The Iriduan’s Mate by Susan Trombley
Thirty-Six
Molly felt the weight of her exhaustion like it was a physical creature sitting on her shoulders. She wanted to rest so badly that she kept losing sense of time as she daydreamed about a nice, soft bed.
And hard, strong arms holding her snuggled close to a firm, powerful body while she slept.
Shulgi loved her! Now, she had no doubt. He’d made his devotion to her clear with a very public display that she understood was irrefutable. With his face unmasked and his eyes only for her, anyone who knew about the Iriduans would understand she was his queen.
His visual declaration was as good a vow as any wedding promise. No more would he allow his own duties and concerns to stand between them. Molly had realized that she couldn’t give any less of herself to him than he’d given to her. She couldn’t sacrifice any less to be with him. She couldn’t prioritize him below anything else in her life because he had made her his first priority.
It was a relief to finally find a cause that had an even greater hold on her than the one she’d worked for these last years on Za’Kluth. Granted, she still wanted to find ways to help those who suffered under the yoke of slavery, and she knew that Shulgi would agree with her desire to assist them in some way. But now it was time to make a new life for herself. A new life for the both of them, and Molly didn’t want that life to be in the filthy, crime infested, and deeply corrupt city of Za’Kluth.
She wanted them to find a home that felt clean and bright, perhaps a place where she could walk out along a beach and feel the sun warming her skin. She wanted to chase that vague memory or dream from childhood and see if sinking her toes into the sand would bring back any more memories.
But most of all, she wanted to stand within the protective circle of Shulgi’s arms and look out upon a distant horizon far from the dark basalt columns of Za’Kluth and know that for that blissful moment, she had finally found peace.
She had yet to discuss the particulars of their future with Shulgi. In fact, she hadn’t been able to discuss much with him at all. As a celebration broke out among Zaska’s minions below them, Briana, Molly, Shulgi, and his friend Nemon—who everyone currently believed to be Sha Zaska—all retreated back into the office building.
Nemon remained with Shulgi in the public part of the building while Briana and Molly returned to their inner sanctum to discuss the future of the organization.
Some of their inner circle had escaped into the under-vents during the invasion, including Jusa, who would take Briana’s place as the second mouthpiece for Zaska, since Briana would be stepping into Molly’s role.
For now, the remaining members who knew that Sha Zaska didn’t exist gave Briana and Molly some privacy, some of them joining the revelers outside the offices, some of them retreating back to the safety of the under-vents to decide their own futures.
Briana hugged Molly in a fierce embrace that Molly returned.
“I’m going to miss you,” Briana said, tears in her voice. “It won’t be the same around here without you.”
Molly blinked back her own tears, some of them slipping free to roll down her cheeks. “It won’t ever be the same, even if I stayed, Bri.”
Briana sighed heavily, slowing releasing Molly. “I know. I don’t even know what we’re going to do without Jenice. It still hasn’t fully sunken in that I’m never going to see her again.”
Molly’s heart ached whenever she thought of Jenice. She wondered how long it would take before she would stop feeling such painful grief at the thought of her friend. They had been through so much together, and though Jenice had betrayed her, Molly knew it was because she didn’t want Molly to get hurt. She’d thought she could head off disaster by getting Shulgi out of the picture. She’d allowed her own love for Molly to blind her to the potential repercussions.
And she’d paid far more dearly for it than she should have.
Shulgi had been deeply upset to hear that Jenice died from complications because of the wound he’d given her, immediately taking the blame on himself because he’d never intended for her to die from his shot. Molly understood that and didn’t blame him at all for Jenice’s death. Their captors could have treated her wound easily so that it didn’t get infected. They could have given her hydration. Instead, they’d left her to suffer and Uthagol’s cruelty had done the rest.
Molly didn’t want Shulgi to feel the guilt of Jenice’s death, but they hadn’t had a good chance to discuss things after Uthagol’s defeat, because Molly and Briana wanted to take back the under-tier without wasting any time. They’d only allowed for a quick shower, a change of clothing, and a check over by a medic Shulgi had produced. The medic belonged to a group of more friends of Shulgi’s she would probably never see again. They were the covert kind of friends, like the ones of hers that he wasn’t likely to ever meet. Those kinds of people preferred to remain in the shadows, and Molly understood that well.
Once she had a chance to really sit down and talk with Shulgi, for once without fear of the secrets that lay between them being revealed, they could talk about all that remained between them. All the lies and heartache and hurt that they needed to put aside. Molly knew that the love they felt for each other was strong enough to overcome everything else.
“He better deserve you,” Briana said after a long silence had fallen between them, both of them lost in their thoughts.
Molly smiled, managing it even through her grief. “He does. I could tell all along that he has a good heart. A worthy heart.”
Briana chuckled, though her amusement didn’t meet her eyes, which held a deep well of grief that Molly completely understood. “Not to mention a very nice outer wrapping for that worthy heart.”
Molly’s smile widened to a full grin as she shook her head at Briana. “You’re terrible!”
Briana shrugged both shoulders, her hands out at her sides. “What can I say? I love males—especially the really attractive ones.”
Molly’s smile slowly faded as she regarded her friend. Their ordeal had brought them closer than ever, right before they had to say goodbye to each other.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t have to explain further to Briana.
Briana nodded, her smile reassuring. “I’ve never been a ‘settle down and have a family’ kind of girl.”
She lifted a hand to pat hair that had been spattered with blood during their brief battles in the under-vents with the little resistance the Iriduan invaders had put up in that labyrinth. Those fools hadn’t stood a chance in Molly and Briana’s territory.
“I like the game too much to leave it,” Briana said with conviction, lowering her hand. “This lifestyle makes me feel powerful—and alive! Back on Earth, I was just another face in the crowd.” Her smile twisted into a rueful wince. “Not even a very pretty one. I was just dragging along, day in and day out, in a job I hated, dating men who never seemed to understand me but always expected me to settle down with them, even though I said I didn’t want anything serious. I just felt like I was out of place, even though I faded into the background.”
She gestured with a sweeping hand to their inner sanctum. “Here, I am the mouthpiece of a gang boss—one of the true leaders of this gang. I have consequence, and power, and wealth.” She tapped her chest, over her heart. “And a purpose! One that actually means something. One that changes lives and helps people!”
“I’m so glad you’re happy here, Briana,” Molly said with sincerity. “You’re an excellent mouthpiece for Zaska.”
Briana hugged Molly again, briefly this time. “You’ll always be the best we ever had. You understood Zaska better than any of us. You gave birth to him.”
Molly pulled a face, then laughed as she returned Briana’s hug. “Ugh, that gives me a terrible mental image!”
Briana laughed aloud as they stepped back to grin at each other. “Yeah, I suppose having a bunch of tentacles coming out of your womb wouldn’t be pretty.” She shifted her gaze towards the door that led into the public offices of Zaska’s Shipping. “Although, having a tentacle or two going inside of you might not be so bad, come to think of it.”
“Briana!” Molly’s eyes were wide even as laughter filled her voice. “You are incorrigible! Besides, I think Nemon has a woman already.”
Briana giggled, sounding young and innocent, belying the worldly experience she wore like a queen’s mantle. “I know. But that doesn’t stop me from being curious. Maybe I’ll see if I can import a thida naf one of these days, so we have a real Sha Zaska to trot out whenever the occasion warrants.”
“You know, I heard they really are dangerous,” Molly warned, though Briana’s tone hadn’t sounded serious, and who knew what kind of logistics it would take to bring such a creature into Za’Kluth—then tame it to play a role without trying to take over for real.
Briana winked at her. “I like danger.”
They both laughed aloud at her words as they stood in their blood-stained dresses on tile streaked by blood from corpses that the others had fortunately already removed from the inner sanctum.
Molly glanced at the damaged lounge chairs and sofa, her laughter dying. “I worry about Mogorl and Grundon,” she said, realizing that it wasn’t likely she would get the chance to say goodbye to them before she and Shulgi left Za’Kluth.
Briana’s chuckle held less certainty and amusement. “Well, at least we were able to get their message. I guess the Iriduans couldn’t decrypt it, or they just didn’t care to.”
“I can’t believe they left Za’Kluth to save a slave without sending word to us first for assistance!” Molly shook her head. “I’ve never seen them act so impulsively before.”
Of course, if Mogorl and Grundon hadn’t hopped onto the transport cruiser just before it left column 210, they would have lost the poor human woman to whatever terrible fate awaited her, because the Iriduans had control of Zaska’s resources at the time, so they wouldn’t have been able to track the cruiser’s course until it was out of Zaska’s reach.
In the long run, their impulsiveness might have worked out for the best, though they had still been in pursuit of the woman and her captors when they’d managed to send a message that had arrived a day cycle ago. Mog and Grun were no doubt still unaware that Ma’Nah had turned on them. Molly wished she could speak to them again, one last time, and explain everything that had happened in their absence.
She dreaded what they would go through when they discovered that Jenice was gone. They had loved her like their sibling, just as they loved Molly and the others in their circle. They were a family, and that family was now all split up.
It was difficult and heartbreaking to deal with such drastic changes, but Molly still believed the future held so much more promise than the past, for all of them. Mog and Grun would find their lost slave and rescue her and see to it that she had a safe place to live without fear of being recaptured, before returning to Zaska and the crew. They would experience some heartache when they did return to Za’Kluth and learn all that had happened in their absence, but hopefully they would be satisfied with the good deed that they had accomplished.
And hopefully, someday, Molly would get a chance to communicate directly with them again, even if only to say their final farewells.
For now, she had preparations of her own to make. She also had a long discussion with Shulgi ahead of her.
