by Vi Voxley
Yet he was still Faren. The fury was wild within, but he refused to let it spill into the world until he chose to allow it.
He looked away from Primen. The thought of the senator taking it for a sign of weakness was unbearable. Giving that son of a bitch the tiniest sliver of satisfaction… Only he was doing just that, second by second, by not moving. He had to look away. The temptation to kill him was sweet and coppery on his tongue, tasting like blood. There was real blood in his mouth; he’d had to bite into his cheek so as not to roar at Primen’s words.
No one who had talked to him like that had ever lived to say another word. And there Primen was, still drawing breath. Still smiling, like it was a victory for him already, and Faren knew it partly was.
Primen was standing out of cover, certain that he’d be able to hide behind his warriors, or pull up a shield, or just flee. All of those were misconceptions. In his mind’s eye, Faren could see a dozen ways to kill his enemy before he even realized death was coming to him.
The force and the speed with which Faren could throw his ax were beyond lesser warriors throwing their spears. Primen could be dead in a second. Or even better, just horribly wounded, with the weapon lodged into his chest inches from cutting him down.
The monster in him hungered for it. It longed to see the senator clawing at the ax with his weak hands, trying to dislodge the deadly blade that was the only thing keeping him alive. He’d let the traitor struggle, hear his gargled attempts to breathe through his collapsing lungs… and then step to pull the ax free.
There would be a perfect moment of helpless gratitude in Primen’s eyes, thinking Faren had forgiven him, that he aimed to help. Only to realize a moment later the ax had been blocking most of his blood from coloring the floor crimson.
Faren shook his head clear of the delicious image. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let fury cloud his mind. Never before had it happened to him, not even when Gawen had met his end at the hands of their best friend. It would not happen now, when he was faced with the two worst options anyone could ever present him with.
Instead of Primen, he looked at Leiya’s father, aware that no one had dared to breathe in the last minute when he’d remained silent. Only Leiya spoke, begging him not to let her father die.
It was a grim reminder of his reputation. There his gesha was, pleading for someone as dear to her as her own life – that much was obvious. And yet she didn’t dare suggest that he obey the traitor. After everything, Leiya still thought he was a monster fueled by his pride.
It was true, after all. They said a Brion warrior consisted of two parts strength and skill, and one part pride and honor.
He’d never had any love for Senator Tawren, but he didn’t think him among the worst either. Right now, the senator’s eyes were wild and full of the same fury reflected in Faren’s own. No doubt he’d gone straight to his friend Primen to ask for his help in getting Leiya back. In that mistake, he truly matched his daughter. Faren wondered if those mistakes happened to people who trusted and had friends. And what he would do if either Diego or Eleya ever betrayed him like that.
The first words out of his mouth seemed to startle everyone in the huge hall.
“Let him speak.”
Primen’s wild, insane eyes flickered between him and Tawren, searching for the trick.
“Why?” he demanded. “He’s got nothing to do with this, other than being the unfortunate father of your little star.”
Leiya whimpered beside him, still clinging to his arm, but her pull was no longer as keen. She was also surprised. Faren wondered what went on in her mind, knowing the senator wasn't truly her father. It seemed it didn't matter to her. He was still her family.
“Last words.”
The whimper turned into a full-blown scream.
“Don’t!” she shouted, both at him and at Primen. “Please don’t! Let him go! Father!”
The traitor laughed, hearing her plea. It was sickening for Faren, but he waited. With insane enemies, you let them think what they chose to believe.
“I can’t even say I’m mad,” Primen called to him. “That would imply that I’m surprised. Of course the great Faren doesn’t plead with someone like me. What’s one life with your honor at stake, right?”
He turned to his guards.
“Do as the General says.”
Faren watched the sell-sword that had been restraining Senator Tawren remove the blade from his throat. He could see the blood trickling down, could smell it. A Brion warrior’s senses sharpened when he was angry, and Faren didn’t remember ever being this mad.
Leiya’s father rubbed his throat, coughing. The look he sent his former friend now that he could turn his head might have killed a lesser man. Faren could relate to that emotion at least.
The screams and the pleas died on Leiya’s lips as she turned to look at the senator.
“Father,” she said.
The voice that easily carried over vast audiences could barely be heard.
“Little spark,” Senator Tawren replied. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never told you. I only wanted the best for you."
His voice was rough and the edge of terrible anger lingered underneath.
Whatever it was in that phrase, it made Leiya scream without sound, almost collapsing to her knees. It was the most horrifying sight Faren had ever seen.
That was all the senator said to her. It seemed to be enough. He turned to Faren instead. The look in his eyes was hard and unloving. Their feelings for each other were quite mutual.
Give me a reason, Faren called to him in his mind. Any reason.
For a moment, Senator Tawren just looked at him, breathing heavily. It seemed even Primen was waiting for what he had to say. Would he beg for his life? Would he curse? Would he swear revenge, futile as it would be?
“Do as you must,” was what he really said. “His word is good for nothing. I am a Brion. I can die. You look after my little spark now. I promised I'd keep her safe.”
A part of Faren had expected Leiya to really fall apart at that. Instead she rose like a tidal wave up from the floor, pure agony in her beautiful green eyes.
“No!” she screamed, and her voice was at its full power. “Don’t say that! Don’t you dare just lie down and die so that asshole has his revenge!”
Then she turned to Faren, a look in her eyes few people had dared to send his way.
“You can’t let him die like that! I swear I will never forgive you if you let my father die to that psychopath!”
Leiya still called him "father", showing her true affection for the man, none of which the general shared. So it was fairly ironic that he agreed.
In his heart of hearts, under the pride and the reserve, resided a deep-seated belief in the Brion way. He was a part of it. Here and there it seemed to people as though he did as he pleased, but that was rarely – if ever – so. Faren saw himself as a servant of the Brions, tasked to protect them. Mostly it meant against all dangers the galaxy could come up with. Sometimes, however, it meant other Brions.
He’d asked for a reason. Leiya’s father had chosen to face his death like a true Brion. It was admirable, but it would have been a lie to say he would do it for him. It was Leiya, would always only be Leiya he would surrender to.
“Leave,” he ordered his men.
A hush went through the grand hall, from both sides of the confrontation. Even Leiya was shocked speechless.
“General…” a very brave and very foolish voice began, only to stop at once.
“I will handle them myself,” Faren said.
As he heard them shuffle out, he kept his gaze locked with Primen’s. In his eyes Faren saw the mirror image of his earlier desire to have him bleed to death. Only in Primen’s case, the desire was for his humiliation. Just as fierce, just as desperate and hungry. The traitor senator’s eyes were so bright he looked to be in a fever. Faren didn’t know if he should take it for a compliment that someone would be willing to die to hear him plead.
; “Miracles do happen after all,” Primen said when his warriors were gone.
His voice was hoarse and raspy.
Faren knew what had to be going through his mind – recalculating everything, basing all his actions around this new premise that he would actually do as he was ordered. Images of freedom, of an almost impossible escape. Routes to flee, nearest ports to take a hovercraft to either a trusted friend or leave Briolina as soon as possible.
It was a lot of things to consider, so Faren had to act fast while the senator’s mind was still calibrating. Even the mercenaries looked invigorated. They had been preparing to die at the worst and escape at the best. If Faren had been anyone else, they would have betrayed Primen a long time ago, but everyone knew the Monster of Briolina didn’t forgive.
“You will let him go?” he asked.
Primen’s eyes were keen and watchful on him, but that was what Faren wanted. He took a step forward, talking as he moved. Leiya came with him, a small blessing. If she kept near him, they wouldn’t notice how the distance between them shrunk. Her eyes were still wide, unbelieving.
“Drop your weapon first,” Primen ordered.
Faren did.
“You will let him go?” he repeated, keeping the senator’s attention fixed on him.
It was important to keep them all focused on him talking, him bargaining to the terms of their lives. Keeping the bait of still seeing the next morning was too much of a distraction to pay much attention to the situation itself. And he wasn’t walking fast or very close, just coming closer – maybe just to be better heard.
Primen’s eyes were burning now. The temptation was too great for him. To hear Faren beg. It was an idea so absurd he could see Primen’s mind trying to cope to the mere concept of it.
“Oh, I will,” Primen promised, but he barely bothered to make the lie believable anymore.
He was simply convinced that Faren had already decided to go through with it for Leiya’s sake, and he no longer had to pretend.
Faren looked at Senator Tawren, silently regretting that the well-known rumor of the Brions being psychic wasn’t true. He could have used a telepathic connection then. He looked Leiya’s father straight in the eye, hoping that the senator would understand. A warrior like him didn’t need a big diversion. A moment, a heartbeat would be enough. Yet he needed a sign to make Tawren understand. There weren’t many guards with Primen, all he needed was for Tawren to be safe for a minute at worst.
Primen was watching him so intensely he barely blinked. Just like his reputation had cost him many things in his life, it now came to Faren’s aid. To be known as such a proud man, Primen didn’t want to miss a single second of his defeat.
Leiya’s hand was still around his, simply holding it now that he’d dropped his ax. It had to do as a signal. Catching Tawren’s gaze, Faren shook Leiya’s hold off. It was the clearest he could make his intentions.
“Now plead,” Primen said, his voice shaking.
After that, many things happened in mere seconds. Several things that were known to be true were also proven to be so.
Brions weren’t psychic, but their politicians had always terrified the rest of the galaxy. They were very perceptive, that was their true ability. From an early age, they just picked up on things. There were two senators in the hall, but only one of them was properly sane. Senator Tawren didn’t wisely wait for any other signal, but dashed away from his guards as fast as he could, rolling to the ground.
And while the politicians had their keen sense for understanding things, the warriors were simply weapons themselves. It was what everyone in the galaxy kept forgetting, but it seemed the Brions were just as guilty. It was the most common and most casually used tactic to carry very large, very visible signature weapons.
The Brion battle spears were the masterclass of arms, but a part of their value was the distraction they offered. With them in his hands, it was so easy to forget that above all, a Brion warrior was also a weapon, much deadlier than any blade.
Faren felt Leiya wince in surprise and then yell out in shock, seeing her father in danger, but Faren was already moving, and the first traitors were already dead. There was little time to calculate the honor in fighting these wretches, when Faren now had to protect two other living creatures in the hall.
Alone, he could have killed them all barehanded if he needed to, snapping their necks like he did with the first two that stood in his way, but time was of the essence. He chose the warrior whose grip on his spear was the most unskilled and drove his fist up under his chin so hard he dislocated his jaw. The spear almost dropped into his hands.
It seemed tiny and too light, but Faren was a general, and Brion generals were all at least passably good with every weapon they knew. And he had never been one to do things passably.
Even while his mind was on the battle and ending it quickly, Faren could barely fight down a pleased smile. Leiya and her father seemed to be doing everything right for people in their position. She’d run to the senator as soon as he’d left her side. They kept away from the fight, but behind his back like they should. There was a spear in Senator Tawren’s hands, with a graceless grip, but at least he wouldn’t stand helpless against a rogue attacker.
Just like before, Faren aimed to kill against his better judgment. He would have wanted them to suffer, a deep and dark part of him called for that kind of revenge, but he pushed it aside for Leiya. The only wounds he dealt were to incapacitate those he didn’t have the time for at that particular second. Many were groaning on the ground with horrendous wounds in their thighs, waiting until he had the moment to finish them off.
The leader of this band of sell-swords even managed to block a few of his blows. That was all the victory he got to taste, before Faren broke through his defense with a quick move and slashed his gut open with one fell swoop.
A startled scream from behind him made Faren turn in horror, but it was just Primen, the last one still standing. He was approaching Leiya and her father, a spear in his hand, but his hands were shaking so hard even Tawren could have unarmed him easily.
Faren knocked the weapon out of his hands, and only then did the senator appear to truly see him. Up this close, he was a pitiful creature, with mad eyes and shivers wrecking his body. Either from exhaustion or simple fear, he dropped to his knees. The loathing was still there, lurking behind his terrified eyes, but it had lost its bite.
Primen searched for words, but didn’t seem to find any. It seemed to Faren some of them were pleas that he discarded as pointless. Finally, although his voice shook, he whispered,
“Make it quick.”
Everything in Faren wanted to refuse Primen’s plea. After all, he wasn’t known for his forgiveness. Yet, when he looked at Leiya, he found the strength to push that desire away. For her.
The man didn’t deserve it, but death was death, and that would be Faren’s comfort. He raised the spear and delivered a clean blow, cutting his head off his shoulders. Then, he let the spear fall and went to retrieve his ax. Primen’s death hadn’t been satisfying in any way, but the fact that he was finally gone and righteously so was good enough.
With tact he didn’t normally portray, he gave Leiya and her father a moment to embrace the fact that they still drew breath. Only when Senator Tawren finally released his little girl from his hug did he return to them.
“Thank you,” Leiya said at once, her eyes shimmering. “I knew you wouldn’t let my father die.”
Senator Tawren seemed less certain of that.
“I must thank you as well,” he said. “But you must forgive me if I don’t share my... daughter’s belief. If I hadn’t moved away, I would have had my throat cut. Is that not so?”
“No,” Faren said. “I would have done as he asked. You gave me a chance not to do that.”
Tawren’s eyes barely held his surprise, but only for a moment.
“I find that very hard to believe.”
“I know.”
Senator Tawren looke
d at Leiya, nodding slowly.
“At least I know my little spark will always be protected.”
“Yes,” Faren said, although it was stating the obvious.
Only when they were already on their way back to the Unbroken, with Leiya in his arms, pressed against him like she was never going to leave, did she ask,
“Would you really have done that? For me?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t imagine it. I think you would have found some other way.”
“If there was one.”
Leiya laughed then, the sound so much more precious to him now that he’d had to face the possibility of never hearing it again.
“You would have found it,” she said then. “They say you don’t even know the word.”
“That is ridiculous,” Faren said, but Leiya giggled happily in his arms, shaking her head.
“I know, I know,” she said. “I know you know the word please exists, it’s just a joke. I’m just saying I can’t imagine hearing you say that.”
Faren caught her in a kiss, the feel of her pressing herself against him becoming more and more unbearable by the minute.
“I can’t either,” he confessed, looking at the way her eyes clouded over in desire. “It doesn’t suit me. I would like to hear it from you instead.”
The little starlet smiled the most disarming smirk he’d ever seen.
“Is that so,” his gesha whispered against his lips in a tease of another kiss, pulling back just when he reached for it.
“Make me say it then.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Leiya
Oh gods.
Leiya couldn’t really be sure if she was more scared or more aroused by the look in Faren’s eyes. And if she was brutally honest, she didn’t know if there was a real difference between those emotions anymore.
Oh yeah. Such a great idea. Teasing Faren. That has ended well for people before.
Only of course it was different with her. Her gerion ended her attempts at teasing him by pulling her hair gently but firmly until her throat was bared to him. Leiya shivered from head to toe, but it was nothing to Faren’s lips suddenly pressed to her exposed skin. He kissed a line from her shoulders up her neck, his breath tickling her – surely that was the reason she was trembling out of her skin – and over her chin to her lips.