Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2)

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “No, I got that,” Khurda said.

  “Is there any chance of getting to their ship?’

  “Doubtful,” Khurda said. “It’s got its own security.”

  “No, I don’t think we want to mess with that,” Tani said. “The overall goal is, first and foremost, to get all of your people free. Second, take or destroy anything they can use against you later. And third, do it all without having to confront the Nomen.”

  “This can work,” Marbic said softly. “I mean, I think this can really work.”

  “Yes, it can,” Tani said. “It’s simple, straightforward, and we control a majority of the variables.”

  “The weakest part of this plan is taking out the guards in silence,” Steel said. “I’m not sure that any of us are skillful enough to do that. We could shoot them, but that wouldn’t be silent. Maybe we could brace the doors on the Nomen’s bunk houses first. Then seven of us could move into position to shoot one guard each, then shoot all at the same time. Then they’d be dead, the rest of the Nomen would be locked up, and it won’t matter if we make noise.”

  “That won’t work,” Tani said.

  “Why not?”

  “Two reasons,” Tani replied. “First, the beams needed to brace the doors are located near the mine entrance, which is in full view of the guard on the office. That guard has to be silenced before we can brace the doors. And second, because the biggest reason for being silent isn’t to keep from alerting the Nomen. It’s to keep from alerting Brutus. If there’s even the smallest chance that he’s an android there is no weapon we possess that can stop him. It’s absolutely imperative that we go into and out of that compound without alerting Brutus, and that means no laser or projectile weapons.”

  “Then how are we going to kill the guards?” Steel asked.

  “I can do it,” Tani said.

  “No, you can’t, because you won’t be there,” Steel said, his stomach doing an uncomfortable flip at the thought.

  “I won’t?” Tani asked in surprise.

  “No, you won’t,” he said.

  “Where will I be, Steel?” she asked, straightening slowly and stepping away from the table.

  “You will remain with the women. That’s an order.”

  Tani stared at him in surprise. “When did you earn the right to give me orders?”

  “Do not argue with me on this.”

  “I do not argue,” Tani said in a low, rumbling voice, her inner dracon fully awake and focused intently on Steel. “If you wish to command me, King of Garza, you must first prove yourself capable.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means make me.” The other men in the room had moved very slowly to the cave wall, all of them wary of the sudden danger emanating from the small Princess in their midst.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Steel snapped.

  “You think me ridiculous?” Tani’s eyes began to glow so brightly that he couldn’t look straight into them.

  “No,” Steel replied. “The notion of fighting you is ridiculous. You will obey me in this, Tani.”

  “Obey?” she growled, her voice no longer bearing any resemblance to the soft voice he’d become accustomed to. Everyone froze as the danger level in the cave rose so high that they were all on the verge of shifting.

  Steel suddenly realized that, once again, he’d gone too far. All he’d wanted was to keep her safe and out of danger, but for some reason his damned temper had taken over again and it had instantly turned into a battle of wills. Before he could think of a way to defuse the situation, Tani opened her mouth and roared loud enough to shake dust from the cave ceiling. Then she turned and ran from the room.

  “You’re an idiot,” Marbic said angrily. “That woman just planned a rescue that not one of us even thought of in over a year, and you insult and demean her because she won’t obey you? Why in the hell should she obey you? She’s not your woman, she’s not Khun, and she’s a Princess in her own right. You’ve absolutely no right to command her, and you damn well know it.”

  “How dare you risk the lives of our people this way?” Khurda demanded, surprising them all. Where Marbic tended to anger rather easily, Khurda rarely got angry, which made his reaction that much more notable. “Maybe you should turn things over to someone else before your temper gets us all killed. It doesn’t much matter who, either. Little Dirk would do better.”

  Steel nodded, his own anger gone even before Tani had left. He looked up and met the gazes of his three best friends, letting them see the truth. “I don’t think I could stand it if she got hurt, or killed.”

  “She’s a warrior, Steel, in case you haven’t noticed, and it’s her choice to make,” Khurda said, not without sympathy. “You can’t force her to be different from who and what she is just to make yourself feel better.”

  “I know,” Steel said. And he did. He didn’t like it, but he knew it.

  “You were right, Steel, when you said that none of us are trained to take someone out in silence,” Marbic said, struggling to control his own temper. “She is, or she wouldn’t have said so. Everything else she said is true, too. Her plan is the only one that’s going to work for us. If we had more skills, maybe we could do this differently. But we don’t, and we’re out of time. You know that, we know that, everyone knows that. If we don’t have Tani’s help, we won’t get our people back.”

  “I have a question,” Naran said. “What does she shift into?”

  “She doesn’t shift,” Steel said, then waved at the stern looks he instantly received. “She’s the daughter of the Dracons of Jasan, and has a dracon within her, but she cannot shift to bring her out. Or, if she can, she doesn’t know how.”

  “What is a dracon?” Naran asked.

  “A mammalian dragon,” Steel replied.

  “Whether or not it can manifest, it’s certainly powerful,” Naran said.

  “You need to stop making it angry, my friend,” Marbic said. “My mahrac wanted me to run from it, and that has never happened before.”

  “So did mine,” Khurda admitted. They all looked at Naran, who nodded, then they all turned their gazes on Steel.

  “My mahrac hasn’t urged me to run, but it definitely wants me to back off and give it room.”

  “Room for what?” Marbic asked.

  “I don’t know,” Steel said. He rubbed the back of his neck and made a decision that he didn’t like, but knew was necessary.

  “Tell everyone to go to the meeting cave in half an hour,” he said.

  “Everyone?” Marbic asked in surprise.

  “Yes,” Steel said. “The women need to know what we’re going to do so they can make preparations for all the people we plan to bring back with us.”

  “Agreed,” Marbic said.

  “Start spreading the word among the men,” Steel continued. “I want them to have as much time as possible to prepare for tonight.”

  “What about Tani?” Khurda asked.

  “I’ll go find her and make this right,” Steel said on a sigh.

  ***

  Tani ran out of the cave, ignoring her dracon’s insistence that she stay and fight Steel. She paused when she saw the women and children scattered about the side of the cliff. She had no experience with anger like this. Anger that made her literally see red, and that threatened to overcome her common sense. She didn’t dare approach anyone until she cooled off, so she turned the other direction and ran up the face of the cliff to the mesa above, barely watching where she put her feet. She was completely unaware of the people who stopped and gaped at her as she ran effortlessly up the steep grade.

  She didn’t understand what was happening to her. Didn’t understand why all of a sudden she kept getting so angry, or why she felt a dracon awaken within her whenever it happened. She was beginning to feel like she was two people at the same time. One, her usual self, the other, an angry and dangerous creature that she didn’t recognize.

  As she walked around the wide, narrow mesa, she wrapped her ha
nd around the dragon pendant without thought. She stopped, startled by how warm the pendant felt in her hand. It didn’t look any different than it usually did, it just felt too warm. Like it had when she was healing Naran, and when she’d healed Astra. She hadn’t been healing this time though. She’d just gotten angry. She began walking again as she thought back, trying to remember if the pendant had grown warm when she’d gotten angry onboard the Stray. If it had, she hadn’t noticed. Were the pendant, her inner dracon, and her sudden healing ability all connected? If so, how? And why?

  As Tani considered the problem her anger began to cool. She almost wished it back when she was faced with the pain beneath it which was so intense that it pushed the question of pendants and dragons right out of her head. When Steel had told her how much he admired her tactical knowledge, she’d assumed that he accepted her as she was. Foolish wish. Childish hope. She couldn’t blame him for that, either. It was her own fault for leaping to conclusions.

  When she heard the sound of wings in the distance she stiffened, knowing it was Steel without having to look. She composed her expression carefully before turning around to face him. He landed with the mountain that formed a high wall along the width of the mesa at his back, then shifted into his human form before walking slowly toward her. “I’m sorry, Tani,” he said, stopping several feet away.

  She looked up at him and Steel winced at the pain in her eyes. He knew that he’d made her angry, but he hadn’t realized that he’d hurt her again, too. “I know that I don’t have power over you, Tani, nor do I want it. I’m sorry for what I said, for making you angry, and for hurting you. My only intention was to keep you safe. How it got so out of hand so fast I don’t know, but it certainly wasn’t your fault. I lost my temper again, obviously.”

  Tani stared at him for a long moment before accepting that his apology was sincere. She relaxed her guard, her shoulders slumping. “I’m much more concerned with my anger than yours, Steel,” she said. “I know that anger is something you have to struggle with all the time because of the situation you’re people are in. But it’s never been an issue for me. I don’t understand it, and it frightens me.”

  “Ah, Khalute, I’m so very sorry,” Steel said, his eyes stinging at the expression of fear and confusion on her face. Before he knew it, he’d crossed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. He wasn’t sure what surprised him more. That he’d acted on his impulse to hold her, or that she’d let him do so after what he’d just done. When she leaned her head against him and wrapped her arms around his waist, the pain in his chest that had started building the moment she’d left the cave began to ease.

  They stood that way for a long time, neither of them moving, just giving and receiving comfort from each other as they’d done before. Then Tani lifted her head and looked up into his eyes and he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her gently. She responded, kissing him back, her soft lips pressing against his in light kisses over and over until their mouths opened and their tongues met. She stroked his tongue with hers, and he stroked hers in return, their bodies pressing tighter and tighter together until he was plunging his tongue into her mouth and she was moaning softly in response.

  When he started to lift her up into his arms he realized what they were doing and pulled his mouth away from hers on a gasp. “We can’t do this here,” he said breathlessly.

  “What?” Tani asked, feeling a little dazed.

  “Anyone could climb up here at any moment,” Steel said reluctantly. “As much as I want you, I don’t want an audience.”

  “Nor do I,” Tani said with a sigh. “Why did you object to me going on the raid tonight?”

  “Because the thought of you getting hurt scares the hell out of me,” he said. “I know very well that we don’t have a chance of succeeding without your help. But if anything happens to you, I will forever feel as though I sacrificed your life for the lives of my people, and I don’t think I could live with that. And yes, I know it’s your decision to make, but that doesn’t change the way I feel.” He felt her arms tighten around him, and took that as a sign that she understood, which she did. Then she stepped back, looked up at him and smiled.

  “Let me show you,” she said. She moved back further and he dropped his arms, watching as she looked around on the rocky ground, then shook her head and reached into her back pocket. She removed her wallet, opened it, and looked through it before finding a piece of folded bright yellow paper. She took the paper out and tore it into four pieces, each about one inch square, then handed them to Steel.

  “Take those over there and spread them out on the side of the hill, like targets.”

  “You want to use these little tiny bits of paper as targets?” he asked uncertainly.

  “Yes, please,” she said.

  “All right,” he said doubtfully, then turned and trotted to where the mountain rose almost straight up from the back of the mesa. He placed the bits of paper at different heights, glad that there was no wind since there was no way to secure them. Then he stepped away and waved at her that he was ready.

  She reached into the pouches she still wore and removed four shuriken. Without pausing to aim, she threw them one after the other in rapid succession, two with her right hand, and two with her left. Steel stared at her, stunned by how fast she’d thrown them, fully aware of how much skill that had required. And with both hands, too. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it possible.

  Tani trotted toward him, but he was so shocked that it took him a moment to remember that there were targets. He walked over to them and stood, dumbfounded, at what he saw.

  Each tiny bit of paper was pierced in its center by one point of a shuriken, none of which had penetrated the dirt behind the targets by more than an inch. He couldn’t believe it. He turned to look across the field where she’d been standing, then back at the shuriken. Just throwing them hard enough to reach the mountainside at a distance of at least ten yards was amazing. That she’d controlled the throws so precisely seemed impossible.

  “So, you’ll take care of the guards outside the bunkhouses?” he asked as he reached up to retrieve the highest of the two shuriken and the targets.

  “Yes, I can handle that,” she replied.

  “It’ll be dark,” he pointed out, turning to hand the shuriken back to her while retaining the targets and slipping them into his pocket. Tani bit her lip nervously. “What is it?”

  “I can see in the dark,” she said, then stepped around him to retrieve the remaining shuriken and targets. She returned the shuriken to their pouches and handed him the targets with a smile when he held his hand out.

  “I have one condition, Tani,” he said. “I stay at your side the entire time. I won’t get in your way, but I am not letting you out of my sight. This is not negotiable.”

  “I can live with that,” she said. Steel relaxed, unsure what he would have done had she refused him, and glad that he wouldn’t have to find out.

  They both turned to look when a small cascade of dirt suddenly fell from a spot directly below where one of the targets had been. They looked at each other and shrugged, already turning away when even more dirt slid down. Tani’s dragon pendant grew warm again, but she barely noticed as she stepped closer and reached out to touch something that Steel couldn’t see. She brushed more dirt away, then grasped something with her fingers and pulled it out.

  Steel stared in surprise at what appeared to be an egg shaped stone about six inches high, and three inches across at the bottom. It was red, like the dirt and rocks around them, but it was perfectly smooth. Tani set it in the palm of her hand, which it filled. They were both startled when it suddenly shifted, then rocked slowly back and forth on her hand.

  “Maybe you should put it down,” Steel suggested warily, but Tani immediately shook her head.

  “No, I have to hold it,” she said.

  “What do you mean you have to hold it?”

  She looked at him in surprise. �
��I’m not sure. I just feel like it’s really important that I hold it, that I keep contact with it.”

  “It’s going to hatch, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Do you know what’s in it?”

  “No idea,” Steel said. “You?”

  “Not a clue.” The egg rocked again, more violently this time. She brought her other hand up and cupped them protectively around the egg so that it couldn’t fall. A moment later they both heard a sharp crack, then another. The egg rocked again, then cracked once more and fell open, emitting a bright, sparkling white light that Tani inhaled through her mouth and nose, even the pores of her skin.

  Steel was so startled by the sight that he couldn’t move for a moment. By the time he raised a hand to knock the thing out of her hand, the sparkling light was gone, and he had the strangest feeling that he hadn’t really seen it at all. He shook his head, momentarily confused as he tried to remember what he’d just been thinking about.

  He refocused his attention on Tani, who was staring down at something he’d never seen before with a radiant smile on her face. He stood tensely, waiting to see what would happen.

  The little creature inside the egg opened orange eyes and blinked up at Tani, then it made a soft mewling sound before uncurling its body. It looked a little like a snake with legs and wings. Its rusty red body was not quite as long as her hand, and had ridges running down its back to the tip of a long tail that ended in a triangular shaped barb. It had little black horns on its head, and tiny black claws on all four feet, as well as on the points of its tissue paper thin wings. When it opened its mouth he saw that it had a double row of sharp teeth.

  “What is it?” he asked in a near whisper.

  “It’s a wyvern,” Tani said with awe. “I’ve never even heard of a live one. Have you ever seen them on this world before?”

  “No, and I think I’d remember,” he said. “What little indigenous life that exists here lives underground in burrows. I wonder how it got there.”

  “No idea,” Tani said. She bent her head low to the tiny creature and whispered softly to it. It immediately stretched its wings out, folded them neatly on its little back and started climbing up her arm to her shoulder. Tani examined the remains of the shell in her hand before discarding it, but Steel was still watching the little red creature climb onto her shoulder. It turned around, snuggled up close against her neck and settled down, digging its claws securely into the fabric of her shirt.