“Urazi!” She tossed him the knife.
He caught it by the hilt and circled the fiercest Alpha of Parseon. Anika scanned the room for the first dagger. She spotted it near the wall at the same time the beta did. He dove for it. Anika tackled him, and they both went down.
Metal clanged against metal, but, wrestling with her opponent, Anika could not help Urazi battle Qalin. The beta outweighed her, but she’d learned about leverage in her guerilla training and turned his weight against him. She caught him in a choke hold, pinching arteries to cut circulation to his brain. His body went limp as he passed out. Anika turned her attention back to the duel.
Qalin’s torso bore several oozing slashes, but Urazi’s chest and biceps ran scarlet, the blood pouring over his hands so that Anika could hardly discern where the knife hilt ended and Urazi’s hand began. Locked in combat, the warriors lunged and feinted. She watched as Qalin danced Urazi into a corner.
His back against solid stone, Urazi was trapped.
She had to help him! Anika snatched up the knife.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The chamber shook under a percussive reverberation, and Anika slipped in blood and fell to her knees as a startled Qalin faltered. Undistracted, Urazi dove forward and sliced Qalin’s throat from ear to ear. Blood sprayed. Qalin jerked, his eyes bulging.
Gurgling, Qalin raised his dagger—and toppled into a heap.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Anika stumbled again. “What’s happening?” she cried.
“I do not know!” Urazi shouted. “Come on. Let us get out of here.”
Perce burst into the chamber yelling, “Run! The domicile may collapse.” He faltered then, his face paling at the sight at his sire’s body.
Boom!
The massive stone walls shuddered. A shower of fine rubble rained upon their heads. “Hurry!” Perce regained his focus and motioned for them to follow.
“What about the guards outside?” Anika asked.
“They ran when the domicile began to shake,” Perce said. “It is chaos. I’ll show you a secret passage out. Follow me.” He darted into the anteroom.
Anika shoved her dagger into the sheath.
Boom! Boom!
“Hurry!” Urazi grabbed her hand, and they turned to run.
“Halt!” came the harsh command from behind them.
An alpha guard stood there, accompanied by the beta who had run from the room during the attack. He hadn’t fled, she realized—he’d gone for help. The guard took in Qalin’s body and a bloodied Urazi who still clutched the dagger. “You killed Commander Qalin!” He raised his lasered weapon.
No! We came so close!
Anika froze, her gaze glued to the LPD.
He is going to kill us.
A red dot wavered between the guard’s eyes. He slumped to the floor. Hands shaking, the beta with the battered nose clutched an LPD.
“What have you done?” cried the other beta. He lunged for the fallen guard’s weapon. A dot bounced above his left ear, and he collapsed.
The beta lowered the weapon and grimaced.
Anika gawked.
“Go now.” He motioned. “I will explain how an assassin beat me and knocked me out. When I awakened, I found Commander Qalin and the others…murdered.”
He handed the LPD to Urazi. “Take this. You may need it.”
“Thank you.” Urazi secured the bloody knife, took the LPD, and grabbed the guard’s too. He slipped one LPD into the band of his uniform pants and held onto the other.
“Your bravery honors Parseon,” the beta said. “You have done the world a favor.”
Another explosive reverberation shook the walls, and Anika ducked.
What is happening?
Urazi grabbed her hand, and they sprinted into the anteroom. Perce ran toward them. “I thought you were behind me. I got halfway down the corridor when I realized you were gone.”
“We got waylaid, but we shall talk about it later. Let us get out of here,” Urazi said.
They’d taken two steps toward the exit when the door from the corridor burst open. Guards poured into the room.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Surrender! Throw down your weapons!” a guard shouted.
Perce and Urazi tossed aside their LPDs, while Anika unbuckled her dagger sheath and let it fall. They were surrounded by a circle of armed alphas. She’d never seen so many LPDs.
“On the floor!” the guard commanded.
Anika eased down, but froze when she spotted the insignia emblazoned across the chest of his winter uniform. Five stars. Fifth Province. “You are—”
“Now!” The lead guard screamed.
“Anika, do it!” Urazi yelled.
She dropped to the ground.
Three guards remained on watch while the leader and the rest swarmed into the next room.
Moments later, she got the shock of her life when Commander Dak, Alpha of Province Five, swept into the anteroom. Anika lifted her head. “Dak—Alpha?” she corrected herself but gaped. “You’re alive!” A ridiculous joy flooded her.
“Anika?” Dak blinked.
“
What are you doing here?
Monto!
What happened to your face?” He blinked. “And why are you dressed as a male?” He did another double take. “Urazi? Is that you?”
The lead guard reentered. “All secure, Commander. Alpha Qalin is dead.”
“Excellent.” His tone changed to brusqueness as Dak returned to command mode.
“He was already dead when we arrived.”
Dak acknowledged the information with a nod. “Proceed with the operation. Locate Qalin’s son.”
Anika exchanged a nervous glance with Urazi. Perce raised his head from the floor. “I am Perce…son of Qalin.”
The guard leader unsnapped a gene analyzer from his belt and scanned Perce. “He is.”
“Take him into custody for interrogation.”
The guard leader yanked Perce upright and attached restraints to his wrists.
“No!” Anika cried, leaping to her feet. “He didn’t do anything.”
Another guard charged forward to grab her, but Dak halted him by raising his palm, then gestured for Urazi to stand.
“She is correct.” Urazi said. “Perce has supported the alliance of Alphas Dak, Marlix, and Ilian.”
The guard shoved Perce toward the exit.
“This is not fair!” Anika looked to Dak.
“It is all right. It is procedure. I understand,” Perce said, before the guard led him away.
Dak addressed Anika. “He will be treated in accordance with New Protocol, questioned, and if his explanation pans out, released. That
you
vouch for him works in his favor.”
New Protocol? Anika frowned, intending to ask about that, but then something else Dak had said dawned.
That
you
vouch for him works in his favor
. A female could not vouch for a male because she had no status. But Dak would permit her to corroborate Perce’s account. What did this mean?
A hope she’d never dared to reach for glowed within.
Dak trained his attention on Urazi. Anika saw him taken in his bloodied state and the single-star nipple insignia. “You have pledged your allegiance to Qalin?” His face darkened. “You would betray your Alpha, to whom you were once anointed? Guards, arrest this traitor.”
They converged on Urazi.
Urazi held his head high. “I did not betray Alpha Marlix.”
“He is innocent!” Anika cried. How could this be happening? Dak had to believe her. “Urazi killed Qalin.”
“
You
killed Qalin?” Dak fixed his gaze on Urazi.
Urazi presented his hands, palms up. “I spilled the blood of Qalin. That is why we are here. We infiltrated the Alpha’s province and domicile to assassinate Qalin.”
“By whose orders?”
“No orders. By our honor as citizens of Parseon.”
A guard ran the scanner over Urazi. “The blood is his—and Alpha Qalin’s.”
“I would never betray Alpha Marlix—or the alliance.” Perhaps Urazi’s unflinching, resolute stare convinced Dak, or maybe it was his bloodstained, slashed uniform and battered state, but the tension drained from the Alpha.
“Get a med team for him—and for her,” he snapped at one of the guards.
“Immediately, Commander.”
Dak turned to Urazi and Anika. “I do not minimize your courage, nor deny your victory, but you had to know the odds were against you. Why would you have undertaken something so risky?”
“We had heard your province had fallen to Qalin,” Urazi explained.
“And you had died,” Anika added. “Qalin had proclaimed himself Alpha of Parseon,”
“Did he now.” Dak glowered at the news. “Qalin’s forces did attack a section of my province and my domicile. We led him to believe he had succeeded in ousting me to cover our plans for invasion. Marlix secured Artom’s province this morning. Artom was arrested and will be tried for crimes against Parseon.”
“So Omra is safe?” Anika asked.
“She, Miri, and Berik were relocated to a secure location long before Qalin’s forces struck,” Dak said.
The war had ended. Right had won. Anika could have shouted for joy if not for the other matter hanging over her head. Perhaps, with order and security restored, Marlix could be reasoned with.
“And…Alpha Marlix? He is well?” Anika fidgeted. Her sibling could be so stubborn!
“He is. Although he has been
concerned
about both of you.”
Concerned, worried? Or concerned, angry? Marlix’s rationale for sending her to Ilian was because she’d been targeted by Qalin and only another Alpha could protect her. But with Qalin dead, and peace restored, his reasons did not hold.
But obstinacy would. Marlix would not tolerate having his will thwarted.
“He will be very relieved, I am sure,” Dak continued. “He has had his hands full with the war and his first child.”
“The baby has been born?”
“That is what I heard.”
Anika was happy for Marlix and Tara, but with a new son in the household, the slim chance Marlix would relent dwindled further. Though he had been generous in sheltering her after Jergan’s death, with a son to raise and train, he would want to divest himself of his responsibility for her as quickly as possible.
“That is wonderful news,” she said glumly.
Dak frowned, but the med tech arrived with his case, and a bustle of activity ensued. She and Urazi were separated and their injuries treated. Though the worst of the burning had attenuated due to Perce’s quick action, she’d been suffering some residual pain.
Within moments after the tech injected her with some substance, all discomfort disappeared. He handed her a reflective glass. To her astonishment, the blistery red scars were fading already.
“You are fortunate a neutralizer had been applied so soon,” the tech said. “Otherwise I might not have been able to reverse the damage. The scars should disappear completely.”
“How long will it take?”
“About a week. Unless you decide to wrestle another Veronian.” He amended his prognosis with a wry twist to his mouth.
She recoiled. “I do not ever want to meet a Veronian again.”
Following treatment, she reunited with Urazi, whose wounds had been healed, too. If not for his slashed, bloodstained shirt, one might never have known he’d been injured. He caught her chin in his hand and gently turned her head from side to side. “Your scars—they are disappearing.” He expelled a long sigh and released her.
His relief stung. Beauty had little purpose, so why it should matter that he’d been displeased by her scars, she could not say. Only it did. “No, you would not want me to be ugly,” she agreed in a small voice.
“You would never be ugly to me.” He shook his head. “Your other burns are better, too?”
“Yes.” The blisters and scars on her arms and chest were fading as fast as the ones on her face.
“Come here then.” He enveloped her in a hard, tight hug. Anika snuggled into it as if she could burrow inside him, and he responded with a squeeze. For a long moment, they held each other.
“Have you heard anything of Perce?” she asked.
“Yes. He has been cleared of all allegations. Commander Dak has related Perce will remain as interim Commander until a new Alpha can be voted in. He implied there will be a new procedure for choosing Alphas in the future.
“Other than the High Council?” she lifted her head from his chest and frowned. “How else would they do it?”
“He said something about provincial citizens voting for their next commander.”
Anika gaped at him. “What do the people know about who would be suitable?” How could they be trusted with such import? Would they not be tempted to further their individual aspirations rather than do what was right for Parseon? How would they ever agree on who to choose? She could envision acrimonious disagreements between factions who favored a different Alpha. Would one group accept the results if the other side won or would bloodshed ensue?
“It sounds problematic,” she said. But if
she
could vote, she would pick somebody kind. An Alpha of courage and compassion. One who cared more about the welfare of the citizens than power or personal wealth. Maybe one who did not adhere so rigidly to the established social caste, who allowed for betas like Urazi to strive for and attain alpha status. Who believed
females
had worth beyond breeding.
“Well, it is Dak’s problem,” Urazi said. “And Marlix’s and Ilian’s. They are what remain of the High Council, and they will draft the changes. It will take many, many years for Parseon to transform, but the progeny of the future will know a different Parseon.”
His chest rose and fell on a satisfied sigh. “We did our part. I do not doubt the alliance’s invasion would have toppled Qalin, but
we
did it, Anika. We did it!”
“
You
did it. You killed Qalin. You are a warrior.” She was proud of him. Urazi had defeated the most notorious Alpha of Parseon!
“
We
acted together. I don’t think I could have won if the beta had attacked me, too. You are a
warrioress
.”
Anika smiled, warmed by his praise.
Warrioress
. She tasted the word on her tongue.
Warrioress
.
“And let us not forget you killed the Veronian, too,” Urazi said.