The Mercenary's Dawn by L P Peace

Author:L P Peace [Peace, L P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: L. P. Peace
Published: 2020-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Alethia is not your property. You do not have the right to dictate who does and does not touch her.

No matter how many times Thanesh repeated this to himself on the way back to the interrogation room, he couldn’t quell the rage inside him.

Alethia was not his property. But she was his.

He thrust the door open and pulled Makios’s chair out, almost hurling it against the far wall. When Makios got close, he pushed the Kathen down in the chair, hard.

Makios stood and pushed back.

The dam burst.

The Kathen was the same height as Thanesh, but heavier, more muscular. He didn’t care. He roared and reached for his Adunis sticks, but he didn’t carry them on the ship.

The Kathen’s hands were still bound. He swung them both at Thanesh, connecting with his jaw and throwing him across the room so that his head smacked the wall.

Thanesh turned, ready to charge back into the fight when he realised the Kathen was laughing.

‘Jealous, Protectorate?’

‘What is your relationship to her, Kathen?’

‘Sit down, Protectorate.’ Makios grabbed his seat, which had been tipped over in the brief clash. He righted it, sat and pulled the chair neatly under the table.

Thanesh steadied himself. He walked around the table and sat, glaring at the Kathen.

‘What is your relationship to Alethia?’

‘When we were children,’ the Kathen licked his lips, ‘we would play in the forests around her home. Back then, I believed that we would fall in love and build our own house next to her parents. Next to the house my father was building before he died.’ Makios’s voice was deep, it had a rich timbre and was tinged with humour as he thought back to his past with the pale human. ‘Later, when we started buying slaves together before the darkness descended over her, I believed our fate was together and inevitable.’

‘But you never did fall in love?’

Makios shook his head and took a breath. ‘She’s like my sister. I would kill for that human. Die for her. But Alethia is burdened. Weighed down by the pain of others. My female will burn with passion. If she takes the pain of others, it will be to burn it away and cast the ashes into the wind.’

Something of Thanesh’s defensiveness of Alethia must have shown on his face.

‘Don’t get angry, Protectorate.’ Makios’s laugh was a deep, bassy rumble. ‘She takes that pain from people so that they don’t have to bear it alone. I respect that. But it damages her,’ he whispered the last words. There was sadness on Makios’s face. He cared for her.

‘She will not have to do it much longer.’ Thanesh realised he was making a vow to himself.

‘What are you going to do? Set up counselling for the survivors of slavery?’

‘If I have to,’ Thanesh snapped.

‘She really has got you good,’ Makios chuckled.

‘I have a deal,’ Thanesh said. ‘Do a job for me, and I will make your record go away.’

Makios wasn’t laughing anymore. ‘Go on.’

‘Dynexium.’

Makios’s eyes widened. ‘You want radiant?’

Thanesh nodded.

‘It’s illegal to mine, sell, buy, purify or transport radiant without the proper licences.

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