ajaska's face actually turned a dull red at the reminder of his youthful indiscretion. Star would have persisted if it hadn't been for the fact she was so happy to see River again. “River!” Star cried out tearfully.
River broke away from Torak's possessive arms and stepped into Star's, holding her like she never wanted to let her go. “I know how you feel now. It was horrible when we almost lost you but at least I was with you. I was terrified the whole time you were gone,” River sniffed out as she embraced Star.
Jazin fought back the desire to pull Star back into his arms as long as he could. He finally reached a thick arm around her waist and tugged gently to let her know he needed her. Perhaps he wasn’t quite as normal as he thought. He could actually feel a nervousness come over him from not touching her.
“It will become more controllable,” Torak murmured quietly to him. “I still have that reaction with River but it is a little more manageable than it was.”
Jazin watched with a raised eyebrow when his older brother pulled River closer after she moved to walk with his father. Torak glanced sheepishly at his younger brother and shrugged. Jazin bit back a grin. He wondered if Manota was having the same reaction to Jo as he and Torak were having to her sisters. If so, he could imagine Manota going nuts. His middle brother had always been the loner out of the three of them. He liked to be left alone so he could tinker on his toys.
“I want to see Madas,” Star said startling him out of his reverie.
“She is resting at the moment,” Torak called out from behind her.
Ajaska chuckled. “I seriously doubt that but she will be once Gril gets done with her.”
“He won’t hurt her will he?” Star asked concerned. “She was the one who told us that Jazin was still alive. If not for her, we would never have known. If he hurts her, I’ll roast his ass,” she said fiercely, trying to turn around.
“Rest easy, little warrior,” Ajaska said with a chuckle. “Gril would never hurt his mate. He is merely making sure she is well cared for and checking to make sure she doesn’t have any injuries the healer might have missed.”
Star opened her mouth to argue but Jazin leaned down and whispered softly in her ear. Her face turned a bright, bright red before she let out a small ‘Oh’. Jazin chuckled at her wide-eyed stare. Star ducked her head, letting her hair cover her burning face. It would seem that Gril was giving Madas a thorough checkup.
*.*.*
Later that night, Star sat in the officer’s lounge with River and Madas while Ajaska, Torak and Gril met with Jazin, Dakar, Armet, and Jarmen in the commander’s conference room. Star and River were about to argue with the men but Madas had gently taken both of their arms in her larger hands and pulled them away. Star looked at her friend who seemed to be a little darker green than before.
“Madas, are you okay?” Star asked as they each sat curled up on a couch with a cup of hot tea. “You look a little greener than before.”
Madas blushed a darker shade of green, tan, and red and lowered her lashes. “Gril was very upset that I was wounded,” she began hesitantly.
Star sat forward with a fierce scowl on her face. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?” She demanded.
“No, no…” Madas stammered before she looked up with a small grin pulling on her thin lips. “He was just concerned. He wanted to make sure I was not hurt and ….” Her voice faded as she looked out of the viewport window. “I am expecting …. I did not know.”
Star looked blankly at her friend for a moment. River stood up and gave Madas a huge hug. Madas sighed deeply, looking down at her folded hands grasping the mug of tea.
“You could have lost your baby because of me,” Star choked out as she thought of how close they came to dying.
Madas shook her head. “I knew we would live. We have too much to live for. Tai Tek could never take that away from us.”
“Madas,” River said quietly, grasping her friend’s hands tightly between her own. “I know this will never replace Trolis but I am happy for you.”
Madas leaned forward and rested her smooth cheek against River’s for a moment before she pulled back. “While I claimed Trolis as my son, he was not from my egg. Gril had two sons from a previous mating. His mate betrayed him for another shortly after the eggs hatched. It was later learned Trolis was not his true son but he raised him as if he was. His first son, Kali, is his. They look very much alike and he is a joy. While we have been together for many years, I have never conceived. The females in my species have to reach a certain age before we become fertile. I was approaching the age but didn’t realize I had reached it as yet.”
Star giggled. “Are you telling me you were still too young to have kids?”
Madas nodded. “I am considerably younger than Gril. He is two hundred and thirty-five years old while I am only seventy. Females do not normally reach breeding age until they are almost one hundred.”
“You are seventy?” River asked in disbelief.
“I wished I could looked that good at seventy,” Star grumbled under her breath. “So, how old were you when Gril captured you?”
“He captured her?” River asked stunned. She looked at Madas with a huge grin on her face. “You have got to tell me about it.”
Madas chuckled. “I was a mere forty-five when he captured me. That was one reason my mother and the clan was so upset about his claiming. As far as they were concerned, I was still a child. But I wasn’t,” she added. “I knew the moment I saw him that he was my mate.”
“I thought you said he was th
e ugliest male you had ever seen when you first saw him,” Star said confused.
“I did and he was. That does not mean that I did not realize he was my mate,” Madas said primly. “Why do you think I fought him so hard?”
All three women burst into laughter as they shared their first impressions, frustrations, and funniest times with their chosen mates. That was how the men found them later that evening. Gril was the first to snatch Madas up and whisk her away despite her weak protests. Torak was next. He pulled River into his arms ignoring her protests that she was getting too big for him to carry her around everywhere. Finally, it was just Jazin and Star. He sat down next to her for a few minutes, not saying anything but enjoying the peace and quiet as he held her closely to his heart.
“What of Tai Tek?” Star finally asked breaking the silence.
“We go after him. He escaped through a new tunnel that was not on the original map of the fortress,” Jazin said quietly.
“When?” She asked with a shiver.
“Jarmen, Dakar and Armet are running calculations on where they think he might go next. It is time we were on the offensive,” He responded carefully.
“Where do we even start?” She asked looking up into Jazin’s eyes. There was something he wasn’t telling her.
Jazin sighed heavily before he scooped Star up into his arms. “We start on Elpidios.”
Chapter 15
Elpidios: Two weeks later
Commander Mena Rue stood at attention. It was not that hard to do really. She was frozen with fear. The Grand Ruler sat in the seat on the other side of the desk from her but he could just have as easily been holding a blade to her throat. She swallowed again as bile rose threatening to choke her. She had not only returned to Elpidios with no crystals but she had returned with a tale so huge, so ludicrous she would be surprised if the officers she left outside the room were not ordered in to remove what was left of her body. The Grand Ruler was not someone you wanted angry at you. He was not only angry at Mena, he was beyond furious as he looked back down at her report.
“Do you really expect me to believe this,” he growled out in a low, dangerous tone.
Inwardly, Mena cringed. Outwardly, she remained completely at attention with a blank mask on her face. She swallowed and nodded once, unable to force the words out that would condemn her to instant death.
“Do you?” He snapped as he threw down the report and stood up to glare at her.
“Yes sir,” Mena choked out.
“Why?” He asked turning to look out over his dying world.
“My parents studied the ancient archives. They are known for their research,” Mena began.
“I am well aware of everything about you, Commander Rue. Including who your parents are and what they do,” the Grand Ruler snapped out without turning around. “I want to know why you think this female is a messenger for an ancient prophesy that was written over two thousand years ago.”
“The ancient tablets my parents found when I was younger spoke of the first sign that would tell of the coming of the great Empress. It spoke of a strange pale skinned female with eyes the color of the Elpidios oceans. The female is said to be one of three great warriors who will save the House of Kassis and bring forth the future Empress of Elpidios. Through the bond of these great females will come the lifesaving blood stones that will save Elpidios, its people and its world,” Mena said passionately as she retold the tale told to her over and over by her parents as they struggled to find a way to save their dying planet.
“We already know what we need to save our world,” the Grand Ruler stated coldly turning to look at Mena with a relentlessness that had her taking a step backwards. “Do you truly believe in this myth that was written thousands of years ago?”
“She is the first sign,” Mena insisted in an unsteady voice. “It is said she will bring your bride.”
And that, thought Ristéard Roald, was the problem.
He was not looking for a bride and when he did, it would not be to some alien female from an obscure prophesy. Rage built inside him as the strange feeling of helplessness swept through him. His father and his father before him for countless generations had searched for a solution to the radiation slowly killing their world. It was caused by the thinning of their atmosphere. It was a phenomenon that had happened once before almost causing the extinction of his race. His ancestors had no choice before but to live in the great underground cities beneath their soil.
Over time, their world had returned to normal. It was said that a deadly species had come to attack their world only to die themselves in massive numbers due to the radiation. It was their blood that had spilled into the soil, giving the life giving crystals that had kept their world safe for almost two thousand years. The crystals had kept their planet alive but several generations of illegal gathers had depleted the source of the crystals until none remained. His grandfather had discovered what was happening and had tried to stop the sale of the crystals but he had been murdered by the very council ordained to protect his ruling and their planet. His father had executed the traitors and became the first Grand Ruler. He had spent his life and energy devoted to the research to find a way to save their world. Elpidios scientists worked tirelessly on solutions, both through the study of their history and through extensive research. It had finally been determined that there was another source of the crystals. A small amount of Kassisan crystal had been purchased and it matched the crystals from their world. His world needed the crystals to power the shield generators that would create a protective grid around their planet. The problem was they needed a huge quantity of it until they could grow the crystals on their own. His scientist had successfully been able to do so but they could not grow them fast enough at this point to save his people. Ristéard would have to approach Ajaska Ja Kel Coradon. If the Kassis ruling family denied his request he would have to weigh whether to attack or just steal the necessary crystals. Either way did not bode well for his people.
The com on his desk sounded. Ristéard gave the command to open communications.
“Grand Ruler, a Kassisan warship is hailing the planet. Lord Ajaska Ja Kel Coradon is asking for permission to meet with you,” the voice on the other end stated.
“Patch me through to him,” Ristéard ordered without turning around. “Get out,” he added to Mena.
It would seem his meeting was going to take place sooner than he expected. He would see if what Commander Rue was speculating could be true. And it if was, then he would deal with the consequences. In the meantime, he needed to convince a species he knew very little about to give him a large quantity of their power source.
“Yes sir,” Mena said stiffly with a salute before turning sharply and exiting the room.
“How did it go?” Her second in command asked as soon as she closed the door behind her.
Mena leaned back against the closed door and released the shaky breath that she had been holding. “Better than I expected,” she responded looking at her friend with a tired smile. “I’m still alive.”
*.*.*
Jazin looked down on the planet through the conference room viewport. His father had contacted the Elpidios Grand Ruler and they were to meet within the next hour. They had all been surprised when the Grand Ruler asked them to bring the pale alien female with them. Torak had argued that his mate did not need to go. They did not know enough about the Elpidios to expose their mates to such danger, especially with her expecting. Ajaska was hesitant but the Grand Ruler insisted that if the pale alien was not part of the landing party they would be denied permission to land. It had taken Gril, Ajaska and finally River to assure Torak that everything would be fine. The Grand Ruler gave his word that all he wanted was to meet her.
What Jazin didn’t like was the fact that Star would be traveling with them as well. Of course, as soon as Madas heard the other women were going she informed them she wasn’t about to be left behind. Jazin decided it was in his best interest to keep his mouth shut a
fter listening to Torak and Gril. Especially when Star gave him ‘the look’ and calmly informed him to ‘not even think about it’.
“Everything will be okay,” Star said quietly.
He had been so lost in thought he had not even heard the conference room door open. He turned and smiled reassuringly at his mate. She was so beautiful. She was wearing a soft, light blue shirt tucked into a pair of form-fitting pants and the soft brown boots she was so proud of. He made a mental note to buy her a dozen pairs in every color available. Opening his arms, he chuckled when she hurried forward and snuggled up to him.
“I love you, my little warrior,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“You know, this is really exciting,” Star exclaimed leaning back a little so she could stare out the viewport window.
Jazin frown. “What is?”
“Seeing other worlds and meeting new people,” she said with a grin. “That is the thing I missed the most when Jo and I left the circus. We met new people in Orlando but it wasn’t the same. When we traveled with the circus, we got to see new things all the time. Especially once Walter and Nema decided to take it worldwide,” she sighed as she turned in his arms and leaned back against his chest. “I wonder how Jo is doing. I miss her so much.”