Page 69 of Taken to Kor
“Why didn’t you tell me she was half-human?” She could be my sister. The thought makes my heart hurt.
“She asked me not to.”
“Why?”
Rhork shrugs and turns his gaze towards the view pane and the destabilizer activating beyond it. It looks like a huge shimmery net stretched across the expanse of the cosmos. From here, it appears to be moving so, so slowly, but the ships that are trying to move away from it, can’t. Like a net, they seem to be caught by it, their cannon fire quickly absorbed into the blue and sending shimmers sparking every place an explosion should be. The net passes over the first ship, sweeping straight through it, but what it leaves behind is a shell that’s completely dark. There are no lights, no energy, no power.
As I watch this, mesmerized, Rhork says simply, “She is an Eshmiri reaver. Just like you are a Niahhorru pirate. It doesn’t matter the body she was born into.”
I nod, understanding, and feeling more sure than ever that that female might just be a sister Mathilda and Pogar stole from me. “She’d make a great sister.”
Rhork sucks in a breath and glances down at me. “You think she is?”
“Ontte. I can feel it.”
Rhork’s expression falls and this marks one of a limited number of times I’ve ever seen him unsmiling. “Does it pain you?”
I nod, returning my gaze back to the ships as Rhork gently combs his fingers through my locs. He’s been helping me tighten them, says he finds it therapeutic. I think he just does it to hear the pleasure sounds I make when he’s gently pulling on my hair and massaging my scalp.
“A little. Makes me think of my mom. From what I remember, she was a fearsome woman. A loving, wonderful woman. I’m just sad that my sister never got to meet her.”
“Then perhaps you can give her new life now by ending the life of her killer.”
My chest tenses. Rhork drags his fingers over the yeeyar view pane and a handful of controls flower beneath his fingertips. He expands the scanner and I can see clearly as he zooms in on one of the ships. He taps it twice and suddenly — shockingly — I can both see and hearintothe ship.
“We only have a few more moments before the ships are released from the destabilizer and can reactivate their controls. If you plan to end her, you’ll have to do it now, Deena.”
My thoughts blank, my heart squeezes and sputters, my stomach turns, and I feel all the babies in my stomach kick at once, or maybe it’s just my intestines turning. “I…how?”
Rhork drags another control closer to me, this one a dark square large enough for me to flatten my palm against it. “Just lay your hand there and will the command through the yeeyar. I will confirm your request…”
“So will I.” I jump and see Tebvarannos behind me. Behind him is Gerannu, Nikkowerranorru, Corvenarennu, Walleenonnu, Reffarannu, Berreto, Tarrowrennan, Terronathon, Tennora, Quintenanrret. A dozen others. They’re all murmuring and smiling at me and rubbing their hands together. It’s Tevbarannos who puts his hand on my shoulder first. Then Quintenanrret places his hand on my back. Nikkowerranorru puts his hand directly on top of my head and when the others look for places to reassure me without Rhork punching them, I start to cry. I start to laugh.
Rhork has hold of my right hand. He gives it a squeeze and leans down and says against my cheek. “Family is not bound by blood. Family is bound by love. You are and have always been a pirate. You are and always will be loved by each and every one of us.”
I look at Mathilda through the screen. She and Pogar are shouting at each other. She’s holding onto her side, bleeding. He’s holding a knife out towards her, but he’s looking worse than she is, covered in coppery blood from his right shoulder to his right ankle. Whatever she shot him with must have hurt because he’s staggering with every third step as they circle each other, debating whether or not to try to land on the colony, even if their army doesn’t make it past the Voraxian defenses.
Pogar wants to land. This is clearly a mission with a solitary purpose — wreak as much havoc as possible, even if he dies in the process. Meanwhile, Mathilda wants to evacuate, escape, regroup and try again another time.I can’t let her live. Every other life in the good and glorious galaxy is in danger if she does.
I lift my hand and try to remember what it was like to have her for a grandmother. Were there any good times? When she broke my leg? When I discovered that she killed my mom? When I cried myself to sleep when I was small and she stood in my bedroom doorway and did nothing but watch me and tell me how disgusting I was?
I had a nightmare three lunars ago and woke up to Rhork, Quintenanrret and Herannathon all standing over me singing me my own song about plants. I rolled with laughter, almost falling right off the net, then we all got up and, even though it was the middle of the lunar, they took me to an underground river party where we drank and danced the lunar away. Well, they drank. I ate.
Family is love.Mathilda is not love. Mathilda is only evil.
“Hate to rush you, pirate, but you’ve got to the count of fourteen before the destabilizer loses its effect,” Corvenarennu says.
I exhale and place my palm to the square. I will my command through the yeeyar in my token and can feel as that command is confirmed by the pirates standing around me and by the pirates all across the ship. I glance up and Rhork’s stare is fixed on the image of Pogar and Mathilda stabbing at one another with their hate and vitriol, but my stare is fixed on him. I feel the rumble of the ship as the cannon prepares to fire and as it fires, I whisper, “I love you.”
He doesn’t respond right away. Instead, I’m left to watch a bright purple explosion flare in the reflection of his gorgeous silver eyes. He blinks and it’s gone when he looks at me.
“Is it over?” I squeak.
He touches my cheek. “She will never hurt you again.”
I exhale shakily, not sure how I feel. Nodding and swallowing down the knots in my throat, I turn, only to find myself immediately surrounded. “We are sorry, Deena.”
“If it makes you feel any better, we’re going to have fun shooting Erobu’s ship out of the sky.”
