by Stella Cassy
I raised a hand and gave a nervous wave. He just looked at me, with a frown on his face. I pointed to the door and window of my room and made an X motion to indicate that they were locked. That seemed to amuse him. He shook his head at me and pointed to the far side of the room.
Walking backward, I went to the door and gave him a questioning look. He nodded at me. Uh-oh.
Rethryn jumped backward off the windowsill, disappearing like a vampire from a movie. But vampires from movies didn’t tend to turn into giant fire breathing dragons with a temper.
A few seconds after, a large dragon’s head was hovering in front of my window. I’d never examined Rethryn up close when he was in his dragon form, and in the dark, it was still difficult to do so. But I could see the handsome shape of his dragon skull, the intelligent look in his eyes, and the sheer strength and power emanating from this massive, dangerous, force of nature.
The few times I’d seen him shifted, he had been shrieking and roaring while smashing, destroying and tearing things apart. Even when he and his crew had escaped Dad’s men, there had been the rapid rat-a-tat of gunfire and angry dragon shrieks.
I didn’t know he could do quiet. But right then, as he was flapping his wings, hovering outside the room, he was silent. I didn’t know he could do precise either. The cone of fire that shot out of his mouth was a bright blue and highly targeted flame, rather than the massive cones of fire I’d seen him produce back on Minapolis.
Instead of an angry dragon in a rage, it was more like I had a skilled professional working outside my room.
The blue flame hit the center of the window, radiating out slightly. Within a couple of seconds, the window lost its transparency as it first turned grey, then black, then red, and finally white as it began to simply melt away. By adjusting the position of his head, Rethryn managed to melt away almost the entire large piece of glass that filled the window frame. When he finished, there was just a roughly oval shape of glass left, with smooth, round edges that wouldn’t cut a thing.
With a couple of giant flaps, Rethryn soared up out of view, then he was dropping back onto the windowsill, back in his humanoid form. He was in the room, standing in front of me, in a flash. The whole process had taken less than two minutes.
“Rethryn,” I said as I walked toward him. “I’m—I’m sorry…”
“You’re sorry? Was this all your plan? To lead me to Earth and then run away?”
“It wasn’t my plan for Dad to shoot you! I didn’t want that! I was going—”
“So there was a plan. You misled me. You brought my men and I into a trap!”
His voice was angry and deep and rumbling with barely concealed rage. And it was my fault.
“Well now your plan has failed, slave.”
He said the last word with an anger I hadn’t heard directed at me before. It hurt to have the person I’d gotten so close to as we crossed the universe be so disappointed and angry in me.
I’d messed up.
“Come!” Rethryn picked me up by the waist and jumped up onto the window seat. He stood by the melted window, the cool ocean breeze blowing through, ready to launch himself out.
“Talia!” came a shout outside the room.
I expected Rethryn to launch us out of the room, to escape immediately.
But he didn’t.
Instead he let out a deep, angry, mournful roar that shook and rattled everything in the room that wasn’t fixed down.
“Talia!” came Dad’s voice again outside the room. I heard a key being urgently pushed into the lock and turned.
Then the door swung open.
Dad was wearing navy blue, monogrammed pajamas when he entered. But he wasn’t alone.
The men accompanying him were also wearing navy blue, but instead of pajamas they’d opted to spend the evening in military-grade body armor, complete with blast helmets and some really nasty looking black guns. I counted them as they filed in — eight of them, plus Dad.
It was every girl’s worst nightmare — being caught in your bedroom by your Dad with your bad boy boyfriend, after he’d been banned from the premises.
Except this time Dad brought a bunch of guys with guns.
And the bad boy boyfriend was an angry, fire breathing dragon.
This was rapidly turning into one of the worst moments of my life.
21
Rethryn
Rethryn
The humans poured into the room in their ridiculous armor as if it would protect them from an enraged Drakon. Despite the room being too small, I was tempted to shift again just so I could show them how ineffectual their protective clothing would be against dragon-fire or raking claws. It would knock the walls and ceiling down though and I could end up trapped.
“Freeze!” shouted one of the human warriors.
I held my slave close to me. I wanted to make a deal with them, and if they immediately started shooting, that would make things more difficult. Talia would make a useful little bargaining chip though.
“Let her go!” shouted Talia’s father.
My first response was a snarl. I gripped Talia tighter, pulling her in front of me.
“Don’t even think about shooting. If you do, I will jump out of the window with her. You saw how ineffectual your bullets were before.”
“We’re a lot closer now,” said Talia’s father in a low, threatening voice.
I snorted in response, a whisper of threatening smoke accompanying it.
“I want my daughter back.”
I put a hand around her neck, fingering the collar that was still wrapped around it.
“She is my slave, not yours.”
“My daughter is not a slave!”
The father stepped toward us. One of the warriors next to him put a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off. The father kept coming. Interesting. He was going to put himself in harm’s way for his offspring.
“She is a slave. And now I own her.” I paused and made a point of looking her over. “But she is not a very good slave.”
The father opened his mouth as if to respond and closed it shortly after. Perhaps he didn’t want to argue the merits of how good a slave his precious daughter was.
“Dad… don’t try and fight him. He’ll kill you. He’ll kill you all.”
She was being useful at least. If I was going to get my resources, a deal would have to be made. I didn’t want to have to spend time scouring the planet for plunder when I could just have it handed to me on a platter.
“What do you want?” asked her father.
Amused, I noticed he was visibly trembling. My anger must have been intimidating for him.
“Thirty tons of gold for the slave, and to not destroy you and your entire estate.”
“Thirty tons of—”
“That’s the price,” I said with a warning growl.
“Dad…” said Talia imploringly. “He’s hurting me…”
Her father shook his head. “I can’t… that’s impossible. Ten tons. That would be the highest ransom ever paid in the history of humanity.”
I snorted and ran a claw over Talia’s neck. Just a bit harder and I could slit it right open.
“Fifteen tons. Final offer. If you try and counter, I will cut her throat and then burn you all to a crisp. You have three seconds to respond. Three…”
The man’s eyes bulged wide. His mouth flapped open like a fish but his brain just about managed to stop him from saying something stupid.
“Two…”
“Uh, umm, uh…”
“One…”
“Okay! Fifteen tons. Fifteen tons of gold.”
I gave a short nod of agreement.
“You will deliver the gold, and return my ship, in the morning. Same place as we landed yesterday. If you try anything — anything — stupid, I will burn everything and everyone.” I glanced at Talia and she whimpered. “Everyone.”
“Let her go!”
I pulled Talia close to me, and then put two talons into her
collar. With a tremendous show of strength I ripped it in two and tossed the remains out of the window behind me.
“Do not try and flee. My crew are watching you. If you try and leave, we will pick up your vehicle, carry it out to the ocean and then boil the seas around you. Do you understand?”
Talia’s father blinked several times as he processed the threat, his mind clearly running through what it would be like to be in a bobbing SUV in the Pacific while a cadre of dragons poached him alive.
“Ye-yes.”
“Good.” I grabbed Talia by both arms, and with a firm shove, sent her flying across the room to crash into her father, who just about managed to open his arms in time. The pair of them fell to the floor.
I hopped back onto the window seat, and gave them a final, warning glare. One of the warriors looked at Talia’s father as if asking permission to shoot, but he just shook his head.
That was lucky for all involved.
“Until tomorrow!” I snarled over my shoulder.
Then, I jumped out the window.
22
Talia
Talia
It was a bright morning on the Northern California coast, a warm salty breeze gently blowing in from the ocean. I had a mug of hot coffee in my hands as I watched the proceedings, a pit in my stomach.
I couldn’t explain exactly why, but I primarily felt regret. I should have been happy. I was back home — well a home, anyway — and back with my family. I’d escaped slavery. I’d crossed the universe using my own wits and wiles to make it here. And my last ‘owners’ were just about to leave the planet for good.
Yet, I wasn’t happy.
I took another sip of the hot, dark brew. It had been so long since I’d enjoyed a coffee that I had forgotten how bitter it could taste. But maybe it wasn’t the coffee that was bitter. Maybe it was me, too.
Dad had somehow arranged the delivery of the gold and it had been packed into straw-lined wooden crates, which had been stacked up neatly on the lowest terrace before the lawn on which the spaceship had arrived only the day before. It felt like much longer now. I couldn’t believe I’d only been back on Earth for a day. It felt like I’d never left.
The ship, too, had been returned. It sat in almost the exact position it had landed the day before, glimmering in the morning sunlight. It looked more impressive here than it had on Minapolis, probably because there weren’t any other ships to compare it to.
It was just Dad and I outside. He’d sent the security team to wait in the building. There were a couple of sharpshooters on the roof, but they were there to observe and provide warning of threats. Dad knew there was no way he was going to win a war against the Drakon — not without bringing in outside assistance.
Rethryn and his crew, when they arrived, did so with suitable surprise and panache. We were standing on a terrace, looking toward the ocean, expecting to see a flight of dragons approach. But that isn’t what happened.
They must have spent the night on the beach below, or at least returned there earlier that morning, because when they appeared it was only a couple of seconds after we heard the first WHOOSH of their giant, flapping wings.
Then, they were there.
Appearing from below the cliff-edge, Rethryn and his crew of vari-colored dragons flapped their wings hard and issued threatening roars from deep within their dragon chests as they soared across the garden, circling their ship.
I could tell which one was Rethryn immediately. He had a golden glow to his scales, and he soared the closest over us, letting out a mighty shriek and making the air around us tumultuous as he flew just a short distance above.
That shriek. It brought back memories. A brief flash of him and I, on his bed, in his cabin. Him holding me tight. Me sitting astride him. Him pinning me down. And both of us letting out our own, different, shrieks. I took another sip of coffee. That was over. It was all over.
Could I really go back to being a jet-setting party girl with a designer-goods obsession? I breathed out a slow sigh. It was a tough life, but someone had to live it.
I’d adjust. Soon this whole sorry adventure would feel like something I had imagined. I’d marry a nice, boring, rich man and have beautiful children. And when I looked back on my time as a space slave it’d be as a distant dream, not real.
Before us, the dragons settled on the lawn and shifted back to their humanoid form. Immediately, one of Rethryn’s junior officers ran to the underside of the ship and started poking at something.
“I wish I could just shoot them all,” Dad said. Up until now he had been quiet at my side.
“You tried that yesterday, remember?” I said coldly.
Before we’d arrived back on Earth, that was what I’d dreamed of happening. Bring the dragons here, then have them eliminated to grant me freedom. In my imaginings it had been the military rather than Dad’s private army, but what had happened was approximately what I’d been hoping for.
Until it happened.
The second the shooting began I knew how wrong I’d been. How it had all been a mistake to ever want such a thing to happen. To want Rethryn hurt. I shook my head.
“Are you okay?” Dad asked, squeezing my arm.
“Yeah. Give me a minute.” I started to walk down a flight of steps toward the lawn, setting my coffee mug on the ledge of a concrete balustrade as I went.
“No! Don’t go down there!” There was a hint of fear in Dad’s voice.
Perhaps he didn’t trust them to follow the deal.
“Rethryn,” I said as I came close.
The Drakon, my former lover, had an inscrutable expression on his face. He did not move or express any particular emotion.
“Talia.”
“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t want for it to happen like this. When Dad’s men shot at you… I realized how wrong I was.”
Rethryn slowly shook his head at me.
“You were my slave. But then you became something… more. Something different.” Rethryn raised an arm and rubbed at his chin. “But that wasn’t true. It was my mistake. A mistake that a Hielsrane, a prince, a captain shouldn’t have made. I should have expected betrayal, but you were just too good at it—”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t want to betray you, not like that. Not really! I mean, maybe I did at first, but after we spent time together… Rethryn… I—”
He raised his arm angrily, palm outstretched, signaling me to stop.
“What you did is unforgivable. Now you better pray that your father has not tried to short us on the gold.”
We both glanced at the wooden packing crates. His crew were standing by them, ready to move them onboard. There was a whining noise from the ship, and finally the gangway began to descend.
“We will be leaving shortly.”
“Is this goodbye?” I could feel moisture in the corner of my eyes, and I tried to hold back a sniff but failed. “You’re just… leaving?”
“I have obtained enough gold to fulfill the basic requirements of my mission. I should return with haste. Enjoy your Earth life.” Rethryn looked up at the house behind me. “Perhaps you can explain the benefits of strong leadership and a subjugated workforce to your people.”
Another sniff escaped, and I rubbed at my eye, a small smile on my lips. Yeah, right. Maybe I could get a job with the UN as a global slavery advocate. “But the aliens told me it’s a great idea!” I’d be locked up in a loony bin in no time. And quite rightly, too.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, softly.
“As you should be. But I do not forgive you.” Rethryn gestured to his crew to begin moving the crates of gold aboard. “Goodbye.”
Rethryn turned smartly and headed up the ramp into the interior of the ship. I stared after him, wanting to go inside, wanting to demand that he forgive me. But I couldn’t. That would be a fast way to an early grave.
While his crew began to move the crates inside the ship, I slowly walked back across the grass and up the steps to where my father was still standin
g, a worried frown on his creased forehead.
“They’re really leaving?” Dad asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s our wealth, right there.”
“Like… all of it?”
Dad slowly nodded his head as he watched the crates disappearing inside the ship.
“Pretty much. We might have one or two million left when all is said and done, but basically, we’re done. Honey, we’re going to be poor.”
He was right. You couldn’t exactly support a family with only a couple of million in the bank, could you? Not in the way we’d been accustomed to living.
“Am I going to have to get a job?”
Dad put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“I’m afraid so, honey.”
I slumped against him. This day was getting worse and worse.
We stood there, in miserable but companionable silence, as the last of the crates were taken aboard and the gangway slowly closed.
I raised a hand to wave at the ship. I wondered if Rethryn was watching us on the screen, or if the goodbye he’d said was the last he’d wanted to see of me.
“Goodbye,” I mouthed soundlessly in the direction of the ship.
It rose high into the sky, until it was just a silver dot.
As I stared up at the sky, I began to feel weird. Like my body was made of television static, or my blood had been replaced with fizzy soda.
“Talia?” Dad said.
I turned to look at him, and realized he looked strange. As did everything else. It was all blurry. Then fuzzy. Then shimmery.
Then black.
Then, as if someone had just flicked a switch twice, it was light again. But it wasn’t the light of the California coast. It was the harsh, unnatural illumination of a Drakon spacecraft.
“What the—”
I blinked. Then I blinked again.
“—fuck?”