Freeing the Prisoner Read online

  He was impressed by her courage and touched by her loyalty. He shouldn’t let her go with him, he thought—ought to make her take the safer route instead. But if he was cut down by blaster fire on the way to the ship, then she’d be stranded on this damn misogynistic planet where females were worth less than dirt. This way, at least he could protect her.

  And if they died, they died together.

  Never thought I’d fall in love and enter a suicide pact with a strange princess when those damn Goshan ships forced me down on this hellish little planet, he thought grimly. But here he was and as strange as it sounded, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Something told him he had been meant to find Dani and if this was the risk he had to take to have her, well then, he would Goddess-damn well risk it.

  * * * * *

  Later, Dani often relived their long, breathless flight from the Royal wing of the palace to the docking bay in her dreams. She saw herself in the mirrored walls, rushing in her torn dress and silent in her small slippers with Ky behind her. The big Kindred looked like a massive, pale ghost in the reflective surfaces, his brilliant green eyes darting left and right, ready to jump ahead and push her behind him if trouble struck.

  But though Dani was certain they would run into a battalion of guards at every corner, they saw no one in the echoing mirrored halls. All was quiet—eerily so.

  The silence seemed to spook Ky too.

  “Hey, where is everybody, little girl?” he muttered in her ear as they made their way through the palace, using the least-traveled routes Dani could find.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered back. “Maybe everyone in the entire palace is at the banquet tonight. It’s supposed to be a special one to celebrate Lavi’s engagement to that…that…”

  Words failed her and a lump formed in her throat, thinking again of how she was abandoning her little sister to a fate worse than death. But what else could she do? Lavi was sitting in the middle of a crowded banquet hall right now—there was no way to get her out without attracting suspicion. Besides, the moment Dani showed her face anywhere in the palace she would be seized and forced to sign the Articles of Engagement with Tornk.

  So there really was nothing she could do for her sister—not now, anyway.

  “Hey, little girl—it’s going to be all right,” Kyron murmured. “I promise it will.”

  “From your mouth to the ears of the Gods both above and below,” Dani told him. “But I think you may be right—we are almost to the docking bay. If we can just get down this corridor and round the corner—oh!”

  The gasp which left her lips was involuntary—she couldn’t stop it or pull it back. For coming around the exact corner she was pointing to was a lone male figure. He was walking with his head down, a dejected slump to his shoulders, apparently deep in thought. Hearing Dani’s gasp, he looked up and his eyes widened.

  “Princess Dannella? What are you doing out here?” Then, seeing Ky, his eyes got even wider. “And…the alien prisoner?”

  “Get behind me,” Kyron muttered to Dani grimly. “I’ll kill him as quietly as I can to avoid attracting attention.

  “No wait!” Dani put up a hand to stop him when he would have swept her behind him and charged. “It’s Jontu—the male my little sister loves.” She looked up at Ky. “Let me just talk to him.”

  Ky frowned. “If he betrays us…”

  “I know. But I don’t think he will. Please, Ky, give me a chance.”

  Kyron looked like he might protest for a moment but then he nodded stiffly.

  “All right, Dani. I trust your judgment.”

  “Thank you.” She nodded in appreciation. She just hoped his trust in her wasn’t misplaced. “Jontu,” she said stepping forward.

  The courtier, who was dressed in his finest court garb, took a step back.

  “Princess, what are you doing out here? And with the Kindred prisoner? Has he kidnapped you? Should I shout for help?”

  “No, please, Jontu—please don’t!” Dani clasped her hands between her breasts. “Kyron here is going to help me escape from here.”

  “Escape?” He frowned. “Escape and go where?”

  “To a place where we don’t treat our females like dirt,” Ky growled. “Where they can make their own choices about who to bond with and love instead of being sold away like chattel.”

  To Dani’s surprise, instead of hotly defending Goshan ways, Jontu gave the big Kindred an apprising look.

  “Maybe this world you speak of would not be such a bad place to live,” he said. “A place where a female could choose who to love instead of being given to another she does not care for…”

  Dani heard the bitterness in the courtier’s voice and hope surged in her heart—maybe she had a chance to make an ally here.

  “Is that why you’re here, instead of in the banquet with everyone else?” she asked sympathetically. “Because you can’t bear to see Lavi given to Warro?”

  “We love each other.” There was genuine pain in Jontu’s eyes. “Before his coming and Councilor Tornk’s interference, we were certain we would be allowed to marry.”

  “Listen to me, Jontu—it might not be too late,” Dani told him earnestly. “Ky and I are leaving now but we plan to return with many more like him. Warriors big enough and strong enough to defy even Warro and his elite guards. Enough to rescue Lavi—can you help us?”

  Jontu’s eyes widened, then narrowed.

  “Truly you will return?”

  “I swear it—my oath as a Kindred,” Kyron said formally. “Dani has told me the situation her sister is facing—I am certain my commanding officer will allow me to bring a crew of Kindred back here to keep her from this wrongful joining.”

  Jontu still looked uncertain, as if he wasn’t sure he believed them.

  “I don’t know, Princess. The Monarch’s orders are that you must sign the Articles of Engagement with Tornk.”

  “You mean the way Lavi is signing them with Warro right now?” Dani asked fiercely. “Do you really want to hand me over to my father and give up the one chance you have of getting Lavi back?”

  He started to answer but just then the echoing sounds of marching boots and male voices shouting reached them. The sounds were coming from far down another corridor but were rapidly getting closer.

  “Guards coming,” Ky growled in a low voice. “Dani, we have to go. Now!”

  “They sound like they’re headed right for us,” Dani exclaimed. “We’ll never get to your ship in the docking bay in time!”

  The guards were getting closer and she could hear some of what they were saying.

  “Don’t know how he escaped—Kindred bastard!”

  “He must be a sha-gra—how else could he get loose from his manacles and a locked cell?”

  “If he’s a sha-gra he’s a damn clever one. Turning the shielding off the magnetic field so it grabbed our blasters and spears and then breaking the shielding knob so we couldn’t get them back!”

  “Thank the Gods below we have others in the arsenal. Let’s find that Kindred scum and blast the hell out of him!”

  The guards were so close— were almost upon them! If they caught Ky they’d kill him on sight, believing him to be an evil sha-gra with witch powers! Dani felt her heart rising into her mouth.

  “Jontu,” she exclaimed in a low voice. “Go and head them off—tell them you saw Ky running down another corridor into the East wing of the palace.”

  “What?” He looked shocked. “But I—”

  “Head them off,” Dani insisted. “And then do everything you can to stall Lavi’s wedding! We’ll be back as soon as we can to rescue her and we’ll take you with us. You can be together forever, only please, help us now!”

  She saw the decision form in the courtier’s brown eyes and he nodded once—a short, sharp movement of his head. Then he ran down the corridor shouting at the top of his lungs.

  “The prisoner—the huge, pale prisoner,” he cried. “Chief Charo, I saw him—I saw him running t
owards the East wing of the palace.”

  “What? The East wing?” the head guard sounded confused and Dani wondered if he would believe the falsehood.

  But they didn’t have any time to wait and find out.

  “Come on, little girl—we’ve got to get out of here now.”

  Ky grabbed her by the hand and they dashed around the corner and into the huge, echoing docking bay.

  The first place I ever saw him, Dani thought wildly. Not even a standard week ago.

  Gods above and below, had it been such a short time? And now she was running away with him. Was she crazy?

  If she was, the madness was catching because Ky was running too. There was a grim look on his face as he dragged Dani past all the small, black, snub-nosed Goshan ships to his own sleek silver vessel at the far end of the bay.

  Dani had a fleeting thought—what if they’ve taken it apart to study the technology? She knew the Goshan technicians sometimes did that to captured enemy vehicles but this time luck appeared to be with them. Ky’s ship was intact and when he pressed his hand to the side of the hull, a door slid open, revealing a spacious interior with large, plush blast chairs and rows of complicated looking flight equipment.

  “In,” Ky commanded and before Dani could answer he was boosting her bodily into the ship and climbing in after her.

  As Dani got into the passenger’s chair—which was much too big for her—he was already punching buttons and throwing levers.

  The ship hummed to life around them but outside its metal hull she could hear the sound of running feet and shouting.

  “Hurry,” she said urgently. “They found us! They’ll be after us in a minute!”

  “I’m not going to let them take me again—or you either.” Ky looked grim as he grasped the steering yoke. “Buckle up, little girl—we’re in for a bumpy ride.”

  “Wha—oh!” Dani gasped, her question turning into a sound of fright. For the Kindred ship was rising rapidly through the permeable atmosphere dome—so rapidly that it felt like her stomach had been left back on the metal floor of the docking bay—and a huge hand was pushing down on her from above.

  “Hold on,” Ky told her as they rose into the sky. “Are you buckled up?”

  Dani fumbled one of the bands into place and clicked it closed across her breasts.

  “Now I am.”

  “Good, I’m going to give it all she’s got.”

  Around them the black Goshan ships were rising in a swarm like hungry insects to surround them. Dani wondered how they would ever get away.

  Ky seemed to know what he was doing, however. The silver ship dropped suddenly, sliding below the battalion of black vessels, and then zipped forward into clear space.

  They were going faster than Dani had thought possible but unfortunately, the Goshan ships were still following them. She could see them in the viewscreen, swarming behind Ky’s sleek Kindred vessel, hot on the chase.

  “Ky,” she said, her voice tight with panic. “Ky, they’re gaining on us!”

  “Not for long.” He twisted the steering yoke and the ship dropped again and did a roll which made Dani’s stomach come up into her throat. When he had a clear path again, Ky’s eyes narrowed and he pulled hard on the yoke, clearly urging the ship to its fastest speed as they left her planet behind.

  “What are you going to do?” Dani asked wildly. “We can’t outrun them forever.”

  “Depends on where we run to, little girl. Look—there.” He pointed to the viewscreen and Dani saw a swirling blue vortex suddenly appear in the black fabric of space.

  “Gods above and below,” she whispered uncertainly. “What is that?”

  “Worm hole,” Ky said succinctly. “If I’m right, those ships are short-range vessels. They won’t dare follow us in.”

  “We’re going in there?” Dani gasped. “But, Ky—!”

  “Hang on,” he barked, twisting the yoke to steer them right into the center of the huge, swirling blue mass.

  Dani did as he said, clutching the straps that barely held her in place, her eyes growing wide and her breath growing short as they plunged headfirst into the void.

  Her next to last thought was we’re going to die and her last one was, I don’t care! Even if we die, it’s still better than being married to that horrible Councilor Bray-bray!

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kindred ships were well built so they shot out of the worm hole no worse for the wear, thank the Goddess. Ky turned the ship at once and watched the end-spout of the hole, waiting to see if they had company.

  To his infinite relief, not a single Goshan ship had followed. It was as he had suspected, they feared either for the integrity of their ships or worried about the possibility of getting lost and being unable to return to their home world.

  Most worm holes were one-way and since the end-spout could dump out literally millions of light years from the entrance, it wasn’t safe to go through one unless you had a reliable way to get back home.

  Luckily, Ky did. He could call the Mother Ship and ask his fellow Kindred to fold space for them. But first they had to get oriented and find out exactly where they were.

  He sent out a directional probe and instructed his ship’s computer to scan through the known star charts in its memory before he thought to look at Dani. When he did, he saw she was still clutching the restraining straps of her seat and looking around herself with a half-dazed expression in her big, dark eyes.

  “Hey, little girl,” he said gently, putting out a hand to her.

  “Oh!” Dani jumped away from his touch.

  “Sorry.” Ky withdrew his hand. “Are you all right?”

  “I…I don’t know. I thought we were going to die.” She looked at the viewscreen which showed only the blackness of space. “Where are we?”

  “Well, that’s what I’m trying to find out,” Ky remarked. “Once we—” A soft beep from his ship interrupted him and he looked at the information screen. “Oh, here we go. Well, son of a bitch…”

  “What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Dani was clearly still on edge.

  “Nothing’s wrong, little girl. It’s just ironic—that’s all.” Ky laughed. “Looks like that worm hole dumped us out not two parsecs from the exact place I was trying to reach—the Hive’s home world.”

  “It did? You mean the home world of those huge alien insects that lay their eggs in humanoid females?” Dani shivered. “Ugh—do we have to go there?”

  “It’s all right.” Ky was already running a probe. “According to this, there’s no life signs. It’s pretty much what my commanding officer, Commander Sylvan expected—the whole lot of them took off and migrated. Didn’t leave anyone behind, apparently.”

  “Still…” Dani rubbed her arms, which had shivered into gooseflesh. “I want to go get some Kindred warriors to help save my sister. You promised we would, Ky.”

  “And it’s a promise I intend to keep, little girl,” he said gravely. “But we can’t go back right this second. We’re pretty far from the Mother Ship and the Blind between us distorts signals. Tell you what…” He turned towards her more fully. “Why don’t we just land for a few hours? I can use the planet’s magnetic field to boost my signal and while we wait for the Mother Ship to answer I can do a quick scan of the abandoned Hive lair. We can get that cut tended to, too.”

  He nodded at the long scratch on her shoulder and back, made by the pain-spear. The blood on it had long since dried but it still looked swollen and it was in a place where she couldn’t effectively treat it herself.

  “Just for a few hours?” Dani asked, biting her lip. “And then we’ll go back to your Mother Ship and bring reinforcements to get Lavi? You promise?”

  “I promise,” Ky said firmly. “I know what you’re worried about—that Warro bastard hurting your little sister. But he can’t do that until they’re married, right?”

  Dani shook her head. “No. No, he can’t.”

  “All right. And they’re not getting married tonight,
are they?”

  “Well…no,” she admitted reluctantly. “In fact, it will probably take days to get the wedding ready. A Royal wedding is always a huge, complicated affair.”

  “Then we’ve got a little breathing room,” Ky assured her. “And I’m sure my commander will look much more favorably on my request to come rescue your little sister if I come back with the information I actually left to get in the first place. All right?”

  Dani nodded hesitantly. “I guess so. I just worry about her. She’s a brat sometimes but she’s still my little sister—you know?”

  Ky, who had younger brothers of his own, nodded ruefully.

  “I know, little girl. Believe me, I get it. Family is important.” He punched in the coordinates and brought them closer to the Hive home world, spinning silently, now deserted in space. “Just a quick layover,” he promised Dani. “And then we’ll be back to the Mother Ship before you know it.”

  She bit her lip. “I hope so.”

  * * * * *

  Dani wasn’t at all enthused about landing on the strange, dead world with its weird gray half-light. But she could understand Ky’s wish to have something to show for his mission and if they needed a planetary magnetic field to boost the signal strength anyway, they might as well use the Hive planet to do it.

  She was still trying to quiet her beating heart as Ky finished the landing sequence and turned towards her.

  “All right, little girl,” he said, his deep voice soft and coaxing. “How about we go in the living quarters in the back of the ship and get that cut of yours taken care of?”

  For a moment Dani wasn’t sure what he was talking about. But when he motioned to her shoulder, she understood. Suddenly the dull, throbbing ache which was the aftermath of contact with a pain-spear made itself known as it hadn’t before. She’d barely felt the injury, so frantic had she been in the hours since she’d gotten it. But now, in a quiet, safe place at last, the growing pain was making itself known.

  Are you someplace safe though? an uncertain little voice whispered in her head. Off your own world for the first time, run away with a strange male—is that safe?