Page 13 of Consorting with Dragons

“I don’t know. I’ll go check on it and you stay here. Keep this door locked.”

“Is there danger?”

“Prince Rylan, I don’t know. I’ll be back if there is. Stay inside this room and keep the door locked.”

As soon as I got outside his door, the call from the bridge was already coming through on my communicator. It was from my pilot, yelling in my ear that we were about to be attacked by a ship that had Thalian insignia.

“Sir, a ship has just uncloaked beside us, and it has Thalian markings, but it’s not the same one King Travon was traveling on. This one is smaller and faster. I’ve taken evasive action, but they’re still trying to ram us.”

“What in hell? We’ve just left Lycan airspace. Have they been waiting to waylay us? Send out a general hail to any ships in the area and address the Thalian vessel specifically. Tell them to desist immediately or prepare to receive no quarter from our guns.”

“Already done, sir, but they’re ignoring our hail.”

“Then tell them to go ahead and board us, then, and that they’re all dead men when they do.”

“Yes, sir.”

“This is no doubt an attempted robbery of our egg, but they may try to kidnap any young crewmen they come across to sell them to slavers too. Thalian mercenaries are known for that. Send some men to the docking area and prepare for a chase if necessary. I’m on the lower decks. Advise as soon as you know where they intend to breach the ship.”

Kidnappings were the most common result of an attack like this. I hated the Thalians, and though I was ready for a fight, I was still worried about Rylan’s safety and about the safety of the egg. I’d decided not to risk Rylan in case they managed to board us. He’d be better off next to me. I started back to his room when I heard the noise of an explosion coming from the loading deck.

I took off running, pulling out my disruptor as I went. They had managed to force their way inside the loading deck and a few of the bastards were already trying to take the crate containing the egg. Some of them, along with my men, were already dead or wounded, lying crumpled on the deck, and the cries of wounded, unarmed crew members filled the air as they were hit by the blasts of Thalian weapons. I noticed something else right away too. These men were no soldiers, though they might have been using a soldier’s vessel. These men were wearing green uniforms like the Thalians, and I knew they must be some of Travon’s mercenaries—little more than pirates.

My blood had been hot since that afternoon, and I could feel the rage pulsing through my veins. My pilot had already set off charges designed to blow their ship away from ours, trapping their crew onboard as they went spinning off away from us and into space. But we were right beside them so the blasts rocked our ship too, and I fell to the floor in their wake. I hoped the pilot would make sure the Thalian ship was completely destroyed.

By this time some of my soldiers had joined me and as we fought our way inside the loading dock, we saw that the boarders had themselves barricaded in the cargo area, despite our loud shouts and numerous threats to surrender or die. We couldn’t risk explosives near the egg, so we tore down their barrier and charged inside. We were met with fierce, armed resistance. There was a mixture of different nationalities from the looks of them, which was common with mercenary crews. It made sense that Travon couldn’t inspire loyalty in his own men but had to pay mercenaries instead. At least twenty or more of them were of Nilanium heritage, or more likely, Drex. I recognized the long braids. All of them were savage and probably irredeemable. I would give no quarter to any of them, because I already knew they were murderers. The bodies of the unarmed loading crew were strewn all around me.

One of my lieutenants fell next to me. My disruptor was still charging back up in my holster, so I knocked his attacker to the floor with my fists. and before the man could get back to his feet, I stuck my dagger in his chest and enjoyed the sight of the blood spurting in a furious jet and splashing up on his neck and face. I felt a hard blow to the back and turned to find I’d been hit with a disruptor that was almost out of its charge, apparently, or I might have been killed. With no time to pull another weapon, I turned and slashed the one who shot me with my knife, burying my dagger in his throat and pulling it viciously from side to side, almost severing his head from his shoulders.

My disruptor was charged at last, so I pulled it out and began shooting into the crowd still left on deck. They were packed so closely together in the narrow passage that I was hitting more than one of them with each shot and had to step over their bodies or kick them out of the way to get past them. A fierce battle had broken out behind me, but I was intent onmaking my way to Rylan’s room, ready to kill anyone I saw threatening him, and bloodlust ran hot in my veins.

When I arrived, I saw my beautiful boy being threatened at knifepoint by a hairy bastard with braided hair and jagged teeth. There had already been a fight, and Rylan appeared to be only half-conscious with blood staining his shirt and dripping onto the floor. The fear that hit me almost stopped my heart. I didn’t even know this boy, but he was already vitally important to me. The one holding him up by his beautiful, blood-stained hair had a long, wickedly sharp knife in his hand, pressed against Rylan’s throat. It would have been so easy to end his life—just one slip of that knife. Blood was trickling down from where he’d already pierced his skin, and Rylan seemed to be only partially conscious.

“Come no farther or I’ll kill him,” the man yelled at me. “Don’t doubt that I’ll do it!”

“Wait! Just fucking wait a minute and let’s talk about this. You must have been told to bring him with you and not to kill him! Just think of what you’re doing!”

He gave me a grin with his blackened teeth. “Shit happens, General. The king will understand.”

I could see the madness in his eyes, and I knew I only had seconds. I raised my weapon without another word or a moment’s hesitation and shot the bastard right between his fucking eyes.

A huge, round hole appeared on the mercenary’s forehead, which was really satisfying to me, considering what they had done to my loading deck crew and this bastard had been about to do to Rylan. The asshole stiffened with a look of total shock, as his face went blank and he fell to the floor, taking my boy with him. I kicked the bastard off him and dragged Rylan’s slight body out from under him. Quickly calling for medics, I laid Rylan on the deck and tried to figure out where all the bloodwas coming from so I could try to stop it. I was almost afraid to touch him in case I made it worse. The smell of his blood was almost overwhelming me, and I tried breathing only through my mouth, which helped a little.

The medics came rushing in just as I located more than one stab wound in his right side. He’d been attacked by a knife or short sword with such force that I thought it had probably broken a few of his ribs. It looked as if these mercenary soldiers had been trying to kidnap him and then steal back the egg but panicked as we came closer and burst onto the loading dock. The reason they wanted Rylan was obvious—he was beautiful, and I had no doubt that if Travon couldn’t manage to force him into marriage, then he would simply hold him as hostage if his parents were wealthy or sell him to the highest bidder.

There were a couple of slash wounds on Rylan’s arms and hands, but they were mostly defensive. The real damage had been done to his side and his head. A deep purple bruise was already blossoming on his temples and forehead, and his hair was matted with blood on that side. “He’s losing way too much blood. Sedate him quickly and we’ll move him to sick bay. Tell the medics they’ll have to concentrate on stopping the bleeding,” I told them. “He’s going to be in a lot of pain when he comes to.” I reached down to brush a lock of his hair from his forehead while I was checking on his head wound, and my hand was shaking so badly that I got an odd look from the medics, but it was better for all of us right at that moment if I just concentrated on doing what I could to help him and not think of any possible outcomes.

One of my lieutenants came to tell me that all of the mercenaries inside the ship were either already dead or dying, and the egg was still intact. There were about ten men in my crew who were injured and more than a few deceased.

I picked Rylan up from the floor and carried him to sick bay. Once I got him there, I couldn’t seem to let him go. In the end, the doctors had to shout at me to get me to turn him loose. I knew I needed to get him seen by the doctors as quickly as I could, and I tried not to think about how close he’d come to being killed or how badly he was hurt. I still had to give high priority to getting our egg home just as quickly as I could, while not going absolutely crazy with worry over Rylan. We were a bit closer to Lycanus 3, but I knew they didn’t have a trauma center in the hospital there, and our best bet was to travel on to Horvath. At this point, it was almost as close as Lycanus 3. Years ago, during the war, the Alliance had established a huge trauma center on our moon and we still used it today. Most of the planets in this area of space sent their trauma patients to us, and I had an excellent doctor on board as well. I told the pilot to set a course for Horvath. And I told myself there was no way I’d let Rylan get out of my sight again.

Chapter Five

Rylan

Someone was talking in a low voice nearby, and I tried to open my eyes to see who it was. My eyes felt as if they’d been glued shut, so I raised a hand to rub them, but another, stronger hand grabbed mine and pulled it away.

“Don’t…” someone said softly from beside me. “The doctor just put some drops in your eyes. Go back to sleep now, and you’ll feel better when you wake up.”

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