Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Karkonar

W e ended up taking a meal in the market rather than forcing our way back through the crowd to the Dashing Rogue and what passed for food there. Picking at random, we chose a Prytheen grill. More accurately, Onyx chose it by yowling when we tried to move past it. The cook rewarded his zealous advocacy by flicking him a strip of meat, and he flapped away, purring. Elaine was less convinced, looking dubiously at her meal: a sizzling slab of meat wrapped in leaves, fried over coals, and served in a dense bread roll. Fresh from the grill, it radiated enough heat to be painful for her to hold, let alone consume, so I held both meals.

“Are you sure it’s safe to eat?”

I laughed. “I think that, on this station, any stall that gives its customers food poisoning will face worse than bad reviews. The Prytheen is still alive, and his stall is busy, so yes , it’s safe. Let’s find somewhere to sit.”

The stall’s seating area was full, a testament to the cook’s popularity. A few empty seats waited nearby, but why no one had taken them was no mystery. They were out in the crowd, which flowed around them and sometimes over them. Better than nothing, but neither comfortable nor safe. After the attempt to rob Elaine, I had no desire to make ourselves easy targets.

“Here. Eat Here.” Onyx sounded exasperated at our bipedal stupidity, sticking his head over the lip of a walkway above us. “Good Place. Elaine And Red Come.”

Elaine’s lips quirked into a half smile. “Onyx, we can’t fly, remember?”

The flying cat flapped his wings dismissively, as though to say he wasn’t responsible for our poor choices. Elaine put her hands on her hips and glared at him until he took pity on us poor groundlings and padded away, leaving us to follow along below.

“Do you think he knows where he’s going?” I asked, and Elaine laughed.

“No idea, but I’d watch your sandwich if I were you. He might guide us into an ambush.”

Not sure quite how serious my companion was being, I spent the rest of the walk watching for trouble with the vague feeling that Elaine was laughing at me. No attack came, though, and Onyx led us to a flight of maintenance stairs. We climbed up to join him on the upper layer, among the airmakers and the network relays and all the other infrastructure that made this ramshackle station habitable.

Sat between two wheezing airmakers, we looked out across the market. Elaine gasped at the sight. “It’s magnificent.”

I rumbled my agreement, and Onyx preened. Below us, the chaotic blend of colors and sounds swirled, and it had a beauty which I hadn’t appreciated when I was in the middle of the crowd. We sat together, leaning on one of the airmakers that wasn’t making too much noise to hear ourselves talk.

The walk had given our meals a chance to cool, and I was eager to try mine. Taking a large bite, my eyes widened. The juices of the meat mixed with the bitter flavor of the leaf, and it was wonderful. Unlike anything I’d eaten before, prepared in chaos and not in peaceful order.

Elaine laughed. “It’s good, sure, but not that good. You look like you’ve taken a bite out of heaven.”

“I never had the chance to taste anything like it,” I said.

“Oh, fuck off, don’t you dare get all ‘woe is me’ about only having the finest chefs on Aris prepare your meals.” She took a bite of her own, closed her eyes as she chewed, then swallowed. “‘Poor little rich boy’ is kind of insulting.”

I looked at her soberly. “That is fair, and I know that most would swap places with me in a moment and never regret it. That doesn’t change the fact that my food has either been something I’ve killed and cooked on a hunt, or a meal prepared by a master chef.”

“Or a Goodhut pizza,” Elaine added. I pulled a face.

“Yes, well, I thought we were discussing food. Goodhut and its ilk are barely food-like.”

That got a laugh, and Elaine gestured for me to continue.

“This ordeal has given me another new experience, one that I would never know I’d missed, and I’m grateful for it. Once I’m king, I’ll never be able to get away.”

“Ah, so this is your one adventure before they lock you up in the palace?” Elaine shook her head. “You make it sound like a prison sentence.”

“I’ve seen what my father goes through for his planet. Being king is easy, being a good king is soul-breaking work. Every sapient who lives on Aris is his responsibility and taking that seriously would drive most men mad. If it wasn’t for the support of my mother, he’d have snapped decades ago.”

I looked out over the market, watching eddies in the crowd as people came and went. A riotous confusion of colors and sounds, impossible to follow yet infinitely simpler than an entire planet. “Prison would be easier. At least a prisoner can hope for release.”

Elaine’s small, warm hand gripped mine, squeezing tight, and I let out my breath in a long sigh. Her touch grounded me, brought me back to the present, settled my soul. I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself up from those maudlin thoughts.

“What of you, though? How did a human end up so far from Earth?”

Elaine’s ready grin didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I wanted freedom, and these days, that means getting as far from Earth as possible. The Terran Hegemony isn’t a great place for women, and the colonies might be better, but getting a place on one is damned near impossible unless you have an in-demand skill or a mountain of money. Not to mention that they’re still colonies of the Hegemony, so not exactly safe.”

Her turn to look out over the market, though I was certain that wasn’t what she saw. “Anyway, after a run of bad luck, I took my fate into my own hands and stowed away on a Liil transport. That got me as far as Lii before I was spotted. That I lasted that long impressed Captain ap’Aja enough that he offered me a job.”

We sat in silence, Elaine lost in thought and me unsure what to say. Show me an enemy of hers and I’d rip his heart out and offer it to her, but the ghosts of her past were not so easily fought. The silence stretched uncomfortably as I searched for something to say.

Which was when Onyx made his move.

With a triumphant meow, Onyx pounced on my half-eaten sandwich, sitting forgotten on the wall beside me. It turned to a yowl of furious disappointment as my reflexes kicked in and I snatched it away at the last moment.

“No Red, Bad Red. My Food Now!”

He circled me, buffeting me with flapping wings, trying to reach my sandwich. Black feathers smacked my face and neck as I struggled for both balance and control.

“Get out of my face,” I shouted, then spluttered as I got a mouthful of feathered wing. “This is mine.”

“Starving. Onyx Starving. No One Feed Onyx for Years.”

Helpless, I turned toward Elaine, only to find her red-faced and doubled over, trying to control a laughing fit. Seeing me accosted by a feline mugger seemed to be the perfect cure for her melancholy.

“I fed you two hours ago,” she gasped out. “And you got some meat at the grill.”

“I’m glad you find this funny,” I said, waving an arm at the black cat to ward him off. No luck. He was determined, and unless I was willing to hurt him, I couldn’t win this fight.

Defeated by my mate’s pet, I thought. Arkari will never let me live this down.

“Hey, Onyx, over here.” Elaine’s shout got my attention too, and I glanced over to see her waving her own half-eaten sandwich in the cat’s direction. With a sharp meow, Onyx flipped over, feet pushing off my face to propel him in her direction.

He swooped on the sandwich, snatching the meat slab out from the bread in a smooth, easy motion, his elegance only a little spoiled when it proved too heavy for him to carry easily. I chuckled, which turned into a full-on laugh as I met Elaine’s eyes. We sank down to sit again, and I broke off half of my remaining meal and offered it to her.

“Half the time I think he only acts up like that to make me laugh when I’m down,” she said, accepting the food and taking a bite.

“Hm. Perhaps, but I note that, either way, he’s eating your meal.”

“Okay, sure, you’re right. It’s only partly about cheering me up. He’s mostly just a sneaky little food-thief.” She grinned. “I guess I’m okay with that.”

“Where did you find that…mischievous creature, anyway?” That seemed a safe topic.

“There’s a small colony of them on Talbrek Station now. No idea where they came from, but Onyx was a tiny kitten in need of a home, and I was a captain in need of a crew. The bookseller there knows enough about their care and feeding to help me plan how to keep him, and I got the idea for the collar from her and her cat, too. Sometimes I regret that, and I think she was just spreading the misery.”

“How is he, as crew?”

“Rubbish. He does no work, lacks any kind of technical skills, and steals from his shipmates. Good thing he’s cute.”

We laughed again, and when the laughter faded, we fell into silence again. Not the awkward silence of before, though. This was the companionable silence of a couple with no need to fill the air with words just to hear their own voices. A moment of peace, despite the chaos of our lives.

Finishing our meals, we sat there a while longer, and I realized I could not let this delightful female go. I needed her beautiful, sexy body, but more than that, I needed the mind and soul of her. And I would not risk this chance slipping through my fingers. In all the universe, there was no one else for me.

I turned to look at Elaine, finding her gazing up at me, eyes shining. My heart filled with joy at the sight, and I took a breath to steady myself. My human deserved me at my most composed. Carefully gripping her delicate hand, I smiled and watched as she swallowed, then blinked, her cheeks flushed and breath quickening.

“Fate brought us together,” I said, earnest and direct. I would not hide the truth from her. “We both know it. You are my mate — ”

“Hold on, we set rules,” Elaine objected, though she made no move to pull away. Instead, her hand tightened on mine as she continued. “We’re not doing this while I work for you.”

“You have completed the contract. You brought me here, I’ve contacted my family. Now I just need to wait for Arkari to arrive, for which I don’t need a pilot, but I shall always need and want you beside me. If you prefer, you are free to leave, and I will make sure that your reward finds you. But without you beside me, my world will be ashes. Do not go. Stay, my beloved mate. Embrace your fate and be my queen.”