by Maia Starr
"Leader Titeq, I give you Saramina Jedsin," Viqer said as he pulled on my chain and thrust me in front of this Corillion that he called his leader.
The gathered Corillion grumbled. The leader Titeq put his hand up to silence them.
"My Corillion brothers, I give you the killer of our leader, Cultan Krillis. She is the reason that he is no longer with us. She is the one that took his life! I had ordered Viqer Krillis to hunt her on Earth and bring her back here. So far, he has finished half of the order that I gave him. The rest of the order was for him to bring her to me so that we all may look into the eyes of the human female that killed Cultan. She will remain here for a few days while we ready and prepare the second part of his mission. Viqer will kill this human female in vengeance for the life of our leader!” he shouted.
The Corillion warriors cheered loudly. A cold chill ran all over my body. They were thirsting for my blood. They wanted their sweet revenge.
"After he has killed her, he will take her body back to Earth and display it where the Earth army may see her. They all need to know that they cannot take a leader from the Corillion race without feeling the repercussions! Viqer Krillis is our best warrior! He is highly skilled, and he has proven his intelligence when making decisions on behalf of myself or for the Corillion army. He has satisfied me with the first part of this mission. Even when he faced peril, he still returned with the prisoner as I asked. Because Viqer is such an honorable and skilled warrior, when he returns from Earth after completing the second part of the mission, I plan to make him my second in command! He has earned it!”
The crowd once again cheered. I looked at Viqer. So this was why he was giving me over to Titeq. This was why he would not help me. He wanted to be promoted, the rat. I should have known better. He was just enjoying my body while on his mission to obey orders. Now he was going to enjoy the rewards of bringing me to this planet. It was a win-win situation all around for him.
I stared at his face, and his jaw flinched. Good. I wanted him to feel that I was staring at him in disgust and disappointment. He looked as though he were restraining himself. He was probably restraining himself from looking at me to shout and force me to look away. He was restraining himself from pushing me onto the ground in obedience to his leader. I pulled on my chain with a quick yank. He looked over at me and narrowed his eyes. He was angry. Good. I wanted him to be angry and I wanted him to know that my spirit was not broken. I was still defiant. I was still going to yank on the chain if just to hurt his hand just a little as it slipped through his fingers. I put my head high in the air, raising my chin. The leader continued.
"Upon your return, Viqer Krillis, I will name you my second. You will be the second leader under me. If anything should happen to me, I know that you can lead this planet better than any other Corillion warrior I know. That is my reward to you for your loyalty and for your excellent skills.”
"You honor me with this position. I will not disappoint you, my leader Titeq, or the Corillion race. I am your humble servant,” Viqer said with a salute.
I coughed loudly. Viqer turned and looked at me, and I rolled my eyes at him. I could tell that everyone had grown quiet and was looking at me. I didn't care. They were going to kill me anyway so why should I be the obedient prisoner? I was going to be opinionated, shitty, bitchy, and an all-out troublemaker.
"Do you have something to say, prisoner?” the leader said as he looked at me.
"I do,” I said with a smile.
"You have no privilege to speak here. But I will allow you this one time to speak since you will be dead soon,” he said.
"All I have to say is fuck you,” I said to the leader. Then I turned to the crowd behind me, and I said, “Fuck all of you." Then I turned to Viqer and yanked on the chains, pulling them out of his hands and said, “And fuck you most of all. Eat shit and die, Viqer.”
There was an uproar of chattering and angry shouts. The leader Titeq had an angry look on his face. I looked at Viqer, who was restraining a smile. I knew him well enough now to know when he was forcing himself to bite his lip in order to keep from smiling.
Smack! I felt the sting of a slap across my cheek. My head snapped to the side with such force. I turned to see that the leader, Titeq, was now standing in front of me. He was the one that had delivered the blow. I saw Viqer take a step toward me and then stop.
"Take this filthy human female to her prison cell. No food and no water for you,” he said as he motioned to another guard.
"I will take her myself,” Viqer spoke up, getting between the guards and myself. Titeq looked at him suspiciously, and I could tell that Viqer felt a need to cover his outburst.
"She is dangerous. I know her well and all of her tricks. Remember what happened with Seto. It is best that I take her so that it does not happen again,” Viqer said.
"Very well. Take her to the high prison cell in the tower. No food, no water, then report to me,” Titeq said as he walked away. The assembly of Corillion disbanded and went their separate ways. Viqer yanked on the chains and pulled me after him. I could tell that he was angry. He was probably going to hit me just like Titeq did. My cheek still stung. We walked down winding hallways until we were at the bottom of a spiral stone staircase. Finally, we were alone.
"Have you lost your mind?” he said through gritted teeth as he turned to look at me.
"No. I am sane," I said to him.
"Why would you say such things like that knowing that you would be punished? They will hurt you. They will break your bones before they kill you if you continue to use words like that toward them,” he said.
"Why do you care? Why do you care if they hurt me? Why do you care if your leader slaps me with his hand like he did? You have what you wanted. You are doing all of this so that you can be the next leader. Admit it,” I sneered at him.
His eyes narrowed at me. His dark hair fell over his face, and I restrained the urge to push it back. He put his hand gently on my cheek, the one that was hit.
"Does it hurt?” he asked quietly.
I bit my tongue. I wanted to burst into tears because yes, it hurt, but it did not hurt as much as this moment. Here he was again being the tender warrior. It was up and down with him.
"Why does it matter to you?” I answered.
"I don't know the answer to that question myself,” he said as he pressed his lips against mine and kissed me. I moaned into his mouth. His tongue explored mine quickly, stealing away a quick moment alone. Then he pulled away from me. He led me up the stairs and continued to speak in a lecturing tone.
"Keep your mouth shut. Do not talk back to these Corillion warriors. I will not be around to protect you. Just do as they say, stay quiet, and they will not hurt you again,” he said.
"Why would I do that? I am going to die anyway. You are the one that is going to kill me. If I am going to die, then I am going to die with dignity. I will speak my mind if I wish just like I did out there on the floor,” I sneered.
He growled. “Just listen for once dammit. Now be quiet as we approach the cells,” he said as we took the last few stairs up into the tower. From the window, I could see far across the green plains. “Prisoner here. She is not to be touched. Only I or Titeq may visit her,” Viqer said to the guard. The guard walked to a cell door and opened it.
Viqer walked me inside and took a few moments to unlock the cuffs. He knelt down on the floor and put his hand around my ankle. He touched it delicately while he unlocked it. He ran his hand all the way up to my knee. He looked up at me, and I held my breath. Then he moved to the other ankle and did the same thing touching me. Then he stood up very close to me and began to and unlocked the ones around my wrists. It was then that I realized that this would be the last time I would see him until he was summoned to kill me in front of the entire Corillion race on Krillis. I looked at the guard stationed out in the hallway. He was not paying attention to us. I whispered to Viqer.
"Jennifer, there is a human female named Jennifer here with fl
aming-red hair. I wish to see her. If you care anything for me, you will bring her to me somehow. It is my dying wish,” I whispered quietly.
He just looked at me and said nothing. He pulled the chains into his hands and said loudly to the guard, “This prisoner will be receiving a visitor later, a human female that will bring her clothes to wear. She is unfit with what she is wearing now. This human female will share clothes with the prisoner."
"Yes sir, Viqer,” the guard saluted.
"I am counting on you to inform any guard that takes over your shift, and so on. Do not disappoint me. You know that I do not like to be disappointed,” Viqer said sternly.
The guard gulped in fear. I remembered that Titeq said that Viqer was the best warrior in the Corillion race. He must be greatly feared, I thought. It was good to know that. I felt some sense of joy that he was going to have Jennifer bring me clothes. I felt more vulnerable than ever in the nightgown in front of all of these warriors. But at least I would get to see Jennifer again. At least I would get to see a friendly face before my death.
Chapter 8
VIQER KRILLIS
I could not put the amount of anger that I felt into words if I had to. I was filled with rage over everything. First, when I stepped off of the ship and saw all of the Corillion warriors staring at a nearly naked Saramina, I wanted to pull my blaster gun and shoot every one of them in the face. I restrained myself and pulled on the chains trying to get her to go faster. But they all stared, and I had never felt more jealous. I wanted to grab a cloth and cover her, but that would give me away.
But that did not make me feel as angry as I did when Titeq slapped her. I took a step toward him, ready to strangle him to death with my own hands. I would ring his neck until he took his last breath of air. I stopped myself dead in my tracks, remembering where I was. I could not do it. So I had to watch as he inflicted pain on Saramina. I was helpless to stop it. I was helpless to do anything about it. But I could have killed him at that moment. I still wanted to kill him now.
The irony of it. She was being sentenced to death for killing our leader, and now I was the one that wanted to kill our leader. I had never felt so much hatred toward another Corillion warrior before. It was a new feeling, and I did not know how to process it.
So as I took the stairs down from the tower prison and walked the halls, I had to think of something else in order to calm my rage because I had to report to Titeq. I thought about the kiss at the bottom of the stairs. It would be the last time that I kissed her. The next time that I saw her, I would be ordered to kill her. I stopped in the hallway and leaned against the wall.
"Shit. I can't do it,” I whispered to myself. It was the first time that I had admitted out loud that I could not go through with an order. It would be the first time that I ever even thought about disobeying an order. This was not the loyal warrior that I had become. I was someone else entirely. But touching her cheek, wanting to take away the pain made me feel something that I had never felt before. Seeing the pain in her eyes and how proud and arrogant she remained even through the humiliation made my heart swell for her.
Her words in front of the Corillion and in front of Titeq telling every single one of us off made me want to burst into laughter. She was fierce and feisty, and I loved that about her. At that moment I wanted to scoop her up into my arms and kiss her and make love to her. But the slap from Titeq snapped me out of that. It snapped me from joy at her performance to extreme rage at his. Now I was walking into his office where I would have to speak with him as though I did not hate him.
"Viqer, come in come in,” Titeq said as he sat behind his desk. I stood in front of him at attention.
"Thank you, Leader Titeq,” I said.
"Viqer, you have done well. You have done tremendously well. Now that I see for myself what a handful this human female assassin is, I can only commend you on getting her here successfully even more. She is a complete bitch. But you have done well, and you will be rewarded.”
I restrained anger at the fact that he was calling her a bitch. I clenched my teeth.
"Thank you, Leader Titeq,” I said again. I hoped that this meeting would be short because I could not take his insults about Saramina much longer.
"After you kill her in a ceremony in a few days, you will take her back to Earth as you know. But now we have coordinates for you. Here,” he said as he projected a map on the wall.
"You will be taking her here. This is the Earth Embassy over here. It is well guarded, of course, so you will not be able to get in unnoticed. I do not expect you to do that. Instead, you will be taking her here,” he pointed at another area on the map. “This is in view of the Earth Embassy. Anyone in the building of the Earth Embassy will see this wall of this building. On this wall is where you will pin the dead body of Saramina with the words that I send you with. I wanted to give you these coordinates so that you can plan your quiet entry there now."
"I understand,” I said as he handed me the projection device with the information. His words disgusted me. The thought of Saramina dead and hanging on the wall in display was an image that made me very angry. So much had changed since I first took on the mission. At first, I was glad to do this; I even considered it an honor to be able to give Cultan the vengeance he deserved. Now thinking about it made me sick to my stomach. I knew then that there was no way in hell that I was going to go through with this mission. I knew then that I had to come up with another plan. It would be a very dangerous plan, and I did not know if Saramina and I would live through it, but it was better than being forced to kill her. I knew that I could not do that not now or ever.
"When you return from this mission to Earth, Viqer, I have another mission waiting for you. As you know, our attempt to get more blaster guns to supply our army did not go as intended. I have another supplier in the Agason galaxy. When you return from Earth, that will be your next mission. But we will speak of the details then. For now, get some rest. You have been on a long journey with a horrible human female. It must have taken great restraint not to kill the human that killed our leader Cultan. I know that you two were close. I commend you on your restraint and allowing the rest of your brothers to enjoy the vengeance as well. You have put the rest of the Corillion tribe before your own desires for revenge. That makes a great leader, another reason why I will name you my second.”
"Thank you, Leader Titeq. I take your words as a great honor,” I saluted him.
"Now go and see your human wife. You deserve the rest and mating rituals she has waiting for you, I am sure. Go and enjoy her and enjoy your home; soon you will be off again to complete your mission."
"Thank you,” I said as I saluted him and left his office. I was glad to be out of his sight because I could not hear any more about killing Saramina. The mission was off. But he was right: I did need to go see my human wife; hell, I had almost forgotten about her. There was much to be done and little time to do it. I needed to get started right away.
I walked out of the fortress and into the village toward my home. It was a large dome-shaped mud brick home that was very comfortable. It was far on the outside of the village, which allowed it to have vast amounts of land surrounding it. It was private, and as soon as I walked in, I remembered how much I loved it. The entire curved glass wall in the back looked out toward the green grassy plains, and if you only looked in this direction, you would think there was no village around at all. It calmed my nerves to see it.
"Viqer, I saw you arrive. Did you see me? I was out in the town with my companion human female friend, Jennifer. We were gathering food,” Bethany said as she walked toward me as I entered the door of our home.
"Forgive me, Bethany, I did not see you. Who is Jennifer?” I asked her. We were fortunate to have over 30 human females on Krillis at this point and hearing the same name that Saramina gave me from my wife was promising.
"Jennifer is a human female that was brought here not too long ago. She is the wife mate of the Corillion warrior known as Ba
rlo."
"Yes, Barlo I know him well,” I said already picturing where in the settlement he lived. I would go find this Jennifer and take her to Saramina. It would be the first step of my plan.
"Are you hungry?” she asked as she moved toward the food area of the home. It was then that I realized that she had not touched me at all. She did not give me an embrace or a kiss after not seeing me for so long.
"Bethany, are you in love with me?” I asked her bluntly.
She turned to me with shock on her face. “You have never asked me that before.”
"I guess because I did not think it needed asking. It didn't matter then. All that mattered was that I had a human female mate. Now I see that there should be more to it.”
"I care for you; I have learned to care for you these many months together, Viqer, but in truth, it is not love. I loved another on Earth, but I was taken before I could be with him. This is my fate now,” she said sadly.
"I understand, Bethany. I must go. I will return later, and we will continue this conversation,” I said, leaving the home. I needed to find this Jennifer. The longer that Saramina sat in that prison cell practically naked, the higher the chance that a guard would take advantage of her. I moved into the settlement and found the home of Barlo. I had to do this in secret. I found a human female outside the home cleaning cloth in a wash basin.