Alien General's Bride: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (15 page)

“They did not come from the Elders. They came from him. And he is wrong.”

That gave Gawen pause, but Faren still hadn’t reacted, as if nothing of this was surprise to him. Diego had thought as much.

“Why did you not kill the human?” Gawen asked, instead. “I hear some crazy stories that she is…”

“My
gesha
, yes,” Diego said. “She will live.”

Isolde probably didn’t know how loud her sudden intake of breath sounded to a Brion’s keen hearing, but both the twins looked up at her direction. Diego watched them stare at her and knew which of the two would live.

“She could betray our secret to the GU,” Gawen said. “She must not be allowed to talk.”

“She does not know, but that is not important,” Diego replied. That was it. The moment he had to convince them, or at least one of them, or he would die and Isolde with him. He was grateful for the knowledge he had to make them believe the truth; it really did make matters much simpler. He spoke loudly, for all to hear. It was fair, after all, to give his warriors a chance to know what they might die for in the coming days.

“I believe the Elders intended for us to share Rhea, to maintain a strong presence there and over time let it fall out of memory that we had kept the rich harvest world from the Galactic Union. It was their policy we should be included in the Union in the first place, so I find it hard to believe they would jeopardize that.

“I also believe the senators have no such intention. When the order came to take out the first research team, I saw no danger in that. The work on the planet was not finished. But with the second attack, I no longer think the senators want us to share anything. Whether they want to sweep the world clean of everything before the GU arrives, or are planning to keep the world to ourselves after all, they are provoking a conflict that threatens all Brions.

“This last attack was too blatant already, fingers will be pointing at us no matter what we do, yet they do not rule out attacking the next team. They invite war. With the Gamma Quadrant starving and the Palians asking reinforcements of tertanium to rebuild the core of their main hydraulic reactor…

“If we are exposed hiding a world like Rhea, getting thrown out of the GU and left without their provisions is the best possible result. If we fight to
keep
Rhea or make another attempt to kill a team under the protection of the GU… they will start a war that will leave both sides worse than we were to begin with, but start it they will.

The Palians know the human is with me. If she does not reach her destination, how long do you think it would take the Council to make the connection? She has to go. Has to sell our lie. And we… we must deal with the traitors that would have the GU send us back to the dark days.”

He hoped Isolde didn’t understand his words. He would have to find a way to break the truth easily to her and make her understand the power that suddenly lay in her hands.

All eyes were trained on him – Gawen was fuming, Faren seemed thoughtful. He could not blame them as he was suggesting outright civil war. No doubt some of the generals would side with the senators. He didn’t have time to explain the truth to all of them. Some hated him enough not to listen either way. And Rhea was, unknown to the rest of the galaxy, the main source of their might. Fuel and materials for their space ships, food for the armies, a literal warehouse of supplies. Many would think it worth going to war with the Galactic Union, would call him a…

“Coward,” Gawen said at last.

Diego had expected that from him, hoped for better, but prepared for the likely.

„We are Brions!” the other general barked at him. “We don’t owe the rest of the galaxy anything! You would cower from the Palians…”

“I cower from no one,” Diego cut him through, his voice sliding over the other’s easily. The volume of his voice had not risen once – in fact, he seldom needed to yell anything, usually his presence was enough to guarantee silence, even if Gawen was out of the ordinary – but his tone was pure venom. Even Gawen had no reply to that, simply glowering at him. “Not the GU, nor the enemies within.”

The last made Gawen finally take a step forward. “Watch your words,
brother
. We are under orders to bring you to heel, or bring back your head.”

Brother meant traitor now.

“You are under orders from Eren. He does not speak for the Elders. I believe I do. They would not invite this war upon our head.”

“I fear no one!”

Fearless
, Diego thought in disgust.

“And you think I do?” he asked.

Gawen took it for a rhetorical question until the continuing silence in the arena suggested Diego and everyone else was expecting a reply. Faren had yet to speak his mind.

“I would not have thought it possible, before now,” Gawen growled. “When did you suddenly lose your spine? When your human
-gesha
stepped on your ship?”

You’re making this horribly easy for me
.

“Do you think I fear?” he repeated.

Even Gawen’s honor guard went tense at that, sensing this was no longer even a pretense
at  friendly
conversation between equals. Diego Grothan did not repeat himself to anyone.

Gawen glared. “I heard you alright,” he said then, calmer than he had been since arriving. “No, I do not think you do. I think you have simply gone soft. Senator Eren was right about you and right about the planet. Rhea is ours and it should stay so. No one else has business there. Let the others scrape by. I do not care for what the GU thinks. We are the mightiest of them!”

Diego was, to be honest, disappointed. The argument about keeping Rhea he had expected, it wasn’t all that uncommon. Many had protested, even daring to question the will of the Elders, when they’d decreed that Rhea had to be “discovered”. It was such a vast resource for them, to have it taken away meant substantial losses not all were ready to sacrifice. Gawen was bound to agree with
that
, yes, but the last boast…

“You disgrace your training, Gawen,” Diego said, pronouncing it Gawen-the-fool, setting the other general’s valor squares to dangerously bright pulsing. “You mistake being mightier one-on-one and being mightier than the entire Union. They will all rally against us. If we give them reason, they will do their very best to destroy us. Many have looked for this exact excuse, saying we cannot be trusted. We cannot give them that reason.”

“If all the galaxy were against us, I would still not betray what I am,” Gawen said. “I am a Brion. I stand for all of us.”

Diego stole a glance at Isolde. Then he slowly drew his spear. “So do I.”

Valor squares had many tricks built into them. Gawen’s often pulsed so bright in battle it was nearly impossible to see him. His own eyes had somehow been modified against that light. Diego went in half-blind.

In the back of his mind, he remembered training together with the twins, feeling proud of each other when they were given their commands. He didn’t know if they had ever been friends – perhaps that was too much to say about so broken individuals – but he couldn’t deny the regret in his heart that it had come to this. He thought of Isolde’s smile and the way it had sounded when she spoke his name.

Gawen caught his first blow on the edge of his handguard, using his momentum to push Diego back. He knew the outcome of the fight would depend largely on two things: the first was whether he’d manage to kill Gawen before he could reach for his guns, and the second was whose side Faren would take.

All Brions were as one. The twins were always spoken of as nearly the same, but Diego knew better. A lot connected Faren to him as well, the only thing they didn’t share was their blood. And behind his solid, cold façade, Diego hoped Faren would see his reasoning. Fighting two of the twins was suicide even by his standards, not that he would have backed away.

In the searing brightness, he could make out Gawen, poised to accept his next attack, gun aimed at him. He heard the shot so loudly, every sense heightened by the battle hormones in his veins, that he nearly went deaf for a moment. He could hear Isolde screaming his name.

Through the haze of the blinding light, he dashed forward, dodging Gawen’s shots with speed unmatched by any Brion. He had always been told the dark days spoke through him – either a compliment or a curse depending on who said it. One, two, three steps took him to Gawen, and then they were locked in close combat, Diego trying to block Gawen from shooting him point blank, and Gawen attempting not to give Diego room to cut his head clean from his shoulders.

For several long moments stretching like hours they fought each other off, escaping death by inches and heartbeats. One of the shots grazed Diego’s shoulder, and he heard Isolde scream again. The thought of her filled his heart, sharpening his focus instead of distracting him. If he had to kill both twins, he would. Fury surged forward, and he gave it full control.

He pushed Gawen back, slamming the butt of his spear in the other general’s face. The moment of pain that made Gawen wince was all he needed, the spear twisted around in his hands and cut through Gawen’s chest before Isolde’s scream had finished echoing in the great hall. Diego watched the surprise on Gawen’s face as his lifeless body slumped to the ground before his feet. His honor guard retrieved his body.

There would be a choosing, and likely his second-in-command would take his place, rising to be a general without having to defeat the previous one as per usual custom. He would not seek revenge; Gawen had been defeated in an honest fight.

Spear still in hand, Diego turned to Faren.

“I expected you to agree with me,” he said simply, without judgement.

Faren looked at him impassively, so much so as to appear eerie as they took his twin brother’s body. He spared it one equally emotionless look.

“I did,” Faren said, watching his brother’s corpse.

Diego nodded, accepting the very typical offer of help that in Faren’s case often took the form of simply not interfering.

Then Faren spoke the longest sentences Diego had heard from him in ages.

“I always hated the name of his ship. The
Fearless
. Not to fear anything is foolish enough, displaying it for all to see another.”

“Will you accompany me to Briolina?” Diego asked in response. “The Elders have to set this thing straight.”

Faren nodded, seemingly done with words for a while.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Isolde

Isolde paced in her room, trying to figure out why it hadn’t felt so constrictive before. Every step she took made it feel smaller and smaller.

Deliya and Narath had quickly escorted her back to her room when the bloodshed began, but since it happened so quickly – Brion fights never seemed to last long – Isolde had still seen everything. She scolded herself for actually believing Brion generals might talk it out, but no, Diego had just almost died for her. The shot had passed so close…

The mere thought sent cold spikes running down her spine, making her tear up even if she knew perfectly well that Diego was fine. He would come to her right after he had settled things with the
Fearless
, no doubt a bit touchy after the death of their commander. The other general, the scary one in Isolde’s mind, was back on his ship, which was silent like him.

She could barely think. On Terra, words were usually just words. But the Brions lived and breathed their beliefs. Diego had just killed a man for her sake and been nearly killed himself in the process. Deliya had said something about that on their hurried way back, about it never being really certain whose side Commander Faren was on, but since Diego trusted him, so would she.

And if Deliya, who seemed to think every word out of Diego’s mouth was pure gold, didn’t know if he was right about that one, then Isolde felt she was entitled to have been afraid for his life.

Funny how it made all the arguments in her mind go away, or suddenly seem petty and irrelevant. Every time Diego had entered her room, she had felt the kind of elevation he was talking about, but put it down more to a familiar face than anything else. In those brief seconds when she thought she’d lost him… it hadn’t even occurred to her to fear for her own life. She’d just kept screaming, unable to do anything else, anything useful at all.

Deliya said she’d screamed his name, but Isolde hardly remembered it. It seemed likely, though. All she had been able to think about was that she didn’t want to be without him, could no longer imagine her day without waiting for him to come and kiss her.

When her door beeped, it was the sweetest sound she had ever heard. Diego’s image flashed for a mere second when Isolde had already opened the door and was in his arms. She thought she could see the knowing smile on Deliya’s face as Diego stepped in with Isolde practically in his lap and the door closed behind him.

No words were needed. Terror did what no amount of lust or rationale had been able to – her hands, still shaking, caught the front of his shirt in her fists, kissing him frantically. For a moment, he seemed startled, then only pleasantly surprised. A satisfied hum escaped his lips, Isolde was sure no one else had ever heard that sound from him. He kissed her back, hands in her long hair, both of them not caring about the bothersome need to breathe.