by Stella Cassy
“There are plenty of others,” I said.
“Our pool of vetted resources is low. We should never have relied so heavily on their services. Our lucrative arrangement made us vulnerable. After this battle, there will be many changes according to Tarion.”
I remained quiet, waiting for the vitriol that I had received from Captain Tarion.
“Their fleet should fit nicely into inner or outer perimeter security,” Dashel said. “We need the extra fire.” His voice turned hard. “After we exterminate the vermin from Thirren.”
“From the little I saw of Black’s main ship, though mid-level,” he said, “its customizations appear to have almost as much power as one of our prime-levels.”
“Does it?” I asked. “I have not seen much of it.” Where was the censure about my incarceration?
A faint patter echoed in the corridor. We glanced at the doorway. I tensed and put my hand on the weapon clipped at my side. Esmerelda, as formidable as she was, could not possibly have escaped Lara and Natalie so soon. From what I had heard of them, they were as capable as their mates.
The tiny spirit being hovered on the threshold. It eyed Dashel suspiciously, whose midnight hue could be as intimidating as Tarion’s fiery color, especially when he scowled.
I smiled and held out my hand to her.
“Who are you?” Dashel’s face relaxed into a smile, stepping toward the tiny creature. She made a beeline straight for me.
“I got her from Black’s ship.” I had taken her on an impulse I did not understand.
“So, are you keeping them or selling them?” Dashel asked, patting the small creature’s head.
I glanced down at the little creature gazing up at me. I had not gotten a word out of her. Had she not spoken to me when she first appeared and given me nourishment? I rubbed a hand over my face.
“Black and her fleet...”
“They all belong to Thirren.” My home planet’s name stuck in my throat. When would it not?
“Yours now.” Dashel clamped a hand on my shoulder. “If it were my find, I’d keep the ship and sell the rest. As long as the Hielsrane operation gets its percentage, I do not think Tarion will care what you do with this little one or the fleet. Except for the captain.”
I shrugged. “The decision really should be handled by the Hielsrane Operation.”
“Yes, Moddoc Hielsrane.” He nodded slowly. “You might regret it after the war when we have more time to indulge in luxuries. You do not get to benefit from one of the main perks of being space-bound the majority of your life, being Thirren-side all the time. Although relinquishing your claim could be a step toward making amends for your error.”
Error? Was recompense even possible?
Such a scenario was so removed from my life planet side, I rarely thought about the extras that the space bound Drakon were privy to. Interlopers who managed to reach Thirren’s inner orbit were obliterated without question. Whatever goods they transported were not worth the risk. That policy had served us well for eons. My actions, and the Pax’s betrayal, had circumvented all our defenses. If Dashel knew the extent of my mistake, he would be less magnanimous.
“I’m glad to hear that you do not want to keep the captain, because Commander Tarion would not allow it considering her actions. If we were not already at war, then he might be more magnanimous. A human like her, can she ever be trusted?”
“Is she fully human?” I asked.
“Lara and Natalie seem to think so, and they are one hundred percent human.” His lips curved and his eyes drifted away from mine to the starlit space in front of us.
“I should go down there now, see what I can get out of her.” I grabbed an access card for the cargo cage.
Dashel settled in the copilot’s seat. He flicked his hand toward the exit. “Lehar is on his way over. He wants to inspect Black’s ship and the cargo. Send someone else to do it.”
With one foot in the corridor, I paused without looking back and cleared my throat. “I am alone,” I said. It was difficult to admit that I had no crew, no slaves, no one to do anything for me. For what seemed like an eternity he did not respond. “No Hielsrane flies solo during wartime, Captain Moddoc.” He spoke with a quiet ferocity. “I will send for a couple of my crew members. You can keep them until this war is won.”
“Thank you, I…” Am not worthy of your generosity. A chance to contribute to the restoration of power was more than I deserved.
“Alm, we are leaving.” I held out my hand to the little being and she trotted to my side.
We strode down the hall. At the end of the corridor, I pointed to the left. “Go to my room and get one of your snacks.”
After she took off, I watched her until she rounded the corner. Maybe Dashel was right, and I could help regain control of Thirren before I left. I broke into a light jog all the way to the other side of the ship. I decreased my pace as I approached the holding cage.
Inside the diornod cage, Esmerelda Black resembled a starbird. As she rocked her body forward, her wings flapped and the chair her legs were shackled to scraped the floor. Her hands were bound over her head in the same zarkenite cuffs she had used on me, attached to a chain suspended from the ceiling. I had positioned the chair just close enough to the cage’s wall to keep her hopes of escape alive.
I straightened and stepped in front of the cage. Her body stilled as soon as we made eye contact. “Comfortable, demi-human?” I could not resist asking.
Her lips bunched into a tight ball as she glowered at me, but she remained silent.
“Did they instruct you to refrain from touching the wall?” I asked.
“What’s gonna happen if I do?” She glared at me, her eyes full of suspicion.
“You will trigger an alarm.”
“What’s it made of?” I could almost hear her mind whirring with escape plans.
“A material comparable to zarkenite. It is preferable for our small vessels.” Diornod wood was ideal for a small ship, light but as effective as the zarkenite cells favored by many throughout the verse.
Her eyes narrowed. “Is that right? It looks like wicker, bamboo, maybe.”
“What are they?” I asked.
“Earth materials.”
A laugh rumbled in my chest. I shook the sleeve of my tunic over my hand and stuck it through one of the largest holes above her head. I trailed a finger across her silky cheek. Her face, hands and feet were the same peach cream hue, but her skin was thick from her neck to her ankles and covered in colorful pale flowers like her wings.
“Is your maternal or paternal line human?” I asked.
A smile flickered across her lips. “I’m of the Captain Esmerelda Black line, sole member, Moddoc Hielsrane.”
A soft laugh escaped me. My fingers ran up the other side of her neck, then across her full lips. “From the neck up you are the same as Lara and Natalie.”
Her lips softened. She kissed my thumb, then her mouth opened, and she sucked it into her mouth and bit down hard. I hissed and yanked my hand from her teeth and out of the cage.
“What do you want?” She spat at me.
“You should not deplete your hydration. You never know when or if you will get any nourishment.”
“You were given food and water. Where’s mine?”
So, the food and drink were real, too. “Would you like some tranquilizers?”
“Fuck. Off. Hielsrane.”
Heat smoldered in my belly and licked up through my chest. I stumbled back and whipped around, thwacking my caudal on the doorway as I stomped up the corridor.
My mouth dropped open automatically to expel my heat. That was all I needed: to lose control of my fire and incinerate the corridor. Panting, I stopped and leaned against the wall. The fire died instantly as it had for too many moons since Almordae was taken from me.
11
Esmerelda
Moddoc Hielsrane looked like he was going to kill me. It seemed like the stories I’d heard about Drakon being alien drago
ns was all myth, however. The only fire Moddoc or any Drakon could make was with an accelerant.
What was I thinking, biting him like that? My fate would be worse than death. He was going to sell me. I could see it in his dark, gray ringed eyes.
Grunting, I hoisted myself up on the chain suspending me over the chair. If I swung back and forth, maybe I could break the strange, cross-hatched material that looked like a cross between wood and rope that was keeping me inside of the small cell. With a plan in motion, I gritted my teeth and swung, kicking just as I reached full height. The material my foot connected with was pliable – perhaps it could be broken with enough effort.
Before I could ponder further, a loud crash resounded in the small holding bay as the small chair beneath my feet clattered to the floor. Moddoc returned before I could even question what had happened.
“Esmerelda,” he whispered, his face inches from my own. His voice was icy, but I could feel his warm breath on my face through the wooden bars of the cage.
I looked up into his unreadable face. “You’re back.” Already.
“I see you did not heed my warning.”
“What?” I asked, although I knew I was caught. Was he around the corner watching me on some monitor? Yes, of course there were cameras hidden somewhere, everywhere.
“Did you access my ship’s data?”
“That’s next on my list when I put you back in my cell.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I yanked my left hand down as hard as I could, popping my thumb out of joint.
“How did you know about her? I never mentioned...”
Pain vibrated down my arm and radiated through my whole body down to my toes. I glanced down at my bright pink toe and flexed it. I scuffed it against the floor. Gods, it itched. It couldn’t be infected in ten minutes. Could it?
“Esmerelda Black, answer my question. Or should I use your taser wand on you?”
“What are you blubbering about?” I forced myself to stop banging my toe into the floor. There was no point in triggering more antihistamine.
“Almordae.” He jabbed his finger through a hole in the cage. “You know about her.”
“What about him?” I asked, rubbing my face against my arm.
“She is female. As you well know.”
“Oyna says it’s a male. She’s spent the most time—”
“Esmerelda stop your fabrications and evasions.”
I twisted my hand and yanked once more. I didn’t know which hurt more, my toe or my thumb. If only he would leave – surely, I could free the other hand and begin dismantling the door of the cage.
He leaned his face closer to the wall. “How does it feel?”
He knew. I had all but broken my thumb for nothing. Tears rolled down my face.
He stepped closer and stared down at my foot which had gotten as red as one of those old-fashioned hot balls, and it was beginning to feel like one too. I struck my toe against the floor over and over.
“I warned you not to touch it,” he said.
“My foot.” He didn’t know about my hand. “What’s wrong with my foot?”
I yanked my hand free, scraping skin off my knuckle. The sting didn’t compete with my foot which felt like it was covered in fire ants. I blew out a shuddering breath. What in the damn galaxy was on that rope, some kind of pepper oil or —
“You poisoned me.” I grunted and rocked back and forth until the throbbing subsided in my hand.
“I did nothing.” He threw his head back and laughed. Then he unclipped a key card from his belt and opened the door.
I swung my body forward and aimed my fist straight toward his nose. His head snapped back. The pop was so loud I expected my hand to come away as red as my foot. But there was just one orange-red drop emblazoned on the front of his shirt.
He lunged forward and snarled.
“Sorry,” I muttered quickly. Why couldn’t I be nice to the asshole long enough to get out of here? I closed my eyes and let the tears flow. “Go on, you fire fucker, punch me, better yet stomp on my foot. Anything would feel better than this poisonous itching.” An itch so deep it inflamed every nerve in my body. Not even the poison oak or the chickenpox I had as a child could compete with this.
“Sadistic torturer...” The retort died on my lips as the itch spread up to my calf.
“You will survive unscathed—by my hands.” He had stopped laughing but there was still a smile in his voice.
I hung my head and sobbed open-mouthed. His warm breath in my face was all I knew for what felt like a minute. I tensed my body for whatever he was going to do to me.
Clinking came from above my head. My arms dropped down and I opened my eyes slowly. He stared down at me, his mouth a tight line.
I fell forward and clawed at my foot.
“Scratching will only exacerbate your discomfort.” He clasped my hands in one of his claws and raised them above my head. Then he bent, unlocked my feet restraints. Before I could react, he threw me over his shoulder and strode out of the cage.
I didn’t ask or care where was he was taking me. All I could do was breathe in and out as my foot vibrated with pain.
From the wall, he hauled down a tube of green liquid, which looked more poisonous than those ropes. He set me on my feet.
“What’s in that?”
“The quickest thing to alleviate the burn,” he said.
“No more scratching, Esmerelda.” He grabbed my hair and tugged, forcing me to look at him.
“Okay, let go.” I reared my head back and it jerked from his hands.
He aimed the tube at my foot and depressed the top. A stream of pale green gel coated my leg and foot. “You must have gotten it into your bloodstream. I have not seen such a severe reaction in a long time.”
He hoisted me back up in his arms and took me inside the cell. Plucking the chair up off of the floor, he dropped me into it with a sigh.
I flopped back against the backrest, afraid that if I moved that the coolness overtaking my leg would go away. Glaring at him, I demanded, “Another blast of the gel, Drakon.”
His breath fanned over my face as he learned over to pick up a lock of my hair, ignoring my request. Rubbing it between his taloned fingers, he said, “It is as soft as a fledgling’s down.”
Before I could form a thought about his odd comment, he aimed the tube at my foot again and blasted twice.
“Thank you,” I said. “What’s in that miraculous container?”
“Rehydration fluid. Its relief is temporary.”
“How long does it take for this poison to wear off?”
“You should be normal by solar rise,” he said. “Stay there. I will return.”
“Leave that here,” I said, pointing at the tube.
“No.” The devil spun around, taking the canister of liquid heaven with him.
“What is the permanent antidote?” I yelled at his back. “Do you know?”
Without turning around, he said, “Yes. Time.”
The door clinked as it shut. I opened my eyes, stood on my good foot, and stretched my arms wide for the first time in hours. There was no way I was touching the wall again, but I had to get out of here. That key card hanging from his waist was my only way out of this poisonous cage.
I might not get to sit again, so I flopped back down in the chair and shut my eyes.
Footfalls sounded too soon. I pried my eyes open just as he rounded the corner. He carried a jug of pale-yellow liquid, some kind of aluminum looking blanket, and a tray loaded with bowls and containers of food. He unlocked the door and spread the blanket and food on the floor picnic style. He handed me a bowl of clear balls, similar to grapes, with multi-colored seeds inside them.
I sniffed them. He took two and tossed them in his mouth. “They will ease your discomfort, but do not ingest more than half of the seeds as they have an intoxicating effect.”
“Thanks,” I whispered, moving to sit on the floor. “May I have my clothes back?”
“You are wearing more tha
n others who have been detained here.” He glanced at the poisonous wall and smirked. “Your clothes will be returned to you. Eventually.”
I curled up on my side, keeping my eyes on the key card. Unfortunately, it would be out of reach if he lay down facing me. His black and gray uniform was a fresh version of the one he’d worn on the ship. His notched gray belt didn’t have anything attached to it. He had removed every weapon or device except for that gray and orange keycard whispering my name.
I bit into a fruit ball. The clear gel, a pear and kiwi flavor, filled my mouth and I cracked one of the peppery seeds and swallowed. I ate five of the balls including the seeds before I realized I didn’t feel any itching and had been smiling at him for at least five minutes.
“The pain is gone.” I leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Thanks, Moddoc.”
12
Moddoc
Esmerelda’s mouth was as soft as it had been the first time she put her pale red lips on my skin. Did she paint them, or were they always the color of spring blossoms?
Her pink foot, so unlike the rest of her, rested against my thigh. My fingers trailed over her ankle where a tight fabric tapered almost seamlessly. She jerked her foot, but I held it steady. The tip of my talon slipped underneath the strange, flexible garment. The skin underneath was the same as her face, hands and feet. Her naked dermis had to be this color all over.
“Quit it,” she said in her Captain Esmerelda Black’s voice. I had vowed to temper that autocratic tone a short while ago.
I withdrew my hand as she had commanded. “This garment...it’s as convincing as real skin.”
“It’s my second skin.”
“And your wings?”
“Bought those, too.” She jutted her chin my way. “Got a problem with that, Hielsrane?”
“If I did not know humans were wingless,” I said, “I would have thought they were born winged.”
She beamed up at me with eyes the color of the waters of the royal lagoons at first solar light.