Chapter 44
Kolt
First there was pain, then sound, and then the uncomfortable sensation of being dragged. I jerked to consciousness with a start, ready to fight.
But there would be no fighting. My hands were in heavy, metal chains that rattled with each movement, the weight pulling at my wrists and shoulders. My head throbbed like someone had taken a battle axe to it repeatedly, and my thoughts were fuzzy at best.
I remembered being on a frozen planet.. I remembered fighting Imperial soldiers. I remembered the frigid cold of Lexxona, but I clearly wasn't on that frozen planet anymore.
The air here was steamy, thick with humidity that slicked my skin and beaded my brow. Wherever I was, it was hot. The complete opposite of Lexxona.
I was too groggy to fight back as rough hands pulled me down a ramp and onto dusty, dry land. The sun was so bright I had to squint against it, which only made my head hurt worse. My legs didn't want to support my weight properly, and my muscles were sluggish and unresponsive.
Had I been drugged? That would explain the fog in my mind and the way my body wasn't obeying commands the way it should.
I tried to focus on my last clear memory, pushing through the haze to remember what had happened.
The last thing I could recall was untying a female's hands.
She'd been bound to a chair in one of the colony outbuildings.
I'd killed the soldiers guarding her, and that part was clear and visceral.
I could almost hear the satisfying crunch of bone, the splatter of blood as it sprayed the wall, and the thud of them hitting the frozen ground
The woman I’d found was the one I’d been tasked to find, but I couldn't remember her name. I did remember beautiful green eyes and hair that looked like flames in the light. I did remember that I’d seen her before, and the’d been important to someone and important to the mission.
I'd been checking her for injuries, making sure she could walk, and preparing to get her to the transport when there’d been a sharp pain from behind. I remembered stars exploding across my vision and her scream, high and desperate, before everything had gone black.
I'd been struck from behind while I’d been distracted by the female and her entrancing eyes.
It had been stupid and careless and the kind of mistake that got warriors killed.
But I wasn't dead. Just captured and drugged and transported to wherever this was.
I looked at the chains binding me. Maybe alive was worse.
I forced myself to pay attention as I was pushed and prodded through a bustling city. Even with my thoughts muddled, I tried to record details in my mind the way I'd been trained.
The streets were crowded and the buildings looked permanent rather than temporary.
It was all stone and metal, not the prefabricated structures of frontier settlements.
Vendors sold goods I didn't recognize, and creatures of multiple species milled about dingy stalls, valiantly ignoring the chained Vandar being dragged through their midst.
Then I was shoved into a building ornamented with flags. Chances were high it was government or military, judging by the guards posted at intervals. One thing I knew for certain was that the red flags were Imperial.
But what city was this? What planet? The busy, crowded nature of it suggested a major hub of some importance to the Empire, given the official buildings and military presence. But where was there such a place near Lexxona?
Then a thought chilled me despite the heat. I had no idea how long I'd been on that ship. The city could be on any planet anywhere.
More shoving as I was taken down corridors that grew progressively darker and more oppressive, with low ceilings and close walls that made it feel like I was descending into a tomb.
The soldiers stopped at a barred door, heavy and reinforced.
One of them worked the lock while the others kept their weapons trained on me.
A round room lay beyond with stone walls, minimal light from a single grated opening high above, and no furniture. Just a stone bench soldered to the wall, rust-flaked bars, and the promise of isolation.
I tried to resist as they quickly unchained me and shoved me forward, but my movements were pointless. The drugs still had too much hold on my system. Finally, they pushed me into the cell with enough force that I stumbled, barely keeping my feet.
I whirled around, planning to charge back at them despite my impaired state, when someone else was shoved in after me.
The small body hit my chest hard, and I grabbed it instinctively, my hands catching slender shoulders before the figure could fall, even though my own balance was questionable.
Then I looked down and found myself staring into the beautiful green eyes. It was the human from Lexxona, the one I'd saved, the one whose name I still couldn't pull from my drug-addled memory but whose face was suddenly, vividly clear.
"You.” Her voice was hoarse with a tone of challenge. "You're the Vandar who grabbed me when we tried to rescue Jasmine.”
I touched the bruised flesh on my wrists. “I’m also the Vandar who saved you.”
Behind us, the cell door slammed shut and the lock engaged. Then sharp footsteps retreated, leaving us alone in the dim cell.
“You call this saved?” she muttered.
The gods of old must have a twisted sense of humor to strand me with a human. This human. Not only was I trapped in a cell with a human, but the woman’s eyes bored into me and made my pulse spike and my throat tighten.
Impossible, I thought. Fate would not be cruel enough to make me desire a human.
I stepped away from her, wresting my gaze from hers and feeling a moment’s relief from the unfamiliar and unwelcome pang of desire. Despite the drugs and the pain and the sudden torment of wanting, one thought cut through the fog with perfect clarity.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” I promised myself as much as her. “Even if I have to tear this prison apart stone by stone to do it.”
Thank you for reading VANQUISHED!