Ruined Kingdom Page 6

  A smile crept across Kharon’s lips. “There is so much of your father in you.”

  “Don’t tell me you are threatened by a junior officer.”

  “I am not, but there is something you should know. Before I left, I posted the list of arena matches for rank and class. Have you seen it?”

  “No, I was too busy getting ready for this challenge. Why?”

  “Lieutenant Falken has an arena match next month and guess who his opponent is?”

  For a moment she was stunned by Falken’s treachery, but then she laughed. “What a sneaky bastard he is. Let me take a wild guess...could it be me?”

  “Was he at your match tonight?”

  Gypsy’s stomach dropped. “I don't know, probably. Even if he wasn't, he has probably heard all about it by now.”

  “So he may be aware of your unique capabilities.” Kharon pulled her against him for a kiss. It was deep and loving, cauterizing some of the wounds that had ripped her apart.

  He broke the kiss and got back to business. “You need to work with Gavin before the match comes up. Let's assume Falken knows about your new talent. He will train to win with that in mind.”

  “Are you sure you're not telling me this to break up my affair?” she joked, sensing no real jealously in him.

  “You shouldn’t break off your affair,” he grinned deviously.

  “Why not?”

  “Because it can work both ways. While you are his lover, you can learn him intimately. Watch his practices, pinpoint his strengths and weaknesses. What can he say to you? He wouldn’t dare ask you to leave because then he would risk you leaving his bed as well. Cultivate whatever feelings you can out of him. He will have a hard time fighting to win when he doesn’t want to hurt or humiliate you.”

  Gypsy scowled. “It seems dishonest.”

  “It is not. This is the nature of what we do. Are you so sure he isn’t doing the same to you? All warriors exploit weaknesses. Your father was blessed with an intelligence and ferocity I’ve never seen in any man. It is both admirable and disturbing. Your path will be much harder because you are a woman and the General's daughter. Because of that you are a prize, much like your father's remaining eye. If men are foolish enough to try and exploit that, then you need only turn the tables. Work on Falken. Right now he is your only obstacle to becoming Captain. If he wins, you’ll have to wait a year for another chance.” He stroked her face giving her a final kiss. “Are you okay now?”

  Gypsy took a deep breath. “Yes, I think so.”

  “Please believe that I am ashamed of the things I have said and the way I’ve treated you. Don't give too much thought to the possessive rumblings of an old warrior.”

  With a shy smile she nodded, squeezing his hand. It was the first time in months that she wasn't angry. “I'm okay. Please be careful on your Caraculla quest.”

  Kissing her, he pulled back a millimeter from her lips, “I will miss you and will be back soon regardless.”

  Chapter 8

  Bethara was very nervous. She and Dragon were farther from the Imperial City than she had ever been. It was cool and windy. The triple moons provided enough light for her to see small twists of dust kicking up all around them. There was not a living thing to be seen or heard. Wrapping her black silk scarf around her head, she pulled part of it over her nose and mouth to keep from inhaling any debris. This land was absolutely dreadful. She had wanted to refuse him when he insisted on coming out here, but he had gotten so agitated she’d relented.

  As if his strange behavior wasn’t bad enough, he was now nervous and evasive. Not only wouldn’t he tell her the truth as to why he had to be out here in the middle of nowhere, but he still wasn't being honest about the reason he'd needed to go to his father's castle. Bethara was savvy enough to know when she was being lied to.

  Instead of riding home they had taken a detour to nowhere. This was really pissing her off. But she didn’t dare leave him, although he was such a complete bother. If Harlan, or rather Krull, had not hired her when she was at her most desperate, she would've ended up living off of her parents, her brother Trajan, or even worse, as a prostitute. Now, in the aftermath of the Serillian Fever outbreak, there were fewer jobs than ever. It was only out of loyalty to Harlan that she had agreed to this less than pleasant babysitting task. Even this aggravation was better than being a whore. Being a captive in the Emperor's harem had been demeaning enough. Although treated well, she had still been nothing more than a plaything.

  From the position of the moons she estimated they’d been out here for an hour at least. Dragon was sitting on a large boulder, absorbed in some papers he had removed from under his tunic. She was especially repulsed by the large Loctos that he had captured along the way. The furry, black, ten-legged creature was about the size of her hyperia’s head. Before Bethara knew what was happening, Dragon had leapt from their mount and snatched it out of a rock pile. After wrestling it into a net, he tied it to the back of the saddle. Every once in a while she could feel one of the creature’s legs brush against her back. Ugh!

  They stopped and he hung the net from a dead branch jutting from the rock where he now sat. The animal didn't struggle too tenaciously since Dragon had given it a snack to gnaw on. Now Dragon was completely absorbed in whatever the hell he was doing. Over and over again he mumbled some verse in an ancient language. A few times he’d look at the Loctos, frown, and repeat the verse. Bethara understood a word here and there, but couldn't comprehend enough of it to put anything together. It was all she could do not to scream in frustration.

  Back at the hospital, Harlan told her that she was working on a medical implant that would reduce Dragon's need for his medicine to only once a month. That remedy couldn't come soon enough for her. Until today, his needs were nothing more than a minor inconvenience, but this...this was beyond ridiculous.

  The Loctos finished his snack and became tired of its confinement. It began to struggle, attempting to chew through the net. The creature's hisses and clicks were not helping to ease her tension. She knew that the oversized pest could spray irritating venom from its filthy little mouth so she stayed away. She desperately wanted to return home.

  “Excuse me, Dragon,” she called out.

  He ignored her.

  Bethara got up from where she sat by her hyperia and walked over to him. When she was a few feet away he looked up, giving her a glacial stare.

  She stopped, no longer afraid of him, and folded her arms. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m working.”

  “Working on what exactly?”

  “I can’t concentrate with you this close. Go back and sit down, please. I'll be done in a minute.”

  “I will not, Dragon. We have been out here long enough. I’m tired and I have other obligations. We need to go now.” The words were barely out of her mouth when a strong gust of wind whipped the dead leaves and twigs up off the ground. Out of nowhere, Titan Theron appeared. He was standing right next to the boulder where Dragon sat. Bethara stumbled back the few steps to where the hyperia was tethered.

  Out of a clear dark sky, a thick band of black clouds appeared. They covered the moons, hiding their comforting light. The air surrounding them grew even cooler. Neither man said a word, but the tension was as thick as the dust blowing around them.

  With quick, tense motions, Dragon crumpled the pages he’d been reading in his fist. They ignited in a blinding flash of smoke and flame. Then his fist was empty.

  Titan stopped looking at Dragon and scanned the dead lands around them. He seemed disinterested in Dragon’s defiance. “I seem to be missing some property.”

  “Is that so?” Dragon replied. His voice had taken on an evil iciness, as frightening as his madness. “Then you are careless with your things.”

  Titan gave a chilling smile. “At least I found one of them.”

  “I am not yours anymore.” Dragon turned his head and glared at the Loctos. He tensed and his nostrils flared. Then his pupils dilated so wi
de his eyes went black. In a loud and commanding voice, he uttered the verse he had been practicing. Only this time he spoke them clearly, with unyielding confidence.

  The creature stopped struggling in the net. At first, Bethara thought he had killed it, but then she saw it had turned to smooth, white stone.

  Titan stared at the creature with a mixture of shock and concern. He took a few steps forward, stopping next to it.

  After poking it with his index finger he looked at Dragon and grinned. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises?”

  “I don’t want to fight. I just want my freedom. Go away, Father.”

  “No. You are not capable of handling freedom. Even if I gave it to you, what would you do with it? You have never lived as a normal male; never had a childhood, a family. You are my creation; a freak, a toy, a monster. That is all you will ever be. We both know you can’t serve in the army or do any of a hundred professions that would support you. You are incapable of establishing the relationships necessary to create a normal life. There is no one who will help you—except for Harlan.” He gave a mocking frown. “But that poor woman has her own problems and those certainly trump yours.” Titan glanced at Bethara. “And as for this lovely young woman, she hates and fears you.”

  Bethara’s mouth fell open. Although his words had some truth, she would have never openly said such things to Dragon. She was embarrassed for feeling the way she did. Other than being strange and inconvenient, Dragon had never treated her poorly. Stealing a look at him to see how he would respond to the hateful comment, she wasn't surprised at the lack of emotion.

  Giving his father an equally hateful stare, he said, “I have been informed that Harlan saved your miserable life in exchange for my freedom. Shockingly, you are incapable of keeping your word to anyone...even the one who cured you.”

  Titan dismissed the comment with a demonic smile and a shrug. “My breaking of a promise should not be such a revelation to her. Even she must have known I would never let you go. Besides, she would have treated me anyway. Harlan's greatest weakness is her compassion. Though, she is fortunate that her act of kindness has temporarily sapped my desire to collect a fee for her deal.”

  Dragon jumped down from the rock with such aggression that for a moment Bethara was more frightened of him than she was of his father. He stood at the base of the boulder, glowering at Titan, but didn't advance.

  “Harm her and I promise the sole purpose of my newfound freedom will be to make your suffering endless. I don’t care what you do to me. Even the mighty Titan has a gap somewhere in his armor. Are you so sure I haven't already found it?”

  Titan casually cast his gaze upward and the sky grew darker. The wind picked up even more and it looked like it was going to storm. His black shadow animated and slithered forward, through the dust, toward Dragon, but retreated back several times when it came within a few feet of him. After several attempts to reach Dragon, the shadow receded and the sky lightened.

  “Have it your way. I will concede you this round. Go ahead and to try to live a normal life. But this isn’t over between us.”

  “Why don’t you return to your lair and forget I ever existed. You were never as attached to me as you seem to be now. All I want is to be left alone. But if you try to do anything to Harlan...then you're right...this will not be finished between us and I will win. Unlike you, I have something to fight for. You have nothing but your castle of angry ghosts and your vanity.”

  Titan stared at Dragon for what seemed like minutes then he turned, took two steps, and vanished. The sky cleared and the enshrouded moons broke free, shedding their light on the land. Bethara waited as Dragon came over and untied her hyperia.

  Feeling as much of a monster as Titan, she needed to say something to make herself feel better. “It’s not true what he said. I don’t hate you.”

  Dragon mounted the hyperia and turned it around toward the boulder. “Of course you do.”

  She was about to protest, but he held up a hand. “You don’t have to deny it. I can see it in your eyes, feel it in your touch, and hear it in your voice. It doesn’t matter. I never expected anything from anyone, least of all you.”

  Dragon trotted the hyperia over and cut the net from the branch. He removed the white Loctos statuette from the net and put both in the saddlebag.

  Is he really going to take that grotesque creature with us? As if I haven't suffered through enough nonsense today. She would've protested out loud but all she wanted to do was go home. She decided to overlook the Loctos episode and came over to the side of the hyperia.

  Bethara felt drained and broken. She allowed him to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her up behind him. She put her arms around him and rested her head in the middle of his back, closing her eyes while her mind reprimanded her selfishness. It was one thing to despise Dragon in her thoughts but another to listen to her true feelings dragged out and thrown in his face. Was she that cold? She had been caring for Dragon for almost half a year. Could she still hate and fear him so much?

  Chapter 9

  Gavin had been sitting in the private waiting room with Desmond only one half-hour before five Royal Guards marched into the hospital and found him. They flung open the steel door, crashing it back against the stone wall so hard that three linear cracks ascended through the small rectangular window housed in the center. All of the men marched in single-file led by the Captain of the Guard. Under normal circumstances Gavin would have stood, drawn his sword and told them to fuck off, but he saw that they had his daughter Missy with them.

  The little girl was so small against the Corporal restraining her that Gavin hadn't even noticed her at first, until her recognized her clothes. The oversized cream colored tunic and soft black pants were a sharp contrast to the five red and gold uniforms covered with plain gray armored plates.

  Missy viciously struggled against the guard who held her under the arms. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was wild and mussed on one side where she had probably been sleeping when abducted. A rush of rage filled him. How did they find the nerve to put their hands on her? Where the fuck was Lana? Why had she turned his child over to these buffoons? He was going to beat that woman to within an inch of her life for this outrage.

  Gavin and Desmond both stood as the guards approached them. He could feel the fury radiating off of his son and hoped he didn’t lose his temper under the strain of his personal circumstances. Desmond was capable of killing all of these guards without any help from him, which certainly wouldn't help the situation.

  Resting his hand on the hilt of his sword, Gavin remained cool. “What’s going on, gentlemen?”

  Missy abruptly changed tactics and began gnawing on her captor’s leather glove. When that failed to earn her freedom, she bit down on the bare skin of his forearm where his glove ended. The guard grunted and gave a small shake to dislodge her teeth from his flesh. She snarled at him and began to work on prying his fingers from her. The girl's face was a mask of dark determination.

  “We have orders to bring you to the Emperor,” the Captain of the Guard said.

  “I’m a little busy right now. Perhaps later.”

  The Captain reached over and plucked Missy away from the Corporal. Resting her on his right hip, he placed his free hand on his dagger.

  “He is so very pissed at you, Gavin. We have orders to return with you today or our families will suffer.”

  Desmond drew his sword, but Gavin raised his hand to stop him. “What’s he so excited about then?”

  Missy started fighting harder and the Captain shifted her to his other hip, gripping her tightly around the waist. The sight of this adult male touching his daughter was filling his head with white-hot insanity. It was a struggle not to attack them all.

  “Put her down please,” he said calmly.

  The Captain gave Gavin a dead stare. “The Emperor got a message from Commander Kharon. You know, your son by marriage? Kharon is convinced you helped Colonel Caraculla escape.”

 
; Gavin had had enough of this. He pulled his weapon, but kept the blade lowered. “I'll tell you the same thing I told him...prove it. At any rate, Caraculla's escape was over four months ago. Why does he suddenly give a shit now?”

  “That's between you and the Emperor. You can either come with us, or both you and your daughter can come. I'm sure we can find a cell small enough to hold her during your little chat.”

  There was more to this than Caraculla's release. After all, Megolyth's compassion for the common citizenry hadn't exactly swelled over the past few years. The Emperor was publicly outraged over Caraculla's escape, but Gavin knew the sovereign didn't care as long as he and his own were well cared for. Concerned over the real reason Megolyth was in such a state, Gavin decided it best to yield. The last thing he wanted to see was his daughter or son cut down because of him.

  “I will go with you, Captain. Now put my child down.”

  “Once you have allowed us to restrain you, I'll let her go.”

  An ear-piercing child's shriek cracked through the room. It startled the Captain enough that his grip on Missy loosened. Pushing her boots against his thigh, the little girl launched herself off his hip to the floor, ducking under his arm as he tried to grab her. As she ran to him, Gavin moved forward, raising his sword to fend off any attempt to hurt or get her back.

  Missy reached Gavin and wrapped her arms around his leg as she pressed her cheek against it. She gave the guards the faintest hint of a smirk.

  All five Guards unsheathed their swords. The amount of tension in this standoff left few good outcomes. Desmond moved up next to him. As loathe as he was to give up, Gavin didn’t want an armed fight. Missy would be the first thing they would go for and he had no doubt the Captain would kill her if he had to.

  “Stop,” Gavin said holding up one hand and offering the handle of his sword with the other. “I will not resist. You may restrain me.”

  The Captain took Gavin’s sword as the guards rushed forward and manacled his hands behind his back.