Zylan Rebellion

by Ravyn Wilde

  Tar shuddered and closed his eyes. Put that way, he had the horrible premonition Brac’s activities were the tip of the proverbial Earth iceberg.

  Mica returned to report he could sense no unusual psychic shielding over Brac’s fortress and that all appeared to be quiet. Tala should have no trouble getting inside. Raj had drawn up a map of what he knew about Brac’s upper levels and the way to the underground tunnels containing the hallway with the holding cells. Nika had added her input and drawn a map of the cells and the other rooms in the corridor she’d been kept in.

  After some discussion, it was decided Tala would start underground and count the women and guards and then work her way upstairs to see if she could discover where Brac kept his paperwork.

  The lights in the chamber were dimmed and protective candles lit. The soothing sweet scent would increase Tala’s safety and energy. Tala made herself comfortable, lying on her back amid pillows on the floor. Closing her eyes, she thought of the entrance to the underground hallway in Brac’s fortress. Picturing it in her mind, she projected her thoughts and awareness outward.

  She didn’t hear the gasps coming from the group gathered around her, or see the look of concern on her mate’s face. What she saw was a dimly lit corridor with two burly guards stationed at the entrance. Cloaked deep in shadow, neither of the men moved as much as an inch when she brushed by them. She hurried by the common rooms, taking only enough time to reassure herself no one was within, she planned to enter each of the holding cells to count the women and see if she could sense what condition they were in. Then she would go upstairs and see what else she could find out about this place. It gave her the creeps.

  To Tala, it seemed like she’d been gone only a few minons. But when she reappeared in the chamber at the Ruling Place, she could tell for those waiting for her return, the time had stretched immeasurably. Looking around at the drawn faces, she tried to smile triumphantly when her face was smothered against a broad shoulder as Mica tugged her into his arms.

  “I hate it when you do this!” he exclaimed.

  Tala moved her hand up to cup his face and gave him a quick kiss. “I know, love, you hate it because we don’t yet understand it, but you can see I am fine and let me tell you, it was worth it. If I could just have a little something to drink, I will tell you what I found,” she said hoarsely. For some reason, she always came back from her travels with a raspy voice.

  Nyssa scrambled to get Tala a drink and Mica settled her more comfortably in his lap. He was not ready to let her move away from him. Tala took a couple of swallows of Zylan wine to soothe her parched throat and sighed.

  “There are six women locked in the underground cells,” she started. “Three have chains already attached to their bodies.” She hesitated and then said sadly, “One woman has recently been beaten, she seemed badly bruised but I couldn’t sense any broken bones or internal injuries. Pass me the map and I will mark which cells are occupied.” Tala made the marks for the women on the map then made several additional marks and continued, “There are two large guards armed with flash wands and knives at the hallway entrance, here…and another two at the top of the stairs to the upper levels.” She pointed to their locations on the map.

  “What are flash wands?” Nyssa questioned.

  “Umm, hard to explain. I don’t think Earth has anything like them yet. Flash wands were created as a psychic weapon that can be used to fling bolts of pain and restrict movement. Depending on the mental capacity of the user, they can even cause death,” Tar explained solemnly.

  Nyssa sighed. “May the force be with you, Obi-Wan,” she muttered.

  “Don’t ask,” Tala hurriedly added as Nika started to question Nyssa’s comment. “We’ll be here all night.”

  “Did you get through any of the upper levels, Tala?” Mica questioned.

  Tala grinned. “Oh, yeah. I counted about ten other guards stationed in different parts of the fortress and a dormitory of sorts where about twenty-five additional guards slept. Brac’s fortress is exactly that. I looked quickly through the duca where Raj first met with him, and didn’t find anything interesting. But we didn’t think he would keep papers like this just lying around.” Here she stopped. Mica was not going to like this next part.

  “I noticed a door on the second level with two guards stationed outside so I went in. It was Brac’s private sleeping chamber and he slept alone.” At Mica’s exclamation, Tala hurried to add, “He never woke up, Mica. I looked around his chambers and noticed a door to a small room at one end with a lock on it. I could sense a woman locked inside. She had also been beaten. I think we need to assume she is not his true mate, but the woman Ahnika talked about.”

  “You’re probably right. So you didn’t find any of the documents we might need?” Mica started to reassure his mate but she interrupted.

  “I didn’t say that. After I checked out the woman, I started to leave when I noticed another door on the other side of Brac’s bed. This door had psychic shielding on it, which made me even more curious. The shields didn’t prevent me from entering. But I went in and came out quickly, watching to make sure Brac didn’t sense anything. When he stayed asleep, I went back inside wondering if this guy had another woman locked away. Only this room turned out to be another duca. I couldn’t open any of the drawers or pick up anything but I could look at the papers on his desk. There was a paper that had Ahnika’s name on it and what looked like notes from the Hunters who’d grabbed her. It mentioned they’d found her in Vidar but had lost her trail.” She paused. “There was no mention of Raj on the note.”

  “Maybe they didn’t realize it was Raj that took Nika from them?” Tar questioned and looked to Raj for an answer.

  Raj shook his head. “No. They saw me. I was slightly disguised but I have met these two before. I was close enough for them to get a lock on my aura so I am sure they knew they had battled with me. But they apparently didn’t share the information with Brac,” he stated.

  “Do you think we would find documents on the other women in this room, Tala?” Nika asked expectantly.

  “Yes. I found a blank document on the table as well. There were places on the paper for a woman’s name and mate information. Name, social ranking and city of origin were all blank lines to be filed in. I think everything we need to find the other women will be in this private chamber. There was another interesting list on the desk, an accounting of other women who, at one time or another, escaped. It looked like several life cycles ago seven women staged some sort of a breakout, and this list was their names and what looked like speculation on where they went. One woman’s name had the words ‘found and terminated’ beside it,” she said sadly.

  The sad press of silence once again filled the room, unfortunately the only conclusion they could draw on what the words meant, depressed them all. For at least one woman, help had come too late.

  “Do you remember any of the other names on the list?” Nika asked gravely.

  “Hmmm, Anala…”

  Nika cried out, “Jandai! I forgot I overheard one of the village women mention Brac, some of the women of the village must have escaped from him.”

  Raj flinched.

  Nika noticed her mate’s reaction. “You followed me to Jandai didn’t you, Raj?” she asked carefully.

  Raj closed his eyes for a minon, gathering his thoughts. He wasn’t sure how much of this he wanted to share with the others.

  “Those are the women who captured you before you were bitten by the Nej?” Mica asked.

  “What’s a Nej?” Nika asked.

  Shivet, like he could keep any secrets from this group. Letting his breath out slowly, he decided it didn’t matter, if Nika could share what she had been through, he could as well. “Okay, not that I am really happy about sharing this story but I followed Nika to this village, Jandai. It is comprised of a group of women and as far as I know, there are no men in the village. Do you know how many women lived there, Nika?” he stopped to ask.

  “Y
ou are right, there are no men and I think there are over twenty women. Raj, I am so sorry they got a hold of you.”

  “Twenty-five, I counted them…and it’s not your fault, sweet one. And in some weird, psychotic way what they did to me makes sense now if some of them had escaped from Brac. I don’t need to go into details but those women are crazy. They will need a lot of help.”

  “Many of the women are militantly anti-male,” Nika said. “One group developed a potion they thought would allow them to conceive children without mate bonds and they planned to capture men to use as… Oh, Raj!” she exclaimed in horror and turned to her link mate, her hand covering her mouth and her eyes huge.

  Raj pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her, quietly soothing her. “It’s okay, love. Finding you made everything worth going through,” he whispered into her ear. Holding her tight for a long minon he then said to the rest of them, “Right after I escaped from the women is when the Nej bit me.”

  Mica filled the silence by explaining to Nika what the Nej was and how its bite kept Raj off her trail for over a setnon.

  “At some point, we will have to send an emissary to Jandai and help the women if they will take assistance and do something about the potion,” Tar noted.

  “Yeah, but I would suggest it be all women—maybe Shalan wouldn’t mind getting involved,” Mica noted.

  Tar and Nyssa took turns explaining her idea of forming Hunter-healer groups to find the women. “I will be contacting Shalan as soon as it’s light,” Nyssa said.

  Mica looked out the window. “Which is coming soon. I think maybe we all need a break. Let’s get some rest and think about our next steps. Nyssa can get a hold of Shalan in a few nilts and we can all meet back here at mid-sun and figure out how to get the women and papers away from Brac,” he said, standing up with Tala cradled in his arms. “Tala is worn out and we all need to be at our peak this next moons rise. I don’t think we can wait much longer to finish this.”

  “Wait!” Tala cried out, “I forgot something. There was an invitation on Brac’s desk with his address and the date of next moon rising. It looked as if Brac had issued it and the place for the meeting was listed as his fortress. It was for a glindash. What is a glindash?”

  Nika said sorrowfully, “It is what he called his auctions.”

  “Don’t worry, Nika love, he won’t be having another one.” And Raj took her to their chambers.

  Chapter Eleven

  Nika couldn’t get Raj’s story of his time in Jandai or the thought of him being bitten by the Nej out of her mind. He had been through so much for her. She tried to think of something she could do to show him how much she loved and appreciated him.

  Smiling, she felt for the little scrap of clothing in her dress pocket. Well, there was always that!

  Turning to him as they walked into their chambers, she sweetly asked, “Raj, Nyssa had a small bathing pool in her chambers filled with air bubbles Tar somehow fashioned for her. Do you think you could do the same with ours? I would like to relax in it before we rest.”

  “Bubbles,” Raj murmured to himself. He’d been thinking of how he would ensure Nika stay out of any rescue mission. The thought of what Brac had done to Ahnika and his own experience in Jandai, along with the very real vision in his mind of how much worse things could have been for his mate, made him frantic to protect her. Contemplating her request, he absently slid his hand down his chest and watched Nika’s eyes follow the motion. Bubbles sounded just right.

  Nika grinned when Raj turned away and went into their bathing chamber. Quickly she took the bikini thing from the pocket of her dress. When Nyssa had conjured them earlier, both she and Tala had asked to keep them. She just knew Raj would find the small garment interesting. Stripping off her dress, she tied the undersized green triangles around her hips and over her breasts. What little there was of the fabric matched her eyes perfectly.

  She heard Raj call out to her that the bubbles were ready and she moved into the bathing chamber. Standing with his back to her, he lit candles and messed with the water. He had taken off his vest and she stood transfixed at the sight of her mate’s golden skin and rippling muscles. The Goddess had definitely blessed her with this man. Moving up behind him, she smoothed her hands over his shoulders. “I love you, Raj,” she said softly.

  His muscles tensed and he turned to pull her into his arms. “Ah, Nika. And I love you. I think I fell in love with you before I even met you,” he sighed and cupped her cheek as she nestled into his hand. Moving his right hand to her other cheek, he brought his face to hers. Lowering his mouth to cover hers, he moved his hands down her arms, feeling naked skin and small strings. Frowning he pulled back from her sweet lips to look between their bodies and what he saw made him step back.

  “By the moons, Nika, what have you got on?” His mate stood in front of him with two small green triangles barely covering her nipples. The full red-skinned globes of her breasts spilled out around the tiny fabric that seemed to be held tentatively in place with strings around her back and neck. Her glorious woman’s curls were also barely covered by a wisp of fabric between her thighs with ties at both hips. “Nika?” he growled. The sight of his mate dressed like this made his blood heat and his cock prance in appreciation.

  “Do you like it, Raj?” she asked shyly. “Nyssa called it a bikini. She said on Earth this is what women wear when they bathe…umm…swim in public.”

  His eyes glazed over at the thought of his mate bathing in public with only her nipples and woman’s hair covered. He would kill any man who saw her this way. He could feel the thrum of his links in his cock and the combination of their pull and the sight of his mate had him panting in anticipation. Closing the small distance between them, he shed his clothing with a thought and scooped her up in his arms. “You will only bathe with me,” he commanded sharply as he stepped into the swirling water.

  Nika giggled and separated herself from his arms. She moved to recline in the warm, churning water and to put some distance between them so she could study Raj’s body. Her Life Companion was incredible, all hard muscle with wide shoulders, slim hips, and strong thighs. His erection rose out of its nest of dark hair to dip gently in the moving water, waiting for her. Her lips parted as she studied the enticing dark circles of his nipples. When he sat down in the water, she licked her lips and tried to send the thought of her mouth playing with those flat discs through their link connection.

  Raj groaned to himself, sure the bubbles would drive him crazy. They felt like little tongues lapping at his chest. He needed to concentrate on having a conversation with Nika to make sure she understood her place tomorrow. But the sight of his wife in her green bikini and the feel of the water teasing his body took all thought away. He started to move toward his mate when she lifted her palm to stop him.

  “You know I come from Zmar, the water planet,” she hesitated while he nodded. “My people have developed many abilities with water. Not just the ability to stay underneath for long periods of time, but to also manipulate its ebb and flow,” she said.

  Raj frowned. What was she talking about? “What do you mean ‘manipulate water’?” he asked, confused.

  She smiled into his eyes and whispered, “Let me show you. Let me pleasure you.” Swirling her hand softly in the water she moved within an arm’s length of him. She pushed the water toward his groin without touching him with her hands and watched as the liquid heat moved to form a small tornado around his straining manhood.

  Raj watched in amazement as the water encircled his cock and wrapped him in a spinning, pulsing stream. He couldn’t believe how stimulating the small whirlpool was, with its ability to close tight around him and then slowly ebb open. Tight…open…tight. “Ahhh…”

  Nika concentrated on the water’s movement, still reaching through her links and letting both the links and the water tease her mate’s body. She focused a small vibration at his nipples and penis, and guided the water to lap up along his chest and simultaneo
usly stroke his groin.

  Raj panted as the water shifted and added further torment to his flesh. He could feel his links thrum with pleasure, seemingly in tune to the water licking along his skin. His nipples rose to tight buds the water sucked into its center, the clench and release at his throbbing cock shifted, moving up and over the ripe plum head and back down to the root. “Nika!” he gasped and tried to pull her into his arms.

  Grinning wickedly, she shook her head. “Not yet, Raj. I want to give you pleasure, show you how much you mean to me. Remember, I can hold my breath for a very long time…” her words trailed off as she ducked under the water and moved her head over his lap.

  He could feel her warm tongue tease the slit at the head of his cock, tantalize the gold links that wound through his turgid shaft. In shock, he realized she’d also started the links to vibrate within him, sending her excitement through to mingle and build with his own. His head fell back to rest against the side of the bathing pool and he moved his hand down to lightly cup the back of Nika’s head. His mate was driving him insane with that sweet mouth and her amazing water skills.

  Nika played with her mate’s straining organ. Licking him from balls to tip, keeping the links’ vibration and water suction constant, she strove to drive him out of his mind. Her body throbbed along with Raj’s as he opened the links to share in his pleasure. Moving slowly, she positioned her mouth over the tip of his shaft and pressed her lips down to wrap him in her heat. Tonguing the links’ entrance, she pushed down a couple inches and then returned to lick across the links, repeating the processes over and over, keeping the cadence steady until Raj thrashed beneath her. Each time she managed to take a little more until she took all she could and he bumped against the back of her throat.