Freedom's Fall (16 page)

Dev woke to an insistent dragon prodding at his mind, but he
was too tired to surface. The night before had not been spent in sleep, and his
lethargic muscles were winning the battle to drag him back into unconsciousness.
Then the klaxons sounded.

His body was so well-trained that he was on his feet and
scrambling for his leathers before he even opened his eyes. Rye was on the
other side of the bed, yanking on his tunic and trousers at the same speed Dev
was trying to achieve. As soon as his leathers were in place, Dev sat on the
bed to drag on his boots, casting a quick look at Tansy over his shoulder.

Their mate had shot to wakefulness as he and Rye leapt out
of bed, and she was sitting against the headboard with the sheets clutched to
her chest. With her swollen lips and sex-messed hair she should have looked
satiated, but the wild gleam in her eyes was full of fear and anxiety. It
pained him that he didn’t have time to offer her comfort.

He stood, turning to face her as he tied back his hair. “That’s
the alarm for a Brightstar raid, so the whole den is mobilizing. Get dressed,
but stay in our den until all the dragons are clear, then you can go to Sorcha’s.”

The women had decided there was comfort in numbers, so they’d
arranged to meet in Jax and Kaelum’s den if the Enforcers had to ride out.

Leaning down, he kissed Tansy quick and hard. “Don’t worry.
You’ll be safe here, and Rye and I have fought hundreds of battles and come out
unscathed.”

She nodded, turning her face to Rye as he kneeled on the bed
to claim a kiss for himself. “Be careful,” she said. “And come back safe.”

They were almost out the bedroom door before she’d finished
speaking. The alarm still rang, shrieking through the den and pumping
adrenaline into the body of every Enforcer.

Dev ran side by side with Rye as they sprinted down the
hallway, through the living room and along the corridor that led to the lair.
Skidding into the small room that held their weaponry, they gathered their
regulation battle armor.

Dev strapped jointed carapaces over his legs and arms, then
Rye helped him into the plas-leather armor that protected his torso. Long
spikes ran down the outside of his legs and arms, and Dev’s broad shoulders
were made to look even wider by several long, sweeping spikes that outsized his
body.

Once he was securely buckled, he performed the same service
for Rye, and neither of them spoke a word as they collected their personal
weapons and helmets. This was what they did, who they were, and while Dev’s
heartrate accelerated with the knowledge of the battle to come, his mind was
clear. The dragon riders were well-trained and experienced, and they drilled
often enough to ensure they mobilized quickly and efficiently. Every Enforcer
knew what to do, where to go and how to ready himself to fight. That was even
truer for the den captains.

As quick as Dev and Rye were, Zenbaylan and Fellescend were
ready and waiting for them, saddled, armored and with a full array of weapons.
Den engineers had long ago perfected a system of levers and pulleys to ensure
the blacks could don their own tack and armor. They needed no help from their
Enforcers to be battle-ready.

Fellescend used his tail to pull a lever, and as the exit
doors of the landing eased open, Dev climbed on board and buckled himself in.
He hadn’t quite finished securing his helmet when Fellescend turned and
scrambled out of the not-quite-wide-enough opening. They dropped hard and fast
before Fellescend snapped his wings open and pumped, quickly gaining altitude.

The air was packed with dragons and would have looked
chaotic to the untrained eye, but Dev could see the flights beginning to form.
As Fellescend carried him to their staging area, Dev opened a link.

What do we know?
he asked his dragon.

The blue soldiers want to play.
Fellescend sounded
gleeful, which meant the Enforcers were in for a punishing day in the air.
The
coastal scouts estimate there are five hundred skiffs, and they have confirmed
at least ten gunships in the second wave.

Dev winced. It wasn’t the biggest enemy force he’d ever come
up against but it was going to stretch the Enforcers to their limits. There was
no doubt the den would incur serious losses.

He sent a message to Zenbaylan.
Make sure you take care
of my denmate. I don’t want to have to face Tansy if you bring Rye back harmed
or worse.

Zenbaylan poked at him through the link.
I know how to do
my job. Just make sure you do yours.

And with that pep talk, she shut him out.

Dev flew high and wide, holding his position to rendezvous
with his flights. As he waited for his men and their dragons to form up, he
scanned the low altitudes until he saw a small group of five flying just above
the tree line. Rye, Behr, Kaelum, Tarkan and Rowan were heading for the coast
in the hopes of infiltrating the heart of blue soldier command and killing
Sergeant Edrick.

Dev understood Finn and Behr’s need to put Edrick in the
dirt, but he couldn’t ignore the ugly surge of fear that heaved inside his
belly. He and Rye were lovers now—partners in body, heart and soul. Being mated
to Tansy and Rye had given Dev more than he’d ever thought he could have, which
in turn meant he had so much more to lose. He couldn’t bear the thought of
anything happening to either of them. While he knew Rye wouldn’t thank him for
his concern, it didn’t stop Dev from watching those five shadows until they
disappeared from his view.

The wait for the flights to get into position seemed
interminable, but finally Fellescend got the all-clear from his subordinate
dragons. Not long after that, they received the go order from Tengale. In a
rippling wave of wing and scale, over three hundred dragons and their riders
moved out to meet the enemy.

* * * * *

Tansy couldn’t see any dragons when she looked out the floor-to-ceiling
window of the den. The blue sky was pale and clear, the forest below stretched
out in a lush green carpet and the lake in the distance sparkled in the
sunshine. Obviously the dragons were staging on the other side of the den, and
in a nod to her new-wife status, she decided she owed it to her Enforcers to
see them off.

She made it through the corridor with no problems, but when
she got to the landing and was confronted with the far wall completely open to
the air, she almost lost her nerve. An expanse of empty sky filled her vision
and her heartbeat accelerated, her blood roaring in her ears. Anxiety prickled
up her spine and a cold, clammy sweat coated her body. Breathing hard, she
resisted the need to turn tail and run. Her men were out there, flying into who
knew what kind of danger, and the very least she could do was stand witness for
them.

Pressing herself to the wall, she shuffled along as far as
she dared and then slid down to press her ass firmly to the floor. Anchoring
herself in the smooth coolness of the marble paneling, she turned her face to
the enormous doorway. Her position against the wall didn’t give her a panoramic
view, but she was able to see a large chunk of sky. For a moment she thought
she was still in the wrong place, but then a seething sea of black flew into
view. The dragons swirled in a mass of wing, tail and teeth, their natural
ferocity augmented by the spectacularly armored Enforcers on their backs. They looked
like something out of a Tolkien fantasy, a war machine made up of bone, muscle,
skin and scale.

All of a sudden the chaos smoothed out into battle formation,
and not long after that they moved off. It seemed like hundreds of dragons flew
through her tiny piece of sky, and she watched in amazement as they surged
through the air. Then, just as suddenly as they’d appeared, they were gone. She
closed her eyes, following with her heart now she could no longer follow them
with her vision.

She knew Dev was a captain, which meant he was in a
leadership position, but she didn’t know if that meant he would be in front of
the action or behind it. She had no idea of Rye’s role or where he fit in the
formation, and now it was too late to ask. Until this moment, their jobs as
Enforcers had been more concept than reality. She understood their role in an
abstract sense, but the practicalities were something else altogether. It was a
shock to her system—and her heart—to have her men scramble out of bed, strap on
their weapons and take to the air. The two most important people in her world
were flying into a danger she didn’t understand and couldn’t measure. Her fear
for them reverberated right down to her bones and she squeezed her eyes shut,
praying to a god she wasn’t sure she believed in.

Tansy didn’t know how long she sat there with her eyes
closed, her heart and mind completely focused on her husbands and their
dragons. Her ass was cold and numb, her legs had pins and needles, but she
couldn’t bring herself to leave just yet.

The sound of a soft, metallic whine—an engine, maybe?—had
her cracking her eyes open and squinting into the sunlight. At first she didn’t
understand what she was seeing, her vision giving her little more than blurred
shapes. Then the shapes resolved themselves into men. Black-garbed, heavily
armed and riding the gunwales of a small personal transport.

Nobody in Ivasta used skimmers, because the ion storms made
them useless. But she knew what the machine was because she’d seen plenty of
them in her time at Allsgate. She scrambled to her feet as five men stepped
from the transport onto the landing of the den. Four oversized guards and one
small, paunchy, balding man who struck terror into Tansy’s heart.

“No.” The denial slipped past her lips, but she knew she
wasn’t seeing things. Willersby Lockmehdyhn had come for her and she was as
defenseless as she had been the first time he’d captured her. Only now she had
more to lose.

Willersby stepped onto the landing, walking forward a few
steps as he looked her up and down. His disgust at her silk tunic and trousers
was evident. “You look like a whore.”

Tansy had scrambled out of bed in a hurry. She had no doubt
her sex-hair, bare feet and lack of underwear told the story of how she’d spent
her night. And she could see by the hard glint in Willersby’s eyes that he was
going to make her pay for it.

Icy claws of fear raked her belly and her lungs squeezed too
tight for breath. The blood pounded loud and panicky in her head, and she
fought against her wavering vision.

“I’m in a mating contract,” she said, her voice tight and
thready. “What I do or how I look is nobody’s business but my husbands’.”

Willersby smiled, cold and cruel. “I’m afraid that contract
is not legally binding.” He took two steps closer, triggering so many bad
memories that Tansy couldn’t even think. “I own you,” he said. “I have the
indenture documents in my possession, all duly lodged and notarized. You don’t
have the right or legal standing to sign anything, especially not a mating
contract.”

Two more steps and he was on her, one hand tangled hard in
her hair, the other tight around her throat as he drove her to her knees. Tansy
collapsed, slamming onto the floor as she struggled for breath.

“You are
my
whore,” Willersby said, leaning down over
her, “bought and paid for with my hard-earned money.” He beady eyes were full
of retribution and his breath burned hot on her cheek. “And you’ve tried to
cheat me of what I’m owed.”

Tansy was sinking, drowning in a black wave of powerlessness
and terror. It blanked out everything but the shame and misery of Willersby’s
body so close to hers, and the humiliating knowledge that she’d lost the fight
before it had begun. His men all had weapons, and while Tansy doubted they’d kill
her, they could easily knock her out and throw her into the transport.

Tansy heard a pop and then the angry hiss of a pissed-off
dragonet.
Bloody hell
.

“Oskaal, no!”

Willersby angled his body to see what was going on, and
Tansy got a half-view of Oskaal hissing, spitting and doing his best to claw at
the guards. The men might have had orders not to kill her, but Tansy knew they’d
have no such reservations about killing a dragonet. Desperate, she said the
first thing that popped into her head. “Run, Oskaal—you can’t tell them what
happened if you’re dead.”

“Them”being Fellescend and Zenbaylan. The moment the
words were out of her mouth, she cursed herself for being such an idiot. Before
she thought better of it, she sent out a distress call to the dragons.

I’m in trouble. Willersby is here with four armed guards
and they’re threatening my dragonet. Make Oskaal leave.

There was a moment of quiet and then the dragonet
disappeared in a shower of sparks. Tansy slumped in relief, or as much as she
could in Willersby’s hold. A few seconds later, Zenbaylan’s voice sounded in
her head.

I am coming, pet. You need to delay as long as you can. Don’t
allow them take you from the den.

Tansy was on her knees and struggling for breath. She was in
no position to “allow” her captors do anything one way or the other. But that
didn’t mean she couldn’t try.

She didn’t know if she should pander to Willersby’s massive
ego and hope he would linger to gloat, or fight him and waste his time trying
to subdue her. She dared a glance at him, trying to decide, and she saw his lip
curl.

“You dare to look me in the eye, whore? Have you remembered
nothing from your lessons?”

Yes, Tansy remembered everything, and those memories decided
her course of action. She lowered her head to take the pressure off her neck
and to give herself time to brace for the oncoming pain. Then she began her
delay.

“I remember plenty.” She raised her voice enough for the
guards to hear. “I remember your tiny little dick and how bad you are at using
it.”