by Tana Stone
“Why don’t you come show me how ready you are?” I beckoned him forward with the flick of my wrist.
Although the human hesitated, he took a few steps forward.
“What is your name, human?” I asked.
He puffed out his chest, what there was to puff out. “Donal.”
It was clear this human was somebody on the planet, or thought he was. “Donal.” I repeated his name out of respect. “I am Corvak of the Vandar.”
“We all know who you are.” He flipped his hood back, glancing at the rest if the group and grinning. “You’re the exiled Vandar.”
A low murmur passed through the group, which I ignored. “That is true, Donal.” I stepped closer to him and rested on hand on the hilt of my axe, the feel of the metal familiar and comforting. “Do you know why I was exiled from the Vandar, the most feared and ruthless aliens in the galaxy?”
His smirk had vanished. He shook his head and his brown, wavy hair quivered, even though, to his credit, he remained standing with his shoulders squared.
I grinned widely, leaning closer and dropping my voice. “Excessive use of violence.”
He flinched, no doubt wondering how violent you had to be to be considered excessively violent for a Vandar.
I straightened and turned to the group. “But we aren’t here to talk about me. You’re here to learn how to fight, are you not?”
There was an uneven mumbling of agreement. Nothing like the loud bellowing I would have gotten from my Vandar brothers, but I would take it.
Turning, I unhooked my battle axe from my waist and tossed it at Donal. He grasped the handle, but the weight of it pulled him down to the ground with a loud thud.
I strode over and plucked the weapon off the ground and hoisted him up by the elbow as some of the group stifled laughter. “You should not laugh. I doubt any of you would have done any better.” The laughter died instantly. “Weapons are not something to be taken lightly. You will forge your own spears and be trained in them, but only once you’ve mastered the basics of moving and sparring. Often the difference between life and death is moving swiftly enough to avoid the enemy’s weapons. Battle is as much good defense as it is offense.”
I waved for Donal to rejoin the group and he walked back, flipping his hood back over his head and covering his flaming cheeks.
“Partner up,” I said. “We’re going to learn the basics of grappling.”
The males shuffled around as they paired off. When there was one straggler left without a partner, I waved him forward to join me at the front.
The flash of blue from under his hood told me he was one of the natives to the planet that looked like bipedal amphibians. The trembling of the cream-colored fabric told me that he was terrified.
“Don’t worry,” I told him in a low voice. “I have no intention of harming you—or shaming you.”
He nodded, but I doubted he believed me. I was speaking the truth though. I’d been shamed enough by my own cruel father to want to shame an innocent like that. Even after so many years, my face heated as I thought of my raider father when he returned from the horde ships with his demands for warrior perfection that had been impossible for a young child to meet. Yet, I had tried valiantly to meet them—only to fail each time.
It had not been a difficult decision to join my uncle’s horde, where he was Raas, instead of the one in which my father fought. Yet, it was always my own father, now long dead, whom I seemed to think about when it came time to prove myself. The one Vandar I could never impress was the one I secretly tried to in everything I did. It was why I had always been thirstier for battle and more eager for glory and one of the reasons why exile was so painful.
I pushed thoughts of my father from my mind. It did no good to think about the Vandar now. He had given me nothing but a hunger to prove myself that I could never seem to sate.
“Sir?” The alien’s clicking sounds drew my thoughts back to the amphitheater and away from my father. Although the males were standing silently and watching me, they seemed confused by my pause.
I cleared my throat, wishing I’d brought water with me. “Watch me, and follow my motions.”
Using the Kimitherian, I demonstrated the basics of deflecting a frontal attack, then a reverse attack without flipping him onto his back. The other pairs started to replicate my moves while I let the Kimitherian practice on me, being careful not to react as I normally would when attacked. After he managed a few attempts that weren’t terrible, I thumped him on the back.
“Good work.”
His sigh of relief was audible.
As the pairs continued to practice, I walked among them to assess their progress. For the most part, humans had paired with humans and Kimitherians with Kimitherians. Not surprising. Even though the natives to the planet had welcomed the human settlers onto their planet, the species were very different in appearance and temperament. As a Vandar who’d spent his life surrounded by other Vandar, I understood the desire to be with those like yourself, though I couldn’t help admiring how well the two peoples coexisted. Of course, the humans were lucky to have found a place after being forced to flee their dying planet—even if Kimithion III was a far cry from what I’d heard about Earth at its peak.
The suns were blazing now, and I understood why the natives were always covered, even though my skin was tough enough to welcome the rays without burning—a carryover from the times when the Vandar roamed the open plains of our home world and lived in the open air.
Despite the heat, the iron hilt of my axe remained cool, and I curled my fingers around it while I paced through the fighters. Although most of their moves were unskilled and lacking in any sort of grace, not all the males were without ability. Donal, who’d had some of the cockiness knocked from him, was one of the stronger males, and he managed to flip his opponent onto the ground.
“Well done,” I said, nodding at him as I passed.
He flushed, this time from the compliment, but then my attention was drawn to a pair in the back row, and I moved quickly away to watch them. More specifically, to watch one of them.
The wiry male in a beige cloak moved with impressive speed and flexibility, spinning and parrying away from his opponent before the other male could grab him. Again and again, the one male was thwarted by the other by sheer speed and superior reflexes. Finally, the male who was on the losing end of the grappling session stood and flipped back his hood.
“I give up.” He scraped a hand through pale hair. “I can’t even catch him.”
The opponent stopped moving but didn’t remove his cloak, keeping his head lowered.
My pulse quickened at the thought of a worthy opponent, at least when it came to hand-to-hand. “Are you willing to face off against me?”
The cloaked male gave a single nod and lowered himself into a fighting stance. I did the same, sizing up my opponents’ size and build. Although the natives were all smaller than me, this man was almost slender, with no bulky muscle stretching the fabric of his cloak.
I lunged, but he spun around the back of me, using my own body to pivot himself away. When I turned and swung my arm wide, he ducked and rolled across the ground, popping up far away from me and resuming his fighting crouch.
“You have an instinctive talent for fighting,” I said, moving sideways toward him as he parroted my movement in the opposite direction. He also had a talent for keeping his hood on and lowered just enough so I couldn’t see his face, although I’d spotted a flash of skin that was definitely not blue-green scales. “Your moves are mostly defensive though. What happens when you need to strike a blow to your enemy?”
He moved toward me slightly, but it was enough for me to propel myself forward and grasp one of his hands, jerking him off balance and flipping him onto the ground. I pinned his body beneath mine, his face to the dirt and his chest heaving as I lay on him.
“You are an excellent fighter,” I said. “For a man. Not yet as compared to a Vandar.”
I got off my
opponent, pulling him up with me and holding him by his shockingly narrow hips as he regained his balance. I hadn’t fought many humans, but this man seemed too lithe. Before he could pull away, I wrapped my tail around his legs to keep him in place and tugged back the hood covering his face.
Correction. Her face.
The creature I’d been fighting was a female. Even though her hair was pulled back from her face, her features were decidedly feminine, from her long-lashed, hazel eyes to the curve of her pink lips. I gaped at her without speaking, too shocked that the best fighter in the group was a woman to say anything.
“Thanks for the compliment on my fighting,” she said, meeting my gaze with her own defiant one, “but I’m not a man.”
Chapter Four
Ch 4
Sienna
I brushed the dirt off my cloak as the Vandar stared at me. By the time I was done, he was not the only one gaping at me. Most of the other fighters had stopped and gathered around us, apparently just as shocked as Corvak that I was not a male.
“You’re a female,” Corvak finally managed to say, uncoiling his tail from around my legs. “A human female.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re all brawn and no brain.”
He frowned at me, clearly not amused. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was trying to kick your ass.” I shrugged off my cloak, eager to get rid of the extra layer of fabric and to reveal that I was not dressed like a typical female. My dark pants were snug and tapered into my boots, and the pale blue top that extended to my fingertips and up to my throat hugged me like a second skin.
Murmurs rippled through the growing crowd. Most females on the planet wore dresses that covered their ankles, but pants weren’t unheard of, although I might have tailored mine a bit tighter than usual. It seemed only fair to ditch my cloak since the Vandar was bare-chested, a fact that was impossible to ignore considering the sweat glistening off his hard muscles and the dark lines swirling across them.
His dark eyebrows lifted. “You wish to train as a warrior?”
Hope blossomed in my chest. Maybe he was different. “Don’t you think I should? As far as I can see, I’m the best fighter you’ve got.”
His expression was solemn as he studied me then he shook his head. “I agreed to train the males of the planet.” His upper lip twitched into a sneer. “Not human females.”
Now that felt personal. “You have an issue with humans, or females, or is it just the combination that intimidates you, tough guy?”
Before he could respond, the crowd was jostled to the side and Donal appeared.
“Sienna.” He took purposeful steps over to me and grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?”
I jerked out of his grasp. “Honestly, I’ve never had so many people ask me questions that are completely obvious. I’m here to train.”
He glanced around him before scowling at me. “This is no place for the woman I plan to marry.”
I couldn’t help cutting my eyes to the Vandar warrior, who’d crossed his thick arms over his chest and appeared to be watching with some level of amusement. The fact that he was watching all this made my face heat. I turned back to Donal, dropping my voice. “I never agreed to marry you.”
He shrugged, as if what I’d said was irrelevant. “You will.”
This made the flush of my cheeks become a blaze. “No, I won’t. I’ve told you that I have no desire to be anyone’s wife.”
Donal spluttered out a laugh. “That’s ridiculous, Sienna. What else would you do?”
I hated that there was no good way to answer him. What else would I do if I never married and had a family? I had a very long life to be the village outcast and oddity. I fisted my hands by my sides, aware of all the eyes on me. “I don’t know, but I do know that I can’t marry you. I don’t even know why you’d want to marry me, anyway.”
He gave me what I’m sure he thought was a sweet smile, but to me it just looked patronizing and smarmy. “Sienna. You know it’s always been you.”
I huffed out an exasperated breath. “This isn’t the place to discuss this, Donal. We’re both here to learn how to fight and defend our planet, and that’s what we should do.” I pivoted back to Corvak. “Right?”
“The female is correct.” The Vandar unfolded his arms and braced them on his hips, making his leather kilt slip down a bit.
My mouth went dry as I noticed the sharp indentation of muscle on both sides of his hips forming a downward-pointing V. I’d never known males could have muscles like that, and for a moment, I imagined touching the corded ridges of his stomach. Then I tore my gaze away and cleared my throat. “I am?”
He gave a sharp nod. “We’ve spent too much time watching you two argue. This is a place for training, not personal issues.”
“I’m ready to resume training,” I said, taking another step away from Donal.
Corvak slid his gaze to me, his long tail twitching. “Not you, female. You need to return to your home.”
His words were like a punch to my gut. I stared at him for a moment as they sunk in. “But you said I was excellent fighter.”
“That was before I knew you were a female.”
I threw my hands up. “Why does that matter? You didn’t even know I was a woman until you pulled my hood down. You couldn’t tell the difference between me and a man, so why does it matter?”
“I’m sure he could tell the difference,” Donal said, giving a conspiratorial look to Corvak. “He was probably just being nice to you, Sienna. Trying not to hurt your feelings.”
I didn’t deign to look at Donal. He was being such a pathetic suck-up that I wanted to kick him in the teeth. I kept my eyes locked on Corvak.
“No, she is correct,” the Vandar warrior said. “I did not know she was a female—until I touched her.”
I started at that, watching his cheeks color slightly. My heart was pounding, but instead of it beating from fury, it was something else entirely.
“Oh,” Donal stammered, looking back and forth between us. “I didn’t know you touched—"
“When I pinned her on the ground,” Corvak added quickly. “But that is not the point.” His gaze shifted back to mine. “I agreed to teach the males. If females on this planet do not engage in battle, I am not going to be the one to defy that.”
“Even if it’s a stupid, sexist tradition, and I’m the best fighter you’ve got?” My fingernails bit into the flesh of my palms as I clenched my hands.
The Vandar crossed his arms again. “Even so.”
“I thought the Vandar were the best warriors in the galaxy,” I said. “I thought you were the ones who fought against the unjust empire and saved planets that were being oppressed. But you’re not even brave enough to stand up to a stupid rule.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw as his tail swished rapidly behind him. “It is done.” His gaze hardened, all the heat vanishing. “You should go.”
Fresh humiliation caused the backs of my eyelids to burn with tears, but I blinked quickly so they wouldn’t fall. I wouldn’t give the asshole the pleasure of seeing me cry.
I leveled a finger at him. “This isn’t done.”
“Sienna, honey.” Donal stepped toward me, his voice dripping with fake concern.
I grabbed his wrist and twisted it hard, bringing him to his knees, then I released him and backed away, shooting a final, scathing glance at the Vandar raider. “Good luck.”
I stalked away, pushing through the cloaked males who’d gathered in a tight ring to watch the drama unfold. Even through their hoods, I could feel their disapproving gazes on me, so I threw a few extra elbows to clear the way faster.
Dust caked the toes of my boots once I’d stomped from the amphitheater, but I didn’t stop or look up at what I knew were more startled and judgmental faces. I’d left my cloak back in the ring, so I was the only villager not cloaked and hooded as I made my way through the square and up the winding stone path.
I’d had to be. I was the only person who could defend my sister against the bullies who seemed to be drawn to her softness, and all the jerks who liked to make comments about our deadbeat dad. I’d learned early on that I was good at fighting. Pretty soon, everyone else had learned it, too. Which was why no one picked on my sister anymore or mentioned our father within earshot of me. Still, as odd as it sounded, fighting was the only thing I’d ever excelled at or took pleasure in doing. When I fought, the world disappeared, and everything seemed to click into place.
“Which was why no Vandar asshole is going to keep me from doing it,” I said in what I thought was a whisper, but the wide eyes peering from underneath hoods of passing people told me was not.
When I reached our dwelling, I paused. The last thing I wanted to deal with was my father, although after a stand-off with a real-life, Vandar warrior, I shouldn’t be afraid of one drunk.
I walked inside and let out a breath when I saw that the couch was empty and the blanket folded neatly over one arm. There were no sounds except that of my heavy breathing. My father must have stumbled off to work, and my sister was probably visiting a friend a few dwellings away.
My shoulders uncoiled. At least I wouldn’t have to explain to Juliette what happened. Having to tell her that I’d been kicked out even though I’d been the best would have been too much. Just thinking about her wide blue eyes filled with sympathy made tears prick my eyelids.