The Impatient Lord (8 page)

“
Familiar?” Aeron gave a soft laugh. The sound was filled with happiness and relief. She walked Mirek back toward his home.

“
She does not know me,” Mirek stated, tortured by the truth in his words.

“
You said she was awake when you claimed her. Is her memory suffering?” Aeron asked.

“
She should know me regardless,” he said. “Just as you would know Bron if you were to lose your memories. It is inside you.”

“
That connection took time,” she assured him. “Can I assume by your expression that my sister was her normally charming self?” Aeron squeezed his arm. “If she insulted you, that’s probably a good sign that she’s functioning like normal.”

He frowned.

“Whatever Riona said or did, Mirek, you have to forgive her. My sister has many blocks inside her, just as I did when I first arrived. Give her time. She doesn’t know everything you have done. She doesn’t know what you’ve been through for her.” Aeron gave a long sigh and touched her stomach. “Your nephew does like to kick me.”

Mirek automatically reached to feel the baby. A tiny thump resounded against his hand and he smiled. “
He is strong.”

“
What did she say to you?”

“
She thought I was someone named Range.” He hoped Aeron would fill him in.

“
Range? I almost forgot about him. She has been asleep a long time, hasn’t she?” At his expectant look, Aeron added, “I’m sure she’ll tell you about it. I honestly don’t know much about her life.”

Mirek didn
’t press the issue as he opened the door to his home.

“
Ri?” Aeron called, hurrying past him to see her sister. She came to a sudden stop. “Mirek, help!”

Mirek ran toward the isolation chamber.
Riona had passed out on the floor. He shifted partially, detecting her heartbeat and breathing. “She lives. She was standing and glaring at me when I came for you.”

“
Stupid woman,” Aeron scolded, more to herself, as Mirek lifted Riona from the ground. “It looks like she pulled her medical tubes out. At least her skin looks much better and she doesn’t scream when you touch her. Lay her down. Let’s heal the wounds and I’ll get her cleaned up. If the machine medically clears her we’ll move her to your bed.”

Mirek said nothing, merely obeyed.

A dream. It was all a dream.

Riona
gasped as she struggled to sit up on the bed. She breathed heavily, feeling her sides and back for tubes and needles. Satisfied that all was well, she gave a small laugh of relief. It was all a horrible dream.

The laugh faded. Then w
here was she? The dark room gave hints in its shadows, but she didn’t recognize her surroundings. Galaxy Brides’ ship? No. This room was too large, even for a luxury craft.

When she tried to stand, she flinched in pain. Riona
held her sore side. Now upright, her weak muscles protested, but she refused to lie back down.

It wasn
’t a dream. This was reality.

Following a tiny thread of light, she found herself in a large wardrobe. Clothes were neatly stacked on shelves
and hung from hooks along one side of the wall. Boots lined a special rack. A large trunk rested in the corner. The costumes seemed a strange blend of alien cultures and did not belong together in one collection. A stack of tunic shirts hardly matched the Azoomian man-dress or the Frer short coat.

On
the other side of the closet, the strappy Qurilixen bridal gown hung next to several dresses. She wasn’t really a dress kind of girl, but the long male tunics were too big for her and would look like dresses if she took one of those instead. Finding a green gown with the least amount of frills and material, she then slipped it over her naked body. It was a perfect fit, even if it was floor length and looked better suited to a nunnery compound. Perhaps that was for the best. It hid the worst of her splotches. Then she eyed the male pants. Riona pulled the dress off and dropped it on the floor. So the pants were a little too big, but the loose fit was easily fixed as she wrapped the attached belt straps around her waist a couple of times. The Frer short coat worked as a shirt. It was a large square of dark green and purple swirls. She slipped it over her arms before buttoning the sides from hip to armpit. The boots on the rack next to the gowns felt as if they’d been made for her feet. She tucked the end of the baggy white pants into them to keep the hems from dragging on the floor.

Riona didn
’t care what she looked like at the moment. It wasn’t like she was trying to win any fashionship shows. In truth, if she could keep her body upright, she’d call that a crowning win.

She limped toward the
bedroom only to stop and guiltily stumble back to pick up the dress she’d dropped on the floor. Riona placed the gown on the rack where she’d found it.

Seeing a knob
on the wall, she turned it. Movement overhead let more light into the bedroom. Riona noted that only one side of the giant bed had been slept in. She’d been alone. A brief wave of relief washed over her. She didn’t get the rapist vibe off her would-be husband, actually far from it, so she was relatively certain her biological clock had not started its fatal countdown. Whatever was wrong with her, she would live through it.

Her body ached
, but she ignored it. She searched her mind, but the details of what had happened to her weren’t there. She remembered crazy, half-naked dragon man trying to marry her. She remembered cutting herself. There was a queen and smiling people and then…

“
Aeron,” Riona whispered. She closed her eyes, concentrating. One of the dragons had claimed her sister. On stage, they had called the man something? A something duke. The duke was taking her sister to a home in the mountains. She opened her eyes, setting her purpose. “I have to find a duke in the mountains.”

It wasn
’t much of a plan, but it was all she had.

R
iona might not be the best sister in all the known universes, might not see her sibling for years at a time, might not even know how to talk to Aeron without baiting the woman into a fight, but Riona loved her sister. In the end, Aeron was the only family she had. Normally, her sister was safe on a floating Federation base. No one would dare attack a Federation ship, and not many people would have reason to attack a boring ship full of civilian-contracted analysts. Aeron should have just called her to deal with this. Riona was better equipped to handle tough situations. She liked the idea of Aeron tucked away and protected. Federation ships were the safest places to be.

A pain ran up her right leg with every step, but she ignored it.
Stairs led down to the lavish home she’d seen through the isolation chamber’s door. At the time, she’d been too scared and weak to really look at it. The mausolean stone walls and floor would have made the room uncomfortable if not for the touches of fur rugs and oversized wooden furniture. A giant dragon standard stared down at her, the embroidered eyes seeming to follow her as she made her way slowly into the spacious room. The isolation chamber door was closed but the privacy shield wasn’t activated. She saw a woman on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor where Riona had bled on it.

Not wanting to be
detected, she slipped as quietly and quickly as she could out of the woman’s line of sight. Instinctively, she went to the large wood door. Its carved panels set it apart from others in the home. As she neared, she glanced behind to make sure the servant didn’t come out of the room before lifting her hand to where scanners were usually placed. She swept her fingers along the door frame. It slid open, letting her out. Riona peeked into a stone corridor. Seeing it was empty, she didn’t hesitate as she left the dragon man’s home.

She
half-expected someone to stop her as she hobbled as fast as she could through the twists and turns of the hallway. She kept a steady course, not turning down the side corridors unless she had to. If she became lost, she needed to find her way back to the start again. Tears threatened the longer she walked, but she limped on.

“
Aeron,” she whispered. “I have to find Aeron.”

* * *

“Alien!”

“
Kill it, Trant, kill it!”

“
Slay the creature. It wants our mines!”

Mirek suppressed a smile as the
childish shouts and cheers resonated from outside. Being from Mining Village, the boys were well aware of the now-legendary fight between the invading Tyoe alien and Lady Clara. The woman had been trapped in the mines for days with her husband, Vlad. In that time, Clara had scared off the alien invader, saved the miners with them and became an instant heroine of the mines. Thinking of the very prim and proper lady speaking to her stoic parents, Mirek had to laugh.

Cenek, local caretaker to the ceffyl herd, had let the boys camp in the stables with one of the beasts who
’d lost her baby around the time of the Breeding Festival. Since then, the beast had adopted them as replacement babies. This became a badge of honor when the boys discovered the heroine of the mines had a unique connection to and could communicate with the ceffyls. Unwilling to give up such a distinction, they made a point of coming back to the fortress home often to secure their place as adopted beasts. Their shouts had become a constant backdrop to the home. He quite enjoyed the noise.

Mirek turned the corner, intent on going home to check on his bride. He
found it difficult to concentrate when he knew she had finally awoken from her coma. Well, briefly anyway. At least now she slept in their bed and no longer required the isolation chamber.

There was a lot he wanted to know, about her, from her…
like why his wife had tried to negotiate with someone named Range by promising to use him and his
primitive
planet for their ore. The thought caused him to frown.

“
Ah,” a female screamed, “Stop!”

Mirek
paused. There were no female children here. Instantly, he sprang into action, shifting on instinct to join whatever was happening outside his home.

“
She’ll suck you into her stomach, Trant,” a boy warned. “That’s what they do. She’ll wrap her skin suit around you and suffocate you.”

“
Throw it!” another yelled.

“
Throw it, Trant!” a young voice added. “Before it kills you!”

“
Throw it! Throw it!” the chanting started.

Mirek
ran out of the fortress. The boys had gathered before the front opening carved into the mountain’s base. He smelled their aggression tinged with panic. Trant, one of the oldest, rushed forward in his shifted form and hefted a large stone to Mirek’s right.

“
They’re our mines,” one boy shouted.

“
We’re not scared of you, Tyoe,” another added.

The female screamed and he turned just in time to see the stone
thunk
Riona on the side of her head. The boys cheered in excitement at their bravery.

“
Riona!” Mirek growled, the word barely discernible in his dragon’s voice. The boys instantly silenced. He darted forward to catch his wife as she fell. Blood ran over her temple. Her eyelids fluttered briefly before closing.

“
No. What did you do?”

“
My lord?” one of the boys asked, the sound soft and timid. “Did we get it?”

Mirek cradled
Riona to his chest. In the brighter daylight, her skin took on a sickly green color with patches of ugly red. The blisters had lessened but the tiny bumps still marred half her face and neck, her hands and arms. Her hair had dried as she’d slept and now stood on end. Her physical appearance, coupled with the fact she wore a kind of alien garb the boys would never have had the occasion to see, made their mistake understandable.

“
We finished off the alien, didn’t we?” another added. “She was attacking the fortress. We saw her wounded from battle within. Do you need us to fight, my lord? We are ready to defend your family.”

Mirek tried to relax. The boys
’ words would have been endearing if not for the fact they just tried to kill his wife. He concentrated on Riona. She breathed. Her skin was warm.

“
What is the commotion?” Cenek came from inside the ceffyl stables. His voice naturally gruff, he scolded, “I thought you were going to help me.”

“
Cenek,” Mirek let his body shift back to human form. He cradled Riona.

“
What happened?” Cenek advanced through the now-worried boys.

“
We thought she was an alien attacking. We know the ships come in here,” Trant answered. “We’re defending our homes.”

“
Trant threw it, not us,” a young boy tattled.

“
Quiet,” Trant warned, balling his fists. “You told me to because you were too scared to do it yourself, coward.”

“
Cenek,” Mirek repeated, louder.

The man nodded in understanding and corralled the boys toward the stables.
“Stop playing around and get your chores done. If I see one ceffyl in need of a meal, I’m feeding the laziest boy to her.”

Hug
ging his wife to his chest, Mirek rushed to bring her inside. Under his breath, he whispered, “Your pains should be mine. I am the one who disobeyed the gods, not you. I don’t understand why they have not accepted my atonement.”

Her eye
lids fluttered and she looked at him. He held his breath, hoping beyond anything that she’d say she forgave him. She made a weak noise and closed her eyes, whispering, “Aer in the mountains.”

“
Air in the mountains?” he questioned. “M’lady? I don’t know what that means.”

She h
ad again lost consciousness.

Mirek brought her to the isolation chamber and laid her down. A servant had cle
aned the blood from the floor and as a result the room smelled heavily of soap. Instantly, the medical unit turned on and began scanning her. He stepped back, watching the dance of green lasers against her forehead as the examination took place.

“
Air in the mountains?” He shook his head. Was it a message from the gods? Was that how to keep her safe? And if the gods were giving him a clue, what in galaxy did it mean?

“
Mountains,” she mumbled the second the lasers finished their initial exam. Two metal plates slid up beside her head to fix the injury. He saw a blue light flash and had to close his eyes to the brightness of it.

“
As you wish, my lady. We will find air in the mountains.”

Her body seemed to visibly relax at the assurance.

Whatever that means,
he thought, resuming his normal place seated on the floor against the hard wall.

* * *

Riona jerked violently as she came to full consciousness. Her head hit a medical panel. “Ow, blasted!” She lifted her hands to automatically cup her forehead and she banged her wrist onto the opposite side of the head panel.

“
Easy, my lady.”

Riona recognized the
soothing voice. “What are you doing to me, dragon man?” The panel slid open, letting her see.