Chapter Twelve
Zandyr
“She’s gone? What do you mean she’s gone?” Zhynn thundered.
Neema’s eyes filled with tears. “Please, my lords, don’t be angry with me. I couldn’t have stopped her, even if I wanted to. Delta is…” The Orythian fought for composure. “She’s a very strong being, my lords. When she sets her mind to something, there’s no changing it.”
Zandyr’s voice was more gentle than his twin’s. “We understand, Neema. We have come to know Delta. You aren’t responsible for her actions. My brother and I don’t blame you for anything. We just want to know where she’s gone and why.”
Neema glanced around nervously, as though Axum’s guards would materialize out of the walls of the twins’ suite. “I really can’t say. She asked me to keep it in confidence.”
They’d been up all night with Delta, introducing her to an orgy of sensual delights. Everything was new and thrilling to her, and her passionate responses captivated them. By the time they woke, it was well past midday. She’d slipped out of their bed as they slept.
You’d better get her to talk quickly, Brother, or I swear I’ll throttle her! Zhynn raged.
Do that and you may condemn Delta to death, Zandyr warned. This frightened alien is our only hope of finding her. We need to win Neema’s trust, not threaten to harm her.
“I understand why Delta would confide in you, Neema,” he said softly. “You’re so easy to talk to. So gentle and kind. I know you wouldn’t want any harm to come to Delta.”
“She’s been my only friend here.” Neema’s shoulders shook with the effort of holding back tears.
“My brother and I care about her, too,” Zandyr assured her. “Very much. In fact, we planned to ask her…” He stopped. “No, I’ve said too much.”
Putting out the bait, Brother? Nice move, Zhynn observed.
Neema’s face brightened. “You want to take her back to your world! Not as a slave, but as your vindala.”
“I don’t know what a vindala is, but yes. We want to take her back to our world. To live with us as our chosen mate.”
“In my world, a vindala is the one who makes your heart sing,” Neema explained.
“That’s a beautiful way to describe it,” Zandyr said. “Yes. We want her to be our vindala. Part of that is vowing to protect her, with our lives, if necessary.”
Neema’s eyes gleamed. “You Tharans are so romantic! I hope one day I’ll find my vindala.”
“We need to find ours, Neema. Now. Please, tell us why she’s gone. Is she hiding somewhere in the citadel? Did Axum threaten her?”
“We’ll snap his scrawny neck if he did,” Zhynn growled.
“No. He didn’t threaten to harm her. It was – you. The two of you. She wandered out onto the balcony and overheard his guards talking on the terrace below us. Axum believes you are spies. He knows you’ve been roaming through the citadel ever since you arrived, chatting with the palace slaves. To him, they’re less than animals, and he is suspicious of anyone who would make an effort to befriend them, as you did with me. He’s going to have you killed tomorrow night, at the banquet he’s holding in your honor. He means to make an example of you, denouncing you and then ordering your execution in front of the all the guests. It’s the way he stays in power – instilling fear in those he’s welcomed as allies.”
“So, where did Delta go?” Zandyr forced himself to keep his voice steady.
“She’s gone to steal a transport cruiser. So she can get you off this planet.”
“A transport cruiser. You mean she’s trying to get across the Kalian Desert to the Borvaan landing port? Alone and on foot?” Zhynn burst in. “She’ll die out there!”
Neema shook her head. “No, she’s confident she can make it. Delta says most of her journey will be after dark, and she can withstand the heat until then.”
“We have to go after her, Neema. Now. But we need your help.”
Her rotund face beamed. “Of course! I’ll do anything for you, my lords.”
“We need to get away without the guards in the hall suspecting that we’ve gone. Can you…” Zandyr stopped, not sure how to phrase his request without hurting her feelings. “Can you pretend we’re here with you and you’re pleasuring both of us? Perhaps make noises, call our names loud enough for them to hear you.”
“I know just what you want, my lord.” Neema gave a loud moan. “Oh dear Goddess! Your cock is so big! Yes, make me your dirty slut. Oooh, I love it when you both take me at once. Yesyesyes.” Her voice rose at the end, becoming a full-throated scream. She followed with a low, masculine-sounding groan, nearly indistinguishable from the sound Delta had torn from his throat last night.
“Is that what you had in mind?”
Zandyr stared at her, stunned. Even though he knew it was a performance, his own cock had stirred hearing her throaty scream of passion.
The Orythian batted her eyes at him seductively. “You’ve never chosen to sample my talents, my lord. In my world, I was in great demand as a courtesan.”
Zhynn threw his arms around her bulk and gave her a kiss. “I don’t doubt it for a moment! It was our loss, Neema. You’re wonderful!”
Three hours later, under cover of darkness, they were making their way across the desert. Though the vicious Borvaani sun had set, the dry plain retained its heat, and only now were the desert-dwelling creatures beginning to stir. Most of them were small but occasionally they caught sight of a larger shape streaking across the horizon in the distance.
Sneaking out of the citadel was easy. As warriors, they’d had plenty of experience getting in and out of places without being seen. They climbed down the outside of the building, from balcony to carved column to statue-bearing niche, then stayed in the shadows as they headed through the streets of Borsai.
Breaching the wall proved more difficult. They’d stolen guard uniforms to wear, and their dark figures would have stood out against the glaring white stones if they tried to climb over it. Not to mention the fact that it was hundreds of feet tall, and the climb would have taken precious hours they couldn’t spare. Delta was out there somewhere on the other side. Alone. Unarmed. She’d had hours of head start on them.
They conferred with silent messages and settled on a plan. Waited until a late-arriving convoy of the enormous yamila used to cross the desert drew near. Guards set the mechanism in motion to retract the massive beam barring the doors, then a troop of them began to pull them open manually, hauling in chains with links as big around as their waists.
Zhynn crept to the open-air market, opening cages at random, setting a torrent of shrieking, growling, hissing creatures pouring into the street. They darted everywhere, large ones chasing the smaller ones, even attacking the troops. Guards dropped the chains and fled, shouting and cursing, During the confusion, the brothers slipped through the narrow opening without anyone sounding an alarm.
How far do you think she can have gotten?
On foot? It was daylight when she left. In this heat, she’ll be lucky to have made it a dozen namods before she collapsed, Zhynn replied. Sound carried long distances in the vast emptiness. They’d agreed to maintain their silent form of communication, rather than alert unknown desert-dwelling life forms of their presence.
They set a brisk pace, running through the desert, but it was one they could keep up for hours if necessary. Their warrior training kept them fit but they’d built their stamina long before that when they were lads, hunting norendaal stags on foot in the forests back home.
Following her tracks was easy. Their human had stayed close to the convoy route, and her small footsteps appeared from time to time in semi-sheltered areas where the desert winds hadn’t erased them. The depth of the heel prints in the sand told them she was running, too.
Hours passed. Paw and tail marks crisscrossed her route from time to time. Zandyr knelt at one point, examining a spot where she’d crouched behind some rocks, probably to avoid being spotted by one of the convoys that traveled the route.
She’s beginning to tire. Her footprints are not as deep and they’re closer together, he said.
Zhynn had gone ahead. That’s not what’s worrying me, he replied, bending forward to examine the surface in the dim moonlight. We’re not the only ones tracking her. Something else is. Something huge.