Текст книги "Barbarian Prince"

Автор книги: Kaitlyn O'Connor

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter Sixteen

The arrival of a group of Amazons several weeks later threw the entire colony into high alert. Everyone, including Noelle, was stunned when the leader asked to speak to her.

She discovered when she arrived at the gate that it was a group from Jules’ tribe. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed Jules until that moment. Joy and excitement filled her.

“It’s Jules! Let me out! Open the gate!”

No one was particularly anxious to open the gates, however. “We’re waiting for the governor and his party to arrive,” the guard informed her.

“Listen you chunk of metal and circuits!” Noelle growled. “Those are friends, not hostiles, and I want to go out.”

The governor arrived. “You know these people?” he asked in surprise, his voice laced with suspicion and disapproval. “These are the people who held you captive?”

Noelle explained that she’d met them after she’d escaped with the child and returned him to his family.

Which left a hell of a gap in the tale she’d told when she’d gotten back and she could see the governor wasn’t slow to realize that she’d left out some fairly important facts—at the very least.

She was allowed to go out—under escort. She introduced the governor to Jules’ mother, Queen Niri, as the leader of their ‘clan’ and after a few minutes of fairly stiff conversation, and with a great deal of suspicion, the Queen and her son and their escort entered the colony.

Noelle finally got a chance to talk to Jules when they’d been led to guest quarters near the city meeting hall. They natives were invited guests and preparations for a celebration of the historic meeting was underway.

Jules, she discovered, had spent a good deal of time chattering to his mother about the ‘mechanicals’ in his father’s treasure vault and how Noelle had helped to repair them. This, she discovered, was what had led the queen to visit—no doubt because she was desirous of acquiring some of those treasures.

It wasn’t merely modesty that inspired Noelle to downplay her part in working on Drak’s treasures. They belonged to him and she wasn’t going to feed his ex-girl friend information about it that she might use against him!

Fortunately, the governor saved her from having to dig her way out of the ticklish situation with Jules’ people by summoning her.

That wasn’t a pleasant meeting. She was accused of supplying aliens, who were quite possibly hostile to the human colony, with knowledge that could be very detrimental to the success of the colony. In a word—treason.

“That is absolutely not true!” Noelle gasped, torn between anger and fear. “The mechanicals the child spoke of belonged to them! It was their technology to start with. And beyond that, absolutely ancient. Most of it didn’t work and even with the things that could be fixed there was no one who knew how it worked or what it was for. I didn’t know what they were although some of the things looked vaguely familiar.

“I put it in my damned report! These people aren’t what they seem. Some cataclysm threw them backwards. They were originally a very advanced race at one time.”

“A report which you have yet to complete and turn over!” one of the council members pointed out.

The asshole.

The governor studied her angrily for some moments. “If you can prove the veracity of that statement, I will consider dropping the charges.”

Noelle gaped at him, wondering how the hell she was supposed to do that. “What the hell happened to innocent till proven guilty?”

The governor gave her a look. “The lives of every colonist could be at risk ….”

“I didn’t actually get anything working except a recor ….” Noelle broke off abruptly as that triggered a memory. “I will allow limited—very limited—access to my PMAI. I will expect my privacy to be respected. There should be enough recorded to prove I did not give them any of our technology!”

They were really unreasonable! She hadn’t been back more than a couple of weeks and she’d been dealing with depression and all sorts of other emotional issues from her ordeal, damn it!

Mostly because she missed Drak so bad all she could do was whine about it.

Which was stupid, of course. It really didn’t matter that she’d left. They didn’t keep women anyway. He would’ve sent her back when it was spring and they hauled all the other women back.

And she couldn’t go back even though she still had his ship—because he was bound to kill her for stealing it in the first place.

It was as well her mind turned in that direction because it dawned on her that she hadn’t made any attempt to get it back to him even though she knew she could program the computer to return it.

She hadn’t because she was struggling with the urge to go back even though she knew she probably wouldn’t even be welcome. In fact, just the opposite!

But the damned government/security was on to her now! She didn’t trust them not to rifle though all of her memories, regardless of her objections, and that meant they’d find out about the ship and they might confiscate it!

It seemed very likely that they would want to study it because it was alien technology.

And that meant she had to send it back to him or risk losing the chance.

And she couldn’t do that to him. It wasn’t just his pride and joy. According to Terl, it was critical to his people’s survival, not just a convenience they used to raid for women . They couldn’t grow enough food to make it through the winter. They’d starve if they weren’t able to raid to get food!

Even with that resolve, she had a hell of a time sneaking out of the colony since they still had very little access to the world outside, due mostly to the fact that they’d already been attacked and had several colonists captured—her and Monica. She did not, in point of fact, know how she would’ve gotten out if not for the delegation from Jules’ village.

But Jules turned out to be her savior in another sense, as well. She managed to talk him, and his mother, of course, into allowing her to do a scan so that the computer could gather data about the biology of the natives.

Armed with that data, the computer was then able to ascertain that her fetus appeared to be perfectly normal and healthy—for a hybrid. Which mean there was still not enough data to determine how a hybrid would turn out. Preliminary data, however, suggested that the infant would have traits from both parents and no physical abnormalities.

She was tearfully grateful to learn that and able to successfully eliminate the objections of the colony to the infant on the grounds that it might be a societal burden. It should not, from what they could determine, have special needs.

The governor was waiting for Queen Niri and her party to leave to interrogate Noelle further and to access her PMAI since, technically, Queen Niri was actually Noelle’s guest. She’d come to visit, at least according to her, based on the invitation Noelle had thrown out without any expectation whatsoever that the queen would ever take her up on it.

The truth, of course, was that, like any politician, she’d used the thoughtless invitation as an opportunity to look the colony over and see these ‘mechanical wonders’ the star children supposedly possessed for herself.

She was impressed. It took no more than a few hours to see that, even though the aliens were vastly outnumbered by the natives, the natives were vastly overwhelmed by the technology of the star-children. They would be, she decided, formidable enemies and good to have as friends. Since she also concluded that Noelle had no other motive for befriending and helping her son than honest affection, she thought she might not mind being friends with the intruders.

The fact that the queen and her entourage considered themselves Noelle’s guests and the anxiety of the entire colony in general and the governor in particular to try to make peaceful allies of as many of the natives as possible, also gave Noelle the chance she needed to reach Drak’s ship. She told the governor that she’d agreed to escort the queen and her party beyond the perimeter of the colony as added insurance of the good will of the Earth people.

She was more than a little worried that the governor would ask the queen point blank if that was true, or some remark on either side would reveal it for the lie it was, but she was in luck. The governor was so pleased with her for giving them an opening to at least begin the process of forming alliances that he merely thanked her for her service to the colony.

Clearly, he was relieved to see the queen and her party leave. Not that they hadn’t enjoyed entertaining local ‘royalty’ but he’d been fearful some incident arising out of ignorance might destroy what little progress they managed to make and once they were out the door it was no longer something he needed to concern himself over.

Noelle could see the queen and company found it odd and not a little unnerving that she had decided to accompany them to the foothills. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell the queen why she’d decided to join them and she couldn’t think up a lie that would make her comfortable.

It wasn’t likely, to her mind, that the queen would take it well if she knew the plan.

Drak was liable to swoop down and carry the child off again, but that was their problem to work out as far as Noelle was concerned.

She traveled with the queen’s entourage until they were out of sight of the colony watchtowers, waited until the party had traveled on a goodly distance, and then headed to the clearing where she’d stashed Drak’s ship.

As she’d hoped, there was no difficulty in programming the ship to return to the cavern where it had been when she’d taken it. She hesitated when she’d finished, trying to decide whether to leave a message for Drak or not. Finally, she decided she wanted to at least try to explain the circumstances. She thought sending his ship back to him was going to go a long way toward appeasing him.

But he was a man.

He was probably suffering agonies that a mere female had managed to outsmart him and slip through his fingers.

When she’d finished recording her message, she left the ship and headed back to the colony.

Drak frowned in concentration as he studied the map he and Kulle and his captains, Iral and Tomas had been poring over for days, plotting, searching for flaws and weaknesses. He didn’t particularly like the lay of the land, but it was what they had to work with and he was as convinced as he could be that every contingency had been considered and a plan of action plotted.

It was just a shame that the darkling warlord, Javar, had secured his clan’s ship in a nearly inaccessible grotto.

They’d had a hell of a time even discovering the location. It had taken weeks to obtain that information and then more time to work out a plan to acquire the ship with the least loss of men.

Impatience flickered through Drak, but he firmly tamped it.

He would not get the ship and Noelle by being impatient and careless.

He was tempted to go over the plan again—one last time to look for anything that they might have missed—but reluctantly dismissed the impulse. The men were wound tight with nerves as it was, and exhausted because he had pushed them as hard as he had himself. It would do none of them any good to face the battle tomorrow bleary eyed from exhaustion.

Finally, he nodded and dismissed them to seek whatever rest they could find before the sun set and they set off for their destination under cover of darkness.

The men had begun to file out of his solar when they met up with a breathless watchman. “There’s something coming this way, my lord! In the sky. I think … it looks a ship!”

Drak’s heart seemed to stop in his chest painfully. For a split second he felt perfectly blank, then a surge of elation filled him …. And doubts. It had been weeks. It couldn’t be them.

He’d watched for them for days, days that turned to weeks, knowing that every hour that passed, every day, it became more and more likely that they’d perished and less likely that they would return safely.

He couldn’t accept that it was his ship returning—or that there was no hope at all.

Dismissing his qualms, he left the room quickly, gaining speed as he went until he was almost running when he hit the stairs. He jogged down them and crossed the wide room to the doors that led outside. As soon as he reached the courtyard he began to scan the sky.

He spotted it almost immediately. It was so close by that time that it was impossible not to identify the craft as theirs.

“By Aiper’s balls!” Kulle exclaimed. “It is our ship!”

“Yes,” Drak agreed, glancing around for a beast. Fortunately, his men had anticipated that the beasts would be needed and they’d already saddled a round dozen, his favorite beast among them. Moving down the stairs, he grasped the reins and hoisted himself into the saddle.

The gates began to open as the men who followed hurried into the courtyard and grabbed mounts for themselves.

By the time they reached the cave where the craft was usually hidden, the ship had settled into the place it usually occupied when not in use. The engines died and the gangplank was extended.

Drak pulled his beast to a skidding halt and leapt from its back, striding quickly across the cave and up the gangplank. The door slid open as he reached it.

His heart thundering in his ears louder than the stampeding tread of his men as they followed him, Drak strode inside and directly to the control room.

It was empty.

The men came to a halt behind him, looking around, as confused and unnerved as Drak was … except Drak was deflated as well, his hopes crushed and anger surged to fill the void as he, too, searched the area with his gaze.

“Search the ship,” he growled, knowing even when he issued the order that they wouldn’t find her or Jules. The ship was empty.

“Noelle sends her greetings!” an unfamiliar voice announced.

Everyone started, glancing quickly around, swords drawn.

“She ordered me to deliver a message to Prince Drak the Fair. Are you the Prince?”

Drak looked around, trying to identify the direction the voice seemed to originate from but it seemed to bounce around the room and it was impossible to locate the origin.

“Who asks!” Kulle demanded.

“I am the onboard computer for this craft. I am called SIM.”

“What is onboard computer? And who is Sim? Where are you? Show yourself!”

“I am the ship. I am everywhere.”

Drak, who’d been listening and tracking the voice while Kulle interrogated it finally decided the voice was coming from the console itself. Each time Sim spoke, lights flickered across the console. “You are mechanical?”

“I am electronic. More accurately, I am both. I am the ship.”

The men exchanged unnerved glances. “It didn’t use to talk,” Kulle whispered to Drak. “You think it’s the ship? Or somebody hiding?”

Drak was thoughtful. “Search the ship.”

“I am not hiding.”

“We will see,” Kulle said grimly.

Drak jerked his head at the others indicating they should follow Kulle and search the ship. When they’d left the control room, he glanced at the console again. “I am Drak.”

“Noelle begs your pardon for taking the ship without asking permission. She said that she knew that you would be angry, but she is deeply regretful and hopes that you will forgive her since she programmed me to come back.

“She says that she hopes someday you will forgive her and that you and she can be friends.”

Drak frowned. “That’s all she said? That’s the entire message?”

“She said that she wasn’t sorry she’d taken Jules home to his mother because the child needed his mother. And also that you and Queen Niri should compromise on the custody of the child for his sake.”

Drak’s lips tightened. “Did she?”

“Yes.”

“Is there more to the message?”

“That is the entire message.”

Drak glanced around the room again, but he was convinced that he had spoken to a machine—as bizarre as that seemed, particularly since it seemed to speak directly to him and respond to questions. The ship felt empty of any living presence. He hesitated. “Can you answer a question?”

“I will try.”

“How did you reach K’naiper? I assume you did or Noelle would not have sent the ship back or mentioned leaving Jules with his mother.”

“Noelle reprogrammed the flight. Using the momentum created by the planet’s gravity, the ship was slingshot into space at a much higher rate of speed than it is currently capable of achieving. This made it possible to catch up to the sister world.”

Drak decided he would have to digest that information for a little while—and possibly it would eventually make sense. Trying to decide how he felt about the situation, he left the ship to the men, captured his beast, and headed back to the fortress.

Chapter Seventeen

Noelle had been kicking her heels in the colony jail for days before she was allowed any visitors at all. Almost a week had passed since she’d spoken to her advocate—which was the same day she’d returned Drak’s ship and then headed back to the colony and presented herself for the interrogation and the analysis of her PMAI.

It was amazing to her that five different people could look at the same damn thing and all interpret it in a different way!

She’d been sure that all she needed to do was to allow them access to her Personal Memory Assist Implant and they’d be able to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. She still didn’t see that she had! But all of the council members had had a different opinion—both of her activities at Prince Drak’s castle and when she’d sent his ship back!

Well, she couldn’t actually claim she’d had no idea they would want to study the Prince’s ship—not truthfully anyway. And she hadn’t been able to lie about it convincingly and pretend she didn’t know they’d want it since she’d hidden it to start with and then sneaked out of the colony and sent it back.

Nobody was buying that one! The jury was still out on her activities at the castle. At least half seemed to consider that she was under duress and shouldn’t be penalized for doing whatever it took to survive. The others thought she’d been way too enthusiastic for somebody that was doing something they were forced to do.

Either way, she wasn’t particularly perturbed. The advocate had said she was most likely to get probation rather than actual jail time—not because they didn’t consider she’d committed a crime but because they were anxious to use her to promote relations with the natives!

Politics!

She was surprised but gratified when Monica arrived. She didn’t know if Monica hadn’t been to see her because she considered her guilty and didn’t want to be friends anymore, though, or if she hadn’t because they wouldn’t let her so she was far more subdued in greeting her than she felt.

“They sent me to get you,” Monica explained without preamble when the guard had unlocked the door.

“Really? They’ve decided already?” Noelle asked uneasily. “My advocate said it might be as much as a month before they made a decision. Not that I’m objecting, mind you! This place totally sucks!”

“No. It isn’t that. Your … uh … boyfriend arrived and he’s pissed.”

Noelle, who’d followed her friend from the cell, stopped abruptly. “You mean Drak?”

Monica gave her a look. “You have more than one boyfriend?”

Noelle headed back into the cell and plopped down on the bunk. “If he’s pissed, I don’t think I want to talk to him.”

Monica followed her, grasped her arm and hauled her off the bunk. “He’s pissed because they said he couldn’t talk to you and they sent me out instead.”

“Oh. Oh? You’re saying he’s pissed off because I didn’t come out? Not just pissed off at me?”

“He didn’t seem mad,” Monica lied, “until I said you couldn’t come out. Then he said he would take the place apart stone by stone if we didn’t send you out.”

“Uh oh. That really sounds like he’s pissed at me, Monica.”

“No, no! He’s just … well a barbarian and you know they’re … aggressive and uncivilized. He just meant he wanted to talk. I’m sure he’ll calm right down when you get there.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He said you belonged to him and he had come to get you.”

Noelle felt a thrill run through her. “Really? And he wasn’t acting like he wanted to kill me or anything? He just wanted me back?”

“Naw! Nothing like that. I assured him you were madly in love with him and nothing would please you more.”

Noelle stopped abruptly. “You didn’t!”

“Why not? You aren’t keeping it a secret from anybody here!” Monica said irritably, tugging her into motion. “I knew you’d be too shy to tell him yourself.”

Noelle narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Thank you for being so fucking helpful!”

“You’re welcome,” Monica said through her teeth, hauling Noelle through the outer door of the jail and out into the blinding sunlight. “He came all the way from Aiper to get you and threatened death and destruction to everybody for hiding you. I could tell he was just wild about you, too.”

“Really?” Noelle asked a little doubtfully.

“Absolutely. Now you go talk to him, girl! Tell him it was all just a little misunderstanding and we’re just as glad to see him as you are.”

Noelle looked down at the bright orange jumpsuit she was wearing. It was seriously unflattering—especially the color! It really clashed with her hair and skin. Besides that it didn’t touch her anywhere and was hideously unflattering to her figure. “Couldn’t I change first?” she asked plaintively.

“I don’t think he wants to wait.”

Sighing, Noelle glanced around since her vision had adjusted to the bright sunlight and she could actually see without her eyes tearing up. She saw then that it looked as if everybody in the colony had turned out.

They all had weapons and looked scared shitless.

After studying them a moment, she glanced at Noelle and then headed toward the gate in the distance. She could see the ship not far beyond the gate and a number of figures standing around the gangplank. And one standing alone a good distance from all the others.

Her heart skipped several beats. Fear and excitement warred inside her, but she ignored her doubts and quickened her steps. It seemed to take forever to reach the gate and she was so unnerved that it would’ve been hard to say whether it was the brisk walk that had her panting for breath and her heart thundering in her ears, or excitement to see Drak, or fear that he would kill her outright the moment she got close enough for him to get his hands on her.

She didn’t really believe he would harm her, however. She was just feeling horribly guilty and knew he was probably too pissed off at her to forgive her.

His expression as she walked through the gates and approached him seemed to bear that thought up. It was hard and uncompromising. She paused a few yards from him, wringing her hands nervously, tempted to whirl around and race back inside. She didn’t think she could make it before he could catch her, however, and besides that she was afraid the guards would fire and hurt him.

Sucking in a bracing breath, she approached him, halting within arm’s length the second time and tilting her head to look up at him earnestly. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. You don’t hate me, do you?”

Some of the tension seemed to ease from him. “No. I don’t.” He paused, his gaze moving over her. “What is that thing you are wearing? It is hideous.”

Noelle uttered a snort of laughter although she also reddened. “I know. I think it’s hideous, too, but they make you wear these when they put you in jail.”

His expression hardened again. “Your friend did not explain to me why you were in jail.”

Noelle shrugged. “Well … they weren’t happy when they found out I’d been working on restoring some of your technology. We aren’t supposed to interfere like that. And then they were upset that I sent your ship back. They wanted to study it—apparently it’s completely different if they study things like that and keep them than me studying them and fixing them for you. I explained that it was yours and I had to send it back—because it was yours and also because you and your people really need it. But … well ….” She shrugged.

He moved imperceptibly closer. “You knew you would be punished, but you returned the ship to me anyway?”

Noelle bit her lip. “I had to make it right.” She studied his expression. “Well, try, anyway.”

Abruptly, he caught a fistful of her hair and jerked her head back. Noelle heard the collective gasp of shock from the colonists at the move, but she was far more focused on the descent of his face toward hers. His other arm encircled her, tightening around her, pulling her fully against his length as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss that was savage, hot and hungry, ruthless and intoxicating in a totally delightful way. Everything inside of her seemed to surge toward him, to move closer, to open wide to envelop his essence. She thought, if he hadn’t been holding her up, she would’ve melted into a puddle.

She knew then an absolute truth that she’d been struggling with.

She loved this man—barbarian, savage, alien. It didn’t matter. Monica was right. She loved everything about him.

She wavered a little drunkenly when he broke the kiss, stared at her face for a long moment and then abruptly hoisted her up and tossed her across his shoulder. When he turned to head back to his ship, Noelle shoved herself upright and waved gaily to all of the colonists gathered to see her off. “Bye! Bye everyone! See you guys in a few months!”

Mostly, they simply gaped at her, but she saw one here and there amongst them that finally lifted a hand and waved tentatively just before she and the prince entered the ship and they disappeared from her view.

Drak strode directly to his cabin and bolted the door, setting her on her feet beside his bunk. “Strip,” he growled.

With shaking hands, Noelle hurriedly stripped the horrible jumpsuit off and then the T-shirt and underpants.

“Get on the bunk.”

She climbed up and settled in the center.

Drak gave her a look and after a moment she lifted her arms above her head. He manacled them and then lifted and separated her thighs, positioning them with the thigh slings.

When he’d finished, he stepped back, studied her for a long moment and then left.

Noelle was disconcerted—at first—a little unnerved, torn between anticipation and uneasiness and doubt.

She felt the rumble and vibration as the engines roared to life and then the pull of gravity as the ship shot skyward. In a few minutes there was an odd little lift and then downward thrust as the ship reached the edge of space and artificial gravity kicked in a little sluggishly.

A few minutes later Drak entered the cabin once more and bolted the door behind him. Holding her gaze, he slowly stripped his own clothing off and then moved toward her. By the time he’d settled on his belly between her thighs Noelle felt like she might pass out her heart was thundering so hard in anticipation.

He teased her mercilessly—as he had the first time he’d bound her and punished her for defying him. Heat curled in her belly, built until it was sheer torture before he ceased to torment her and positioned himself to enter her.

She was so slick and wet with need her body had little resistance despite his girth. She lost her breath when she felt the double penetration, the burn as he stretched her almost beyond her limits and drove deep. She groaned as if he’d driven a lance into her.

He didn’t leave her to punish her as he had before. He carried her with him, driving into her in a steady rhythm that pushed her closer and closer to the peak until, abruptly, he pushed her over it. She cried out at the intensity of the rapture, folding in upon herself to luxuriate in it as the quakes inside her intensified for several moments and then began to calm once more.

When he’d gathered himself from his own release, he removed the chains and carefully gathered her close. Noelle was stunned at the display of affection, but thrilled. Grateful, she settled limply against him.

“I have never experienced anything to compare to the way I felt when you left,” he said after a long moment. “I have certainly never felt more terror and grief. I thought I had lost both of you, that you would die out here.”

Noelle stroked his shoulder. “I’m so sorry I put you through that. I didn’t mean to.”

“Why did you leave?”

Noelle wrestled with her answer. “I was afraid.”

She felt him stiffen. His hand fell still. “Of me … Because I’m a … savage.”

Noelle swallowed with an effort. “Not of you.” She frowned. “I don’t honestly think I ever was. I was afraid I’d love you and I wouldn’t matter to you. I was afraid that you would give me a child and then take back the only part of you that you’d shared … that I’d lose you twice.

“I know that’s the tradition your people have practiced for generations now, maybe centuries. But it didn’t used to be that way—before the cataclysm. Couldn’t … couldn’t we go back to some of the old customs? The ones more like our customs where parents stay together and rear the child?”

He was silent for several moments. “You’d want to do that? As harsh as conditions are on Aiper?”

“Well, there’s lots of room for improvement. I mean—it doesn’t actually have to be as uncomfortable as it is.”

He began to stroke her back. “What would you change?”

Noelle didn’t have to think it over. She’d been giving that a lot of thought. She immediately launched into her list.

Drak silenced her and redirected her thoughts a few minutes later by kissing her stupid. “I’ll consider it—all of it,” he said, satisfied when he’d silenced her. “No promises. My people aren’t going to be open to a lot of changes, especially radical changes from what they’re used to. They won’t take it well if we try to rush into anything new.”

Noelle sighed with impatience but nodded. “Ok.”

Drak captured her chin and tipped her head back so that she met his gaze. “I love you, star-child, and I am willing to do my best to take care of you and make you happy … but, when all is said and done, I am a barbarian. I cannot change what I am. I cannot be like the men of your village.”

“Thank god!” Noelle exclaimed.