Kael Jai: Outcast (Chapter One)

by E.J. Deen

Maybe more.”

  Kael’s shoulders relaxed a fraction.

  “But if the Sulcrum doesn’t capture you, Jindom will come with a Battalia long before he sends ships. You know this, Kael Jai.”

  Kael’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I know.”

  “I am in communication with a priejstess back home,” the priejst said. “She is hidden but vulnerable. I will know what she knows.”

  Kael dipped his head in acknowledgment, his blue-black brows knitted together in a frown of concentration.

  Eva had stepped closer to the priejst and had her head tipped back as she looked up at him in fascination. Kael stared at her for a long moment. She was strangely unabashed about her curiosity. “You talk more than this one does,” she piped in, jerking a thumb in Kael’s direction. “He seems limited to short sentences and grunts.”

  “He does not need to,” the priejst replied, his gaze still on Kael. “Talk much, that is.”

  “What is a Battalia?” she asked him.

  “A small ship that carries six, no more.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a small object to me,” Eva muttered.

  Kael frowned. “Compared to the ships Jindom commands, a Battalia is tiny.”

  Eva pretended Kael hadn’t spoken. Her eyes were still on the priejst. “Do you have a name?”

  “I am called Sylph. I am the Keeper of Kael Jai.”

  “What does that mean, keeper?” she asked.

  “It means that he is my guardian, and he will die protecting me if need be,” Kael interjected.

  “Cool.” She smiled.

  Sylph glanced her way. Judging by the look on his face, he was as perplexed by her as was Kael.

  Kael’s expression was stony, serious. “I need an army. There’s no way I can defend this planet without one.”

  Sylph acknowledged the comment with a slight slant of his head.

  “Why don’t you just go to a different planet?” Eva offered.

  Kael turned and fixed her with a steely green stare. “Because you’ve been imprinted. You could remove me from the planet, or kill me, and they would still come and destroy your world.”

  “They would not know if he had been moved, and they will not stop until his body has been identified,” Sylph explained.

  Eva stared from one to the other, her mouth forming a silent oh. “Can’t you just let it slip that he’s been moved?”

  Sylph frowned. “I cannot endanger my own Jai.”

  “Or fake his death,” she finished.

  Kael’s glare deepened. She noticed but she didn’t shrink away from him.

  “Jindom will never believe that Master Jai is dead unless he sees his corpse with his own eyes,” Sylph explained. His tone clearly let her know that he was losing patience with her.

  “I thought about throwing her in the river,” Kael commented.

  Sylph’s lips twitched upward in a half-grin that he fought to control.

  Eva glared at Kael. “I didn’t ask for this, you know. I was just minding my own business, selling my flowers—”

  “It was a slow morning for you, you’d only sold one bouquet all day,” Kael’s smooth, deep voice interrupted.

  She huffed a few times in frustration before continuing. “When you came along and brought that monster with you.”

  “You could have run, like everyone else. Then you would have never been imprinted.”

  Her breath fogged the air between them as she huffed even more. She folded her arms across her chest and clamped her mouth tightly shut.

  “But you were too curious,” he finished. “You had to get involved. Too involved. I suspect that’s a pattern with you.”

  Sylph stood vigilant, hearing their conversation but only half listening. His stance made Kael nervous. Sylph would know if anything changed in the field. He would sense it before anyone else could. Kael was not prepared for war. He’d done battle with many, had killed many, but here...on this planet...he felt helpless and alone. Without his army, what good could he do in protecting the innocents of this world? At the moment, he barely had the means to protect himself.

  Sylph met his gaze. Kael could see the silver-grey sea of his irises shifting in color, almost like he was traversing different energy fields and it was reflecting in his eyes.

  “What is it?” Eva whispered.

  Both males ignored her. Kael’s gaze was focused on Sylph. “You sense something, brother?”

  Sylph’s focus shifted back to the room, to Kael. His master called him brother. It was meaningful. It meant that his ruler considered him an equal. This was a real compliment for a priejst of Trinoor. Sylph nodded in answer to Kael’s question. “I feel a shift. Someone is seeking.”

  Kael’s eyes narrowed. “You mean...a seer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then they know the Sulcrum is no more.”

  “Possibly. The scan is weak. It is a very long distance to penetrate.”

  Kael took a step closer to Sylph. “Jindom’s wy’tche.”

  “It must be, master. Jindom must assume that her scan will be faster than the Sulcrum’s signal.”

  “Can she do it?” Kael wanted to know.

  “Possibly. She is a strong one, master. Perhaps the strongest of us all.”

  “Call me master no more, brother. Here we are the same.”

  “I beg to differ, master. You are Jai, and always will be.”

  Eva looked from one to the other. “He is Jai. What does that mean?”

  Sylph glanced in her direction. “He comes from the capital province of our planet. It is called Jai. When he became ruler, he became Kael Jai. He represents Jai and therefore he becomes Jai. He is the embodiment of all the tenants of the province and what is meaningful to us.”

  “Are you also from Jai?”

  “I am from the mountains of Jai. I belong to the priejsthaed. We are the only priejsthaed of Trinoor.”

  “You’re a priest? I thought you were like him.” She looked confused.

  “If you mean in race...technically there are three races of people on our planet, each with a different set of features and skills. Kael is of the Sinestran race. I am of the Benagh. Jindom is of the Zolarian.”

  “Jindom?”

  “The man who is going to kill us all if we keep standing here talking,” Kael informed her.

  Eva ignored him. Her gaze once again raked the gorgeous male in front of her. “So, if you’re a priejst, you...don’t....”

  Sylph frowned down at her in confusion.

  “Em...you know.”

  “Enough talk! We must leave here, find somewhere else to go, somewhere...safe.” Kael drew out the last word in a hiss. He knew there was no place safe. Not without the technology of his world. Not without his army. Just him, one priejst, and an annoying young woman who never ceased to ask questions.

  “Kael Jai is correct. We must leave.”

  “Hey, I’m thinking...I have this friend,” Eva began.

  “The one who believes aliens are visiting your world,” Kael said.

  Sylph raised an eyebrow.

  Eva nodded. “Yeah, that one. He’s real techie. He has this room in his apartment. He tracks satellites and listens in on government stuff, you know the CIA and things like that. Maybe he can help.”

  Kael didn’t even bother to look skeptical. In fact, she had noticed that his expression rarely changed from a frown or a grimace. “I don’t think so,” he said.

  “Don’t say no until you’ve met him and seen his place,” she snapped, her blue eyes fiery with offense.

  “I can easily say no before I’ve met him and seen his place. He’s a puny human just like every puny human on this planet, and no match for what is coming.”

  “Oh, yeah! You?” She glanced at Sylph. “And you? You’ve got a big knife and a priejst. That should do the trick. That’s an army if I’ve ever seen one.”

  Kael slowly drew hi
s Strongblade from his boot and held it an inch in front of her nose, so close that she couldn’t even focus on it without being cross-eyed. She was sure that was an attractive look to the beautiful god he was. “This,” he hissed. “This is no ordinary knife. This is a Strongblade forged by the Jai priejsthaed. Nothing is stronger than the ulbinium that makes this blade. It cannot be broken, and it cannot be handled by anyone else without dissolving into nothingness after about ten minutes. It’s imprinted to my DNA. It can take the neck off an ox with one blow, and—”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get the idea. It’s—”

  Sylph interrupted. “We must go. Now!” Without waiting for a response, he turned to leave the room and slowly disappeared in front of their eyes.

  Eva drew in a sharp breath of alarm.

  Kael muttered something unintelligible to her.

  “That’s impossible,” Eva exclaimed. “How does he do that? Some kind of technology? Some magical ability? Where did he go?”

  “He hasn’t necessarily gone anywhere. He could be a mile away by now or he could still be here with us.” Kael stopped at the door, then turned and went back to the desk to pick up the communication pod Sylph had taken from the Sulcrum’s head.

  “Where are we going?” Eva asked.

  “To my apartment. I need to get a few things.”

  “And when will Sylph be back?”

  “I have no idea.” Kael kept walking, out the door and down the corridor.

  Eva followed along behind him. She had no other choice. She watched the long-legged gait, the swing of his nicely muscled arms beneath the black leather coat he wore, the round firm buttocks that fit so nicely into the tight jeans. Two drop-dread gorgeous men had literally fallen into her world, and here she was marked for death. “There’s always the crappy lining to that silver