The Commander's Virgin Queen (Warlords 0f Farian Book 3)

by Bailey Dark

  How the hell had he heard me?

  “Princess, did you need me?”

  I realized, with a breath of relief, I had called to him telepathically.

  I collapsed back to the pillows, knowing my face was flushing red.

  “No, I’m sorry. Everything is fine. I was just, wondering… Can we please set up the lab tomorrow?”

  “Yes, I thought that was already planned.”

  “Yes, thank you… Thank you… I… I just wanted to check.” My mouth was dry. My heart was beating heavily in my ears. I pulled a pillow over my face, hiding my embarrassment from the invisible, watching world.

  “Indeed. Have a nice night, Princess.”

  “Thank you. You too, Commander.”

  I cursed inwardly and pulled the covers up to my face. No more fantasizing, I reprimanded myself. That was dangerous. Apparently, the connection I had felt us having on the sailboat was real… There was something more between us. I had felt the electricity through the firefins, through his hand, into my mind. And now, when I was daydreaming about us, making love… I had called out to him in reality, in our minds…

  What did that mean?

  Did I want to find out?

  Eight

  Axis

  “I just don’t know what to do, Cartari. She mainly ignores me. If she isn’t ignoring me, she is actively despising me.” I tossed another fish into the bucket. My Second from the Seawards Special Operations of Emerona had taken command of the unit when I left and Jase had sent the unit to help out with the threat of the pirates. It was nice to see him again.

  “Why don’t you give her a present?”

  “A present?”

  “Yeah, but something meaningful. Girls like that. Something that tells her she can still be herself, a Princess of Serpul. She just also now has to be the Princess of Bristola.” Cartari whipped a fish out of the waters with his telekinetic powers and dropped it into the waiting basket. He brushed his sleeve across his brow, sweeping back his dark brown hair. It had a reddish glow in the sunlight. He had a smattering of freckles that dotted his ski-slope nose, a charming, boyish look that girls found irresistible, I knew. He had a square jaw that had been punched far too many times, though he was often good at dodging his way out of fights with his clever tongue and witty remarks.

  “Nice shot,” I said. What Cartari said made sense.

  “How did you guys first meet? Is there something meaningful from that?”

  I laughed. I knew just the thing. “You’re smarter than you look, Cartari.”

  “Takes one to know one,” he quipped and flung another fish into the basket.

  I quickly called to one of the attending sailors nearby and arranged for Ceritha’s present to be brought to the nearby dock. She would be meeting me there in about an hour. Cartari and I were catching fish for when Ceritha and I were to go out and meet some of the firefins. I figured she had her way of speaking to the most majestic ocean beasts that Farian had, and I had mine.

  There would be presents all around, today.

  “Do you want to come with us when we go out to meet the animals?”

  “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this. Normally, we are tracking them for days, trying to get them to come near enough to us so we can hit them with a tranq gun. And they have been getting more and more skittish, since we have been trying to get more and more of them for analyzing with the blue flu. So, I want to see this whispering that you are going to do.”

  “Well, I am not going to do it, but Ceritha is pretty amazing. And the electricity that comes from speaking to the animals, that’s just something else…”

  “You really think what you felt when you touched the firefin was from the fish?” Cartari laughed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Sometimes, feeling electricity like that is from a girl you like.”

  “And how would you know?” I threw a fish at Cartari instead of the bucket and he sidestepped it, swinging out his own telekinesis to catch the fish and plop it into the bucket. Then he looked at me, quite seriously.

  “Hey, girls like me.”

  I looked at Cartari, with his rakish charm, quick wit, and laughter that was always quick to his lips, and knew that it was true. He always had one or five girls in the rotation. But, I had never known him to feel love. And that is the only thing that electricity ever referred to. And I had just met Ceritha. There was no way… Nothing but the Curan Destin lore said anything about electricity like that from the beginning. It had to be from the telepathy with the fish.

  “Well, whatever it was, I want to feel it again.”

  “I shall come along, my liege. I hope to see it in action.”

  Cartari and I caught a good few buckets of fish and made our way down to the ship we would be taking to the firefin nesting grounds. It was a pod that I was familiar with and had swum with as a youth. They used to be much friendlier, but we had been doing a lot of research on them. We had likely worn out our welcome. I was truly relying on Ceritha at this point.

  The Princess was already at the ship when we arrived, which was good, because I would have a chance to give her the present before we launched. She looked beautiful, in a bright yellow top and black pants and boots, a large straw hat worn over her blazing red hair. Cartari bowed low as he met her and they exchanged pleasantries.

  She seemed a bit uneasy as we nodded hello to each other. She had trouble meeting my eyes, but I smiled at her as warmly as I could. She blushed a little and looked away. I couldn’t understand the blushing, but it was better than immediate dismissal, I figured.

  “I have a present for you, if you please, Princess,” I said. “Will you follow me?” She nodded and stepped into the path beside me, quiet, but not the angry quiet I had come to expect from her. Something had definitely shifted within her. Maybe she was just excited about the prospect of getting started on the mission for why she was here.

  I led her out onto the docks and smiled as I saw it. I was quite pleased with what my sailors had acquired for me, just from the quick detailed orders I had given. My men and women were well trained. I stopped in front of a small, trim sailboat, nice wood lines, 12-foot-long, an almost exact replica of the sailboat Ceritha had been sailing on Serpul when we met. The only difference was that this one had a sail the turquoise of Serpul’s ocean waters.

  “This is for you, Princess,” I said, gesturing to the boat. “I want you to know that you always have access to the oceans, that you are always free here, even when you are tied to the shores with me.”

  Ceritha’s hand covered her mouth as it dropped open a moment, her eyes widened with awe, then her hands brushed the wooden accent lines of the little boat and she ran her fingers along the tethering line.

  “It’s for me?” Her voice was small, sweet, but still strong. Her eyes glistened a moment, as if with tears, but then she coughed and they were gone. “This is so wonderful, thank you. StarChaser. That’s a lovely name for this little boat.”

  “I’m glad you like it. I hope she sails well for you. The only thing that I ask is that you let someone know when you take her out, okay? I just want to make sure you’re safe and, since you don’t know these waters well yet, I just want to know when you’re out on them. Is that all right to ask?”

  Do I tell her about Gorgin and the danger she might be in from roving pirates? I asked myself. No, not yet… I don’t want her to worry about things like that. Maybe later. Not just now.

  Her hand made a fist at her side a moment, but then she nodded. "Of course. That's reasonable." Then she smiled at me, and it was the first genuine smile I had seen from her since that first day. "Thank you, Commander… It is truly a precious gift."

  “You are welcome, Princess.”

  I was beaming inside. Win for me! How far could I push this goodwill…? “Do you think you could take me out on it sometime?”

  “Oh, you mean you won’t just swim after me if I sail away?”

  "I would prefer you to invite me on boa
rd. I very much like it when we are doing things together." I smiled at her, taunting her with my eyes, as I ran my hand along the lifeline where her hands were so that our hands joined together as our eyes met. She blushed furiously again and pulled back.

  “While that was delightful, I’m not sure you’ve earned your way back into my boat just yet.”

  “Ahh, I see,” I said with mock seriousness. “Are there tasks I must complete to earn my position on your boat? Are there seas I must sail? Sands I must trek? Mountains I must climb?” I moved in closer to her as a I spoke, running my hand up her arm, her shoulder, brushing back her hair as I spoke each pretend obstacle. “Will it be a dangerous journey?” I bent down to whisper in her ear.

  The smile I had seen for those brief moments of delightful kissing on her boat on Serpul was in her eyes as she moved her lips up close to my cheek and whispered. “The most dangerous you’ve ever endured… But the risk is well worth the reward, Commander… If you can stomach the swells and test yourself throughout the tempest…”

  My heart was thumping. I pulled her hat off and hung it off her back. Her hair smelled delicious as it brushed against my face. Her small hand was on my neck, and she stood on tiptoes to reach me. "When do these tasks begin, Princess? I'm ready…" I moved my hand to the small of her back and pulled her in close, so her full, luscious body was pressing against mine. She breathed into my neck and gripped at my ribcage, pulling me in even tighter. She pulled back just a little bit, so she could see my eyes as she spoke.

  “The tasks are already well underway, Commander… Do you think you have the speed, the stamina, the integrity, the grit, the spirit, to keep up with me?

  ”

  I was breathless, lost in her blue eyes. She tilted her chin up to look at me fully, and I bent down, kissing her full on the lips. She moved her body into mine as we embraced, wiggling a little, finding just the perfect placement of her breasts against my chest, her legs in between mine, and her mouth trading pressure.

  Then she pushed away and licked her lips.

  “Don’t get too excited, Commander. Your limits have hardly been tested.”

  Then she spun and walked back toward the ship we would be taking out to the firefin grounds, pulling her hat back on that flaming red hair.

  I took a step backwards and released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I shook my head. The electricity. She had to feel it! She had to! It was as if the kiss was something more than physical, it was a mental connection, too, it was beyond touch, it was emotion.

  I’m in trouble… I told myself, then followed her back to the boat. Cartari nodded at me, and I nodded back. “Present worked great. I’m back in the running for winning her affection."“That’s great, Axis! Glad to hear it. You deserve to be happy.”

  “Ready to sail, Commander,” the sailor at the helm said.

  “Great. Let’s head out. Firefin Scarlet nesting grounds.”

  “Are these firefins more scarlet in color?” Ceritha asked, her gorgeous face a mask, while I still felt a little out of breath. “Is that unusual?”

  “There are a few firefin pods that are scarlet. The others are the kind you are used to on Serpul. We are going to one of the bigger nesting grounds.” How could she stand there so coolly at the side of the ship, as if nothing had just happened?

  “I spoke with one of these firefins. Last night.”

  “You did?” I looked from her to Cartari, startled. “Where?”

  "I was out watching the sunset at the gazebo at the end of the dock behind the castle, and he came up to me." Her eyes watched the horizon as the ship set sail, the sunlight dancing in her baby blues like the mysteries I wanted to unravel.

  "That's so strange." It was uncommon, that one of these firefins, in particular would be drawn to her. "What did he think when you spoke to him?"

  “He was alarmed at first, understandably, having never spoken to a Curan before. I asked him to alert the other firefins to my presence, that I was here to help them.”

  “That’s amazing, Princess. I really hope it helps.” I turned to Cartari. “The first step will be to build trust back with these animals. As you can imagine, they’ve not been happy about how we have treated them.”

  “I’m sure that’s true.” Cartari looked quite serious as he spoke, soft green eyes wary, but I wondered if there was a joke beneath the surface. With him, there always was.

  “We shall just have to convince them that treatment will be different moving forward,” the Princess said, “I will be in charge of making sure they are taken care of, healed, and protected. They will be—”

  “Commander!” A sailor came running up to us, just as the ship was picking up speed, spray blasting our faces. “There is a dispatch from Capital City. You must respond to it immediately.”

  “We are underway on an important mission, sailor.”

  “The King insists.”

  I looked from the Princess to Cartari as the ship left our harbor and headed to the nesting grounds. I shrugged apologies and followed the sailor into the cockpit to hear the message that was so urgently relayed.

  Captain Gorgin had held a meeting the night before with six other pirate Captains, who held command of a total of twenty-five ships. A rightful armada. They had set sail toward Bristola’s main port and two of our other cities this very morning. Kajo was sending twelve more sets of Special Operations troops, four to each of these cities. I was ordered to ready my Navy immediately.

  It was an official declaration from the Beast King: we were at war.

  Nine

  Ceritha

  Axis conferred with Cartari for about five minutes when he came back from the cockpit. I busied myself with some breathing exercises at the starboard-side railing, tasting the salt spray on my lips. Would he tell me? What kind of partnership would this relationship be? What right did I even have to ask that when, deep inside, I knew I still planned on finding a way out of it?

  That sailboat, though… what a gorgeous gesture… and what a gorgeous little boat. I would have fun on it. He really seemed to be trying. Still: keeping secrets from me, like whatever important message he had received from the King just now, was not the best way to start a relationship.

  I shrugged. He was the Prince of an entire realm. There was no reason for him to share things of substance with me. I needed to earn a place on his boat, too.

  I saw him coming out of the corner of my eye and took a deep breath. The electricity from our kiss before still echoed through me. I didn’t know where it came from, why it was there, or what it meant, but it was getting hard to ignore.

  “How far is it to the nesting grounds?” I asked as he came to stand next to me. He tore his gaze away from the bobbing horizon and looked at me. There was a mask over his eyes now, a look that said there was so much more that he wanted to say aloud, but just couldn’t.

  “Another thirty minutes or so. Not far.”

  “You don’t need to go back home?”

  Axis shifted slightly and laid a hand on the railing. “There’s nowhere else I would rather be. Truly, Princess. The most pressing issue facing my realm, and our entire planet, is the blue flu. We need to figure out how to fix that for our sea creatures and for our Curans, and Bordash, as well. There is nothing more important.”

  His voice had risen high over the crashing of the waves against the boat, but that did not negate the seriousness of what he said, and I believed his sincerity.

  The thirty minutes passed in silence between us. A few times, he turned to me, as if he had something further to say, but the wind whipped away any words. I was reluctant to communicate telepathically; I didn’t want to reignite anything further. Last night’s chilling call out to him while I had been daydreaming of us making love had been enough of a reminder that there might be something deeper between us… Something deeper that I had always stood so solidly against.

  We slowed as we reached the nesting grounds, which were deep water-level caves in a small volcanic islan
d that rose up from the ocean’s depths. We would anchor far out from it and take a smaller sailboat into the grounds. A sailboat that the firefins could capsize, if they wanted, but that would allow us, allow me, to reach them from. We were not going armed, as these Curans typically were, and we were going with the trust that my message through Rensi had spread.

  As if he were waiting for us, Rensi sped through the water and jumped over our little sailboat as soon as Cartari, Axis, and I were seated inside it, before we had even freed the sail.

  “That’s him,” I said with a smile. “That’s the firefin I spoke to last night.”

  Cartari and Axis traded a glance, but I didn’t care if they were dubious. There were even those on Serpul who didn’t believe the more gifted telepaths could communicate with animals. I was about to prove them wrong.

  As we sailed closer to the overhanging coves of the nesting grounds, more firefins appeared in the waters, circling our boats, occasionally spin up out of the air. They were all the deeper scarlet color than the firefins I was accustomed to. A thirty-foot long queen reared up at the head of our boat, forcing us to heave-to, her four-wing fins spread out as she elevated from the water, hissing water at us, a shrill piercing screech making us halt. She hung there a moment, then dove back into the water.

  Before we could move forward, another firefin lunged up and over us, shrieking in the same pitch as it flew above. Suddenly, from all around, the shrieking grew to an alarming level and echoed off the cove walls.

  We covered our ears and hunkered low in the boat, as if warding off an attack. Axis was communicating with someone telepathically, probably the fearful sailors far behind us on the ship, wondering if we were under attack.

  “Ceritha, do something!” Axis shouted at me as the screeching continued and firefins continued to jump over and around us. I was so thrown off that he called me by my first name that I couldn’t react for a moment. Until a firefin jumped close to Cartari’s head and fired one of its barbed tail needles so that it thudded into the mast.