Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) (31 page)

She lowered herself to the floor. The lush, red carpet was soft and deep, almost as though she were walking on a warm summer breeze. She was glad she had gotten the sensation back in her body along with the atomorphic tech. Not being able to feel things as a cyberbionic skeleton had been unnerving, and in a way, worse than being in the Chamber. She walked across the room to an absurdly over-stuffed lounge and stretched out upon it. The cages settled themselves in the middle of the room.

The lighting was subdued, which only added to the cavernous appearance. Along one of the walls looked to be several insets with restraints and strange looking devices set in them. Underneath them the floor was made of some sort of polished tile, with drains set beneath each inset.

“I’m in his personal quarters,” Rhylie whispered. One of the caged men looked in her direction, narrowing his eyes. One of his large ears twitched in her direction. He wrinkled his nose, sniffing the air.

“Good,” said Mersi. “It’ll be showtime soon I bet.” Rhylie waited patiently.

When the door finally slid open, Sothu was carried in on a floating lounge. Two royal guards followed him into the room, but he dismissed them with a command after they had performed a visual inspection of the room. The door slid shut behind them as they left, and Rhylie was alone with Sothu, other than the three people in the cages. She stood up and walked over to him, her footsteps silent on the lush carpet.

Sothu was morbidly obese judging by the few other Irinese she had seen. She couldn’t tell where his chins ended and his belly began. His soft, pale flesh looked almost as though it would split beneath the slightest touch, spilling its contents on the floor in a pile of mush and jelly. She wondered if he even had bones. His features seemed too small in his too fat face, his sagging jowls making his eyes look beadier than they actually were.

She stepped around his chair, between him and the cages, standing in front of him. She watched him examine them with his disgustingly hungry gaze. She decided that she’d had enough when he began sliding his lower right hand towards his crotch. She revealed herself in front of him.

“Did you miss me?” Rhylie asked coyly. Sothu’s piggy eyes grew wide as he shrieked with absolute horror. He struggled in his chair as though he were trying to stand up, but all four of his legs were as useless as she had suspected. Rhylie took a step towards him. “What was it you said? You’d break me in a heartbeat?” Her fingers grew into long slender blades. Sothu began squealing and struggling to get out of his seat, but the fat far outweighed his muscle. It looked as though he hadn’t gotten himself out of his chair in a very long time. All he managed to do was flail his four chubby arms around comically, squealing the entire time.

Sothu began sucking in air as though he were winded already. His eyes were panicked as he looked around, seeking help desperately, but there was none to be found. He tried to cry out for his guards, but his breathless lungs betrayed him and all that came out were tiny mouse-like squeaks and huge gasps for air.

He grabbed his chest with one of his hands as shock began spreading across his face, the shrieks becoming high pitched, hollow, whistling whines as he desperately toiled for air. His fat sausage fingers dug into his chest as though he were trying to rip something out from behind his sternum, and his other three arms flailed wildly. His legs continued to spasm uncontrollably beneath him as the shrieks eventually became gags, and foamy spittle began forming on his lips.

Rhylie stood there and watched him go through seizures and convulsions, his massive body and chins quaking as he struggled to breathe. His widened eyes eventually became dull and glazed, the spittle turned to a stream of slobbery drool that rolled down his chin. Was he faking? She wasn’t taking any chances.

Her finger blades formed into one, becoming a long, slender sword. She decapitated him and left his head sitting in his lap, staring open eyed at the ceiling, as though he were holding a puppy. The minute amount of blood told her that she really had watched him die.

The door opened and guards began rushing into the room to see what the commotion was, but she simply activated Isaar’s bracelet and cloaked herself.
Sora was wrong
, she thought.
There won’t be any needless deaths if I can help it
.

She took down the door to the warehouse with violent force and flew past the lone worker as he cowered behind some crates. As quickly as she could, she left the massive ring that encircled the galaxy’s biggest shit-hole far behind her.

“Well, that was absolutely pointless,” Rhylie said. “Sothu died before he could even say a word. A heart attack, I think. Or multiples of them. He was our only lead.”

“Well, you’re not going to believe this,” Mersi said. “Apparently Kraeke has been trying to track you down.”

“Isn’t everyone trying to find me?” asked Rhylie.

“Sort of,” said Mersi. “But he says he wants to beg your mercy. He wants to assist you.”

“Why would Kraeke want to help me?” Rhylie asked suspiciously.

“It’s not surprising actually. The Siirocian-Siddish feud is one of the oldest in the galaxy. It’s been going on and off since the two first contacted each other. They’re also some of the oldest races in the Galaxy. But all the master races are.”

“I guess it’s time to find out if Konii and Vorle still have the heart for this. See if you can get in contact with them, and send them to take him prisoner. Tell him that he will either submit, or I will kill him,” she said. “Make sure he’s clean. No tracking devices or communication devices. Not if he wants to live.”

“Okey doke,” said Mersi.

“I’ll be back on the ship in just a nano. We’ll talk more then.”

Once she was back aboard the ship, Rhylie found herself waiting once again, only this time it was for Vorle and Konii. When they finally returned, Kraeke was with them, wearing nothing but a simple suit they had provided to protect him from the vacuum of space.

“May I take a seat?” Kraeke asked, motioning to the table. Rhylie responded by nodding her head slowly, keeping her eyes focused intensely upon him. It would be so easy to just slam him down on the table and open him up. The thought of enjoying watching the life drain from his eyes unsettled her.
What have I become
? she thought. “I suppose since I have not been killed yet, that means you are contemplating accepting my plea for mercy?” He regarded her questioningly with those fish-like eyes. The visor and helmet protecting his head vanished into the collar of his uniform.

“It’s…being taken under consideration,” Rhylie said coldly. Kraeke frowned with an authentic look of concern on his face. Or as much as he could muster anyway with his wide, staring eyes.

“I suppose that’s the most I can ask for,” he said. “I will never be able to apologize for, or rectify, any of the things that Vorcia has done.” His shoulders slumped as though burdened. “But I can help you locate Riddai and Potaan. I offer their lives for mine.”

“Go on,” said Rhylie. She didn’t like traitors. She still had one somewhere close to her. But Potaan and Riddai could be one step closer to Vorcia.

“They’ve decided to combine their personal defensive forces and hide together. Vorcia has left them out to dry, and they are no longer supporting her Extinction Decree,” Kraeke said.

“Just like she did with you,” Rhylie responded. Kraeke gave her a strange smile.

“The only thing that would make Vorcia happier than my death is yours, dear,” he said. “If she could remove my people from the Master’s Council, she would rule unchecked. Sothu, Riddai, and Potaan would never stand in her way.”

“Sothu is dead,” Rhylie said. Kraeke’s eyes got even wider, which Rhylie didn’t think was possible. It took a moment for him to compose himself.

“I see. All the more hope for me since I remain alive,” he said. “Without his and Potaan and Riddai’s help, Vorcia has no choice but to withdraw her forces to Primiceps and see what your next move is. No doubt she’s laid an elaborate trap for you already, more like several, should you come for her first.”

“You remain alive only for the time being,” she answered. “Remember that.”

“When it comes down to it,” Kraeke said frankly. “Right now is all we’ll ever have.” He paused for a moment, looking down at the table. “For what it’s worth, the public voting record will show that I was the only one who voted against everything. Your imprisonment, the Extinction Decree, all of it. I opposed Vorcia as best as I could throughout, and I am truly sorry for all of your losses.” Rhylie frowned deeply, her brows knitting with frustration.

“And yet you let Vorcia’s propaganda feeds play across the galaxy,” she said venomously. “You were just as complicit and guilty as the rest of them in that aspect.” Kraeke pursed his lips together and nodded his head once before looking up at Rhylie. The long cluster of slender tendrils hanging from atop his head twitched softly at the tips, independently of one another.

“I could have said something, yes, but I had no proof,” he admitted. “I had no proof, you see, and Vorcia would have simply called me a liar and used it to launch a campaign to have me removed from the Master Council, under the implication that I did not have the galaxy’s best interests in mind. My people have served on the Master Council since its inception, and that is something that is greater than myself, something I can not jeopardize.”
He sure does like to hear himself speak
, she thought.
Must be a skill acquired on the job
.

“My homeworld destroyed…over half of my people died because of your politics and your precious seat on the Council? My parents…” she said as anger began to overtake her. “All of our homeworlds. Trillions and trillions of lives gone in an orchestrated strike.” She could feel her face flushing as her rage grew.

“Because of her,” implored Kraeke. “All because of her! She was the driving force behind it.” His forehead wrinkled with worry and the bubbles in the aquatube around his neck began to fizz at a heavier pace, and the tendrils atop his head began squirming slightly, as though there were a slow pulse going down his head. He seemed easily stressed.

“Why?” she asked. “What did humans ever do to her?”

“Nothing, really,” he said. “Other than draw her attention at the wrong time. The small branch that humans come from is an offshoot from the Siirocian arm of the galaxy. It serves as a buffer between their arm of the galaxy and ours.”

“I don’t understand,” she said slowly.

“Vorcia simply did not want to give control over your sub-arm of her territory to humans,” he said. “She didn’t want to lose that tactical advantage and considers it an insult on her honor as well. The Siirocians are also the oldest race in the galaxy, predating my own by several thousand years. They are fiercely proud of their heritage, and consider the entire galaxy to be theirs by right of destiny. Every small piece of territory that is lost to them is perceived as an insult to their heritage. To give over even such a small section of the Siirocian Empire to a young race like the humans was more indignity than she could tolerate.”

“I’m going to fucking kill her and parade her skin around as a victory flag,” Rhylie hissed. Kraeke’s eyes widened.

“You’ll get used to it,” Vorle said, laughing. She had never heard him laugh before. It was creepy, because his lips never moved, even though his shoulders shrugged. Rhylie had forgotten him and Konii were even there.

“Someone needs to stay here and watch him,” she said, trying to sound authoritative.

“I’m going with you,” they both said in unison, and then looked at each other. Rhylie closed her eyes and sighed with frustration.

“We can’t leave him here alone with Mersi, and we can’t take him with us.”

“We could lock him in…the empty room,” Konii said. Rhylie frowned. Konii was referring to Isaar’s room.

“No. Nobody goes in there. We haven’t even cleaned it up yet,” she said angrily. She wished he were here now. He would know what to do. Part of her wished she were dead with him. She sighed reluctantly. “I just need one of you to volunteer.”
I’m not as good at issuing orders as Isaar was
, she thought sadly.

“I have four very personal reasons for wanting to see Riddai again,” Vorle said in his husky, raspy voice. “I cannot beg you enough to allow me to accompany you. Please, do me this one favor, Rhylie, and I will give you my undying loyalty.”

“I will remain behind,” Konii offered, nodding her head almost reverently towards Vorle before Rhylie could respond. “I did not mean to offend.” Konii was strange, mostly silent. Rhylie hadn’t quite figured her out yet. Sometimes she wondered if Konii even understood or cared about what was going on around her, but then moments of clarity like that reminded Rhylie that she could be not only cognizant, but insightful as well.

“Thank you, Konii,” Vorle said. “This means a lot to me.” Konii gave him an odd smile. Rhylie didn’t know how to take the two of them, so she smiled back at them both awkwardly. It seemed like everything was settled well enough.

“Getting to them will not be easy,” said Kraeke. “No it won’t.”

“Good,” said Rhylie. “You’d better hope these coordinates are correct.”

“Trust me, you are the last person in the galaxy I want angry with me,” said Kraeke. “Especially now that I am here, at your mercy.” Rhylie looked over at Vorle.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked.

“You need one more thing to get inside,” said Kraeke. “And if I give it to you, I want your promise that I will not be harmed, and free to leave when I wish. Although I believe that staying here with you, underneath your protection is the safest place at the moment.”
He doesn’t know how wrong he is,
she thought bitterly. Still, he seemed as though his intentions were the least destructive of the Masters.

“Only after we’ve handled Riddai and Potaan,” Rhylie said coldly. “Will I guarantee your life.”

“Oh, I hope you do deal with them, I hope you do,” Kraeke said. “If you don’t, they may just turn on me.” Rhylie considered it for a moment.

“What is it that you have that I need now?” she asked.