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  She was about to demand to know where they were when a familiar tingle of electricity fluttered through her. She looked down towards the source of the charge, always intrigued by the way Anshan greeted her. The planet’s energy was light – and far weaker than she recalled it being when she’d last been on the surface for an extended period of time.

  “Anshan?” she asked, puzzled. “What are we doing here?”

  Her captor didn’t respond. He marched her forward. She sucked in deep breaths. The air was stale without being toxic that she could tell. She tried to see Evey over her shoulder but was yanked forward once more. Neither at home on the planet whose life force she shared nor afraid to be there, she struggled to understand how anyone was alive after what A’Ran had said about the toxic environment.

  She observed what she could of the cave. Most of it appeared to be a natural formation, while swaths of the floor, nearest wall and ceiling held marks of drilling and scraping by manmade tools to reveal thick veins of familiar, pale gray metal trapped in the rock.

  We’re in a mine, she realized, surprised once more. A’Ran had blown up the mines closest to the surface, which meant they were in a deep mine or perhaps, inside one of the many mountain ranges on Anshan.

  “How have you survived here?” she whispered, recalling what A’Ran had said about the ore poisoning the water supply. Anshan hadn’t grown food in years either.

  “You would not like to know this,” the warrior at her side replied.

  Her heart skipped a beat and she silently agreed. Survival on Anshan was impossible to consider, and she began to wonder why the Yirkin had bothered to drag her back to a dying planet to begin with.

  Chapter Four

  “A’Ran, Romas, just think for a moment about what you’re doing!”

  Jetr stood between the warriors, each of which was being restrained by his respective guards.

  A’Ran had not experienced this level of fury since the moment he discovered Kiera was on the planet when he destroyed it. It blinded him, made him disregard any thought about peace and trade treaties, no matter how much his people needed them.

  “Separate them!” Mansr ordered in a tone not even the Qatwalis were going to ignore.

  Against his will, A’Ran was all but dragged from the atrium into a small chamber. He yanked free of his men, who moved swiftly to block the door.

  The blind rage ebbed enough for him to realize he’d almost killed Romas. His own nose was bloodied, and at least one swipe of a sword had penetrated his guard and cut him deep enough to bleed. Romas had been in little better shape when their scuffle was broken up.

  “Everyone out!” Mansr commanded, entering. He was stiff, his face flushed with anger.

  The warriors obeyed.

  A’Ran growled deep in his chest and touched the warm trickle of blood running down his face.

  Mansr waited until the last warrior was gone before he closed the door. “Dhjan or not, you’re behaving like a child!” he snapped.

  Surprised by the outburst from the man who had been among the first to treat him as the dhjan, A’Ran paused in his pacing.

  “Really, A’Ran! What possessed you to do something so stupid? To risk the armistice or the air purifiers?”

  “My lifemate is missing!” A’Ran roared in response.

  “If you’d bothered to ask before attacking him, you’d know his lifemate is gone as well!”

  A’Ran made a disgusted sound and whirled, pacing once more.

  “An unidentified craft entered the air space above the palace and left shortly after landing. They had no clearance and went unchallenged, since the Qatwali are too proud to tell anyone the truth – the planet is vulnerable. They are giving the appearance of rebuilding, but they have no funds. They’re cannibalizing existing systems, to include defensive systems now that we’re at peace, to rebuild.”

  A’Ran faced him again. “How do you know this?”

  “How do you think, nephew?” Mansr replied.

  “Jetr.” A’Ran’s calm began to return. “So they just let anyone who wishes to enter their air space fly in and kidnap royals without concern about their people!”

  “Once the Yirkin were driven out of the Five Galaxies, we were the only threat. I imagine they thought, as we do, that we’d have some space and time to rebuild and heal before we faced another threat.”

  A’Ran didn’t like Mansr’s pointed tone, the one subtly telling him he was more like Romas than he ever wanted to admit. He, too, had left his people mostly vulnerable and scattered across too many planets and moons to name.

  “This ship. Whose was it?” he demanded, wracking his thoughts for an explanation as to who was bold enough to carry away two nishanis.

  “There’s no imagery available. Witnesses said it had no markings and it appeared to have been badly damaged.”

  “Damaged?”

  “It barely made it off the planet.”

  “Then it should be easy to find!”

  “I already called our command carrier,” Mansr said with tried patience. “They dispatched scouting ships in every direction.”

  “How long ago was it spotted?”

  “This morning.”

  A’Ran calculated how far a damaged ship could go or where it might have come from. There were many planets in the solar system, none of which were hostile to Qatwal that he knew. He didn’t doubt he had enemies, but Romas had the sympathy of the system after A’Ran’s attack on Qatwal.

  “This doesn’t make sense,” he said finally, unable to explain what had happened or why. “If it came from outside the system, Qatwali allies would know.”

  “And no one is speaking.”

  “So the craft either had help leaving or never left the system.”

  “Correct.”

  A’Ran could do nothing from the ground and felt helpless knowing the Qatwali didn’t have the technology available to spot the spacecraft if it was just outside their orbit. “We need to return to the ship,” he said brusquely. He preferred to be in space and battle than trapped on the planet’s surface.

  “I’m going with you.” This terse voice came from the doorway.

  A’Ran’s eyes narrowed as Romas entered. The blond man’s hair was mussed, his gaze fiery and his shoulder bloodied from where A’Ran had stabbed him.

  “This is no doubt another of your messes that’s just so happened to drag in my lifemate and son,” Romas added.

  “At least I have the means to find them again. What made you leave your planet defenseless?” A’Ran shot back.

  “Enough,” Mansr said. “With the dhjan’s permission, we will all return to the command carrier in orbit and commence searching for them.”

  A’Ran clenched his jaw and gave a nod.

  “Do you have any enemies, any insight into what might’ve happened?” Mansr asked Romas.

  “None. I have no enemies, unlike Anshan,” came the arrogant response.

  “The Council has been alerted,” Jetr said, entering the room as well. “My fleet is at your service.”

  “At what cost?” A’Ran growled.

  Mansr shot him a look, and Jetr politely pretended not to have heard.

  “Thank you,” A’Ran said loudly. “But I have my own ships and capabilities.”

  “I would like to accompany you, on behalf of the Council.”

  Even Romas stiffened at the request. A’Ran understood why. The Planetary Council loved information it could use against others, which was why most planets and rulers tried to keep their private affairs private.

  “It would be our honor,” Mansr said in the thick silence. “Would you meet us at the space dock as soon as you can be ready?”

  “Of course.” Jetr flashed a smile and ducked into the hallway.

  Mansr waited until certain he was gone before facing the two. “You two need each other for this,” he said to A’Ran. “We have ore, but Romas has the good will of the entire Five Galaxies. He can obtain what we can’t buy, namely assistance, pe
ace and safe passage, should we need it.”

  A’Ran said nothing. Romas appeared equally as agitated by the forced alliance. No matter how long he thought, A’Ran could come up with no one who wanted to anger Romas, even if someone was foolish enough to offend A’Ran.

  The distinct possibility someone had taken Kiera to ransom for the ore produced solely on Anshan caused A’Ran’s blood to boil once more.

  A’Ran and Romas stared at one another, the hostility thick in the air between them.

  “If you are both prepared to leave?” Mansr prodded.

  “I am,” A’Ran replied.

  “I need to coordinate with my advisors,” Romas said. “But it will take little time.”

  “Meet us at the space port,” Mansr said.

  Romas left without another word.

  “Nephew,” Mansr said, facing A’Ran. His features softened into concern. “No one would risk hurting her.”

  “I’m not as certain of this as you,” A’Ran said. “My nishani doesn’t understand the politics of our world.”

  “She’s done well so far.”

  “She has. But she doesn’t know enough of Anshan history or my long list of enemies to know who to trust.”

  Mansr didn’t respond. They both knew Kiera was still learning about their customs and the Five Galaxies. The more he thought about her, the more he realized she wasn’t entirely helpless. She had a commander’s knowledge of spacecraft and all their systems – including the communications. She’d be able to contact him, if given the chance.

  Hopefully, he found her before she needed to call for help.

  “Let’s go,” he said and strode into the hallway.

  Less than an hour later, the personal spacecraft that conveyed him and Kiera to the Qatwal surface returned to the space carrier orbiting the planet. With the knowledge that Qatwal didn’t have defensive systems to detect it, A’Ran had ordered it out from hiding behind one of the Qatwali moons. The bay was even more confined with Romas and his five companions. A’Ran was relieved when they docked with his larger carrier and immediately set out for the command center.

  He and Mansr stepped into the circular hub, where displays of everything in the local orbit appeared as holograms, and his battle command desk was actively scanning the area with multiple kinds of radars.

  “You brought an armed battleship into my space?” Romas asked, stepping into the command center behind him.

  “If you’re planet wasn’t completely vulnerable to everyone in the Five Galaxies, you wouldn’t be surprised,” A’Ran replied in the same tone.

  Romas said nothing but joined A’Ran at the battleship command station. A’Ran searched the surveillance and radar logs for the spacecraft, finding it with some effort among the comings and goings of similar sized ships and space trash in Qatwal orbit.

  “It headed towards Anshan,” Romas said, anger in his voice again.

  A’Ran watched the spacecraft disappear several times, assessing its trajectory with the help of the computer.

  “Mansr,” he said at last. “We lose it at the bigger of our two moons. There’s no way to know where it went from there.”

  “Long range radar?” Mansr asked, approaching.

  “Unable to pick it up again once it entered the distorted magnetic fields around Anshan.” A’Ran stared at the small planet of Anshan, at once angry and pitying of the planet that couldn’t help being the disaster it was.

  Mansr was quiet before he ordered the ship to return to Anshan quickly.

  “Do you have a strategy to find the craft?” Romas asked.

  “We’ve been experimenting with our systems,” A’Ran replied. “We can track more from the moon than anywhere else. If they passed between the moon and Anshan, we’ll have a log of it and be able to track them.”

  Romas said nothing. With no other choice but to wait, A’Ran sat in front of the command station, watching the replay of the spacecraft disappearing over and over. His thoughts were on Kiera, his frame so tense, he was ready to snap if anyone passed too close to him.

  No one did. Even Romas and his team huddled in the far corner of the center, talking for most of the trip.

  At full speed, the carrier halved the travel time home, but it was still too long for A’Ran’s comfort.

  Whoever dared touch my Kiera will die in my hands before the day is over.

  Chapter Five

  Kiera was forced deeper into the cave, and she glimpsed tunnels running off in several directions from the main cavern. She’d seen a part of the underground tunnel network when she awoke the planet before A’Ran blew up its surface. Each tunnel was small and lit by weak lighting. They passed several before her captor turned down one.

  Unable to imagine what was going on, Kiera concentrated on not tripping over her feet on the rocky terrain. The tunnel ended at a cavern far better lit than the cave they’d landed in.

  The Yirkin escorted her to the end of the tunnel to a shallow cliff overlooking the cavern the size of a city below. Thousands – perhaps tens of thousands – of people were located in the cavern, walking along makeshift roads running among shelters built out of anything that could be salvaged: metal, rocks, clothing. The people were gaunt and pale, most with blond or white hair, and dressed in clothing that had seen better days. Clusters of housing were located around personal spacecraft marked sloppily with the sign for medics.

  He released her. She didn’t move, slowly taking in the scene.

  “This is what remains of the Yirkins who lived on Anshan for fifteen cycles. Those we could save,” came the bitter words.

  “You’re refugees,” she murmured.

  She studied his scarred face, uncertain what to think. The Yirkin had invaded Anshan and stolen it from A’Ran. Most of the people below, however, appeared to be women, children and the elderly. She saw few men among them and even fewer men of warrior age.

  She hadn’t thought much about those on the ground as the battle commander. She assumed everyone present was a combatant.

  “Do you want revenge against me?” she whispered.

  “Revenge?” he echoed.

  “Against the dhjan.”

  “At one point, I did,” he answered deliberately. “But I want now to save what’s left of my people.”

  “You’re trapped.”

  “The Five Galaxies expelled the rest of our people, and the magnetic storms in the Anshan atmosphere prevents us from calling for help, even if we could build long range communications.”

  “I don’t understand.” She faced him. “You left to get me.”

  “We used the scrap metal from dozens of ships to create a single working craft,” he replied. “It was too small to evacuate anyone, so we did the next best thing. We came for you.”

  “You know what A’Ran did to get his planet back. What makes you think he’ll let any of you live for taking me? He doesn’t really negotiate in hostage situations.”

  “You are not here to negotiate.” The man scoffed. “And you are not a hostage. You are on your own planet, the planet you are connected to. You belong here.”

  He’s not wrong. She feared voicing the words and stood in silence, pulse racing.

  He spun and started down the slope towards the base of the cavern.

  She released the breath she’d been holding and glanced back. Evey wasn’t behind her, and Kiera craned her neck to see past the massive Yirkin guard between her and the tunnel. He nodded his head towards the Yirkin leader.

  She went reluctantly.

  The scarred leader with mismatched eyes wound through the refugees. Kiera trailed, more worried about her reception here than she had been in the Qatwali banquet hall. Instead of glares, the Yirkin watched with guarded curiosity and moved out of her path. Most stopped what they were doing to whisper amongst themselves.

  Kiera slowed, uncertain what to do. If there were one thing she hadn’t yet adapted to, it was the amount of attention she attracted everywhere she went. It was usually a combination of b
eing the nishani and how different she was in appearance. She had no idea what the Yirkin were thinking when they saw her and whether they were malicious or … not.

  She lost track of the Yirkin leader for a split second and quickened her pace. The cavern was rocky and hilly, and it smelled heavily of people living too closely confined.

  She hurried after him and reached him just as he disappeared into one of the salvaged spacecraft being used as central gathering points. This one was empty, and she stepped in behind him.

  He beckoned for her to join him in a room. She went, and he closed the door behind her.

  “Where’s my friend?” she asked anxiously the moment she sat.

  “Safe for now. Unless you fail to do what I tell you.”

  “Which is what?” Kiera resisted the urge to fidget. “If not revenge, what do you want from me?”

  “You are the Anshan nishani are you not?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want you to fix the planet so we can either reclaim what we lost or leave without the rest of us dying.”

  She gave a startled laugh. “Oh, is that all?”

  He wasn’t smiling. His direct gaze was intense, his anger simmering.

  She swallowed her amused surprise.

  “It is what the Anshan nishani does, is it not?”

  Kiera cleared her throat. “In theory. I have not been a nishani for long.”

  “Your life force is linked to that of the planet. If you are well, so can it be.”

  Doom crashed down upon her at the reminder. Her face grew hot and she averted her gaze.

  “You are not well,” he guessed at her silence.

  “No,” she said in a tight voice. “I’m dying, too. Like Anshan.”

  “Then you have nothing to lose by trying. Or perhaps, by being here, you can both heal. Either way, you are not leaving until you make it so we can escape.” He set a bowl of water before her. “You can think what you will of our leaders and warriors. We are called parasites by many and it is true we steal worlds from others.” He shrugged. “But there are innocents in every world. The warriors can be flayed alive but their lifemates and children should be spared.”