Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary (4 page)

“
But you
said...”

His look soured. “Sasue
has been running slaves long enough to know how to get his pleasure
without tainting the goods.” He stared at the floor, as though he
couldn’t bring himself to look at her. “He’s sick. I don’t want
that to happen to...”

Miali frowned. To who? To
her? This man was confusing her more and more by the second.
Perhaps if she ate then he would leave her alone again. But then,
if he did that, the other man he had spoken of might come to see
her. What was stopping him from coming to this room?

“
If I eat, will
you leave?” she said.

He nodded.

“
If you
leave...” She bit her tongue to stop herself from saying it.
Shackled to the wall, she was vulnerable, and that frightened her.
If the man called Sasue came, she wouldn’t be able to stop him from
doing things to her.

“
I will lock
the door,” he said, as though he had read her mind. “Only the
captain can overrule my decision about keeping you locked
away.”

A moment of uncomfortable
silence stretched between them as she looked into his dark eyes. He
lowered his head again and stared at the protein pack.

“
You seem
different to him,” she said and found herself relaxing a little.
She watched his slender pale fingers as he played with the packet
of black goo. Either it fascinated him as much as her hair did or
he was avoiding looking at her.

She wished that she could
sense people’s feelings like her cousin Sophia could. That ability
would be handy right now.

“
This wasn’t my
profession of choice,” he whispered and squeezed the pack. All of
the liquid oozed up to one end. “I didn’t want this blood on my
hands.”

Unsure how to respond to
such a confession by a man who was her enemy, Miali stared at him
and remained silent. He turned the pack over and sighed when it
fell from his hands, hitting the metal floor with a thud. He stared
at his upturned palms, a frown creasing his brow.

His fingers curled into
tight fists and he leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his
knees.

When he looked up at her,
she could clearly read the pain in his eyes. It made her believe
every word that he had just said. He hadn’t wanted blood on his
hands. He gave a frustrated growl, scooped up the protein pack and
threw it against the wall as he stood.

She opened her mouth when
he stalked into the darkness, afraid that he might leave and forget
to lock the door. His company was preferable to being alone. When
she was alone, she kept thinking about that other man that he had
mentioned. When she was alone, she felt vulnerable, trapped and
unable to defend herself. She would rather he stayed so he could
protect her. He seemed a reasonable man and she had a strange
impression that he might care about what happened to
her.

Relief blossomed inside
her, as warm as the Lyran sun, when he reappeared out of the
darkness and walked up to her. Stopping close to her, he dragged a
hand over his spiked black hair.

He turned away and hung
his head.

“
Why am I
here?” he muttered under his breath.

Miali frowned at his back,
wishing that she could see his face.

Those words had held a
hint of frustration and self-loathing. She wanted to know if he
truly felt those feelings or whether this was some kind of
act.

She laughed internally at
herself. What benefit would there be to him acting this way? There
was no benefit to him being here at all that she could see. If he
wanted her to eat, then he could easily force her. He seemed to
want to be here with her and that thought made no sense at
all.

“
Why am I
here?” she echoed his question and he looked over his shoulder at
her.

“
Because you
are valuable.” He turned to face her, so close that she could feel
his breath wash over her skin when he talked. “Beautiful, young,
intelligent. You’re everything those sick terk’naks at the markets
desire.”

Terk’naks. She knew that
word. Her older brothers had taught her to swear in several
languages. There wasn’t an equivalent to this word in Lyran but she
understood the meaning enough to know that he didn’t approve of the
type of person who bought a slave.

“
If you loathe
them so much, why are you here sending people like me to a life of
torture at their hands?”

He frowned and his dark
eyes flashed with something akin to anger but it seemed stronger. A
moment of hesitation and then his fingers brushed her cheek. His
palm was warm against her skin, sending tingles dancing through her
each time they touched.

“
You are much
like them.” He swallowed and his eyebrows furrowed. “I’m sorry.
It’s you or them.”

Before she could ask what
he meant by that, he had walked out of the door. Her cheek felt
cold from the absence of his hand against it and her head ached as
she tried to make sense of everything he had said.

Some of it was perfectly
clear, but that last part she didn’t understand at all. Who was she
like? Why was it her or them?

How could a man who so
clearly hated the people who bought slaves, work in the slave
trade?

Miali stared at the door
and then looked up when the light began to dim, shrouding her in
darkness. Her heart rate increased as the black closed in on her,
sending waves of cold chills over her body.

Why was this happening to
her?

Was anybody going to come
and save her?

****

Chapter
4

Kosen punched the code
into the door and listened to the locks click into place. He leaned
one arm horizontally against the wall beside the door and pressed
his forehead against his forearm. His eyes closed. What was he
doing? His duty was to feed her and ensure her health remained
good. Feeding a captive and checking their health normally took him
no more than a few minutes. He didn’t normally care if they wanted
to eat or not. He made them eat.

What was so different
about her?

Why was he sitting in her
cell for hours watching her, studying her? Why did he go to sleep
in his quarters each night thinking of her?

She was
beautiful.

She reacted to
him.

But she was a
slave.

She was meat to be sold at
market, not a living thing. When he had started in this line of
work, he had promised himself that he would only ever see the
captives as that. He had spent years ridding himself of any glimmer
of feeling concerning the women that passed through his hands. Why
now? Why her? Why was she making him feel this way?

“
She getting to
you, Doc?” Sasue’s deep voice sent a shiver of disgust down Kosen’s
spine.

Kosen pushed away from the
wall and stared blankly at Sasue, taking in the twisted grin on his
ugly face and his patchy matted long black hair, sections of it
bald from the scars on his scalp. Sasue’s bulky frame blocked the
corridor. He pressed his hand against the door and stroked it as
though he was touching the female on the other side.

“
She got
spirit. I can help you with her, if you get what I mean.” Sasue
grinned to reveal long sharp teeth. “Let me in, Doc.”

Sasue’s enormous hand
flattened against the door.

“
No,” Kosen
said and went to walk away but Sasue grabbed his arm. Kosen looked
down at Sasue’s hand where it was wrapped around his slender
forearm, his fingers thick enough that he could probably snap the
bone if he wished. Kosen sighed and prised Sasue’s hand off him,
unafraid of the brutal Minervan. “I mean no, Sasue. No one touches
the captive. She’s too valuable.”

He walked away.

Sasue started banging on
the door, shouting lewd things at the female on the other side.
Kosen’s temperature rose to boiling point as he listened to the
vile diatribe. It was a struggle to stop himself from going back
and forcing Sasue to leave. When Sasue went into intimate detail
about the things he was going to do to the female once he had
broken the door down, she shrieked.

Kosen’s restraint
snapped.

He ran back up the
corridor, his hand going to the knife attached to the rear of his
belt. Sasue turned to look at him with a wide grin, as though he
was coming back to open the door. Kosen sprung at Sasue, grabbing
the collar of the large male’s flight suit, and brought his feet
up. He pressed them into Sasue’s chest and slammed him into the
metal grate floor of the corridor. His knife was against Sasue’s
throat before he could react.

Sasue’s grin
faded.

“
Leave,” Kosen
snarled, breathing deep to catch his breath.

Sasue glared at him. Kosen
pressed the knife into his throat until it nicked his pale flesh
and a bead of black blood lined the blade.

“
Leave,” Kosen
repeated and stood, stepping off Sasue.

Sasue picked himself up,
rubbed his throat and then licked the blood off his palm. For a
moment, Kosen thought that he would retaliate but then he turned
and walked away. Kosen exhaled sharply.

What was happening to
him?

He had never stopped Sasue
from uttering such disgusting vulgar words through the door at
captives before. He had never cared until now.

Kosen went back to the
door and checked that he was alone before punching in the code. The
door opened and the light slowly came on, illuminating the female.
She was beautiful. More beautiful than his sisters had been. Some
sick pervert would pay dearly for one as pretty as she
was.

The door closed behind him
and he locked it from the inside.

She was breathing fast,
her eyes wide with panic. She probably thought that he was Sasue.
He stepped out of the shadows, showing her that it was only him.
Her eyes widened further and she wriggled as she shook her head.
Following her gaze, he realised that she was staring at the knife
in his hand. Slowly, so he didn’t frighten her, he slid it back
into his belt.

“
I won’t hurt
you,” he said and sat down on the crate. Nostra would punish him
for attacking Sasue. Their captain didn’t tolerate fighting amongst
the crew.

“
That
shouting,” she said, her face so pale that her hair looked dark.
The silver strands were flat against her head. It had to be a sign
of her fear. When she was happy, when her feelings were positive,
her hair floated. It was fascinating.

“
Sasue,” he
muttered. “I won’t let him near you.”

Silence.

“
Did you come
back to make me eat?” she eventually said.

Kosen frowned at her. He
had forgotten that she hadn’t eaten yet. Feeding her was the last
thing on his mind right now.

Right now, he just wanted
to get his head straight. He needed to know what was different
about her and why he was acting this way after all these
years.

“
No,” he said
and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling, at the dot of light
shining down on her. “I have a question though.”

Did he really want to ask
her this? If he asked and she answered then there was no going
back. He would have overstepped the mark and broken the rules he
had laid down for himself when he had joined this venture. He had
to know though. He needed a name to go with her beautiful
face.

“
What do they
call you?”

At first, she frowned and
looked as though she wouldn’t answer. After long seconds of
silence, her frown disappeared and she sighed.

“
Miali.”

It brought a smile to his
lips. “Named after a princess, huh?”

And then he looked closer
at her, at the way she bit her lip and turned her head away, at how
beautiful she was and how silver her hair shone.

And it dawned on
him.

“
My mother
named me Kosen. Do you know what that means in
Minervan?”

She shook her head, still
looking away from him.

“
Seer of
truth.” He frowned and stood. “And I do. I saw the truth back at
the Varkan steel mines that worked men’s fingers to the bone and
tore families apart. I saw the truth the day my father made a small
fortune by selling my two younger sisters into slavery. I saw the
truth the day he left... and I can see the truth now.”

She looked at him, her
eyes enormous and full of fear.

“
Not named for
a princess.” Kosen stepped up to her and caught her cheek in his
palm, forcing her eyes to remain locked with his. “You are the
princess.”

He laughed at how cruel
fate was being with him and her. She would make the crew of this
ship a fortune, enough for each to live richly for the rest of
their days. Only no one here knew that she was a princess. The
contact hadn’t told them, which meant he couldn’t know either. She
had been offered to them as nothing more than a beautiful Lyran—a
specimen of perfection.

What they had received was
a death sentence.