The Dark Places

by D. Martin

  My expression stayed blank while I carefully swallowed a gulp. I began to understand the full extent of his station in life. My family had been lucky to claim our fourteen by fourteen meters unit in the underground colony residencies on Dearleth.

  “I had controlling interest in one half of the investments and land management after I came back fourteen years ago. I returned that control to my father five years ago when my health changed. Today, he surprised me by giving it all back. He’s also bequeathed another one quarter interest in our son’s name under my control until he’s of age. Drakis will be our home for a very long time, Kai, but I’ll build you a new house on these acres. It won’t be like that huge gray fortress over there where no one dared laugh, where I lived with A’lia. I’ll build you a home open to the skies and the light, so that you may see Drakis, learn to love it, and paint it. There shall be laughter in our house, Kai, and much love,” he said with quiet intensity as he stared at me.

  This forceful man who was dictating my future frightened me, but I summoned a smile. “What of Matt Lorins, my lord? What of the Stardancer? What will become of my poet-trader?”

  “He’s always here, Kailiri, as long as you are with me. The Stardancer is ours. She will be there to take us away when we wish to be completely alone with each other again.”

  I stared into Matt’s eyes and sent thanks to the Great Creator for my Real Quiet One.

  Matt stole a quick kiss from me and then led me back to the land flitter. “We have to stop at the hold fortress to see High Lord Markan Rakeda before we return to the hotel, doll,” Matt said in a too-casual tone. “He’s harsh, but he cared for my mother in his own way and has been bitter since her death. He demanded to know what you were like when I visited earlier. When I told him you were like Lady Thais in spirit, he ordered me to bring you before him immediately. Forget what he said about you in his earlier message. Don’t let him intimidate you. And ignore anything said by my other relatives there too, if we should encounter them.”

  I should have guessed that he hadn’t brought me there merely to sightsee! Panic made my pulse race. Oh no. I have to go meet that old dragon and convince him I’m worthy of his son?

  Matt gave me a probing glance as he guided the hovering flitter at a barely conservative speed across the fields toward the gray edifice. “I’ll show you the picture in his study that inspired the name for my first ship before you meet him. When you see the painting of two lovers fleeing upon a horse before a holocaust event in their city, you’ll understand that High Lord Markan Rakeda is perhaps not so very different from me, except that he lost one love and never found a living treasure.”

  I smiled politely while I gripped the clutch containing Lady Thais Nevat Rakeda’s dagger. But didn’t she choose a grim end rather than live on with the dread Lord Markan Rakeda? I fought my rising apprehension at the fast-approaching meeting with his cheerless and graceless sire.

  “I’ll have to buy you Crynishan Dawns and Zyran Kickers soon, Matt, in order to judge whether your poetic comparisons are better with or without them.”

  “Not needed, doll,” he said, touching my stomach where our child lay quietly developing. “You’re my inspiration now. You and our child.”

  And my anxieties calmed. I would ever again regret leaving Harnaru to walk in the bright and dark places of Matt’s life and heart…

  …until I entered Rakeda Hold and met High Lord Markan Rakeda.

  The oppressive atmosphere within the compound clamped upon my awareness soon after I’d alighted from the flitter. I stood on the gray inlaid brick pavement and stared at the dark stone-and-mortar building that dwarfed me. A sensation as if someone watched me slithered along my back. I swung around toward one wing where several neat rows of small windows on five levels reflected the green skies and fields, but no one peered out. My searching gaze instead found several surveillance monitors trained upon the area that warned me security still rated high in priority here after centuries spent resisting hostile neighbors.

  Footsteps approached us off to the side. A man of indeterminate age, wearing a muted brown uniform and reserved expression, hurried toward us. “It’s good to see you again, Lord Mattin. Your father is expecting you.” He spoke with a crisp accent and dipped his head in a brief nod. “Would you like your flitter moved inside the vehicle port this time?”

  “Ah—no. Please let it rest here, Jaelston. We may need to make a rather quick exit.” Matt gave him a disarming smile.

  Jaelston allowed his lips to bend several tiny degrees before his expression resumed a reserved cast. “Yes. I quite understand, sir.” He glanced at me and dipped his head lower. “Welcome, my lady.” Then he straightened and marched across the driveway, past neatly trimmed landscaping, and disappeared into a side door in the building.

  Matt grasped my chilled hand and guided me across the large driveway to another entrance. This one was a wide metal-girded wooden door beneath a shadowy overpass. He pressed his hand to a scanner plate and entered a code sequence on the touch-plate underneath. The heavy door slid away and we stepped inside. The heavy atmosphere inside the high-ceilinged, wood-paneled vestibule rivaled the swamping gloom that surrounded me in the large chilly room that it opened upon. How much gloomier could this place get? It didn’t daunt me. Life deep inside an underground city, topped by an iced-over mountain, had inured me long ago against fear of gloomy places.

  Our echoing footsteps on the polished black marble tiles intruded with loud disrespect upon the slumbering silence and shadowy alcoves dominating the large room. Matt drew me over to one nearby shadow-shrouded area and stopped. “I wanted you to see this, Kai.” He waved a hand before him, and a soft spotlight somewhere above awakened.

  The light revealed a panoramic, two-meter wide by two-meter long wood-framed canvas upon the wall. Genuine, careful oil paint strokes covered it. The definite texture told me the paint had been applied by an artist’s hand, instead of the more common, too perfect digital renderings.

  I held my breath at the vibrant images of the unsmiling but stunning hazel-eyed, olive-skinned woman standing in formal pose, with a small child held close at her side. Her radiant auburn hair cascaded along her shoulders down to her slender waist and accentuated her long, dark green dress.

  Mercy—please don’t let this be A’lia!

  “That’s the Lady Thais Nevat Rakeda… and I’m there at her side. I was somewhere close to four standard years old at the time.”

  It became possible to breathe again. My brain unfroze, and awe thrilled through me at seeing what Matt looked like as a child. I focused on the small boy who stared out at the world with fearless curiosity in his dark, gold-flecked eyes beneath the tumble of dark hair gracing his head.

  “Your mother is very beautiful, and you look like an adorable little angel, Matt.” I pulled my gaze away to give him an admiring smile.

  He gently cleared his throat, a wry smile quirking his lips. “Well, actually, doll, the venerable Lady Thais Rakeda’s very sharp fingernails were gripping my arm to force me into standing still for that portrait, restraining me from running off. I have many distinct childhood memories of collecting quite a few nicknames from her that usually included the words ‘imp’ and ‘wild.’”

  Is it possible to fall in love with one’s mate again? I did, while grinning at the sharp intelligence glinting at me with wicked, teasing delight from his eyes.

  Then, like a light that had been extinguished, his smile and amusement vanished, a frown replaced them. “Sorry, doll. I very much regret that you won’t get the chance to see that painting I’d promised to show you in my father’s study before meeting him. He’s on his way down now… and he’s not in a good mood.” The frown marring Matt’s brow grew heavier. “Probably riled that it took me five hours to bring you here. He expects everyone to immediately comply with his orders.”

  Wondering how he knew someone approached since silence still reigned around us, I stared around the cavernous, austerely furnished chambe
r. Viewing it again, I couldn’t help thinking the place likely hadn’t experienced any woman’s attempt at making the décor more hospitable in decades, although every highly polished surface gleamed. The overwhelming, gloomy atmosphere remained the same. The place felt like a prison—an expensive one, of course, but a prison nevertheless. No wonder Lady Thais wore no smile in her portrait.

  Heavy footsteps sounded on my right. I glanced around in time to see a silver-haired, medium-height man dressed in conservative gray descend a wide staircase I’d missed lurking beyond a dimly lit alcove. His imperious dark eyes pinned me to the spot as he approached. I wasn’t certain if the scowl he wore was perpetual or reserved only for me. My back stiffened and my head went up.

  “So, this is your chosen second bride whom you salvaged from some bar? What makes you think she has a spirit similar to your mother’s, Mattin? Nothing about her reminds me of Lady Thais Rakeda.” He stopped four paces away and his hard stare raked me up and down. His down-turned mouth expressed further disapproval.

  He knows nothing about me. Why is he attacking me?

  I glared at the unpleasant man, my jaws clamped tight.

  Matt’s warm hand tightened on mine, and he drew me close and then protectively anchored me with an arm around my waist. “You’ve likely guessed already, Kailiri, that this is High Lord Markan Rakeda.” Matt snarled as he glowered at his sire. “We’re leaving if your intent is to insult my wife. You’re the one who requested that I bring her here.”

  Matt’s threat made High Lord Markan raise his heavy eyebrows, but his piercing stare remained fastened upon my face. “My son told me you saved his life. I suppose I should thank you for that, but I think you’re just an opportunistic little flirt from a back-water colony planet looking for an easy life.”

  My life among coldhearted people had amply prepared me to withstand this hostile, flinty-eyed person’s venom. But his accusations almost unleashed the unresolved guilt I’d harbored earlier in my marriage. Almost….

  But now life is meaningless without Matt. I need him like I need air and water.

  “That’s it. We’re leaving. Don’t expect me to return until you send apologies to Kailiri.” Matt turned and pulled me with him, but I tugged back, standing my ground and baring my teeth.

  “I would choose a flaming death inside a sunstar, too, if Matt had been anything like you!” I brandished my clutch like a weapon, gripping the suede leather pouch so tightly in my hands that I felt the dagger’s contours. I hoped my words had struck him straight through his vicious heart. If it was possible for blood to boil within veins, mine did.

  High Lord Rakeda’s eyes glittered, his face turned an alarming red, his hands clenched into fists, and his lips clamped into a tight line—and not another poisoned dart flew from them.

  Matt’s strong grasp urged me around to follow as he strode toward the foyer we’d entered scant minutes before. “I’m sorry, Kai. I never suspected he would do this, or I’d have never brought you here and exposed you to that abuse,” Matt grated between clenched teeth.

  We’d sped under the foyer’s high entrance portal when a commanding shout rang out. “Stop!”

  “Stop yourself,” Matt snarled, tossing a fuming glare over his shoulder. He paused and turned long enough to rage at his sire. “And you can take back all the land estate control you gave me too. We’re leaving Drakis. Kai and I are returning to far-rim merchant trading.”

  I could almost feel fury emanating from him although I wasn’t a sensitive. I silently cheered at hearing that last bit. Anything was better than being here.

  Matt whirled and continued our advance upon the outer door.

  “Mattin—Kailiri—wait!” The shout echoed behind us, and did my imagination detect a tiny bit of desperation in the high lord’s strangled tone?

  Matt reluctantly stopped and waited without turning, but I had no qualms about facing the man. My stare challenged High Lord Markan where he stood, framed between the foyer’s entrance and the large chamber behind him.

  His eyes narrowed on me. “Understand this, young woman. I lost Mattin for five standard years, not knowing if he was alive or not most of the time. Now that I have him back again, I only want to hear one thing from you: what do you want from my son?”

  I was conscious of Matt turning to look at his sire, then at me. “There’s no need to answer him, Kai,” he growled. “He has no right to interrogate you.”

  Every fiber in my being agreed with Matt. Outrage raced through me at the bitter old dragon lord, but something in his tense stance told me my response was crucial. For some reason, memories of Timirshil-ka flashed into my mind. Then a veil lifted in my angry thoughts: I realized that just as Matt had been afraid of losing me on that dying world, his embittered sire was afraid of losing his son again. In that crystalline moment of clarity, my hostility dwindled and I knew what to say.

  “I only want him to be happy and to live.”

  If possible, the old dragon’s expression compressed into further disapproval, like he’d bitten into sour fruit.

  Wrong answer? I sighed and turned away. “I’m ready to go, Matt,” I murmured, suddenly feeling drained.

  “I want the same for him…,” High Lord Rakeda said in a gravelly tone, as if the admission had been dragged from his throat. “Mattin, come back here right this instant and bring that firebrand wife of yours with you to my study. I’ll have the servants bring up some refreshments for her, since my grandson probably needs something to keep growing strong by now.” He tramped away with a stiffly held back into the great hall.

  And with those cryptic, not-exactly-welcoming, imperious words, the dragon allowed me entrance into the Rakeda Hold fortress and family.

  “We don’t have to stay, Kai,” Matt assured me. He watched me with deep concern and caressed my face with a gentle hand. “And I meant every word about leaving here and returning to my trade business with you at my side.”

  A wan smile found its way onto my lips. “Thank you, Matt, but I want to stay. I’ve just discovered another one of your dark places that I’m going to take on and do battle with.”

  Matt lifted a dark eyebrow and the dimple appeared near his mouth as his lips pulled into a reluctant smile. “Should I warn yonder villain that he’s in mortal peril, doll?”

  “Don’t you dare,” I said with a choked hiccup of laughter. I stepped close and commandeered a kiss, then pushed away from his tantalizing lips and smiled. “I love you, Matt Lorins. We’d better hurry before your father changes his mind and decides to toss me out.”

  “Just let him try,” Matt growled.

  A glance at Matt’s firm-set expression lent me courage. I was ready to storm the cantankerous dragon’s lair.

  The End

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