Kidnapped

by Megan Derr

  "I'll do it," Einn said, meeting his gaze. He had never given a damn about anyone's eyes before. Stars, he couldn't even say with any certainty the color of Lark's eyes. But he thought he would always remember Cyan's, pale gray and blue-flecked. "I won't need to, because nothing is going to happen, but I will."

  The smile Cyan gave him then ruined Einn's ability to think right alongside his ability to breathe. What in the stars was wrong with him? He shook himself, called for more shitty beer, and changed the subject. "So I guess you go back to Rehab when this is all over?"

  "I don't know," Cyan said. "I suspect I'll be on Zero for at least a little while."

  Einn fought disappointment. It would have been one thing to stop over on Mars but was quite another to go anywhere near Zero. Assuming, of course, that Cyan would want to see him again after it was all over. "Well, if you ever want to give up a life of law-abiding and take up piracy—"

  He was interrupted when Lark abruptly appeared at the table, sat down, and stole Einn's fresh beer. Lark downed half of it in one go, ignoring the way Einn glared at him. Couldn't he have waited ten more minutes to show back up? "What's your problem?" Lark finally asked.

  "Nothing."

  Lark rolled his eyes, finished the beer, then said, "Good news is, I've got us passage to the moon. Bad news is that we can't go until day after tomorrow."

  Cyan made a face. "Why so long? Why is it so damned difficult to get to the moon here?"

  "Smugglers," Einn and Lark said together, then Lark continued, "Kreska is supremely uptight, everyone knows that. Even the Vrill have nothing on a locked-down Kreskan. But the Kreskans are also kinda two-faced. Their import laws are the strictest in the IG to preserve the 'sanctity and identity of the planet' or whatever."

  "But they probably want all the perks they say they don't," Cyan said.

  "Exactly," Lark confirmed. "Kreska has two things in abundance: prudes and smugglers."

  "I don't see what all this has to do with the moon."

  Einn explained, "Kreska's moon used to be a research and military facility, back when Kreska actually had a military. Only a small portion of the planet is inhabited, and it's one of the few planets that developed a planetary identity long before they joined the IG."

  "I remember that," Cyan said. "I studied it in school. Mars had a huge problem with planetary identity. It took a good twenty-five terms for the colonies to really settle into the idea of planetary leaders and send reps to the Star Assembly. Some planets, like Trax and Salath, still have problems."

  "Right," Lark replied. "Kreska never had those problems. They're also out of the way enough that no one cares about the fact they walk around with sticks shoved proudly up their neither regions. Traffic around here is too slow for pirates to bother, and honestly, even if there was more traffic, picking on a Kreskan is like kicking a callio."

  "I get what you're saying, but what in the stars is a callio?"

  Lark frowned in annoyance. "Translators skip over the stupidest things." His in-lens flashed, and then he pulled out his datapad and brought up an image before flipping it to Cyan. He stared at it thoughtfully, then brought up an image of his own and flipped it back. "Looks like a dog."

  "Sort of," Lark agreed, studying Cyan's image. He tucked the datapad away again, and said, "Anyway—Kreska is a pass-through spot for smugglers. Mostly alcohol, I think, but they'll smuggle almost anything. I think flesh and Soul are the only two things you'll never see pass through here. The moon is a popular place for them to hide their shit between moves, though you won't hear any natives admit to knowing anything about it."

  Cyan made a face. "So there's lot of bootleg around here, and I still get shitty beer."

  Einn smiled. "I can get good stuff, but it would have drawn attention."

  "Yeah, I know," Cyan said, waving the words aside. "So we have to wait until these smugglers are going up to the moon?"

  Lark nodded. "Right. If they make too many runs, the few token Auths around here who actually give a damn would notice, so we're waiting for their next scheduled run. Once we land, we'll have three hours to find Sean and the others, otherwise we're stuck there until the smugglers return or we can no longer breathe. I'll let you figure out which is likely to happen first." He snagged Cyan's beer and drank it down.

  "So what are we supposed to do for nearly two days?" Cyan asked. "Admire the scenery?"

  Rolling his eyes, Lark replied, "You two don't seem to have a problem keeping yourselves occupied. Don't whine to the man not getting laid, 'cause he won't feel sorry for you. This beer tastes like shit. I'm going to go find a decent place for food and drink. I'll see you ringers later."

  Cyan scowled at his retreating form. "I know that time he purposely used a word that wouldn't translate. What in the stars is a ringer?"

  "No idea," Einn said. "What do you think Jade is going to do? I should probably be braced for it if I'm going to be of any help."

  "He'll take me and try to kill the rest of you. I won't let that happen, but the price of your lives will be me."

  "No."

  "You don't know Jade—"

  "The man has been blackmailing me for a term! He poisoned me! After he slaughtered my crew—" Einn pushed the memories away. The fire, the smoke, the way he'd barely gotten into gear in time to avoid being killed by space itself. The bodies.

  Jade, beautiful, cold, smelling like something sweet and sharp. His hard smile with that edge to it that made Einn's blood run cold. Those who spent too much time in the deepest, darkest caves had that kind of smile. Too much of that sort of deep dark always broke a man.

  "He tied me down," Cyan said quietly. "Left me in the private garden too far away for anyone to hear my screams for help. He left me there, naked and alone, for days. All day the sun burned, and at night it turned cold, and every day he came and tried to make me see his reason, to make me join him. When he finally let me go, as soon as I could move properly again, I ran."

  "Why is he still free?" Einn demanded. "He should be locked up!"

  "No way to prove it, and at that time, Zero was mired in enough tragedy and controversy. It would not have helped anything. Jade is a good Chancellor, which is the irony in all of this."

  Einn glared. "He's not a good anything! Look at what he's done to us!"

  "Jade would be even worse if I had tried to get him locked up, trust me."

  "If you say so."

  Cyan sighed and raked a hand through his hair, then abruptly stood up. "I'm going for a walk." He walked off without waiting for a reply, leaving Einn alone at the table.

  "The least I could get for all this is a decent fucking beer," Einn groused, transmitting points to the table scanner. He left the bar, and then lingered outside, not certain where Cyan had gone.

  "You're Fornarian, right?"

  Einn grimaced at the way she mispronounced it, saying the 'nar' syllable like 'bar' instead of 'bare', but said, "Yes, I am." She looked innocuous enough, but Einn knew a hooker when he saw one, even on Kreska where they pretended they were all pure as cave crystal. She looked him up and down appraisingly, and he supposed he passed muster because her demeanor shifted slightly.

  "Hear you guys are a good time."

  "Yes," Einn said, "but not me, I'm taken. He just left ahead of me, did you see him?"

  She cocked her head. "Weird. Not that military type that just stomped out?"

  Einn nodded, "Yes, that's him. Where did he go?"

  She smirked at him, saying nothing, but finally relented just as Einn had decided to go for his stunner. "Oh, don't panic. He went towards the woods, that way."

  Einn took off in the direction she pointed, not sure what he was doing or why—

  He'd told her he was taken. Einn tripped as his own words registered, nearly falling face first on the ground. He grimaced. 'I'm taken' was a phrase he'd picked up after leaving home, and he'd heard it any number of times. Not the sort of phrase he'd ever used himself, though, and he shouldn't have been using it then.
r />   Frowning, Einn continued toward the woods at a slower pace, fingers twitching again for his stunner. He had no love of wild land, even on a boring planet like Kreska. He forced himself to relax because it was Kreska—a trio of pirates was probably the most excitement they'd seen for terms.

  It wasn't hard to pick up Cyan's trail once he entered the woods; city types were so easy to follow once they left their cities. Einn finally spotted him well into the trees, sitting alongside a creek and idly tossing in stones and bits of stick.

  Cyan snapped to his feet when he heard Einn approach, braced for attack. As always, Einn was impressed by how quickly Cyan could move. It wasn't something he had ever really seen before. Plenty of people who could move quickly, but no one like Cyan. Then again, the stories of Rehab guards were nigh on legendary in the stars. It wasn't the cells that kept the prisoners in—it was the Rehabbers.

  Cyan relaxed when he saw it was Einn. "Did you need something?"

  "I didn't mean to upset you," Einn said. "You're right. I don't know Jade like you do. If—if you say that it's better he's still free, I believe you."

  "Forget it. Jade should be locked up. He should be put in solitary confinement at the very least. But if someone actually tried to do it…" He trailed off and just shook his head, sitting back down. "You didn't have to come out here; I wasn't upset with you, not really. I'm upset about Jade."

  Einn snorted and sat down beside him, then stretched out in the grass, boots not quite reaching the water. "Yeah, I'd much rather be in that dingy bar drinking shitty beer than out here with you."

  Cyan went still, and Einn inwardly cringed at his own words. Stars, he really was losing his mind. Cyan looked at him. "You shouldn't want anything to do with me."

  "I know. I keep trying to remind myself of that."

  "I'm a runaway noble with a crazy, sadistic brother who will do anything to make me miserable. When this is over, I'll be on Rehab or back on Zero. That's just the start of reasons to avoid me."

  Einn countered, "I'm Fornarian, and that's enough for anyone. I'm a pirate, a kidnapper, and if I'm really lucky, I'll come out of all this a fugitive, but more than likely I'll wind up dead or arrested. I'm no prize myself."

  Cyan sighed, and Einn agreed wholeheartedly. He reached out and tugged, bringing Cyan down to sprawl on top of him. He splayed a hand across Cyan's back, the feel of Cyan against him already so familiar and somehow reassuring. "So are there any good reasons for this?"

  "No," Cyan said softly, even as he rested his head on Einn's chest. "Just can't seem to help myself."

  "Yeah," Einn agreed, and stared up at the trees, the bits of yellow-green sky peeking through. He listened to the sound of Cyan's breathing.

  He jerked slightly when Cyan broke the silence. "So why did you leave Fornar?"

  "I thought the stars were beautiful," Einn said before he thought. But it was the honest answer. "Fornar is…I love my home, but it was never enough."

  "Never enough," Cyan echoed. "That sounds right."

  They lapsed into silence again. It should have been uncomfortable, and it was a little, but not nearly as much as Einn would have expected. He liked the quiet, the feel of Cyan against him, able to feel it every time he drew breath. It felt like they were the only two around for miles.

  Cyan lifted his head, and Einn didn't even hesitate, just drew him in for a kiss, slow and sweet. He was, he suspected, a fool. He also did not care. "Cyan—"

  Before he could try again to ask about seeing each other when it all over, his in-lens flashed with an urgent alert from Lark. Activating his earpiece, Einn barked, "What? I will throw you to the bottom—"

  "Spare me your weird, rock spider threats," Lark cut in. "Get your asses back to the tavern because they're here."

  Einn frowned. "Who? The smugglers?"

  "Sean and Mendel! Get here now!"

  Lark cut out, and Einn scrambled to his feet, pulling Cyan up with him. "Your friend is here, apparently."

  Cyan's mouth tightened into a thin line. "Let's get this over with and hope we all come out of it alive."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Planet 11181911 (Kreska), Heartstone Tavern & Inn

  Adrenaline pumped through Cyan's blood, every part of him on high alert. It was happening—whatever it was. The moment was upon them and there'd be no going back. Cyan could feel it, that nausea in his gut, the cold shiver down his spine, a dryness in the back of his throat. He could feel Jade's presence like a perversion of a lover's touch.

  He walked with Einn back into town, fighting an urge to grab him in a desperate bid for comfort. He had survived the past eleven years on his own; he would not undo five and a half terms of work by acting weak now. It was time to think about what was to come and not the way Einn had kicked his heart to a furious pace long before Lark had contacted them.

  What was he doing with Einn? Whatever it was, he shouldn't be doing it, because there was no future in it. "Around back," Einn said, snapping Cyan back to where his thoughts should have been. They looped around the tavern, Einn taking the lead, and slipped in a back entrance. At the end of the hallway, Lark leaned against a wall, waiting for them. When they reached him, he pushed off the wall and led the way up two flights of stairs, then down another set of hallways to a room all the way at the back of the building.

  He drew his stunner and gestured to Cyan and Einn. When they were all ready, he blew the lock, and Cyan slipped inside, leading the way into the room. Sean, Mendel, and the other Draconis—Karmikel—stared at him in shock. "Cyan!" Sean cried out and bolted toward him—and bellowed when Mendel grabbed him.

  "What's with the pirates?" Mendel asked, as Karmikel lifted a stunner—

  And screamed in pain. Behind Cyan, Einn did the same. Cyan whipped around, saw Einn on his knees, holding his head. He knew that scream, that agony—but there was no way—

  "You son of a bitch!" Karmikel snarled, raising his stunner again and thumbing it to a more dangerous level of power. One hand was still pressed to his head as he glared murder at Einn. "I will kill you."

  "You can't," barked Mendel, letting go of Sean to grab Karmikel and take his stunner. Instead, he stumbled back onto the bed, reeling from a punch to his jaw. "If you kill him, Karmikel, you'll die too!"

  Karmikel snarled, "I don't care! I did not manage to go unmatched for thirty-two years only to match now to a fucking pirate!" He screamed in rage and aimed the stunner—

  —and dropped like a rock when Lark knocked him out from behind. Catching Karmikel up before he hit the ground, Lark laid him out on one of the beds. Cyan's brows rose at the uncharacteristic gesture, but he said nothing. "What in the stars just happened?" Einn demanded. "My head is killing me, and the rest of me feels like I took a hard fall a couple of days ago."

  "You and Karmikel just matched," Sean said. "Cyan—what is going on?"

  "A lot," Cyan sighed.

  Lark added, "It just got more complicated. I cannot believe you matched, Einn! With him, of all people! Can't you stop causing us more trouble? Don't we have enough?"

  "How was I supposed to know that would happen?" Einn snapped.

  Mendel broke into the fight, asking, "So you are Adalsteinn?"

  "Call me Adalsteinn again and I will break your face," Einn snapped. "The name is Einn."

  Despite everything, Cyan laughed. "Adalsteinn?"

  "Shut up."

  A banging on the door made them all jump, and Sean swore softly as he went to deal with the inn staff. He left the rest of them standing around, awkwardly staring at one another. "You couldn't just knock?" Mendel finally asked.

  Cyan made a face. "No time to talk. We needed to grab and go." They still needed to grab and go, because that feeling in his gut was getting stronger.

  "I do not understand—you were taken hostage. Why are you cooperating with pirates?"

  "It's complicated," Cyan repeated. "We'll explain everything later. I don't even know where to start."

  "How about the reason…" Mendel t
railed off just as a shiver of fear lanced up Cyan's spine. Turning slowly around, Cyan watched as Sean was thrown onto the bed, and the familiar form of Jade's favorite henchman filled the archway.

  "Hello, love," Rall said in a congenial tone, and though he had always tried hard to affect a Zero accent, still his Britania colony roots slipped through. "There's someone who'd like a word with you."

  Cyan grabbed Einn's hands as he tried to stand, stilling him. "Sean," he said. "You promised." He kissed Einn quickly, knowing the display of a weakness would get back to his brother, but unable to resist. He wished he could have taken a longer lasting kiss, but it would have to suffice. Standing up, he strode over to Rall. "Just take me. Leave them alone."

  "My only order is to take you," Rall said, and grabbed him, yanked him close—too close. Rall had always loved violating personal space. "Long time no see, love."

  Cyan said nothing. Rall chuckled and let him go to wrap a too-familiar collar around Cyan's throat. Cyan did not react, but cringed inwardly, hating that Einn and Sean had to see him like this—captured, dragged away, once more under Jade's control.

  He fought an urge to look back at Einn for comfort. He'd never had anyone to turn to for that—not even Sean, the only person he considered a real friend. It was stupid to want to seek Einn out now, and he could not afford to be stupid. There was no guarantee Einn would still want him, anyway. One thing for a pirate to want a tough Rehabber, but a collared weakling?

  Cyan swallowed and kept his gaze straight ahead as Rall dragged him from the room. Out in the hallway, two still figures caught his eye—and he stumbled, realizing what he was looking at, choked with disbelief and terror. "Those—they can't be!"

  The two figures were roughly male in appearance, though Cyan knew from reports that reproduction had never been in their design. Their eyes were solid pools of glistening black, skin such a deep purple it may as well be black, with an iridescent shine that gleamed wetly in the dim hallway light.

  Cyan tried to twist free, get away, go back to Einn, Sean, the others. He had to save them! "No! You can't do this! They were exterminated! Einn!" He broke free, heard Einn call his name, then screamed in agony as Rall triggered the collar.