Chapter Fourteen
Blake lay still, hearing the sounds of his son making love to his pirate, and wishing he was anywhere else. He’d been sound asleep until Derrick’s whimpers and cries had awakened him. He was glad, on the one hand, that Derrick was in love and happy with his mate, but it was one thing to be glad and another thing altogether to bear witness to it. That was a dubious honor he could have lived without. Beside him, Davos never moved, and Blake really hoped he was sound asleep and not hearing any of this.
After a while, the sounds of their lovemaking faded and Blake turned on his side, snuggling closer to Davos’s warm body and swinging his leg over Davos’s. He was fading a little himself, just about to let sleep claim him, when he became aware of the sounds of something moving in the woods around him. Alarmed, he turned over and sat up, in time to see Octavion and about twenty or more armed soldiers rush out of the woods and run toward them.
They quickly fanned out and surrounded the sleeping men, kicking the huddled forms in their blankets and shouting orders. Derrick started up, only to be jerked down hard by Rhaegar. Smeet jumped to his feet too and was knocked down again by the butt of one of their disruptor guns. He lay still after that and didn’t move.
Two or three of the pirates made a run for the trees, with shots from the disruptors streaking over their heads and lighting up the forest. They stopped running then and put their hands in the air. The soldiers surrounded them and beat them savagely. Octavion had come to kneel by Davos, pushing Blake roughly aside and speaking to Davos rapidly in Tygerian. A huge soldier came over and kicked Blake on his hip, yelling at him to get up and pulling on his arm to get him to his feet. Once Blake was up, he shoved him back against a tree so hard it almost knocked him down again. He heard Davos yelling something harsh sounding at the soldier, but the man kept pushing and shoving him toward the big tree where Rhaegar and Derrick were standing. Blake went flying into Derrick, who put up his arms to catch him and steady him on his feet. As they rounded up the others, they pushed them over too, and then trained their disruptors on them. Blake saw Davos come charging toward the soldier who had pushed him and the soldier cowered down in the face of his obvious rage. Was it because of him? He wasn’t sure, because Davos hadn’t even so much as glanced at him again. Another of the soldiers was yelling at the whole group of them and Rhaegar was watching him with narrowed eyes. Blake was terrified he’d try something and be killed.
Octavion called out an order and the soldiers all raised their disruptors and trained them on the group with their fingers on the triggers. Blake was too shocked to react, but Davos immediately rescinded the order from the argument that quickly blazed up between him and Octavion. Blake had seen this extreme contrast before between Tveir and Tygeria. There Davos was almost always surrounded by his guards and his aides, but his word was absolute and no one ever argued with him. Here on Tveir, Davos didn’t seem to want a group around him all the time, and he allowed others in his closest circle to disagree with him at times, even openly. The soldiers looked uneasy and confused by the argument and then Davos put a stop to it by pushing Octavion angrily aside with a harsh sounding, “No!”
Davos strode over to yell at the soldiers who glanced nervously at him, before saluting, bowing deeply and then backing away with their disruptors lowered.
Davos stood in front of the group of pirates, his eyes resting mostly on Rhaegar and his voice mocking. “You thought my men would be too superstitious to follow you into these woods, even though their king was in danger.” His eyes flickered over each of them in turn. “As you can see, you were dead wrong.” He stepped up closer to Rhaegar, who stood with his arm around Derrick. “And you—you allowed your lust for this boy to cause you to take foolish risks and lie to him and the human about the chances of getting off this planet and traveling through some fantasy black hole that doesn’t exist. You’ve condemned them as well as yourself.”
“It does exist,” Blake said softly, as Davos whirled to look at him. “You can kill us all, and you probably will, but I’m telling you the truth. I’ve been telling you the truth all along.”
Davos made a sound of disgust and turned away. Blake sagged a bit as he did and leaned more heavily on Derrick, whose eyes were wild and savage looking. Blake thought he might be close to shifting, and he squeezed his arm to make him look down at him. “They’ll just kill you. They probably will anyway, but don’t make it easier for him.”
Davos heard him and whirled back around to stare at him. Blake lifted his chin defiantly. “I want to be staring right into his eyes when he kills me.”
“That can be arranged,” Davos said and reached for him, grabbing him around the waist and lifting him off his feet. Blake gasped, and Derrick grabbed for him, but one of the soldiers came to put his disruptor to Derrick’s head and Rhaegar cried out and grabbed the barrel, pushing it down. Blake heard a fight break out behind him, but Davos threw him over his shoulder and carried him toward the fire. He stopped in front of one of the soldiers and took his weapon from him before turning to Octavion. “I’m going to fuck this human…maybe to death,” he told Octavion in Earthan. Blake thought he must have used it so he would understand exactly what his fate was to be. “If he lives through it, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”
“As Your Majesty wishes…but that death is far too easy for him. The others will face days of torture first.”
“Perhaps I’m feeling merciful—he’s carrying my child, after all.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Octavion bowed deeply to him. “Be careful, Sire. He’s quite treacherous.”
Davos made a noise of disgust. “You think I don’t know that? Or that I’m worried about this puny human causing me harm?”
“No, Sire, of course not,” he said, his face coloring as he lowered his gaze and bowed.
Davos strode past him into the woods, carrying Blake. Each breath Blake took was painful, thrown against Davos’s hard shoulder, so he saved his strength and didn’t squirm or fight, deciding to at least die with some dignity, if he could. He’d meant what he said about staring Davos right in the eye as his hands closed around his throat for the last time. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d always joked that Davos would be the death of him. Ironic that it was coming true.
When they had traveled far enough into the woods that Blake could only hear muffled sounds of the soldiers shouting back and forth to each other, Davos stopped and put Blake on his feet. Blake pulled back his fist and swung at him, but he grabbed Blake’s fist in one hand and twisted it behind him, bringing his body close to his.
“Don’t be any more foolish than you have been already. I have no intention of harming you.”
“I…what?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, so settle down.”
“But you said…”
“That was for Octavion’s benefit. I needed to get you away by yourself.”
“But what are you doing?”
“The penalty for what you’ve all done is death. But I know you only did it because you still have that crazy idea that you can go back to Tygeria through some nonexistent black hole.”
“But it’s not nonexistent. I was in it! And so were you!”
He shook his head. “There was a disruption in the atmosphere—of some kind, yes. But we entered no black hole, for the gods’ sake. We were still in our own atmosphere.”
“No, that’s just how the Tveir Davos remembers it. That part of you is very strong and it’s convincing you not to believe me, but you have to. We have to get back home! Not just for this baby, but for Larz and the other children. Our life is there with them!”
Continuing to shake his head, he ignored what Blake was saying and looked back toward the fire. “Tear your clothing, in case someone comes. Make some noise—cry out and make it sound good. Octavion is listening.”
“Why are you so afraid of him?”
“Afraid of him? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m wary of him because he’s ambitious and power hungry. I don’t trust him.”
“Then why do you have him near you? What are you going to do about it?”
Davos looked back at him grimly. “I haven’t decided yet. Now make some noise.”
Blake kicked up some dirt by his feet and screamed a couple of times. He tried to sound as if Davos might actually be killing him. He heard answering shouts from Derrick. “Oh God, Derrick must think you’re killing me.”
“He’ll be fine. Listen to me. I’m going back out to tell them you’re dead, and that I’m leaving your body for the wild animals to eat.”
Blake looked around himself nervously. “Uh…wild animals?”
“Yes. There are small wild creatures with long tusks on this planet. They have heavy bodies and eat everything—bone, hair, even teeth.”
“I knew it! Wild pigs!”
“We have no name for them. But they aren’t the worst. The worst by far are the larger ones—people call them ursos. They’re massive creatures with black fur and long claws. They’re known to inhabit this part of the forest. It’s why it’s called the Savage Woods.”
“Do they eat people too?”
“Of course.”
“What if they attack us?”
His tone became arrogant. “We’ll change into our tygers and fight them. They’re no match for us.”
“But why did you bring me here? You told them you were going to kill me.”
“When I go back, your boy Derrick will want to fight me, so I’ll let him. Then I’ll have to fight Rhaegar too, and in the commotion that follows, I’ll shoot them both with my disruptor.” He patted the gun he wore on his side.
“How is that a good plan if you kill Derrick and Rhaegar?” Blake nearly shouted, feeling hysterical. Davos put his hand over his mouth, looking down into his eyes.
“Be quiet, or they’ll hear you. I’ll have my disruptor set to stun for Derrick and Rhaegar. Then we’ll leave and after we’re gone, they can help you come down the mountain. I heard the pirates mention Magda. Is that the old Leerian woman in the kitchens?”
“I can’t tell you that. You’d punish her and she only wanted to help.”
“Hmm, by being disloyal to her king.”
“Only because she knew Smeet, the one who led you by the rope. He was a friend of her late husband’s.”
“And you think her acquaintance with Smeet would endear her to me?”
“Well, no, but…she’s old. Don’t hurt her.”
“I’m not going to bother so much as a hair on her head. Go to her when you get off the mountain. Rhaegar obviously has a way of getting in to see her. She’ll help you hide until I can get you off the planet.”
“But why? Why are you helping us? What’s the point of all this?”
“To let you get away obviously. To send you back to your own planet and have you take the pirates with you. It seems the only way I’ll ever get rid of the lot of you.”
“But…you’re just going to let me go?”
He looked down at Blake for a long moment before answering. “So it seems.”
Blake threw his arms around Davos’s waist and hung on. “But I won’t leave without you! You have to go with me. Please, Davos.”
He sighed impatiently and pulled Blake’s hands away. “You know that’s not possible. I’m letting you and the pirates get away against my better judgment to keep you and the child safe. I find that your welfare—and the child’s—does matter to me.” His lips tightened and he looked at anything other than Blake. “I care a great deal, it seems. But my people would never understand. I need to keep both you and the child safe, but that doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve completely lost my mind and believe your crazy delusions about a passage to some kind of alternate universe. Go back to the Alliance. Their doctors will help you—they’ve traded for enough repatriated soldiers. Surely some came back pregnant, and they’ve developed methods to deal with it by now. Your chances will be better there, anyway, with doctors who know human physiology. And maybe someday, when this war is finally over…I can find you again.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Blake said miserably. “If I leave you here, I’ll never find you again.”
“King Davos?” came a worried sounding shout from the campsite.
“I’m coming!” he yelled back, and then looked down at Blake. “You know what to do?”
Blake nodded, his eyes filled with tears, and Davos brushed Blake’s lips with his. He thrust his weapon into Blake’s hands.
“Keep this, in case you need it for protection,” he said, and then turned to stride back toward the others. A few moments later, Blake listened tensely as Derrick began shouting at Davos. He couldn’t understand all the words but Derrick’s voice was full of heartbreak and rage. Blake heard the fight start up and men begin shouting. He could hear Rhaegar’s voice over everyone else, calling Derrick’s name. Then came the sound of the disruptor firing—a whining noise with a popping sound at the end. It sounded almost harmless, but Blake had seen what damage it could inflict, and it could be devastating.
Moments later, he saw the soldiers dragging two bodies out of the clearing and dropping them just off the trail. If Davos hadn’t told him he would be using the stun setting on his disruptor, his heart would have stopped. As it was, Blake shuddered and a wave of sickness suddenly washed over him. To keep from being ill, he fell to his knees, hugging himself.
He listened as the soldiers rounded up the remaining pirates and began moving them back down the mountain. Blake waited as long as he could bear it. Until the sounds of Davos and his men had faded away to only a few distant shouts, and then he ran out to where Derrick and Rhaegar’s bodies had been dragged into the forest.
Bending first over Derrick, he gasped in relief to find him actually breathing. His muscles were even twitching a little as the effect of the disruptor was wearing off. Rhaegar was already moaning a little and blinking his eyes, but suddenly, he sat up, holding to his head. He looked around himself with bleary eyes, but before Blake could call out any warning, he spotted Derrick lying beside him. He gave a heartrending cry and fell on top of him, calling his name over and over. It took Blake a few hectic minutes to make him understand that Derrick was alive and that Davos had used the stun setting on both of them. By that time Derrick was waking up and Blake witnessed a tender moment between them that he wished Davos could have seen for himself. If he had, he would never have questioned the love between the two of them ever again.
After a few moments though, he gave Derrick a hug of his own. “Are you truly all right, sweetheart? Davos told me he set the disruptor to stun, but it looked so real. It was hard to watch when they pulled your bodies out to the forest.”
“But why did he do it, omak? I thought he’d killed you. Why is he just letting us go like this?”
“Because Davos is my mate and your father and he really isn’t all that different from the father you’ve always known. Personally, I think he knows who we are, but he’s too damn stubborn to admit it. He told me to get off this mountain and go back to Magda’s. He said he’d be in touch with us there and help us get off this planet.”
“And my men?” Rhaegar asked. He hunched his shoulders a little as Blake shook his head, and Blake knew he was grieving over the loss of his crew.
“I’m sorry, Rhaegar. I honestly don’t know. I got the impression he might let them go too, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe we can find out more when we get back to the palace, and I swear I’ll do everything I can to get him to release them.”
Derrick reached for Blake then and hugged him tightly, his voice breaking a little as he buried his face against Blake’s hair. “Gods, I thought he’d killed you.”
“I know, baby, and I’m sorry we scared you. He said to make my screams sound realistic.”
“You did that, all right. I tried to get to you.”
“I know,” Blake told him, patting his arm. “But now we have to get off this mountain. Davos gave me his disruptor in case we meet any wild animals.”
Rhaegar stared at him. “He did what?”
“Gave me his disruptor.” He held it up to show them and they both flinched and Rhaegar grabbed it.
“Why don’t you let me hold that for you?” he said, turning the barrel away from Derrick’s face. “I’m a little more used to handling these than you are.”
He looked down at the weapon in his hands. “I can’t believe he just gave this to you.”
“Why wouldn’t he? He knew I’d never use it against him.”
“Still…”
Blake stood up and looked down the trail. “Well? Should we try to make it down the mountain now?”
“Not yet. Let’s wait here the rest of the night, and we can get to Magda’s by dusk tomorrow. By that time, Davos should have a plan in place. If he’s really going to help us…”
“He said he would, and I have no reason to doubt him. He’s already helped us, in fact.”
Rhaegar gave Blake an assessing look. “It seems you and this Davos are getting pretty close.”
“It’s all Davos, no matter if one of them has blue eyes and acted like he didn’t know me at first. We’re still mates and this baby is my husband’s,” Blake said fiercely, holding his hand over his stomach. “I know my own mate. I know him in my soul and make no mistake about that.”
Derrick put his arm around him. “I know that, omak. So does Rhaegar,” he said, giving him a look. “Come over here and sit down while Rhaegar stirs up the fire. It’s a long time before morning, and you’re going to need your strength to make it back down the mountain.”
****
Blake slept the next morning until the sun was high in the sky. When he awoke, he found Derrick and Rhaegar talking quietly by the fire. When Derrick noticed him waking up, he came over quickly with a piece of bread and another mug of the Lycan tea they’d had the night before.
“Here, omak, eat this before you get up. It may help with the sickness you have in the mornings.”
“Too late,” Blake moaned and crawled off the furs to retch quietly behind the tree he’d been lying near. A while later, when he felt a little stronger, he came back and plopped down beside Derrick. “Sorry, sweetheart. Maybe I’ll have that tea now. I usually feel better once I get that out of the way.”
Derrick poured him a mug of tea, but didn’t look convinced. “We need to get you back home as soon as we can. You were sick with Nicarr and Larz, but not like this. I remember, omak.”
“This one is a little worse, I admit.”
“It’s a lot worse. I hope Father was telling the truth about getting us a ship. You need to see a doctor.”
“He was. But I meant what I said before. I won’t leave without him. Nothing about that has changed. All I can do is try to convince him to come with us.”
Derrick looked troubled and Rhaegar squeezed his hand. “Why don’t we worry about all of this once we get off this mountain? We need to get you someplace warm. You rest and finish your tea while we put out the fire and get a few of our things. It might be best not to clean up this campsite too much in case anyone comes back later to check things out.”
“But they’d know anyway, right?” Blake asked. “There won’t be any bodies.”
“Remember those wild pig-things you mentioned?” Derrick asked with a grin.
“Oh hell,” Blake said, looking around nervously. “We really do need to get moving, don’t we? I should have woken up earlier.”
“No need to leave before now. I’d like to get there after dark. Magda’s busy cooking until then anyway.”
“Food…” Derrick rubbed his belly. “I hope she has some leftovers for us.”
It didn’t take nearly as long to go down the mountain as it had to go up, considering the fact that the walk was much easier, and they didn’t have a reluctant, snarling Tygerian fighting them and resisting them every step of the way. They made it an hour or so before full darkness fell. Rhaegar would have preferred to stay outside the palace grounds, but Derrick pressed him to sneak inside, using the secret passages, which didn’t seem to be so secret after all, Rhaegar’s main objection to the plan.
“It’s way too crowded in there,” Rhaegar protested. “Everyone in the palace seems to use them.”
“It’s not as bad in the evenings. Besides, it’s still safer than parading around in the open. We’re supposed to be dead, remember? We can travel over to the gardens through the passages if we’re careful,” Derrick argued, “and come out where you waited for me that first night. It should be easy enough to sneak into the kitchens from there once it’s dark.”
In the end, Rhaegar agreed and they slipped through the door to the passage on the outside wall a little past sunset. For once, the twin moons of Tveir cooperated and were waning that night, so they used the cover of darkness to make it to the shed where Rhaegar said they entered the kitchens.
Magda clutched her chest when she saw Rhaegar and then glared at him. “Soldiers say you dead.”
“Well, as you can see, they’re wrong. Don’t faint, Magda, I’m not a ghost. It’s really me, Rhaegar.”
She walked up to him and boldly poked her finger in his chest. “Ow, dammit!” Rhaegar yelled. “What was that for?”
“To see if you real. Smeet say captain is dead.”
“Smeet? Have you seen him then? Where are they holding him and the others?”
“In dungeons. I bring food.”
“You’re a fine woman, Magda. Did Smeet tell you anything?”
“He say you dead. Say this young one dead too,” she said, glaring at Derrick in turn. “Who this?” she said, nodding toward Blake.
“This is Blake, our friend.”
She grunted an acknowledgement but still didn’t look happy as he turned back to Rhaegar. “You should go back to forest. If they catch you…” she drew a stubby, work-reddened finger across her throat and Rhaegar grinned.
“Yes, we know. But we have a secret weapon this time. Someone from the palace is going to help us get a ship to get off the planet.”
She frowned at them. “Who would do such thing? Everybody too afraid of king.”
“Well, actually, it is the king. Davos himself.”
Magda’s eyebrows shot up and she shook her head. “You crazy.”
“No, I’m telling you the truth.” He put his hand on Blake’s shoulder. “This is the king’s lover. His mate.”
Magda gave Rhaegar a scandalized look. “Human?” she asked incredulously. “No…”
Blake smiled and shrugged. “It’s true.”
Her face drained of color. “And King know I help you?” She swayed on her feet and Rhaegar grabbed her arm to steady her.
“He won’t hurt you,” Blake said, stepping up beside her. “He promised me you’d be safe and he’ll be grateful to you, in fact, for helping me.” That might have been stretching the truth just a bit, but the poor woman looked as if she were about to faint, and Blake was sure that Davos would keep his promise not to harm Magda. Rhaegar didn’t look quite so sure as he met Blake’s eyes over her head, but Blake gave his arm a reassuring squeeze.
“It’ll be fine,” Derrick said, agreeing with Blake. “Now Magda, would you possibly have anything to eat left in the kitchen? We haven’t really eaten all day.”
Magda gave him a quick nod and with only a few more backward glances at Rhaegar, she led them down to the cellars, and promised to come back with dinner soon. Blake looked around at the room she’d brought them to. He could tell that someone had stayed there quite recently and Rhaegar confirmed that this was the room he and his crew had been hiding out in before they made contact with Derrick. There were several cots around, most of them heaped with blankets. Rhaegar immediately went over to the fireplace and began building a fire.
“There’s nothing to do now but wait, omak,” Derrick said. “Try to get some rest in the meantime, all right?”
Blake nodded, but wondered how much rest he’d actually be able to get. He was worried about everything, it seemed. The fate of Rhaegar’s men, getting Derrick and Rhaegar off the planet and back home, convincing Davos to go with him…and Larz. Always at the back of his mind was Larz and what Mikos had been able to find out. He had to believe that Larz was at home with Nicarr and the rest of the family. He wouldn’t have been able to function otherwise. He sighed and sank down on one of the cots near the fire. All he could do now was wait—wait to find out if Davos would come soon and help them get on a ship to go home and end this nightmare. Or if he’d refuse to come with him and he would have to begin a new life here on Tveir. A life that might be over way too soon. This pregnancy was different from the others he’d had, and he wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was his age—having children had been easier when he was in his twenties. But he had an uneasy feeling that Derrick was right. He needed to see his doctors and he needed to see them soon. He laid his hand over his stomach again. He didn’t want to lose this child, and he needed to do absolutely everything in his power to make sure that didn’t happen.