Sureblood

by Susan Grant

Sashya warned, “Don’t make this personal, Valeeya.”

  Val turned to Grizz. “Go on ahead. I’ll be right there. Mama and I need to talk.”

  Then she pulled Sashya close. Her voice was low and keen with intensity in her mother’s ear. “All I ever wanted was to be a raider and sail the stars. But fate placed me in this position, Mama, as leader. Love for my family kept me here—my fear that something would happen to you and to Jaym.”

  Sashya started to argue, but Val stopped her. “It’s not just the choices I make as leader that are important, but how they look in the eyes of our clan. Every day some look for reasons I shouldn’t be captain. I’m not going to give them any—today or any day. I have a son to protect, Mama. Today I’m going to secure his future.”

  Her posture stiff with nerves and pride, she resumed the trek to the square. It would always be personal between her and Dake.

  FERREN SPED AWAY FROM the docks as soon as she’d polished the last cargo door latch mechanism for the day. Dake Sureblood had returned, and Val was putting him on trial. She didn’t want to miss it.

  She ran hard up the path, slowing only as she passed the dirt path leading to the bathhouses and the lovely, deep, warm tubs there. Be strong in the face of temptation. As she turned to keep heading straight, she rammed into someone. She was always so clumsy on land. An instant later her arms were filled with a lean, fit body, her nose with a lovely male scent and her sight with a flash of a white smile.

  “Reeve,” she greeted breathlessly. She spoke only when she had to—on raids mostly—but she did like saying the names of her land-side friends, especially Reeve.

  “Whoa, little water sprite,” he said, laughing. “You nearly swept me off my feet.”

  His hands were slow to leave her back. As always he held on to her a little longer than she did him and, as always, thinking he’d hidden his disappointment that it was still so virtuous between them. He wanted them to be lovers. And more.

  Her desire for him constantly collided with guilt, reminding her of her mission. Until she knew for certain Prince Adrinn was gone, she must not commit to another.

  But there were times when Reeve regarded her with his sweet smile that her resolve wavered, like now.

  “I was just coming to get you,” he said. “Grizz ordered all raiders to report to the meeting house.”

  Hurry. She snatched his hand. The market square was crowded with the entire clan there. It had a carnival atmosphere at odds with what might happen later that night if the Sureblood was sentenced to death. A couple of raider apprentices rolled over the dirt, wrestling each other. A group of raiders stood nearby swearing and cheering them on as they passed a flask around. A group she knew well to avoid. Ayl bore a scar on the heel of his right palm from the night he got drunk and barreled into where she was soaking in a bath. In her element, the water, she was irresistibly alluring. It was the curse of her species. He’d wanted more than to share a soak with her, but she’d had a blade within reach. He was lucky she hadn’t cut the whole hand off. Instead she’d made sure he’d think of her whenever he looked at the thin whitish line bisecting his palm.

  She’d never told anyone about the incident, especially not Reeve. He would have wanted to kill Ayl. Ayl never bothered her again. If anything, he acted a little ashamed about the whole thing. She would have felt bad for Despa if anything ever were to be said in public about it anyway. The healer had been ever faithful to Ayl, and he’d been anything but.

  She kept wary eyes on Ayl as he suddenly walked away from his group. At first, she thought his intent was to glare at the Sureblood in his flimsy cage. No leathers, no armor, the Sureblood wore a red, black and blue uniform without any personal markings to define it as his own. It was no uniform she recognized from any of the hunters who came to the water worlds in search of her people—and that was a good thing. It would not have helped Dake’s cause if he’d aligned with her foes. This clan that had unwittingly provided her with cover all these years didn’t know she was actively fighting in a war. Her people’s war.

  And that they shared an enemy.

  Nezerihm.

  Curiously, Ayl’s narrowed suspicious eyes weren’t on Dake at all, but on Val’s son Jaym, who was fascinated by the Sureblood. Ayl just as raptly observed the boy—but not with affection or even protectiveness. His look was lethal.

  Why would he react that way to little Jaym, whom he seemed at times to dote on? And then she noticed the way the sunlight made Jaym’s hair glow, turning it the same shade of golden brown as…Dake Sureblood’s.

  Blessed Heart of the Sea. Ayl had just guessed the identity of the boy’s real father.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  A CHEER WENT UP AS Val Blue entered the village square, accompanied by Grizz and her mother. Camp dogs barked and howled, joining the squeals of children excited by the ruckus. Voices called for his speedy execution. It seemed his trial was about to begin.

  Pirate justice, Dake thought. He’d missed it, especially after seeing how the rest of the galaxy handled their versions of “justice.”

  Val turned to him, seeming to steel herself at the sight. The indefinable something between them that was there from the beginning hadn’t faded. In their younger years it was a playful spark. Now it was more like the crackle in the air before an intense thunderstorm hit, leaving him wondering whether to take shelter or risk staying out to drink in the rain.

  With the raucous shouts for his punishment filling the sunny square, she swaggered toward his cage, long-legged, her hips swaying, her expression chilly and hard but with a touch of smugness—like a hunter who’d bagged a particularly sweet prize and still needed to deliver the killing blow. The past five years had exacted a toll on her. Pale and thinner, she appeared almost fragile, a deceptive impression he was sure, remembering how she’d chased off Johnson’s mediators only days ago. Inner strength aside, life had been hard on her. On both of them. He mourned the innocent young couple they once were, and for all that could have been. Maybe they’d find what they lost. Although at that moment he was quite sure she’d rather sink a blade into his heart than let him win hers.

  “Mama!” The boy who had been spying on him from the crowd for hours darted out of hiding and tugged on Val’s hand. “Mama, look!”

  Surprise and disbelief shot through Dake. Mama? Val? The girl who wanted to be free as the wind had a child? So that was what he’d seen in the boy when they’d shared a glance. Her. The inexplicable rush of recognition he’d felt seeing the child made more sense now.

  Hells be, Dake thought as he did the math. Val hadn’t waited very long after sleeping with him to jump under the covers with someone else. Who was the father? Who’d usurped him in Val’s world with so little delay? He hoped not Ayl. The thought made him downright surly as he examined faces in the crowd. The stinking chicken pen Val had stuck him in or the fact he’d been standing in brand-new Triad-issue boots for hours, impatient, tired, and with an empty belly wasn’t helping.

  “Come on and see, Mama. A real-life Sureblood, and we’ve got him in a cage for safekeeping!” The boy tried yanking her in Dake’s direction. He clearly wanted to share his “prize.”

  Val had shed her hardness like a raider peeled off armor. The tender expression suffusing her face revealed how deeply she loved this child. It grabbed at Dake’s heart. Kneeling down, she whispered something to him. The boy hung his head. She insisted, and then he nodded. He threw Dake a forlorn look before he pulled out his “dozer,” firing at the sky as he scampered off with the puppy hot on his heels.

  Then Val resumed her swaggering approach, circling the pen with the deadly patience of a sea buzzard on deathwatch. Her disdain was overly dramatic, engaging and enraging the crowd. It was all part of the act. She had to maintain an image for her people. It was the pirate way.

  “Look at you,” she muttered with disgust. “Showing up in a fancy Triad shuttle. Wearing Triad colors. And new boots.” She shook her head. “A shame to see you in this condition, but
it’s not really a surprise. Did you think you’d convince us to leave our home, like their other messengers? Is that what you’re after, Sureblood? Our eviction?”

  Dake gnashed his teeth until his jaw ached and kept his composure. And it near killed him. “Your clan’s in danger, Val. I’m here to warn you.”

  She laughed without a hint of amusement. “About what? The sorry state of our supplies to carry us through the winter? The lack of cargo ships to raid to fill the coffers back up? My own ships sitting grounded with battle damage that we can’t afford to repair? There’s nothing you can say that I don’t already know. But whatever you’ve got to warn me about, say it, because I’m itching to get started on convicting you.” She thrust a hand in the direction of the crowd. “And so are they.”

  “You already know the Triad wants zelfen. But if they don’t think we’ll let them have it, they’re going to move us pirates out to get it. By force if they have to.”

  She snorted. “Let them try.”

  “I was on their ship, the Unity. Val, it’s nothing like we’ve got. It could scorch Artoom in the blink of an eye. To survive this, we have to work together. We have to heal the divide between us. Here. Tonight.”

  Her gaze flicked to his at that, her fear revealed with her suddenly too-tight jaw.

  “I swear to you, on the honor of my people and on my father’s name, the Surebloods never declared war on your clan, and we didn’t murder Conn Blue.”

  She turned, shouting over the hullabaloo, “The Sureblood claims he’s innocent on all counts. If we find out he’s lying, he’ll pay with his worthless life!”

  The Blues reacted enthusiastically, with the raiders’ stomping boots pounding out a threatening undercurrent to the yelling and insults. Val turned back to him. “Hear that, Sureblood? It’s blood they want. Yours.”

  “Are you going to give it to them?”

  “That,” she said, “is entirely up to you.”

  “Bull flarg. You control the proceedings here.”

  She grabbed the rungs of the pen, her voice lower and between them only. “If you think my power is secure, you are naive. I’ve got dissenters in the wings, waiting for me to screw up, no thanks to you.”

  He was suddenly aware of Ayl glaring at their new proximity, a hand resting on his dozer.

  “I was abducted. Kidnapped and conscripted. Drakken ambushed the Tomark’s Pride leaving your system. We never made it home, Val. Everyone with me that day is dead. My entire crew. I sent Yarmouth to warn you.”

  She absorbed his words, horrified and dumbstruck. He tried to make sense of the darkness under her eyes, her obvious fatigue. What had happened to his spirited, fresh-faced Blue girl? Neither of them were the same people who met in that cold freighter’s corridor so very long ago. Neither had weathered the years without damage. They’d suffered. But while his beatings had been mostly physical, hers had taken an emotional toll. He knew what had happened to him the past five years but what the hells had happened to her?

  He was suddenly glad for that cage. He didn’t trust his judgment if he were free in that moment to touch her. Denial and deprivation had toughened him, aye, but at the same time his pent-up longing for her would explode like a match to dry tinder if he were to take her into his arms. He scrubbed his face with a dust-caked hand. He was sweating in that stinking pen, trying to block out the chants calling for his death.

  “No one warned us, no one said anything. I waited, Dake,” she whispered. “I bloody well waited for word from you. I thought something happened to you.” Her tone was low and raw, betraying vulnerability she clearly wanted to hide.

  Yarmouth must have perished. And Merkury along with him. Fates, he’d sent them to their deaths. He slammed his open hand against the rungs. “Blast it, Val, you could have commed my clan and found out we never showed. It’s too freepin’ late now, but why didn’t you?”

  “If you wanted to contact me you knew where to find me. That’s what I thought. Then you started crashing our raids. It was worse than anything we’d seen. Everywhere we went, a Sureblood ship was waiting. I didn’t know how you’d know where to find us—every blasted time. It was almost is if you were intercepting our communication.”

  “Someone was, but not us.”

  Her golden eyes flashed like heat lightning over the plains before she narrowed them. “Who’ve we been fighting if it’s not you Surebloods?” What little color she had in her face drained away. “Nezerihm,” she hissed as the realization hit her. Then she scowled. “If you’re lying,” she warned. “If you’re trying to make Nezerihm your scapegoat—”

  “Nez isn’t a scapegoat. He’s a monster. Every day that goes by that you don’t see it, you’re one step closer to losing everything. He’s got us by the throat. Unless we convince the Triad that he’s the enemy—our enemy—we can kiss our homeworlds goodbye.”

  Her hand shook as she smoothed wispy strands of hair off her forehead. Then she flushed at his penetrating search of her eyes, lowering them before any of her secrets could be revealed. She wants to believe you, but she’s afraid.

  As chaos churned all around them, he brought his face closer. It was the only privacy they’d get. “What are you scared of, Val girl? That they’ll find me innocent tonight? And then there’ll be nothing more to stop us from being together and staying together? Conn himself gave his blessing to us going off alone that night. He knew what we’d be up to. We were young and innocent and taking our pleasure, aye, but it was more than that. I blasted well would have been your husband by now if not—”

  “If not for the murder. If not for your leaving and never coming back. If not for your clan crashing every raid we Blues attempted. If not for a million things.” Harshly, she whispered, “I hated you.”

  “You were falling for me. And I for you, Val Blue. Don’t deny it, or it’ll be my turn to call you a liar.” He gripped the wires, leaning closer. “Go on,” he dared. “Deny I’m not the one for you.”

  Sunshine spilled from the sky, forming a too-cheerful backdrop as they glared at each other. “Ayl and I are getting married.”

  “What?” he growled. “When?”

  “I haven’t set a date.”

  As he absorbed her casual tone, he couldn’t help looking at her hands, reading the mixed signals they sent. Her fingers squeezed the cage wires hard enough to bend them. He remembered the precocious child, her son. “Is that boy his? Val, is he?”

  He waited out her silence as sweat needled his face.

  “No,” she said almost too quiet to hear. “He’s not Ayl’s.”

  Whatever relief she read in his eyes, she hardened herself to it. Aching for her pain and feeling murderous rage toward Nezerihm at the same time for causing it, he cursed himself for not letting his suspicions run amok five years earlier. It would have made him more careful about watching his back that day he left Artoom. And Val’s back. If he’d been more suspicious, more cautious, maybe he could have avoided conscription. Maybe, freepin’ maybe, he could have married Val and that boy would be his son instead of some other man’s.

  No. He’d not cling to what might have been. He’d seize the day and move forward. “I swear, I will make things right. With your clan, and with you. If that’s what it takes to get you to listen to me, then I’m asking you to start this trial. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  She glanced to the sidelines where Grizz stood with Sashya and signaled with a nod. Then she took a few steps back and once more shouted above the hulla-balloo. “The Sureblood claims he’s innocent. He claims Nezerihm had Conn Blue assassinated and tricked the Surebloods into waging war with us Blues ever since! Let us see if he’s right or wrong!”

  It was pandemonium outside as the shocking accusation spread far and wide.

  Breathless, she turned back to him. “I’ll prove it,” he said. “Everything.”

  In those golden eyes he thought he caught a glimmer of faith—in him—before the guards led him away. He hoped he was right about that, for he’
d just dropped everything that mattered into this Blue girl’s beleaguered hands.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  RAIDERS HERDED DAKE BY gunpoint into the cool shade of the meeting house he remembered from the gathering.

  They chained his ankle to a post in the floor but left his hands unbound. In front of him was a long rectangular table for the senior raiders, already filing in. Grizz, Val and her mother took the three center seats. Chairs for the junior raiders and stools for the apprentices were set up against the rear wall. It was going to be a full house.

  Grizz took it from there, leaving Val to watch with her mother. He read off the charges against Dake, and they were many, causing an undercurrent of swearing and grumbles. He was certain it was about to get louder, a lot louder. Grizz lowered the sheet he held and leveled Dake with a piercing gaze. “So, you’re saying that Nezerihm is to blame for the death of Conn?”

  “And my father, Tomark Sureblood. Both men dreamed of unity, and were on the verge of making it happen when Nezerihm ended it. He had my father killed first and made it look like a ship accident. When Conn tried to keep that dream going, Nez made sure he died, too. Fearing Sethen and I would do the same, he knew he had to stop us, and any chance of our clans forging an alliance. We’d be too strong, stronger than him—his greatest fear. Sethen’s crash was no accident.” He met as many skeptical glares as he could, lingering on Sashya’s. “He was murdered!”

  The reaction was immediate. Squeezing her eyes closed, Sashya brought the tip of her shawl to her mouth and Val rubbed her back. The raiders’ shouts soon drowned in the thunder of fists pounding on the table and, where there was no table within reach, of boots hitting the floor.

  “Nezerihm went after me next,” Dake bellowed. “He knew when I was due to leave Artoom, the day he killed Conn and set it up so I’d be blamed. The Drakken hunter ship he tipped off was waiting for me at the exact deep-space entry point we’d use to get back to Parramanta. Aye, Tomark’s Pride, a nice, ripe ship of healthy males, ready for the picking. I was conscripted, locked up. And I stayed that way for more than five freepin’ years.” Saying the words, he finally felt the full impact of Nezerihm’s evil. He tugged at the ankle chain, almost forgetting that because of that evil, he was still chained up like an animal. Boots thundered and murmurs of “he lived through it” and “caged and survived” and “no pirate ever has” were thrown from raider to appalled raider. There was nothing worse to a pirate than the thought of losing all freedom. Val turned her gaze downward, staring hard at her clenched fists. If he knew his Blue girl, it meant he’d gotten through to her playing the shock and sympathy card. Now he had to underscore his story with proof.