Kidnapped By the Alien Prince by Tori Kellett
Chapter Twelve
“Absolutely not.”
A week later, Callie was ready to admit defeat. She felt like the gap between what she was expected to do and what Zak allowed her to do anything yawned even wider.
“You cannot expect me to stay locked up in here like some prisoner.” Okay, so that was a little melodramatic, but still. Apparently the guards were told they had to stop her leaving the palace and had refused to open the gates.
“A prisoner?” Zak roared. They had been arguing on and off about it since yesterday. “It’s to keep you safe.”
“You’re keeping me caged,” she yelled back. “How can I help you if I don’t even meet Ishtaans?”
“I don’t—” But he cut off the words. “I don’t want you to be hurt.”
Callie shook her head very slowly. “Except you weren’t going to say that at all, were you? You were going to say you didn’t need my help.” She turned around as another guard arrived to tell Zak the elders had arrived. She heard the expletive he cut off in his own tongue, then quietly closed the door behind her.
She closed her eyes and leaned back against the door. She wasn’t going to back down on this. Her desperate need for a child had forced one capitulation after another with Gary. At first she’d adored being treated like a princess, until she’d worked out that he was simply exerting control and dressing it up in care and concern. She hated to say it, but Gary skipping out on her had been the best thing that could have happened. She might have been mired in debt, but it had given her a backbone, and she wasn’t ever going to let it happen again. Zak had made promises, and she intended on making sure he kept them. She wasn’t breakable. She could bend, but so could he.
A small smile played on her lips. Zak seemed intent—very intent—on seeing exactly how bendable she was every night. Their sex life had been incredible, and he was hot, and demanding, but caring and considerate. No, sex was the one thing that they were in complete agreement on. At least they had one, right?
She’d even handled Ky’raa without drama. She’d simply called all the palace staff together which, if she was honest, she should have done already, and announced that Tamara was being made head of house. Neela had beamed, and Ky’raa had formally told Tamara she was returning to her village. She hadn’t seen her family for some time, and she hoped the king and queen would understand.
They did, of course. At Callie’s urging, Ky’raa was accompanied by two guards to make sure she was safe.
“Where are you going?” Voren blurted out in alarm as she picked up her wrap from the table outside her bedroom door. The palace was filled with priceless objects collected over the cycles when Ishtaan had been wealthy, and embarrassingly when Zak’s sire had still pretended they were. The brothers had their own suites, the servants theirs. The other females nearly had their own wing. Kaleth even had his own, yet there were still at least forty empty rooms. Voren took the wrap off her and courteously held it open. It was cool among the trees this early in the morning.
“I’m going to visit Lexie and Madison. And the villagers, of course.” She didn’t say what else she was doing beforehand. She knew Voren wouldn’t lie to his king if asked outright, so she just hoped they didn’t meet anyone on their way. Frustration furrowed Voren’s face.
“My king—”
“Is in an important meeting,” Callie said briskly and headed for the door, slipping on the slim boots that would be safe in the forest and putting the thin slipper-type shoes into a canvas bag for later when the boots got too hot.
“If you wait until the meeting is finished this afternoon,” Voren tried delicately, doing his best to delay her but unable to physically restrain her.
“In the full sun?” Callie pointed out. The Dry was approaching rapidly, and heaven only knew how bad that was going to be when the temperatures had to be in the nineties by the afternoon already.
Voren chewed his lip. Callie knew Zak would be in a long meeting with the elders. Tomorrow the Alliance was coming to negotiate a new round of Azteen crystals, and Zak was prepared to play hardball. The N’olaans were arriving to collect the crew from Vashti’s ship. They hadn’t left immediately as with no commanders—because Lam’saak had petitioned to stay on—they were unable to safely operate the ship. It was a bit of a stretch, but Zak had explained he intended on taking advantage of that. He hadn’t demanded retribution for her kidnapping, which he had the right to. He could have executed every warrior on the ship, and N’olaan would have been unable to stop him or interfere. Callie had thought it barbaric but understood Zak was playing what her dad would have called a long game. He needed the embargo lifted, and he hoped to gain support from N’olaan. They weren’t the largest planet that made up the Alliance, but they would make a powerful ally.
“We have something to do first, Voren, as you well know. Follow me, please.”
“I thought you would want to leave immediately, my queen?”
She grinned. “I did, but I can’t do this where we might be seen.”
Voren was too polite to arch an eyebrow, but his eyes glinted. She had told him yesterday what she needed help with, and probably hoping to dissuade her, he at least hadn’t ratted her out to Zak. “You are still determined?”
Callie huffed. She let her feet answer and headed to the walled garden she had met Mastuk in. It seemed appropriate. She also knew it would be empty.
“You do know any fighting with a blade will take cycles to master?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to carry a ceremonial dagger. I want to be able to shoot someone. You know, point and fire type of thing.” She considered that for a moment. “Although, keeping a small dagger hidden somewhere would be a good idea.”
Voren was too polite to huff.
“I want to be able to protect myself.”
Voren looked at the floor, and his shoulders sagged a little. “If you doubt my ability as a warrior to keep you safe, my king will select another—”
“No, absolutely not,” Callie stressed. “But let’s face it, I’ve been abducted twice in the space of four weeks.” She grinned and was relieved to see Voren look a little less like he’d been insulted. “Your women were warriors, so I don’t understand why you have a problem with it.”
“For just that reason,” Voren admitted and glanced over the wall to the trees. “Ishtaan females were all treated as princesses whether they were of noble birth or not.”
“Then the war happened.” Callie had a feeling she knew where this conversation was going.
Voren nodded. “It has always been the warriors that protected the females and our world, until suddenly we couldn’t. We were being slaughtered in the thousands. The wise ones offered what we thought would be the only thing that would save our race from extinction.” He waved a hand at himself to demonstrate. “But the elders pointed out there still weren’t enough warriors left to defeat the enemy, even if everyone was harder to kill. The queen at that time suggested the females. No one wanted it to happen, but we were out of options.”
Callie’s heart hurt for them all. It made Zak’s behavior seem a little more understandable. It didn’t change her mind, but it might make things easier.
“And an even worse fate happened after the Karthians returned to their home world. An agreement was reached that not even the Alliance is allowed within ten thousand heptires of their world.”
“Heptires?”
“Each is a little over seven of your Earth miles.”
Callie was shocked into silence. The one and only science fact she had ever remembered, and had no idea why, was that the Earth was approximately 24,000 miles if you flew all the way around it. Twenty-four thousand sevens were a long damn way. “Still in this galaxy though?”
Voren nodded. “Part of the reason why the Alliance has never forgiven us was because the Karthians have advanced—very advanced—technology. They had refused to share for a long time, saying other planets weren’t mature enough to use it wisely. We had just discovered Azteen crystals. They are the hardest known material in our galaxy, but if treated with respect give off a level of energy that is virtually inexhaustible. For the first time, Ishtaan wasn’t a simple world and had something we could bargain with.” Callie knew this was what Zak had been going to tell her. She wished she was hearing it from his lips now, but they had hardly had a minute to talk about anything in the last seven days. It had seemed like everyone had needed his time.
“The king fueled great spaceships and made powerful weapons. His idea wasn’t to target Kartha, which would have been foolish even for him, but to target a moon a little closer and set up a base to make negotiations more attractive. He wanted what they had and was convinced the Azteen crystals would make Kartha see us differently. The inhabitants of the moon didn’t agree, so our king took it forcefully. Not only did this attract the attention of the Karthians, but they followed him back and set about teaching us a lasting lesson.”
“The problem was—” Callie whirled around as she heard Zak speak and watched as he walked over to them. She wondered how long he had been there. “—that the Karthians offered peace twice, and the Ishtaan king and elders refused. He was convinced they wanted peace because they were worried we would defeat them, but nothing could have been further from the truth. When the second peace accord was offered, not only did we refuse, but we also tried to blow up the Karthians when renewed hostilities stalled the talks. Within a day, there were five Karthian warships above our planet, and within another, we were battling ten thousand of their warriors.”
Callie’s eyes widened. She couldn’t imagine.
“Then one day they just stopped fighting and returned to their ships. They had all but destroyed us anyway, and it was a simple demonstration of their own power that once they ensured we were no longer a threat, they withdrew.”
“And imposed the sanctions?”
Voren scoffed. “No, it was the small-minded races in our own galaxy that did that.”
“What do you mean?”
“He means,” Zak continued, “that when the Karthians withdrew and imposed their boundary, they included all other races, effectively destroying any chance the five other planets in our galaxy had of any future discussions with them. They were bitter, blamed us, and disciplined us accordingly.”
Callie gaped. “You’re kidding me. So it wasn’t even the Karthians that punished you?”
Zak shook his head. “Which is why tomorrow is so important. If the N’olaans rescind their sanctions, or agree to bargain, it will mean great things for my people. Our people,” he added. Zak glanced at Voren. “I wish Callie to be able to defend herself. We are expecting a great deal from these females.”
“Maybe we all ought to have lessons?” Callie asked, ridiculously pleased she wasn’t being shot down.
Zak nodded, then steered her a little away from Voren. Voren took the hint and walked to the entrance to give them a little privacy. “I am sorry, my Callie, that I ever made you feel you couldn’t talk to me about something.” He kissed her nose, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. Well, as much as she could. “The thought of you getting hurt fills me with such horror I can barely breathe, but I realize that keeping you locked away is merely going to make you want to run farther.”
“I’m not the sort of female you were expecting,” she said generously.
He accepted the olive branch. “It’s just that you are the most important thing in my world. It feels like a personal failure for you to ever think I wouldn’t be able to protect you.” He bent to kiss her again. “Which I know is impossible. I cannot be with you every moment of every daylight much as I wish it.”
“And I will have duties myself as soon as I work out what they are.”
He sighed. “I have to go.” He paused. “I hated that we fought, so I called a halt for a few minutes so I had time to come and apologize. Have you spoken to Rachel or Sascha?”
“Not this morning.” Rachel was bored already, and Callie wasn’t sure what to do with her. Sascha was trying to keep the peace with Isobel because now that things had settled, Isobel was becoming the loudest about wanting to go home.
He smiled. “I have had seventeen petitions to allow warriors to approach them.”
“I’ll bet,” Callie said fervently.
“I agreed they could choose, but I am unsure how to approach this. I was hoping you would speak to them.”
Callie narrowed her eyes. “Chicken.”
She could see Zak translating the word. “Is that a mating ritual on Earth? The giving of chickens?”
“Eww.” Callie grinned. “No, that would be fowl.” And laughing at her own joke, knowing it was wasted on her current audience, she shooed her own mighty warrior away.
“My queen, I believe the best thing you can do for protection would be to carry this,” Voren said after Zak had gone, and opened his palm. “The problem is if you are fighting anyone of either my size or strength, particularly with the plates”—he tapped the scale things on his arms—“there is little damage you could do without a gun with enough explosive force required to penetrate it.”
Callie peered at the small black cylinder Voren held. “What’s that?”
“It is something the villagers used to carry when we had beasts that needed to be taken down.”
Callie thought about that. All she’d seen were the scrawny versions of cows that supplied milk, and very few at that. All their protein was plant-based, when they could get it, or in rations from the trade ships. “You know, I never even questioned why I’ve never seen any more animals, but I suppose it’s the same reason as the Kal’re.”
Voren sighed and leaned up against the wall. “For the same reason as we have barely any people. The king pulled so many men into the mines, the land was abandoned. During the war, the animals were all that stood between the villagers and starvation. Apart from a few that escaped to the wilds and the Veerlash, there aren’t any.”
“What are Veerlash?”
“A huge bear that comes down from the Duran mountains during the Dry. They come searching for food and are dangerous, but usually stick to the foothills. It was likely one of those that attacked the Kal’re.”
She picked up the black cylinder, noting the grooves she could grip it with. “What does it do?”
He stood and moved about eight feet away. “Hold it firmly and flick it at me.”
She glanced at it warily. “Are you sure?” She didn’t want to shoot Voren.
“You won’t hurt me, my queen.” He flicked his own wrist down to demonstrate and then stood still.
She took a breath, pointed, and did the flicky thing. An arc of what looked like electricity shot out and seemed to wrap Voren up. The warrior jerked, then stumbled, and with what looked like a great force of will, merely fell to one knee.
“Voren,” Callie cried out and ran over. “Oh my god. You said it wouldn’t hurt you.”
Voren stood up with a grimace and shook his arms out. “It is unpleasant and will disable for a few seconds. Enough perhaps to give you a moment to escape.”
She looked at the cylinder. “It’s like a Taser.”
He considered that, then nodded. “Very similar. But it doesn’t have to touch the subject. When it was used to bring down animals in the wild herds, there were two used simultaneously.”
Callie winced, but then, she ate meat and drank milk.
“It is small. I can train you with a blaster which would certainly maim or kill, but they are heavy. You would need to wear a weapons holster.”
“Which isn’t practical where this could be concealed in a pocket.” And completely covered by the long shirts she was favoring; even cinched at the waist, there was enough material below to hide one. “Thank you, Voren.” She stood up. “Are there any animals on N’olaan?”
Voren frowned. “Of course.”
“Let’s go meet my guard, and on the way, I want you to give me a wish list.”
Voren looked at her blankly.
“Little things. Like breeding pairs of animals. Something tells me the N’olaans would react badly if we asked for technology or weapons, but food?”
Voren smiled. “I think King Zakaarir chose well.”
Callie smiled grimly as they headed for the gate. She hoped to convince Zak of that as well.
