Chapter Four

As I made my way to the bridge, I considered that I was more anxious than I let on to get a look at this Tygerian warship. The second I came near the command console, I saw it looming on the screens. I had to admit, it didn’t disappoint.

Solid black in color, and approximately twice the size of my own ship, its long, cylindrical shape bristled with antenna, communication devices and heat shields, along with various thrusters, propulsion systems and armament. It even had docking ports visible on the exterior. It was fully lit inside and out but emitted little exterior light for all of that. It reminded me of a huge bird of prey, like the enoks in the high mountains on my home planet that could carry off a fully grown man.

I sat down in the chair that the first officer vacated when he saw me enter. “Open a channel to the ship,” I told the communications officer as I took a seat. “But just audio for now.”

I waited impatiently as the comm officer hailed the ship, though it took only seconds before an answering voice came back. It sounded deep and powerful.

“This is Colonel Tariq of the Axis Imperial Forces. Who is this?”

“This is Lord Dominiko, of the Confederacy of the Pton. Back off my ship at once, or I’ll begin executing the prisoners.”

“Touch them,” came the immediate sharp and growling answer, “and we’ll destroy your ship and everyone on board.” He sounded furious and like he could barely contain himself, but there was a hint of a frantic note in his voice. I had long ago learned that it was never a good idea to let your enemies know how much you cared. He’d made a serious mistake in showing me.

“That seems a bit counterproductive on your part. I thought you were here to try and save your princes.”

“I don’t negotiate with terrorists!” he shouted. “Release the prisoners at once, and I’ll give you and your men a quick death.”

“A tempting offer, but no, I don’t believe I will.”

“Then we’ll board your ship and take them ourselves.”

“And when you do, you’ll find me busily engaged in executing them. Starting with your mate.”

He began his threats then. How he would kill me slowly and torturously, kill us all, destroy the ship, and on and on. When he finally ran out of threats, he started a loud and furious growling and snarling, and I decided none of this was getting us anywhere. I closed the channel abruptly and stood up.

“Let me know if anything else of significance happens. Ignore any further requests for an open channel. Begin taking evasive actions but stay well away from the rift. I don’t want the Tygerians following us in, and they’re stupid enough to do that, according to what I’ve just heard. A battle inside could destabilize the rift, and I don’t want to take that chance.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

I’d been hoping to reach the rift before we were intercepted, but I was beginning to realize evasive action alone wasn’t the answer. We’d run out of fuel long before Colonel Tariq ran out of his threats and obstinate determination.

I went back into the comm room to think things over. Maybe it was time to consider alternatives after all.

I hadn’t thought much of this plan to gain hostages from the first time Lord Jerica, the head of the High Council, had brought it up. He had been reading the reports of our agents on Loros, and when he’d discovered the youngest son of the high king Davos would soon be traveling back to Tygeria, he got the idea for kidnapping him and holding him hostage, theorizing that it would give us leverage over the Axis and prevent them from carrying through on their plans to finish building and staffing an outpost in this northernmost planetary system in their galaxy. Kidnapping and holding hostages was a longstanding tradition with the Pton people.

The planets in far reaches of this spiral galaxy were sparsely inhabited, which cut down on our options in this galaxy significantly though. Loros was the largest planet in the area, and it was too well-guarded to be a possibility for a direct strike. We had to content ourselves with whoever was coming and going from the area around Loros, but so far, we’d been unsuccessful. When Lord Jerica found out from our spies that another one of the Axis king’s grandchildren was going to be on board the ship going back to his home planet, he couldn’t wait to urge the council to attack and secure both hostages. The other prince was a real bonus.

I served on the High Council, and it was a complicated, difficult job that I didn’t enjoy. But then, I’d been given little choice in the matter. It was almost a job requirement of mine to instill fear in my subordinates, and I had learned how to do that at an early age and from the best teacher. Much of what I had learned about survival of the fittest and intimidation of underlings was from Itaka, my grandmother, and to this day, I’d hate to be an enemy who met her in a dark palace corridor. Despite her tiny size, the only one coming back out of that corridor would not have been the enemy.

My family was closely related to the imperial family—the old emperor, who was named Kitannos, was my grandfather, which made the current one, Linnius, my uncle or dashall. The old emperor had fifty some consorts, and my father had been one of his many, many sons. But though his birth order was fairly high, my father, Pratullus, stood no real chance of ever ascending the throne. He was the only son of Itaka, my grandfather’s favorite wife, however, and that had made a huge difference in all our lives. It had afforded us enormous privilege.

Only Linnius, the son of his first and principal wife, and the first in line for the throne was held in more esteem than my father, and once the old man finally shuffled off to the afterlife to live among the gods, Linnius slid neatly into his spot. Probably even before the old man’s body got cold. I thought that Linnius had maybe even helped his lingering demise along, though no one dared to hint at it.

Linnius turned out to be a cruel, savage leader. It was Linnius who had first had the idea to invade this galaxy closest to ours, known to us as C390, despite stories of a powerful king of the principal planet in the galaxy. He had already decimated the planets of our nearest neighbors in our star system. Our own galaxy was a spiral star cluster, much like C390, but many, many light-years away. We called our galaxy L485, and we called our planetary home Pton.

My planet Pton was vast and endless green, mazed with clouds. It had three small moons around it, two of them encircled by their own rings of cosmic dust. It was beautiful but could be a challenging place to live, with devastating storms that often swept the surface.

In between the galaxies was intergalactic space, and Pton was on the verge of this space. Intergalactic spacewas the physical area between the galaxies. Mostly it was dark and empty, except for the presence of intergalactic stars, and the intergalactic medium, which consisted mostly of hot hydrogen gas. Our people called it the rift.

Little was known about us by outsiders, except for the fact that those from Pton had a reputation for being barbarous and cruel. That stemmed from two things—first was that Linnius followed a “scorched earth” policy on the planets we’d vanquished, leaving no or very few survivors when the fight was over.

Secondly, our people were sometimes thought of as demons.

It wasn’t because of our savagery or cruelty, though that was probably a factor. It wasn’t even the fact that we had descended from creatures with horns and scales covering their bodies. The scales appeared now only in bright patches when we hit puberty. We were rather proud of the horns, and only the noble class had them. Lower classes had to have theirs cut down to nubs at an early age.

At any rate, the reason we were thought of as demons was because of one other attribute that was in our ancestry. We drank the blood of our enemies.

It was another throwback to our ancestors, I suppose. It was in our nature to greatly enjoy the taste of blood from both our enemies and our lovers—anyone that had aroused our passions. We didn’t drain our lovers, of course. That would have depleted our population considerably and unnecessarily. Our bites released toxins that in very small doses caused euphoria and pleasure in our sexual partners, though, and we enjoyed sucking their blood both as foreplay and as a way of bonding with them. Mated couples regularly practiced blood exchange.

We drained our enemies. I understood that our victims didn’t suffer much, though things like that take a long time to fade from the collective memory.

The fact that we drank the blood, along with certain aspects of our appearance, like the horns and the scales, all led to the charges that we were demons. The other star systems shunned and feared us and looked on our planet as the scourge of the galaxy.

As emperor, Linnius didn’t help that reputation, and he employed a policy of savage aggression against neighboring planets for almost any offense.

This was far from my first trip into space, but I hoped it might be my last. I’d never cared for it. Not the travel, which was inconvenient and cramped, nor the food, which was almost always poorly prepared, nor the company of the men onboard, which left a great deal to be desired. I felt sure the feeling was mutual, though none of them would dare let it show.

I wondered sometimes why Linnius was so intent on sending me so often into the rift. Then again it was no secret to anyone that he wanted me out of his way, because I was far too popular with the High Council. Not to mention his principal wife, Melanius, who was one of several lovers I had, both male and female.

That may have had more than a little to do with how often Linnius sent me on these perilous missions. This would be my third time traversing the rift, and this time the High Council was expecting me to bring them back a hostage. Wormholes were notoriously unstable, and if this Colonel Tariq managed to follow us inside, he could accidentally cause it to collapse, which could be catastrophic to all concerned. There wouldn’t be any way for any of us to get back or even survive for long just floating around in the rift.

Unfortunately, I was embroiled in a standoff with Tariq. These hostages, if I managed to escape with them, were meant to join the ranks of Linnius’s concubines, both as a warning and an insult to the powerful king who lived and ruled over most of the planets in C390. His name was Davos, and I knew Linnius feared him, though he’d never admit it.

Once Linnius saw Rakkur, who was extremely beautiful, or the tiny, exquisite Jago, for that matter, he’d want one or perhaps both of them as his concubines. Prince Rakkur was more classically beautiful, but Jago was much more exotic. More annoying as well, but sometimes you had to take the bad along with the good. He had a look that was a bit androgenous, which appealed to me greatly, and in Linnius’s place, I had to admit I would have chosen him.

I think it was the hair. Then again, his face was very pretty too. His body was sweet as well. Besides, he was practically a volunteer. He had begged me to let Rakkur go and keep him as the hostage. It seemed a shame to disappoint him.

****

Jago

I jumped to my feet when the door opened after Rakkur’s interview with Lord Dominiko, just in time to catch his arm and steady him as the guards shoved him inside.

“Are you all right?”

He nodded. “No one has tried to hurt me yet—unlike you, I might add.” He gently touched my cheek, which had been throbbing since my little altercation out in the corridor with Dominiko’s guards. One of them had elbowed me in the face— and the ribs, and my stomach—as they stripped off my robe and threw me on the floor to search me. I already had bruises coming up on my skin.

“It’s nothing. I knifed one of the guards with a dagger I had strapped to the inside of my thigh. They missed it when they searched me.”

“ Nothing ? And what do you mean, you knifed a guard? Gods, Jago, you’ll get yourself killed. These people are barbarians. Did you notice the horns on all of them? Especially the big ones on Lord Dominiko?”

“Hard to miss. Yeah, I noticed. And the scales too. Do you think they could be part dragon?

“Dragons are only in fairy tales. Dominiko’s handsome, don’t get me wrong, but he’s also terrifying, so please don’t get on his bad side. I have news though—Tariq’s ship has come alongside us.”

“Will they attack?”

“Not with us here on the ship, I think. Not yet anyway. I think that would be a last resort. One of Dominiko’s men said they wanted an open channel. I believe they’ll try to negotiate for our release first.”

Jago shook his head. “Tariq won’t do that. Tygerians don’t negotiate with terrorists. I don’t think Lord Dominiko will either.”

“Not usually, no. But the Pton may threaten us, and if they do, then I know Tariq will threaten them right back. He has an awful temper. Be prepared, though. We might get to leave soon. Tariq can be persuasive.”

“Look, Rakkur, I’ve been thinking about it. In fact, I already mentioned this to Lord Dominiko. Maybe they’ll agree to let just you go and just keep me as their hostage.”

“ What? No. Don’t be ridiculous. It’s out of the question.”

“You have to think of the baby. I’m less trouble to them in that regard. And I’m still a prince, though not as close to the throne as you.”

“I’m hardly close myself, but I still outrank you, and I’m telling you it’s not going to happen. And I can assure you Davos and Blake will be terribly distraught at the idea of you being held hostage. They’ll never allow it. I can’t even imagine what Anarr and Renard would say. No, just get that idea right out of your head.”

“Dominiko seemed to dismiss it too, but I still think it may turn out to be an option.”

“No, you’re wrong. It’s out of the question.”

“We’ll see, I guess. But I mean, what’s the alternative?”

“He could let us both go. Or more likely, they could try to run from Tariq. This ship is smaller and faster. They could slip into the rift and be gone, taking both of us with them.”

“I told Dominiko that Tariq would follow them inside and that he’d never give up.”

“That’s true enough. Though he’d have to if he lost us inside the wormhole.” Rakkur began to wring his hands, and I put a hand over his to stop him.

“Sit down over here and try not to think about it. You’re going to make yourself sick.”

I helped him to sit on the floor and sat beside him, holding his hand. “Don’t worry. Tariq will do something.”

“I think that’s what I’m afraid of. You know how volatile his temper can be.” He rubbed at his back, wincing hard. “My back is really hurting.”

I helped him to sit and since he was shivering a little, I put an arm around him to keep him warm. The room was a good temperature for me, but I knew Rakkur suffered from the cooler temperatures most of us liked.

“Are you all right? Do you want me to rub your back?”

“No, it’s easing off some now.”

“Try to rest then. Do you want to lie down?”

“No, I’ll just lean back against the wall. Maybe I could close my eyes for a little while.”

I encouraged him to do that and in only a few minutes, I heard his deeper breathing and knew he was dozing. I sent up a quick plea to whoever might be listening not to let him start labor until he got somewhere safe. And this ship definitely wasn’t it.

I must have dozed off myself, because I was startled a while later when I heard the door open, and the asshole major was standing in the doorway—the major I’d stabbed—giving me a mean look and beckoning for me to come with him.

I was scared of him, because who knew what he’d do once he got me alone, and they’d taken all my knives. But I didn’t have much choice. Slowly, I got to my feet and went over to the door. Rakkur woke up a little, but I told him it was okay, and I’d see him soon.

The guard growled at me. “What is ‘oh kay?’ Was that some kind of signal between you?”

“No, it’s just a word that means everything is good.”

“Then why not say that?”

I rolled my eyes a little and didn’t answer.

“Lord Dominiko wants to see you,” he said after a second or two, and took my arm in a rough grip to pull me out the door. He yanked me down the corridor to a lift at the end and shoved me inside. It was only a short ride up to the deck on whatever level he’d punched in, but it was a really uncomfortable one for me. Hate radiated off him like actual waves of heat. The doors blessedly opened, and he took me down to another door at the end of the passageway.

Lord Dominiko called out for us to come in when he knocked, and he shoved me inside ahead of him.

“Do you want me to stay, Excellency?”

“Whatever for?”

“He’s dangerous, sir,” he said, touching the bandage on his wound.

“I think I’ll risk it,” Dominiko said, and the major bowed, giving me one, last, parting dirty look. He left us alone, and I was glad to see him go. Dominiko turned his back on me and went over to sit back down at his desk. He looked up and motioned me to a chair in front of it.

“I spoke with the Imperial colonel,” he said, leaning back to regard me.

“You did? Is he coming for us?”

“I said I spoke to him—nothing more.”

“Oh. Well? What did he say?”

“Hmm…let me paraphrase. ‘Blah, blah, blah. Touch the princes and die. We’ll destroy your ship and everyone on board. Torture, torture, mayhem, blood…blah, blah, blah.’”

I shook my head at him, trying to hide my smile. None of this was really funny, but that did sound like a Tygerian when his blood was high.

“That was the gist of it. Then he did more growling,” he continued, “made more threats, and I closed the channel,” Dominiko said.

“So not too productive then?”

“No. He’s as volatile and crazy as you described him.”

“I don’t think I said all that. I’m sure he’s upset about you holding his mate and his unborn child.”

“Yes, I was able to gather that much.”

“What are you going to do? Have you…have you decided to take me up on my suggestion?”

He gazed at me for a long moment. “The one where I send Rakkur back to his mate and keep you? Yes, I believe I have.”

“ R-really? I mean, you have?” My stomach flipped for a second and I couldn’t draw in a full breath. I realized he was staring at me.

“Have you changed your mind, princeling?”

“I…no, no. I haven’t changed my mind.” Realizing that I was a little out of breath and that it was my heart that was making that loud thumping sound in my chest, I took a deep breath and tried again.

“No. I still think it’s the only way to do this without bloodshed, and it gives Rakkur his best chance to make it back home to have his baby.”

After all, I’d always craved adventure. I’d always longed for it and wanted nothing more than to travel and see things I’d never seen before. This would definitely count. I claimed to be a full-grown man. It was time for me to take an action that would support what I’d been saying to everybody for so long

I squared my shoulders and looked directly into those strange, otherworldly eyes. “Yes, I have to do this. Can you contact Colonel Tariq and make the arrangements?”

“Better to wait, I think. I don’t want to appear too anxious to make a deal.”

“Oh. Well, it’s just that Rakkur is having some pains low in his back, and I remember hearing someone say that labor pains can start that way, and…”

“It’s unlikely he’s having labor pains as you call them, since he still has a while to go. And I believe aches and pains are common in the last weeks.”

“Do you know that for sure? Was that how your wife was?”

“I don’t have a wife or a husband either. I grew up in a place where—I don’t know what word you would use for it in your language. It’s where the emperor keeps his multiple wives and concubines. We call it a dula .”

“Did you say, multiple? Like in a harem?”

“If that’s a place where emperors keep their multiple wives and concubines, then yes. Women are always around, and many handsome young men. Many of the women are having babies or in various stages of pregnancy. As I said, I grew up there and I’m a bit familiar with that kind of thing. But I can still send the prince to the infirmary if you think it’s necessary.”

“If he’s going back home soon, there shouldn’t be any need.”

“Be sure you understand that if you do this, you’ll be taken hostage by the emperor, and he’ll want to take you to his dula. There’s only one way out of that I can think of—I’d have to claim you as my own bounty and my prize. And take you as my concubine.”

I stared at him with my mouth falling open. “What?”

“Close your mouth, princeling. It would be in name only and a way to keep you from being sexually abused by the emperor until your family pays for your return. Your family will pay more for you if you’re intact and unharmed. I intend to negotiate with them—the emperor will not.”

“Oh. So it will all be for show?”

“Yes, but I still want you to know what you’re getting yourself into. It may take a while. Linnius, the Emperor of the Pton, maintains an extensive palace where he keeps his many wives and male concubines. These are often from royal families of those he has conquered in battle and then they were taken captive or gifted to him by the families to appease him. I think he’ll want us to live there in the dula so he can observe us closely. I have no fear of him, and I can keep you from harm, but you have to be vigilant and brave. You must be defiant, like you’ve been here on this ship. Can you do that?”

“I can do that. But what do you get out of it?”

“Tygerian Diamonds. They don’t have great value to us except as a commodity. Something I can use as leverage and a trading tool with other planets. Linnius won’t like it if I trade for you. He’ll want me to keep you as insurance.”

I shrugged as expressively as I could. “ Keep me? You should know that if he touches me or abuses me in any way, I’ll kill him.”

He couldn’t hide his smile. “I truly believe you would. But it’s unnecessary. I owe him a debt of honor myself, and I have no interest in pandering to him.”