Between Flood and Flame (A Cat Among Dragons Book 6)

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Between Flood and Flame (A Cat Among Dragons Book 6) Page 4

by Alma Boykin


  “What time is court dining tonight?” he asked.

  The sergeant glanced at a data pad. “There is no formal dining today, my lord, because of the celebration last night.”

  “Oh good! One last night of freedom,” Ni Drako exclaimed, baring his teeth in a strange gesture. “Thank you, Sergeant, and please warn the mess cook that I will be dining with the officers tonight. And I may or may not inspect the watches,” he added.

  “You will be at the night meal. Very good, my Lord Mammal,” the big reptile repeated back, making a note on the data pad.

  The noble dismissed his aid and turned to the waiting servants. “You are the servants assigned to me?”

  “Yes, Lord Mammal,” the older female affirmed as the quartet bowed.

  Lord Ni Drako dipped his head and walked over to the two tables in the corner. Fascinated, Shlaer watched as the noble pulled the smaller one out and sat on it, then leaned forward and rested his forefeet on the larger table. “Hmmm,” the noble’s single eye narrowed. “Well, you are all off duty until tomorrow. I have no court functions until then and I prefer to take care of myself unless I’ve been injured. Please bring my morning meal with the first shift and you are dismissed until then, unless there is something you need to ask me.”

  The adults looked at eachother. “No, Lord Mammal. We’ll bring you your morning meal with the first shift.”

  “Good. Oh, and if I’m not here, do not come looking for me. I’ll be back shortly, so you can leave the food for me.”

  “Yes, my lord,” the eldest servant agreed, then led the others out of the public room, through the private chamber and down a recessed passageway back to the servants’ quarters.

  Shlaer’s life soon settled into a predictable pattern. Unlike many nobles, Lord Ni Drako rose early, often leaving his chambers before dawn. Over half the time he took his meals with the Palace Guard or in court and the other times he ate in his quarters. Contrary to what he’d been warned, Shlaer did not have to help Lord Mammal dress unless he was attending a very formal court event, and then it was only his haircoat that the noble truly needed assistance with. He also kept his quarters very neat, so that the servants had little to do besides dust and run the sweeper on occasion. Theirs was an easy and quiet life compared to that of some of the other Palace servants and Shlaer burned a little extra incense in gratitude on the few days he was allowed time to make an offering to his Ancestors.

  One night, Lord Ni Drako returned late. He waved off Shlaer’s offer of assistance, saying, “No, go back to sleep. I’m used to doing for myself, thank you.” Apparently that meant that the noble wanted privacy, so the young reptile curled up on an old cushion behind the antique stove. He wasn’t sure where else to go, since he was on night duty and no one had told him where to wait. Shlaer listened as the big mammal washed, then laid down on the sleeping platform after spending a little time sitting in front of the table and its sculpture.

  He must have fallen asleep despite himself, because when Shlaer looked up, Lord Ni Drako was standing in the moonlight coming through the ancient window. He had a glass in his hand and seemed to be staring up at the two moons, or maybe at the stars behind them. The servant started scrambling to his feet, but Ni Drako made a negation with his forefoot. “Go back to sleep, little one,” he ordered before taking a small drink out of the glass in his other forefoot. “I apologize for waking you.” Ni Drako walked silently to the window and sat down on the wide, padded bench built into the frame, still staring up at the sky. Shlaer hesitated, then returned to his old cushion.

  Instead of going to sleep the reptile studied his new master. He’d seen mammals before, but never one as large as Lord Ni Drako. He’d also never seen anyone deformed like Ni Drako, with his butchered leg and missing eye. Shlaer knew that soldiers got hurt, and he’d seen some of the court nobles who lacked tail tips or had scars from duels and fights, but no one else was missing an eye, at least that the servant could tell. It was obvious that the injuries caused the mammal problems, but he ignored them. Lord Ni Drako’s haircoat also fascinated the young reptile and Shlaer wondered if all members of Ni Drako’s lineage had so much fur on their heads. It seemed to be more of a nuisance than a help.

  As the young male studied his master, someone clopped on the heavy wood and brass main door. Before the noble could move Shlaer leapt to his feet and pulled on the door with all his strength. He pulled a little too hard— it swung open, sweeping him back and almost mashing him against the stones of the wall. It took him a moment to get sorted out and to look around the door panel. When he did, his jaw dropped as he beheld a silvery-blue True-dragon walking gracefully towards Lord Ni Drako. The noble set his glass on the windowsill and stood, then bowed to the new arrival. “You may shut the door, Shlaer, unless someone is coming with your luggage, Lady Zabet?”

  <> a voice said into Shlaer’s head. Shocked, the only thing the reptile could think of was to do as told and he shut the door a little more slowly than he had opened it. When he turned back to the main room, the True-dragon had taken the noble’s place in the window seat, her small round ears twitching and her whiskers rippling up and down like flowing water. Ni Drako caressed under the True-dragon’s throat before sitting on the floor and leaning his back against the wood below the windowseat.

  “Fetch Lady Zabet a kilsee beer please, Shlaer. Then you are dismissed to your quarters.” The befuddled servant did as asked, bowed low and left via the back passage. Halfway back to the dormitory he shared with the other low-ranking servants, the young reptile perked up. He had news and gossip that the others didn’t! He could hardly wait to inform whoever was on night duty about Lady Zabet’s arrival.

  Back in the Lord Defender’s quarters, Rada finished filling her business partner and boss in on all the latest. “And I just happened to notice that some company named Three Whiskers Trading, LLC is now permitted to sell four kinds of out-Empire spices, along with the dairy products it was already permitted for. The papers were sent to my box, for some reason,” she finished dryly.

  <> Zabet said, running the backs of her talons under her narrow muzzle. <>

  Rada rolled her eye. “Three-fourths of what I brought with me. The rest went to taxes, gratuities, and to the Imperial Household as a token of your esteem and undying gratitude.”

  <> Zabet observed, flowing off the window seat and offering her Pet a hand to stand up.

  The mammal snorted. “You know what’s in ‘sunset’s leaping heart.’ I highly doubt that cheese will ever cause distress or consternation.”

  <>

  “I keep hoping. Maybe next century. Welcome back and good night, Boss,” Rada told her “concubine” before disappearing into the sleeping area. Zabet took a look around to see if anything had been moved or changed, then followed her Pet into the dark and quiet room.

  The Cat and Lord Kirlin

  A.D. 3998-3999

  Commander Rada Lord Ni Drako, Lord Defender of Drakon IV, watched the chaos unfolding and smiled. It was not a pleasant expression, and ‘his’ aid felt his neck-spines starting to rise in response. Lord Ni Drako made a note on his data pad before tapping the frame of the tactical display. The image zoomed out so that the watchers could observe the entire planet, its moon, and the area within fifteen light-minutes around them. Captain Shiih’s tail stiffened at the damage Lord Ni Drako’s forces were inflicting on the planet’s defenders.

  Rada allowed herself a moment of pure visceral pleasure. It was rare that she had the opportunity to play aggressor and the Wanderer smiled, fangs bared. The Imperials were good but she knew the Azdhagi very well by now and knew how to turn their strengths against them. The Imperial Gover
nor’s defense in depth had become a death trap for his troops as a result. The smile vanished as Rada noted a blip appearing on the long-distance sensor display. Re-enforcements were arriving, as she’d anticipated. She noted the strength, probably ship-types, and closing speed, running options through her mind. The silver eye turned cold and her black tail went still, not even the tip moving so much as a hair.

  “Omicron and Lambda, wing formation four,” she commanded, watching as two squadrons of heavy fighters pulled out of the blocking force and began moving into position on either side of the central command ship. “Gamma, sigma, epsilon, disengage. Code black.” The appropriate formations complied, although sigma took its time and lost an atmospheric attack carrier to enemy fire in the process. Rada ground her teeth, but fewmets happen, even in the best militaries.

  She sensed her aid’s puzzlement and his relief that Lord Ni Drako appeared to be breaking off the attack. He was inexperienced enough to find himself rooting for the Imperials against his boss. In a strange way that was as it should be, a tiny bit of Rada’s mind noted. He didn’t see her as Azdhagi: she remained an alien, albeit an ally. Well, he was about to feel very unhappy, she snarled to herself as she typed a particular series of codes into her authentication box.

  As soon as her forces cleared the atmosphere, a select group of the ships released part of their payload. Rada turned her attention away from the planet and the Imperials within the atmosphere and watched her forces re-grouping to face the new threat. Her aid’s inadvertent hiss told her the result of the launch and she ignored that data string for the moment. The attackers had spread themselves fairly thinly, apparently hoping to catch her between their fleet and the defending forces. Since she no longer had any desire or need to stay in place, she reformed most of her “fleet” into a column and aimed for the attackers. Of course, it was not that simple: maneuvering took volume and time, and the Azdhagi Imperials were also slowing and maneuvering as well, decelerating as her ships tried to accelerate out of the planet’s gravity well.

  Captain Shiih nodded a little to himself. The Lord Defender had not anticipated the Imperials’ arrival so quickly and was panicking. That was why the mammal had released the bombs into the atmosphere as a last-ditch measure to block the planetary defenders from leaving the planet and catching his rear. Now he was going to have to punch his way out through the much stronger and larger fleet, and that would be the end of him. Except that Alpha Force, the Lord Defender’s small fleet, was no longer in a column. The line of ships broke into three groups, each heading off on a tangent to the command cluster. What was the mammal doing?

  “On my mark,” Lord Ni Drako whispered, calm and as still as a statue in his command position. “Three, two, one, mark.” And the Imperial fleet, the colony planet and its moon, the entire scene vanished from the display screen. Ten long seconds later Shiih’s tail went rigid as the display returned—they were now outside the Imperial screen and departing rapidly. “Bearing to primary target?” Lord Ni Drako inquired of her aid.

  “Ah,” he scrambled to find out what it was supposed to be, abruptly remembering that he was supposed to be fighting against the Imperials this time. “Um, seven eight one dot five nine four by eighty three, negative eight azimuth . . .” His voice trailed off as he recognized the new target. It was Drakon IV, the throneworld. Half of the Lord Defender’s fleet turned onto the new course while the other half reversed course and attacked the Imperial fleet that they’d just jumped through!

  “End simulation,” a deep voice announced. The Lord Defender leaned back and took off his custom headpiece, rubbing around the base of one of his pointed, furry ears.

  “Spoilsport,” Rada muttered under her breath in Trader. It had worked, although she’d lost a quarter of her ships. But one of the losses managed to take two dreadnaughts with it because of jump proximity and the Wanderer grinned, swishing her tail back and forth contentedly. She’d never intended to capture and hold Sidara—Drakon IV was her goal. Sidara served only as a lure and Great Lord Daesarae had bitten the bait. Plus the neutron nukes and water-killers she’d left as a farewell present would keep the garrisons busy for a long time and suck in large amounts of the Empire’s resources trying to cleanse and re-build the colony, hurting them badly even if she did not succeed in capturing the throneworld.

  “My lord, that was vicious!” Captain Shiih protested.

  The mammal raised then lowered his shoulders. “It worked. And there’s nothing between us and the Capital aside from the Defenders. Captain,” the noble stood up, stretching carefully, “not everyone wants to capture populations. Even without Sidara the Empire is still rich, and now it will take at least three time marks for the Imperials to turn, regroup and catch us, unless they opt to stay and try to help on Sidara and leave the Defenders to protect Drakon IV. Which, with all due respect to Minister Great Lord Daesarae, he probably would do.”

  The reptile in question was fuming with anger by the time Lord Ni Drako, Captain Shiih, and the others involved with the simulation all reached the de-briefing chamber. Daesarae, visibly irritated, waved his forefoot towards the refreshments and drinks set out for the participants. He greatly outranked the mammalian Ni Drako, but the Lord Defender had beaten Daesarae and deserved a little respect for that. The hot-tempered yellowy-brown reptile made himself calm down and accept a drink and plate of food from his orderly. At least the Lord Defender was not gloating. Ni Drako took a container of fruit juice and helped himself to some of the tidbits set out. The black line of fur over the mammal’s eye rose a little as he tasted the meat paste spread on a roasted watergrain wafer. “Cheesali, Great Lord?”

  “His Imperial Majesty is pleased with the progress we are making, Ni Drako,” the reptile grunted in reply. He took a seat and the rest of the debriefing group followed suit. “You realize that your little parting gift could have killed a third of the population of Sidara?”

  The mammal’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes, Great Lord. That’s why I dumped them. If I want the planet later for a colony or to strip, then that’s less population to deal with, while the Imperials and the Empire’s resources will be badly hurt even if I don’t succeed in conquering Drakon IV. It was a win-win solution from the aggressor’s point of view.”

  Several of the gathered reptiles made surprised “whunf” sounds in the silence following the Lord Defender’s explanation. Great Lord Daesarae sat motionless, a model of self control as he considered his colleague’s words. “That is a rather interesting observation, given what occurred on Kilmaki.”

  “That did influence my planning, yes Great Lord,” Rada agreed, answering his unspoken question. Several of the Defenders and Daesarae’s aid took notes and at least one had his data pad out, quietly and quickly trying to discover what the two nobles were referring to.

  “Polite words aside, Ni Drako, what the ktahsssee did you do to your ships? I know damn well that Azdhag-made ships can’t make micro-jumps like that but the simulator did not disallow it, so what did you do?”

  The mammal’s lips spread sideways and parted, exposing pointed teeth as a cold look settled into the single silvery eye. “Actually, Great Lord, Azdhag ships can micro-jump, once the new shielding and new software protocols are uploaded into the navigational controllers. And if tsee series processor chips are installed into both the navigation and power controllers.” The brown-haired mammal gestured towards one of ‘his’ staff. “Lt. Ahsee has been working with the Imperial engine designers and programmers and he told me that the final tests were finished last sixt.”

  “And you have been following this why, Lt. Ahsee?” Daesarae inquired.

  Ahsee shifted a little on his bench as he explained, “During the Lord Defender’s absence we, that is the staff, were studying some of the observations he sent back and noticed a pattern in the last three planetary attacks he had word of. The attack that was beaten off failed because the planetary defenders were able to trap the invaders vertically. We lacked that capability, since s
tationing fighters on Shibo is not an option, and so Defender Seertar assigned me to approach the engine designers to see what options were available, Great Lord. They had recently obtained a full dataset for some new hypermicro processors and . . .” he trailed off as the Minister of War swept his tail in a gesture of comprehension.

  Although she showed no external sign, Rada was jumping for joy as Ahsee explained what had happened. This was exactly what she had hoped would start occurring: officers taking the initiative, whether she was present or absent. The rest of the debriefing went quickly since there were not many individual critiques for the Defenders. The exercise had been to test the Imperials and so Rada had not involved many of her staff. After an hour or so it devolved into critiques of individual Imperial officers’ actions and Rada let her mind wander. As a result, she was as surprised as anyone when the door slid open and two very large reptiles lumbered into the room, followed by an only slightly smaller male. He stopped in the doorway and watched the ripple of discomfort as his soldiers scrambled to leave their benches and prostrate themselves, a slight smile on his blunt muzzle. Rada was glad she’d opted to sit on a cushion on the floor, so she could swing onto one knee with minimal awkwardness.

  “We trust that We are not too late to add to the debriefing?” King Emperor Kai-tseera inquired quietly.

  “Not at all, Imperial Majesty,” Minister Great Lord Daesarae assured his liege, sliding backwards so as to clear a path to the best bench in the chamber.

  “Good.” The dark brown striped reptile strode into the room and settled onto the central bench. Once he was comfortable, he said, “You may rise.” Everyone stood at rest and he continued, “We are not displeased with what We observed today. Losing Sidara being an exception of course,” and he waved his closed iron war fan. The Imperial officer who had been acting as planetary commander flinched but Kai-tseera continued, “You have not been challenged in how long, Daesarae?”

 

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