Chapter Six

He turned on his heel and left, hurrying down the corridor with one of his guards, leaving the other one with us. I went back inside to shake Rakkur awake.

“What is it?” he asked, blinking and trying to sit up.

“Your husband is getting impatient to see you. Lord Dominiko was just here, and he got a call from the bridge. Tariq is hailing the ship, and they want us up there right away.”

He began trembling, so it was a few minutes before I could help him get his boots back on. I noticed that his feet were even more swollen. But it was only a few minutes later that we were finally on our way to the upper deck. I could already hear the shouting coming across the audio feed. It was Tariq, of course, demanding to see Rakkur.

“Why are you stalling? I demand you produce my mate now. Let me see him or else I’ll…”

“You’ll do what?” Dominiko interrupted, also shouting now, which surprised me a little. He usually seemed so calm. It seemed tempers had flared since the last time I spoke to him. “Give him a moment to get here. He’s not moving quickly, as you should know—I believe you may know something about the reason for that.”

Tariq was incensed at his words, though of course, they were true, but no doubt he was furious at the whole situation. So furious that he smashed his fist against the screen with a terrifying snarl. I knew he was only seconds from a full shift into his tyger, having been pushed way beyond his limits, and that wouldn’t do anybody any good.

Rakkur pushed past me, trying to get to the screen. I grabbed his hand. “Don’t worry, Rakkur. You got this,” I told him, and he gave me a brave smile.

He went closer to the screen. “It’s me, Tariq, I’m here.”

He kept repeating those words, and finally, Tariq began to respond. Tariq placed a trembling hand on the screen and Rakkur did the same from our side. It was such a tender moment between them that I turned away, and when I did, I found myself staring directly at Dominiko. He had an odd look in his eyes and though I may have been mistaken, I thought I saw a small hint of what might be regret—even pity. It was gone the next moment, and I might have imagined the whole thing. But it was a nice thought that he could feel such emotions.

After a few more seconds, Dominiko stepped forward to stand behind and slightly to the side of Rakkur. “Decision time, Colonel. Do I take both the princes and make a run for it, or will you come for your mate and give us safe passage so we can be on our way out of here?”

“With Prince Jago as your hostage?”

“Yes, of course. We’ve been over this many times and nothing has changed—tell me your decision. My patience is wearing thin.”

“I’ll come for Prince Rakkur, damn you and give you safe passage. Bring my mate to your docking station.” His amber gaze flickered over to me. “Prince Jago, we’ll be coming for you a little later. I promise you. Only please give us some time to work this out.”

“I know, Colonel Tariq. Please tell my parents…tell them I love them, and I’ll be thinking of them often.”

Rakkur, who was so easily brought to tears these days, covered his face with his hands as one of the guards took his arm and led him away, presumably taking him to the docking port. He reached a hand back to me, but I didn’t have the heart to take it. I turned to face the viewing screens instead.

It had switched to an interior view to follow Rakkur down to the docking station, a slow journey with so many ladders to the lowest decks that it took a few minutes. When he arrived, I watched him standing around nervously inside the waiting area as he watched for the shuttle port doors to open. Then the shuttle carrying Colonel Tariq came in to dock with the much larger ship we were on. His craft was sleek and dark and dangerous looking. Kind of a metaphor for the whole Tygerian army, I thought.

As it came onboard, I saw the hatch fly open, and a set of steps descended as the engines began to idle, the sound changing from a high-pitched whine to a low rumble. I knew that Tariq had been instructed to come alone, so when the doors opened, he came charging down the steps alone, wearing his full, black battle gear, looking huge and downright lethal as he strode off the ramp. Rakkur broke away from his guards and ran to meet him, and Tariq swept him into his arms and off his feet to carry him back up to the shuttle without a word being spoken. My throat closed up with emotion. The hatch came down quickly behind them, and in another few seconds, the outside doors opened again, and the shuttle was lifting off and heading back to the larger Tygerian vessel.

Another few seconds passed, and I suddenly realized that Lord Dominiko had been speaking to me for some time, trying to get my attention.

“Jago, are you all right?” he asked, but his voice was surprisingly gentle. I nodded, trying not to show how devastated I felt. It had been harder than I’d imagined, being left behind. He took my arm, leaning over me solicitously, “Prince Jago...”

And then he stopped talking abruptly as alarms started blaring all around us. Confused and disoriented at all the noise, I put out a hand to steady myself against the wall as he dropped my arm and turned in a panic to see what it was all about.

The captain had a large screen showing not just the starboard side but all sides of the ship, and he was intently watching it. He made an alarmed sound in his throat.

“Lord Dominiko—two more ships have just uncloaked between us and the rift. Our shields are up again, but all three of them have their weapons fully armed and locked on us. There is no evasive action I can take, and I’m not sure how long our shields will last against three ships.”

Dominiko began cursing. At least I thought that was what he was doing, though he wasn’t speaking any language I knew.

“Where did they come from?” I asked. “There’s been no sign of any other ships!”

He threw me a quick, irritable look over his shoulder. “They were cloaked. Go below in case they attack, so you won’t be injured.”

“They won’t attack while I’m onboard.”

Dominiko turned fully toward me, his eyes sharp, and the intensity almost burning my skin. “Did you know about this?”

I shook my head. “Me? No, how would I?”

He gave me a brief, unconvinced look, as if he thought this had been some elaborate scheme involving telepathy, I guess. Then he barked something at the captain. One of the other ships was clearly Tygerian, with its huge black shape and Tygerian markings. It was a battle class and looked like the ship Prince Mikol most often used. It was as large or larger than Tariq’s vessel. The other ship was not familiar to me. It was smaller than the Tygerian ships but studded with armament and clearly a warship of some kind. I didn’t recognize the markings at all.

The captain began hailing Tariq’s ship again. It seemed to take forever, but finally Tariq appeared. There was no sign of Rakkur.

“I remind you, Colonel,” Dominiko said, as soon as he came into view. “We still have Prince Jago onboard.”

“I’m well aware. Our concern for his good health is the only reason we haven’t already destroyed you and your ship. Release him immediately, and we’ll give you a quick death.”

Dominiko replied with a word that was harsh and guttural. I think both Tariq and I could guess what it meant. “The situation hasn’t changed, Colonel.” Dominiko said. “Make no mistake. If you attack us, I’ll kill the hostage.” He didn’t so much as glance over at me where I hovered in the background.

“Then we seem to be at an impasse. Let me bring in the commander of this operation and see what he has to say.”

The screen wavered erratically and then blinked into a split screen. Prince Mikol was standing on the bridge of the other ship, looking huge and fierce and altogether dangerous. He resembled his father Crown Prince Mikos greatly, and my omak too, for that matter, as all the brothers looked a great deal alike. My omak was a fierce warrior, as were all the Tygerians, and just because he cared for me when I was a child didn’t change any of that in the least.

“That’s Prince Mikol,” I said softly, and Dominiko turned quickly to look at me and then whipped his head back around toward the screen.

“Ah, yet another prince of Tygeria. Good gods, how many of you are there? Princes must be thick on the ground on your planet.”

“The situation has changed. You have to surrender the hostage,” Prince Mikol said, ignoring his sarcasm. His tone was flat, emotionless and totally unyielding. “Colonel Tariq is upset and has misspoken about giving you an easy death. It will be neither quick nor easy, if it comes to that. But I have information he doesn’t have yet, and I hope an attack can be avoided. If you agree to stand down immediately and release Prince Jago, your total destruction doesn’t have to happen. We’ll give you a moment to think things over. But while you do, you’d do well to remember one thing.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“We have a hostage of our own.”

He nodded to someone off to his left offscreen, and a big Tygerian soldier moved into view, holding tightly to the arm of a tiny female, wrapped in a silky-looking, black cloak that went all the way to the floor. She looked like a child next to the huge soldier, and her tiny hand clutched at his arm as she tottered along beside him. Then the hand reached up and pushed back the robe’s hood and a small, exquisite face was revealed.

“Lady Itaka!” Lord Dominiko cried out in an unbelieving tone.

Itaka? This was Lady Itaka, his grandmother ? The one he’d told me about? I was at a loss and couldn’t understand for a moment what she could possibly be doing there on Mikol’s ship. It was like some kind of crazy nightmare. Dominiko seemed to be in the same state. It was even more surreal that we had just been talking about her and now here she was standing in front of us. How in blazes had she suddenly appeared? I knew Dominiko must be reeling, because I certainly was.

She looked directly at the camera, and she reminded me of a little doll. Her hair was blonde, though streaked with silver, and her face was mostly unlined. She looked fragile and weak as if she had to be supported by the Tygerian soldier. The fingers on the hand clutching his arm were ringed with large jewels, and on top of her forehead, she had the same golden horns as Dominiko, though hers were much smaller and more intricately coiled. She, too, had delicate green, iridescent scales in a small patch that trailed down her throat and disappeared inside her clothing.

I felt I must be in some kind of dream state as I looked at Lord Dominiko’s tiny relative, surrounded by so many huge men, all of them bristling with anger and danger, though they didn’t seem to be actually threatening her.

“Is this some kind of trick?” Dominiko demanded in a strained voice. “H-how are you doing this?”

Mikol stepped into view. “It’s no trick. We have the lady onboard as you can plainly see, and make no mistake, we’ll do whatever we have to do to rescue Prince Jago. Surrender immediately, if you wish to keep her safe.”

She spoke then, in an almost birdlike voice. She was speaking Tygerian, of all things, heavily accented, but still completely understandable.

“Niko…stop all this foolishness at once and come get me. I need you.”