Half an hour since Patrick raised the alarm came and went. With no sight of my daughter, busy servants were ordered to pause their duties and assist the frantic search. Paladins had scoured the private gardens but widened their search to the public grounds. Visiting labourers were directed to work with caution as a missing child might come to harm if she touched dangerous equipment, and advised against approaching Fergie unless she was in imminent peril. They were to contact the nearest Paladin and report on her location. I didn’t want her frightened, and my Verak husbands didn’t want stranger hands on their cub.
During the first hour, my worry plateaued at a manageable level. The palace bastion was immense; a multi-storey sprawl dug into the atoll mountainside. I decided Fergie had gone exploring and gotten lost or was absorbed in playing within a cubby out of sight. I wanted her found, but it was not as desperate a situation as when we’d crashed on the jungle planet.
She was just misplaced, not alone on a hostile alien world with no protector.
I ended up with Aled’s apartments with the man himself, calling for my daughter. I promised she wasn’t in trouble and prayed to whatever gods could hear that she truly wasn’t.
The room held traces of Aled’s natural, zesty scent. I moved from the seating area into the sleeping chamber, my rising panic levels briefly stalled, replaced by confusion. Aled’s scuffed boots were under Rowan’s dark brown leathers, their tunics crumpled together.
I stared blankly then noticed other personal belongings mingled in casual, careless harmony.
SonComs on each side table.
A half-drunken glass of water on one, matching pitcher on the other.
One set of pillows was stacked higher than the others; the other set angled as if the user had cuddled into the other person’s side, or lounged across their torso. Both sides of the bedding were dishevelled.
I smelled traces of Aled, but I realised I detected Rowan’s tangy peppermint odour blended in there too.
‘Oh,’ I breathed.
Becoming aware I loitered in the middle of the room instead of ransacking the place, Aled opened his mouth to ask what was wrong.
His gaze swung to follow the path of mine, and he closed his mouth. He blinked. His fingers scrabbled as if trying to pluck an explanation from the air, a waxy flush spreading under a face that had bled into a colourless mask. He snatched up the clothes bundle and stuffed them into a trunk at the base of the bed. He dragged the sheets up then grabbed the things scattered over the bedside table. He darted back and forth, working himself into a state as he had no place to hide them when my feet moved. I put a gentle hand on his heaving shoulders. When he didn’t shrug me off, I hugged his heavyset middle, laying my head on his broad back, waiting for him to be ready.
His chest depressed in one long exhalation. He slumped. He patted my folded hands resting on the slight paunch of his abdomen. ‘Cait was my world. She was.’
My heart throbbed. ‘I know.’
‘I wanted to go home after we buried her. Back to Wales.’ He turned around to face me. Redness rimmed his blue eyes. ‘But the clan shattered. I didn’t think any of us would survive the loss. Fergus retreated further into himself. Patrick was off on deployment. You were in secondary school, too young to bear the burden of grief for the whole family. Hell, most days, I feared a hard wind would carry Rowan off.’ He shut his eyes then rubbed them hard. ‘Patrick, Rowan and Caitorìna weren’t just close. They were triplets; thirds of a one. They’d suffered when Trick went off to war, but her dying….’ He opened dazed eyes, shook his head. ‘I couldn’t abandon my family.’
‘So you stayed. I’ll always be grateful to you because of that. Patrick is as well. Rowan….’ Many things were becoming clearer to me. I’d been blind. ‘He dotes on you. I see it now.’
‘It didn’t happen right away. Cait’s loss hurt. It will never stop hurting.’ His gaze lost focus. ‘She was gone. Weeks turned into months and then years. I picked up the threads and carried on, and while I struggled, I managed to live without her. Inconceivable as it once seemed. I built myself back up, but never thinking I’d love again.’ The smile that curved his mouth was reluctant and disbelieving. ‘One afternoon, Rowan brought home tea so we could watch the rugby. Just some fish and chips with wooden spoons and curry sauce. He flopped onto the couch, smiling that goofy grin, flung an arm around my shoulders and I just…fell.’ His face crumpled. ‘I just….’
‘Oh, Aled.’ I hugged him again. ‘It’s no a bad thing to love someone, no matter the circumstance.’
It was just more often than not inconvenient or inappropriate.
For him, I thought it was the former.
‘I’d always cared for him, but it shifted into something deeper and not a jot brotherly.’ Chafing the back of his neck, he stared at the jumble of clothes. ‘He knew it too, the cheeky bastard. He didn’t pressure me. It’s not his way being as he is. That was good with me. My heart said one thing, my mind shouted another.’ He glanced at me. ‘I couldn’t do it could I? The one time we tried more than a kiss, I couldn’t. He was Cait’s brother. He had this confusing, bloody complicated sexuality.’
‘He can no help it. He’s been this way since I can remember.’
‘I know that. I do. While I understand Rowan's a man in here,’ he tapped his temple, ‘his body is what my body craves. It confuses me, but it’s how I feel. Still takes a bit to get my head around it at times.’ Aled arranged his expression into a semblance of calm. ‘It was too much, so we left it alone. It wasn’t healthy the way he got jealous when I dated someone else, but it seemed better than getting deeper into a relationship that crippled me with guilt.’ His face relaxed with his stiff posture. ‘Then we left Earth. Everything changed. It was like shaking off chains of grief. I was free to love again, no matter how unconventional.’ He snorted. ‘Your Veraks made my romantic conundrum seem mundane by comparison.’ He grinned at me, shy. ‘Thanks for that.’
‘You’re welcome.’ I shoved his hairy arm. ‘You must know I’d never judge you for this? Patrick might bluster a wee while, but he’ll see your serious and get over it right quick.’ I chewed my lip. ‘You need to tell him soon, though, aye?’
Aled nodded. ‘We were waiting for things to settle. With the storm aftermath, Fergus’ burns, the move here, it didn’t seem right. We didn’t want to make a fuss when the clan needed to depend on each other more than ever.’
‘I understand, but your happiness is important.’ I raised onto my toes to peck his scruffy cheek. ‘Thank you for trusting me. I will no tell anybody until you’re ready.’ I felt a rush of euphoria.
This was proof my family were healing from the traumas of the past, seeking out new lives for themselves.
After Lumen had forced me into a session of self-reflection, I’d come to the conclusion I’d been trapped by my old life. I’d sworn to do my best to break free of self-perpetuating misery. I’d won some battles, lost others, but the drive to find my inner worth resulted in me commanding respect rather than failing to demand it. Now, I stood amidst the evidence members of my clan made journeys of self-discovery of their own.
They fought for happiness they denied themselves or had been unable to achieve back on Earth.
I was elated, overjoyed.
‘Give us a cwtch.’ Aled engulfed me in his beefy arms. He smacked a kiss to my forehead. ‘Let’s find Fergie.’
Our search uncovered nothing.
A check to my SonCom showed updates from everyone, but no further news as to my daughter’s whereabouts.
I could tell from the tone of Beowyn and Éorik’s messages they were beginning to lose control. I raced across the palace in search of them only to find Beowyn bellowing in Patrick’s face. ‘This is your fault. You lost my cub.’
My cousin held his ground. He looked the alien who had a good hundred pounds and two foot on him dead in the eye. ‘Get out of my face.’
‘You think this helps?’ I tried to push Beowyn back, shot Patrick a glare w
arning him to let it go. ‘No one is to blame. You’re wasting time fighting when you should be looking.’
With a hair-raising snarl to grab the attention of our tense little huddle, Fiercely slowed his charge down a connecting hallway. ‘Cobra found her.’ Claws sliced past his fingertips. ‘Outside the main doors.’
My dawning smile set into a dark horror. Fergie had been found, but not all was well. ‘Wait.’ I chased after him.
Beowyn and Éorik sped past either side of me in a blur of dark and light hair, ankle-length cloaks snapping their boot heels, leaping strides near silent scuffs on the flagstone.
I panted for air as I reached the ornate, wide-flung doors with my frustrated, equally out of breath clan.
We got swept into a crush of hot, sweaty bodies. Flustered Paladins and curious servants were drawn to the locus, voices raised in hue and cry.
Throat scratchy and dry from my open-mouthed shrieks for attention, my heart pounded out my ears, and my limbs felt unattached to their joints.
Gruesome images flashed before my eyes. Fergie’s mutilated body thrown onto the palace steps by a traitor. Her chubby, wriggly body speared on a snapped branch because she’d tripped. Her bouncy copper-hair a cloud around her bloated corpse, floating face down in a fountain pool. She was fascinated by water, loved to swim. These images flickered over and over.
Every nightmare every mother ever had was mine, and I was losing the ability to remain upright.
Clustered in a group before the first steps, the palace inhabitants stared. I skidded to a halt. Their eyes weren’t on me, but beyond and above me.
I spun and looked up. ‘Fergie!’
‘Shite.’ Patrick shielded his eyes from the suns. ‘How the bloody hell did she get up there?’
Even as he spoke, my daughter was hoisted up and over the edge of the crenellated overhang by a blonde-haired, gold-eyed adonis. Below them were sea-sunken boulders shoring up the waterfront side of the palace.
Beowyn’s gritted words through a rigid jaw. ‘It is Rykiernoxiqan.’
‘Your concubine?’ I shoved his middle. I slipped, too shaky to brace against the ground. ‘Tell him to give her back.’
Narrowed eyes to the disaster playing out above, Beowyn grabbed hold of me and held me to his chest.
Ryki screamed, the shrill madness of it not lost in the wind, his hold on Fergie fumbling as he reinvested his energies in yelling rather than keeping the life he threatened safe.
A tremor ran through Beowyn’s hands as he set me back and let go.
The concubine calmed.
Éorik stepped closer to me, hovering protectively. ‘The same happens when he touches me too.’ His expression wavered between showing wrath and pity. ‘Owyn released his harem.’
I blinked, shocked. ‘He what?’
Bodies blocking the entrance door parted as Venomous stormed out looking harried and furious.
Lumen pushed past him to race up to us. ‘What’s happening? Is she safe?’ She twisted her head to see what gripped our attention. Her hands flew to her throat as she blanched, eyes round and showing too much white, too horrified to speak.
‘Why has the male taken your hatchling?’ Venomous’ arms reached to support and caress his unsteady mate. ‘Is there a ransom demand?’
‘Of a sort.’ Éorik’s voice held the same tightness as his stance. ‘This is a crime of opportunity. I gather from his ranting, he found Fergie as she wandered not far from where she disappeared. She recognised him and asked for his help in finding us. Instead of alerting us, he took her and decided to bring her here.’
Venomous’ brille shifted. ‘Where are my nest-mates?’
‘Climbing. They’re going to try and capture the Bax by surprise from behind.’
I immediately moved to find them and help, but Éorik grabbed me back at Ryki’s reaction. The concubine’s erratic movements broke through Fergie’s delight at seeing her parents.
She wriggled, resisting his touch. ‘Mammy!’
‘No, wee bit.’ My heart lodged in my throat. I stepped forward so she could see me better. ‘Stop moving.’
He legs kicked over the precipice. ‘It’s high up here.’
‘I know.’ It hurt to watch her grow afraid. She’d forever remember this; a time where she was scared and even mother couldn’t make it better. I reached a hand towards her. ‘Stay still and quiet. It’s no safe.’
‘He grew unstable when Éorik and I tried to leave to go up there.’ Beowyn fisted his hands at his stiff sides. ‘He wants us in his sight. My mates and I.’
‘As if I care what he wants.’ I pulled my blaster and sighted it, waiting for the moment the Rä were visible but remembered my aim wasn’t great, and I trembled too hard. I dropped the weapon then extended it grip first. ‘You find a someone to blow a hole in his face the moment Fiercely and Cobra are in position to catch her.’ I had no doubt they would. Cobra possessed the natural speed of his species, and Fiercely was a force of nature. ‘Now, Beowyn.’
He took it without hesitation. ‘I will do it.’ His voice rose. ‘It is a shame your morals aren’t as deep as your ass, Ryki. Stop this foolishness and bring my cub.’
Éorik barked a laugh.
I shot them fulminating looks. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Buying time,’ Patrick murmured.
Mouth slack, Ryki stared. His face twisted, eyes sliding my way. ‘Aren’t you jealous to know he enjoys me so?’ He shouted to be heard over the tidal waves.
Mining untapped reserves of strength for serenity, I tilted my head to peer at the madman clutching my daughter. ‘Jealousy is no what I’m feeling.’ Homicidal was an apt descriptor. Murderous. Lost in a killing rage. Jealousy wasn’t a footnote within the pages of my emotional saga.
Ryki’s eyes were wild. ‘He will want me always for I am favoured.’ His tonal register ripped into the higher octaves. ‘I am favoured.’
‘Man is a fool,’ Rowan muttered.
He shuffled closer to Aled, gaze shying from the fury etched into Beowyn and Éorik’s features.
Patrick’s wiry frame vibrated under the strain of inaction. He cracked his knuckles. ‘Bastard will no die easily.’
I reached the end of my tether. There was only so much a woman could take. If they needed a distraction to buy time, I’d damn well give them one.
I took Éorik’s hand and yanked him with me to stand with Beowyn. I took his other hand and glared at the concubine. ‘Wake up.’ I lifted our joined hands. ‘This is done. What will you gain from this? Nothing! They’re mine, and I will no share.’
Ryki shrieked and howled, frothing at the mouth. ‘You know nothing. He will come back to me.’
Fergie wailed and scratched at where his hands clutched her middle.
He shook her roughly.
Heart stuttering, I released my tense, quaking husbands to lurch forward and bend at the waist. ‘You coward.’ Angry air tore from my chest, hurled toward him with the violence of unsheathed blades. ‘Give me back my baby.’
‘You know nothing!’
‘I know your actions are those of a spoilt child. I know you’re no man enough to let go of something no yours to begin with and enough of a bitch to steal someone no yours to begin with.’
‘I gave the Great One everything.’
‘You gave him a few fucks.’
‘My life was perfect until you and your spawn appeared.’
‘I thought you were deluded, but now I see you’re stupider than a bucket with a hole in it!’ Veins popped in my neck, red-faced, and my pulse racing.
I no longer cared for appearances.
The heat of Beowyn and Éorik at my back as they stepped forward to restrain me forced me to reign myself into a veneer of composure.
‘For God’s sake, you have nowhere to go.’ I offered both my palms, face contorting in anguish. ‘Bring her safely down, and I swear on my life you will leave without fear of retribution. Give her back.’ My eyes flicked to beyond his shoulder. Cobra and F
iercely crept into view. My being calmed. ‘Do you no see there is no having what you want?’
The reaction of someone below, or the preternatural, unseen senses a lunatic might develop in the throws of madness betrayed the Ra, and Ryki glanced over his shoulder. ‘Stay back, serpents of evil!’ He faced me. ‘If I may no longer be happy,’ kindling hatred in his eyes caught fire, ‘neither will you.’
And he just let her go.
I flung out both arms, a stampede behind me as my husbands, Venomous and half the crowd did the same.
Cobra’s blade skewered Ryki.
Fiercely lunged for Fergie, but it was too late for him, but not too late for another. An arc of bluish light snapped above the thicket of reaching hands.
Fergie slowed for a fraction of a moment as a blue body coiled around hers then hit the ground on a roll, well clear of the manicured railing blocking access to the boulders below.
The concubine’s body landed with a blood-spattered thud. Head turning towards Beowyn, a thin wail of despair stealing his last breath, Ryki died.
Hel Bihter smoothly gained his feet with Fergie safe in the crook of his elbow. He held her out in front, inspecting his catch. He cocked his head when she squealed then vomited over his chest before starting to cry.
The Aztekan male handed her to Éorik with a shove of disgust.
Beowyn and I attached ourselves to them, drowning Fergie’s little face in kisses, smelling her hair, squeezing her tight as we took full breaths.
Hands stroked my back, voices of my loved ones thrummed with joy, but I only had time for my baby.
Anger sizzled through the atmosphere.
I plucked Fergie off the Commander then took a giant step backwards.
‘Da and Da,’ she protested.
‘Hush, wee bit.’ I wasn’t going to intervene. I was mad at him too.
‘Did I not warn you?’ Éorik was nose to nose with his husband. ‘Did I not say he would cause trouble?’
‘How was I to foresee this?’ Beowyn’s throat bobbed. ‘You said there would be no trouble for her from him.’