"Don't laugh, flyboy," Claria said sternly. "Your charges really were upgraded to smuggling, espionage, and three counts of murder."
Alix's eyes widened and her heart lurched. What in the universe had she stumbled into?
Devyn stopped so suddenly she nearly ran into him. "What do you mean three—"
"Someone's out to get you," Zarina said, cutting him off.
Claria nodded. "I was trying to pay your fine when I saw the new charges being posted. If not for Zarina and her crazy ideas, you two would be headed out on the next shuttle to the nearest prison."
Alix watched as shocked disbelief etched itself onto Devyn's face. Just what kind of man was he, and what enemies hated him to the point of framing him for murder? Her stomach knotted. Then again, for all she knew he just might have committed a number of murders and the charges just might be earned!
Dear Lord, maybe she ought to abandon him now, before it was too late. But before she could move, a small tremor inside told her that she had already waited too long.
Besides, if she ran now the Keepers would find her again and lock her up. And if they did that, Irn would be able to claim her. Her heart pounding in terror, she returned attention to Devyn.
"I don't understand," Devyn whispered. "Who would frame me?"
"Doesn't matter right this instant," Claria said, pushing him forward. "Get a move on it. If the Keepers find out about this, or check Zarina's stupid credentials, we're all cooked toggles."
Zarina laughed and draped her arm over Claria's shoulders. "Don't worry. If they run my numbers they'll come up with Jayce's HAWC file. I learned his serial number a long time ago."
She lifted her hand to her breast in a mock HAWC salute. "Agent Kyrelle, commander in charge of special assignments and proceedings. They don't even list his sex or age for fear of an assassin finding him." She winked at Alix. "I love my brother!"
Devyn shook his head at Zarina's incorrigibility and held his wrists out to her. "Ungyve us and let us launch."
While Zarina opened their gyves, he gave Alix an amused smile that somehow warmed her breast despite all the dangers facing them. "I can't believe she faked HAWC status to get us out. They'll burn her for this."
Zarina scoffed. "Pah-lease. Besides, you can't blame me for this trick; I got the idea from your mother."
Devyn looked down at Zarina and rubbed his wrists. "You should have remembered her whole tale, then."
Zarina lifted a quizzical brow.
"She almost went to prison for her stunt."
Zarina smiled. "But she didn't."
Devyn rolled his eyes and took Alix by the arm, his grip stern. "C'mon. We need to get out of here."
Before he could take a step, Zarina grabbed him. "You can't leave me behind," she said desperately. "Taryn's out tonight and he doesn't plan on leaving for two more days. If the Keepers find me here, they'll know I lied. And if they lock me up one more time my father will kill me. That is, if Taryn doesn't first."
Amazed by Zarina's panicked words and the knowledge that the princess had been locked up before, Alix watched emotions play across Devyn's face—anger, suspicion, tolerance, and finally resignation.
He sighed disgustedly. "All right, Your Highness. You've got your reprieve from Taryn, but I'm dumping you on the nearest outpost."
Zarina smiled, and Alix wondered if Zarina hadn't planned her escape along with theirs from the very beginning.
"Fine," she said. "Just don't call my dad."
Devyn narrowed his eyes. "If I had any sense at all, I would. You're lucky I owe you my life."
"You're welcome," Zarina said, planting a kiss on his cheek.
Devyn shook his head, then led them the rest of the way to his ship. Claria said a quick goodbye to Sway and in less than half an hour, they were back in space.
Alix sat at her terminal checking their equipment and cargo specs while Devyn and Sway programmed their new coordinates and destination into the ship's computer.
Zarina sat in the gunner's chair looking about as smug as the gimfry who stole the freshly baked bread. Despite herself, Alix smiled at the princess's success. If only she could get things to work out for her as easily as Zarina managed to.
Devyn turned around and noted the look on Zarina's face. "Don't look so happy, Rina. You've got a choice to make. Your parents, my parents, or Uncle Calix. Who do you want me to call to take you home?"
Her smile faded into a black scowl. "You know, Alix, your boss is a real—"
"Rina!"
She stiffened and cast Devyn a glare that would have shriveled a lesser man. "Next time, bud, I'll let you stew in your sauce."
Devyn shook his head, a slow smile lighting his face. "You're right; I should be more grateful. Thanks for saving us, but you know I can't turn you loose. Your dad and mine would take turns beating me if I did something that stupid."
Zarina sighed, and Alix almost felt sorry for her. "Okay. Call your mom. She's the least likely to chew my rump sore."
Alix could swear Devyn paled at Zarina's words.
She looked back at Zarina and noted the triumph in her eyes. She stifled her smile. There was a wicked side to Zarina's humor and Alix warned herself to stay in Zarina's good graces.
Devyn pushed himself out of his chair. With every step that brought him closer to Alix, her heartbeat increased. He stopped at her chair and leaned over her to verify his coordinates with hers. When he looked at her, all Alix could think of was the way his lips had tasted, how it felt to be in his arms.
"Do me a favor and double-check the cargo seals for leaks," he said, his voice barely audible.
Alix nodded, her gaze dropping to his lips.
He looked away as if embarrassed by her attention. "I'd better call my mom so we can dump Rina and get back to business."
"Uh, Devyn?"
Alix looked past Devyn's shoulder to see Sway cringing in his chair. He shook as if in fear for his very life.
"What?" Devyn asked, pushing himself away from her.
Sway glanced at Zarina, then at Alix, and finally his gaze settled on the floor. He chewed his lips. Alix couldn't imagine what had him so distraught.
Devyn took a step toward him and she thought for a moment the dorjani might actually manage to merge himself into his chair. And with each cringing action, Devyn's expression grew darker, more malevolent.
"Say it," Devyn demanded in a commanding tone Alix had never heard him use before.
Sway paled, took a deep breath, and spoke in a hurry. "The closest rendezvous point with
your parents will take us four days out of our way."
Devyn snarled in response. Eyes narrowed, he looked as if he were barely one step from murder. Alix swallowed. He clenched his fists so tightly at his sides his knuckles protruded. An angry tic beat in his jaw, and Alix felt her own apprehension and fear rise like a thermometer placed in hell. Never before had she seen a man so enraged. Not even her father in the height of a drunken rage could compare to Devyn.
Glancing to Zarina, she noted her fear as well. Now she believed every single story Zarina had told her about Devyn's temper.
"How many days to rendezvous with her parents?" he asked Sway.
"Six," Sway squeaked.
"Calix?"
Sway swallowed. "Seven."
Devyn turned about and faced Zarina. Blood lust darkened his eyes as if he were contemplating her dismemberment.
Zarina shrank in her chair, a trembling, placating smile on her lips. "Sorry," Zarina offered, her voice unsteady.
Devyn approached her like a beast after prey. Bracing one hand on each arm of her chair, he pinned her with his gaze. Zarina's eyes widened, terror shining in them brightly, while she slowly shrank away from Devyn.
Alix held her breath, waiting for Devyn to strangle Zarina, wondering if she and Sway could prevent Zarina's untimely death. Instead, he kept his jaw clenched and he just stood there. Silent. Shaking.
"Sixteen people will die because you couldn't stand t
o have your brother take you home," Devyn finally said between clenched teeth. "Tell me, Your Highness, is your mental comfort worth the cost?"
Tears welled in Zarina's eyes. She shifted her gaze to the floor and said nothing.
"Answer me, Rina."
She looked up, her eyes filled with pain. "I'm sorry, okay? You guys never tell me anything until I mess up; then you all jump on me like I'm supposed to know what I did wrong. I didn't know. I'm sorry!"
Devyn just shook his head, his anger still tangible.
After several erratic heartbeats that had Alix fearing she'd have a coronary, Devyn pushed himself away from Zarina.
"Plot the course," he said to Sway in a low, deadly tone. "And keep Zarina out of my way."
Once Devyn had left, Zarina took a deep breath and pushed herself back up into a sitting position. She cleared her throat and straightened her clothes. "So, Sway, why are you guys going to Paradise City?"
Alix could have laughed at the question after what had transpired. Did anything intimidate Zarina for long? Her own hands were still trembling and Devyn's hostility hadn't even been directed toward her.
Sway looked every bit as shaken up as Alix felt. He stared at Zarina as if he, too, doubted the woman's sanity. "There's a HAWC blockade on Jarun Eight. Their governor sent a dispatch to the Kirovions begging for help. He said it's been three months since any supplies have come into any of their ports and that their government has scorched all their natural staples."
Alix's stomach twisted. A colony without food couldn't survive for long. "How many people are there?"
Sway looked at her. "A little over a thousand. Almost a third of them are children under the age of twelve. And our last readout said that at least four people die every day from starvation."
The words Devyn had spoken inside the holding cell drifted through Alix's mind. No wonder he'd been so angry. Those poor people were waiting for them and the supplies they were bringing. And she knew Devyn felt for each starving victim. Deeply. "What did the Jaruns do to cause a blockade?" Alix asked.
Anger darkened Sway's eyes. "They refused to release Glibben crystals to the Querilans, so the Querilans went to the HAWC and charged the Jaruns with treason against the Werthern Pact."
Alix shook her head in confusion. "Werthern Pact?"
Zarina sighed and sat back in her chair. "It's a pact that was drawn up three years ago by the eight Jarun colonies. The eight leaders wanted their home government on Queril to provide them with protection against pirates and smugglers. In order to get Keepers and Probers they had to sign a deal saying they would turn over any explosive compounds they mined to the Queril officials." She looked at Sway. "I take it the Jaruns didn't hold up their end of the agreement."
"They intended to, but when Prylar took the Querilan High Seat six months ago and started invading planets, the governor on Jarun Eight decided to boycott Prylar's activities."
Alix stared aghast at Sway and the blasé tone of his voice. "You sound like you think he should have minded his own business."
Sway nodded. "I don't think political views are worth the lives of children."
"What about the children on the planets they invade?"
"Whoa, guys!" Zarina said, interrupting them. "No heated political arguments. I get enough of this at home."
"Okay," Sway said, meeting Alix's gaze. "I'm sorry I got so excited."
"Me, too," Alix said with a smile.
She sat for a moment and thought over their words. Alix wanted desperately to ask them about Devyn's HAWC days and why starving children disturbed him so much, but she decided she shouldn't pry. The answer might only add to the attraction she already felt for Devyn, and she didn't need any more reasons to want to stay with him.
Instead she settled on knowing more about the Jaruns' situation, since her fate now seemed tied to theirs. "Explain to me why the governor didn't go to the HAWC and tell them what Prylar is doing. I thought the HAWC was supposed to protect the smaller planets."
"I think Rina can answer that best."
Zarina studied her hands. "The HAWC reeks like year-old garbage."
Alix's mouth dropped open. "But your brother . . ."
"Yeah, I know. Most of my family has been in the HAWC at one point or another. That's why I can make statements like that. I know firsthand how corrupt the Golden Council is. Jarun Eight is too small for the HAWC to mess with. If they had something the HAWC wanted or needed, then they could have all the HAWC protection they wanted, but so long as Prylar is stuffing the pockets of the HAWC High Command, Jarun is pretty much trihbled."
Alix shook her head at the reality of politics. She'd never much involved herself with such things. A political freighter was a dead one. And since her father had never identified himself with a planet or race, there was no need to worry about what emperor or governor controlled what or whom. Out in space, the fuel and oxygen levels and radiation shields were the only rulers a person had to heed.
"Well, now that we've bored each other with politics, I think I need to find something to eat," Zarina said, rising to her feet. "C'mon, Alix, let's see what we can discover."
Alix looked up at Sway. "You want anything?"
A strange look darkened his eyes. "Yeah, but we left her on Nera."
Zarina moved to Sway and gave him a tight hug. "I know, it's awful when they leave you."
Alix didn't miss the sad wistfulness in Zarina's voice.
Sway bristled under Zarina's care. "Go on and eat before you lose any more weight."
"All right," Zarina said, straightening up. "If Taryn calls, tell him you guys got tired of me and launched me out the air lock."
Sway snorted. "Sounds like good advice. I'll keep it in mind in case you start causing trouble. And stay away from Devyn. In his current mood, he might do that just to appease his sense of justice."
Zarina laughed before leading Alix down the hallway to the galley. Alix remained quiet while Zarina searched through the cabinets, dropping cans and making more noise than Alix had ever heard in her life.
"What do you guys live on?" Zarina asked as she sat back on her heels and yielded a disgusted sigh.
Alix frowned at her. "What are you looking for?"
"Anything sweet and decadent."
Why didn't that surprise her? "Devyn has some cookies stashed in the big brown toggle box."
Zarina gave her a suspicious look. "Oh, yeah?"
"I didn't find them on purpose," Alix said defensively. "I was looking for dinner one night when he came in and pulled them out."
Smiling, Zarina reached for the box in the cabinet, opened it, and let out a triumphant laugh. "Leave it to him. I should probably go through all the boxes. I'm sure Sway has something stashed away too."
Biting into a cookie, Zarina took a seat next to Alix. She tilted the box to Alix as an offering. Alix shook her head in denial.
"They've always been weird about sweets," Zarina said. "As kids, they used to scrounge all the sweets, then hide them in so many places they never could remember where everything was."
Alix frowned at her words. "Why?"
"Devyn is hypoglycemic and has to watch his sugar intake. When he was a kid, his mom would only allow him one treat a week. And Sway's mother didn't believe in a boy having candy. Some weird dorjani custom."
Her eyes faded as if she were drifting into the past; then she laughed. "I'll never forget the time Devyn's mother caught them wolfing down a box of candy. She was so furious. And poor Devyn shook for a week. I'm actually surprised he can eat anything sweet after that."
"Well, I learned not to take all my pleasure at once," Devyn said from the doorway.
Hesitantly, Alix watched him as he moved forward and grabbed the box from Zarina.
His anger had decreased and now he just appeared aggravated. "Stay out of these. If you eat them all, I'll have to strangle you. If you have to have sweet stuff, eat Sway's disgusting klanan syrup."
"Selfish." Zarina wrinkled her nose at him, but
even so, Alix noted the cautiousness in Zarina's eyes as she watched Devyn. "I prefer your mom's recipe to that store-bought junk."
"Me, too," Devyn said as he closed the box and returned it to the cabinet. "But my mom only sends this stuff once in a gray rocket and there's no telling when she'll send me a new batch."
In spite of their teasing voices, there was a tenseness between them that unnerved Alix. She'd spent too many years living with explosive tempers to hang around for Devyn or Zarina's next outburst. So before they lunged at each other's throats, she decided she ought to leave the room.
The League 3: Paradise City Page 6