Page 8 of Taken to Voraxia
“And if I am satisfied on my return, I will equip your settlement with a Drolax Dome twice the size of this one and flyers that allow for unhindered travel across your planet. We will rebuild your colony byVoraxianstandards and I assure you that your people will never go hungry, never go thirsty, and never fear again. For as long as the last of your beings live.”
“Of course. Th…thank you, Raku.” She tries to bow again, but I reach down and slide my hand around her throat, forcing her head up so that she meets my gaze.
I stare into her dark brown eyes, able to see my reflection suspended in them. I look monstrous.Is this how my Rakukanna also sees me?
I whisper, “If I am not happy upon my return, then there will be nothing of you left when I am finished. Do you understand these words?”
The female’s eyes round in a way mine and any other Voraxian’s never would. She stutters several times, and finally, weakly, hacks out, “Yes. Hexa.”
“Xhivey,” I tell her, releasing her.
Bo’Raku and Va’Raku await with their gazes trained on the aliens, as if expecting a challenge. None would dare, though I wish they would. My hands shake with a need to kill something. I have never felt distance from the universe like this. Why bring me to the doorsteps of my treasure and open the door, but deny me entry?
“We leave unmated,” I growl.
“Unmated, Raku?” Bo’Raku fails to hide the shocked contempt in his voice.
I turn on him and the single stroke of my fist to his chest is enough to throw him ten paces back, and off his feet to the ground. He rises slowly and as he does, I loom over him. Though his mouth is drawn back to reveal his teeth, he does not dare break my gaze.
“After everything you’ve done, your lack of honor remains. Once I have sated my rage, I turn to you, expecting explanation for this moon colony and your actions, Bo’Raku. The beings that live here are sentient, under Cxrian’s dominion and yet, cower from us. You will tell me why.”
Bo’Raku massages his chest, where the imprint of my fist is still evident in the flaking of his plates. He glances only once back towards the females who are clustered now towards one edge of the fence, some carefully helping each other over it.They fear, and yet they still partake in the breeding hunt?I do not understand what goes on here. And I must.
“You call them beings, Raku even though they carry no Dra’Kesh or Voraxian blood. They are little more than animals.”
Dra’Kesh and their perceived purity. A trait I will extinguish, even if I have to do it by hand. One-by-one.
I advance on Bo’Raku and kneel on his chest. He attempts to block my first strike and nearly succeeds, but he fails to block all the rest. I bloody his face until it is no longer his own — it ismine— as is his will, as is his life. That I allow him to keep it is a only a testament to our laws, meant to preserve life.Laws which he has skirted by not fledging these beings as Voraxian.
I lean in low and speak to him directly while the breath wheezes in and out of his lungs. “One of these animals will rule over you, Bo’Raku. And that is only if you rule at all. Come now if you would like to keep your life and what little honor you have left. But know that there will be no Hunt this day foranymale and there will be no Hunt for you ever again.”
I release him to the ground, barking orders for his warriors to clean up the mess I’ve made of their general. Va’Raku falls in line beside me. Wordlessly we walk into the bowels of the ship and only once do I dare look back.
I do not see her among those aliens remaining. At least not right away. When I spot her finally, she is helping females over the fence I partially destroyed. The one in particular who carried her scent stands at her side, and so does the interpreter.
I sense as Va’Raku shifts his gaze to follow my own and I am not surprised that he stands as still as I do, watching from the viewing pane until we can no longer see them, until their differently colored bodies, all garbed in brown, draw too far away. They are each, in their own way, beautiful.And Bo’Raku has hidden them away.
As the ship accelerates to the speed of light, I push back thoughts of Miari, of her leader, of the interpreter, of her moon, of Bo’Raku and his lies and the tribunal he will need to be held to.
Instead, I call on Va’Raku and Bo’Raku’s best fighters to join me in the training pits. Within moments, a handful of warriors circle me in nothing but the ceremonial coverings we arrived in. I spend the next quarter solar tearing them all apart.
One rotation later…
3
Miari
“Do you think he’s here yet?” I glance over at Kiki, shoveling rocks black enough to rival the lunar that’s only just faded.
She tosses one larger one out of the way and wipes the sweat on the her forehead away with the back of her hand. Since she stopped speaking two rotations ago, I know better than to expect an answer from her — out loud anyways.
She reaches into her back pocket and withdraws a pad of bark paper and stick of charcoal. “First rays of light,” I read when she flashes it to me.
“We’ve got a little more time then.”
She nods.
We keep shoveling.
