Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary Read online

  “I am,” Kosen said and stepped forwards, bringing her with him.

  “Come, come.” The Sekarian waved his hand and started walking towards the edge of the square.

  “Make sure she checks out for the highest price,” Nostra ordered.

  “I want to go with them,” Eryc said and went to move towards her but Nostra’s large hand pressed against his chest, blocking his path.

  “Sekarians do not like company. Only the medical officer can go with her. Kosen knows what he’s doing.” Nostra’s look darkened and he pushed Eryc backwards when he tried to get past him. “Kosen will take care of her.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Kosen said and pulled her roughly towards him. There was a hint of apology in his eyes when she flinched, the wrist cuffs biting into her arms. “Come with me.”

  Her heartbeat didn’t slow as they approached the hut at the edge of the square. If anything, it beat faster. She looked out of the corner of her eye back at Nostra and Eryc, afraid that Eryc might try to follow them. If he did, would they still be able to escape? She wished that she knew what Kosen’s plan was. At the moment, she couldn’t see how they were going to get away.

  When she entered the hut, the Sekarian was waiting by a dirty inspection table. The black covering had seen better days and was stained and ripped in places. The thought that he had inspected all those poor females in here made her sick. She glanced back at the door, filled with an intense sense of sadness that she wouldn’t be able to save them. If Kosen managed to free her and she tried to save them, she would only be caught again. Nostra would kill Kosen. As much as she wanted to help the females, she couldn’t risk anything happening to Kosen. She needed him.

  Kosen lifted her onto the table and she lay down, grimacing when her hands dug into her back and trying to remain calm. His eyes met hers, the hint of concern still shining in them. He touched her arm, the brush of his fingers so light that it told her everything that he couldn’t. He was sorry, he cared about her, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  The apology wasn’t because she had hurt herself. It was because he felt responsible for her being in this position to start with, facing a future as a slave. He was sorry because of the things that had happened to her since they had met. He was sorry about how they had met. He was sorry for everything. She didn’t hold his past against him. If she hadn’t been royalty and someone had taken her brothers as slaves then she would have done whatever it took to free them too. He loved his sisters. He had subjected himself to a life of torment and misery, living with the terrible things that he had done in order to free them.

  “We begin,” the Sekarian said and picked up a gleaming silver tool that she didn’t like the look of. If he was going to try to put that where she thought he was, then he was going to have to get past her feet first. She would kick him before he even got close.

  It dawned on her that the Sekarian was going to be involved in the examination too. Kosen had said this was their best chance of escape. How were they going to get past the Sekarian?

  Her gaze shifted to the laser gun hanging by Kosen’s hip. Was he going to shoot the man? Laser pistols were notoriously loud. Nostra and the others would hear.

  Kosen nodded to the Sekarian and then calmly opened a square pouch on his belt. He withdrew a small injection gun and the Sekarian frowned at it.

  “What is this?”

  “She’s part Dazkaran,” Kosen said, no trace of nerves in his voice or his expression. “It will make her more sensitive to positive emotions. We want her to look her best so she fetches a good price. The better the price, the bigger your cut.”

  The Sekarian looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded, grinning.

  He walked towards her feet. Kosen grabbed him from behind and pressed the injection gun against his neck. There was a hiss of air as it fired. The Sekarian convulsed, his eyes rolled back into his head, and then he slumped forwards. Kosen lowered him to the floor. Miali wriggled into a sitting position and looked down at the male.

  He was dead.

  “What was in that?” she whispered and looked at Kosen.

  He tossed the injection gun onto the table of tools and then grabbed another device.

  “Mercury. Sekarian’s are allergic to it,” Kosen said in perfect Lyran.

  Miali stared at the dead Sekarian. His blue skin had become mottled with grey and had swollen. She would say that his reaction had been a little more than simply allergic. The mercury had killed him.

  “We have to move fast,” Kosen said as he rounded the table.

  She was about to ask him what he had planned when incredible heat blasted against her back and the smell of tin filled the air.

  “Keep still,” he whispered and she tried to look over her shoulder. He had some sort of cutting device. The heat of it made her skin feel as though it was going to blister right off her bones.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she said as the blazing blue flame of the device touched the metal cuffs and heated them, singeing her.

  “I used to work in a mine. I know what I’m doing.” The flame touched the cuffs again. “Just keep still. I’m sorry if this hurts.”

  She wanted to tell him not to apologise. He was doing this to save her after all. She would rather suffer a few burns on her wrists than a life of torture at the hands of some sick pervert.

  The metal cuffs dropped off her wrists but before she could move, Kosen’s hands were on her arms, stopping her. She hissed in a breath when something cold and wet touched the sore skin of her wrists. A soothing, pleasant cool feeling followed a moment of pain. She kept still as Kosen wrapped her forearms and hands in something. When he released her, she brought her hands around and rolled her shoulders as she looked at the thin black bandages covering her.

  “Thank you,” she said, feeling a strange lightness inside her, warmth that made her wonder if her Aunt Kayla had felt something similar when she had escaped from her life as a slave.

  “Don’t thank me,” he said and rushed across the room. She sat on the edge of the inspection table, wondering what she could do to help. He grabbed two thick black blankets from a stack on top of a cupboard and walked back to her. He unfurled one of the blankets and draped it over her head like a hooded cape. She zipped her flight suit up and pulled the black blanket closed around her. Kosen tucked her hair behind her ears, pushing it out of sight. “I haven’t saved you yet.”

  He put the second blanket over himself, covering his head and body with it.

  “Come,” he said and reached out for her hand.

  She slipped hers into it, her heart pounding as she hopped down off the inspection table and followed him. How were they going to get out of here without anyone seeing them?

  Kosen picked up the device that he had used to remove her wrist cuffs and used it to cut through the bolts holding the metal panels together at the back of the hut. He caught the one he had been working on as it fell towards him and carefully placed it to one side.

  Beyond it was darkness. Miali followed Kosen into it, tightly holding his hand as though her life depended on it. She couldn’t see where they were going but evidently Kosen could because a few minutes later they had come out of the maze of narrow black alleys into the market. She pulled the black blanket forward to cover her face and stayed close to Kosen. His fingers interlocked with hers and her hair threatened to rise when warmth crept up her arm from their joined hands.

  His thumb brushed hers.

  “Keep going,” he said.

  She gasped quietly when she looked up and saw several Minervan military officers heading towards them. Instinct told her that they wouldn’t help her if she asked. They looked as dark and menacing as Nostra and his crew. Kosen ducked down a side alley, dragging her with him. This place was a maze. She felt as though any moment now they would end up back in the square where they had started.

  “I have a confession.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. It made her heart
beat painfully hard.

  “What?” she said, hoping that it wasn’t that he was going to sell her anyway and take all the money for himself.

  “I can’t pilot.”

  She had thought that they would take Nostra’s ship but perhaps they were going to charter one instead. That didn’t seem so bad.

  “So?” she said, struggling to keep up with him as he strode through the market. She flinched every time that someone shoved her out of the way. Why was she was being pushed around and he wasn’t? When she came up beside him again, she realised that the answer to her question was simple. He looked as though he was ready to kill anyone who came near him.

  His eyes narrowed, his black irises menacing in the low light. His jaw was set and his black eyebrows met in a frown so intense that it was clear that murder was on his mind. He bore his teeth at a passing group of males who were staring in her direction and they avoided her completely.

  “We have to take public transport,” he said over the noise of the market.

  That didn’t sound so bad.

  “I can only afford cargo class. We might be lucky.”

  Her face fell. That did sound bad. Cargo class on a freighter out of this place was likely to be an experience that she would never forget. It would round off this nightmare perfectly. But she knew that Kosen would protect her. He had been protecting her since they had first met and something told her that nothing would change that now. Or would it? Was he really going to stay with her after she had bought his sisters back for him? Or was he using her as a means to an end? By rescuing her, not only was he clearing his conscience a little, but he was gaining his sisters freedom. Would he leave her?

  She pushed her dark thoughts away and clung to Kosen’s hand. Her heart said to never let it go. She didn’t want to let him go. He looked at her out of the corner of her eye and she managed a smile. Now wasn’t the time for such melancholy thoughts. They hadn’t escaped yet.

  “I can live with that. Where is the port?” She felt stupid for asking when he pointed straight ahead of them and she saw the end of the market.

  The dome that covered the port was clear and she could see the stars. They were all wrong. She couldn’t tell where they were. Kosen would know.

  “What ship are we getting?”

  “One to Minervan space.” The tone of his voice said that it wasn’t up for discussion. The Minerva system was a long way from Lyra. She would rather they were going in the direction of her home system, but she wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with him. After all, he had risked his life to save her and it was his money paying the fare.

  Miali huddled close to him as they entered the busy port. He went straight for the desk with Minerva as a destination above it, not slowing down even when he reached it. He pushed past everyone in the line and flashed a charming smile at the Minervan female behind the desk. A flare of jealously exploded inside Miali and she stepped up to stand beside him so the female would see that he wasn’t alone. Miali didn’t pay attention to the conversation that happened between them. For some reason, she couldn’t stop looking at Kosen.

  He seemed so different from the man that she had first met but at the same time, he seemed unchanged. He was so confident and in control. He had risked his life to set her free, had killed a man in order to do so, and there wasn’t a hint of fear about him.

  He was so strong.

  Her heart skipped a beat and pounded hard when Kosen’s gaze slid to meet hers. He handed the female some money and took the boarding papers from her. Without so much as a backward glance at the Minervan female, he walked away, taking Miali with him, his eyes not leaving hers.

  “Dock eight. The ship there is heading for Minerva Prime but will stop at Minerva Eleven.”

  She realised what was happening. He was trying to get to his sisters on Minerva Seven.

  “We have to run,” he said and she barely had time to grab her blanket to stop it slipping off her before they were running towards the gates that led to the docks.

  His pace was too fast but she did her best to keep up. By the time they reached the enormous black vessel, she was out of breath. She followed him onto it, ducking through the closing doors. He slowed to a walk as they passed through the corridors and into the cargo class area. They walked through it, past rooms packed with groups of unsavoury characters, and then finally entered one of the rooms. Females, children and the occasional family occupied this one. It was dirty, packed and smelt worse than the market had but it seemed a lot safer than the previous ones.

  “This will have to do. It’s better than I thought we’d get,” Kosen said.

  The ship jerked into the air. The thrusters kicked in and the entire ship shook with the force of them as they headed upwards. Kosen held on to her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders and steadying her. Being in his arms felt wonderful, soothing and warming. He walked her across the room and she saw the small compartment they were heading towards. The ship rocked and Kosen’s grip on her tightened. He smiled at her when she looked up at him and then stepped into the dimly lit compartment.

  Miali collapsed onto a hard seat by what would be a window when the ship had made it out of the atmosphere and they lowered the blast shields.

  She looked at Kosen when he drew a small curtain across their compartment and sat down opposite her. Cargo class didn’t seem so bad and they were heading away from that hellish market port and her captors.

  Her heart rate began to slow at last, she huddled up in the corner, staring at her knees, and wondering what would happen now. They had escaped the market but that didn’t mean that no one had spotted them or the ship that had brought them here wasn’t following them. Those men wouldn’t let her go so easily. She needed to get word to her father. She was sure that he would be looking for her, just as the men would be.

  “Are you alright?” Kosen said and, when she looked up at him, he moved and came to sit beside her.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his neck as he placed his arm around her. Now that she was away from the market and those men, it was all sinking in horribly fast. She couldn’t speak, didn’t know what to say. She curled up against Kosen, hoping that it was over now.

  Hoping they were free.

  ****

  Chapter 7

  Kosen stretched in the cramped compartment and frowned as he slowly came around from a nightmare-filled sleep. His eyes shot wide, sleep driven from him when he saw that Miali wasn’t with him. He rushed to his feet and opened the curtain. Relief flooded him when he saw Miali crouching with some children in a small open area near their compartment, playing a game that he recognised from his youth. She didn’t seem to care that the children she was playing with were Minervan.

  She didn’t seem to care that he was Minervan.

  She didn’t seem to care about the things that he had done.

  He watched her playing, studying the graceful way that she moved. She seemed so out of place in this area of the ship, but at home at the same time. The dull grey expansive room was packed with Minervans and the occasional other species. It was clearly a ship that had passed through the port rather than originated at it. He couldn’t imagine that most of the passengers here had come from the port or anywhere near it.

  Miali looked up and smiled at him before going back to playing with the children, moving the black pebbles around on the green and blue diamonds on the board. The children laughed at her mistake. Kosen leaned against the doorway of their compartment, smiling as he watched her intentionally lose.

  “Miali.” Kosen tilted his chin up when he said her name.

  She said something to the children and then placed a little girl in her position at the board and came over to him. It was strange to see her like this after he had only known her as a captive. He hadn’t imagined that she would be so friendly to Minervans, or that she was so amiable. It made her even more beautiful.