Alien Redeemed

by Marie Dry

  If Srinissia had duped her warrior—that silent Zyrgin who waited patiently outside while she and Srinisisa visited—into carrying Sarah out of the palace, would he be devastated? Zyrgins valued their honor above everything.

  “Is she here?” This time she wanted answers, wanted to look in the eyes of her betrayer and ask why? Why would Srinisisa make friends with her and then turn around and betray her?

  “No, we left her on that hellhole of a planet to ensure the Zyrgins search in all the wrong places.” Coralinda spat the word Zyrgins, hatred contorting her face into ugly lines, her heavy makeup looking like a mask.

  “How long has she worked for you?”

  The other woman laughed—a harsh ugly sound. “From the moment she was forced to belong to that oaf of a warrior.” Maybe if Srinisisa had been human, Sarah may have picked up on her betrayal. She narrowed her eyes. There was something shifty in Coralinda’s expression when she talked about Srinisisa. It gave Sarah hope that maybe she’d somehow forced Srinisisa to help her. That her friend had not willingly betrayed her.

  “Did you threaten her into working with you?” Maybe she’d be able to forgive Srinisisa if she had no choice.

  “I didn’t have to.” Again, that shifty look.

  “He’ll kill you, you know that, don’t you?”

  “He’d have to find us first. This palace is on the undeveloped side of our planet. No one ever comes here.”

  Hope bloomed, her heartbeat sped up, and she had to concentrate not to let it show. Coralinda had made a mistake. Zaar and the other warriors were too thorough. She had a tracker inside her. The translation device would lead Zaar right to her.

  “Ah, I see you have hope. You think your warrior will use the translation device to track you.” Another garish pull of those turquoise lips. “That collar around your neck will block the signal.”

  Sarah touched her neck and felt a thin, cold, steel band circling her throat. This woman was crazy. Could Sarah rattle her enough to get her to make another mistake? Sarah wanted to terrorise her, pay her back, and wipe that smirk off her face. “He will find me. There is no technology in the world that can keep out a Zyrgin.” She tried to sound serene. “A while ago, the Zyrgin took me to a basement in his palace. It is deep underground and dark and cold. In it are three glass cylinders. Each one has a man inside.”

  “Why should I care about that?” Coralinda yawned, but it was a curious gesture. Not sleepy or bored. More like an involuntary fear reaction.

  “The men in those cylinders are human. They also thought it was a good idea to kidnap me. The Zyrgin hunted them and brought them back to the palace. What do you think he will do to you for kidnapping me?”

  Something moved over the alien woman’s face and it took Sarah a moment to realize that it was fear. Again, that strange yawn. In this galaxy, the Zyrgins were fierce oppressors. But knowing it and getting on the wrong side of it were two very different things. Coralinda had twisted the tail of a very real boogieman. The woman might think she knew the consequences of her actions, but she had no idea. Zaar might tell Sarah bedtime stories and bring her chocolates, but he was capable of unmentionable cruelty. Those men he’d tortured in the basement were proof of that. She did not want to be in this woman’s big shoes when he caught up with her.

  “I know your mother sold you into camps.” Coralinda smiled and leaned forward. “Did you enjoy all those men taking you?” Sick enjoyment came off the woman in waves.

  It was like a punch to the gut. “You’re a monster,” Sarah whispered.

  Coralinda tried to hide it, but she feared Zaar would find them. Sarah could have told her that she feared the wrong person. She should be running screaming from the human in front of her.

  Because Sarah was angry. Angrier than she’d ever been. She didn’t shake from fear, but sheer fury. Before she’d allow any of these aliens to hurt her, cage her, or chain her, she’d kill them all. She’d fight, use whatever she could lay her hands on. “If you are very lucky, Zaar will cut off your head.”

  Coralinda lifted a casual turquoise-painted brow, but couldn’t stop the yawn. “And if I’m not lucky?” she tittered. “Such a quaint way of talking you humans have.”

  “If you’re not lucky, I will beat you until you beg and crawl for mercy, and then I will smile when Zaar cuts off your head.” She was glad that she could never smile at someone having their head cut off. But this monster didn’t have to know that.

  For a moment Coralinda’s mask slipped and stark fear flickered over her features. Her mouth opened and closed in quick succession in several panicked yawns. Then she laughed. “That will never happen. We have his precious breeder.” She looked Sarah up and down. “His parena. I don’t see what makes you special enough to be the first female to ever be called anything but breeder by the Zyrgins.” The woman’s hatred felt personal somehow.

  “Why do you hate Zaar so much?”

  “Zaar?”

  “The Zyrgin, the parenadorz?”

  “How quaint—you call him by his name.” Sarah had no doubt that what she saw on Coralinda’s face was pure jealousy.

  “Why do you hate him?” Sarah repeated. This was more than hatred for their oppressor. For Coralinda it was personal.

  “As long as we have to pay tribute, Aurelia will never prosper,” Coralinda said. She didn’t look Sarah in the eye.

  She definitely had another motive for orchestrating the kidnapping. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

  “I understand how you feel, but Zaar will come for me and he will show you and everyone else involved in this no mercy.” She shivered; she didn’t want a repeat of what happened to those men in the basement. But she knew Zaar, and everyone involved in this would suffer terribly.

  “He wouldn’t dare come here.” Coralinda shrugged. “Zyrgin technology is based on tech they stole from us.” Her smile was grotesque, revealing teeth slightly sharper than those of humans. We’ve been upgrading. We can now repel any Zyrgin ship entering our space.”

  Sarah heard faint uncertainty beneath the boasting words. This woman feared the Zyrgins would get through. Sarah could’ve told her it was inevitable. Say what you want about the ruthless ways of Zyrgins, they were hardworking and inventive.

  Did they know that Zaar could go anywhere in the universe with just a thought? Sarah made sure not to show her hope and excitement at that thought.

  “Are you asking a ransom for me?” Maybe they wanted their freedom in exchange for her?

  The other woman jerked up her pointed chin. “There is nothing he can give us. That primitive planet have never produced anything. They live off us like parasites.” Sarah would’ve thought that Coralinda would think twice before kidnapping the wife of an emperor of a planet that only produced weapons. “No, we are showing him how vulnerable he is. That we can take his breeder from his private rooms. Right under his ugly nose.”

  Zaar’s nose was perfect and Sarah took exception to this woman saying otherwise. She was tempted to tell Coralinda that pretty soon Zyrgin would produce the best silk products in this galaxy, but maybe it would be wise not to provoke her. Yet. “What are you going to do with me?” Despite her fury, it was no hardship to sound frightened. She was in a bad situation and she couldn’t afford to wait for Zaar to rescue her. For all she knew, the new Aurelian technology might keep him out. For one horrific moment she wondered if Zaar would even want to rescue her. Sarah firmly pushed that thought aside. She had to ignore the small voice in her head, saying it was Charles all over again, and instead trust Zaar. If she couldn’t trust her warrior, then escaping with her life would be a hollow victory. Experiences like those she had in the raider camps would not claim any part of her soul ever again.

  “We will keep you for a while. Our men want to spend some time with you.” Coralinda smiled. “We will, of course, send recordings of that to Zyrgin.” Her lips pulled back in a sneer. “That would be the planet Zyrgin.”

  Sarah shuddered.

  �
�Then when you are of no use to us anymore, we will kill you.” The vicious intent in Coralinda’s voice, the cruel enjoyment, repulsed Sarah.

  “You will never get away with this.” Another thought occurred to her. Something that had been niggling at her since Coralinda said they’d developed tech to repel Zyrgin ships. “How did you gain enough knowledge of Zyrgin technology to block their ships?” Maybe Zaar had good reason not to allow the women access to their technology. If only a few of them sent the information to their home worlds, it could have serious repercussions.

  Coralinde smiled and it was the ugliest thing Sarah had ever seen. Her rotten soul bled through her perfect exterior. “Allow me to introduce you to my new priest.” She pressed a button on a table next to her.

  The priest stationed on Aurelia, who she’d been introduced to on the wall of their rooms, swaggered in. He sat down in the chair next to Coralinda with his legs indolently spread out. A self-satisfied curl to his lip reminded her sickeningly of the raiders in the camps. Her blood literally froze in her veins. For the first time she had absolutely no trouble reading the body language of a Zyrgin.

  21

  Sarah stared at the priest and tasted bitter gall on her tongue. She should’ve known the traitors would turn out to be someone close to her and a priest. It seemed Destiny still played with her. Sarah swallowed bile and clenched her fists. Not again. F— Stuff Destiny. She couldn’t, no, she wouldn’t endure this again. Nightmare images of the Reverend’s basement flashed in front of her.

  She’d had this sunny belief that Zyrgins were physically incapable of betrayal, that Srinisisa had acted alone. She should’ve known better. If she made it out of this alive, she’d agree to every security measure Zaar wanted. Even watching her in their room having tea with the other women. Her stomach turned. She’d never again be able to trust anyone enough to have them in her apartment, in what she thought was her safe space. She rubbed her aching chest. Srinisisa had taken so much more from her than her freedom.

  Sarah wanted to curl up in a ball and find oblivion from this harsh reality she didn’t want to live in. Wasn’t once enough? Why did she have to go through this again? At the same time, anger bubbled inside her. If it was the last thing she did, she’d make sure this traitor got what he deserved. Coralinda might hate the Zyrgins for oppressing her people, but this priest had no excuse.

  “I’d like to kill you myself, but you don’t deserve a quick death. Zaar will deal with you in his basement.” She smiled at him and hoped it looked as ugly and menacing to him as their smiles did to her. “I assume you know about the humans who’d hurt me—that is currently residing there?” She looked him right in the eye and tried to look like Zaar when he was friendly sarcastic and about to annihilate someone. She was betting on this priest not knowing that Zaar had killed the humans in the basement. More than anything, she wanted to beat the stuffing out of these two for destroying her new happiness and belief in her own safety. She needed to punish them. To teach them not to mess with her. Ever.

  “He cannot get to me here.” He looked at Coralinda as if for reassurance.

  Sarah almost smiled when she saw the way the woman subtly leaned away from him. So, there was dissension in the ranks already—if only she could find a way to use this to her advantage.

  “What can she possibly give you that will compensate for the fact that you’re a miserable traitor, not to be trusted? Your new friends won’t ever trust you. Once you’ve served your purpose, they’ll get rid of you. If you can do it once, you’d do it again,” she taunted. She didn’t know where this bravery was coming from, but it felt good to taunt her betrayer, instead of whimpering and begging for mercy like she’d done when she realized exactly what was going to happen to her in the Reverend’s basement.

  How deep did the betrayal go? What if Zaar was battling more traitors on Zyrgin? She balled her fists even tighter, her nails cutting into her palms. If anyone hurt him she’d take them down to the basement and torture them herself. For the first time, she really understood Zaar’s need to torture those men in the glass capsules for what they had done to her.

  The sneer on the priest’s face eerily mirrored that of Coralinda. “I gave the Aurelians a valuable gift. They will trust me and look after me,” he said with almost childish belief.

  Sarah again saw the alien woman lean away from the priest, and her lips twisted briefly—if Sarah hadn’t watched her closely, she would’ve missed that sign of disgust.

  “You’re a Zyrgin. Bred to be loyal.” A sickening thought occurred to her. “What did you give them? What did you steal from Zyrgin?”

  “Something much more valuable than you could ever hope to be,” he snarled.

  “Why, why would you do such a thing?” she asked. Zyrgins were so proud and focused, she couldn’t fathom one of them acting like this.

  He bared his teeth and it wasn’t nearly as effective at intimidating her as when Zaar did it. “I was bred into the religious cast.”

  “Surely the system isn’t that strict. You can do another job.”

  He shrugged. “I could, but not easily. I can’t be a warrior and they’re the only Zyrgins allowed to do what they want.” There was a sullen sound to his words she’d never thought to hear from a Zyrgin.

  The warriors might be the privileged cast, and she’d thought a few times they needed change, but at the same time she didn’t see this priest working half as hard as warriors did if he was given the chance. “What does your unhappiness with your job have to do with what you stole?” She had to keep them talking. Zaar would come for her. He would.

  “I took their precious jinz izwe and brought it here.” Their silver metal was everywhere—it wouldn’t be difficult to steal some of it. It was a miracle they’d kept it out of foreign hands this long.

  The door opened and the Aurelian male, whom she’d last seen as a hologram, walked in. Tall, with a smooth, unadorned, bald head, he was dressed in pants and a long jacket made from the silver material the Zyrgins used. Unlike Zaar’s uniform, that was functional and meant for a soldier, this looked like a court dress, vaguely reminding her of the Earth fashions of the eighteenth century. She was so angry, she saw black spots in front of her. “How dare you? Take that off right now.” Maybe if Zaar hadn’t told her how they discovered jinz izwe and how it had allowed their race to become powerful, she might not have had such a strong reaction to seeing this fop wearing it.

  They all laughed at her and she stiffened her spine, lifted her chin to hide how that laughter chilled her. In the camps, the worst degradations had been with an audience jeering and egging on her abusers.

  The man walked over and looked her blatantly up and down. “She’s small—what would make that animal give her a title?” He leaned down and tugged on her hair. “It’s growing out of her head—how odd.” He straightened and continued to look her over. “She looks like a child.” Sarah glared up at him; she hated the way he talked about her as if she wasn’t there.

  “Get away from me, and I said take that off—you have no right to it.” She should shut up now, but she couldn’t; that strange fury still had her in its grip.

  “Oh, I have every right. Soon I will have more of their precious jinz izwe and all my spaceships will be built with them.”

  “You’ve got spaceships built with Zyrgin metal?” This was getting worse and worse. If they had ships as tough as the Zyrgin ships, could they defeat Zaar’s forces?

  “I already have an ally on Zyrgin waiting to bring us more of the jinz izwe. It is time for the warrior caste to fall,” the priest said. He sounded anxious, as if he needed to convince them of his usefulness.

  Keep talking, she thought savagely. Tell me all your plans so I can inform Zaar when he comes. She jerked her head away when the alien in the silver suit cupped her chin in his hand. He grabbed her face, then slid his hand down until his long fingers circled her neck, and squeezed until she saw black spots in front of her and heard a drumming in her ears. Through the haze o
f darkness, she saw savage enjoyment on his face. No matter the species, the differences in expressions, she’d recognise that sick enjoyment of another’s pain anywhere. She forced herself not to struggle, but she could feel her tongue protruding involuntarily. He let her go and she gulped in air.

  Coralinda laughed, the irritating tittering sound grating over Sarah’s nerves. “You nearly killed her brother.”

  Like his sister, he pulled her hair and then, with a strange sound, that she suspected was supposed to be his version of laughter, he went to sit on a chair next to the Aurelian woman.

  Coughing and gasping in big gulps of air, Sarah pushed back a strand of hair, that had come loose, and glared at them. “Do you have any idea what Zaar will do to you?” She sounded hoarse, had to force the words out. She glared at the priest. “He would’ve let you go to another job or join another caste. But betrayal? He will make you sorry you were ever born when he catches up with you.”

  “I want more than a life on that miserable planet.” He shrugged and brushed a hand across the embroidered silk jacket he wore. Sarah stared at that hand. Zyrgin claws, even when retracted, were sharp. His were smooth and round. Did he file them to be like that? “Coralinda and Cornelius offered me the kind of life I want.” He shrugged. “The Zyrgin can’t do anything while we have you.” He tried to act unconcerned, but she saw the fear. The Aurelians had no idea how cruel Zaar could be. But this turncoat priest must have heard what Zaar did to traitors.

  “He’ll kill you all,” she whispered through numb lips. She didn’t want to be the whip they used to punish Zaar. And a part of her, the part that never felt clean, was afraid. By the time he rescued her, she’d be so dirty he wouldn’t want her anymore. “Eventually,” she added. By the time he was done with them, they’d beg for death. Sarah drew her sweater closer to her shivering body. If she knew she would be kidnapped today, she would’ve worn warmer clothes.