Chapter 10

ten

. . .

Thaumas

I stared at Raza, ice water trickling through my veins. The merc's words rang in my ears, tolling like funeral bells.

They're coming for you, bird boy. And they're coming soon.

I'd known this day would come. Known that eventually, the Obsidian Syndicate would tire of our merry chase across the stars. That Zarath's wounded pride would demand blood, payment, for the insult we'd dealt him.

But spirits help me, I'd hope.

Kat's small hand gripped my arm, her nails biting into my skin. Grounding me, anchoring me in the here and now.

"Thaumas? Love, talk to me."

I shook myself, meeting her wide, worried gaze. I summoned a smile, but genuinely, and covered her hand with my own.

"I'm all right," I assured her, the words steadier than I felt. "It's not entirely unexpected. We've bloodied the Syndicate's nose too many times. They were bound to retaliate sooner or later."

Raza snorted, a harsh, humorless sound. "Retaliate is putting it kroxing mildly, bird boy. Zarath's put a bounty on your head that would tempt a saint to sin. Half the mercs in the sector will be gunning for you, and that's just the official contract."

His lip curled, baring a yellowed incisor. "I've also heard whispers of a black deal. The kind that's only offered to the real sickos, the artists of wet work. They won't be content with just killing you, Thaumas. They'll want to make an example."

Kat made a wounded noise, her free hand flying to her mouth. I squeezed her fingers, an inadequate comfort, even as cold purpose crystallized in my chest.

"Let them come," I said, quiet and implacable as a glacier. "Let them throw their worst at me. I'll send them all screaming back to the void that spawned them."

"Thaumas, no!" Kat's eyes blazed, green fire and defiance. "You can't! It's suicide!"

"She's right, bird brain." Raza's scaly brow furrowed. "I know you're hot shit with those plasma-casters, but even YOU can't take on the whole kroxing Syndicate solo. It's a good way to end up spaced and cooled."

"Who said anything about solo?" My smile was a knife slash in the gloom, cold and vicious. "I'm not so foolish or proud as that."

I looked to Raza, holding his slit-pupiled gaze. "You have contacts, friends in low places. Mercs, smugglers, the odd pirate or two. People who hate Zarath's guts and wouldn't mind seeing him taken down a peg."

Understanding flickered in Raza's eyes. "Rogue elements," he murmured. "Malcontents with more guts than sense. The kind who'd get off on bloodying the Syndicate's nose."

"Got it in one." I leaned forward, wincing as my healing wound twinged. "We need numbers, Raza. Bodies to throw at Zarath's pet killers. If we can thin the herd before they get close."

"It might just give us a fighting chance." Raza nodded slowly, a fierce grin breaking over his craggy face. "Shit, Feathers. That's cold. I like it."

"Well I don't!" Kat's voice cracked like a whip, high and strident. She twisted to glare at us both, poison in her eyes.

"Are you two out of your fucking minds? You want to, to recruit cannon fodder? Throw away lives just to buy time?"

"It's not throwing lives away if they believe in the cause, Kat." I grabbed her hand, desperate to make her understand. "These people despise Zarath. They've suffered under his boot heels, lost loved ones to his depravity. You really think they wouldn't jump at the chance to give a little back?"

"Besides," Raza added, picking at his nails with a wicked-looking dagger. "Nobody making them do anything, girlie. They're mercs, smugglers. They know the risks."

"I don't care!" Kat's free hand balled into a fist, trembling at her side. "I won't, I won't be responsible for leading people to their deaths, Thaumas. I can't."

I knew, with grim certainty, that goodness would get her killed here. Would get us all killed, if she couldn't bend, couldn't adapt to the ruthless calculus of war.

"Kat. Love, listen to me." I squeezed her hand, pouring every ounce of my conviction into the words. "We're not leading lambs to slaughter. These people, they're already marked. Already living on borrowed time, just by existing outside Zarath's control."

I held her gaze, amber to emerald, willing her to understand. "At least this way, their lives will mean something. Their deaths, if it comes to that, will hurt the Syndicate. And that's all any of us can ask for, in the end."

She stared at me, tears glimmering in the corners of her eyes. "But, but what if there was another way? What if we could avoid the bloodshed entirely?"

"How?" Raza scoffed. "What? Wish real hard? ‘Cause I hate to break it to you, princess, but this isn't a sweet bedtime story that ends well. Zarath ain't gonna stop coming ‘til one of you is on the ground."

"You think I don't know that?" Kat rounded on him, grief and rage twisting her face. "You think I don't wake up every kroxing day terrified that it's going to end with the man I love bleeding out in my arms again?"

She swallowed hard. "I'm not, I'm not naive, Raza. I know we're at war. I know people are going to die."

Her shoulders slumped. A marionette with cut strings. "I just, if I could be the one to face Zarath. Challenge him to a duel, settle this the old-fashioned way."

"No!" I lurched upright. "Absolutely kroxing not, Kat! I won't let you sacrifice yourself on that altar!"

"Oh, but it's okay for you to do it? It's fine for you to martyr yourself with this, this suicide mission, but spirits forbid I try to finish what I kroxing started?"

"I'm not, it's not the same thing!" I snarled, frustration and fear shredding my composure. "Zarath wants my head, Kat. my blood. Raza said it himself - I'm the one with the bounty!"

"And what about the price on my head, hmm?" She lifted her chin, a pale slash of defiance. "He want me just as badly, Thaumas. Maybe even worse."

Her eyes held mine, fathomless and echoing with old hurts. "I was his prize, Thaumas. His shining jewel in the midden heap of broken dolls. You really think he'll suffer the insult of me slipping my leash? You think he'll rest while I draw breath beyond his control?"

I made a wounded noise, deep in my throat. Spirits, but I couldn't argue with her. Couldn't refute her cold, barbed logic.

Because she was right. Zarath wanted her, covetously and obsessively. And he would never, ever stop hunting her. Even if he had to char the galaxy to cinders, salt the ashes of a thousand worlds, he would never relent. Never grant her a moment's peace.

Unless we stopped him. Unless we tore his cancerous heart from his chest and crushed it to a pulp.

Raza cleared his throat pointedly, the sandpaper rasp grating on my last nerve. "Not to interrupt this touching display of devotion, but you do remember I'm here too, right? Risking my scaly ass right alongside you moony lovebirds?"

Kat huffed a watery laugh, dashing the tears from her cheeks. "How could we forget? Your scintillating presence is the backbone of this whole enterprise, Raza."

The merc preened, puffing out his chest. "Damn straight. You two are lost without me and you kroxing know it."

I snorted, my lips twitching. "A fact you never tire of reminding us, Scales. It's a wonder your ego can fit on this scrap heap you call a ship."

"Hey!" Raza leveled a finger at me, mock affront on his craggy face. "You watch your beak, bird boy! The Crimson Claw is a paragon of her class! She's the tightest, meanest, fastest bird in the black and you kroxing know it!"

"Boys, boys! You're both pretty!" Kat held up placating hands, lips twitching. "Can we put the measuring contest on hold and focus, please? We've got a crime lord to gut from gizzard to groin, if you recall."

Raza subsided with ill grace, grumbling something uncomplimentary under his breath. I magnanimously ignored him, already turning my mind to the task at hand.

"You're right, of course." I shifted gingerly, mindful of my healing wound. "First things first - we need to gather our forces. Raza, put out feelers to your contacts. Anyone who's ever been wronged by the Syndicate, anyone with an ax to grind. We need all the bodies we can get."

The merc nodded sharply, already moving towards the door. "On it, boss. I'll shake the kroxing trees ‘til the eager beavers fall out."

I turned to Kat, my heart clenching at the determined jut of her chin. "You and I need to train. Hard. If we're going to face Zarath and his top killers head on, we need to be a kroxing machine."

A spark of unholy glee kindled in her eyes, chasing away the shadows. "The deadliest machine the ‘verse ever saw," she purred, a slow, vicious smile curling her lips. "His pet dolls, forged in blood and void turned on their master with a vengeance."

Raza barked a harsh laugh, slapping the doorframe. "Shit, Blondie! I do love the way your brain works!" He sketched a mocking bow, horned brow, scales waggling. "On that delightfully demented note, I'll leave you two to your stabby foreplay. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

And he was gone, the door hissing shut behind him. Kat and I stared at each other for a long moment, the weight of all we'd agreed on settling around us like a lead mantle.

Then Kat squared her shoulders, a slow, fierce grin breaking over her face. "Well? You going to lay there ‘til the stars go cold, bird boy? Or are you going to stop lazing and train me already?"

I laughed, sharp as broken glass. Oh, but I adored her. This brilliant, bloodthirsty, magnificent creature I called mate.

"Aye aye, Captain," I purred, painfully levering myself vertical. "Your humble servant obeys."

Her smile sharpened, edged in steel. Ishtar help me, but she was glorious in her deadly purpose.

My avenging angel. My guiding star in the void-dark night.

Together, we would lance this poison from the cosmos. End the blight of Zarath and his twisted Syndicate once and for all, or die in the kroxing attempt.

But as I looked at Kat, at the falcon light in her eyes and the killing edge of her smile. I knew which way the dice would fall. Knew it in my bones, in the very atoms of my being.

We would be the last ones standing when the dust settled, and the blood cooled. We would be the authors of our fate, the captains of our destiny.

And all the forces of heaven, hell, and the howling void between, would kroxing tremble before us.

Of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. I should have kroxing known it wouldn't be that simple.

But as alarms shrieked through the ship, as the deck bucked and heaved beneath our feet, all I could think was, They're here.

Zarath's killers. Boarding us, boxing us in like womp rats in a drain pipe.

And we'd walked right into their trap, bold and blind as newborn pups. Grim certainty settled in my guts like a cold stone.

This was it. The defining moment, the crucible that would make or break us.

Live or die, sink or swim, it ended here. On this ship, in the screaming void, with blaster fire and blood.

I met Kat's gaze across the bucking deck. Saw my steely resolve, my diamond-hard defiance, reflected at me.