The Journey's End (11 page)

“The nearest planet for trade is Lenosh.  I believe she is
getting dropped there, along with our other visitors to await transport home.”

“Lenosh?”  She wanted desperately to plant a fist in his
smug face.  She cleared her throat.  “Are they members of the League?”  She
knew damn well they weren’t.  Slavers weren’t allowed, nor were assassins or
pirates, and Lenosh had all three in droves. 

“I’m afraid, with his quest for power, Menelaus has caused
us to make decisions we would not normally be forced to make.”

Like getting rid of any possible witnesses in such a way
that you can’t be blamed for it? 
Nori fought to keep the sneer off her
face.  If she couldn’t intercept that transport, Lara was in serious trouble.

He motioned to one of the other Wosite, this one shorter in
blue robes.  “Jerom will escort you to a room where you can freshen up while we
arrange transport.  He will see to the removal of those ridiculous cuffs as
well.  I don’t understand why they were used at all.”  He looked from the cuffs
to her small figure swallowed up by the robes.  His eyes narrowing.

“I think the mercenary thought it was funny for some
reason.”  She furrowed her forehead like thought was a great trial for her.  “It
seemed to take him forever to get them fastened, and well…I was naked.  It was
most disconcerting.”

“Ah, perhaps that explains it then.”  He smirked, then
cleared his throat.  “Again, I apologize for the treatment you have suffered
here.  We will get you safely away as soon as the shuttles return from the last
relocation.  You will be reunited with your sister in no time.”

“I appreciate that.”  Nori followed the blue robe out of the
room, her mind whirling with possibilities and problems.  She had to get
Menelaus free before he was executed, steal a shuttle, rescue her sister from
slavers, and then travel to Heti and report the Wosite to Tryne.  As an ambassador,
he could call down the wrath of The League of Planets.  Finally, she was going
to have to return Menelaus to his providence once it was safe to do so. 

How was it that with all the danger inherent in every step
of her plan, the last part seemed the one fraught with the most personal risk?

The room she was taken to was not the same ‘visitor’ cell
from her prior forced stay.  Instead, it was bigger but still decorated in the
same utilitarian drab.

The Wosite, Jerom, very helpfully removed the carbon
shackles.  Nori rubbed her wrists while she contemplated her choices.

“I am safe here, right?  I mean that barbarian is on another
floor and locked up?”

“Of course, Menelaus is in our high security wing.  That’s
four floors by lift, and behind reinforced carbon steel doors.  I have also
been assigned here, so I will be right outside your door, should you need
anything through the night.  You are quite safe.”

Hmm.  Lovely.

“Well, that is reassuring.  Thank you for your help.  One
more question then.  Do you know how long it will take my sister to reach
Lenosh?”

“It’s no bother.  I am assigned here regardless, and I
believe her shuttle left just a few cycles ago, so she should reach the planet
in two days, and probably, five more cycles.”

“That’s about what I figured.”  She whirled and took him
down with a flying spin kick to the head.  He hit the ground hard, then she
flipped him over to his belly and secured his hands.  She checked, he was still
breathing, so she shoved some robe in his mouth and ripped off a piece to
secure the gag.  Not that she expected to go unnoticed for long, but any amount
of time between now and when the alarm sounded would be helpful with what she
had to do.

Nori pulled off the robe they had given her and let the
transformation take her.  The ripple of water affect flowed fur down her body
until she was completely transformed once again.  She pulled down the grate for
the venting system and jumped nimbly into the small space.  Four floors and she
should be able to scent Menelaus from there; at least in theory it sounded
right. Of course, once she found him, they still needed a way off the planet
and to Lenosh before Lara became some fat pirate’s love slave.

O
ne thing at a time.

***

Menelaus paced up and down his small cell, wondering what
was happening to Nori. 
Blind Faith she says.  What does that even mean?

Clearly, she was playing some game with the Wosite.  Was she
playing it with him as well?  Was she even now escaping with that damn Shakien
pirate and leaving him...again?  At least he didn’t have to worry about Dunstan
for awhile, after the beating he had taken. Flying without restraint in the
shuttle, he would be in the Wosite’s healing tube for at least a few cycles, if
not days.  But he would feel infinitely better if he could see Nori, and not
wonder what trouble she was cooking up. 
Blind faith, Hah!

  His hands fisted and unfisted as he glided from one wall
to the other, his eyes flashing silver lightning and his jaw clenched against
his need to rend something.  At least they had removed his shackles. 
Probably
figured the carbon steel door would be adequate to stop my murderous rampage, should
I be so inclined.
 

He made another turn at the wall, his eyes studying the
empty room and the vent reinforced against tampering on the ceiling. 
Too
small anyway,
he mused. Turn, glide, clench his fist.  He thought of Nori. Turn,
glide unclench fists. 

Where the hell are you?

Whatever else he knew about his wife, at least she could
take care of herself.  He should be more worried about his people, with the
Wosite to help, Dunstan would have a very easy time taking out the compound
defenses.  His people would be powerless against such advances, as the techs
could bring to the table.  The fact that using them went against everything
they were as a people would not deter the Wosite or Dunstan.  Turn, glide,
clench, unclench. 
Nori.
  He was going to have to take a hard look at
the way they handled the outside worlds and trade. 

No matter how it had always been done, the fact remained
that his people would be at the mercy of technology one way or another from now
on.  Even if he escaped and defeated the Wosite plans to overthrow him, he was
going to need to make a few changes.  To start with, he would need to join the
League of Planets, establish communication and laws regarding their people and
way of life so that they were protected against threats from the outside as
well as within their own borders.  Turn, glide, clench, unclench. 

Letting the Wosite field the outside world had worked for
thousands of years, but now they would be paying the price for their lack of
vision, and if he could not come up with a plan, his people would be the ones
paying it.  Maybe having an outlander for a queen was fated in more ways than
one, and if her adopted father was the ambassador for the League, he could help
him get established and push the Wosite back.  The trick was going to be to get
communications open from a carbon enforced cell, preferably before his
execution tomorrow.  Turn, glide, clench, unclench.

She had better be all right.

  He heard a noise from above him and whipped his head up in
time to see the vent drop. He caught it out of the air before it could hit the
ground.

“Nice catch.”  Nori used the rim of the venting to go head
first through the tight space, then pulled the rest of her body out while she
rolled her feet down and out.  She dropped to the floor soundlessly and smiled
up at Menelaus.  “Ready to make your move?”

He put the vent lid down very precisely, so it made no sound
to alert the guards outside the door. 

“Yes,” he said.  Then he stepped forward and grabbed Nori by
her arms lifting her up and slamming her against his chest with an umph.  He
swooped down and took her lips in a kiss that was as passionate as it was
angry.  All the other problems paled to this.  After the days she had been
missing, then the worry, not being able to protect her if she needed it, not
knowing.  He needed this.  Right now, he felt like he would come out of his
skin if he couldn’t have her.

Nori growled against his marauding lips, opening herself to
the taste and feel of her mate.  Somehow, being in his arms dropped every
defense she had and her armor like pelt melted away until just the pale skin
remained for him to conquer and reclaim.  And reclaim he did.

Dropping them to the floor, he pressed her down against cold
concrete, pushing his way between her naked thighs he growled, as if he was the
beast demanding its mate.  He pushed one hand into her loose hair, pulling her
face up at an angle that opened her throat to his lips and teeth. His other
hand was at his trousers and a second later he was pushing in, forcing himself
inside her slick channel.  She arched against him, hissing at the tight feel
and reveling in his domination. 

He bit her jutting nipple and she almost came, shuddering
around his plunging cock.  He stopped moving, pulling her hair until he had her
dazed lavender eyes, his own velvet smoke with lightning strikes illuminating them
from the inside.  One of his hands moved to her face, cupping her cheek and
holding her.  When he saw he had her attention, he finally moved, slower this
time, but with power; each thrust a precise statement of ownership. 

Nori was trapped, in his eyes, beneath his body.  With the
maddening friction of his cock inside her, there was nowhere to escape to.  Worse,
for the first time that she could remember, she didn’t want to escape captivity,
she reveled in it.

Menelaus saw the surrender in her eyes, felt it in her
liquefied body and it was enough for now.  He sped up his thrusts, pumping into
her until she came.  She splintered apart in his arms, crying out her pleasure
and milking his cock until he followed with a roar of triumph. 

Later, he knew she would fight him again, but for now, she
was his.  Some painful tension he hadn’t been aware of released.  He needed
that surrender. Needed her to break apart in his arms and on his cock.  Buffeted
by satisfaction and warm woman, he basked inside his mate, and almost missed
the key hitting the lock.

He was up and Nori was right behind him. In a twirl of color,
he saw her transform into her furry form and spin off, placing herself behind
the door just as it was opening.  Menelaus stayed where he was standing beneath
the opened vent while two automated guards with blasters came through, guns up
and pointed in his direction.

Since he was standing there with his dick hanging out of his
pants, he was happy they were automated.  Their programming wouldn’t get passed
the open vent to wonder at his state of undress, and a real guard would know
that the strange noises coming from his cell were from two people.  That was
the only thing good about the situation. However, since his wife, who had been
in his arms, now was not, but rather hiding in plain sight behind the door. 

Unlike soldiers who might marvel at all that was Nori and
give him a chance to use his voice against them, these machines would simply
see an intruder and terminate it.  His mate was in danger because he couldn’t
keep from taking her on the floor like a rutting beast.  So now, they had a
situation and a split second to decide how to handle it.  He was pissed as all
hell so he went with it.

“Can’t a man piss in peace?”

That caused a moment of confusion.  Then one of them spoke
in that modulated voice automatons had.  “You are restricted from attempting to
leave this room, or damage any property within.  As you have broken this
mandate, you will be restrained.  Please turn around and present your hands for
the restraints.”

“If I refuse?”

“Then an alert will be sent to medical for tranquilizers to
keep you calm and allow us to place the restraints according to the
aforementioned rules.”

“By all means.”  Menelaus watched with no small relief as
Nori slipped out the open door behind the automatons.  He turned his back to
present his hands, thinking she was out of immediate danger.

One of the automatons came forward with the restraints,
while the other stayed far back with his blaster trained on Menelaus.  A second
before it would have attached the cuffs, there was a shifting of sound behind
him.  He heard a scuffle and by the time he turned around, one automaton was in
pieces on the floor and Nori was pulling the head off the last one while he
sparked and shuttered, then died.

She dropped the head, wiping her hands together like she had
just finished baking a cake.

“Those are military grade automatons,” he said, wondering if
his voice sounded as shocked as he felt.

“Yeah, I know, that’s why I had to get a running start at
the first one.  They can be fast with those blasters.”

“May I ask if you can rip one of those steel encased
monsters apart with your bare hands, why you didn’t just escape the tech prison
the first time you were held here?”

Nori shrugged, leaning down and checking through the holding
compartments of the headless automaton.  “Won’t do any good to escape the room
if you are stuck on the planet without transport.  Besides, the Wosite are tech
based. They have sensors that monitor all of the corridors and lifts.  Lara
could not have handled the venting system.  We would have been caught long
before we found something to fly us out of here.”  She moved on to the next,
pulling the blaster out of the dead hands clutching it.  “Besides, as the
ambassadors daughters, we represent him when we travel.  They tend to frown on
you not following the laws of the planet you are visiting.”  She handed the
blaster to him.  “Can you use this?”

“I’m better with a sword, but my father thought it important
to learn the fighting ways of other worlds when we had knowledgeable visitors. 
I’m trained in the blaster.”

“Nifty, because they probably had to check in when they
opened your door and sooner rather than later, we will have company when they
don’t check in again when they are finished.”  She headed for the open door. 
“At least I would do it that way.”

“I would have kept eyes on the room.”

“And possibly have someone hack in and see how they treat
their prisoners?”  She shook her head.  “I get the feeling that is the last
thing they want, I mean, besides you dead and someone easy to control on the
Kenoshan throne.”

It was a valid point that Menelaus could not dispute.  He
had naively thought of the Wosite as harmless go betweens he could use for his
own ends.  He would have to adjust that thinking if he wanted to survive.

*** 

The thing about the Wosite province was the lack of life. 
Everything was done under the dome. People tended to be cold and logical, so
their living quarters reflected that.  Menelaus had always hated the enclosed
feeling and smell of astringent and bottled air.  It was ridiculously clean and
no doubt germ free, but it did not feed the soul the way a tree did, or the
sound of running water over rocks.

If he ever got tired of the smell of manure and growing
things, he would always remember the sterility of the Wosite and be content
with his lot.  Such were his inconsequential thoughts when Nori stopped and
motioned him to wait.

Nori lifted her head, sniffing the canned air. The smell of
cold metals and circuitry was coming from just around the next corner. 
Automatons, a lot of them from the overwhelming scent, with a few Wosite
intermixed for confusion.  The great one was with them.  Slightly reptilian is
how his smell struck her, and the ticklish scent of silk robes was distinctive
in a place where most of the people wore synthetics.  She backed up into
Menelaus and felt his hand hit her hip to steady her.  He bent his head and
spoke directly into her ear.  “Trouble?”

She nodded, and he gestured the way they had come.  She
shook her head again.  Chances were good none of the doors would work on the
way back. 

“Trap,” she whispered. 

She felt his hand tighten at her hip.  “Can you get out
through the vents?”