by S. E. Smith
“Wow! And I thought Admiral Greenburg was a hardass,” Ash muttered under his breath.
Ash stepped out from behind the cart. Several merchants were excitedly talking and waving their hands in the direction of the bar, but looking out toward the edge of the city. He frowned, trying to follow what they were saying.
From the little he’d learned over the last couple of weeks, it was difficult, but not impossible. Only about a dozen words filtered through to his limited vocabulary – stranger, ancient, spaceship, escape, and port or landing or something. Ash debated if he should say anything, then decided it was probably best not to with the large cluster of Legion forces. They were still trying to round up everyone who had been inside the bar. If they pulled his face cover and goggles off, it would be a no-brainer that he wasn’t from around these parts.
Instead, he stayed in the shadows and began working his way through the thick crowd of people. He had been by the landing ports with Kubo one day during their excursions around the city. It was one of the few times when Ash had almost given himself away in his excitement to see the spacecrafts that were taking off and landing.
Ash would have given anything to take a tour of one of the ships. Kubo had promised that would be for another day. There were too many Legion forces around to attempt sneaking aboard one at the moment. Now, he was in a race to see if he could catch up with Hutu Gomerant and the mysterious stranger the men were talking about.
7
Kella stumbled forward behind the building two streets over from the warehouse. She bit back the groan of pain that ran through her head and chest. She found her target, but he turned out to be more resourceful than she anticipated.
They fought. Normally that would not have been much of an issue, but he used moves that she had never encountered before. She also did not see who struck her from behind. If Tallei had witnessed the fight, she would have told Kella she deserved to die for not being better prepared.
All Kella knew was that she should have killed the strange man instead of trying to capture him. The next time she found him, she would. Tallei said ‘dead or alive’. The Legion Director might prefer the male alive, but now that Kella knew there was more than one of them, she could always deliver one dead and one alive.
“If I survive,” she muttered under her breath, falling back against the wall.
She barely made it out of the building before the Legion forces swarmed the factory. It would not take them long to discover that she had killed one of the soldiers. She had no choice. The soldier surprised her. He mistook her for one of the workers in the factory who had stayed late – until he saw her up close and realized that she was not a Torrian, but a Turbinta. He had attacked her, leaving her no choice but to defend herself.
Kella braced an arm against the rough stone of the building to keep herself from falling. The strange alien carried the Staff of a Knight of the Gallant. She read about them in one of the information disks left behind at Tallei’s bar. She thought the stories in the book were just tales to amuse people.
Even Tallei had been silent when Kella asked about them. When she persisted, Tallei had taken the disk from her and thrown it away, telling Kella not to believe in mystical tales.
Kella had retrieved the disk from the trash and hidden it away in her small box of treasures, knowing that her secret collection was a betrayal of the Turbinta way, but unable to help herself, even as Tallei’s lesson from long ago had surged to mind.
“A Turbinta must value nothing, Kella; to care leaves you weak and vulnerable. Your enemies will use it against you,” Tallei’s unemotional voice had filled her mind.
“But… what about you? I care about you, Tallei,” Kella had whispered.
Tallei had responded by taking her outside and beating her until Kella felt sure she would die. When she could no longer move, Tallei had stood over her in the pouring rain. Kella had been barely conscious, but she would always remember the cold expression in Tallei’s eyes as the rain fell around them.
“You are nothing to me if you are weak, Kella. Pick yourself up and get to work. If you can’t work, you won’t eat,” Tallei had said in a voice as cool and calm as the rain.
Kella opened her eyes and winced as she pushed away from the wall behind her. She hadn’t given up then, and she wouldn’t give up now. A shiver of warning ran through her body, and she lifted her head. Three dark shadows were emerging from the alley across from her.
“It looks like we have a new fighter for the rings,” one of the men chuckled.
Another one shook his head and spit on the ground. “It looks like this one just got out of one,” he retorted.
It was the third one that chilled Kella to her bones. His dark eyes stared at her with a coldness that would rival Tallei’s the day she had beaten her. Kella struggled to stand up straight. She slowly drew the blade at her waist.
“Look at her marking. She’s a Turbinta. Just net her ass and lock her up before she recovers, otherwise we’ll all be dead,” the man with the cold eyes stated.
“A Turbinta! That’s big credits!” the second man laughed.
Kella snarled and released the blade in her hand. The man jerked back several steps in surprise before he released a howl of pain and collapsed to the ground – the blade buried in his right shoulder. She cursed. She had been aiming for the center of the man’s chest.
A snarl escaped the large man at her attack. Kella had already palmed another blade when a webbing of strong threads struck her. The force of it lifted her up off her feet and slammed her back against the wall behind her, knocking the wind out of her.
She fought to break free of the net holding her captive. The man with the cold eyes stepped forward and backhanded her across the face before he ripped the knife out of her hand and touched the tip to her chin. Kella could feel blood seep from her bottom lip and the sting of the knife piercing her chin.
“If you weren’t so valuable, I’d slit your throat and leave you here to rot,” he murmured.
Kella spit in the man’s face. A soft grunt escaped her when he struck her in the stomach. The force was enough to push the air from her lungs. She reached inside, focusing on the techniques Tallei had taught her to push the pain from her mind. It was hard to do when he hit her bruised ribs right where the male from the factory struck her.
“I want to hit her, Con,” the first man complained.
Con turned and waved the knife at the man. “Leave her face to me, Grange,” Con ordered, walking over to the second man writhing on the ground. “Hold still, Tuprat.”
“Don’t…!” Tuprat screamed when Con reached down and jerked the knife out of his shoulder.
The man’s scream barely registered in Kella’s brain. The sound was muffled by her own mind exploding with pain when Grange’s fist connected with her bruised ribs. It wouldn’t take much for her ribs to break at this rate. She braced for the next blow when the second attacker suddenly spun away from her and flew into the other two men.
“You know, this is wrong on so many levels I can’t even begin to list them,” a deep voice stated.
Kella didn’t know who the man was, but the relief from the beating was instant. If she could cry, she would have. At the moment, the only thing keeping her upright was the netting. Pain radiated through her body from her head down to her toes. Trapped against the wall, there was little she could do but hope whoever stopped the men wouldn’t leave her here – or finish what they started.
He was dressed like a Torrian. Her foggy mind tried to pinpoint what was different about him, because despite his clothes, she knew he wasn’t a native here. He was shorter and broader than most Torrians, at least the ones she had seen, but that wasn’t what confused her. It took a moment for it to dawn on her. He spoke in the old language like the other man from the factory.
“Move aside Torrian, this Turbinta is ours,” Con stated.
The stranger shook his head. “Well, you see, there’s this little problem. A few, actually. First, I�
�m not a Torrian, second, I don’t care what the hell you call her, she’s a woman, and third, I’ve got someplace to be and you’re keeping me from it,” the deep voice responded.
Con frowned and widened his stance. “Who are you?” he demanded.
Kella forced her head up. She wanted to know the answer to that question as well. Her lips parted in warning when Grange suddenly came out of the dark.
The protest on her lips died when the man standing in front of her gripped Grange’s outstretched arm. She watched the man twist Grange’s hand and arm at an odd angle, deftly taking the knife from him. He didn’t release Grange when Con attacked. Instead, he turned so that Grange took the blow Con threw.
The stranger released Grange when he crumpled, shoving the unconscious man toward the last attacker. Con tossed his partner’s body aside, uncaring when Grange’s head hit the stone flooring of the alley. Grange’s body landed next to Tuprat who was still lying on the ground holding his shoulder. A loud hissing sound filled the quiet alley as Con drew in a deep, angry breath. The man in front of her appeared unconcerned, not flinching when Con started his attack.
Kella watched the stranger deflect blow after blow. The laser pistol Con tried to pull went flying before he even had a chance to raise it. The stranger moved so fast, she wondered if her foggy mind was to blame for not seeing it.
The moves were eerily familiar. Intense satisfaction flooded her when Con’s head struck the stone wall next to her. She watched his eyes roll back in his head before he slid down to the ground. He didn’t move again.
“Kill them,” Kella ordered when the man turned toward her.
He paused before shaking his head and pulling a knife from his waist. “Uh… no,” he said, sawing on the netting holding her to the wall.
Kella leaned her head back, trying to see behind the goggles and material covering his face. She frowned when he moved in and out of focus. Blinking, she tried to clear her vision.
“You must kill them,” she stated, her voice slightly slurring.
The man chuckled and shook his head again. “You’re a bloodthirsty little thing. I guess I would be too if those asswipes had used me as a punching bag,” he muttered.
Kella leaned her head back, trying to will the world to stay in focus and her legs to support her. She still did not know who this man was or why he had saved her. Con had told him what she was. Every species in the known galaxies knew what a Turbinta was capable of and would sooner slit their own throats than chance having them alive.
“Hang in there, darling. I’ve almost got you free,” he said.
“I… Watch out,” she warned.
The unusual man didn’t even bother to turn around. She watched him kick Tuprat, who was already off-balanced by the wound she had inflicted earlier. Tuprat stumbled backwards and fell over the inert body of Grange. The sound of his head hitting the hard surface of the alley echoed loudly.
“That… is going to hurt,” the man said with a shake of his head.
“Who are you?” Kella asked in a barely audible voice.
The man wrapped an arm around her waist and held her steady when she started to collapse. He returned his knife to the black pouch at his side and slid his other arm around her knees, lifting her up against his chest. Kella groaned when the pain in her ribs protested the movement.
“The name’s Ashton Haze, but my friends call me Ash. Knight in shining armor, romantic at heart, and royal pain in the ass, sweetheart. What’s your name?” he asked in a distracted voice, first turning one way then the other.
“I am Kella. Where are you taking me?” Kella mumbled, laying her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.
Ash released a deep sigh. “I’m damned if I know. I’ve got to find a way around the Legion forces, and I’d prefer not to have to kick any more ass tonight to achieve that goal,” he admitted.
“There is a place not far from the city,” another voice said from the darkness. ”I can show you. You will be safe there.”
Kella winced when she lifted her head. She started to protest, but was suddenly too drained. Tallei really would kill her. No assassin would ever be caught alive and held in a pair of strong arms, defenseless and weak. She felt the arms around her tighten before they relaxed when she groaned in pain.
“Hey, aren’t you the kid...?” Ash started to say before his voice faded to a muted mumble in her head.
8
Honestly, Ash didn’t know what to think. He’d barely had time to hide again when another group of soldiers began stopping people and scanning them. He had threaded his way through back alleys along with dozens of others trying to escape the security net the Legion was closing over the city. His trek toward the spaceport turned into a game of cat and mouse.
Just when he thought he would be safe, he had come across the four in the alley in time to see Brutus the Butthead striking a trapped woman. There were a lot of things Ash was willing to look the other way for – but watching men beat up a woman was not one of them.
Ash warily followed the boy he struck earlier. They paused outside of the dark building on the outskirts of town. A loud sound distracted him for a moment. He turned his gaze to a freighter lifting off a short distance away before refocusing on the boy standing in the doorway.
Ash was torn. A part of him wanted to hand the unconscious woman in his arms over to the boy and take off in the hopes of finding Hutu. That hope was quickly fading with the passage of time and the increasing buildup of Legion soldiers.
Hindsight being 20/20, he realized he should have been better prepared for this mission. He would be the first to admit that attention to detail was never his strong suit. He was more of a fly by the seat of your pants type of guy which is why he and Josh made such a great team. Josh analyzed while Ash improvised. They always kicked ass up in the air because they were unpredictable.
“Abeni, that’s your name, right? You’d better not be shitting me. I won’t be forgiving a second time,” Ash warned, staring hard at the boy.
“I…,” Abeni started to say when an elderly voice behind him spoke.
“Je mi la tia pei, Abeni?” a woman called.
“Nia mi laya, Noma,” Abeni replied, turning to face the woman when she peered out of the door.
“Comli, comli,” Noma gestured.
“Noma says to come in,” Abeni translated.
Ash nodded. “I figured that much out,” he said, carefully shifting the woman in his arms.
Abeni stepped back and glanced around when Ash stepped past him. A moment later, the boy followed him inside. Ash glanced around the small room. It was sparsely furnished. Separating part of the room was a bright, multi-colored, striped curtain hung from a rope stretched across from one wall to another and tied to two thick hooks. Noma stood with it pulled back and motioned for him to place the woman in his arms down on the bed.
“Thank you,” Ash murmured, stepping past her and gently lowering Kella to the bed.
“I will care for her. Abeni, bring food and drink for our guest,” Noma ordered before she closed the curtain.
Ash shook his head. “I need to find someone. He might have gone to the spaceport. I need to see if I can find him,” he said.
“I could take you, but it would not be safe at the moment. The Legion forces are everywhere. You saw how difficult it was to get here,” Abeni cautioned in a quiet, hesitant voice.
“This is important. I have to find Hutu Gomerant,” Ash groaned and yanked off his goggles.
Frustration burned in him at the delays. He didn’t realize that he had also pulled the bottom of his head scarf off to reveal his entire face until he heard Abeni’s indrawn breath.
“Are you the one the Legion is looking for?” Abeni asked.
Ash started to shake his head and stopped. Instead, he shrugged in reply. He honestly didn’t know if he was the one the Legion forces were looking for or not. He doubted it, but that could be because they didn’t know about him – yet.
“N
o, but I can’t be certain of that. Why did you help me, kid? I almost killed you back there in the alley,” Ash asked.
Abeni glanced toward the curtain. Ash didn’t miss the boy’s concerned look or the fact that he touched his throat. He could tell it must have hurt when the boy spoke. For a brief second regret washed through Ash before he pushed it away. If it taught the boy a lesson about who to hang out with, then a sore throat and an upset grandmother were a small price to pay. He knew that from personal experience.
“Because you did not kill me,” Abeni finally admitted.
“Lesson learned,” Ash replied with a nod. “Listen, do you know who Hutu Gomerant is?”
Abeni eagerly nodded. “Everyone knows of the legends of the great Knight of the Gallant. He was chosen by the Order of the Gallant to protect the people. It is a great honor,” he said in a soft, scratchy voice.
“Well, I need to find him. He was supposed to be at the Sandsabar. There may be others with him. One of them looks like me, only with lighter skin,” Ash said.
Ash watched Abeni press his lips together. Once again he glanced at the closed curtain. Ash could see the indecision in the boy’s eyes. They both turned when the curtain pulled back far enough for Noma to step out from behind it. She had the same pale face with orange and black markings and yellow, cat-shaped eyes. Her faded eyes were clouded with worry.
“Abeni will go find the Knight. You must stay here,” Noma instructed, turning and speaking in the language that Ash didn’t understand.
Abeni bowed his head. “I will return,” he promised, hurrying for the door while Ash looked on in confusion.
Ash started to follow Abeni, but Noma reached out a hand and touched his arm. He turned to look at her. Her eyes glistened with worry, but he didn’t see any deception in them.
Noma dropped her hand back to her side and gazed up at him. “Neither Abeni or I will betray you, Ancient Knight. You must remain here,” she said, waving to a small table. “Sit, I will prepare some food for you.”