5. PEACE
PEACE
T hey caught up with us. I couldn’t believe it. Why did the fekking fekks want me so badly? And who was this Jokull who had such a hard on for me? I’d never even been to the Pleiades star cluster, although Zame theorized I might have come from there based on my violet irises.
I closed my eyes and breathed through the panic that threatened to overtake me.
The last blast had taken out my manual steering.
We were totally at the mercy of the autopilot, and I had no idea whether it was working properly.
We’d been close to Arktaryn Prime when the crazy fekks blasted us.
I could only hope the autopilot wasn’t damaged from debris from my ship—may she rest in peace.
Arktaryn Prime was an ice planet and uninhabited as far as I knew, but anything was better than floating in space, slowing starving to death or being caught by those fekkers.
A deep vibration resonated in my chest, along with words in my head.
What planet were we close to when we evacuated?
Of all the blasted suns. Why are you still in my head?
I took another breath and slowly forced myself to look at my prisoner.
His intense green eyes were glowing and locked on me.
“Only talk to me using your mouth, please.” My voice sounded like a gong echoing through the small space. “Arktaryn Prime.”
His black brows raised in surprise, but he nodded.
I frowned at his seeming familiarity with the planet, but I didn’t have time to waste any brain cells on that knowledge.
Suddenly, I realized we were spinning more slowly, I glanced out the porthole and saw the white surface of the planet coming into view, and we were in its gravitational pull.
Thank the goddess! Heaving a relieved breath, I pointed at the sight.
Xyrox’s eyes followed my fingers, and I saw his chest expand and contract once, then twice. I watched all those muscles dance under his taunt red skin, his swirling tattoos somehow creating a language I wanted my fingers to translate. My mouth went dry, which was … unwelcome.
I guess I wasn’t paying attention to much besides Mister Muscles, because suddenly there was a bone-jarring thud.
I jerked and looked out the porthole to see the pod skidding across a frozen expanse.
We slid for what felt like kryons before coming to an abrupt halt against a bank.
A fine spray of snow and ice crystals filled the air, glittering in the weak, pale light of the planet’s distant sun.
Once I was sure we’d completely stopped, I unbuckled myself from my harness I’d managed to strap over myself in our catapult from my ship. I groaned as I moved, my head throbbing, and every muscle in my body aching from the impact.
“You okay over there?” I asked my fugitive, still preferring mouths and ears to in-head communication. The whole telepathy thing was more than weird, and I didn’t have time to figure out how it worked; or, more importantly, how to turn it the fekk off.
“Define ‘okay’,” he grumbled in his deep voice that, for some reason, gave me goosebumps that had nothing to do with the cold planet.
I frowned. His normally dark red skin appeared slightly paler than normal. I didn’t see any obvious injuries, but his luminous green eyes were pinched in pain.
I didn’t have time to coddle him, though.
The sun was already low in the sky, and we needed to find somewhere to hole up away from this ship, in case our pursuers came after us.
Before Xyrox could free himself, I threw laser cuffs back on his wrists and cut his harness straps free.
“Come on, fugitive. Let’s move. No doubt those crazy assholes who shot us will be looking for our escape pod. ”
Ignoring his frown, I grabbed the emergency gear bag and dug inside.
Opening small packs labeled “WINTER GEAR,” I clicked the button on the side and sighed with relief when a thick white coat and soft, high boots appeared.
I slipped them on before slinging the bag over my shoulder and wrenching open the pod’s emergency release lever.
A blast of frigid air surged inside, stealing my breath.
“Scorched skies!” I swore. It was colder than I could’ve imagined—colder than anything I’d ever experienced on my desert home world.
Xyrox shuddered so hard, he jerked against my back. “You have any warm clothing in that emergency kit there for me, bright eyes?”
I glared at him over my shoulder.
He dipped his chin down at his very broad, very muscular, very naked chest dotted with goosebumps. “I’m sure the bounty said dead or alive, but you’ll have to haul me around if I die of hypothermia.”
“For all the sand in Gravaldia …” I muttered, unslinging the bag from my shoulders and digging through it again until I found another coat and boots.
Placing them on the floor, I touched the activate buttons and soon another large, white puffy coat and pair of thick boots were sitting between us.
Xyrox simply stood there and stared at them.
“Well?” I motioned to the clothes impatiently as the snow whipped around my head like the sands at home, only much colder.
He held up his laser cuffed hands and grinned at me. Grinned! My lips thinned at the sight, and I gritted my teeth. We did not have time for this nonsense.
Without a word, I grabbed up the coat and yanked it over his head, leaving his hands in the cuffs trapped next to his body. Then, I spread the tops of the boots open wider so he could step into them. Once they were laced tight, we were ready to go.
His look of disappointment gave me a small jolt of satisfaction. He’d thought I’d have to uncuff him. Ha! Too bad, so sad, pretty boy .
“At least you still think I’m pretty,” he rumbled.
“Shut up and move,” I snapped, stepping out of the pod.
My boots sank several inches into the snow, and I nearly lost my balance before righting myself and regaining my footing. Looking around, I was relieved that we were alone, although the featureless expanse of ice and snow was not comforting.
Xyrox followed me, his movements slow and deliberate. He was annoyingly graceful for being so tall and broad-shouldered, even with the laser restraints on his wrists. As he took in our surroundings, his expression darkened.
“Tell me there’s a homing beacon on that capsule. That someone will be looking for you.” He raised his voice against the increasing winds. “This planet will kill us before your friends who shot us down can find us.”
“They’re not my friends,” I groused, scanning the horizon. In the distance, jagged peaks of ice glinted like shattered glass, offering the only potential shelter in an otherwise desolate wasteland. “And we’re not staying out here long enough to die. Let’s move.”
I started walking, my every step an effort as the snow threatened to swallow my legs like shifting sand dunes on Rykantos—just a lot colder.
Xyrox trailed behind me, muttering curses.
The wind howled around us, carrying with it a bitter chill that seeped through my thick jacket and directly to the center of my bones.
“This is insanity,” Xyrox said after what felt like hours of trudging. “You don’t even know where you’re going.”
“Those ice formations over there,” I said, pointing. “They’re the only cover for miles. If we can reach them, we can hide until the heat’s off.”
“And by ‘heat’, you mean the regent’s buddies who shot us down.”
I gave him a sour look over my shoulder. “Who else would I mean? I don’t know what they want, and I don’t want to find out.”
“How do you know there’ll even be some place to hole up when we get there?” Xyrox countered, his tone maddeningly calm despite our dire circumstances and his obvious lack of faith in my abilities.
“My zame is a celebrated warrior, tracker, and survivalist. She taught me everything she knows. She was stationed all over the galaxy, and she dealt with all manner of environments.” It was wiser for me to not tell my captive anything about my abilities.
But for reasons I didn’t understand, I wanted him to trust me.
When he didn’t respond, I shrugged and pressed on, my gasps forming plumes of steam in the freezing air.
The ice formations grew closer with every step, their sharp edges looming like the teeth of some frozen beast. When we finally reached the base of the nearest formation, I collapsed, my body trembling with exhaustion.
Xyrox dropped to his knees beside me, his breath labored as well. “Great. We made it. Now what?”
“Now we find a way to stay alive,” I said, forcing myself to my feet. I examined the ice, searching for any crevices or overhangs that might shelter us from the wind, or any dark spaces that might portend a cave. “Help me look. We need shelter for a fire, so we don’t freeze.”
“I’m not exactly in a position to help,” he said, jerking his bound wrists under his coat.
I hesitated. He was a fugitive and I shouldn’t trust him.
But the truth was, I needed him if I had any hope of surviving this ice planet.
And really, where could he go at this point?
The escape pod’s AI needed my voice to unlock, and he couldn’t use it without risking getting caught by our pursuers.
With a slight nod, I pulled a small tool from my belt, unzipped the coat to access his hands, and deactivated the cuffs. “Try anything, and I’ll shoot you … again,” I warned.
Xyrox rubbed his wrists, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. “Understood, your highness.”
Rolling my eyes, I instructed him on what to look for.
His sharp eyes soon found a dark shadow a short way up the side of the cliff that marked a medium-sized hollowed-out cavern.
It was just big enough for the two of us to squeeze inside and set up the compact heating unit.
The cave offered protection from the wind and blowing snow and was high enough off the ground that land predators—assuming there was life on this desolate planet—wouldn’t stumble over us.
For extra warmth, I unpacked thermal blankets and stakes from the emergency kit, pinning the blankets to the walls of ice and across the entrance to trap the heat and block the light from the heater.
Xyrox leaned against the wall, watching me work. “You’re surprisingly resourceful for a bounty hunter.”
“I told you, my zame was highly skilled. She made sure I learned how to take care of myself. Survival’s part of the job,” I responded, not looking at him. “Didn’t they teach you any survival skills in officer school these days?” I asked, unable to hide the derisive edge in my tone.
“Mostly we focus on urban warfare and survival in war-torn urban environments, as that’s where we were deployed. I can see, however, that my education has been sorely lacking. I’ll be taking up the issue with the Commandant on my return. Should I be able to clear my name.”
The last part came out under his breath, and it made me pause. I had to admit I was becoming more curious about the particulars of his case, but exhaustion was taking hold. Questions would have to wait.
“We’d better try to get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow will be another long day.” I snuggled into my oversized coat and shut my eyes. I didn’t expect I would actually sleep despite every cell of my body crying out in fatigue. Worry about how we would escape this planet spun my mind.
“Yeah, good night, Agent Veylora.” Despite my thoughts, his low rumble was the last thing I heard.