Chapter Seventeen

Jago

I stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom to see how I looked from every angle. This was a beautiful, ornate old mirror that had once belonged to Lady Itaka, and it showed my body in three separate panels and from three different angles.

I wasn’t completely sure about the clothes Marichal had found. The “trousers” were more like leggings, and obscenely tight and revealing. The stretchy material clung lovingly to my body. She had given me some tall boots, which helped a little, along with a soft, white shirt. But the jacket, made of rich, brocaded fabric, was entirely too short, leaving my ass fully exposed. I discarded it and found a short robe in my closet instead. It was made of lovely material too, in a bright, sapphire blue color and went down to a few inches above my knees. It was way more modest.

I had brushed my hair until it shined and hung down my back all the way to my waist. I was trying to decide if I should tie it back, when Niko walked in.

He stopped and stared at me for a long time, until I turned around to go to him.

“No,” he said. “Stay over there. You look far too delicious, and I’m trying to convince myself not to take you right out of those clothes.”

“But I just got dressed.”

“I know. That’s why I’m restraining myself.”

“You look very handsome too.”

He was wearing all black clothing, from his black trousers to a long, black jacket that fit him perfectly. He wore no shirt underneath the jacket though and his glorious muscles were on full display.

“Do all the men…will they all be so…bare?”

“The younger ones will, yes. It’s fashionable. Some of the older males will wear shirts in a see-through fabric inside their jackets. Some of the younger males may wear only an open robe. The women too, or they may be bare-chested as well.”

My eyes widened a bit. Despite having been in many different cultures, I hadn’t seen that much nudity really. I began to wonder if those had been the affairs my parents hadn’t allowed me to attend.

Niko smiled. “Don’t worry. You look wonderful, and visitors rarely dress in the same fashion as the Pton people.”

“Does that include hostages?”

“Definitely. Do you have your translator device?”

“Yes. You know, I never asked you how you came to speak Tygerian.”

“I visited Loros in your galaxy many times and stayed there a while. I made it a point to learn Tygerian and Lorian.”

“What do you mean? How did you stay on Loros?”

“Nerol, the brother of the old king, was a traitor to your world. He was offered wealth to let us establish a base in your world and he took it happily.”

“He’s dead now, you know. We think it was Rakkur who killed him, though there were a lot of shots fired at him.”

“The young prince I met on the ship? He seems too decorative to be lethal.”

I laughed. “He is decorative, I guess. But he was trained as a soldier.”

“His husband is very possessive.”

“Yes, he is.”

“I can understand that,” he said, finally beginning to move slowly toward me. “I’m feeling pretty possessive over you.”

“No,” I said. “Stay over there or we’ll never get to this court dinner. And by the way, I’m taking my knives.”

“What knives? I took all of them away from you.”

“I asked Marichal to find me more. They’re all hidden underneath my clothes, so don’t worry. I promise I won’t threaten anyone with them.”

“Make sure you don’t.”

“Besides, you’re wearing your weapons.” I glanced down at the very lethal disruptor type weapon he wore in a holster at his waist. It was covered by his long jacket, but I’d seen the bulge when he moved.

“You saw it?”

“Yes.”

“I need to adjust it then,” he said, beginning to fiddle with it. “I don’t go near Linnius without a weapon if I can help it.”

“Is he really so bad?”

“Absolutely, he is. But come on, let’s get this over with.”

****

The dinner was in full swing when we arrived. People were everywhere, both citizens of Pton and people from the dula. I felt out of place and more “alien” than I’d ever felt before, since I could see no one who looked or talked like I did. It made me uneasy.

We were taken by servants to a low table that was fairly close to the emperor’s table at the front. The air was thick with unfamiliar spices and perfumes, not to mention the strange sounding Pton language.

Linnius was sitting with three or four women at a long, low table and lounging on some sofa-like seats behind it. He glanced up at Niko as we came in and tilted his glass at him. His smile definitely never reached his eyes.

Niko bowed briefly and unsmilingly and sat down, pulling me down beside him. The room was dimly lit and rather cool, I thought, considering so many bare or nearly bare people in attendance. Niko had been right about the bare chests everywhere—some on people who didn’t really need to show off their bodies.

Of course, I looked for Lady—and I use the term loosely—Melanius right away, and she was sitting a couple of seats down from the emperor—I guess she hadn’t been fully restored to his good graces yet. She was glaring poisonously at Niko and me, so I gave it right back to her, until Niko elbowed me in the ribs.

She was wearing a pale green dress with a bodice cut all the way down to her waist. I thought she was a bit saggy for that kind of dress, personally. I pointed that out to Niko, and he gave me a repressive frown.

One of the councilors stopped by our table and began talking to Niko. I didn’t have the translator on. So many foreign voices were distracting, so I had no idea what he was saying. Niko turned to me at one point though and said, “Are you wearing your device?”

“No,” I replied.

“Put it on. Lord Miaas is speaking to you.”

I flicked it on and looked up at the man. He was about middle age, wearing one of the jackets with no shirt, but still looking fit. He was a handsome man, and he bowed to me and said, “Good evening, Your Highness. I hope you’re well.”

Surprised, I smiled at him. “Good evening, sir. Very nice to meet you. I’m doing very well.”

Niko translated and he smiled at me in return, patted Niko on the shoulder and moved on down the table.

“He was a friend of my father’s,” Niko said. “And I think he was one of Itaka’s many lovers that she had over the years.”

“Oh, my.”

Niko laughed. “She has led an interesting life and a full one. I hope she’ll be all right after we left the way we did.”

“My family wouldn’t hurt her, at her age, and besides, she hasn’t done anything. I think it was all a bluff to keep you in line. I never would have helped you escape if I thought she’d suffer.”

He squeezed my hand and leaned over to brush his lips across mine. I looked up and couldn’t resist glancing over at Melanius, who was still staring daggers at us. I would have given her a wink if I’d thought she would know what it meant.

Servants began bringing out platters of food, and Niko helped me pick out things he thought I’d like. The food was all right—a little too spicy for my tastes, but I ate some of it, and drank an assortment of some very nice wines.

As we ate and drank, some music began playing and several women and two or three young boys came out to dance. All of them had some kind of golden body paint on their bare bodies, and they did a sensuous, exotic looking dance for our “entertainment.” I was embarrassed for them, and wondered if they were doing this because they wanted to, or because they had to do it. I leaned over to ask Niko and he made a wavering motion with his hand that I took to mean it could be either.

That took away any enjoyment I might have had from the dancing, and I glared over at Linnius. I tried to imagine if I might have been forced to do that if Niko hadn’t claimed me, and I got a brief, intense feeling of homesickness. I was so far away from everyone and everything I’d ever known. Tygeria might have its faults—and patently we did—but we had no slavery in any of the Tygerian governed planets. Not anymore, since the war. It was a totally abhorrent idea to me.

Linnius clapped his hands when the dancing was finally over and said something to the crowd—again, I turned off the device in my ear, because I didn’t want to hear anything from him. That’s why I missed what he called out to Niko. But when Niko’s lips tightened and he snapped something back at Linnius in a loud voice, I scrambled to flip the device back on.

Linnius was laughing, and Melanius was giving me a mean, well-satisfied look. I whirled to look at Niko.

“What did he say?”

“Nothing for you to concern yourself with.”

“Niko, tell me.”

His face darkening, he spat out the words. “He asked me if I’d let you give him a lap dance.”

“To which you replied?”

“What do you think?” he said, his voice angry.

“Okay, then tell him this. Tell him I said, I dance only for you.”

He looked over at me in shock and said, “No, princeling, don’t let him taunt you into doing something beneath you.”

“Oh, it would be my pleasure,” I said, and slipped over into his lap, facing him. I glanced back over at Linnius, who was staring at us with his mouth hanging slightly open.

The music, which had never stopped, was playing something slow and sexy sounding, so I began to move my hips in time to it and leaned in to kiss the side of Niko’s face over and over again. He put his hands down on my ass, which I knew was to cover it from view and I kissed him again, this time on the lips and more lingeringly this time. Niko’s tongue gently touched mine and his breath was intoxicating, like the sweet wine we’d been drinking. I made no effort to pull away, but only increased my hip gyrations and his lush lips moved over mine again and again.

I felt him tuck his hands inside my tights and caress me over and over in some pretty intimate places. It was getting harder to breathe and a silence had fallen all around us as we put on our little show. He pulled away and whispered in my ear, and his breath in my ear gave me a full body shudder. My typpid had never been so hard, and I was actually feeling lightheaded. He held me close and then bit down on the place just under my jaw where he’d given me the first bite.

“Raise up a little, princeling,” he whispered, and when I did, he slid down my tights to expose my ass. He immediately pulled down my jacket over it, so no one got more than a glimpse, and that was probably just the way he’d planned it.

I started blushing as he told me to wrap my legs around his waist. It was hard to do that and awkward, but I managed. He began to thrust his hips as if he was fucking me right there at the table, and all I could do was hang on for the ride. His typpid was somehow bare too, and I didn’t know when that happened, but he was moving it between my thighs, and I was almost swooning as he moved against me and bent over to suck my blood at the same time.

I think I did swoon after a while, because the next thing I really remembered was sitting in my seat again, with Niko’s arm around me and my head lying on his shoulder. He looked down at me solicitously.

“Are you all right, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart? He’d never called me names like that before and it electrified me. I nodded and cuddled closer. “We’ll go as soon as you’ve recovered. I believe I got too carried away. When I get you home, I can give you some of my blood.”

“Why wait? Why not show them who we are to each other?”

He smiled and kissed me, and then bit almost casually into his wrist to hold it to my lips. “Just suck gently and take only a little. You’re not used to it, and it will make you drunk.”

I began to suck, and it tasted about like I thought it would—slightly coppery and not really unpleasant since I knew it was his. It began to warm me all over like strong liquor then, and it was only when I started moaning and trying to hold onto his wrist with both hands that he gently pulled away. I realized that I already felt stronger and not so lightheaded. But he was right. I did feel a little drunk.

He got to his feet and pulled me up beside him as new dancers came out to take the floor. I glanced over at the emperor’s table and saw him watching us with angry, hooded eyes. Niko led me out through the darkened room and out into the sweeter air of one of the courtyards. It was almost as bright as daylight, though the light had a silvery quality.

“It’s the moons,” Niko told me, pointing up at the night sky. They’re all in the same phase at the moment. Not full.”

“Blake calls that a gibbous moon. The one that follows the full moon and is the beginning of the moon’s transition into darkness.”

“Yes, that sounds like it.”

“With three of our moons close by, we get a good deal of light. You see the closest ones—Naha, Doco, and Tri.”

“And that’s Mara way back over there.”

“Yes. The one we were on not long ago.”

“Where you first made love to me.”

He drew me into his arms and kissed me again, and my feelings of homesickness receded a bit further. I wondered if it were too soon to tell him I was in love with him. I decided it probably was.

We began walking back through the courtyard to the sidewalk that would take us to Itaka’s old residence. It was a beautiful night, a little chilly, perhaps, and Niko kept his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

We were perhaps halfway there when Niko gave a hoarse cry of warning, as his face twisted into a mask of rage. Four men were slinking out of the shadows and coming toward us. Without any hesitation, Niko pulled out his weapon and fired pointblank at the nearest man, who crumpled to the ground as the blast hit him squarely in the chest, leaving a smoking hole. I pulled my dagger out and got ready to fight, as two of the men jumped on Niko and took him to the ground. One of the remaining attackers had peeled off the group and was coming at me, but I ducked under his arm as he grabbed for me, pivoted behind him and stabbed him where I thought his kidneys might be. He screamed, his hands scrabbling frantically for his back, but I had already leaped away to try and help Niko.

He was back on his feet, and I saw that he had killed another of the attackers and was grappling with the other one. I jumped on that one’s back and began wildly stabbing him in the neck and upper back. He plucked me off his back as if I were an annoying insect and threw me against the nearest wall. But my efforts had given Niko a chance to get his weapon up so he could fire.

The charge hit the attacker in the face, leaving a round, black hole directly between his eyes. Niko was still so furious, though, that he fell on top of the man and began tearing out his throat with his hands and teeth. I pulled at his arm.

“Niko, stop! There might be more of them coming. We need to get out of here.”

I kept pulling at his arm and he looked up at me with a feral expression, but got slowly to his feet, still trembling. I pulled on his arm, and we started moving again toward the residence.

We made it inside, and I was relieved to see Niko more like himself, having shaken off some of the blood lust he had apparently been feeling. He pulled me toward the bedroom, which had some broad windows running along the back, so we couldn’t be trapped inside the room. He began barricading the open door, using furniture and a big couch to block off most of the passage. He went over to his bags that the servants had brought in earlier and began searching through them for more weapons.

“You carry extra weapons in your luggage?” I asked in amazement, and he just shrugged.

“This is a different world than yours, princeling. I have to be prepared.” He turned and pointed to the closet. “Look in there for a panel on the wall at the back, covered by clothing. Itaka used to store some extra charges there along with a few other surprises, just in case.”

I ran over and after a moment of searching, I found the panel and the charges for his weapon. I also pulled out about ten or twelve small, lethal-looking black objects carefully and showed them to Niko. “Are these the surprises you were talking about?”

“Yes, they’re explosives. Be careful with them but stack them here near the barricade.”

Marichal came running into the front room on other side of the barricade and Niko yelled at her in Pton. She gave us a frightened, panicked look and ran out the side patio door.

I could already hear the sound of more men coming down the sidewalk outside the house with light running footsteps and getting closer to the residence. Abruptly there was a crash of wood at the front door and loud yelling in the entryway.

“The fucking door was open,” Niko said. “But the idiots have broken into the house anyway. Let’s give them a welcome. Get down behind me.”

He picked up two of the explosive devices. I heard the sounds of breaking glass and furniture that was coming from that front room as the attackers crowded through the door. He waited, with me right behind him, until the sound of many voices was closer—almost up to the barricade. Then he jumped to his feet, threw both explosives directly into the crowd of men and then ducked back down, putting his arm around me to shield me from the concussion.

The explosion was loud and fiery. Men were screaming and running as their bodies caught flame, but many were killed in that first impact. Such a quick slaughter of men checked the advance of whoever else was outside, and in addition, the loud sound brought people running from every direction in the dula. I could see lights coming on outside the bedroom window and hear people shouting all around us.

Still more men began swarming around the windows at the back, but Niko said the glass was shatterproof. They began beating on it with sticks and throwing rocks, but indeed, the glass held. I could hear the emperor’s voice yelling from the front of the house.

“What’s he saying?” I asked Niko, and he shook his head.

“He’s pretending shock, but I’m not buying it. He sent them here.”

“Are they coming to help us?”

“Not likely.”

The attackers in back were still trying to break the windows, packed so close together they could hardly even strike the glass with the weapons they carried for that purpose. Niko got up to go to the window and smiled at them as they yelled and gestured at him. He leaned over to the wall and flicked a switch, and the ones toward the back began screaming. The ones at the front were too busy being electrocuted to make a sound, falling to the charged ground, their bodies seizing.

“Itaka had that installed when she lived here. Forward thinking, hmm?”

I admit I was a little horrified, but glad she’d done it.

He went back to the barricade and began firing charge after charge at anyone brave enough to try to come in.

“For the moment, the advantage is ours,” Niko told me. But they’ll have time for one more charge before the crowd outside grows too large and they can’t hide what they’re doing any longer. Linnius is probably telling the councilors these are soldiers he’s sending in to try and save me.”

A sudden outcry from the direction of the front door came again, along with the pounding of many feet. They had managed to push through the dead bodies littering the floor, so Niko made me crouch down behind the bed with his disruptor. He showed me quickly where and how to pull the trigger. “It’s rapid fire, so just aim into the crowd and pull,” he told me, while he took the remaining explosives over to a chair, turned it on its side near the barricade and crouched behind it.

“On my order,” he said calmly, and I nodded.

It was dark now in the house, as they’d cut the power a while ago, but I could see their white faces as they came charging into the room, their mouths open and their eyes strained with battle.

“Now!” Niko called out and I pulled up the disruptor and began to shoot. In my head, I counted off the whines and then the percussions, “one, two, three, four,” and kept firing one after another as the weapon heated up in my hand.

Niko began throwing his explosives into the crowd and the screaming began in earnest. It seemed like the whole world was ablaze.

Suddenly, Niko was beside me and taking my arm to lead me back to Itaka’s closet. He thrust me inside and slammed the door behind us, then he began tearing up the rug on the floor.

I was too amazed to ask what he was doing, and just watched him working. He got a huge patch torn up and revealed a large panel in the floor. I expected more ammunition or explosives, but instead there was a gaping hole beneath the floor with a ladder leading downward into it.

He went down first, pulling me behind him. We seemed to go a long way down before I felt the ground under my feet. “Wait here!” he yelled and surged back up the ladder.

I had a bad moment of panic then, thinking he meant to go back to the fight and leave me there, but he only slammed a trap door closed and locked it. Then he was back beside me. “Let’s go. Follow me closely and don’t fall behind.”

“I won’t.”

He gave me one hard kiss and then began leading me through a dark, close passage, the only light coming from the communicator in his hand. We walked for what seemed like half a mile in the stifling darkness until we came to a bend in the tunnel. He set one of the black devices down by the wall and took my arm to hurry me along.

We walked on farther until I saw another ladder leading up to the surface.

“We’ll climb here,” Niko said.

“But where does this take us? Is it safe?”

“Yes. This comes out in the home of Lord Miaas. You met him earlier this evening.”

“Oh, your late father’s friend.”

“Yes. He’s my friend too, and he’ll give us shelter.”

Niko climbed up quickly and to my surprise, the trap door opened easily. He climbed out and turned to extend his hand and lift me out beside him. He got out his communicator device and punched some buttons for a while, and then I heard a muffled explosion under our feet and the floor trembled.

“You exploded that device?”

“Yes. To block the tunnel.”

We had come out into a large room, and I turned to see Lord Miaas, fully dressed and standing by the door, gazing at us.

“Good idea,” he said, “I’d hoped you’d make it out and come here. Quickly, there’s no time to waste. They may be checking all the homes in the area. I have to get you to the safe room for now until it’s all right to move again. They’ll already be on the way to seize your ship.”

“Linnius directed the attack.”

“Oh yes. He came to watch the festivities apparently, with the excuse that he was overseeing your defense. In reality, he wanted to watch you die.”

“How did he explain the sudden attack to the witnesses then?”

“Rogue soldiers with displaced loyalty to him, who considered you a threat to the emperor took matters in their own hands. That’s the last I heard. Most of them are dead and can’t defend themselves against his lies.”

“You’ll be all right in the safe room for now, but then you need to make yourself scarce in this city. At least for the time being. Linnius will talk against you in the coming days, as it’s obvious he feels threatened by you. Are you sure you truly have no interest in being the next emperor?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then we’ll have to get you away somewhere safe and let the commotion die down. It’s better for you and your new mate to be elsewhere far away from here for now.”

New mate? It was the first time I hadn’t been called his hostage. And Niko didn’t deny it? I hadn’t heard myself referred to in such a way. There certainly had been no ceremony, and Niko hadn’t spoken of it either, though the gods knew I’d been thoroughly compromised. Still, this man must be mistaken.

Still half dazed by all that had happened in such a short span of time, I allowed Niko to take my arm and lead me up to the room Lord Miaas had spoken of. It was behind both a curtain and a bookcase that hid the doorway—more or less a secret room. Niko pushed inside and urged me in too before he turned back to speak to Miaas. I trailed over to collapse on the side of the bed, feeling completely drained.

A few minutes later, Niko came over to take me in his arms. “Are you all right? I assure you we’re safe for now.”

“I think I’m all right, but what are we going to do?”

“We’re still going to kill Linnius. I think it’s the only way.”

“Kill him? But how? We can’t even leave this room.”

“Shh,” he said, tightening his hold on my shoulders. “We’re fine now, and you were brave. Time to think more about this after we rest. Let me help you undress and lie down.”