Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary (8 page)

“
We have to
take public transport,” he said over the noise of the
market.

That didn’t sound so
bad.

“
I can only
afford cargo class. We might be lucky.”

Her face fell. That did
sound bad. Cargo class on a freighter out of this place was likely
to be an experience that she would never forget. It would round off
this nightmare perfectly. But she knew that Kosen would protect
her. He had been protecting her since they had first met and
something told her that nothing would change that now. Or would it?
Was he really going to stay with her after she had bought his
sisters back for him? Or was he using her as a means to an end? By
rescuing her, not only was he clearing his conscience a little, but
he was gaining his sisters freedom. Would he leave her?

She pushed her dark
thoughts away and clung to Kosen’s hand. Her heart said to never
let it go. She didn’t want to let him go. He looked at her out of
the corner of her eye and she managed a smile. Now wasn’t the time
for such melancholy thoughts. They hadn’t escaped yet.

“
I can live
with that. Where is the port?” She felt stupid for asking when he
pointed straight ahead of them and she saw the end of the
market.

The dome that covered the
port was clear and she could see the stars. They were all wrong.
She couldn’t tell where they were. Kosen would know.

“
What ship are
we getting?”

“
One to
Minervan space.” The tone of his voice said that it wasn’t up for
discussion. The Minerva system was a long way from Lyra. She would
rather they were going in the direction of her home system, but she
wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with him. After all, he had
risked his life to save her and it was his money paying the
fare.

Miali huddled close to him
as they entered the busy port. He went straight for the desk with
Minerva as a destination above it, not slowing down even when he
reached it. He pushed past everyone in the line and flashed a
charming smile at the Minervan female behind the desk. A flare of
jealously exploded inside Miali and she stepped up to stand beside
him so the female would see that he wasn’t alone. Miali didn’t pay
attention to the conversation that happened between them. For some
reason, she couldn’t stop looking at Kosen.

He seemed so different
from the man that she had first met but at the same time, he seemed
unchanged. He was so confident and in control. He had risked his
life to set her free, had killed a man in order to do so, and there
wasn’t a hint of fear about him.

He was so
strong.

Her heart skipped a beat
and pounded hard when Kosen’s gaze slid to meet hers. He handed the
female some money and took the boarding papers from her. Without so
much as a backward glance at the Minervan female, he walked away,
taking Miali with him, his eyes not leaving hers.

“
Dock eight.
The ship there is heading for Minerva Prime but will stop at
Minerva Eleven.”

She realised what was
happening. He was trying to get to his sisters on Minerva
Seven.

“
We have to
run,” he said and she barely had time to grab her blanket to stop
it slipping off her before they were running towards the gates that
led to the docks.

His pace was too fast but
she did her best to keep up. By the time they reached the enormous
black vessel, she was out of breath. She followed him onto it,
ducking through the closing doors. He slowed to a walk as they
passed through the corridors and into the cargo class area. They
walked through it, past rooms packed with groups of unsavoury
characters, and then finally entered one of the rooms. Females,
children and the occasional family occupied this one. It was dirty,
packed and smelt worse than the market had but it seemed a lot
safer than the previous ones.

“
This will have
to do. It’s better than I thought we’d get,” Kosen said.

The ship jerked into the
air. The thrusters kicked in and the entire ship shook with the
force of them as they headed upwards. Kosen held on to her, his arm
wrapping around her shoulders and steadying her. Being in his arms
felt wonderful, soothing and warming. He walked her across the room
and she saw the small compartment they were heading towards. The
ship rocked and Kosen’s grip on her tightened. He smiled at her
when she looked up at him and then stepped into the dimly lit
compartment.

Miali collapsed onto a
hard seat by what would be a window when the ship had made it out
of the atmosphere and they lowered the blast shields.

She looked at Kosen when
he drew a small curtain across their compartment and sat down
opposite her. Cargo class didn’t seem so bad and they were heading
away from that hellish market port and her captors.

Her heart rate began to
slow at last, she huddled up in the corner, staring at her knees,
and wondering what would happen now. They had escaped the market
but that didn’t mean that no one had spotted them or the ship that
had brought them here wasn’t following them. Those men wouldn’t let
her go so easily. She needed to get word to her father. She was
sure that he would be looking for her, just as the men would
be.

“
Are you
alright?” Kosen said and, when she looked up at him, he moved and
came to sit beside her.

She closed her eyes and
leaned her head against his neck as he placed his arm around her.
Now that she was away from the market and those men, it was all
sinking in horribly fast. She couldn’t speak, didn’t know what to
say. She curled up against Kosen, hoping that it was over
now.

Hoping they were
free.

****

Chapter
7

Kosen stretched in the
cramped compartment and frowned as he slowly came around from a
nightmare-filled sleep. His eyes shot wide, sleep driven from him
when he saw that Miali wasn’t with him. He rushed to his feet and
opened the curtain. Relief flooded him when he saw Miali crouching
with some children in a small open area near their compartment,
playing a game that he recognised from his youth. She didn’t seem
to care that the children she was playing with were
Minervan.

She didn’t seem to care
that he was Minervan.

She didn’t seem to care
about the things that he had done.

He watched her playing,
studying the graceful way that she moved. She seemed so out of
place in this area of the ship, but at home at the same time. The
dull grey expansive room was packed with Minervans and the
occasional other species. It was clearly a ship that had passed
through the port rather than originated at it. He couldn’t imagine
that most of the passengers here had come from the port or anywhere
near it.

Miali looked up and smiled
at him before going back to playing with the children, moving the
black pebbles around on the green and blue diamonds on the board.
The children laughed at her mistake. Kosen leaned against the
doorway of their compartment, smiling as he watched her
intentionally lose.

“
Miali.” Kosen
tilted his chin up when he said her name.

She said something to the
children and then placed a little girl in her position at the board
and came over to him. It was strange to see her like this after he
had only known her as a captive. He hadn’t imagined that she would
be so friendly to Minervans, or that she was so amiable. It made
her even more beautiful.

It was little wonder that
she was an ambassador. She certainly had a knack for convincing
people to do the right thing and get along, and she had an amazing
capacity for forgiveness. He didn’t deserve such forgiveness. He
didn’t deserve her.

“
I was bored,”
she said with a small shy smile, as though confessing she had done
something bad. “You were sleeping and I saw no harm in
it.”

“
They seem to
like you,” he said and nodded towards the children. She looked over
at them with a fond smile, watching them play. His gaze remained on
her, drinking in her beauty and the warmth that she
radiated.

“
They were
teaching me the finer points of cheating at Loretsil. I don’t think
I have the art but perhaps I’ll beat my brothers next time we
play.”

“
Brothers?” He
frowned at the mention of her family. He knew little about them,
only her name and that she was royalty.

Royalty.

She didn’t act at all as
he had imagined one would. She had no pretentions and airs. She
seemed happy to be amongst common people in the lowest possible
class on a public transport freighter.

“
Yes. They’re
both in the Lyran Imperial Army. It wasn’t to my taste so I became
an ambassador instead. I didn’t want danger and adventure like they
craved. I seemed to have found myself mixed up in it after all
though.” She sat back down and looked out of the round window at
the stars.

They were already halfway
to Minerva Eleven. They would need to contact her family soon to
have them rendezvous with them there so he could get the money to
save his sisters. He hated to ask her for it, hadn’t saved her
because of her promise to give him money, but he needed it. He had
to save his sisters. He would offer the man who owned them a price
that he couldn’t resist. He would set them free.

The ship shook and the
lights went out.

“
That wasn’t a
ship docking, was it?” Miali’s voice came out of the darkness and
she grabbed his arm, clinging to him.

“
No, it felt
like weapons fire.”

Blue flashing lights
punctuated the darkness and an alarm sounded, deafening him. He
looked down at Miali, seeing her in the split seconds when the
light was on. She looked frightened. The tight grip she had on his
arm confirmed her fear.

The room filled with the
clamour of voices and he grabbed Miali’s hand and dragged her in
the direction of them. It was hard to cross the room in the
darkness. The bursts of blue light did nothing to help him find his
way. Eventually he made it to the corridor. Everyone that had been
in the room with him and Miali now lined the windows of the
corridor. He looked out of the window nearest him and his heart
leapt into his throat.

“
Nostra,” he
said and stared at the small old fighter as it fired upon the
freighter again and dodged the return fire.

“
Cruskin,”
Miali muttered beside him and he seconded that thought.

This wasn’t
good.

Crew rushed past him,
armed to the teeth. Children screamed and clung to their mothers.
Kosen looked down to see one of the children that Miali had been
playing with wrapped around her legs. She bent over, the flashing
blue lights making her look as though she was moving strangely, and
picked the boy up. Kosen watched as she soothed him, speaking
Minervan with an expert tongue. He couldn’t understand how she
could be so calm. They were under attack and it was only a matter
of minutes before Nostra convinced the officers of the freighter to
allow them to board. Nostra had connections with the Minervan
military. He had probably already obtained permission from them to
board any Minervan vessel that he wanted.

The small fighter fired
again and Kosen grabbed Miali when she stumbled backwards. The
child in her arms shrieked and buried his face in her neck. Miali
whispered something to the boy and then smiled at him.

“
Are you
alright?” Kosen said, smoothing her flat hair. Her expression and
actions might not give away her fear, but her hair did.

She nodded and moved
closer to him as the fighter ship closed in.

Kosen drew his gun, ready
to fight to protect Miali. He wouldn’t let anything happen to
her.

There was a bright burst
of pale purple light similar to what happened when a ship went into
sub-space. When his vision came back, an enormous sleek top-class
fighter ship was overshadowing Nostra’s small fighter. Kosen didn’t
recognise it as Minervan. If anything, it looked Lyran.

His gaze shot to
Miali.

The blue emergency light
flashed again, highlighting her face.

She was
grinning.

“
Perfect timing
as always.”

Kosen looked back at the
huge fighter vessel.

“
You know
them?” he said, getting the impression that while he was sleeping,
she had been doing things other than playing with
children.

“
I might have
sent a message or two asking for assistance. You needed money after
all and I needed passage back to my home. So, I had my home come
here.”

Home. He looked at the
ship. For some reason, the thought of her returning home made him
feel queasy. He had expected to have at least a few more days with
her.

Two smaller fighter ships
detached from the large vessel that Miali had called home and
escorted Nostra’s fighter, guiding it to dock with the vessel. He
didn’t want to imagine what fate awaited Nostra and his crew
onboard the Lyran fighter. He was only glad that he had chosen a
better path for himself to follow, one that would take him away
from a world involving slaves.

The passenger freighter
slowed to a stop and the Lyran fighter drew alongside it, eclipsing
the view out of the window. It was massive. He had never seen an
attack vessel on such a grand scale.