by Anna Hackett
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Yes.”
That was her warrior. Straight to the point and ready to face anything. “They were researching the nanami. They…created the nanami. They actually called them nanamites.”
Kavon frowned. “No, the nanami have always been here, a part of us.”
She glanced at the comp again. “It seems the original organisms, the mites, were here, living in the cave, glowing on the walls. What you call the primitive nanami. The First Warriors started experimenting on them. Some of the group were high-tech military scientists. This world was harsh. They believed the entire planet was like the Wilds, filled with wild animals, and a primitive humanoid species.”
“My ancestors.”
“The natives and the Terrans, they are both your ancestors, Kavon. And the Terrans, they spliced their nanotechnology—small machines they could program—with the mites, creating nanamites. Then they infected themselves to make themselves stronger, faster, more suited to surviving here.”
Kavon ran a hand over his head. “There is more?”
“They also infected the primitive species. To increase their intelligence. To make them a more viable species for the survivors to bond with.” She strode away, anger bubbling in her chest. “They were playing God, Kavon. They came here and did things they shouldn’t have done.”
Big hands curved over her shoulders and he tipped her face up. “Perhaps, and I know that is how you see it. But to us, they are our Gods, Aurina. They used their superior knowledge to do what was best for us.”
“You should decide what is best for you, not someone else.”
“My ancestors weren’t capable of that. They were barely a step from the animals we’ve battled in the Wilds.” He pointed to the screen where an image of the primitive race glowed. The huge man-like creature was roaring, its skin almost like scales. “The First Warriors helped us become more than beasts.”
“Maybe.” She looked around this lab. Maybe the people who’d crashed here were good men. But if they hadn’t been, and they’d messed with things they didn’t fully understand, it could have been very different.
Shouts echoed from outside. They glanced at each other, Kavon drawing his sword. Together, they rushed back out into the main cavern.
The warriors were gathered together in the center of the cave, swords drawn.
Close by was a huge, swirling cloud of silver.
“It came off the walls,” Colm yelled at them.
Nanami. But now knowing the origin of the nanami, she wondered if this was the same version that lived in Kavon’s blood.
Or something else.
The cloud began to coalesce. She watched it flowing and swirling…into the eerie shape of a giant warrior.
“You are not welcome here.” Its voice sounded like the booming voice of a hundred warriors. “Leave. Or die.”
***
Kavon stared at the warrior that was not a man. His mind steadied as he took it all in—it was a foot taller than him, broader, and as the nanami forming it shook and moved, he could see it wasn’t solid.
It lifted its arms, its giant hands forming large fists. “Leave,” it boomed again.
Darroch shot forward, yelling as he swung his sword. His blade moved through the nanami warrior. The creature parted, then reformed. Then it swung out with its fist, and slammed it into Darroch’s middle. The warrior flew backward and slammed into the rock wall.
Colm and Kian flanked Kavon, gripping their swords. Aurina was tense, her gaze on the enemy.
“Stay back,” Kavon warned her. “I will test it. Look for weaknesses.”
He strode forward, raising his sword high.
Kavon slammed his sword against the nanami warrior’s sword arm. They traded blows, and Kavon trusted his nanami, letting them guide his moves. He spun and ducked, his strikes faster than ever before.
But his opponent matched him move for move.
It would tire him out, while it didn’t appear to tire at all.
“Colm.”
He saw his friend enter the fight with a war cry.
“Trust your nanami. They know how to fight this creature.”
His warriors waded in, and they worked together to attack the nanami warrior. But for all their brilliant moves and attacks, it had no effect on the warrior.
A huge blow sent Kavon staggering backward. Then he saw Aurina leap into the air.
“No!”
He watched her land on the nanami warrior’s back. She held something in her hand, but Kavon couldn’t make out what. Then, with a giant shrug, the warrior threw her off.
She smacked into the wall and fell to the floor. Kavon saw her try to get up, raising her head. He saw blood at the edge of her mouth.
An icy rage filled Kavon. He turned, ready to launch at the warrior.
“Kavon!”
Aurina’s voice made him turn his head. She was standing, as wobbly as a newborn hargon foal. She held her scanner device in her hand.
“I scanned it. You need to get an electrical pulse running through it. That’ll disrupt what’s holding the nanami together.”
Electrical pulse. Kavon instantly thought of lightning, but there were no storms here. There was only one other way he knew to generate the power.
He stepped forward and called on his nanami. He’d heard of warriors in the legends doing this, but he’d never succeeded when he’d tried in the past. His nanami had always helped him, worked with him, but now he truly needed them. He looked at Aurina and remembered her lessons. He’d remember to ask his nanami nicely. He closed his eyes and directed his thoughts to his nanami. He needed them now to save his woman and his men.
He felt a prickle of energy over his skin. It grew and he heard the others gasp.
Kavon lifted his sword and pointed it toward the giant warrior. “Now.” Please.
The flow of energy ripped from him and down his sword. Like lightning, it flew and hit the giant warrior.
Nothing seemed to happen. The warrior took a menacing step toward them.
Power still pouring through him, Kavon decided to send the others out. He would stay and keep the nanami warrior busy so the rest could escape.
But then the warrior started to sag, like he was melting. The nanami forming him flowed to the floor, like a huge splash of water.
All that was left was a pool of glimmering silver.
It had worked. Kavon felt the glow on his skin dim. He spun, and saw Aurina running at him. She launched herself into his arms, and he caught her close. Safe.
“Thank you,” he murmured into her hair. “Your advice saved us.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it was your badass warrior powers. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I never have before.”
She smacked her lips to his, then pulled back, her gaze running over his face. Then she lowered her head and came back for a slower kiss.
“Kavon,” Colm called out, his voice awed. “Look.”
They turned and saw a portion of the wall sliding open.
Kavon set Aurina on her feet. He grabbed her hand and walked toward the opening.
Inside was as dark as the darkest night in the Wilds.
“Wands,” he called out, but before his warriors could comply, lights clicked on in the room.
His chest constricted.
It was filled with treasure.
Aurina gasped and stepped inside. “Oh, my God, look at this stuff.” She wandered closer to a gold-framed painting. Then she passed a shelf and reached out, her hand hovering over a row of books.
Kavon took it all in. There were weapons. So many of them, all hanging on the smooth rock walls—bows, staffs, guns, daggers and swords.
“This was all the valuable treasures they’d brought with them from Earth.” Aurina turned. “Art, weapons, books…oh, look.” She held up a small box filled with gems of all colors and sizes. “Everything that was important to them.” She looked at Kavon. “This obviously has a lot of historica
l value, and is worth an immeasurable fortune.”
Kavon nodded, then his gaze drifted down to the shadowed end of the small vault.
He saw the glimmer of some sort of stand.
His heart started to beat heavily. He walked toward it.
Another light clicked on, his breath caught in his chest.
Durendal.
The sword lay on a stand and its long, elegant blade gleamed in the light. It had a simple hilt, fitting for a warrior’s weapon.
The sword of his ancestors. So perhaps his ancestors weren’t quite what he’d believed them to be his entire life, but…they were still the honorable men who’d helped his world evolve. And this sword was a symbol of them and their beliefs.
Aurina picked up some pages sitting beside the sword. “This is the history of the sword. One of the survivors purchased the sword at auction on Earth. It was old even then, and he paid a lot of e-creds for it.”
“He didn’t win it in battle?” Darroch asked.
She smiled. “No. It hadn’t been used in battle for a very, very long time. It’s an artifact.” She shuffled the pages.
Kavon could see they were coated in some shiny substance that had obviously preserved them.
“Durendal was said to have belonged to Hector of Troy—” she looked at them “—he was a great warrior—before passing to a knight of another great warrior king called Charlemagne, a knight named Roland. The blade was forged by a legendary master blacksmith, Wayland the Smith, supposedly with the blood of saints, and was said to have the sharpest blade in the world.”
“It is a weapon used by warriors of the past and revered by warriors of the future,” Kavon said. He stopped directly in front of the stand. He slid his hand around the hilt, his pulse racing, then he lifted the sword.
It wasn’t as heavy as he’d imagined, but he felt a sense of history from it.
When he turned, Aurina was there, holding out a cloth. Together they wrapped it securely.
Kavon pressed a hand over hers. “Thank you. I will present this to our king in my father’s name.”
“All warlords and warriors in the land will know your name, Kavon,” Colm said. “This will only add to the legend of the Mal Dor name.”
“And the rest of the treasures?” Aurina asked.
“I will send scholars back to pack them securely and transport them to the estate.”
She nodded. “A great idea.”
Kavon exhaled loudly. “And now, I would like to head out of this forsaken place and be back in the fresh air.” His men rumbled their agreement. He leaned close to Aurina, his mouth to her ear. “And I very much want you laid out on my bed, waiting for my tongue and cock.”
Her cheeks went a little pink. “Well, let’s get out of here, then.”
Chapter Fifteen
Aurina was buzzing with adrenaline as they headed back through the tunnels. The fact that it was hot and dark, and she was sweaty and exhausted, didn’t bother her a bit.
They’d found the sword.
And she was all the way in love with Kavon.
Her heart clenched. She was in love with an alien warlord, and she didn’t want to leave him.
She’d never really belonged anywhere. The crummy place she’d shared with her mother on Vashon V had never been home. Her mother had been home, and now she was gone. Aurina had made a place with her brothers, learned new things and had the most amazing experiences…but while she loved being a scout and traveling, a part of her had always wanted to stop. To find a place where she could grow flowers, dig up rocks, and be needed.
She understood what had driven the soldiers who’d become Markaria’s First Warriors to head off into the unknown. They’d wanted something better, to be somewhere where they could make a difference.
Most of all, she’d always wanted someone who could be hers. Someone to love, someone who loved her as she was and made her feel cherished. She glanced at Kavon.
Stars, and she’d found that all in one big hunk of a warrior male.
They entered the large glowing cavern. “We’ll have to work out how to get the lift to take us up.”
“Preferably slower than the descent,” Colm muttered.
“There are mine carts here.” Kavon was looking at where the tracks disappeared into some tunnels. “They must ascend at some place for taking ore out.”
“Everyone on the platform,” Aurina said. “Let me fiddle around with the lift controls and see what I can do.” As the warriors crowded around, she crouched by the same place she’d touched before to activate the lift. She fingered the metal and hoped for the best.
The platform moved, lifting a few inches off the ground. The men all crouched and Kavon wrapped his arm around Aurina.
Then they whizzed upward.
The air rushed against her face and this time she would have enjoyed the ride, except she knew everyone was thinking about Viken.
Soon the platform slowed and they came to halt, back in the upper tunnels.
Suddenly, wild shouts echoed off the rock walls. Aurina spun and saw an arrow fly out of the darkness and right into Kavon’s chest.
He staggered backward. “Kavon!” she screamed.
He was clutching his shoulder, and around them his warriors clashed with other warriors who rushed out of the darkness.
All the new warriors had the dark, twisting snake tattoo on their arms.
Drog.
She turned and saw a tall, older warrior emerge from the shadows. His face was hard, his hair tied back, the strands containing just a few hints of gray. His body was as muscled and chiseled as the other warriors. He had a giant war axe decorated with gold in his hands.
“An ambush is just your cowardly style, Drog,” Kavon spat out.
She looked back. Blood was flowing down the side of his chest. The arrow had pierced high on the right-hand side. Knowing he had two hearts, and that his nanami would be trying to heal the wound, didn’t stop her worrying.
Kavon grabbed the arrow and, with a swift tug, yanked it out.
She winced, but he didn’t even react.
Suddenly, while she was distracted, Drog lunged forward and snagged Aurina’s arm. He reeled her in, even as she shoved an elbow in his gut and turned to fight him.
He wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug to keep her still.
“A pretty prize,” he said. “And now she is mine, Mal Dor, and whatever knowledge she possesses.”
Her gaze flew to Kavon.
His face was set in hard lines. “Take her.”
Her heart stopped, and she simply stared at Kavon’s impassive face. She couldn’t read him at all, he was so remote.
Drog’s laugh boomed. “So simple, then?”
Kavon shrugged. “She was a means to an end. I wanted Durendal and I’ve found it. I no longer need her.”
Drog barked out a laugh. “You and that obsession with an old sword…still, I expected you to fight over the skyflyer.” The man paused. “I heard she was warming your bed.”
“Many women have warmed my bed, and there will be many more. Hopefully less odd-looking than this one.”
Aurina’s heart was beating so hard she expected it to jump out of her chest. Bitterness filled her mouth, and she felt Drog nod. The words coming from Kavon’s mouth were like cuts on her skin. She felt like she was bleeding.
“Yes,” Drog said. “And I heard you have been searching for a warlord’s daughter to take to wife.”
Aurina stiffened. “What?”
Drog laughed, his hand stroking down her neck. “Did he not tell you that you were just a bedmate while he searched for a worthy woman to be his wife?”
She stared at Kavon, ice seeping into her bones. His amber eyes were somehow cold, devoid of any emotion. Her gut felt heavy. He’d told her Markarians couldn’t control when their emotions changed their eye color. Now, looking at him, it was clear he felt nothing.
It had all been a lie.
Every touch, every kiss, every moment—sweet,
infuriating and spicy—had all been lies. Had he really fooled her all this time?
“Ah, yes, reality is sinking in, isn’t it, skyflyer?” Drog relaxed his grip and set her beside him.
Her arms dropped to her sides and she tried desperately to sort through it all.
“Fine, Mal Dor. I’ll take the skyflyer off your hands and her shiny tech.” The older warrior’s lips tipped. “She can warm my bed for as long as it suits me.”
Hot, molten rage filled Aurina. These two men were discussing her like she was a belonging, a lump of ore to be bartered and fought over.
Enough.
She didn’t make a sound to telegraph her intention. She swiveled and kicked, slamming her boot into Drog’s groin. The warrior froze, then let out a pained bellow. When he doubled over, she chopped her hand down on the back of his neck. His knees slammed to the ground, and then she kneed him in the face.
An arm wrapped around her, and suddenly a sword appeared. She expected to feel the sting of the blade, but instead, it was pointed at Drog’s neck.
The older warlord looked up, his brown eyes blazing and his face contorted in pain.
“My woman can take care of herself, Drog,” Kavon said, his tone lethal.
Drog’s muscles bunched and Kavon shoved his sword harder against the man’s skin. A trickle of blood fell down Drog’s neck.
“Move,” Kavon barked. “And feel free to try something stupid…I’d love an excuse to run you through, like you did to my father. Now, you try to take my woman…yes, I am more than ready to see your blood soaking into the dirt.”
“Your father was a fool,” Drog spat. “He came right into my trap like a farmyard animal to slaughter.”
Kavon twitched. Aurina stayed still, waiting for this to play out.
Suddenly, Drog moved, far faster than she’d guessed he could. He gripped her corset and yanked her down. She kicked him, but he was damn strong and he barely reacted. His fist slammed into her face, and she saw stars.
There was a sound of rage, and then she was released. She stumbled back and landed on her butt. When she looked up, Kavon was standing over Drog’s body, where the warlord lay sprawled on the ground. Kavon’s sword had entered his chest, and his blank face was staring at the rocky roof.