Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (138 page)

"Where did you get this?" Eligor asked.

"Príomh-Aire ... give ... to me ... when I give him ... wife," the man said.

"Ninsianna?" Eligor asked.

Emotions danced across the black-eyed man's face, anger, sadness, and then a grim expression.

"Shahla," the man said. "She die..." He struggled to find the words. "She ... lure ... Mikhail ... into trap." He pointed to the other side of the tarmck. "She buried ... over there."

Oh.
Her.
He'd forgotten all about her until Ninsianna had mentioned her, the one who'd suffered from the same mental ailment as Lucifer. It was just as well she'd died before setting Lucifer's seed. That's all the Alliance needed was an heir with
two
nutso parents.

"No matter," Eligor said. "You can't take the knife into the meeting."

The black-eyed man's jaw tightened in a grim line. He might have been shorter than Eligor, but the authority he carried reminded him of Lucifer.

"She ...
matter
," the man hissed. He pointed at Lieutenant Kasib. "They ... say ... protect her. She die. Lucifer ... he answer ... questions. Or else. He give me ... back ... Ninsianna."

Kasib nervously tasted the air, but curiously, the lizard did not contradict that accusation. Nor did the black-eyed man use the hissing Sata'anic language even though it was obviously the more comfortable of the two languages for him to speak.

"I'm still not letting you take in a knife," Eligor said. He noted the man's hostile stance. "You can't blame me, after what happened the last time. You'll get it back as soon as you're no longer in the Prime Minister's presence."

The black-eyed man relented and let him take the knife. He then followed Kasib into the building, leaving Eligor to twiddle his thumbs. A short while later, his comms pin chirped.

"Sir?" Eligor asked.

"Eligor?" Lucifer's voice was filled with false warmth. "Could you do me a favor? Go back to the ship and retrieve those two FTL drive cores I asked you to bring?"

"Yes, Sir," Eligor said. The two Marid guards followed him back to the shuttle and watched him like a hawk as he retrieved the two FTL cores. They disappeared with them the moment they verified they weren't booby-trapped. He waited at the ship until Lucifer came back, sans Ba'al Zebub, with Furcas and Pruflas in tow.

And another person. The black-eyed man...

Eligor watched their reflection in the windshield as Lucifer spoke warmly to the man in a language he couldn't understand. A few moments later, the lizards appeared with seventeen human females, the maximum number the shuttle could accomodate. The human male spoke to them in yet
another
language, ordering them to buckle up, as Eligor spooled up the engines to return to the
Prince of Tyre
.

The shuttle vibrated as he prepared for liftoff. It suprised him when Lucifer moved up to the empty co-pilot's seat and buckled himself in beside him. Eligor filled his mind with thoughts of the flight procedures necessary for liftoff.

"So, Eligor," Lucifer gave him a grin that reminded him of a predator about to hunt its lunch. "Which one do
you
favor?"

Eligor glanced back at the seventeen women, perhaps not as breathtaking as the tall, statuesque Angelic women, but each striking in their own, exotic way. He did not state,
the Colonel's widow.
He'd known all along that
that
one was not up for grabs. So, absent that wish, the question wasn't which one
he
favored, but which ones would end up getting their minds broken when Lucifer took them to his bed.

"I want a smart one," Eligor said. He met Lucifer's gaze. "Not one of your left-overs. I hate fucking something that is stupid."

His petty rebellion seemed to amuse Lucifer rather than piss him off. Had it been the good twin, Lucifer would have been annoyed, but the evil twin seemed to
enjoy
a bit of verbal sparring.

"Furcas and Pruflas get first pick," Lucifer said. "After that, I shall let
you
pick a favorite. We'll have a little Eligor in the oven in no time."

"And what if she doesn't like me?" Eligor said.

Lucifer's cold, hard gaze reminded him of a man about to enjoy a tasty meal. He glanced back, not at the women, but at the black-eyed human male who flitted between the women, reassuring them they had nothing to fear.

"Then that is the one that
I
want," Lucifer said. "I always prefer the ones who fight. It makes their submission so much sweeter."

Eligor fired the engines and blasted them all back into the troposphere.

~ * ~ * ~

Galactic Standard Date:  152,324.02 AE

Victor Sector: HMS Beylan

Leonid Major Orias

Orias

The commander of the
HMS Beylan
was a fierce lioness, protective of the colonies her pride of Leonids and their Spiderid brothers defended, and even
more
protective to the Alliance ideals those colonies wished to live by. She was not, however, naïve enough to follow Parliament blindly, especially when it came over the news that General Abaddon had taken a sizeable chunk of their fleet and disappeared.

Orias sighed and passed the salt to her daughter, Habibas.

"If only Lucifer was still alive," Orias rumbled deep in her chest.

Habibas' golden, furry ears jutted forward in surprise.

"You're kidding," Habibas asked. "Right mother?"

"Why, no…" Orias said. She flexed her claws. "Why?"

Habibas showed her fangs.

"Babajidas told me what Lucifer did to him to break him before he turned him over to us," Habibas growled. "He still bears claw marks down his back."

"He tortured him?" Orias picked at her claws. Torture was against Alliance law, but occasionally the Leonids enjoyed taunting informants with the threat of dismemberment.

"What Lucifer did to him was much, much worse," Habibas said. Her whiskers jutted forward. "Mama … he is so ashamed that he says he can never face his own people again."

"What did Lucifer do,
leon beag
?" Orias asked.

Habibas told her.

Orias' jaw dropped, leaving her tongue lolling out of her mouth like some stupid wild animal.

"Lucifer did
what
to him?"

~ * ~ * ~

February: 3,389 BC

Earth: Mesopotamian Plain

Jamin

Jamin crept through the tall, Mesopotamian grasses, stalking the lion which was his prey. It was a magnificent male, as big as any he'd ever seen, with paws as large as his face and a red mane which framed its head like the rays of the sun.

"Shhh…" Jamin gestured for Lucifer to creep forward. "Tuck your wings against your back. We're downwind, but if he sees you, he will attack."

"That's what this is for." Lucifer's handsome features curved up into a grin. He pointed to his golden pulse rifle, the one he had used to teach Jamin to shoot.

Jamin met his eerie silver eyes.

"You said you wanted to hunt lions like a native," Jamin said. He held up his spear. "Now prove it."

"You are so passionate about everything you do, little chieftain," Lucifer laughed. He flopped down carelessly upon the ground, his wings strewn out beneath him like a white, fluffy blanket. "When I said I wanted to hunt the lion ancestor of our Leonids, I had no idea you meant to do so with a
primitive
weapon."

Jamin snorted with disgust.

"In
my
culture, a
real
man hunts lions using nothing but a knife!"

"And how many of these lions have you killed with such methods, little chieftain?"

"With a knife?" Jamin said. "Just one."

"Why kill one when you could kill as many as you like?" Lucifer asked. He studied Jamin as though he found him fascinating.

"I have killed
many
lions," Jamin said. "As well as hyenas, auroch, and crocodiles. But I have only killed
one
lion with a knife, and that is the one which marks me as a man."

Lucifer reached out and touched his chin, turning his face from one side to the other, studying it. Jamin jerked back his head. He didn't know what to make of the Alliance P
ríomh-Aire, but he suspected he was a man who favored other men.

Well he'd teach Lucifer what it meant to be a
real
man.

"Come," Jamin said. "We need to get closer."

Keeping his spear low, he crept forward, closer to the lion that was their quarry. Whatever Lucifer had given Hudhafah to release him from his slave-bond, he owed him. If the man wanted him to repay him by teaching him to hunt lions, then that is what he'd do. Lucifer rolled over and crept up behind him, stalking a different prey, he suspected. Jamin pushed the thought out of his mind.

"How would you like to kill him," Jamin asked. "The spear would be safer. There is no shame in using the spear. For you, it would be like for me to kill him with a knife."

"I want to see
you
kill him," Lucifer said. He stared at him with a hungry look, a spectator eager to witness a blood sport.

"I thought
you
wanted to hunt the lion?" Jamin said.

"I did," Lucifer said. "But in my years, I have taken on far fiercer creatures than this. It is how
you
do it which fascinates me."

Jamin stiffened. "Is this a test?"

Lucifer sized him up, the alpha-predator, the brightest and most beautiful of all the Angelics.

"I wish to see if you are as fearless as you seem, little chieftain," Lucifer said softly. "Everywhere I go, I find myself surrounded by lesser men. When you've lived as long as I have, when you see somebody who reminds you of yourself, you learn to hang onto them, for those spirits are few and far between."

There was a great loneliness in Lucifer's words. This time, when he touched Jamin's face, Jamin did not pull away.

"Show me. Show me you are brave enough to fight a dragon," Lucifer said. "And I shall lay this world at your feet for you to conquer."

Jamin swallowed. Lucifer projected an image into his mind of walking down the gangplank of a sky canoe, the Ubaid cheering as he returned to them laden down with gold and lion skins. In the image, his father embraced him and told him he'd been wrong to cast him out. In the image, Ninsianna ran up and told him that she loved him.

It was that thought which kicked him out of the daydream.

"Ninsianna only loves her husband," Jamin said.

"Then I shall kill him for you," Lucifer stated flatly. "His Seraphim sub-species was an abomination to this universe."